TheForce.Net - Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia

Yuuzhan Vong

Description

Additional Info

Related Entries

Sources

Images

Legend

this race of beings was native to an extra-galactic galaxy which was devastated by warfare and biotechnology. Evolving first on the planet Yuuzhan'tar, the Yuuzhan Vong worshipped a complex pantheon of gods. Ancient texts discovered by Yuuzhan Vong scholars revealed that, at some point in the distant past, their homeworld was invaded by a highly technological race. More machine that living flesh, these invaders set out to destroy the Yuuzhan Vong. The Yuuzhan Vong, in turn, called upon their gods for help. Although the exact nature of the assistance was clouded by time, the gods provided the Yuuzhan Vong with information on how to use living resources into weapons. After defeating the technological beings who had invaded their world, the Yuuzhan Vong believed themselves to be the chosen masters of their galaxy, a right bestowed upon them by their gods. This new-found pride, along with the skills of war, drove the Yuuzhan Vong away from their gods, and was believed to have resulted in their disconnection with the Force. When individual clans finally conquered all worlds in their galaxy, they began warring amongst themselves. In a millennia-long battle known as the Cremlevian War, Yuuzhan Vong tribes fought to exterminate each other, laying waste to most of their habitable planets. With the end of the Cremlevian War and the unification of the clans, the Yuuzhan Vong found themselves living in a galaxy that contained dead and lifeless worlds. Taking to the stars, they set out to cross the intergalactic void to find a new home, a journey which would take thousands of years and end with the discovery of the New Republic. Roughly humanoid in shape, they often mutilated their bodies with scars and tattoos in order to prove their worth to their gods. Being from another galaxy, the Yuuzhan Vong cellular structure contained no midi-chlorians, thereby rendering them untouchable to the Force. The fleshy faces of the Yuuzhan Vong are distinguished by several key features, in addition to the scars and tattoos that define their social standing: bluish sacks beneath their eyes, sloping foreheads, and lipless mouths. They were masters of organic technology, using all sorts of lesser creatures to perform highly advanced tasks. However, they frowned upon biological diversity, and took severe steps to wipe out or subjugate the other species encountered in their home galaxy. The Yuuzhan Vong society was broken down into three primary castes - warriors, shapers, and intendants - and the minor castes of workers and priests. Much of the Yuuzhan Vong society was centered on the worship of several gods and goddesses, and the belief in those deities forces each member of society to understand his or her place in the universe. Each ritual scarring and tattooing added to the social stature of an individual, and the pattern of disfigurement provided information about the individual's class. It was later discovered that the Yuuzhan Vong had visited the known galaxy some fifty years before their attacks on Belkadan and Dubrillion, when Anki Pace found the remains of a warrior on Bimmiel. After destroying almost every habitable world in their own galaxy, the Yuuzhan Vong created a fleet of worldships and set out to locate another galaxy which they could conquer and inhabit. Somehow, they had penetrated the hyperspacial disturbance which isolated the known galaxy and traveled across the intergalactic gulf. This journey took "incalculable millennia", and was predicated on the death of the original Yuuzhan Vong homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar. Vast numbers of genetic and cellular samples were taken from Yuuzhan'tar, in order for the Yuuzhan Vong to survive the trip. Chief among these samples were the cells of the World Brain that lived at the heart of the planet. The journey necessitated the use of living ships to assist in surviving the journey, which ended when this galaxy was discovered. The initial foray to Bimmiel served as advance intelligence, and gave the Yuuzhan Vong some idea of what life forms existed in the galaxy, as well as their military strength. After establishing a base on Belkadan, the Vong began capturing pirates and enslaving them as laborers on Belkadan. They used gricha larva to form huge, shell-like dwellings wherever they traveled, creating living chambers inside the spiralled nacreous material of the shell. After the Battle of Ithor, it was learned that the Yuuzhan Vong had been experimenting with the various alien species they had displaced while invading the galaxy. Most of the specimens died or were sacrificed, due to their inability to withstand the unusual biological manipulations of the Yuuzhan Vong. Eventually, the Yuuzhan Vong pushed into the Core Worlds and captured Coruscant. The cityworld was quickly demolished, with many structures being destroyed by falling skyhooks and satellites. A World Brain was installed in a yorik coral cavern, and the planet Yuuzhan'tar was rebuilt as the new Yuuzhan Vong homeworld. For many months, a sort of peace existed between the Yuuzhan Vong and the New Republic, as both sides paused to rebuild their forces and defend what each held. This changed at the Battle of Ebaq, where Warmaster Tsavong Lah and his forces were soundly defeated. Tsavong Lah himself was killed in combat by Jaina Solo, and Supreme Overlord Shimrra vowed to destroy anything that got in the way of galactic conquest. However, it was the rediscovery of the planet Zonama Sekot that helped bring the two sides together. Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and the priest Harrar were on Zonama Sekot when it fled the Klasse Ephemora System, and spent many days trying to commune with Sekot. When they did, Harrar revealed that some Yuuzhan Vong believed that they had not fled their home galaxy, but instead had been exiled from it. When Jacen reasoned that this exile might have involved separating the Yuuzhan Vong from the Force, Sekot understood why the Yuuzhan Vong were not visible to the Jedi. They had been stripped of any connection to the Force by their gods - in actuality, the Force itself - a painful act of separation that the Yuuzhan Vong had been trying to reconcile for generations. Only the Shaper Onimi was able to ever regain the connection, after grafting yammosk cells to his own neural pathways, thereby restoring "innocent" living tissue to his Yuuzhan Vong cells. The war between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Galactic Alliance came to an end at Coruscant, after Zonama Sekot appeared and both Shimrra and Onimi were killed in battle. The cost of the war was estimated to have been some 365 trillion beings, but in the end the Yuuzhan Vong were allowed to surrender and find their place within the galaxy. Many chose to commit suicide rather than surrender, and many others simply fled into the galaxy's farthest reaches. However, the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Knights agreed that Zonama Sekot was the true home of the Yuuzhan Vong, especially in light of the revelations made by Sekot itself. Although a handful of Yuuzhan Vong remained opposed to any sort of surrender, those who returned to Coruscant were transported to Zonama Sekot. The planet, which was actually the offspring of Yuuzhan'tar, took the Yuuzhan Vong and fled into hyperspace, to find a new home somewhere in the Unknown Regions.