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Diathim

< Diathim
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"They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the moons of Iego, I think."
―Anakin Skywalker, describing the "Angels" of Iego[src]

The Diathim, also referred to as Angels, were a mysterious species of winged sentients who inhabited the planet Iego and Millius Prime, the largest of its many moons. The Diathim were reputed for their beauty, and the way in which they appeared would vary depending on the beholder. They shared their habitat with the Maelibi, who lived below the ground. When the young Anakin Skywalker first met his future wife Padmé Amidala, he compared her natural beauty to that of the Diathim.

Biology and appearance

"They are good and kind, and so pretty they make even the most hardened space pirates cry like small children."
―Anakin Skywalker on the "Angels"[src]
Diathim

A Diathim in flight

The mysterious species whom the University of Sanbra xenobiologists called "the Diathim," otherwise known as "the Angels," seemed to be made of blazing white light tinged with a yellow aura,[2] which suggested they were beings of pure energy.[3] At any rate, their intense radiance made it difficult to make out their biological details. Most accounts depicted them as slender, 2 to 3 meters tall feminine anthropoids with six blade-shaped wings protruding from their backs.[2] One particular individual appeared in front of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, two Human Jedi, as a tall woman of their species with wings, milky white skin, blond hair, grey eyes, a tiny nose and long limbs.[1] Some other witnesses described the Angels as more androgynous, while many non-Human observers portrayed them as mysterious and fascinating variants of their own species. Whether their wings were physical or not, the Diathim could fly and glide freely.[2] They could even fly in the vacuum of interplanetary space without the assistance of a protective suit or life support. They also had natural hypnotic abilities.[3]

Society and culture

"They were also supposed to be good and kind—two words you don't hear much on Tatooine."
―Anakin Skywalker on the "Angels"[src]

The Diathim gave off an aura of kindness,[2] and they were consistently described as benevolent by those spacers who propagated the legend of the Angels.[4] They described themselves as a peaceful people.[1] However, the Diathim were fascinated by spacecrafts, which often prompted them to mob any ships that found themselves in the vicinity of their homeworlds, Iego and Millius Prime.[3] Because of their hypnotic abilities, those curious Diathim had a tendency to provoke accidents, causing the mesmerized observers to plunge their vessels into violent crash-landings.[2] For those reasons, they were still regarded as dangerous entities.[3]

Since the Diathim were only seen when they gathered in flocks to welcome arriving ships, knowledge of what their habitat looked like remained hidden to outsiders. Although they had no apparent language of their own,[2] at least some of them were capable of speaking Galactic Basic Standard,[1] the common language of the galaxy.[5]

History

"We were a peaceful people before the Separatists drove us from our homes and stole our moon."
―A Diathim refugee, to Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi[src]
Angel1

A Diathim refugee during the Clone Wars

The Diathim evolved in the Outer Rim Territories, on the planet of Iego and the largest of its forty-two moons, Millius Prime. They shared those worlds with the Maelibi, a species of three-meter tall burrowing beings who fed on castaways.[3] They were known in the wider galaxy as early as 25,793 BBY,[6] more than seven centuries before the founding of the Galactic Republic.[7] At the time, the Basic idiom "space angel" referred to a selfless, innocent person.[6]

Millennia later, during the Clone Wars, some Diathim were driven from their home on Millius Prime when a laser grid system was installed there by the Separatists to keep people from leaving. The Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker travelled to Iego with his master Obi-Wan Kenobi while on a mission to uncover a root said to contain the antidote to the Blue Shadow Virus. The two encountered one of the Diathim refugees, and the Jedi eventually managed to deactivate the laser field, thus freeing the inhabitants of Iego.[1]

Angels in the galaxy

Anakin Meets Padme

Anakin Skywalker mistook Padmé Amidala for a Diathim.

"I looked closer and instantly knew that she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. In fact, I was certain that I was in the presence of an angel, even though I'd never met one before."
―Anakin Skywalker, on his first encounter with Padmé Amidala[src]

When a young Anakin Skywalker lived on the desert world of Tatooine, he first heard of the Diathim's proverbial beauty while listening to all the pilots and traders who stopped there. Those tales influenced Skywalker's first words to his future wife Padmé Amidala, questioning whether or not she was indeed one of those legendary beings. The boy believed Amidala's beauty unmatched, and seemed to think this led to some connections with the famed Diathim of Iego.[8] When Amidala answered that she had never heard of Angels before, Skywalker objected she just might be unaware of her true nature.[8]

Behind the scenes

Angels were first mentioned by Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the prequel trilogy of Star Wars. Skywalker's line "Are you an Angel?" (Listen (help·info))[8] was later spoofed in the 2004 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords as an easter egg. In a conversation that only appears after the player has completed the game at least once as a lightsider and once as a darksider, Atton Rand repeats Skywalker's line from The Phantom Menace upon seeing Meetra Surik in her undergarments for the first time. Rand then promptly recants, stating that it was "the worst line [he's] ever used" and hoping that "some poor kid doesn't start using it."[9]

In Abrahamic religions, angels are spiritual beings that act as messengers from God and as guardians of human beings. In art, they are often depicted as glowing humans dressed in flowing robes with bird-like wings.[10]

The Angel in "Mystery of a Thousand Moons", the eighteenth episode of Season One of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series, was voiced by actress Catherine Taber, who coincidentally voiced Padmé Amidala in the same series.[11]

Appearances

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Mystery of a Thousand Moons"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 The Official Star Wars Fact File Part 30 (IEG1-2, Iego)
  4. ↑ Star Wars Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker
  5. ↑ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (first edition)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void
  7. ↑ Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Phantom" defined multiple times with different content
  9. ↑ Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
  10. ↑ StarWars Drawing from the Imagination: Mythological Creatures in Star Wars, Part 2 on StarWars.com (article) (backup link)
  11. ↑ StarWars The Clone Wars Episode Guide: "Mystery of a Thousand Moons" on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
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