Lit Reading NJO...Again

Nowhere near completely. In The Unifying Force, much is made of the fact that under the new foliage and all the other Vongforming, much of former Coruscant still stood, and that many machines deep below simply kept on functioning. Even the Yuuzhan Vong living near the surface could hear the rumble of automated machinery going on down below.

 

I remember those eternal machines also from Rebel Stand, where Irek Ismaren had his big showdown.

 

Still, they would've succeeded with the Vong-forming given time. Maybe a decade, tops. Much easier and less risky than traveling to another galaxy.

 

it still had an atmosphere. We don't know how badly the home galaxy was destroyed.
Didn't they mention that the moon attack became common in the last years of their wars?

 

Actually Nom Anor admitted to Tsavong Lah that under Palpatine's Empire there was no chance for the Yuuzhan Vong to invade the GFFA. When Palpatine was so powerful here, how will we know if over there in the Yuuzhan Vong's former galaxy there wasn't a powerful figure too, who drove them out?

 

I think Nom is lying, or at least playing with the truth. Since the rest of that conversation is how the gods are helping the Vong and want them to win.

if they were running from something, wouldn't that be a bigger part of their mythology? It also doesn't really track with how the Vong think about themselves, war and death.

 

Dovin basals can destroy planets, but when you think about it, they can be used to construct planets as well. Just pull some asteroids together until they coalesce into a single mass. If there's enough mass it can retain an atmosphere, and then it's just a matter of waiting until the spin and gravity causes it to become a sphere. This will probably take thousands of years, but the journey through the intergalactic void also took that long and was far more risky.

Or if they really couldn't wait that long, remember how the Yuuzhan Vong dragged Coruscant into a closer orbit with its sun. They could have done that with many other planets to make them more inhabitable.

 

It takes a LONG time for that though, not thousands but millions of years to go from asteroid to livable planet. Even if you speed it up, I think going to another galaxy is faster.

 

Hmm well, another random thought...it's called an "ooglith masquer" when it's used to impersonate a human or a Yuuzhan Vong. But it's a "gablith masquer" when used to impersonate a Duro, Givin, or some other non-human. Why do the human disguises get lumped in the same category as the Yuuzhan Vong ones? Wouldn't it make more sense to have one name for the ones used to impersonate a fellow Yuuzhan Vong, and another name for those used to mimic all the foreign alien species?

 

It also takes a LONG time to travel between galaxies. If there is space magic ways to do one thing, what says there is not space magic ways to do the other thing.

 

Considering the Yuuzhan Vong were travelling for close to 15,000 years as well, how much of their history and the supposed exploits of their ancestors and indeed their gods isn't just a bunch of lies perpetrated by their leaders over generations? We only have the word of their current descendants that their galaxy was uninhabitable at their hand and even Zonama Sekot likely doesn't have the full picture of the original Yuuzhan Vong history as well. Perhaps the Yuuzhan Vong didn't leave an uninhabitable galaxy, perhaps they fled their galaxy in the wake of something more darker than even them, perhaps they were forced out for their actions against other species, perhaps they destroyed too many worlds and what was left was unable to be changed by their shapers' protocols that are so stringent that attempts to think outside the box were considered heresy.

How much do we really know of the Yuuzhan Vong? Perhaps even the in-universe writings are inaccurate and based on hearsay and supposition.

 

The Gods.

infidel (joking, but in seriousness, the story writer or vong leaders say).

 

Yuzzhan Vong = Humans from a far away galaxy has been a fantheory for ages now. Heavily selfmutilated and tatooed humans adapting themselves beyond recognition. They basically are Bio-Borg, techfree selfimprovement fanatics. Have you seen almost untatooed not mutilated Vong beauties? We got some depictions on the Covers for Conquest f.e.

Also, is ooglith derived by authors from the word ugly? uugly-ith?


Ugly-Masquer... sounds like the Vong invented face-filters for non-digital use for their biotechnological Social Media! Lol

 

Why should Nom Anor lie to the warmaster in this regard? That would a very unconvenient lie IMHO. And concerning mythology, the priests also developed that Promised Land prophecy, just as Nom Anor told the Shamed Ones about Zonama Sekot just as a tool to drive away despair amongst his followers and to drain off threats to his position. There is no reason not to believe the priests in ancient times did likewise, maybe to take away overburdening shame from the whole of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Actually I would have preferred the Yuuzhan Vong to have a separate name for ooglith masqueurs to feign features of their own species. The division in Gablith and Ooglith makes sense though, because a Ssi-ruu or a Givin is totally different from humans or Yuuzhan Vong, while Yuuzhan Vong, Mirialans or Humans at least for me go almost for the same group of humanoids.

Well, digging deeper one will always find some inconsistencies in story telling. We did argue also a lot about why Tenel Ka didn't prevent the plot against her mom as she did foil the assassination attempt at her dad. I think there once was a decision that Teneniel Djo had to die and that was it, no matter how stumbly the way was.

 

Because it is pushing the idea of the Vong's mission being divenly appointed. So the gods made it easier. It is working backwards, we are right so things are going well for us.

 

Yeah, it seems the Yuuzhan Vong's reliance on their gods was so tight that they believed everything the priests said. So the dogma of their entire culture was created by a punch of people who likely have lied their entire existence and passed it on during the generations.

 

Even the priests weren't all-powerful, though. Dark Journey paints a picture of the priesthood oftentimes being at odds with the shaper and warrior castes, and there's a ton of politics, spying and backstabbing going on between them.

 

So what is everyone's headcanon about Dab Hantaq's fate post NJO/FOTJ?

He, the Anakin Solo lookalike boy, was briefly at Tahiri's trial, he had a crush on her but stayed away from her as ordered except that one time when needed.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dab_Hantaq

Might he and Tahiri have a future after all?
He could give his body to Anakin resurrecting... but that would be cruel to him and his heroic sacrifice for her happiness is sad.
He could lend his body to Anakin briefly though only...
Or he and Tahiri become friends at least, nothing romantic. Heck even if romantic, that'd be ok if not founded on his lookalike-ism but rather him being kind to her and her beginning to like him for who he is, not who he looks like. Much like she is/had been many things but needs to be seen and accepted as who she is, not who she was.

 

Could also just be the usual authoritarian bias. One group of bloodthirsty autocrats looks at another group of bloodthirsty autocrats, mistakes the bloodthirsty autocracy for strength, and assumes that any society that's markedly less bloodthirsty and autocratic is "soft," "weak," and not to be taken seriously. Doesn't mean it's actually true.

Remember Thrawn in Choices Of One stating that the Rebellion's got no chance, assuring Palpatine that they're "hardly the most serious threat facing the Empire," and that threats like Warlord Nuso Esva needed more attention instead? Yeah, about that...

 

Poor Vong, must have driven them mad

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Which is why I wonder why didn't have something similar to what they unleashed on Ithor that melted the buildings down to essentially sludge going all the way down to Coruscant's original surface?

Something I'm tackling in a planned NJO re-do story (avoiding Irek Ismeren/Lord Nyax story).

 

Very true. I had not considered that kind of 'author' bias.

And no I don't remember Choices of One, I haven't read it. I decided to skip it, allegiance and his smuggler book.

 

Lord Nyax here was just a throwaway character to bring Viqi out of the story. At least her you should keep.

Ithor, after the Legacy of Torment's demise down there, was assessed to be an uninhabitable world for a long time, even for the Yuuzhan Vong themselves, because the atmosphere went nil at once too. That's why Shedao Shai was against Tsavong Lah's plans to scorch the planet like this (the bugs, not the crash of LoT). And it gives you a glimpse into what the Yuuzhan Vong did in their own galaxy.

Any hints about how the interim Chief of State Pwoe came into Yuuzhan Vong custody?

 

I am curious about the ongoing Battle of Dathomir during the NJO... sure it was merely mostly an adventure hook but one of the best ones I know.

The witches were said to hold their ground against the Vong on the ground for over 6 months of constant invasion. And that was early during the war, in its second year I believe. Thus with the Vong pushing down Vector Prime, they hit Dathomir probably during Agents of Chaos or right after the Hapan Fleet had been decimated by Centerpoint Station.
With half the Vong fleet gone at least, the Vong were reliant on more ground operations before restocking their remaining ship numbers and regrowing them. Hence Dathomir facing a ground invasion instead of orbital bombardment cleansing. With Hapes closing its boarders again after the Centerpoint debacle and recalling what was left of their forces for the time being, Dathomir's protection units probably equally were withdrawn. But that stranded countless Hapan males unwilling to return on the ground along with their Witch friends (as we later in LOTF/FOTJ learn about male clans and Hapan spaceport and additions to their 64th Consortium member world).
With the witches holding their ground for at minimum 6 months into the second year of the Invasion, we do not hear what happened after that to Dathomir. Only that at some point the Vong found it too costly and just left the world, much like the Empire and its precedessors had during their own attempt to subdue the witches.
So yes the Witches defeated the Vong and sent them running scared! And that must have been either early in the war, or if ongoing till late, for years before they left.

Given the unfinished status of the Invasion comic series sadly, I wonder if it might have tied in another loose end like Dathomir into its later arcs. It would fit the area of space it is operating in and could have become part of the Outer Rim Alliance. Imagine some Witches going offworld to fight the Vong and free more worlds like they did their own! Imagine them rejoining the Hapes Consortium on their own terms from a strong position after this NJO era was over and Hapes extended its fleets back towards it.

Did the Witches find/use more ancient Kwa technology aside their own impressive power aresenal against the Vong? Another Startemple?
Did the Witches haunt the Vong with the dead rising and Vong Zombies along their own fallen returning to fight the invaders?
Did the Witches talismans as per Book of Sith come into play in full use? That'd be quite mighty. Witches shapeshifting, Witches invisible, Witches appearing out of thin air and back stepping into a portal like Talzin could instead of just conjuring stuff out of the mists and portals.

Poor Vong... and no wonder with Tenel Ka's ascension the Hapan throne, the Hapans revered her (well some did) for she knew the Dathomiri tricks and whoever learned of Dathomir's stance against the Vong would want one of those protecting their world. The Vong probably did not like her ascension as much, beginning to fear Hapes quite some by then... especially when Jaina, a goddess was around as well.

 

Is that really true? Yomin Carr was able to poison Belkadan's entire atmosphere with his beetles very quickly. I would imagine that doing the reverse, cleaning up a planet's atmosphere, would be no problem for the Yuuzhan Vong.