Taung

The Taungs were an ancient species of humanoid simians. Indigenous to the Core World of Coruscant, the two-meter-tall, gray-skinned Taungs were warriors from youth, and viewed battle as a source of honor both for the individual and their gods. Famous for their struggles against the Battalions of Zhell—prehistoric Coruscant's other species —the Taungs waged war against their enemies for hundreds of years. When a powerful volcano erupted and devastated the Zhell, spewing ash into the sky with such density it blocked out the light of Coruscant's sun, the Taungs labeled themselves the "Warriors of the Shadow", or Dha Werda Verda in their language. Despite their loss, the Zhell eventually managed to drive the Taungs from Coruscant, and the defeated Taungs fled to the planet Roon, located in the Outer Rim. There they remained for millennia, until legendary Mandalore the First led the Taungs to conquer a new world which they named Mandalore in honor of their leader, and the Taungs subsequently recast themselves as the Mandalorians or Mando'ade—"Sons and Daughters of Mandalore."

As the newly entitled Mandalorians, the Taungs set out to conquer the worlds around their new home, their nomadic nature and worship of war driving them crusading outward as they increased their territory. Under the rule of Mandalore the Indomitable, another Taung warlord following in the leadership tradition established by Mandalore the First, the Taungs began to take in beings of other species into their culture, transforming what it meant to be Mandalorian forever after. This willing acceptance of other beings peaked during the Mandalorian Wars, when Mandalore the Ultimate led the Mandalorians on a campaign against the military forces of the Galactic Republic. Though initially victorious, the intervention of the Jedi Knight Revan and his loyal Jedi followers turned the tide of the war against the Mandalorians, culminating with the devastation of the planet Malachor V. The Taung race had suffered heavy losses during the war, and by its end, were generally believed to have drifted into extinction, survived by the legacy of the Mandalorian culture they had passed on, which remembered the Taungs as the Progenitors.

Text and facts from the “Taung/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.