Tʜᴇ Cᴜʟᴛɪsᴛ
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- Species: Tusken Raider
- Homeworld:Tatooine
- Gender: Male
- Age: 18 GSY
- Height: 1.65 Meters
- Weight: 53 kg
- Hair: Black
- Eyes: Black
- Skin: Yellowish-brown
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On the desert world Tatooine, the sentient beings known as the Tusken Raiders have made the sands their home for millennia. Yet, they have since faced adversity since the oceans dried and the first outsiders came. Their stories tell of advanced subjugators enslaving them and turning their world to glass. From there, the Tuskens knew only to distrust the outsider. And it was to this harsh upbringing that A'Kazra was born into.
Around 18 years ago, A'Kazra was born into a Tusken tribe whose territory existed just outside of Mos Taike in the Northern Dune Sea. A'Kazra was born the youngest son of Kazra, one the tribe’s great hunters and warriors. Like many other Tusken tribes, the relationship between the Taike tribe and the nearby settlers was tenuous at best. Raids by the Tuskens in centuries past made the colonists hateful to the descendants of their tormentors. Yet, not all outsiders were treated with hostility.
A Mandalorian of Clan Gred, one of the diaspora after the Sith conquered Manda’yaim, saw a kinship with the Tuskens. A proud warrior people, faced by the most hostile of environments and beleaguered by hostile encroachers to their ancestral homeland. This Gred, through careful interaction with the tribe, earned their trust and supported them where he could when he visited Tatooine.
In the meantime, A'Kazra was given the typical life of a Tusken child. When he was old enough, Kazra began teaching his youngest son the ways of being a raider. How to shoot with a rifle, survival in long marches in the dunes, and the beginnings of how to fight with a gaffi. However, the tensions between the colonizers and the tribe soon snapped. A mob of Mos Taike citizens and militia acted against A'Kazra’s tribe, slaughtering them. Before they could finish the job by killing A'Kazra, the scion of Gred arrived and spirited the boy away.
Feeling a sense of obligation to the fallen tribe, and to the oaths of his Creed, the Gred took it upon themselves to raise A'Kazra as a Mandalorian Foundling. Having lived among the tribe, A'Kazra’s new father was able to connect with him and communicate. The two not only trained in the ways of Mandalorian combat, but also expanded upon A'Kazra’s heritage of Tusken martial arts. When A'Kazra became of age at 15, he was tasked with a special verd'goten. Firstly, he crafted a gaffi made of tracti hardwood and beskar. From there, he was tasked with the same rite all Tusken males were given: slay a krayt dragon and retrieve its pearl.
Through days of trekking, he found his quarry. The battle was long fought, and A'Kazra nearly lost his life, but he was successful. Now an adult, A'Kazra rides out in the wilds of Tatooine while remaining loyal to Clan Gred….his new tribe. In recent times, he has started acting as an intermediary between the other Tusken tribes and the newly established Enclave settlements on Tatooine, honoring his whole lineage where he can.
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- Warrior: Being raised both as a Tusken and a Mandalorian Foundling, A'Kazra is well versed in the ways of combat. He favors a hybrid close-quarters style that blends traditional Mandalorian forms with the fighting style of the Tusken Raiders. He also seems to favor the DL-44 carbine as a blaster due to its similarity to a Tusken cycler rifle.
- Survivor: As a native of the inhospitable desert of Tatooine, he has known how to tread carefully in such unforgiving terrain. He is aware of the ways to gather food or harvest the black melons. He is truly an invaluable guide if one can procure his help navigating the desert.
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- Language Barrier: Being that his native language sounds mostly animal-like to foreign ears, he has to rely on translators or with usage of sign language. The latter seems to be his preference when speaking to non-Tuskens, as Galactic Sign is more universally known and less hassle than having an interpreter droid parrot information back and forth. That being said, he is literate and understanding of Basic and Mando’a. His biology just makes it near-impossible to verbally speak such in return.
- Wary to Outsiders: For good reason, A'Kazra does not warm up easily to the outsiders to Tatooine or the descendants of colonials. Yet, he is more relaxed around Mandalorians, given that they have taken him in as one of their own. On the other hand, he still faces prejudice from the locals who view him as just another Tusken beast. The massacre of his tribe has left scars as well, as he occasionally has nightmares about the incident and has trouble getting near Mos Taike.
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EQUIPMENT
- A set of Mandalorian armor, stylized in a way that shows his Tusken heritage.
- A DL-44 heavy blaster, which he has in carbine configuration
- A gaffi stick of his own design, made of tracti hardwood and beskar
- The Duneclaw, his WTK-85A interstellar transport
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COMPANION(S)
- Bokrem, his grey-hided luggabeast that he rides as mount-beast to traverse Tatooine's deserts