Hello all, Ric here and welcome to the Index series where we look into the lore behind
a science fiction species to get a sense of their world, tech, culture and whatever else
makes them, them. So after the vote off the back of the last video, we have the Star Wars
species, the Zygerrians. As this is a Star Wars one, I will be looking into the canon
first and foremost, before looking at some legends material to flesh them out a bit,
but I will mark it out as such where applicable. So, context provided, let’s look at these
ones. The Zygerrian biology is rather humanoid for
the most part, but they actually appeared in legends before the turned up on screen.
In legends they looked rather different, but some legacies of that design were carried
over to their canon depiction, notably the possession of horns along the jawline of males,
and on the temple of females. Their fur and skin colour varied in shades of peach, tan,
brown, to purples, indigos and even more blues. The fur tended to be a shade or so darker
than their skin and varied in length, fading to a fine fur around the face. Their eye colours
covered an equally wide range of, greys, greens, blues and yellows the latter two being far
more common. Aside from this, their height, weight and lifespan were all equitable to
humans. So, despite their decidedly feline appearance,
more or less, they were actually redesigned to appear more like a coyote, with the prominent
ears trying to capture the creature’s look to evoke its cunning and conniving nature.
Their home planet is Zygerria, gird S4, in the Chorlian Sector of the Outer Rim and like
many Outer Rim territories this historically afforded them much cover from the prying eyes
of the powers like the Republic and later the Empire. For a time. The planet was a terrestrial
world of plains, highlands, canyons and most prominently, mesas. It was atop these outcrops
of brown rock that the Zygerrians built their cities and most settlements since their ancient
times. This provided an obvious advantage when it came to viewing their surroundings,
but building atop such a structure is far from easy work, before the invention of gravity
lifts and spaceships. So how did they achieve this?
Slaves. They did the slavery. And a lot of it. Their entire history can be attributed
to the use of such labour, and it was a practice that they carried into the stars when they
left their world. It was all based on their philosophy, which is quite simply that strength
and intelligence naturally dictate a creature’s place in an ecosystem, therefore they are
the most natural forms of establishing a hierarchy. If they are capable of enslaving you, then
it’s only natural that you serve them. Unsurprisingly, this focus on domination left no room for
compassion or mercy, with such approaches being seen as a weakness, in themselves as
much as others. Basically, they respected strength, willpower and resolve, but saw it
as perfectly acceptable to challenge this and break it.
They built their empire on slavery for thousands of years and their territory expanded from
their system. From Argazda to the Salin Hyperlane, they also seized control of numerous trade
routes, including the pass closest to Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi’lek. They did much
to cultivate their reputation as ruthless and efficient slavers, as it worked to shake
the morale of planets or colonies upon which they descended. This continued, until the
Galactic Republic finally intervened and went to war with them, enforcing its outlaw of
slavery. I couldn’t find the exact dates of this conflict, but the Jedi were involved
at the height of their power, so it was probably during the age of the High Republic, and was
within the lifetime of Jedi Master Yoda. The Zygerrian Empire was near entirely focused
on the efficient trade, auction and use of slaves, so this crippled their culture. By
20BBY, the era of the Clone Wars, they had been reduced to only their home system. However,
while they openly complied with the rules of the Republic by this time, they simply
took their trade underground, maintaining slaving operations and rings with connections
to crime syndicates such as the Hutt Cartel. It was no surprise then, that when the Clone
Wars broke out, they allied with the CIS in order to openly practice their slave trade
one more, in fact they very easily resumed the practice without skipping a beat, almost
as if they never really stopped. The long term goal was to rebuild their empire to the
height it has once been, but there were several obstacles in their way, not just the Republic,
Jedi and rebellions, but their choice of allies too. Although their operations were crippled
again by the Republic during the Clone Wars, it persisted into the age of the Empire.
By the Imperial Era, they ended up attempting to expand during the chaos of the regime change
and they did expand their territory once more, taking several more worlds through conquest
and then enslavement of the native populous. However, the Empire then descended upon them,
not for a moral stance, although I’m sure that is what the propaganda painted, but because
the Empire would not tolerate a rival, powerful enough to oppose it and Zygerria at its prime
could have been just that. They were again forced back to Zygerria where a treaty was
forced on them which led to the official recognition of the Zygerrian Slaver’s Guild and the
use of slavery within the Empire through its legal loopholes. Among many outposts and colonies,
they had a base set up on Kowak, (where monkey-lizards are from).
Their government was a monarchy, a king or queen would rule and decide law for her people
as well as contribute to the ongoing campaigns and operations of their Empire. However, they
had a Prime Minister at their side who was the second-in-command and oversaw the daily
affairs of governance. This made up the Royal House as well as the regent’s extended family
who resided in the Palace on Zygerria. It’s not known if it was always the case, but in
the only instance we see, the Prime Minister was also captain of the Royal Guard.
The technology they employed was also geared towards slavery. Many of their weapons were
designed to hurt or incapacitate rather than kill, such as their electro-whips, shock collars
and even their distinctively styled blasters. They would never waste the opportunity to
enslave over elimination. Their military was seemingly folded in with their slave trade,
with higher ranking officers also a part of those organisations. Their armour consisted
of a lightweight body-piece, gauntlets and a helm. The more gold inlay, patterns and
piping the gear had the higher rank the officer. Their fashion was generally made from pastels
and washed out colour schemes, which made any jewellery and other adornments stand out,
with a strong favouring towards gold accessories. Preferred slaves were also decorated in finery
for the richer members of Zygerrian society, a display of wealth most likely.
Again, as with most Star Wars species, their technology, fashion and architecture is often
laced with other world’s influences, due to the length of time most species have been
interstellar in the Star Wars mythos, so it was not uncommon to see Zygerrians in any
style clothing or brandishing CIS technology from their time as allies. There were also
Zygerrian Jedi, which of course there were, the Jedi don’t discriminate when finding
candidates, but I can only imagine the insults hurled the way of the Jedi, who took force-sensitive
infants from the Zygerrians who already despised the Jedi as ancestral enemies.
Their architecture is tall, imposing and geometric with heavy seamless stone facades, complete
with hard-edged, chiselled stone patterns and painted designs. Their technology was
designed to follow this angular design scheme leading to a very distinctive look. Behind
the scenes, it was all inspired by the Babylonian Empire, and comparing images of referenced
Babylonian architecture, you can clearly see the similarities. Many important building
resemble Ziggurats, making for a fun phrase of Zygerrian Ziggurats, which sounds like
a curse. So the Zygerrians are ruthless and a good
example of why a monolithic, single adherence to a way of life is a bad idea. Their whole
empire was based on a single trade, which led to its heavy collapse when the Republic
ended it. Let alone it being one based on slavery, which is fraught with its own issues
and ignores morality. Their creed amounted to, “if I can enslave you, you deserve to
be enslaved”, and this cutthroat behaviour forces them to abandon empathy even among
their own. Notably, they did not take kindly to their authority being challenged, seemingly
ignoring the fact that their philosophy left room for them, themselves to be overthrown
and controlled. There is always a bigger fish after all. Although some can break the mould,
they often do so solely outside the confines of their society.
Thanks for watching this video on the Zygerrians of Star Wars. The next votes for the index
are over on the community tab, so you can leave a vote there or suggest another species
to look into. The choice I picked from the bucket list this week are, the Hanar of Mass
Effect, because this one wanted to do a nicer species. Or sticking with the Star Wars theme,
the Duros, cos I’ve just watched through all of Bad Batch and was reminded of one of
my favourite characters. Thanks again for watching, I’ve been Ric
and I’ll see you next time, goodbye!