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The Collector, The Queen, and the Spector
Tales of the mysterious and deadly Starweirds are well known among force religions and non-religious spacers alike. Powerful, gaunt corpse-like beings who travel through space and hyperspace as if they were simple walks in the park make for fascinating legends and for the most part, that's what they remained. Creatures whose command over the force was legendary and frightening to behold, but usually a mere stretch of the imagination.
However, recent events have shown the Starweirds are not as extinct as previously believed. Numerous ships have turned up with dead pilots and crew, with holofeed records showing Starweirds attacking in earnest. And now, the Starweirds have begun to leave marks on their prey.
Once the Starweirds were spotted again, new legends of the Starweirds were discovered. Ancient Jedi recordings, forgotten Sith holocrons, newly discovered writings once lost in cyclopean tombs, despondent folk myths, and lost tall tales of antiquity spoke of beings the Starweirds followed: the Starweird gods, beings of power that dwarfed even the mightiest of the galaxy and as ancient as the force itself.
While many of these stories are certainly exaggerated, the fact that the Starweirds seem to revere them is unmistakable. The markings the recent Starweirds have left on the ships correlate to one of these Starweird gods. Cultural experts in the empire believe that this may be a sign of worship, with the victims of the ships being a form of sacrifice to a particular deity.
While the names for each 'god' are too numerous to count, approx 5 gods have been consistently identified. However, more might still exist. Unlike normal Starweirds, each god is not restricted to the form all Starweirds share. If these Starweird gods exist, no one has survived an encounter with them and lived, save the Starweird queen.
THE COLLECTOR
'And so it came, and with it, insanity and horror followed like hounds on a chain. Clad in yellow torn robes and wearing a cage of iron over its head, the screams from its victims in its body were only rivaled by that terrible dread emanating from its skeletal grin.' -excerpt from record found in a tomb
The Collector, also commonly referred to as the baleful king, is described as a being who delights in taking trophies from its victims. As tall as a giant, wearing a yellow cloak and has a cage around its skeleton head, the Collector is terrifying to behold. Stories report that when the collector finds a lost soul, he takes their essence and merges it with his own, and the consciousness of the being is forever trapped beneath his cloak. It's believed the collector embodies how when a Starweird chooses a prey, it will not stop until it has the prey in its clutches. Ships marked with his symbol tend to have several severed heads lying about, and the bodies mysteriously missing.
THE SPECTOR
'It carried a cloak of fire in the cold vacuum of space. The black flames that licked its body could not be held back by the lack of air, for the spector was the fuel. I blinked, and it was next to the ship. I blinked again, and it was inside. As it walked through our ships hulls, I saw its face. By the force, there was no face! There was no face!' -excerpt from a folk tale
The faceless thing known as the Spector Starweird god is often referred to as the faceless one. Unlike other Starweirds, the spector is a completely silent being, never screaming and quietly killing all it finds. It seems to embody the ability that all Starweirds can walk through walls and other solid objects without effort, and the ability to mimic other people's faces by not having a face of its own. Ships marked with the symbol of the spector tend to show signs of being lit on fire inside. Sometimes, the fires are still burning when spacers discover these ships.
THE QUEEN
'Her form, wickedly gruesome in its whole, was like that of a restless dream: ever shifting and never at rest. Her eyes shined brightly, and her presence in the Force brighter still. Her scream reverberated across the galaxy, and the Starweirds flocked to her call. With reverence, her subjects bowed and worshiped her like the queen she was.' -excerpt from Jedi holocron
The queen is the only confirmed Starweird god, and thankfully is proof that these things can be beaten. While she did meet her end at the hands of the Jedi in the days of the Great Galactic War, it took the combined might of the Jedi council to defeat her and her entourage of subjects, and no one escaped the battle uninjured in body nor mind. Should anyone meet a Starweird god today, it would probably take the same amount of power to dispatch it. People theorize she either represents how the Starweirds might either reproduce or how the Starweirds have a hierarchy unknown to others. Ships marked with her symbol tend to have one lone survivor, eyes gouged out and babbling incoherently, never to be sane again in its short life. Lately, rumors persist that the Starweird queen has been ressurected by her followers, though these rumors are unconfirmed for now.
THE BEAST
'We heard it before we saw it. I have slain a Starweird in the past, and this thing wasn't like those. It's rage shamed the greatest sith lords. It held no subtlety. It looked more like a Tukata than a human. Its broken, bleeding, chapped skin, its fiery eyes…and worst of all was its screaming. It never stopped screaming. I still hear its screams, even after escaping its clutches…' -excerpt from a sith holocron
The beast is the least humanoid of the Starweirds. The only consistent traits it has from tale to tale is the fact that it's usually muscular, has numerous arms and legs, and is constantly using its telepathic screaming ability. Sometimes its face is like a wolf, other times its more akin to a rancor. Out of all the starweird gods, the beast seems to be the most feared and left alone by other Starweirds. Analysts believe that this god may represent the pure rage all Starweirds hold for all other life forms. Ships marked with his symbol tend to have spacers bodies ripped apart and scattered in a bloody mess, with gore used in ways previously unimaginable.
THE STORM
'There it was. Glowing eyes in a storm of lighting and death. There were no legs, just clouds of power. No arms, just tendrils of electricity. And worst of all, our ships could do nothing against it. It's as if it drained the life out of our systems. I only survived because the escape pods could be launched manually. Its a pity my air will run out long before anyone can rescue me' -excerpt from a dead spacer's record.
People believe the Storm represents the raw power in the Force all Starweirds have. More ethereal than physical, the Storm reportedly enjoys draining the energy from star ships, burning people alive with lightning, and crushing beings into singular points of matter slowly over a period of time. Ships marked with the Storm’s signal are always found near Ion storms and long lasting Force Storms that previously did not exist on most star charts. It seems that when enough Starweirds work together, they can produce these Force Storms in the darkest regions of the galaxy.
Intent: to create a group of space horrors that all players can potentially encounter, as well as to add to the lore of Star Weirds, a cool legends and canon concept that I want to encourage to be used more often.
