Vor

"No more music. Not until we are finished here."

- Unidentified Vor clan leader.

The Vors were a sentient species inhabiting the Mid Rim world of Vortex. They were thin, brittle-boned reptilian mammals who flew on leathery wings. Although they were a flying species, they lived in underground hummocks. While Vors seemed inscrutable and nearly emotionless by Human standards, they were capable of creating music that was considered beautiful both by the Vors themselves and by members of other species.

Throughout the galaxy, the Vors were renowned for the Cathedral of the Winds, a colossal building on Vortex that creating music by vibrating with the local wind. Annually, the Vors played a concert in the Cathedral, flying through it to open and close windows and doors, using the Cathedral like an organ. The structure became one of the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy but was generally considered but a myth until the Vors joined the Old Republic.

The Vors eventually became members of the Republic, although they had few extraplanetary interests. When the Galactic Empire replaced the Republic, the Vors felt repelled and refused to play their annual concert again. They returned to that custom in 11 ABY, inviting dignataries from the New Republic, which had succeeded the Empire. However, remnants of the Empire sabotaged the event, and the Cathedral was destroyed, with the blame initially going to the Republic. Once the real guilty part had been identified, the Vors &mdash; who had already built a new Cathedral &mdash; joined the New Republic. They aided that government during the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Biology and appearance
Vor was the name of the sentient species native to the planet Vortex, in the Glythe sector of the Mid Rim. They were humanoid avians who reached as much as two meters in height. They had both reptilian  and mammalian features.

The Vor body was covered with hairless, soft, rubbery skin that was green in color with white and grey spots. Each Vor had graceful physical features that emphasized the species' natural agility. They were slender beings, particularly in their limbs, being generally weaker than most Humans. The Vor head was flat and pointed, dominated by a vestigial beak. Their pupil-less, ebon-black eyes were covered by lids that were occassionally prone to callosities.

Although they could move by walking, Vors were winged beings, having two leathery, transparent   flaps going from the wrist to the hip; total wingspan was three meters. This was relatively short to allow them fly, but the Vors could both fly and guide using their wings along with their hollow bones. Their flight ability was also adapted to the natural, gale-force winds of their homeworld; whereas non-native pilots found that flying in those winds was very difficult, Vors boasted great maneuverability during the stronger cyclones there. Much of this was due to their experience intently watching the native currents; over a lifetime, a Vor could predict the changes in weather more efficiently than specialized technology.

Vor lungs were adapted to the pollution-free atmosphere of Vortex, so they were very susceptible to contract illnesses in more contaminated environments. Diseases to which Vors were susceptible included dioxo-brionchiectasis shock, hemorrhagic molting, lungrot and silicalung.

The Vors were very intelligent beings, comparable to the Cereans in sheer reasoning ability. Although autonomous individuals, Vors could coordinate themselves well in groups, working together with little or no communication and making use of a sort of collective mind. Other species believed that this ability was more related to natural bio-chemicals than to cultural reasons.

With a life expectancy of 85 standard years, a Vor was considered an adult at 16, and could work until he or she was 70 years of age.

Society and culture


"We cannot blame anyone for the Cathedral's destruction. We understand that it was an accident, and we forgive Admiral Ackbar. While the Cathedral is gone, this is not forever. We will rebuild, and this will be our sole purpose until we can once again play our concert in peace. Until that time, let no music sound. No pipe shall be blown, nor voice raised in song. It would be a mockery of our broken sacred place. In silence the first Cathedral was born, so it will be again. Let all heed this command."

- Krini-shen, Chief Council of Vortex.

The famously emotionless Vors were imperturbable beings who seemed not to react to important or dramatic events happening around them. This was a wrong impression: Vors were indeed concerned and touched by such events, like most other sentients; they simply did not express those feelings in a way non-Vors could easily interpret&mdash;except when they composed music with this goal. However, aliens could understand some Vors body language. For example, baby Vors nested and curled up to protect themselves.

Nevertheless, as a species, Vors were much more centered in the needs of a collective before those of any individual, trying to grasp what they called "the bigger picture". The calm Vors tried to stifle their personal emotions and maintain composure when among others, but they allowed themselves outbursts of emotion in private. As such, the species seemed not to be affected in moments of great tragedy, or even of great joy, keeping on and making great efforts to thrive. A side effect of this talent to hide emotions was an unparalleled skill at negotiation and a penchant for deceit in games of chance.

The Vors were peaceful, spiritual beings who disliked conflict. They were also creative, studious and hard-working, and made good use of their natural intelligence without rejecting manual work.

Vor music had galactic-wide reputation, as it could elicit emotions in other beings, although the exact feeling depended on the listener. Aliens considered the Vor voices to be particularly beautiful when in song&mdash;and the winged beings usually sang whenever working at something that did not require them to use their voice for other purposes. However, non-Vors found the species' speaking voices less appealing and weak. Notwithstanding this, the Vorese language, also known as Vortexlex, had a rhythmic, melodic sound that made good use of the Vor ability to chirp. Vors wrote their language in imitation of the natural wind spirals of Vortex, and most of them could also speak Basic. Vors commonly had one-word names, such as Deskalur, Inchiiri, Kaliopi, Wiliran and Yiruthir. Others had names of two parts separated by a hyphen, such as Krini-shen and Sha-viri. Vors could also have a name and a surname, as exemplified in Senator Fyg Boras.

Vors had little need for clothes as it interfered with flying, but they did cover their genitals and, in the case of women, the top of their chest.

Habitat


The native planet of the Vors, Vortex, had an unusual axial obliquity that caused severe seasonal changes and very strong winds during a months-long season. Those winds were very influential in Vor culture.

Some 6.5 billion Vors lived in a tribal society on Vortex, which served as their homeworld before any other consideration. Vors considered the needs of the collective before their own individual needs.

The Vors lived in small, partially-buried dwellings   in the mountains and plains of Vortex. Vors commonly took shelter from stronger tempests and hurricanes in their domiciles whenever they noticed a storm coming and during the season of storms. As the Vors were technologically advanced, they could easily have built more resistant buildings, but they considered individual homes to be of little historical relevance and thus more useful if they were recyclable. Monuments, on the other hand, were supposed to be perdurable and impressive, with the Vors using their natural sense of harmony and keen stethyc sense to build elegant wonders and impressive artistic achievements.

The bunker-like, circular homes  were built in concentric circles around a cultural center of their civilization. Each settlement was considered autonomous and unrelated to the others, but Vors worked together, notwithstanding their originary area, to maintain monuments and space ports.

The Cathedral of the Winds


The Cathedral of the Winds was a mountain-high building sculpted by the Vors in the grassplains, centuries before 0 BBY. Whenever the wind blew through it, the Cathedral vibrated, producing music. The Vors decided to build it because they were prone to sing and create music whenever they were working.

Reaching a height of several hundred meters the Cathedral was a very tall structure, reflecting the sunlight in its outer side. It was also mostly hollow, with hundreds of open chambers, rooms and corridors of different sizes. Although ethereal, delicate and crystaline in aspect with some organic tint, the Cathedral was a very strong building. The construction of the Cathedral followed a complex organic blueprint, which gave it a hardened structure able to resist the strongest winds for dozens of decades.

Once a year, during the solstice of the storm season,  the Vors celebrated a galaxy-illustrious cultural fete known as the Concert of the Winds. During it, the flying Vors manipulated the windows, doors and openings of the Cathedral of the Winds, sometimes covering them with their own bodies,     following a pre-stablished plan that they communicate to each other secretly and without sound, and in a completely synchronized way. Thus, the wind would blow through the thousands of flutes,  and over them, transforming the Cathedral into an enormous organ while it was hit with the strong winds. This exquisite, reechoing, plaintive sound was known as the music of the winds.

This was a very forecasted event, because the music, partially created by the specific weather, partly by the secretive Vors, could not be repeated. Besides, the Vors did not allow any kind of recording of that concert.

To the Vors, the Cathedral of the Winds was the core of their society, and of their planet, both physically and spiritually, as well as their most cherished masterpiece. The Vors also believed that playing in the Concert was the highest distinction a person might aspire to.

History


The Vors were known in the galaxy during the Pius Dea Crusades (12,000 BBY-11,000 BBY), albeit only unofficially. The scout Hicco discovered the Cathedral of the Winds during this conflict and, although the general population outside Vortex considered that such a monument was doubtlessly magnificent, it was also mostly a legend. Nonetheless, the Cathedral became one of the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy as compiled by Vicendi in 10,000 BBY. Only when Vortex joined the Old Republic in 3,977 BBY did their symbol and their species stopped being considered mythic.

However, by then Vortex was only symbolically a member planet of the Republic, as Vors commonly did not want to leave Vortex. The Vors adopted technology from the Republic, including space travel. They built space ports, albeit only limited-service ones, and welcomed tourists. They began to export food and raw materials, buying in exchange middle and high technology. The Vors even bought weather-predicting satellites to keep track of unexpected storms; the Vors themselves, being better meteorologists than the satellites, did not need those, but incoming tourist felt the satellites were something to be grateful for. In 188 BBY, the Treaty of Vors was signed.

In 22 BBY, during the Separatist Crisis, a number of Vors were living in the planet Coruscant. A study of the Rhire Medical Academy showed that the high pollution in the galactic capital was very harmful for the weak-lunged Vors, as well as for several other species, including six avian species. The contamination was mostly caused by industry and by civilian traffic, and could cause severe illneses. Soon after this event, during the Clone Wars, Vortex sided with the Old Republic instead of becoming a member of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

In 18 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of Naboo self-proclaimed himself Emperor of the Galaxy and began the Galactic Empire. The Vors considered that the Empire was commiting several excesses that were to be resisted. As the Vors were a peaceful species, they did not raise militarly. They nevertheless ceased to welcome visiting aliens, although they did not close the borders of Vortex to tourists. Also as an objection to Palpatine, the Vors sealed all the openings in the Cathedral of the Winds, to prevent its music to sound, thus cancelling the annual Concert of the Winds. During the whole reign of Palpatine, the Vors refused to perform for any alien.

The New Republic
"New Republic shuttle, you are on the wrong course. This is an emergency. You must abort your landing."

- Vor controller.

In 11 ABY, after the death of Palpatine, the New Republic made advances to the Vors, wanting them to join the new, anti-Imperial government. As a token of good will, the Vors invited Leia Organa Solo, a diplomat of the New Republic, to the Concert of the Winds. Organa Solo's friend, Admiral Ackbar decided to ferry her using his personal ship, a B-Wing shuttle customized by himself and by his trusted chief mechanic Terpfen. Unbeknowst to Ackbar, Terpfen was an unwilling agent of the Galactic Empire, obeying Imperial Ambassador Furgan. Terpfen sabotaged the ship, which led to Ackbar crashing against the Cathedral itself, destroying it and causing the death to more than 358 Vors.

The Vors began the re-construction of their Cathedral almost immediately and with cuasi religious fervor. Instead of building again the same Cathedral, they were following a new layout apparently existing only in their collective minds. This new Cathedral, although still bright, crystaline and made of cylinders, was sleeker than the original one and had a more organic aspect. The Vors also decided to direct all of their creative energies to this new task, not wanting to sing or perform any music until they could end the task.

Although the unflappable Vors filled no official complain against the Republic, the inicial offer of joining was retired. Initial investigation, also sabotaged by Terpfen, suggested that the only possible cause of the disaster was an error made by Ackbar himself. Ackbar thus resigned from his post.ref name="A2" />  New Republic Chief of State Mon Mothma sent a Human relief team to help the Vors re-building task, and assigned General Wedge Antilles to temporarily lead them. Antilles visited Vortex along with Qwi Xux, an Imperial scientist he was to protect. A former musician herself, Xux picked a flute from the ruins of the Cathedral and extemporized a melody. By doing so, she unwittingly broke the Vor taboo about restricting music until the work was complete, The Vors, still peaceful, noticed that their point of view had not been understood and sent Krini-shen, Chief Council of Vortex, to make an official communiqué explaining that music in Vortex could be considered a mockery, clarifying that Xux's melody would not be reproved as it had been clearly a misunderstanding. Partly as an apology, Xux provided the Vor with quantum crystalline technology created by her that could be used, and was used, in the new Cathedral. Xux's memories of these events were strong enough to survive a mind erasing performed on her by a Dark Jedi soon afterward.

Before the Cathedral had been re-built, Organa Solo discovered the Imperial implication in the destruction of the Cathedral. She then cleared the names of Ackbar and of the New Republic, and notified Vortex and other planets. Only months after the disaster, the Vors had re-built the Cathedral, and again they invited New Republic dignataries to the new Concert. Many of them attended, including a pleasantly surprised Ackbar and Dr. Xux Then, for the first time in decades, the Cathedral played again, performed by flying Vors and with no machine recording the music. The Vors opened all the windows and doors for the grand finale.

Although the Vors kept mostly the same rules and laws, they also stablished a no-fly area of two kilometers around the Cathedral, to avoid a similar disaster.

The New Jedi Order and beyond
In 13 ABY, Xux ended a romantic relationship with General Antilles. Xux considered that Vortex was the only place in the galaxy were she had made a good deed, and decided to return. She asked the Vors to allow her work in Vortex, and the Vors welcomed her, allowing her to work in a job of her choosing in their planet. Xux stayed there for more than one decade. In 25 ABY, during the first stages of the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Jedi Daeshara'cor went to Vortex to question Qwi Xux, and soon afterward Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his allies followed Daeshara'cor's trail there. At that point, the population of Vortex was in the number of billions.

Later in 25 ABY, with the War intensifying, several Vor refugees were seen in Salliche Ag's camp in Ruan. The Vors built an artificial nest to avoid living in the garbage; thanks to this, they lived better than most of the other refugees, except for the Rybets.

In 26 ABY, Vors amounted a sizeable percentage of the 12,000 refugees hosted by SELCORE in the Settlement 32 of the planet Duro. As Duro was a highly polluted planet and Vors were prone to pollution-sicknesses, breaches in the dome were a high, if potential, danger and the dome was specially kept. These Vors, like many of the others, felt a great respect for Jaina Solo, a pilot of the Rogue Squadron and war hero. The one Hutt among the refugees, Randa Besadii Diori, considered that treating him like one of the Vors was an insult, and he demanded special privileges.

Due to a possible infection of Yuuzhan Vong, Settlement 32 was evacuated, with the émigrés going to nearby Gateway. The Vors, being more vulnerable, were provided breathing masks. Gateway was afraid of some external agent entering their area in the fur of some aliens; they offered to accept only Vors and Vuvrians because, lacking any hair, they could be irradiated quickly. However, the leader of the derelicts, Jacen Solo, refused.

Once in Gateway, the Vors offered to perform a dangerous and much needed maintenance task that could sicken them. Jacen Solo respected their pride and willingness, but asked the Vors to call him should they find any threat. They did so when attacked by Fefze beetles sent by Yuuzhan Vong leader Nom Anor. Once Solo took care of the beetles and the threat was weighed up, the refugees abandoned Duro.

In 27 ABY, Vortex was directly attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. The New Republic pilots of Wraith Squadron spent six months trying to go through the frontier between Corellia and Vortex, during the Battle of Vortex. However, the Yuuzhan Vong had too many dovin basal interdictors in the area, and the Wraiths were unable to win that fight.

In 28 ABY, the New Republic lost most of its area of influence, including Coruscant, as well as their leader, Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya. Moving the command center to Mon Calamari, and forfeiting self-proclaimed Chief of State Pwoe, the New Republic organized a new election. The main contenders were Cal Omas from Alderaan and Fyor Rodan from Commenor. The Vor Senator Fyg Boras of Vortex, a partidary of Rodan, managed to reach Mon Calamari with many Vor refugees.

Boras was then approached by representatives of the Smugglers' Alliance, led by Lando Calrissian and Talon Karrde. Calrissian offered Boras twenty-five tons of supplies for the refugees in exchange for his support to the YVH 1 combat droids, produced by Tendrando Arms &mdash; which was an interest of the Alliance. Boras accepted the supplies and tried to sell them for his own profit. Unbeknowst to him, Karrde and Calrissian had flooded the market with similar products, preventing Boras to gain anything. After the vote, Calrissian used a recording of his previous conversation with Boras to blackmail him unless Boras changed his support from Rodan to Omas. This, along with other measures, eventually led to Omas being chosen Chief of State.

Over a century later, in 137 ABY, the Vor homeworld had fallen into territory controlled by Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire.

Vors in the galaxy
Except for a minority, Vors felt little interest in leaving Vortex to visit any other words. Even those who did so rarely go far away from Vortex. Chosing a simple life instead of getting involved in the galactic politics, the Vors did not really get involved in the dominant tendencies of the galaxy.

Vors in other planets ware rarely fighters, preferring to center their interest in research, diplomacy or technology, with some of them being aerobats: Striking, hotshot, show-off flyers who danced and piroutted in flight for their own enjoyment.

Vortex did have advanced techology due to their contact with the galaxy. However, their spaceport was not the most advanced available, because Vors would rather fly by their own means in their atmosphere, and had little need to fly outside it.

During the times leading to the Clone Wars, some Vors were living in the planet Coruscant and, due to the great use of contaminants there, those Vors were prone to contract a number of illnesses.

Later, during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Vortex was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong. At least thousands of Vors were forced to abandon their native planet and re-settle in camps in worlds such as Ruan, Duro and, later, Mon Calamari. Many of these Vors supported the New Republic and its military pilots, who were fighting determinedly, if fruitlessly, to recover Vortex from the extra-galactic invaders.

After the fall of Coruscant during this same conflict, the Vor senator of Vortex, Fyg Boras, was responsable of the many Vor refugees gathered in Mon Calamari. Boras was offered an amount of products to provide the Vor refugees with, but the sly politician intended to sell the cache and gain money for himself. Lando Calrissian, who had manipulated Boras to this situation, later used blackmail as a leverage and make Boras &mdash; and by extension the Vor community &mdash; support Cal Omas in the following election.

Behind the scenes
The Vor species first appeared in the novel Dark Apprentice (1994), by Kevin J. Anderson. The background of the species was first detailed in The Jedi Academy Sourcebook (1996), written by Paul Sudlow and published by West End Games. The Vors were first graphically depicted by R. K. Post for The Essential Guide to Alien Species (2001).

The Jedi Academy Sourcebook specifies that an average adult is between 1.40 and 1.90. However, two further sources, The Essential Guide to Alien Species and Ultimate Alien Anthology (2003), contradict this by saying that an average adult Vor is two meters tall.

While that three mentioned sources describe the Vor as reptilians, the novel Dark Tide II: Ruin mentions that they are mammals. No source has described Vors as reptomammals, thus some of the sources could be mistaken.

Ultimate Alien Anthology also specified that the skin of a Vor was green; at the same time, they illustrated that text with an image of a Vor with yellow-and-green skin and a silvery beak, apparently contradicting itself.

Appearances

 * Dark Apprentice
 * Champions of the Force
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Star by Star
 * Destiny's Way
 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Destiny's Way
 * Star Wars: Rebellion