Chewbacca

Main Biography
An immense, fur covered warrior of great strength and loyalty, Chewbacca the Wookiee was a well-known figure in both the underworld and in the Rebel Alliance. Born on Kashyyyk over two centuries before the Battle of Yavin, Chewbacca was a wise, sophisticated being with exceptional skills in starship piloting and repair. Chewbacca is a veteran of the Clone Wars, the galaxy-wide conflict that pitted the clone armies of the Republic against the droid forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Wookiee was part of the high command tasked with protecting Kashyyyk from droid invasion. There, he served with fellow Wookiee Tarfful and the Jedi Master Yoda.

The wise Yoda had maintained a good relationship with the denizens of Kashyyyk, earning the respect of the mighty Wookiees. When events surrounding the rise of the Empire resulted in the clone forces betraying their Jedi generals, Chewbacca and Tarfful remained loyal to Yoda, helping the Jedi Master escape the clone trap.

For their brutish strength and technological savvy, Wookiees were enslaved by the Empire for use as labor. For a time, Chewbacca was a slave, toiling away for the betterment of the Empire until an impudent Imperial cadet named Han Solo freed him.

Drummed out of the military, Solo had few options but to return to the fringe lifestyle he knew so well. Chewbacca swore loyalty to Han, and became his partner in crime. The two of them became a well-known smuggling duo. When they came into ownership of the freighter Millennium Falcon, their exploits became legendary.

Chewbacca and Solo spent hours modifying and tinkering on their beloved Falcon, souping it up far beyond its original performance specs. Although the Falcon's upkeep was a labor of love, many a time Chewie unleashed his legendary temper on the recalcitrant freighter, banging his massive furry hands against delicate components that refused to behave.

Chewbacca became Solo's conscience of sorts. Though the smuggler maintained a mercenary air of bravado that refused to adhere to any ideals other than self-preservation, Chewie was openly the more compassionate of the two. Perhaps it was the ordeal suffered by his people at the hands of the Empire that caused Chewie to feel this way. Although Solo steered clear of any allegiance during the Galactic Civil War, Chewbacca definitely supported the Rebel cause, though the two of them tried to avoid the struggle altogether.

Ironically, a simple steerage assignment landed them in the heart of the Rebel Alliance. Desperate for cash, Chewie and Han took on a charter of two passengers and their droids from Tatooine to Alderaan. Little did the two smugglers realize that their cargo consisted of a legendary Jedi Knight, the son of the prophesied Chosen One in Jedi mythology, and a pair of droids containing information vital to both the Empire and the Alliance. This trip inextricably drew Chewbacca and Solo into the Rebel fold, and they continued flying missions for the Rebellion for years after that.

Chewbacca stood over two meters tall and had a coat of ginger-brown fur. He wore nothing, save for a bandoleer that held specialized ammunition for the bowcaster that he carried, and a simple tool pouch so that he could enact the many repairs the chronically malfunctioning Falcon required.

Additional History
Unlike most Wookiees who rarely stray from the lush forests of Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's youthful wanderlust took him far from the confines of his green homeworld. His travels first included many remote and dangerous locales on Kashyyyk before taking him to the stars. Chewbacca's heart, however, was firmly rooted on Kashyyyk, and he would always try to make it home for important Wookiee holidays to share with his family. Following the Clone Wars, the Empire subjugated the planet -- ostensibly to punish the world for harboring Jedi fugitives, but mostly to exploit the Wookiees as slave labor. Chewbacca escaped capture for a time, helping his people as best as he could while living the life of a fugitive.

Early on in their smuggling career, Chewbacca stunned Han Solo by returning to Kashyyyk to marry a female Wookiee named Mallatobuck. Solo never pegged Chewie as a family man, but Wookiee customs allowed Chewbacca to continue his flying with Han -- protecting him as the Wookiee life debt demanded -- while still being a husband and, eventually, father. Chewbacca's son, Lumpawarrump, was raised mainly by Malla and Chewie's father, Attichitcuk. Chewie continued to fly the spacelanes, avoiding Imperial patrols and smuggling contraband for various clients, but he returned often to Kashyyyk, to celebrate the Wookiee holiday of Life Day.

Wookiees define family differently than most species. To a Wookiee, an "honor family" contains the closest of friends, and Chewbacca swore loyalty to all of them, offering protection even at great personal risk. When Han Solo and Leia Organa married and began to raise their own family, Chewbacca took their children into his honor family, and helped guard and raise the three young Solos -- Jacen, Jaina and Anakin.

When Chewbacca learned that Solo had been captured by the bloodthirsty Yevetha during the Black Fleet Crisis, he disobeyed Leia's orders and flew straight into the heart of enemy territory: the Koornacht cluster. With the help of his cousins Jowdrrl, Dryanta, and Shoran, and his son, Lumpawarrump, he rescued Han from Yevethan clutches.

At the start of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Han Solo and Chewbacca were on the planet of Sernpidal when it became a target of the alien menace. Using massive gravity-altering creatures called dovin basals, the Yuuzhan Vong began to drag Sernpidal's moon of Dobido from its orbit to the planet's surface. Han Solo, his teenaged son Anakin, and Chewbacca began organizing a desperate evacuation, cramming as many escapees aboard the Falcon as they could.

Solo and Chewbacca have had many close calls in the past, and have executed countless last-second escapes; Sernpidal was not to be one of them. As the moon rushed closer to the surface, Chewbacca was cut off from the Falcon. Anakin was faced with a terrible decision. The Falcon could not wait any longer. Rather than endanger everyone aboard, Anakin piloted the ship away, leaving Chewbacca behind. Chewbacca stood his ground, howling defiantly at the immense moon as it crashed into Sernpidal's surface, killing the mighty Wookiee.