Oasis mother

The oasis mother was a species of sentient, predatory plant that was native to the desert-covered world of Endregaad. Oasis mothers lived atop small pools of water and consisted of a series of intertwined vines that formed a trunk, with over-hanging branches from which hung sacks that contained immature oasis children, juvenile forms of the plant. Oasis children were mobile and bipedal in form, and their main role was to hunt living animals to feed to their mother. Though sentient, oasis mothers had very different thought patterns to other intelligent species and were completely amoral, caring only about their own well-being. During the time of the New Republic, a band of oasis children attacked a caravan of travelers that that were passing through the wildernesses of Endregaad en-route to the planet's Temple Valley region.

Biology and appearance
The oasis mother was a species of sentient plant that was native to the desert-covered planet Endregaad, in the Indrexu sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Standing at between 15 and 20 meters high in their adult form, oasis mothers resembled large trees. They lived atop small pools of water and consisted of a mass of interwoven, tough fibrous vines that made up the trunk of the plant and extended into the water below, with over-hanging branches from which hung gold-colored fibrous bloodsacks almost the size of a small child. These sacks, which resembled large fruits, contained immature oasis children, the mobile, juvenile form of the plant, which took a week for the mother to grow. Sprouting from the main body were a number of shorter, flexible tendrils with sharp ends, which were used to feed on prey, and the vines could lash out at things that were up to four meters from the trunk of the mother. At the heart of an oasis mother, beneath the vines that formed the plant's trunk, was a fungal growth that acted as the plant's brain. Oasis mothers were semi-immobile, being able to move very slowly and only at night. Through scent and an acute sense of hearing, oasis mothers could detect other beings and objects that were up to fifty meters away from them.

Though they were omnivorous, oasis mothers were predatory and fed primarily on wild animals. Oasis children hunted living prey on behalf of their mother and would dump the bodies into the water pool on which the mother dwelled. The oasis mother would then surround each body with its vines and the plant's sharp-ended tendrils would pierce the cadaver and draw out all of the blood and other bodily fluids. The remaining husk was then swallowed by the vines and turned into mulch, to aid the mother's growth.

The juvenile "oasis children" were essentially mobile portions of the mother that bore them. The children were bipedal and stood at 1.2 meters in height, resembling headless apes. Their bodies were made of fibrous materials and were covered in spiky extrusions, and they were colored to blend in with the desert wilderness in which they lived. They also had long, powerful arms, which were tipped with poisoned claws that were used to incapacitate prey and drag it back to be fed to their mother. The oasis children had little cognitive function and were barely intelligent, but they were telepathically linked to their mother and could receive and understand basic commands. The children could keep in contact with their progenitor over distances of up to 25 kilometers, and oasis mothers could not communicate with oasis children that were born to another mother. Oasis children did not eat and they only lived for a few weeks.

Society and culture
While they were sentient, oasis mothers had very different thought processes to other intelligent beings and they lacked any form of native spoken or written language. Oasis mothers were completely amoral, with no sense of right and wrong, and they cared only about their own survival and safety. The mothers always hungered for food and they sent their children large distances in search of nourishment.

Oasis children were nocturnal and they were devoted to their task of providing food for their mother. The children hunted in packs and through their telepathic connection to their mother, they could communicate with each other to convey the presence and location of food or potential threats to the mother. When they detected prey, oasis children would set up an ambush and they normally pounced at dawn or dusk. If an oasis mother sensed that something was coming to attack her, she would immediately summon back all of her oasis children from their hunting missions, to defend her.

History
The oasis mothers were unknown to the other sentient inhabitants of Endregaad, but the creatures occasionally preyed upon passing travelers and folk tales persisted among the Endregaad population of monsters that lived in the deserts. In 19 ABY, during the reign of the New Republic, a caravan of travelers led by the merchant Simol Toc passed through the hunting grounds of an oasis mother while en-route to the Temple Valley region. They established an encampment and during the night, a band of oasis children apprehended the guard Rondo and dragged him away and fed him to their mother. The following evening, the oasis children returned and staged another attack on the caravan's guards.

Behind the scenes
The oasis mothers first featured in the 2002 Wizards of the Coast roleplaying adventure Tempest Feud, by Jeff Grubb and Owen K.C. Stephens, and the species was visually depicted in the book in an image by the artist Adi Granov. The plants were subsequently given an entry in the StarWars.com Databank in November 2008 and later that year, they became the subject of an entry in the compendium The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

In Tempest Feud, the player characters role-played as a group of agents who were journeying to the Temple Valley on an assignment, and they could interact with oasis children and an oasis mother en-route. If the players were traveling as part of Simol Toc's caravan, they could follow the tracks of the oasis children that abducted Rondo back to the oasis mother, and another group of children ambushed the players when they got within one kilometer of the mother. Alternately, if the players were traveling alone, oasis children would attack their camp for every night that they stayed within the children's hunting grounds. The players could also confront and kill the oasis mother that was directing the children. In 2012, Scourge&mdash;a novelization of Tempest Feud&mdash;was published and established the canon series of events for the role-playing adventure, but made no mention of the oasis mother or the oasis children. As it is unclear whether or not the Tempest Feud player characters' encounter with the plants happens "off-scene" during the events of Scourge, this article therefore assumes that the players interactions with the oasis children and oasis mother are non-canon.