Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 13, 2014/0

The Serps were sentient, humanoid reptiles indigenous to the planet Serphidi in the Belial system. They were a sexually dimorphic species, with red-scaled and flat-faced males, and orange-scaled and long-snouted females. The Serps once had superior technology, but they used it for devastatingly destructive acts. Eventually, they chose to sign a pact that banned advanced technology and united the planet under a single King. Their remaining technology was simple, and they sublimated their destructive urges with jousting competitions. Each year, they held a tournament to remember the day of peace.

Shortly before the eruption of the Galactic Civil War, King S'Shah came to power. He allied with the Galactic Empire, revived some of the Serps' ancient technology, and turned the previously nonlethal jousts into deadly affairs. Most Serps disliked S'Shah's reforms and showed sympathy to the Rebel Alliance; thus, the Human Rebel agent Luke Skywalker came to Serphidi to work with the Rebel-friendly natives in deposing S'Shah. With the help of an older Serp named Elglih, Skywalker entered the yearly tournament and defeated the King. Elglih became the new monarch, and the Serps officially allied with the Rebel Alliance.