Star Wars Alien Species - Zygerrian
The Zygerrians hailed from Zygerria, a planet located in the Chorlian sector of the Outer Rim Territories, on the outskirts of the galaxy. Organized under the Zygerrian Slave Empire, the species prospered on slave trade across the galaxy and especially within the Outer Rim. Eventually, the Zygerrian Empire came to dominate a large portion of the region, stretching from the planet Argazda down the Salin Corridor hyperlane.
The slavers were also in control of the Triellus Trade Route, which provided access to the planet Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi'lek species. At the height of their empire, the Zygerrians provided slaves to other powerful factions operating in the region, such as the Hutt Empire and Chevin slavers.
During the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the planetoid Zygerria Four underwent bombardment with an attempt to drive off slavers who had settled there. The bombardment drove away many slavers, with one rich slave trader abandoning an entire palace. The bombardment also uncovered the ruins of an underground city on Zygerria Four, which various archaeologists gathered to study.
Thousands of years before the Clone Wars, the Republic outlawed slavery, and the Jedi—who served as the guardians of peace and justice for the Republic—began an anti-slavery campaign within the Outer Rim. As part of that campaign, the Jedi Order especially targeted the Zygerrians. After a brutal conflict, the Zygerrians were crushed, and many of their enslaved species were liberated.
Their empire having fractured, the Zygerrians retreated to their homeworld, and they were not considered a threat by the Jedi or the Republic after that incident. However, ever since their defeat, the Zygerrians longed to restore their slaver empire to its former glory. By the year 22 BBY, the Zygerrians, along with the Karazak Slavers Cooperative and the Thalassian slavers, had once again emerged as one of the leading slaver organizations in the galaxy, with an estimated income of billions of credits. As of the beginning of the Clone Wars later that same year, the species had created the secret Zygerrian Slavers Guild, a successor organization to their former slaver empire.
As the war raged on, the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Count Dooku, offered to supply the Zygerrians with slaves captured by Confederate battle droids on the battlefields.Dreaming of stretching the Zygerrian influence across the galaxy and believing the Republic too preoccupied with the war to stop her from reaching that goal, Zygerrian Queen Miraj Scintel allied her people with the Separatists. Aided by pirates and mercenaries, the Zygerrians began preying upon systems isolated by the war. They also established slaving outposts on many planets, such as Kowak and Listehol.
During the second year of the war, the Confederacy invaded the planet Kiros and captured its entire Togruta population. On the orders of Dooku, the Togrutas were handed over to the Zygerrians, and Scintel hoped to sell them at the Royal Slave Auction on Zygerria with the hope of restoring the Zygerrian slavers' glory.
Most of the slaves were transferred to a labor processing hub on the planet Kadavo, which was run by the Zygerrian Agruss, known as the Keeper. Meanwhile, Togruta Governor Roshti was kept on Zygerria to be presented at the auction as an example of the goods available for sale.
After liberating Kiros from the Separatists and finding the entire population gone, the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker embarked on a search for the missing Togrutas and infiltrated the Zygerrian homeworld. While Kenobi set off to search for the Togrutas, Skywalker posed as a slaver named Lars Quell, who wished to present a Togruta slave—in reality, Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano—to Scintel. However, Kenobi was soon captured while trying to rescue Roshti.
Scintel held the auction as planned, which was hosted by a Zygerrian auctioneer, and many wealthy individuals came to bid on the Togrutas, but the bidding was soon halted in order to present a new exhibit—the captive Kenobi. At that moment, the auction was interrupted by Skywalker and Tano, who—with the help of clone trooper CT-7567—attempted to liberate Kenobi and to force Scintel to surrender.
However, after the clash of lightsabers and shock whips in the auction arena, the Zygerrians overwhelmed and captured the Jedi. Scintel kept her new captives alive, hoping to break the Jedi's will and make them her obedient slaves. Kenobi, CT-7567, and Roshti were transferred to Kadavo, while Tano was imprisoned on Zygerria and Skywalker made Scintel's personal slave. The queen's unwillingness to kill the Jedi prompted Atai Molec—the Zygerrian prime minister and Captain of the Guard—to invite Dooku to Zygerria to reason with her and execute the Jedi. After the Separatist leader arrived, Scintel refused to listen to him, and Dooku killed her. Meanwhile, Skywalker and Tano escaped and headed for Kadavo, prompting Dooku to contact Keeper Agruss with orders to kill Kenobi and CT-7567.
As Skywalker and Tano attempted to break into the Kadavo processing hub, Dooku ordered them to cease, lest the Keeper drop the captured Togrutas into the maw of a volcano below the facility. In response, Skywalker called in Republic reinforcements that he had requested earlier. In the ensuing battle, the slaves were liberated, the labor processing hub was destroyed, and the Keeper was killed, dealing another blow to the Zygerrian business.
The species recovered yet again, as Molec—who had ascended to the Zygerrian throne as the new king after Scintel's death—successfully resurrected the Zygerrian Slave Empire. Meanwhile, the Clone Wars ended in 19 BBY with the fall of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire in its place. Although the Galactic Empire quickly seized control of most of the galaxy, the Outer Rim Territories initially refused to acknowledge its authority.
The Zygerrian slavers were no exception, as they entered an alliance with Tervig slavers and Sikurdian pirates and established illegal trade routes along the Listehol Run and the Shaltin Tunnels. The slaver union also began raiding the newly reorganized Corporate Sector, an independent territory that shared borders with the Outer Rim.
The Galactic Empire was quick to respond to such insurgencies along the Outer Rim and began a campaign to subjugate that rebellious territory. In 18 BBY, an Imperial task force led by Admiral Wullf Yularen and Captain Bannidge Holt began the Listehol Campaign. A fleet of Invincible-class Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers, Venator-class Star Destroyers, and TIE fighters under their command defeated the Sikurdian swarms at the Battle of Sagma. Yularen and Holt then besieged Zygerria, forcing the Zygerrians to negotiate peace with an Imperial advisor dispatched to the planet. Placed under Imperial control, Zygerria served as a base of operations for a series of unsuccessful Imperial raids on the planet Tervissis.
The Zygerrian people were organized into clans and classes. They had a noble class, many members of which, despite their high status, pursued a career in the military. The Zygerrian Head of State was a monarch; female rulers held the title of queen, fully styled as The Most High Queen of Zygerria, while males were addressed as kings.
Male heirs to the throne bore the honorific title of prince, while the entire family of the monarch was referred to as the Zygerrian Royal House. The monarchs resided within the Zygerrian Royal Palace. A group of elite soldiers called the royal Zygerrian guard was specifically trained to protect the royal family and ensure the prosperity of the species' slaving business.
Individuals responsible for handling archives of the Zygerrian Slave Empire were called royal archivists. During the tenure of Queen Miraj Scintel and later King Atai Molec, the position of royal archivists was held by brothers Jorec and Mard Gemen. Zygerrian News was a media outlet that operated on the planet during the Clone Wars.
A warlike species, the Zygerrians held strength—both physical and mental—in great esteem, viewing it as a means to gain power and authority. The Zygerrians were cunning, ensuring that they had the upper hand in any situation, and traditionally settled their differences with an unarmed fistfight.They believed that it was the natural order of life for the strong to dominate the weak, so slavery was normal for the species, and a display of weakness could mean death or enslavement in their culture. Those unfortunate enough to become their slaves were viewed as inferior species by the Zygerrians. As such, a slave market thrived on their homeworld of Zygerria.
Because of those views, the species willingly cultivated its image as dangerous and unpredictable, in order to discourage others from challenging them. This tactic worked, and the Zygerrians were feared in spaceports across the galaxy, earning fame for their history of violence, piracy, slavery, and war. Despite their predations, the Zygerrians were nonetheless an advanced civilization.
Founded centuries before the Clone Wars, the Zygerrian Slave Empire focused on slave trading in the Outer Rim Territories for many years, until it was defeated by the Jedi. Eventually, the Zygerrians reestablished their business under the Zygerrian Slavers Guild, which thrived due to its disciplined and structured approach to business, as well as the Galactic Republic's diffuse presence in the Outer Rim. Each Zygerrian slaver had to pay a yearly membership fee to join the Guild and was then allocated a patch of space in which to work. The size of that patch varied from one planet to an entire system, depending on the level of membership the slaver paid for. The Twi'lek species preferred to use Zygerrians over other slavers, since the Zygerrians' "honorable" business approach reduced the damage that slavery inflicted upon Twi'lek society.
The species' natural physical strength was well-complemented by their mastery of various weapons, such as retractable shock whips. The shock whip was a traditional weapon of the Zygerrians that ensured that the target ensnared by the whip's electrified metal wires experienced great pain and muscle spasms. In combat, the Zygerrians tended to resort to non-lethal tactics, in order to maximize the number of prisoners captured.
In addition to shock whips, electrostaffs also saw widespread usage by the Zygerrians. The species also utilized firearms, such as the Zygerrian blaster rifle, which could fire both regular blaster bolts as well as shots that detonated on impact, creating an explosion.
The Zygerrians used shock collars to control their slaves, punishing those who displayed disobedience with painful jolts of electricity. Sometimes, those collars were outfitted with an explosive device that could be detonated if a slave tried to escape.
The Zygerrians utilized various creatures to travel on their homeworld, including the winged brezak creatures that the royal guard used to patrol the ground for escaped slaves. In order to transfer slaves between planets, the species used highly durable freighters, called the YV-865 Aurore-class freighter. The transports came equipped with grappling turrets that could be fired through open bay doors to ensnare victims and reel them inside the ship. Each transport contained space for numerous enslaved individuals but only required one pilot to operate it. The Zygerrians also used the versatile, long-range HH-87 Starhopper to patrol the airspace of their holdings.
Zygerrian clothing was characterized by a number of distinctive trends, both among royalty and other Zygerrian citizens. A typical male outfit consisted of a matching loose-fitting shirt and pants, with a piece of fabric worn around the neck, and a waistband held by a belt. Female clothing fit more tightly to their figure and typically consisted of a short skirt worn over pants. Females also donned various accessories, such as neck rings and coiled armbands worn above the elbow.
Both males and females generally wore dark-colored clothes, with shades of gray, brown, and dark-green being fairly prevalent among the Zygerrian people, although brighter colors were also an option, such as red, orange, or blue. Contrasting with the dull color scheme, Zygerrian clothing was often accented with bright stripes of red or gold. Some Zygerrian outfits were adorned with patterns, reminiscent of designs appearing among the species' architecture.
Individuals who held positions of power in Zygerrian society dressed in much more distinctive clothing. Zygerrian royalty displayed a lavish sense of style, exemplified by Queen Scintel's richly decorated long dress, golden neck and arm accessories, and a golden headpiece. Another member of the Zygerrian Royal House, Prince Sono Molec, wore a purple-colored outfit, complete with a long, flowing cape that was gold on the outside. During the Clone Wars, Prime Minister Molec wore a brown long-sleeved jacket with gold adornments. While stationed on Kowak, royal archivists Jorec and Mard Gemen wore identical blue-black outfits with white trim and white half-capes held at the neck by bead necklaces.
Zygerrian traders wore a set of armor, consisting of a sleeveless tunic that ended in flaps of varying lengths at the waist. Their outfits were combined with large helmets that imitated the shape of Zygerrian ears and left only a small part of their faces exposed. Zygerrian royal guards, such as Omus Krill, wore a uniform that looked similar to the traders' attire.
The Zygerrians were a bipedal sentient humanoid species. In appearance, the species possessed strong, angular features and large, pointed ears. Other distinctive features included long fangs that jutted from their jaws and claws that extended from their hands. Some Zygerrrians had faces and ears that were entirely covered with fur—ranging in color from brown to gray, red, or black. Other individuals displayed a certain amount of bare skin on their faces, which was light in tone. The Zygerrians' eye color varied between yellow and blue.
Males traditionally had more hair than females, with bands of fur growing on their cheeks. Male Zygerrians also displayed a number of bony spurs protruding from the chin. Females lacked the chin spurs, but they instead had smaller protrusions on their forehead. They generally had sallow complexions and were physically strong, but some individuals suffered from obesity.
Medium-sized, they usually grew up to 1.7 meters or 5.6 feet and weighed around 60 kilograms or 132 pounds on average.
The Zygerrians, who were originally depicted in the EU as resembling humans with pointed ears, long red hair and bony spurs on their forehead and chins, were redesigned. Dave Filoni felt this look was too close to a live-action TV show with limited makeup resources for aliens, and opted to blend them with a coyote-like appearance, stating the coyote's trickster reputation helped the Zygerrians look more cunning and deceitful.
Zygerrian age at the following stages:
1- 9 Child
10 - 16 Young Adult
17 - 39 Adult
40 - 60 Middle Age
61 - 80 Old
Examples of Names: Agruss, Darts D'Nar, Atai Molec, Miraj Scintel, Atlee Thanda, Marko Tyne, Zolghast.
Languages: The Zygerrians spoke Galactic Basic Standard with a pronounced accent. They also had their own language, which was spoken among the Zygerrian slavers on the planet Kowak, the species' major outpost active in the years following the Clone Wars.
Skug: A common Zygerrian insult.
