Star Wars: What Species (Race) Is Ahsoka Tano?

At this point, we are certain that Ahsoka Tano is already one of the most popular Star Wars characters, especially because she is set to appear in her own standalone live-action series called ‘Ahsoka.’ In that regard, more and more people are becoming interested in Ahsoka, and there’s no argument that she is one of the more prominent non-human characters in the entire Star Wars continuity. But what species or race is Ahsoka Tano?

Ahsoka Tano was born as a Togruta on the Togruta homeworld of Shili. She was born to a tribe of primitive yet spiritual Togruta people. During her infancy, she showed her talents in the Force after she tamed a wild tiger-like creature. Soon after, Jedi Master Plo Koon found her and took her to the Jedi Temple.

Unlike the other prominent Star Wars characters, Ahsoka represents the non-human side of the continuity as a prominent character that has seen her fair share of trials and tribulations. Of course, the best part about her is that she was Anakin’s Padawan, which means that she had a connection with the most important Star Wars character of all time. Now, let’s look at Ahsoka’s species and learn more about it.

Ahsoka’s species explained

If there’s one thing that we know about Ahsoka Tano, it’s that she is one of the most important characters in all of Star Wars, especially because she had a connection with Anakin Skywalker and is the only current living character in the era of the New Republic that knows who Anakin was. Of course, while Ahsoka was more of a supporting character throughout her entire history, she is set to take center stage in the ‘Ahsoka’ series.

Ahsoka will be featured in her standalone series, which means she is the first non-human Star Wars character to have her own live-action series. And that is why we are here to look at Ahsoka’s species.

Ahsoka Tano was born a Togruta, a sentient humanoid species known for having colorful skin and large montrals and head tails (lekku). They also have white facial pigment, although this can vary from one Togruta to another. It is said that the coloration of their skin was a method of camouflage that allowed the more primitive Togruta to hide from predators.

The Togrutas come from the planet Shili, which can be found in the Expansion Region of the galaxy. However, the Togruta also formed a colony of around 50,000 people on the planet called Kiros, which can also be found in the Expansion Region. It isn’t rare for the Togruta to have a Force-sensitive individual among them, as Jedi Master Shaak Ti and Jedi Master Jora Malli were Togruta.

Unlike other humanoid species, the Togrutas had multiple stomachs. Meanwhile, their large montrals, which are the cone-like horns on top of their heads, served as their most prominent features. They also have three lekku, known as head tails, growing from their montrals.

One of the most prominent features regarding the montral and the lekku of a Togruta is that they tend to grow as the Togruta ages. Females are known to have longer lekku compared to their male counterparts.

However, the montral of a male seems to be more prominent than a female’s. The montrals also have a purpose because they allow the Togruta to sense the movement of objects around them through echolocation, although we haven’t seen Ahsoka showcasing this ability as a Togruta.

Where did Ahsoka come from?

While there are a lot of different Togruta in the galaxy, Ahsoka Tano came from the homeworld of the Togruta. She was born on the planet Shili on 36 BBY to parents Pav-ti and Nak-il. Ahsoka was born in a tribe of Togruta that were quite primitive in how they lived but were very spiritual and close to nature.

During her infancy, Ahsoka was taken by her mother on a journey to teach her about life and death. She had to show the young Ahsoka that hunting other creatures was part of the cycle of life and death. However, Ahsoka and her mother were attacked by a tiger-like creature called a raxhir.

While everyone in the village worked together to try to take Ahsoka back, Ahsoka fearlessly reached out to the raxhir without fear as she could connect with it using the Force. She returned to the village riding the animal even though she was still an infant. That was when the Togruta named Gantika, who served as one of the elders of that village, realized that Ahsoka was sensitive to the Force and that her ultimate destiny was to be a Jedi.

At age three, Ahsoka Tano was about to meet Jedi Master Plo Koon, who discovered her as a Force-sensitive child. The fact that Ahsoka had an uncanny ability to sense the feelings and intentions of other people allowed Plo Koon to realize that she was strong in the Force. As such, Plo wanted to bring her to the Jedi Temple to be trained as a Jedi.

However, at that time, Tano was nearly enslaved by an impostor claiming to be a Jedi. The goal of the impostor was to take Tano and train her as a weapon for their own benefit. The villagers wanted Ahsoka to show her powers when the impostor visited her village. But because Ahsoka could sense the impostor’s intentions yet could not communicate her feelings to her fellow villagers, they despised her for keeping her powers to herself.

Eventually, the impostor’s plans were thwarted. Even though Ahsoka was left scarred by the impostor, she immediately became comfortable with Plo Koon because she could sense how pure his intentions were. That was when Plo finally brought her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant so that she could be trained as a Jedi. She was raised as a Jedi when she was three, so she could hardly remember life before being brought to Coruscant.

Ahsoka learned to be quite confident as a Jedi Initiate even though she was still traumatized by the experience of nearly getting kidnapped and enslaved. And she was able to rise up as a Jedi youngling rather quickly. 

In that regard, by the time she became a Padawan, she was already headstrong and quite a bit too overconfident in her abilities. At one point, she said that she couldn’t remember life before she was taken to Coruscant by Plo Koon.

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