With the Book of Boba Fett Episode 3 releasing we finally get to see the story of how Boba
Fett became a member of a remote Tusken tribe and learned their ways and traditions.
Boba became a very strong advocate for them and stood up for the tribe when the Pykes
arrived on Tatooine after Jabba’s death…
But what do the Tuskens Look like Under the mask?
Well we’ve been shown only a few times so far, and I’m going to show you all of them.
So remember to subscribe and lets break it down!
So before we see what the Tuskens look like under the mask, it’s very important to understand
how their species came to be and what shaped their very dark evolutionary path, to lead
them where they are now.
The Tuskens are actually one of the most recent species to evolve in the Galaxy.
Most species evolved many thousands of years before the formation of the Galactic Republic,
but the Tuskens… and also the Jawas for that matter are new kids on the block… and
you’re ab out to see the dark reason why that is in just a bit.
Tatooine began as a lush, tropical world where it’s Twin suns warmed a vast ocean and thick
forests.
The primary species who inhabited the planet were known as the Kumumgah and they were extremely
advanced for the time, building large sprawling cities and even having the technology required
to colonize the nearby planets.
The elders of the Kumumgah however were deeply opposed to leaving their world and touching
the rest of the galaxy, as they feared it would only bring pain and destruction upon
them…
Sadly, the elders were correct.
Their activities in the region attracted a horrifying amphibious species known as the
Rakata to their world, who were touched by the dark side of the force.
The Rakata managed to rise to be the apex predator species of the galaxy in these early
times because of their ability to use the force in places were many others couldn’t.
They had force powered hyperdrives and weapons, allowing them to expand their brutal empire
to anywhere they deemed necessary…
As was pretty typical for the Rakata, once they discovered Tatooine they immediately
enslaved the population and killed many of its most skilled warriors.
The Kumumgah were slaughtered at every turn and their cities were reduced to mere piles
of scrap metal.
On top of all of this, some of them were taken away by the Rakatans to be used as slave labor
in the construction of the star Forge, which was a devastating automated shipyard intended
to create the most monstrous fleet of all time.
The Kumumgah though could only take so much of this barbaric treatment before they stood
up and rebelled against their Rakatan occupiers.
They fought back and broke free from their chains, actually managing to defeat the Rakata
in a shocking upset, driving them off world…
This was a major and shocking victory to the surrounding systems but it would not last
long.
The rakata soon returned and responded harshly to the Kumumgah’s rebellion, choosing to
do the unthinkable.
Rakata turned their warships onto the planet Tatooine itself, bombarding it from orbit
and completely boiling away it’s vast oceans, fusing the ground into silicon.
At this point it was turned into a planet of glass, much like Mandalore is said to be
in the current timeline after Moff Gideon’s purges…
That is still just a dark rumor spread among the Mandalorians at this point, but we will
find out very soon.
So now that the planet was a horrid wasteland, the Kumumgah were forced to flee into the
dark caves of the planet to survive, living off the remaining underground water supplies
and small creatures…
They would not emerge from the darkness for thousands of years to come…
While the Kumumgah lived underground in solitude and exile over thousands of years, the glass
above ground down and degraded into sand…
Tatooine was now the endless hellscape that we know today.
Over these millenia underground, the Kumumgah evolved and then split into two separate species.
These were the Tuskens and the Jawas.
The Jawas evolved into smaller and weaker, rat-like bodies with very large eyes adapted
to the darkness, while the Tuskens remained closer to their ancestors, the Kumumgah, but
still quite different.
The Tuskens became primitive and superstitious, telling legends about the dark demons who
rained down fire on their world…
Although they didn’t know it, this Tusken legend was actually true and was the story
of what happened to their ancestors, the Kumumgah…
When the Tuskens and Jawas eventually emerged from their millenia of isolation they quickly
found that the planet was a harsh wasteland.
The vast oceans and dense rainforests that their ancestors told myths and fables about
were nowhere to be seen.
In fact it was the complete opposite.
A desolate hellscape with rolling sand dunes as far as the eye could see.
This forced both of the new species to come up with ways to deal with the suns and allow
themselves to scavenge for food on the surface.
Both quickly turned to cloth robes and outerwear to protect their bodies from the scorching
twin suns.
And because of the superstitious nature of the Tusken raiders, the cloth became a sort
of savor to them.
Without it, they wouldn’t be able to survive out on the surface of this new Tatooine.
This gave their masks and clothing a status of deep respect.
The punishment for removing your mask or taking it off of another Tusken was… very severe.
I’ll cover that more later in the video, but it was seen as deeply dishonorable to
your tribe if you were caught without your mask on.
Even if you simply took the mask of your opponent off in a battle, that could likely be punished
very, very harshly.
At this point, the two species engaged in vicious warfare against each other, and the
fact that they descended from the space species was lost to both of their histories.
They had never seen each others faces since the days of the Kumumgah.
And neither have we, the viewers.
So what do they look like?
Well as for the Tuskens Raiders we’ve had about 2 or 3 views at their true appearance,
and let me warn you that it’s probably not what you expect…
so the first comes from the old Star Wars Galaxy trading cards, where we see a lone
Tusken with a Gaffi Stick on his back as well as him wiedling a bloodied knife.
This tells us that he has just come off of a violent attack, most likely as a bounty
hunter which is the profession that this man took.
You can certainly see that most of the similarities to the Kumumgah species have long been bred
out and evolved, making him look closer to a human.
Now next up we get a look of a Tusken raider from the Star Wars Republic comics, where
Anakin has a horrific vision, traumatizing him and showing him some of worst memories.
Included in this is the slaughter of his Mother at the hands of the Tusken RAiders from attack
of the Clones, where he holds her in his arms, but is surrounded by a group of them with
red eyes…
He then sees one single Tusken raider with his mask peeling off to reveal only half of
his ghastly face.
Inside we can see something with a resemblance to the Kumumgah…
Although the comic does say that since this is a vision in Anakin’s mind, he could be
purposely imaging them with more horrifying and monstrous features, since thats exactly
what he considers them.
Monsters.
After he wakes up from this vision he is then confronted by Master Ki Ai Mundo who felt
the strong disturbance in the force that it cause, and even says that it was so violent
and strong that it could be felt on Coruscant.
So it’s clear that this is a pain-fuelled force vision, which as Yoda says is always
in motion and not always necessarily correct.
I’d say the parts around the mouth are certainly exaggerated to look more demon-like, since
Anakin obviously has major hatred for them.
Now after this, we get a very interesting tribe of Tusken Raiders known as the Grave
Tuskens.
The Grave Tuskens were a tribe that acted as a mercenary swoop gang and had no problem
showing their faces off to anyone they came across.
They happily faulted their faces to anyone who would look and sported gray skin, with
dark eyes.
They also had a features similar to a gopher, which is probably how their true native name
The “Ghorfa” came about…
Somwehre ain the history of galactic basic the word for gopher like creatures was applied
to the species eventually to be morphed into the word Ghorfa.
As you can probably guess this complete disregard for traditional face coverings and other Tusken
customs was not typical of any other Tusken tribe and was deeply frowned upon by the others.
The traditional law of the Tuskens stated that Sand People should not show their skin
under any circumstances.
If caught doing so, they would either be immediately exiled from the tribe or beaten to death…
whichever was easier.
They were also trained in the use of Wookiee Bowcasters which is really cool.
They then put the Wookiee Bowcasters to use in plundering ancient artificats from the
tombs of both light and dark Jedi, which is actually how they got their name…
For literally being grave Robbers…
But
tell me down in the comments if you think the Tuskens should
take the masks off or if you think some things in Star Wars are better left with mystery
and intrigue!
So that is the full history of the Tusken Raiders and why they never took their masks
off.
I hope you enjoyed seeing those small little sneak peaks behind the Tusken masks from Star
Wars history, and maybe we’ll get more information about their traditions and customs in the
Book of Boba Fett Episode 4 on Disney+ next Week.
Make sure you leave a like and subscribe to the channel for a whole lot more content on
the Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars lore.
Thanks so much for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!