Charon

The mysterious Charon came from a region outside the galaxy known as "Otherspace". Their original home system was close to a black hole, which threatened to drag their homeworld into its gravitational clutches. In the face of imminent destruction, a death-worshipping religion arose. This cult held that as all life must eventually return to the Void of Death, it was the holy duty of the Charon to speed all life towards this end. All life, including the Charon themselves, was viewed as blashphemy. After eradicating all of the unbelievers on their homeworld, the Prophet of the Void became leader of the Charon civilization.

Ironically, it was only then that the Charon developed the capacity for interstellar travel, which they could have used to move to a safe system. Instead, they destroyed all remaining life on their homeworld and dispersed throughout Otherspace, exterminating any lifeform they came across.

Physically, the Charon resembled large arachnids, but with three body segments &mdash; a head, an upright thorax with four arms and four legs, and an abdomen containing web-spinning organs. These webs were used to trap prey, and also to provide latticework structures for the Charon to climb on. Charon were biologically divided into two main castes: a warrior caste and a bioscientist caste. All Charon technology was based on specially grown organisms rather than machines or computers (much like the Yuuzhan Vong).

During the Galactic Civil War period, Charon were considered little more than legends. Most of the information on them was gathered from spacer's tales and rumors in cantinas by Imperial sentientologist Odo Rin on behalf of Darth Vader.

Behind the scenes
The name "Charon" is a reference to Charon, who ferried souls to the land of the dead in classical mythology. Charon is also the name of the moon of Pluto.

Appearances

 * Bill Slavicsek & Douglas Kaufman, Otherspace, West End Games