The Togruta are one of the most distinctive and recognizable races in the Star Wars universe, but fans still don't know a lot about them. The faces of characters like Master Shaak Ti and Ahsoka Tano have appeared in various shows, video games, and other media, and more representatives of the Togruta race are appearing as part of the new stories from a galaxy far, far away.
So far, viewers have seen the Togruta as Jedi Masters and courtly Ambassadors, giving the impression that the Togruta culture is wise, artistic, and well-educated. All of that is true, right down to their architecture and choice of habitat. However, more details of these mysterious but compelling race are still emerging.
6 Togruti Is The Native Language
Togruta are often able to speak two languages fluently, not only because of their focus on education, but also their diplomatic nature and appreciation for different cultural experiences. These include the universally used vernacular of Galactic Basic Standard along with their native tongue, Togruti.
Togruti evolved on the planet of Shili, the Togruta homeworld, and members of the royal family would commonly greet guests in their mother tongue. The novel The High Republic: The Rising Storm takes place on Shili, and contains numerous words and phrases in Togruti. Fans that have the audiobook version have the advantage of listening to the language as it's spoken. The title given to the Togrutan Queen is a word in Togruti.
5 Montrals & Lekku
The "horns" and "tails" that make the Togruta distinctive have proper names: montrals and lekku. Montrals grow upward, and the lekku trail down. These can be a variety of colors, reflecting the unique and beautiful natural environment of the homeworld of Shili. Although both sexes have them, females tend to have longer ones than males.
Aside from just looking cool, montrals and lekku actually have a practical function. They are hollow and give the Togruta the power of echolocation, which means they can sense movement and sound up to 82 feet away. That's a nice perception bonus, without even using the Force.
4 Shili & Kiros
The Togruta home planet of Shili was overwhelmingly covered in grasslands, and their wide variety of colors is why the Togruta evolved with so many different skin tones and facial markings. Shakk Ti and Ahsoka Tano originally came from Shili as opposed to the colony of Kiros.
Kiros was a Togrutan colony up to and during the era of the Clone Wars. It has since become a more popular location, acting as a major setting in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and also making an appearance in a few episodes of Star Wars Rebels. It was in Kiros that the Togruta preference for waterfalls and mountains really flourished, and numerous cities were built on the tops of cliffs and cascades.
3 Going Barefoot Is A Thing
To be clear, this only applies when a Togruta is at home in their native Shili System, which might be why it's an obscure tradition. The Togruta have a deep spiritual attachment to their home planet and its surrounding moons, and they express their closeness by going barefoot.
This sacred belief is slightly inconvenient in the rest of the galaxy, which is why Togruta wear footwear when they leave their system. In the colony of Kiros, this was not a common practice, and any Togruta that did so there was likely just enjoying some nostalgia for their home planet.
2 The Togruta Queen
Togrutan society functions as both a monarchy and a matriarchy, electing its rulers from a royal house and choosing a queen. Even though the Togruta favor art and intellect over war, they still had a more than a decent army that included the warships of the Royal Togruta Fleet, an organization dedicated to espionage, and a security council.
As for the Queen, she had a number of impressive titles that mixed the ancient local customs of hunting and survival with more modern, intellectual skills related to politics and diplomacy. A queen of the Togruta was called Regasa of Shili, Supreme Huntress of the United Tribes, and Ruler of Togrutas. This was often shortened to the Togrutan word Regasa, for the sake of brevity.
1 Allies Of The Jedi More Than The Republic
Considering that they are a strong and independent people with plenty of skill and knowledge of their own, but less than average focus on their military power, the Togruta would think twice about making any alliances. There's the danger of getting on the wrong side, and although the Togruta were always allied with the focused and solemn Jedi, they were less enthusiastic about the bickering nature of the Republic.
During the time of the High Republic Era, which is considered to be when both the Republic and the Jedi were at their peak, the Togruta opted to remain friendly with the Jedi Order but were not officially a part of the Republic. This was true for most of their history, even when neither the Jedi nor the Republic was in a position of galactic power.
After the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Togruta retained their loyalty to the Jedi order. They either started or gave sanctuary to resistance movements, and many were either hunted down or joined the Rebel Alliance. After the Galactic Republic was restored, Chancellor Mon Mothma had several advisors, one of them being the Togrutan Auxi Kray Korbin.