SWG Tales

From the pages of Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Alien Anthology

Bothans
Bothans hail from the Mid Rim planet of Bothawui. They developed the technology to travel among the stars millennia ago and are longstanding members of galactic civilization.
To the Bothans, information is the galaxy's most valuable currency, as well as its most potent weapon. As a culture, they believe that direct confrontation with foes--wheater economic, political, or material--is pointless. In an open conflict, the object or possession both sides desire is often damaged or destroyed. This attitude has made espionagea natural line of work for Bothans. Information and and spies are their greatest exports. The famed Bothan spynet is the largest independent intelligence-gathering organization the galaxy has ever known.
Beings of power everywhere find Bothans irritating because they have a tendency to use every bit of information they can find to acquire leverage or money. However, no one wants to be the only person without access to the spynet, so everyone continues to deal with the Bothans.

Personality--Bothans are manipulative, crafty, suspicious, and currious by nature. Some might even call them paranoid. They are also loyal and brave.
Homeworld--The industrial world of Bothawui located in the Mid Rim. Bothans also populate various colony worlds throughout the Mid Rim, including Kothlis and Torolis.
Age in Years--Child 1-11; young adult 12-16; adult 17-45; middle age 46-65; old 66-84; venerable 85+.

Bothans are important players in the arena of galactic politics and are well known for their intelligence-gathering abilities. Before the Battle of Endor, two dozen of them sacrificed their lives to acquire the technical schematics for the second Death Star, as well as the revelation that the Emporer would inspect the station, thus rendiering him vul;nerable to a Rebel attack. Ever since that time, they've enjoyed a pretigious role in the New Republic.

Bothans are short, furry humanoids who express themselves with great eloquence and gentle ripplings in their fur that signify their emotional state. However, this latter trait can betray them when they are being duplicitous.

By their nature, Bothans are greedy for power, manipulative, and opportunistic, seeking the prestige that comes from controlling others. Wealth isn't as important as influence, and family clans constantly plot ways of gaining as much of it as possible. They seldom attack a competitor directly, usually waiting for rivals to do so, then finding ways to benefit from their efforts.

Bothans are also paranoid, and in their society, paranoia is well-founded. Layer upon layer of schemes swirl around any clan and those who associate with Bothans often find themselves unwittingly caught up in the web of politics.

The Bothan Council, made up of representatives from each of the clans, governs Bothawui as the primary law-making and law-enforcing body. The council elects one member to at as council chief, and all policies are decided by a majority vote, with the chief holding the tie-breaking vote. Each member of the council heads up several ministries and committes and appoints leaders to positions of importance.

Spying is the Bothans' main industry. Everyone comes to Bothawui to get information, though information comes at a hefty price. The Bothan spynet, an underground system for buying and selling information, is as active under the New Republic as it was under the rule of the Empire. Leia Organa Solo noted her impressions of the Bothans in a private journal entry written at the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, twenty-five years after the Battle of Yavin.

During the war with the Empire we came to trust the Bothans as allies, but in the later years we learned that, for them, there's always a hidden agenda. Because the Empire denied them paower, they fought back in unioty. If not for a common enemy, the Bothan clans would have been at each other's throats, competing to climb another rung on the ladder for control and influence.

I do my best to keep free of prejudices when dealing with peoplem but with Borsk Fey'lya and his team, it's difficult. When we warned him of the Yuuzhan Vong, he accysed me of being a traitor and making a play for power. He struck out at me, not realizing he was striking at his own survival.

I realize that it's the way he was trained--to desire, to question, to challenge--but how can anything be accomplished without solidarity? How can we survive?

Will this division and disruption continue? Will it end only when the New republic is destroyed and conquered due to its lack of cohesiveness? And if that happens will the Bothans be at the heart of it all?

Designation: Sentient
Planet of Origin: Bothawui
Height of Average Adult: 1.5 Meters

Lewis, Margaret Ann. Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Alien Species. New York: Del Rey, 2001.