This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures,

ideas, and monsters in time.

I've covered a number of Star Wars species and creatures in the past on The Monster Fact,

and since we're celebrating Star Wars Week here, I have one more for you, a force-sensitive

humanoid species known as the Mirraluca.

The Miruluka have existed in Star Wars comics and novels for decades at this point, with

specific examples falling into canon or extended universe status.

But we're not going to get too wrapped up in this division.

The Mira Luca look like typical humans, except they have no eyes, and generally keep their

vestigial eye sockets covered with a blindfold. While other species in the Star Wars galaxy

possess only varied levels of connection to the force,

the Miraluka all possess enough force to manifest a kind of force site, an ability to sense

their surroundings via force sensitivity in a way that makes up for their lack of visual sense

organs. This of course plays on a long-standing Star Wars trope in which a force-sensitive individual

trains with a blindfold or some sort of blindfold-like device on so that they can better trust

their innate force sense of their surroundings. We see Luke do this in the original 1977 film.

In Star Wars Rebels, the Jedi Kananjaris sustains a blinding injury and is forced to

depend on his four senses in this way.

And if you, like me, played the video game Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 back in

...