Mon CalamariHeight: 1.8 meters
Origin: Calamari
Language: Basic, Calamari
The Mon Calamari are one of the staunchest supporters of the New Republic. First enslaved by the Empire, these once peaceful beings learned to make weapons and fight, and their assistance, especially in the form of battlecruisers, was essential to the defeat of the Empire.
The Mon Calamari, or Calamarians, are an intelligent, bipedal, salmon-colored amphibious species with webbed hands, high-domed heads, and huge eyes. Named for their world, Calamari, they share the watery planet with the Quarren.
Water covers most of Calamari's surface. The planet is techtonically stable and, as a result, mountains are rare and the islands and tiny continents which do exist contain large bogs, marshes, and lake chains. Calamari and Quarren speak a similar tongue, but most Calamarians have adopted the common language of the galaxy as their own. Because of Calamari's unfortunate recent history, Calamarians can be found in both Imperial labor camps and the ranks of the Rebel Alliance. They are generally soft-spoken, gentle, and reasonible as individuals, even in the wake of their dealings with the Empire. They tend to see life as very organized, and have no tolerance for those who would break or bend laws for personal gain. They have, at times, come into strong conflict with organized smuggling organizations, including the one run by Jabba the Hutt.
The Mon Calamari are shore-dwellers, land creatures with an affinity for water. Their primitive ancestors subsisted largely on fish, crustaceans, and fruit and, over the millenia, developed a rudimentary aquaculture system, farming fish in pens and cultivating kelp. Technological advances were slow by human standards, retarded by the paucity of metals in Calamari's crust. Perhaps this slow advancement explains Calamari's peaceful history; or perhaps the explaination lies in the gentility of the Mon Calamari themselves.
The Calamari discovered and contacted the deep-sea dwelling Quarren; after some initial confusion, they developed a symbiotic civilization. This began the true golden age of their planet. As the Calamari advanced, they gradually built large floating cities, which became centers of learning, government, and culture. There were aided by the Quarren, who, mining ores deposited at deep-sea volcanic vents, supplied the metals needed for advanced technology. Today these mechanical floating cities dot the oceans, artificial continents resting above the constant sea.
The floating cities of Calamari extend both above and below the water, providing needed space for fish farms, industrial centers, and living facilities. Wavespeeders travel from city to city, and shuttles move back and forth from the great space platforms that orbit the planet to the cities that ride the waves. Quarren live in the deepest levels of the cities, while Mon Calamari prefer the levels closer to the sun.
Calamarians have created a highly civilized culture. Art, music, literature, and science are at a level of creativity unsurpassed in the known galaxy. Almost from the beginning, the literature of the Mon Calamari has depicted the stars as islands in a galactic sea. It exhibits a passionate longing to explore space in search of other civilizations with which to share hopes and aspirations, as the Calamari have done with the Quarren. (However, the Quarren see this relationship in a somewhat different light.) Advanced technology finally gave them the means to fulfill their dreams of galactic community - but the dark cloud of war engulfed their watery world.
The first Calamari starship met the Empire, and made peaceful overtures. The Empire, however, didn't see an advanced civilization with which to trade; it saw an advanced technology and a gentle, and therefore stupid, folk ripe for conquest. The Empire saw a natural slave species whose industries could be exploited to serve the Empire's war machine. When Imperial forces invaded, they were welcomed as friends. But when the Empire began seizing property and treating the instruments of the Calamari power and governance with contempt, a few were moved to passive resistance.
The Emperor would not stand for any defiance. He ordered the destruction of three Calamari cities as an example of his power. The sea swelled with the blood of thousands. That, he was sure, would cow his foes.
The response was unexpected. This peaceful race, this world with no history of war, rose as one, turning the utensils of peace - kitchen devices, gardening implements, metalworking tools - into weapons of war. The Calamari destroyed their enemies, throwing back the first wave of the invasion.
The Emperor tried to make slaves of the Calamari; instead, he taught them war.
Now the industries of Calamari have a new purpose. They turn out weapons and armaments as the Empire wished, but not for their use. The Calamarians sought their dreams among the stars. What they found was a terrible war and a different kind of dream - a dream of freedom, a dream of hope, a dream kept alive by a growing group of races that calls itself the Alliance. The Calamari themselves are called 'the soul of the Rebellion', bringing to it commitment, fortitude, and a vision of a life- promoting civilization to span the galaxy, and taking its cause to heart, pledging to fight until the Empire is destroyed...or until the Calamari are erased from the galaxy.
Mon Calamari Shipyards
Mon Calamari Shipyards
Head of the Mon Calamari Shipyards
Admiral Ackbar
Ambassador Cilghal