SWTOR: Miralukous tauntauns

A baby tauntaun

Last week I logged my jedi sentinel Haradwen, and saw I had mail. It was my baby tauntaun! It's available for everyone who had an active subscription at the time of the introduction of the legacy system. I did not get the other gift from the legacy promotion (30 days free subscription) because I don't have a level capped character, nor enough legacy levels. I don't really care though, the tauntaun looked like fun. Well, fun... they actually look adorably ugly. The best thing is that they run after you while you drive your speeder on those little legs of them. You can say a lot about tauntauns, but they can run like the best!

Miraluka

Haradwen is a Miraluka, meaning that she cannot see, but uses the force to localize herself. I chose to play a Miraluka jedi sentinel, as that would mean she would blindly leap into fights and swing her lightsaber around with deadly precision, lead by the force only. How cool is that? The only thing I was puzzled by, is what a Miraluka exactly is. I felt slightly ashamed, but I had not heard of the race before, even though I consider myself a Star Wars fan. I've seen all movies (several times), and am just old enough to have seen the release of II and III in the cinema. I've also seen some of the newest Clone Wars series and have played Knights of the Old Republic I, but can't remember a single Miraluka. So what exactly are they?

A quick internet search taught me that I luckily don't show signs of Alzheimer just yet: the Miraluka show up in Knights of the Old Republic II - which I still need to play - and several Star Wars books - which I have not read. The Miraluka had to leave their original homeworld, as it was instable. They evolved on their new homeworld Alpheridies, which only knows infrared light. Having no use for seeing anything the traditional way, their eyes disappeared and they only have eye sockets left. Decorative veils are used to cover these when meeting people from other races. The Miraluka use the force to localize themselves. Fun fact: Miraluka in SWTOR have an ability called Sense Force Alignment that they use to sense the alignment of other players.

A person without eyes doesn't look very sexy, but I think I did it right with Haradwen: she has a very pretty face. Now if only those jedi knight outfits would look a bit better...

Other fun facts about the Miraluka:

• Many Miraluka join the jedi order, being able to sense the force from childhood. The ideals of the jedi order lie closer to their cultural beliefs than those of the sith.
• They have a very strong force sight, allowing them to interpret their surroundings. They can even see the force radiating from jedi and sith.
• Miraluka often panic when encountering someone who is not connected to the force for the first time, not being able to understand how that is possible.

You can read more about the Miraluka at the Wookieepedia and SWTOR Wiki.