Ssi-Ruuk
The Ssi-Ruuk are a species that features in Star Wars.
Contents |
History
The Ssi-Ruuk were a bipedal reptilian extraterrestrial race that inhabited a region of space known as the Ssi-Ruuvi Cluster with them emerging from their homeworld of Lwhekk located in an isolated star cluster on the fringes of the galaxy. Their origins were traced to packs of carnivorous animals on their jungle homeworld. Gradually they formed tribes, each consisted of members with the same skin color. The most dominant were the Blue and Gold scaled tribes. The Blue scaled Ssi-ruuk possessed a great deal of political power, while the Gold-scaled began Ssi-ruuvi religion. These two would form the Ssi-ruuvi upper class. The Ssi-ruuk eventually encountered the smaller yet more common P'w'ecks and conflict arose between the two species. Eventually, the P'w'ecks were subjugated and enslaved. The Blue and Gold tribes then made an alliance and selected the first Shreeftut. The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium was born and the Blue and Gold tribes then subjugated the rest of Lwhekk and divided them into castes. The Conclave and the Elders' Council were formed and eventually the Ssi-ruuk expanded their empire into space. Among the chief issues faced by their race was dwindling natural resources. This combined with the fact that they never developed fusion technology greatly hampered their exploration efforts as the Ssi-ruuk were forced to carry large fuel stores. As such, the Ssi-ruuk initial forays outside their home system were in the search for new sources of energy and resources. The inability to create more efficient energy sources and dwindling resources led to the development of entechment technology. This was the process by which life energies were drawn from living beings and placed within any form of technology to power them. Such a procedure was applied on the P'w'eck race whose energy was tapped to create a stable source of energy which the Ssi-ruuk were able to maintain. Initially, this was considered a distasteful practice by their kind but a necessary approach for energy production.
Previously, the Ssi-ruuk attention was focused outwards but an escalating war with a competing empire ruled by the Chiss led to them making probes to the Core. This expedition was with the intent of harvesting 'recruits' to pilot their space fleets. As a result, the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium struck against a number of isolated Outer Rim colonies before clashing with the Imperial Navy. But instead of bringing the Imperial Military to bear against these intruders, the Emperor decided to form a secret pact with the Ssi-ruuk. For their knowledge of entechment, the Emperor secretly agreed to cede several Outer Rim colonies to the Ssi-ruuvi, with which they were to do with as they pleased. In 1 BBY, as the Ssi-Ruuk reached the outlying worlds of the Galactic Empire, the Ssi-ruuvi's supreme ruler—the Shreeftut—received visions through the Force of a hooded Human who revealed himself to be Emperor Palpatine, ruler of the galaxy. He offered the Ssi-ruuvi dozens of worlds and millions of Humans to entech, in exchange for the use of Ssi-ruuvi technology. Thus, they decided to venture into Wild Space, where they conquered the small Human colony of G'rho, capturing and enteching numerous members of the populace. Due to their secret agreement with the Ssi-ruuk, the Imperial leadership covered up the incident and blamed the Alliance to Restore the Republic for the attack. Among their captives was a Human boy named Dev Sibwarra, whom the Elder Sh'tk'ith brainwashed through mind manipulation techniques. What astounded them was the boy possessed strange powers to sense others. It was from this boy that Ssi-ruuk Admiral Ivpikkis discovered that Humans were the galaxy's dominant species. He also discovered that humanoids had longer containment time when enteched and could last longer than most other species. Due to Sibwarra's Force abilities and his ability to communicate with his fellow Humans, the Ssi-ruuk used Dev Sibwarra to calm the subjects being enteched.
Overview
Native to the planet Lwhekk, Ssi-Ruuk are warm-blooded, reptilian beings covered with scales of various colors. Their blunt, oversized heads end with beaked mouths, and their bodies end with muscular tails. They have clawed hands and feet, and strongly-muscled hind legs. Their skin is so thick that it can withstand blaster shots with only minor burns to show for it. They were blind to The Force, and communicate with each other via a complex series of tweets and whistles. They also have scent tongues which they eject from their nostrils. Each hand has three opposable claws. They all have three eyelids. As a rule, the Ssi-ruu were highly xenophobic, but were more disgusted by other species than afraid of them.
Ssi-ruuvi culture was noted for its speciesism and their religious beliefs. They came to believe that they were physically, mentally and spiritually a superior race. As a consequence of this prejudice, they viewed themselves as inherently superior to all other species while all other species were inferior. Culturally, the Ssi-ruuk displayed a speciesist attitude towards other species; regarding them as fit only for slavery and entechment which utilized the life energies of another sentient being as a source of energy for their mechanical technology.
This race rely on a technology called entechment that involved capturing the life-energy of beings and using them as power sources. Apparently contacted by Emperor Palpatine through the Force, the Ssi-Ruuk came to the known galaxy to trade some of their battle droids and entechment equipment in exchange for Bakura, an Imperial world. The Ssi-Ruuk had earlier discovered that human souls lasted longest of all enteched subjects but due to the painful process and the fact that the human subjects remained self aware after entechment the energy decayed within a few days. During a raiding mission, the Ssi-Ruuk captured and brainwashed a Force-sensitive boy named Dev Sibwarra and used him to calm subjects being enteched, thus making the life energies last longer. When Sibwarra felt the death of Palpatine, the Ssi-Ruuk decided to take what was theirs, Bakura. This was the first major attempt to invade Imperial/Rebel space. They were stopped after the Rebellion sent a force to aid the planet in response to a distress call. The Imperials and Rebels made a temporary truce to fight off the Ssi-Ruuk and defeated the Ssi-Ruuk mainly through the efforts of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. It is thought they were involved in a war with the Chiss in intervening years as a New Republic Task Force found the Imperium greatly weakened. After a failed truce attempt, the Ssi-Ruuk were not heard from again until the Yuuzhan Vong war when they attempted a second invasion of Bakura.
Legend held that a Ssi-ruuvi individual would be born with all colors on their scales, a rainbow-scaled individual known as the Keeramak. During the Yuzzhan Vong invasion, the Vong bio engineered the Keeramak to manipulate the Ssi-Ruuk. A group known as the P'w'eck Emancipation Movement (PEM) was formed led by the Keeramak. They fled to Bakura seeking refuge from the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium. This was a trick by the Ssi-Ruuk who used the treaty forged between the PEM and Bakuran government to consecrate the planet allowing them to invade with ground forces, along with the PEM fleet in orbit. Unknown to the Ssi-Ruuk, the PEM was real and soon the P'w'eck turned on the Ssi-Ruuk, forcing them again to retreat.
The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium had two seats of power with one being the Conclave that was a religious body and the Elders' Council which served as a political body. The Conclave and the Elders Council often competed for control of the empire and only the leader of the Imperium could prevent civil war from happening. The leader of the Imperium was known as His Potency the Shreeftut and was the supreme ruler of the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium. These two councils operated in an advisory capacity for the Shreeftut. Below them, Ssi-ruuvi society itself was largely clan based with it being entrenched in tradition and family history. The clans were headed by patriarchs and those that demonstrated charisma were able to command several clans. Control of a large number of clans earnt their patriarch a great deal of respect from their peers.
The Ssi-Ruuk use weapons called Paddle Beamers powered by enteched energies to paralyze the target. They were also unblockable by lightsabers; the beam would bend around the blade, much like stun settings on conventional blasters, and strike its target. After much practice Luke Skywalker managed to change the setting on his Lightsaber to block the Paddle Beamers but on this setting was unable to block blasters.
One thing that made their technology unique compared to the technology utilized by other sentients was the use of entechment—where a living being's life-energy was electronically drained from its body to be used as a power source for a machine. Entechment was the main power source for a wide range of their technology including starships, power stations, Ssi-ruuvi security droids and ion paddle beamers. Although the Ssi-ruuk claimed that entechment was entirely painless, the victims always remained in a state of agony during and after the process of entechment. Even when installed into power cells and machinery, these disembodied beings remained in continuous agony until their life energies expired into oblivion. Given the excruciating pain and the resulting death of the subject, the Ssi-ruuk did not practice entechment on their own people; preferring to use other 'inferior' sentient species particularly P'w'ecks—a similar saurian species which had been reduced to a state of servitude in the ancient past. When the Ssi-ruuk attacked Bakura in 4 ABY, they discovered after taking Imperial prisoners that Humans were a far more powerful source of energy than the P'w'eck.
Members
- Ivpikkis :
- Firwirrung :
- Sh'tk'ith :
- Keeramak :
Notes
- The Ssi-Ruuk were created by Kathy Tyers where they made their first appearance in The Truce at Bakura.
- They appeared in the former Star Wars Expanded Universe which was later rebranded as the Star Wars Legends continuity.
Appearances
- The Truce at Bakura:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
