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Sarlacc

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a great beast which buries itself in the ground and waits for food to wander nearby. Only the Sarlacc's mouth remains visible, with inward-curving teeth covering its entire surface. A number of long, prehensile tongue-tentacles are connected to the inner mouth, and are used to grab its food and pull it into the lower sections of its body. The Sarlacc's body is apparently divided into two sections. The first is a large chamber where the prey is initially deposited. Branching off from this chamber are many smaller digestive chambers. Once prey has been dragged into the main chamber, the Sarlacc's internal musculature - which is connected to thousands of whip-like tentacles - moves it along the sticky inner walls to a holding place. There, its prey is stuck to the inner walls with various tendrils while the Sarlacc's internal fluids begin to flow around the prey. The allows the Sarlacc, which has no natural digestive system, to physically assimilate its prey. The theory is that the Sarlacc latches onto its prey, pumping its own caustic blood into the prey's system. The blood breaks down the prey slowly, picking up nutrients before passing back into the Sarlacc. The Sarlacc's blood also provided a minimal sustenance for its prey, so they are kept alive inside the beast for a long time. The Sarlacc's prey eventually becomes part of a huge network of consciousnesses created from all of its victims. Thus, it is believed that many of the Sarlacc's victims go mad before they die. Many theories exist on the reproduction of the Sarlacci, but it is known that they Sarlacc can regenerate lost flesh, especially the long tongue-tentacles. One theory is that the full-grown Sarlacc can send out spores, when conditions are right, that are capable of surviving the hard vacuum of space. Those spores that survive long enough to reach solid ground then attempt to bury themselves. Another theory held that there were two distinct sexes, with the female being the larger of the two. The male Sarlacc was actually a parasite, which would grow over time to devour its mate. When an offspring is produced, this theory claimed that a male and female would pair up and emerge as a single, nomadic entity. Most Sarlacc prefer dirt and damp earth; the female spore that landed on Tatooine is one of the few that managed to survive in the desert. Note that Wedge's Gamble indicates that Sarlaccs like the sand. The Tusken Raiders who live on Tatooine have a legend that says the Sarlacc gave birth to itself in the core of the planet, in the days before the win suns had split apart from a single star. The Sarlacc, according to the legend, would continue to eat everything until it was forced to consume itself, thereby perpetuating a cycle of death and rebirth. The bounty hunter Dengar once told a drinking buddy that, after he pulled Boba Fett from the Sarlacc on Tatooine, he found that Fett's DNA had been mingled with that of a number of smugglers and lowlifes who had disappeared while in Jabba's service. It was surmised that they had been fed to the Sarlacc as punishment, and that through the pseudo-digestive process, the Sarlacc's blood had carried them into Fett's body. It is believed that the lifespan of a Sarlacc can measure 20,000 years or more.