Hall (entity)

"Just who in the Hall are you, anyway?"

- Vuffi Raa to Hall

The entity known colloquially as Hall was an intelligence inhabiting the central chamber of a pyramid made of Rafan life-crystals on Rafa V.

Ancient construction
Hall called upon the energies of the building it inhabited and was gifted with many unusual abilities by its ancient Sharu builders, including the ability to increase or decrease the size of organic life-forms at will. Hall waited patiently for centuries, maintaining itself through the use of mechanical droid-like assistants, performing its most important task, guarding the Mindharp and waiting for an intelligent being to arrive and activate the device, thus reawakening the Sharu. As the millennia passed, Hall grew a bit eccentric and easily distracted.

Fulfillment of its purpose

 * Hall: "'." Lando: "What happens if we do?" Hall': ", . . ''." &mdash; Lando Calrissian conversing with Hall

In 5 BBY the gambler Lando Calrissian was recruited by Governor Duttes Mer and sorcerer Rokur Gepta to retrieve the Mindharp, which Gepta incorrectly believed to be an artifact of great power that could be used as a weapon. Lando entered the mystical pyramids of the Sharu using a "key" he obtained from Mohs, a Toka priest. In the course of exploring the pyramid, Lando found himself and his droid Vuffi Raa inexplicably changing in physical dimension. Lando had expanded greatly in physical size, or perhaps Vuffi Raa had shrunk, and their relative perception of time had also changed drastically.

After a series of misadventures, Lando finally entered the Hall of the Mindharp. Hall called out in a sonorous voice and commanded him to halt. Lando and Vuffi Raa looked around, startled, and asked who had spoken. ",, ," Hall replied. It then requested that Lando walk around the perimeter of the wall rather than directly through the chamber, because it was not permitted to cross the Hall. Lando asked why, and Hall found that it could no longer remember, but nevertheless made the request again. Lando refused, approaching the raised platform in the center of the chamber, twelve meters high and completely smooth. Lando possessed no climbing equipment or repulsors to scale the platform and so was unable to retrieve the artifact. Pondering his options, Lando asked if Hall could increase his size again. Hall replied that indeed it could and that he had passed the test of intelligence required to retrieve the Mindharp.

Hall transmogrified Lando's dimensions, Lando retrieved the artifact from on top of the platform, and then Lando requested to be decreased back. Hall, distracted, failed to answer for a few seconds, but then promptly complied. As Lando left, Hall wished him good luck.

Later, when Governor Mer and Rokur Gepta activated the Mindharp, all the life-crystal structures on Rafa V were destroyed, releasing the ancient collective intelligence of the Sharu back to their descendants, the Toka. Hall was likely destroyed along with all life-crystal structures.

Behind the scenes

 * It is unclear if "Hall," as Lando calls him, is an artificial intelligence designed by the Sharu, or an entity somehow created by the collective intelligence of the Sharu stored in the life-crystals throughout the millennia. Hall himself may have forgotten its origins.


 * In the novel, Hall speaks in to indicate the deep, booming tones of its voice.

Appearances

 * Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu