Bimm (Near-Human)

Last Updated: 09/08/2025

Name: Bimm

Humanoid: Yes

Classification: Near-Human/Diminutive

Homeworld: Bimmisaari

Coloration: White, Peach, Tan, and/or Brown

Biology: Bimms are one of, if not, the closest in both appearance and lore, to traditional fantasy dwarves within the Star Wars universe. As such, they could generally be considered Human-passing, though they often had a few additionally distinct traits. Bimms stood between 1 and 1.2 meters on average, growing upwards of 1.5 meters at their tallest. They also usually had slightly larger facial features than Humans, including bigger noses and eyes, more pronounced brows, and most noticeably, enlarged ears. Male Bimms also had very thick hair, usually sporting gruff beards and bushy eyebrows. While they could easily pronounce Basic, they also spoke their own unique language known as Bimmini. Bimms had the capacity to be Force Sensitive, and it was believed they could produce hybrid offspring with Humans, though we know they could not with the other, non-near-Human Bimms. Additionally, Bimms usually lived upwards of 123 years, with some of the oldest surviving well into their 140s.

Lore: As mentioned above, the Bimms were very much just the equivalent of space fantasy dwarves, having a strong connection to nature, dressing in simple robes with ornate detailing and accessories, and regularly becoming adventurers, bards, or wandering traders as lifestyles. Despite this, they also took on some traditionally elvish traits, living primarily among cities situated across Bimmisaari’s forests, prioritizing arts like music and poetry over nearly anything else, and living a very mystical existence, making most other species see them as wise, mysterious, and almost untouchable. Bimms were naturally mild-mannered, avoiding conflict, loving education, and generally holding completely pacifistic philosophies. They loved community, meeting new people, hosting ceremonies and celebrations, performing through musical instruments and singing, and telling compelling stories of their own travels, or the tales of their ancestors.

Technically, despite generally being considered so, Bimmisaari is not the Bimms’ true homeworld. Around 20,000 years before the “modern era” of the universe, the ancestors of the Bimms arrived at Bimmisaari from some still-unknown world in the Outer Rim, quickly establishing a settlement and making contact with the locals. These short, furry beings were known as the Bimm, a name that the settlers would adopt as well, seemingly shedding any prior identity they had and presumably being the last of their kind. There is no piece of recorded Bimm history that details anything prior to their first interactions with the Bimmisaari natives, and they seem uninterested in learning about it as they only cared about their current, peaceful, plentiful existence on Bimmisaari. The two species had quickly gotten along well, combining both of their cultures into one, blended planetary community referred to simply as the “Bimm,” adopting Bimmini as their collective language and building hybrid cities among the trees.

There are no recorded conflicts between the two Bimm species as they had like-minded dispositions for peace. When the rest of the galaxy discovered them, the Bimms presented themselves as a single, collective people, preferring not to be referred to as two different species and declining the offer to have two distinct representatives among the Republic Senate, though Bimmini was quick to join the Galactic Republic and welcomed any-and-all visitors with opened arms, save for one exception. Every time a visitor stepped foot into a Bimm community, customs saw all locals surrounding them, where they would need to touch a part of their body to “honor” them in complete silence before allowing them to proceed with their business. The aforementioned exception came when visitors were bearing visible weapons, where they would be asked to disarm and leave their weapons on their vessel before they could partake in the touching ceremony.

The one exception to this exception, however, were lightsabers, which Bimms saw as honorable and traditional tools of peace. This came from longstanding legends and songs the Bimms had regarding Jedi who had visited the world and saved the people millennia prior to their discovery by the Republic (the latest time being during the New Sith Wars), the galactic government’s strong relationship with the Jedi Order potentially being a deciding factor when it came to their strong desire to join the Republic Senate. Revering Jedi more than anyone else, extensive revelries were held each time Jedi would visit their world, and such a commotion was caused, with crowds being drawn from all over the planet, that the Jedi barely had any opportunity to carry out any official assignments they may have been given. Still, the Jedi Order thought of the Bimm people favorably, often selecting young Jedi Initiates from among both Bimm species. Bimmisaari would readily sign-up for the Republic’s “Refugee Relief Movement (RRM),” welcoming non-Bimm refugees in droves during the late days of the Republic, seemingly at the behest of the Jedi.

Having been discovered only between 4000 and 2000 years before the total collapse of the Republic, the Bimms were still rather naive when it came to galactic politics and on-goings, however, their curiosity and newfound access to hyperspace-capable spacefaring vessels saw many members of the Bimms, the Near-Human species in particular, to take to the stars, becoming explorers, traders, or even smugglers, all in an attempt to meet new people and see new things. Those who remained under the world lived under the direct but loose rule of the council of “Law Elders,” who oversaw planetary relations, trade, and the influx of offworlders, attempting to prevent any threatening or violent individuals from settling there, though they hoped not to offend anyone either and believed almost anyone was capable of change if you were kind enough to them. By this point, the two species had become so intertwined that it was just as common to see cross-species relationships as two see two of the same kind together, and given their incompatibility, adoption was very common among their communities. Other species began being integrated into Bimm culture as well, though they never quite reached the same equal status as the original two.

In the waning days of the Republic era, a number of centuries before Clone Wars, jurisdiction of the space encompassing Bimm changed and they were removed from Republic territory, now usurped by Hutt Space and the infamous Hutt Empire. It is unclear what the Hutts did with the world, if anything at all, as they seemed not to suffer any and continued their relationships with the Republic and Jedi regardless. Since the New Sith War, a Sith faction known as the “Brotherhood of Darkness” had left a small presence on the world, slowly gathering followers from among the Bimm population, particularly gaining cultists from among the originally native Bimms, though their numbers were still very small. These new Acolytes surprisingly shed their previously peaceful ways, growing strong in the Dark Side of the Force, though they lived and died in secret, only making themselves vaguely known while the Hutts owned the world. The rest of the Brotherhood had all-but-collapsed by this point, but their influence carried on in secret on Bimmisaari, never fully wiped out as far as we’re aware.

In the few decades leading up to the Clone Wars, the Bimms’ faith in the Galactic Republic finally began to falter, slowly cutting down their contact and eventually ceasing any relationship with them at all, acknowledging the rampant corruption within the Senate and Republic as a whole that only continue to fester and spread. They even became slightly disillusioned with the Jedi at this time, realizing they were no longer quite living up to the legends as they allowed the Republic to slowly crumble around them. Without any Republic presence, the Confederacy of Independent Systems moved in on the world, claiming it as their territory and contesting the Hutts, a few of whom had taken up residence on Bimmisaari by this point. This conflict was headed by the Sy Myrthians, one of only a few species who were involved in both the Separatist Council as well as the CIS Parliament. These two slug-like species would fight politically over rights to the world throughout the duration of the Clone Wars, though few, if any battles, were ever brought to the surface, and the Republic never once intervened.

Keeping a low profile during the war, the Bimms hoped to continue that trend when the Empire rose to power, however, the “Sy Myrthian Insurrection” would put an end to those ideas. Independently rising up against the Empire and establishing various Separatist remnant strongholds across the surrounding regions, the newly established dictatorship swept through Sy Myrthian occupied space, wiping them out at every junction and establishing a presence on all of their previously controlled worlds. Fortunately, Bimmisaari wasn’t a major stop during this campaign, and though the world was now under their subjugation, the Empire barely left any soldiers on the world as they were confident the native pacifists had neither the intention nor the means to rebel. The biggest act they carried out was to remove any and all Hutts living in the world, deporting them back to Hutt Space as they posed the only real threat. Because they intentionally kept a low profile, they were more or less left alone during the “Dark Times” era and Galactic Civil War, and they were barely suppressed by the Empire, more or less left to their own devices, despite housing an Imperial Governor for a time and having such a high Force Sensitive population.

In the time following the Emperor’s death at Endor, when the Empire began to lose their grip on the galaxy and reallocate their spread out forces into much more dedicated groups and various worlds began pledging their allegiance to the Rebel Alliance, the Bimms made it clear that they intended to remain neutral, not approving of the various means undertaken by the Rebellion throughout the war. Still, they welcomed any members of the alliance to their world as they had with offworlders in eras prior, continuing with the stipulation that they must leave their weapons behind. When the New Republic was formally established, the Bimms were collectively in favor of this new government, though, fearing what had happened with the old Republic, they would initially decline any invitations to join. Despite their neutrality, the world would gain a large increase in popularity, their new megacities full of spaceports, many of which constructed under Imperial reign, playing host to traders, smugglers, and corporations, becoming a prominent trade hub in the post-Empire galaxy. Many other worlds came to greatly respect Bimmisaari, looking to them for guidance in the ever changing galactic landscape of this tumultuous new era.

Not long after, however, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Imperial Remnant confederation began to lay claim to swathes of the galaxy, and Bimmisaari was loosely conquered once again. Fearing a damaging blow to their now indispensable trade industry, the Bimms finally reconsidered their stances, reluctantly reaching out to the New Republic to discuss the possibility of an alliance. The New Republic would, in turn, send some of their greatest representatives, the crew of the Millenium Falcon, including Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and most importantly, the legendary Jedi, Luke Skywalker. The Bimms, especially those of the furry variety, were ecstatic to greet their visitors, and huge celebrations were held, drawing the eye of Thrawn’s forces, encountering the Noghri for the first time during their visit. Ultimately, for the good of their world, the Bimms would warily choose to join the New Republic, and they were delivered from the grips of Thrawn not long afterwards, with many of the worlds who looked up to them following suit shortly thereafter.

Believing they were finally fully from from the oppressive forces that had claimed their world one after another throughout the past few millennia, the Bimms were completely caught off guard when the Yuuzhan Vong arrived on their doorsteps, and unlike the previous occupations that had served as little more than mild inconveniences for the people of Bimmisaari, this invasion would devastated the entire planet, resulting is mass destruction and the deaths of many of the local population. Though the slaughter was unrelenting, the Bimms managed to survive, accepting the offer for aid sent by Galactic Alliance after the Vong had finally been expunged, becoming members of a government once again, this time due to the promise of assistance in rebuilding. When these promises were revealed to be nothing more than empty words, the Bimms would secede once again, this time joining many of their established allies to form the Corellian Confederation, inadvertently pulled into yet another conflict, the cycle beginning once again. One major change seemed to take place this time around, however, the Bimms finally deciding to take a stand for once in defense of those they cared about, their collective pacifism fully shaken for the first time in history.

Continuity: The Near-Human Bimms have technically existed since the beginning of Star Wars, one appearing in the Cantina within the original Star Wars film, though this appearance was a tad bit more confusing within the EU. Canonically, this character is 100% a member of this Bimm species, but currently, this is one of their only appearances, meaning nearly all of the lore above is relegated to non-Canon media at the moment. The other Bimm species have also, at the very least, been mentioned within Canon, though they remain even more obscure and currently go un-pictured. Still, most of their lore can be adapted into Canon without issue, aside from everything tied to the Yuuzhan Vong and beyond (as well as some Thrawn-related details). Interestingly, this claim isn’t as straightforward as it seems, however, as the Bimms’ EU lore was full of contradictions and retcons itself, much of the clarification lacking for quite some time.

Unexplored: Despite their scarce appearances within Canon so far, as with many ANH species, the this Bimm species was incredibly fleshed out within the EU, though they still remain one of the more obscure Cantina species given their Human-like appearance and lack of reappearances within most major media that followed. This means that there are at least a few questions we can be asking that would help us understand the species even more, specifically within the context of Legends, though in Canon their lore may or may not be explored in a similar manner, so I’ll touch upon that at the end of this section as well! For starters, I suppose, we should ask where the near-Human Bimms originally came from exactly, what sort of being did they evolve from (Human offshoot or something else potentially convergent), why did they leave their original homeworld, and did any stay that may have survived and might look different/be called something different entirely during the modern age?

Additionally, why did they end up as pacifists, and was their nature since the beginning, or something that only grew stronger when they encountered their furry brethren? What did their early history on Bimmisaari look like, how exactly did they develop their first hybrid cities, and how long did it take for the two Bimms to operate in-sync? What did the evolution of their merged societies look like over the millennia, what potential obstacles, challenges, or events did they face, and what brought the New Sith Wars to their home? Exactly how large was the Brotherhood cult that started there, did it ever peter out, if not, what were those Sith worshippers and acolytes doing throughout the various eras, why did it seem more furred Bimms gravitated towards than than near-Human Bimms, and did they ever come out of the shadows, enacted some thousands-of-years-old plan, potentially after the greater Bimm population finally condoned violence for the first time in their existence, paving the way for a sentiment the Sith had been planting for so long? What happened to the species during their other various occupations, as well as post-Second Galactic Civil War? And finally, did these particular Bimms possess any hidden biological or anatomical traits that we have not yet been made aware of?

Additional Notes: I like the Bimms in theory, given they’re a classic species with a fairly unique history within the EU. However, their “design” leaves much to be desired as they’re generally depicted as little more than short Humans. I wish there was a little something to help them always stand out more aside from just their height, and canonically, I really do hope they lean into the whole “Space Dwarf/Elf” thing a lot more, as unoriginal as that technically is. I am a firm believer in the theory that Star Wars is not Sci-Fi, but Fantasy with Sci-Fi elements, and what better way to honor that notion than to highlight this particular species who wear their inspiration on their sleeves. Here’s to hoping we see more of these Bimms in the future, regardless of their rocky past and obscure existence, and with that, I hope we can finally “see” the other Bimm species for the first time in Canon soon, as well as just the first time in animation or even live action in general!

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