Onimi

"Shimrra was Shimrra. I am I.''" "''The Supreme Overlord."

- Onimi and Jacen Solo

Onimi was a male Yuuzhan Vong. A Shamed Shaper, he was the only Force-sensitive of his species apart from another mysterious figure. Onimi was revealed to be the true power behind the Yuuzhan Vong at the Liberation of Coruscant.

Biography
Long ago, Onimi was a Shaper and a member of the Elite. At some point he realized that the eighth cortex, supposedly holding the knowledge necessary to survive the decades of war that the species had doomed itself to, was empty. After adding yammosk tissue to his brain (which was most likely the action that restored his connection to the Force, given the yammosk's natural telepathy), Onimi was marked as a Shamed One, taking the form of a mentally and physically twisted, demented creature. He blamed the gods, especially Yun-Harla, for his afflictions.

While Onimi seemed weak, with his torso twisted, short limbs, small hands, his wretched face being his worst feature, his repulsive physical features and lowly social status caused him to be underestimated; he was seen by the Royal Court as an annoyance, a Shamed One who Supreme Overlord Shimrra should not dirty his presence with. But for reasons unknown to them, Shimrra tolerated his pet.

This was because despite his diminutive and pitiful appearance, Onimi now possessed a connection to the Force that had been lost to other Yuuzhan Vong for many thousands of years. This gave him the power to manipulate the minds of others. His experiments also gave him other powers; not only was he able to amplify the current of energy flowing through his mismatched form, but he could compose deadly toxins and chemicals and release them through almost every aspect of his body; his blood, his sweat, his tears, his fang, and even his curving fingernails.

Seeing an opportunity for redemption in the Intendant Supreme Overlord Shimrra, Onimi had influenced him into taking him as a familiar, becoming a jester for the new leader. Using this proximity to the Supreme Overlord to his advantage, Onimi manipulated Shimrra and other Yuuzhan Vong to mastermind the Yuuzhan Vong War. He wished to be the salvation of his species.

The Court of the Supreme Overlord
"Fools. What choice is there but to use them?"

- Onimi to Shimrra on the Elite

Onimi did not limit himself to appearances as the court jester. Indeed, under the name Kae Kwaad, he worked side by side with the heretical Nen Yim to create the eighth cortex and new technologies for the Yuuzhan Vong. The invasion of the galaxy that the Vong chose was not going as planned; through Shimrra, Onimi tasked Nen Yim with filling the eighth cortex. Other than this, he busied himself about the court of Shimrra, cackling in obscene rhymes and daring to do that which no other would during meetings with the Elite. However, Onimi had no mind for war; he could not be blamed for the mistakes of Warmaster Tsavong Lah, for the rise of the heretical movements, or for the tenacity of the 'infidels' whose galaxy he had sought to take. The invasion was failing; two years after the Fall of Coruscant and the enemy had come to reclaim their lost capital.

Revelation


When Luke Skywalker and the Solo twins penetrated Shimrra's chambers during the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, Onimi controlled the biologically enhanced Slayer warriors as they attempted to fight off the Jedi. He eventually retreated from the battle, leaving his puppet Supreme Overlord to be slain by Skywalker. Jaina Solo pursued Onimi into the command chamber of Shimrra's Citadel, but was quickly disabled and incapacitated by the deformed creature. When she woke up, tied between statues of Yuuzhan Vong deities, Onimi revealed the true nature of the invasion, as well as his manipulation behind it, and he also stated his belief that Jaina was truly the Yuuzhan Vong goddess Yun-Harla, for whom he blamed for his disfiguration. Of course, this belief could have been extracted from the fact that Jaina had used the reputation of Yun-Harla as psychological warfare against the Vong in the latter half of the war. And more importantly, Onimi was genetically linked to the Citadel, able to control every movement of the worldship. As Shimrra died, the top section of the Citadel took flight and launched itself into space, under the manipulation of the real Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong.

The deformed "jester" anticipated the arrival of Jacen Solo in his command chamber. Onimi sensed within Jacen the "divine glow" of Yun-Shuno, the Pardoner goddess of the Shamed Ones, the underminer of all that the manipulative Shamed One set out to accomplish. After stating what he sensed in Jacen, Onimi declared that the death of "Yun-Shuno," combined with the proposed devastation of the living world of Zonama Sekot using the Vong-killing Alpha Red bio-toxin (because Sekot and the Yuuzhan Vong's biology are similar since their home world of the original Yuuzhan'tar spawned Zonama), would fully establish the grotesque figure as a god. Then the Supreme Overlord attacked Jacen, using all of the powers that he possessed to destroy his final foe. However, Jacen had gained a much deeper connection with the Force, releasing himself to its purity; he met Onimi blow-for-blow, batting away his toxins harmlessly. Jacen had achieved a state of oneness with the Force to become a being of light, a power against which the warped Yuuzhan Vong could not prevail. As the Force was channeled through Jacen, it rushed against Onimi, pinning him to the bulkhead as its pure energy reversed every last deformity on his body. Unfortunately, while he was physically restored, the toxins and acids remained, causing Onimi to collapse as if paralyzed, and the poison melted him into a puddle of foul hydrocarbons that were absorbed by the ship. The true Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong was no more. The Yuuzhan Vong War was finally over.

Behind the scenes
There is some debate over what rank Onimi held before he was shamed. Though most sources state the Onimi was once a Master Shaper, in The Unifying Force Onimi himself stated that he was denied the rank of Master Shaper. Also, in Edge of Victory II: Rebirth, Nen Yim noticed that he had normal Yuuzhan Vong digits, apparently lacking even the shaper hands given to Shaper Adepts. These factors seem to point at Onimi having been a Shaper Initiate.

Onimi is described as speaking in rhyme in several of the New Jedi Order novels while in Shimrra's court. In this case he would be speaking in the Yuuzhan Vong language, which consists primarily of guttural noises and most likely would not rhyme as it would in Basic.

There appears to be some similarity between Onimi and the Mule from the Foundation books; the Mule himself disguised himself as a court jester while ruling his empire through the use of his advanced mental abilities. He is also similar to Kefka Palazzo from the Final Fantasy games in this respect.

Appearances

 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Destiny's Way
 * Ylesia
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force
 * Inferno
 *  Invincible
 * Millennium Falcon