Murra

For other uses, see Murra.

"We're not talking about a herd of murra on the prairies here…"

Murra were a tall species of goat-like mammalian herbivores native to the flat grasslands of Corellia's northern continent, though species of murra also inhabited the planet's mountain and forest regions. Slow-witted and incredibly strong, murra were raised by ranchers for their meat, for their thick hides, and as beasts of burden. A murra had large, curved tusks growing from their lower jaw, and two long horns that swept backwards from the crown of its blunt head. Kahmurra, found on the Double World of Talus, were a distant relative of the murra, genetically engineered as a possible all-terrain hunting beast.

Biology and appearance[]

The herbivorous species of quadrupedal vertebrate mammals known as murra^[1] were native to the grasslands of Corellia's northern continent,^[3] a planet in the Galactic Core.^[4] However, the goat-like species also inhabited mountain and forest regions of Corellia. A group of murra was referred to as a pack.^[1] Slow-witted and incredibly strong, murra had thick,^[3] brown-colored hides, orange eyes,^[1] large, curved tusks growing from their lower jaws, and two long horns that swept backwards from the crown of its blunt head. The murra's hide was thick yet supple, and covered with a dense mat of stout, course hairs like the bristles of a scrubbing brush. Despite their fearsome looks, murra were quite docile and biddable.^[3] This was unlike their genetically engineered distant relatives, the kahmurra, bred for their viciousness.^[1] Murra had a slow, plodding gait that they could maintain over many kilometers of rough terrain, and they could haul or pull loads well out of scale with their stature. Though not aggressive, murra could spook easily, and if startled would kick or lash out with their horns. Entire herds of murra, often frightened by loud noises or storms, were known to stampede en mass, causing incredible amounts of damage as they went.^[3] When vocalizing, they would emit a deep growling noise.^[1]

History[]

"A former Imperial scientist was working in a bio-genetics lab on Talus. He was in charge of genetic experiments aiming to transform the goat-like murra from Corellia into an efficient all-terrain fighting animal. The resulting creature was named a kahmurra, though the Empire considered it a failure and cancelled all funding."

―Yondalla, to a spacer^[5]

Murra could be tamed or incubated by beast masters,^[1] and ranchers were known to raise murra for their meat, for their thick hides, and as beasts of burden. During the time of the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic,^[1] Borvo the Hutt possessed several murra which he used to defend his vault on Naboo.^[6] On the Double World of Talus, the Kahmurra Biogenetic Research Station was used by the Galactic Empire to genetically engineer murra into a more efficient all-terrain fighting animal. The resulting creature was named a kahmurra (or sometimes khmurra), though the Empire considered the project a failure and cancelled all funding. Kahmurra had since run wild on Talus, with some being caught and trained, though with great difficulty.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Murra concept art — Concept art for *Star Wars Galaxies*.

Murra first appeared as creatures in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011.^[1]^[7] There also existed other named types of murra, including the forest murra and mountain murra. However, each of these murra were virtually identical in size and appearance to a typical murra, so it is not clear whether they constituted distinct subspecies, or were merely descriptive names for different types of the same creature.^[1]

With the release of Star Wars Galaxies, murra could be tamed as pets by players who pursued the creature handler profession.^[1] Following the release of Publish 25's New Game Enhancements on November 15, 2005, creature handlers were removed.^[1]^[8] However, with the release of Chapter 6: Masters of the Wild on May 22, 2007, beast masters were added as an expertise path,^[9] allowing players to incubate creatures as pets.^[1] Suns of Fortune, an official rules supplement published on January 24, 2014, describes some features of the murra in greater detail. However, it also presents something of a discrepancy. The sourcebook claims that the murra had four large tusks growing from its lower jaw,^[3] while Star Wars Galaxies only depicted two.^[1]