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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To codify
Andrew Vance
's speciesImage Credit: (original artworks commissioned by me)
Canon: N/A
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Links: (all links included)
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: Star-Blessed
Designation: Sentient
Origins: Starhaven
Average Lifespan: 2,000 years
- Elder: 1000+ years
- Adult: 100-1000 years
- Senior Adult: 700-1000 years
- Young Adult: 100-300 years
- Teenager: 50-100 years
- Child: 0-50 years
Estimated Population: Rare
Description: A subgroup of Loth-wolves that can shapeshift into wolf-like dogs.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Breathes: Type I and Type II Atmosphere
Average Height & Length of Adults: (height = paw to withers) (length = chest to base of tail)
- Loth-wolf form: Grows with age
- Young Adults: 6 ft (1.83 m)
- Senior Adults: 8 ft (2.43 m)
- Elders: Up to 20 ft (6.10 m)
- Dog form: 2 ft, 6 in (0.76 m). Size remains constant.
Skin Color: Gray, pink
Fur Color: Black, gray, blue, brown, red, golden, cream, and white. May be solid-colored, bicolor, or tricolor.
Eye Color
- Common: Yellow, blue
- Uncommon: Brown, green, orange
- Rare: Red, gray, white
- Heterochromia is also found
Distinctions:
- All Star-Blessed have a glowing white, eight-pointed star in the center of their foreheads. This marking naturally appears in Loth-wolf form and Force planes, and is invisible in dog form and the material plane. Though the Star-Blessed can switch it on and off otherwise, doing so is a skill that requires concentration and is mentally draining.
- An individual's fur and eye colors are identical in both their Loth-wolf and dog forms.
- The eyes of elders become cloudy and eventually turn pupiless with age. On Force planes, elder fur glows with a radiant aura of the Light side, and most appear to remain strong and youthful until death.
Races: N/A
Force Sensitivity: All
Strengths
- Excellent hunters and trackers, with acute sense of sight, smell, and hearing
- Sensitive readers of body language, allowing them to perceive hidden emotions or intentions
Weaknesses
- Dependency on needing a ward, another life form, to guide and protect. Some bonds are so strong that a Star-Blessed will die shortly after their ward dies.
- Alcohol, caffeine, animal milk and dairy products, and ultra-processed foods will easily make them sick and possibly die
- Low fertility and slow reproduction rate. Can only reproduce in Starhaven.
CULTURE
Diet: Omnivore. Primarily carnivore. Most have a nose for raw meat and fresh produce, and can eat most vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and eggs raw, or boiled grains, beans and tubers. Quality dried kibble will also suffice. Some have a sweet tooth for honey, jam, and nut butter, to be treated on occasion. Alcohol, caffeine, animal milk and dairy products, and ultra-processed foods are highly toxic to their system.
Communication: Body language, canine sounds (barks, whines, growls, howls), telepathy. In Loth-wolf form, their verbal abilities are limited, speaking in few brief words.
Technology Level: None. Technology does not exist in their native homeland, however the Star-Blessed are capable of understanding technology and can learn how to operate and manipulate it, if not telekinetically; passing their knowledge down to others.
Religion/Beliefs: All Star-Blessed are innately connected to the Force, attuned to a higher power they know has always been present in and around them. They embody a wild and primitive nature of the Light side of the Force, unquestioning and instinctive as they follow the will of the Force. Driven by a higher calling to protect and guide other life forms, the Star-Blessed employ shapeshifting as part of their spiritual journey towards enlightenment about themselves, the galaxy, and the mysteries of the Force.
General Behavior: The Star-Blessed differ from other Loth-wolves in terms of their sociability towards other species and isolation from their own. Even mates for life can go many centuries without seeing each other. The Star-Blessed have a strong homing instinct that connects them spiritually to other Loth-wolves, Lothal, and Starhaven, yet their sense of purpose and fulfillment comes from bonding with other life forms, having wards to guide and protect. To their wards, they are loyal companions, even extending several generations in a ward's family. Yet in following the mysterious will of the Force, the Star-Blessed too can be fickle in nature, serving those of both Light and Dark, and passing from one ward to another.
Reproduction: All Star-Blessed are made, not born, as becoming one is a choice, made by Loth-wolves who are more spiritually-minded, and being more emotionally dependent on their wards than that of their own species, they are naturally more monkish and celibate. Breeding is rare among Star-Blessed. They are monogamous, and most mate for life. They can only naturally reproduce with other Loth-wolves. Fertility only occurs in Starhaven, where the female must remain in Loth-wolf form throughout the entire courtship and pregnancy, else lose her pregnancy outside of Starhaven or during shapeshifting. Courtship may last several years until fertility hormones reach levels high enough for pregnancy. Pregnancy lasts about one year per fetus. Litters range from 1 to 6 pups, commonly 2 or 3. Pups are born as Loth-wolves, blind and deaf. Mothers do not produce milk. As there is neither hunger or thirst, nor large risk of other natural predators in Starhaven, pups spend the first 2 years asleep while their parents roam or lie beside their litter, bonding with them. At age 2, the pups' eyes and ears open, and are able to stand and walk.
Childhood: From birth, pups have the abilities of telepathy, empathy, Force sense, and precognition. Their childhood years are spent in Starhaven, exploring the realm, play-hunting spectral animals, and learning about the galaxy beyond. Around age 30, they begin practicing hyperspace tunneling, transporting themselves across distances within Starhaven.
Adolescence/Adulthood: Around age 50, most pups have mastered hyperspace tunneling to be able to make their first journey outside of Starhaven, usually to Lothal. Facing hunger and thirst on the material plane, and encountering other species, they hone their hunting skills and the ability to comprehend speech. Starting from adolescence, pups can choose to receive Star's Blessing, at which they are then baptized in the Pool of Rebirth and gain the ability to shapeshift into dog form. Most become Star-Blessed around ages 80 to 150. After baptism, they spend a period of time with mentors and peers, learning how to control the Force while in shapeshifted form, until competent enough to roam the galaxy on their own and seek out a ward.
VOCABULARY
Star-Blessed. Those who have received Star's Blessing by being baptized in the Pool of Rebirth.
Starborn. Those born to Star-Blessed parents and have not (yet) received Star's Blessing. Starborn who refuse the Blessing may live on as normal Loth-wolves, minus reproduction, as they can only breed in Starhaven.
Ward. Term for a sentient life form who is under the guardianship of a Star-Blessed.
Starborn. Those born to Star-Blessed parents and have not (yet) received Star's Blessing. Starborn who refuse the Blessing may live on as normal Loth-wolves, minus reproduction, as they can only breed in Starhaven.
Ward. Term for a sentient life form who is under the guardianship of a Star-Blessed.
In dog form, the Star-Blessed possess a natural "buffer" of mind shield and Force stealth, necessary to disguise themselves as non-sentient dogs, and must lower this barrier to use any other Force power, including Force jump, Force speed, psychometry, and telekinesis. In dog form, they can naturally jump up to 6 feet (1.83 m) and run up to 40 mph (64.4 kmh).
They must be in Loth-wolf form to perform hyperspace tunneling and Transfer Force, the latter greatly weakening them afterward, if not killing them, depending on their physical constitution and strength of connection to the Force.
Elderhood: Elders no longer reproduce and have offspring. Some become blind and rely entirely on Force sight to see. Those who linger on the material plane will die. Most feel the urge to return to Starhaven and other Force planes, where their bodies are preserved, yet are not immune to being killed by (super)natural means. On the Force plane, elders gain the ability to Force project themselves onto the material plane. Such a feat renders them comatose on the Force plane until the Force projection ends. Those who position themselves next to a Force nexus (such as the Pool of Rebirth in Starhaven) are able to sustain powerful, tangible Force projections for long periods of time, essentially living as an avatar on the material plane, where they are able to continue looking after their wards. Elders who commit to a "second life" as an avatar are vulnerable to death, if their avatar is killed. Eventually, all Star-Blessed grow weary of their bodies and fade away, becoming one with the Force. Prior to death, most are convicted to undergo a second baptism in the Pool of Rebirth, to pass along their memories to the next generation.
Death: Elders who have completed their second baptism are more likely to persist as Force ghosts after their physical bodies fade away, tethering their souls to their memories in the Pool of Rebirth.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Star
The Star-Blessed have existed for little over 100,000 years. Beginning with an ordinary Loth-wolf known as Star, who discovered Starhaven during her travels in the World Between Worlds, becoming the first Loth-wolf to inhabit Starhaven. Through a chance meeting on Lothal, she befriended a sentient dog named Bex, whose life under the guise of a non-sentient inspired Star to create the Pool of Rebirth, allowing her and other Loth-wolves to follow the same path of enlightenment as Bex. The Pool's creation came with a price, the sacrifice of Bex, whose life essence helped create the Force ritual known as Star's Blessing, which in turn, bound Star's soul to the Pool for all eternity. While becoming the first Star-Blessed, Star decided never to return to the material plane, but to remain beside her friend Bex, whose spirit had become part of the Pool of Rebirth, to watch over the Pool and Bex's spirit forever.
Neither living nor dead, Star's deep connection with the Force has transformed her likeness into an embodiment of the Light side of the Force, with shining cream-colored fur, her Loth-wolf form twice as large than any other Star-Blessed. Powerful and wise, she possesses much arcane knowledge about the Force, having learned from Force spirits and other ethereal beings during her years of travel across many Force planes. While she does not consider herself to be their leader or a ruler, nearly all Star-Blessed refer to her as such, as the mother of all Star-Blessed, guardian of the Pool of Rebirth. She lives through the lives of other Star-Blessed, eager to hear their stories from those who visit the Pool.
Starhaven
A Force plane whose portal lies off the beaten paths of the World Between Worlds. Physically accessible only through hyperspace tunneling, or spiritually through other Force methods. Inhabited by Loth-wolves and other Force spirits; a variety of spectral creatures (butterflies, fish, deer, rabbits, birds, etc.) give the Loth-wolves a good chase now and then, but are hardly considered food, since those in Starhaven neither feel hunger or thirst. A starry realm lit by a perpetual nebulous sky and many bioluminescent features, Starhaven's endless terrain encompasses fields, forests, mountains, jungles, deserts, tundra, oceans, islands, volcanoes, floating sites and other anomalies. A wild and untamed realm, where Light and Dark sides of the Force comingle.
The Pool of Rebirth
Located in Starhaven, the Pool of Rebirth is rather a long chain of terraced pools, waterfalls and river segments, winding through wilderness and caves, eventually falling somewhere off the "edge of Starhaven" where its waters turn into celestial vapors, flowing through the void as it loops back to its surface spring. Once an ordinary water source, transformed by Star through an arcane Force ritual, thousands of baptismal rituals in its waters have since turned the Pool into a Force nexus, providing a concentrated well of the Force to draw from.
Star frequently patrols its banks, summoned by those who approach the Pool. Elders may be found lying next to its shores, "dreaming" as if it were, in their comatose state, using the Pool to sustain their Force projections on the material plane. Those who are Star-Blessed can approach the Pool without difficulty, its waters appearing to teem with ghostly shapes, fragments of memory and prophecy, which they are able to view clearly through concentration and meditation.
To become Star-Blessed, one must receive Star's Blessing, a ceremony that is conducted by Star and includes being baptized in the Pool of Rebirth, fully immersing one's body into the water. The Pool gives the Star-Blessed their shapeshifting ability, stores their memories, and is a conduit source of Force visions. Prior to death, many Star-Blessed will undergo a second baptism, another ceremony also conducted by Star, infusing their lifetime of memories into the Pool, which serve as an anchor to tether their souls to, should they will to become Force ghosts.
For those not Star-Blessed, being near the Pool invokes a sensation of cold, tingling skin and intense pressure on the brain, enough to deter most lower life forms and the weak-minded from wandering too close to its shores. Those who touch the water will experience effects of cold shock and electric shock, their vision turns white and their senses overload, progressing into paralysis within seconds, so long as their bodies are in contact with the water. Most are able to retract swiftly from the Pool, but in rare cases of those falling too far from shore, their bodies will become paralyzed and prone to drowning until Star or another pulls them out of the water.
If physically transported to Starhaven, it is possible for other sentient beings to be baptized in the Pool of Rebirth and become Star-Blessed, reborn as Loth-wolves. Their fur and eye colors are exceptions, mimicking the colors they had in their former species, while any subsequent offspring they have will inherit natural fur and eye colors. Once baptized, this transformation is permanent, unable to revert back to their former species.
