Evereni (language)

Evereni
Users	Evereni
Locations	Everon

"Isren is not my name. […] Old uncle."
"What?"
"Isren means 'old uncle' in the language of our lost planet."

―"Isren," explaining his alias to Marda Ro

Evereni was the language of the species of the same name that originated from their homeworld Everon. The Evereni species named their families for actions, and their name for themselves—"Evereni"—meant "caretakers." After the species abandoned their world in 500 BBY, the Evereni continued to use the language for centuries. The Evereni pirate leader Marda Ro discovered the language during her encounter with another Evereni who called himself "Isren," who taught her some phrases in Evereni. Ro thought the language sounded slippery and later mentioned it in journal entries she recorded for her descendants.

By 252 BBY, her granddaughter Shalla Ro taught her own grandson Marchion Ro—who had listened to his great-great-grandmother's messages mentioning Evereni by that same year—about the value of things connected to the name Ro. He recalled this lesson years later while digging through his family's records.

Description

Characteristics

"He spoke in a language I didn’t even recognize. It danced slippery around his mouth."

―Marda Ro, on "Isren" in her journal

An Evereni taking care of Everon's nature

Evereni was the language of the tempest planet Everon's native species, the humanoid Evereni. The Evereni embraced their homeworld's nature and took care of Everon, calling themselves "caretakers" in their language. Evereni families were named for actions and passed these names down as commands.

Marda Ro—the Evereni founder of a marauder group who would eventually become the Nihil—considered the sound of the language to be slippery the first time she heard it.

Vocabulary

"Evereni. Not a name given to us, but our name for ourselves, I have learned. It means caretakers. Not caregivers. Yes, I find that painfully funny, too."

―Marda Ro, in her journal

• Espri — "to have"
• Evereni — "caretakers, stewards" (Rough translation)
• Faer — "to know"
• Isren — "old uncle"
• Rad — "to laugh"
• Riferi — "legacy"
• Ro — "to look, to see"
• Xouri — "to survive"

History

"Isren. You can call me that."
"My name is Marda Ro. I am looking for more of us."

―"Isren" and Marda Ro

The form of speech originated on Everon and was in use by the time its inhabitants, the last of the Evereni, abandoned the planet in 500 BBY. It continued to be used by surviving Evereni in the centuries after the departure from Everon.

Marda Ro, whose family name meant "to look, to see"

At some point no earlier than 379 BBY, Marda Ro tracked down "Isren," an Evereni who, instead of his name, used the Evereni word meaning "old uncle" to refer to himself. Isren was on the Outer Rim planet Ryloth, hunting the creatures known as lyleks in Ryloth's equatorial forests. Raised outside of the Evereni culture, Ro desired to know more about her species, and Isren told her about the Evereni and introduced her to their language, teaching her some phrases in Evereni. However, he refused to tell Ro the meaning of her last name.

Ro eventually located other Evereni, the siblings Vika and Velya Faer. They taught Ro more about the Evereni and their language, including Evereni naming customs and her last name's meaning. Ro mentioned both of the encounters and some of the words she had learned in messages she recorded for her descendants, whom she affectionately refered to as her "Riferi," the Evereni word for "legacy."

By 252 BBY, Ro's granddaughter Shalla Ro had taught her own grandson Marchion Ro the usefulness of anything connected to the name Ro, including Marda's journal. By that same year, Marchion had listened to the memoirs, including the entries where Evereni was mentioned. In 230 BBY, Marchion—who had by then become the incumbent Eye of the Nihil—was familiar with the language and knew at least one of its words, and two years later, he recalled the lesson he was taught by his grandmother while digging through his family's records.

Behind the scenes

"It's really hard to find naming conventions in Star Wars and that's one of my fundamental, like, first things I do when I'm writing a book. […] [It] is a really fundamental worldbuilding block for me and so I was like 'Oh my gosh, that's the first thing I'm gonna do! I'm gonna give the Evereni a naming convention!'"

―Tessa Gratton talking about the Evereni naming convention in an interview

Tessa Gratton, creator of the Evereni language's naming convention

Evereni was indirectly mentioned in the first issue of the 2022 comic miniseries Star Wars: The High Republic: Eye of the Storm. The issue was written by Charles Soule and published by Marvel Comics on January 12, 2022, as part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project's Phase I. Prior to the comic's release, the language was first indirectly mentioned in a preview of the issue that was published on StarWars.com on January 5 of the same year.

The language later appeared in and was identified by name in the short story "A Closed Fist Has No Claws," written by Tessa Gratton and published in the 2023 young-adult anthology The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life. In an interview, Gratton revealed that they are frustrated by the absence of naming conventions in Star Wars, which motivated her decision to create one for the Evereni. The naming convention was one of the first parts of the story he created. Gratton also mentioned that expansions on Evereni lore introduced in Eye of the Storm—such as the language, which "A Closed Fist Has No Claws" provided more details for—were her second favorite part of writing the short story.

Appearances

• "A Closed Fist Has No Claws" — The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life (and audiobook) (First appearance) (First identified as Evereni)
• The High Republic: Eye of the Storm 1 (Indirect mention only)
• The High Republic: Temptation of the Force (and audiobook)

Sources

• Embrace the Tempest in Marvel's Star Wars: The High Republic: Eye of the Storm #1 - Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link) (First mentioned) (Indirect mention only)