The Mairans were a large, tentacled alien race native to the planet Maires, and communicates by blowing musical notes through drilled shells. They have rubbery, black skin that must be kept wet at all times. Most have over 40 tentacles, and all have two lumpy eye membranes. The Mairans have been long-time rivals with their neighbors, the Vergills. The battles escalated about nineteen years after the Battle of Endor, when the Vergills opened a ditanium mine near the Mairan consulate on Hapes. The Mairans claimed the Vergills were disrupting their ability to run the consolate, but it was later discovered that the Mairans purposely located their consulate near the richest ditanium mines in an effort to spark a confrontation.