Happy Wookiee Life Day! What is Wookiee Life Day?

Wookiee Life Day is upon us! One of the most important Wookiee customs is Wookiee Life Day. On this day, extended Wookiee families gather and celebrate a day of joy and harmony as promised by the Tree of Life.

Traditionally celebrated on the Wookiee home world Kashyyyk, Wookiee Life Day is a time to reflect on the renewal of life and to remember those who have passed on. Wookiees greatly value morality, courage, compassion and loyalty. As part of this sacred and ancient Wookiee tradition is that of the honor family . An honor family comprises a Wookiee's closest friends and companions. These family members pledge a commitment to lay down their lives for one another as well as members of any honor families these individuals may have.

Wookiees will often brave adverse conditions to make it home for this holiday as it is an important time for family bonding and thankfulness. Even the Imperial blockade that is stationed around their enslaved home world can not keep Wookiees from recognizing this most important day.

Wookiee Life Day for All

 

In recent years, Wookiee Life Day traditions have been adopted by many species across the galaxy. Originally, the celebration was held once every three years, but as the joyous holiday has spread through the galaxy, many species and cultures hold the celebration once a year.

 

Dearic, Wayfar, and Doaba Guerfel - In what has to be the most blatant display of Rebel attempts to gain sympathizers and civil support, sources are reporting that the towns of Dearic, Wayfar, and Doaba Guerfel have been decorated by the Rebel Alliance for the upcoming celebration of Wookiee Life Day.

By using the radial menu on the Wookiee Life Day tree citizens, naughty or nice, can receive a bundle of merriment from the Wookiees. You will receive two presents in this bundle: one present will be for yourself and one must be traded to a friend. Only citizens who have been exploring the galaxy for at least ten days will be able to receive presents from the tree. Citizens will also receive a new Celebrant of Life badge.

One present is for you to keep and the other must be traded with a friend. Characters must be at least ten days old to receive presents from the tree.

Reports are coming in that citizens can visit the Wookiee Life Day Organizer to sign up for the brand new Wookiee Life Day festivities. Imperial organizers are called Trandoshan Traders and can be found near the shuttleports, while Rebels can visit their organizers, Wookiee Freedom Fighters, near cantinas.

Those who align themselves with the Rebellion will be able to decorate trees with holiday cheer and will receive special Wookiee Life Day rewards for doing so. Members of the Empire are encouraged to travel to these locations and stomp and destroy any presents the Alliance has left lying around. Rewards will be given to any Scrooges who decide to bring some Imperial yuletide cheer and ruin the Alliance's festive holiday.

For those not aligned with either side, you will have the option to deck the Wookiee Life Day trees with bows and holly or stomp presents. If you are declared Special Forces you will receive three times the amount of Wookiee Life Day currency compared to a person who is not.

In order to maintain our journalistic integrity we cannot endorse either side, but it is highly suggested that Imperials make a special effort to stomp presents and send those Rebels to the great winter wonderland in the sky.

Citizens also have the option of whether or not they want to decorate and destroy competitively or casually. Should a citizen decide to pick casual, they will be able to finish 10 objectives for the day and the objectives will reset at 10 a.m. GMT. If a citizen picks competitive, they will then have 30 minutes to finish as many objectives as they can. The timer will start after they finish their first objective.

The top three competitive players will be listed during the day and the Wookiee Life Day Vendors will also inform players that visit them, who the top three players are and what their faction is. The top three players will be reset every day.

There will, of course, be plenty of rewards offered for those who complete the objectives.

Some of the items may see are a Wroshyr Tree House Decoration, a Holo-Entertainment Table, Itchy's Proton Chair, and a Kowakian monkey lizard house pet.

The monkey-lizard can be taken out of its cage and allowed to run free all over your house. The color scheme of the bow and gloves is random and can be either green or red.

The Emperor could not be reached for comment, but his publicist did have this to say: "While the Emperor refuses to acknowledge the efforts by the Rebel Alliance, he would like to issue an official 'Bah, humbug!' to those participating in the holiday."

Recently spotted under the Wookiee Life Day tree is Saun Dann, Wookiee sympathizer. When approached it is believed that Dann will give the citizen a brand new quest with a very moving reward.

Rockin' Around the Tree of Life

Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes are joining in the festivities this year with a special Wookiee Life Day concert beneath the branches of the Tree of Life. Be sure to listen to the sweet sounds of the band for a holiday concert.

Next to the band, you'll see a Wookiee offering special Wookiee Life Day wares. Browse through his unique selections and you'll see goodies that will make the season bright. The Sliced Neural Attunement Amplifier is sure to get any party started, and Wookiee Life Day revelers can light up the night with a special Holiday Fireworks Package.

The Wookiee Life Day vendor is also offering Hoth Chocolate and Wookiee-ookies. Hoth Chocolate, a smooth, warm drink, will increase damage and decrease action cost. Wookiee-ookies, delicious cookies from Kashyyyk, increase movement speed.

All of the wares offered by the Wookiee Life Day vendor cost a small amount of credits and are temporary items that will only last for a short time.

What was the idea that brought this event to Star Wars Galaxies?

We thought we would share with everyone the thought process of creating this year's Wookiee Life Day event. First and most importantly, we didn't remove anything from previous years' events, as we knew Wookiee Life Day was already very popular. It was in the Star Wars Holiday Special where Wookiee Life Day made its first appearance, so it was decided that we take some ideas for rewards from it. If you were not "lucky enough" to see this show we found the ad here:

We have the ability to temporarily change the way old areas look and who inhabits them, so we thought, wouldn't it be fun if we could make it snow in the cities celebrating Wookiee Life Day? Thanks to the Art and Programming departments, we managed to make that happen. We wanted to try and get some of the Galactic Civil War in without making it too gritty -- it is a holiday, after all. We came up with the idea that the Alliance is helping bring Wookiee Life Day to the less fortunate citizens of the galaxy, not only out of goodwill but also to improve their public image and hopefully gain more followers. The Empire, goaded on by the Trandoshan slavers, would immediately suspect the worst and try to ruin the festivities.

We wanted more decorations in the cities, so the idea came to the team that we place a bunch of smaller trees in the city, and then the players that sign up with the Rebel Alliance can go around and decorate them to make the city look even better. On the opposite side of the spectrum, players who sign up with the Empire can go around and stomp on present piles who they believe are filled with contraband. This enabled us to get the cities decorated and an event up at the same time, with the added bonus of letting me use the angry stomp emote, which is just funny.

 

To spice things up even further, we wanted to entice players to declare themselves Special Forces by reward those that dare to do so with a quicker gain of tokens. We invisioned everyone running around in this winter wonderland celebrating Wookiee Life Day by shooting at each other with blasters and we couldn't pass it up.

For Wookiee Life Day we wanted to avoid creating a grind and just make it mindless fun, so all the rewards are cheap compared to how many tokens you can get, especially if you dare to declare Special Forces. This enables any player to get all the rewards in a day or two at the most, but many of the rewards are decorative and can be bought multiple times for those that want to keep enjoying the event.

In the past we added a way to get more GCW points for Imperial and Rebel players, and a leader board that kept track of the three players on the server that has collected the most tokens that day, just purely for bragging rights. It was our hope that this made the event enjoyable both for the casual and the competitive players.

 

Additional Wookiee Life Day Lore

Here are some sources of information where you can find out more about Wookiee Life Day:

• The starwars.com databank has this to say about the Wookiee species, which also touches on the history of Wookiee Life Day.

• More on the history of Wookiee Life Day at starwars.com in an article titled, "The Forest of Gargantuans" that discusses the early appearances of Wookiee Life Day and how it evolved in the Extended Universe.

• Star Wars Wikipedia entry for Wookiee Life Day.

No Wookiees were hurt in the making of this article.