Star Traders

Wanderer of Worlds

Author: John Dunivant

Medium: Short story

Publication date: October 1996 in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine #9

Timeline placement: c. 7 BBY

 

"Wanderer of Worlds" is more of a vignette than a true short story, a first-person, present-tense introduction of the Eirrauc species for players of The Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Daushoroc and Tamoss, two Eirrauc traders and potential quest-givers, are wandering the Tatooine wastes in search of a crashed courier ship, the Athallian Messenger. Many have sought the vessel's valuable cargo over the decades but none has been successful. The Eirraucs hope to find the lost treasure so they can buy the freedom of some of their people, who have been enslaved by the Empire. They trade water and a Tusken battle talisman with a band of Sand People in exchange for directions to the crash site and permission to venture into their territory.

 

This story was written and illustrated by John Dunivant, who created the Eirraucs for Star Wars Galaxy Magazine's Design an Alien Contest, most famous for creating the unsurpassed Jeby and Yoda's Jedi Master, N'Kata Del Gormo. The Galaxy editors were so impressed with Dunivant's submission that they turned it into its own independent article and added RPG stats for his creations. Pretty cool, but not cool enough for it to warrant inclusion in Pablo Hidalgo's The Essential Reader's Companion. Although "Wanderer" muddies the line between short story and RPG flavor text, other Galaxy stories of a similar length made it into the book, so for consistency's sake I think it should have been included.