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- "Ask Again Later"
- ―Eye of Mesra
The Eye of Mesra was a small, round fortune-telling toy. An old desert tradition, they were commonly used by children of Mos Espa, Tatooine.
Contents
Description[edit | edit source]
- "Everything Will Proceed As You Have Foreseen"
- ―Eye of Mesra
A fortune-telling toy known as the Eye of Mesra was small and round in appearance, and resembled an eye. The exterior was colored a light shade of pink, while the interior section was colored blue with a black colored pupil decal.[1] When the user asked the Eye of Mesra a question, it would respond with one of many types of answers, including a positive, negative, or noncommittal response.[2] In this way, the Eye of Mesra was similar to the Quay novelty toy, another type of fortune-telling device.[3]
History[edit | edit source]
- "I've spent years perfecting my crafting skills, and now I'm ready to announce my mastery to the galaxy. I've chosen an unusual subject for my masterwork: an obscure religious icon of the Weequay species called the Eye of Mesra. For my design I require a rare material, and I hope you can locate it for me."
- ―An unidentified citizen, to a spacer
The Eye of Mesra had its roots as an old desert tradition. Although they were commonly used by children in the Tatooine city of Mos Espa,[1] they could also be found on many other worlds of the galaxy, such as Naboo.[2] However, it did share a namesake with Tatooine's Great Mesra Plateau.[4]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
- "In Dark Times, Nothing Is What It Appears To Be"
- ―Eye of Mesra
The Eye of Mesra received entries in a number of source books, including the Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide (1999),[5] Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary (1999),[1] and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (2008).[6]
Their first appearance was as an item in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, prior to its closure on December 15, 2011.[2][7] The item acted as a sort of mini-game, allowing players to ask the the Eye a question in return for a random answer,[2] much in the same way as a real world Magic 8-Ball.[8] In fact, the game's directory tree files refer to the Eyes of Mesra text Strings Table File as "magic_eight_ball."[9]
Following the release of Publish 25's New Game Enhancements on November 15, 2005, the Eye of Mesra was modified to actually allow the player to type a question into a prompt window displayed by the item.[2][10] The Eye of Mesra was later featured in a December 1, 2015 StarWars.com news post, titled Let's Go Play Ball: Toys and Games from a Galaxy Far, Far Away by Tim Veekhoven.[11]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (First appearance)
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide
- Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
Eye of Mesra
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary, p. 59
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
- ↑ The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays
- ↑ Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I
- ↑ *Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 247 ("Eyes of Mesra")
- ↑ IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT STAR WARS GALAXIES™ on the official Star Wars Galaxies website (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ Coopee, Todd. Magic 8-Ball from Alabe Crafts (1946). Toy Tales. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020.
- ↑ Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided directory tree files and source data
- ↑ Publish 25 - Update Notes on the official Star Wars Galaxies website (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ Let's Go Play Ball: Toys and Games from a Galaxy Far, Far Away on StarWars.com (backup link)
