Approved Species Star Children | 'False Celestials'

[Kal]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: Glorious, immortal deities not at all prone to exaggerating their own merits.
  • The Star Children are explicitly, unambiguously, not gods in any true sense. They just claim to be.
• Image Credit: Enki, Sumerian God of Creation by Eric Felten; Galactic Storm by Alex Rommel; Sorcerer of the Old Gods by Didier Ngyuen; God of War by Alexander Kriegerman; Greek Gods by Mary Glaid; Informer by Prosenjit Mondal.
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: Hand of the Makers

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Name: Star Children, 'False Celestials', 'Makers'.
• Designation: Sentient, originally Semi-Sentient.
• Origins: Unknown. Believed to have been 'birthed by stars'.
• Average Lifespan: Centuries or millennia, strongly lifestyle dependant.
  • Can die from starvation, energy weapons, kinetic force, the Force, Wounds, etc.
• Estimated Population: Rare; Star Children are few and far between, especially in the current era.
• Description: Once, they were gods. Magnificent, 'immortal' beings descending from the stars to elevate the masses, blessing the worthy with boons and miracles and smiting the heretical. In their arrogance, they challenged the Celestials only to be crushed underfoot. Since this great defeat, the Star Children have faded from prominence - but not existence. Their kind still live in the orbits of stars and the bodies of dictators, philosophers, and cult leaders - and in some cases the God-Kings of undeveloped worlds, worlds where 'miracles' still captivate the masses.
  • The Age of Miracles has long since passed in most of the Galaxy, for the great works of the Star Children can all be replicated or even exceeded by relatively commonplace technology, Force Users, or a combination thereof. Not a good look, for self-proclaimed gods.

Spoiler: Dance of the Star Children

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

• Breathes: N/A, no air required.
• Average Height of Adults: ~5-200 metres
• Average Length of Adults: ~5-200 metres
• Skin Colour: 'Resembles the starry night sky.'
• Hair Colour: N/A, but Vessels may possess hair.
• Distinctions: The unbound form of a Starchild is a mass of shifting cosmic might - light, lightning, and nebulous gasses of highly variable size and form. As this form is ill-suited for planetside living, they often enter Vessels. Their Vessels can be organic or inorganic, but should be made or altered to safely contain them - unprepared Vessels have a tendency to 'rupture at the seams', but can still be used in emergencies.
  • Life Cycle: Star Children are born in stellar coronas and must spend much of their formative years soaking in the plentiful energy found therein. Being able to cross interstellar distances unassisted is considered a rite of passage. It is difficult to tell the age of a fully-formed Starchild, but all life must inevitably end - unless killed by external forces, they die in one of three main ways: Fading away or losing the body cohesion necessary to sustain consciousness, exploding in a pale reflection of a supernova, or being reborn into a new Starchild.
  • Rebirth: A Starchild that senses the impending natural end of its long life can resist it, eventually fading away, go out in a blaze of glory, or seek to achieve a sort of continuation. With the right preparations and state of mind, their death can birth a new Starchild, one which retains at least a few of its progenitor's skills, memories, and quirks, as well as a sliver of their Soul/Essence - the rest passes as usual.
  • Vessels: Star Children can enter a planetary atmosphere easily enough, but they continuously expend energy to remain coherent there. Since the radiation on which they feed is largely blocked by functional ozone layers, visits will have to be short unless the planet is very irradiated or extremely hot - this can be circumvented with Vessels, specially made or altered (in)organic bodies able to safely contain a being of their nature long-term. Because Star Children physically enter a Vessel, larger specimens struggle to find viable Vessels - some end up residing within specially-made structures instead. 'Piercing' a Vessel allows an attacker to directly hurt their compressed forms.
• Races: The primary dividing lines of Starchild society is not appearance or bloodline, but how they reacted to their ancestral defeat.
  • Reclaimers seek to subjugate, dominate, and proselytise until they have rebuilt all that they lost and more. They consider themselves the rightful rulers of the Galaxy and will stop at nothing to claim their metaphorical throne. Their pride is at once their greatest strength and their greatest weakness - any reminder of the Celestials and their ancestral defeat can send them down a spiral of hateful self-loathing.
  • Abstainers have seen the Galaxy and found it wanting. Rather than attempt to recover from their ancestral defeat, they returned to the stars that had birthed them, dancing around in stellar coronas, nebulas, and the atmospheres of gas giants. They sometimes choose to interact with spacers out of a sense of curiosity, but very rarely take a Vessel - space is their home and they are not leaving.
  • Wanderers are a diverse lot defined more by what they are not than what they are - they are not the Reclaimers, desperately scrambling to reclaim lost glories and yet they are not isolationistic Abstainers either. Often driven by deeply personal motivations, they can choose to be everything from glory-hungry warriors to gardener-poets. However mundane or obscure their reasons, they are still Star Children, and so have a conscious or unconscious tendency to surround themselves with sycophants, friends, worshippers, or 'other batteries'.
• Force Sensitivity: All Star Children are strongly and inherently Force Sensitive, albeit prone to a certain degree of volatile unpredictability.
  • Faith is Power* to the Star Children, at least in a manner of speaking. It would be more accurate to say that they have an aptitude for a rather diffused form of Force Meld, allowing them to draw upon a trickle of power from the willing or a stream for Force Sensitives and the like. Naturally, while the Force is infinite their ability to use it is not: It is far easier to draw from nearby beings than distant ones and what they can accomplish is limited by their own abilities and experience. Both adoration and fearful subservience can work.

Spoiler: Divine Vessels

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• Celestial Storm: Star Children are manifestations of stellar power able to live for millennia and unleash the energy of which they are made as coruscating lightning or bolts of scorching light. They are difficult to kill and all but immune to the adverse effects of heat, being star-eaters.
• Faith is Power*: Star Children can to a certain extent 'borrow' power from others - naturally, abruptly losing access can be very disorienting.
• Poise is Power: Star Children derive strength from certainty, confidence, and conviction - conversely, fear or doubt directly weakens them.
• Varied Vessels: Star Children can inhabit Vessels to safely depart space, but to do so leaves their condensed forms somewhat vulnerable.
• Forcedriven: Star Children are nourished and sustained by the Force - Wounds and other voids inflict physical pain by proximity alone.

CULTURE

• Diet: Radiation, various gasses, or 'nibbles' of stellar mass is required to sustain them outside of a Vessel.
• Communication: Star Children are able to telepathically translate most languages in order to understand and be understood, but they cannot 'speak' using telepathy without training. In their unbound form they communicate with each other using 'light and radiation'.
• Technology Level: Parasitic. Star Children are capable of innovation, but their egos and small numbers tend to see them rely on the hard work of the very beings they look down on. The flaws of this approach were exposed in full when their civilisation fell before the wrath of the beings they had sought to usurp - the Star Children are now reduced to 'borrowing' the devices of others or attempting to scavenge ancient glories.
  • Star Children can travel through Hyperspace using simu-tunnels, much like the more common Purrgils / 'Space Whales'.
• Religion & Beliefs: Self-Glorifying. The Star Children of the past claimed to be the makers of life itself and ancestors of the Celestials, earning them the nickname 'False Celestials' and the ire of foes beyond even them. Having fallen far since their golden age, most Star Children have a more realistic - though still arrogant - self-image, not that they will admit this to any worshippers they may have. To a Starchild, the Force may well be divided into Light and Dark (or other cultural lenses), but it is at its core a life-giving unity, a choir even 'living gods' will one day join.
• General Behaviour: To be a Starchild is to be powerful, yet also fragile, for doubt translates directly to weakness. It is no wonder, then, that all too many enshroud themselves in self-aggrandising myth until they themselves believe it. Even among their own kind, Star Children engage in shows of strength and elaborate power plays - he who believes himself strongest is more likely to be strongest. That is not to say that they are incapable of more equitable relationships, however - it is entirely possible for two or more to decide they love or deeply trust each other. They reproduce in a characteristically alien manner - by nurturing a mass separated from one or more Star Children into a 'child'.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Once, they were gods. Magnificent, 'immortal' beings descending from the stars to elevate the masses, blessing the worthy with boons and miracles and smiting the heretical. Once, they were gods - and gods do not suffer competition to live. In their arrogance, they challenged the Celestials, for to rule all that was, is, and will be was their birthright. Alas, even for Star Children confidence only goes so far.

Scattered and broken, their civilisation collapsed in fire and fear and they faded into myth.

Faded, but not gone, they watched from stellar coronas and the eyes of petty kings as the Rakata, wretched upstarts from an insignificant backwater, did what they could not. They defeated the Celestials, usurped their throne. They seized a birthright that was not theirs, had never been theirs.

Yet the Star Children knew, in their heart of hearts, they could not stand against them - and so they fumed in exile.

Over the aeons, they have largely faded from galactic history, their tendency to wear the mantle of local deities blending truth and fiction together. It is not entirely clear if even the Star Children themselves know the complete truth about their history, peddlers in deception that they are, but it is not possible to deny that something began to stir during the Four Hundred Year Darkness and the many conflicts that followed.

A galaxy aflame is a tragedy, to be sure, but to every cloud a silver lining - scattered and fearful beings are more suggestible.

THE TRUTH AMONG LIES
The Star Children claim to have been 'birthed by the stars themselves when the galaxy was young'. That much is true, or at least truth-adjacent. What they do not admit, or in many cases even know, is that they were not born sentient - they did not even evolve sentience. Their ancestors learned how to think and feel by drifting through the upper atmospheres of inhabited worlds and interacting with the psychic gestalt of their inhabitants.

Such a truth is unpleasant, of course. It makes them seem like little more than Force Sensitive parasites, rather than gods in the flesh. It's only natural that most opted to forget, for how could perfection spring from mimicking 'lesser beings'?

The Star Children may not be gods, but they sure know how to play the part.

 

[Judah Lesan]

Kal

I appreciate the work you put into this submission. It is very well detailed and clearly a labor of creativity. That is what makes this review difficult for me as I have a couple issues here.

My gut reaction, I am not going to lie, was to deny this submission outright for a couple of big reasons.

First, you pretty much have created an immortal species which according to codex guidelines is not permissible.

No Character or Species may be Immortal - Either explicitly or implicitly stated.

In several places you refer, state almost as direct as you can, or insinuate their immortality.

Second, you refer to this race as if they are divine. Despite stating in the History they are not god's but know how to act like it, the rest of the submission all but implies their divinity. This will need to change before this submission can be approved.

Finally, even though you reference the Celestials, I feel these come no where near to what the Celestials were. According to the wookieepeida article you linked the best description for the race would akin to the pre-cursor race many science fiction works use to explain how life in the galaxy came to be. It is based in advanced science beyond current understanding. This does not seem to coincide with that at all, or fit anywhere within the Star Wars universe. I honestly cannot see any relation to how they could even be compared to the celestials after combing through the article linked.

HERE IS WHAT I WANT TO DO:

I want to give you a shot to rework this submission. The items above need to be addressed. To be clear that means the species cannot have any allusion to being immortal. It needs to be clear that they are not divine, and this concept as a whole needs to mesh better with Star Wars, and the fact the Celestials themselves were an alien species.

I am willing to dialogue and help you with ideas on how we can get there.

 

[Kal]

Judah Lesan

I'll see about addressing your concerns to the best of my abilities. If at any point this is unclear or insufficient, please let me know.

IMMORTALITY is a big one and one I was aware of when I started writing this submission, but that is more in regards to unkillable beings, no? I have certainly never understood it to mean a ban on agelessness, but I understand that it can and does get read both ways.

• To reinforce their killability I added a nonexhaustive list of ways in which they can die under 'Average Lifespan', which includes starvation, many common weapons, and both Force Abilities used against them and them being sufficiently isolated from the Force.
  • They are mostly immune to heat specifically, but there's no way around that when they literally dwell around / nibble on stars.
• I don't believe they're explicitly stated to be truly immortal elsewhere, except where it's in quotation marks or literally links to 'sarcasm'.

DIVINITY is another big one, but would it be possible to get some concrete examples? They are referred to as 'Living Gods' under Religion & Belief, but that is from their perspective and in quotation marks. The Description starts with "Once, they were gods.", but that was always meant as more of a fluff statement from their perspective and from the perspective of the primitive, pre-FTL species they convinced of their divinity.

• To further clarify the matter I added "The Star Children are explicitly, unambiguously, not gods in any true sense. They just claim to be." directly under Intent as one of the first things a reader should spot. In conjunction with a link to the Wikipedia article on 'sarcasm' that ought to get the point across in a manner that should not be possible to misunderstand, at least from my perspective.
• To be clear, they generally only seem divine to less evolved species and civilisations. It is heavily implied that one of the reasons they struggle so to 'convert' modern sentients is because a lot of their 'miracles' can be replicated with technology. A Sith/Jedi could do the rest.

THE CELESTIALS are referenced in this submission, but mostly as myths. I don't believe I make any explicit statements about their nature, but if there are any that slipped me by please let me know. The Star Children are certainly not related to them in any way, shape, or form.

• There are references to the Celestials thoroughly trouncing the Star Children while the latter was at the height of their power, but no claims are made as to how this is done. Odds are good they simply applied one of their many fantastically powerful devices, e.g., Centerpoint Station.
• The Star Children may have viewed the Celestials as 'rival gods', but they thought the same of the Rakata since they beat the Celestials.
• Their closest relation to the Celestials is "claim[ing] to be the makers of life itself and ancestors of the Celestials", but this is very clearly meant to be utter nonsense made up to make themselves seem more important. Even the Star Children themselves admit as much, at this point.

That should hopefully address your primary concerns, though there could certainly be smaller (or larger) changes needed. If you have any concerns in regards to them fitting into the Star Wars universe, as you implied, I welcome any concrete aspects that need to be altered or adapted.

This is quite the hefty reply, I know, so thank you for taking the time to review this thoroughly.

P.S. I hope I don't imply anywhere in the submission that this species was a true rival of the Celestials, because that was never the intent. While they certainly challenged the Celestials, their rapid defeat makes it highly dubious whether the Celestials were challenged, so to speak. They certainly had no chance against the Rakata in their prime and there is a good chance the Gree or Kwa could have taken them if it had come to that.

 

[Judah Lesan]

Kal

Thank you for your effort, however, as I read through your comments what I perceive is that you are trying to find a work around to some of the items I pointed out here. To be up front that is not going to work. Let me explain my reasoning better.

IMMORTAILITY:

This not just about whether they can be killed or not. In the Highlander series they lived forever unless their head was chopped off. They were referred to as immortals even though they were technically not because they could be killed/destroyed. Simply stating that they live indefinitely until they are destroyed is not far enough here. It still alludes to a sense of immortality that is not permitted. This one issue alone is enough to be a deal breaker for me.

What I need to see demonstrated here is finite life. There is a beginning... birth... and somewhere a natural death... not perpetuity unless acted upon. Not that we should be getting into the science of life in a codex submission, but the Law of Entropy certainly applies here, especially if you want to make this species star stuff. The Law of Entropy and the other aspects of the Second Law of Thermodynamics require there to be a stated end that is a natural result of decay. I just need to see that you are accounting for that somewhere.

Not allowing for Entropy or a natural death leads into the second point which you have asked for help with...

Nothing is truly physically eternal. The moment we get into the realm of eternity we are talking divinity.

I do understand you are using quotes in a lot of places to try and show sarcasm, however a submission in which the intent is to convey the concept clearly is not the place for it. Sarcasm does not translate in text even with quotes. The fact you felt the need to link a wiki article on sarcasm to help the reader understand what you are attempting to do only supports my point further. Because of this, your submission reads as though you have created a divine species. Here is what I need you do to fix this.

Under description remove all references to being gods. This section literally begins by saying once they were gods... then later refers to them as god-kings.

Your Strengths and Weaknesses center around the entire idea of divinity. They are manifestations of astral power... astral being a reference to a supernatural plane of existence. Faith... people believing in them is what gives them strength. These are classic tropes from many mythologies which suggest that gods derive their power from the faith, prayers, and sacrifices, of those who worship them.

To be blunt... strengths and weaknesses should be very specific about the species... Can they run fast... are they highly intelligent... are they arrogant... do they need to carry around an epi-pen because they have a peanut allergy and bee stings will kill them. What you have listed to try and keep their "indefinite" average lifespan should be included in strengths and weaknesses as it will take away from the impression they are deities... in other words... humanize them for me. I hope this makes sense.

Dealing with these two... especially the divinity will likely help with the third item... where I just do not see how this is actually Star Wars.

My goal here is to just make this as super clear as possible so readers don't get confused... let's just assume you're writing this for someone that doesn't know a fork from a spoon...

 

[Kal]

Judah Lesan

Alright, I see my usual intentional vagueness won't fly, so I will do my best to make everything as unambiguous as possible.

IMMORTALITY:

• Lifespan changed to "Centuries or millennia, strongly lifestyle dependant.", them living for tens of thousands of years was mostly meant to be a theoretical extreme anyway. I like to think it's still technically possible, at least for Abstrainers hovering around an uncharted star, but that's neither here nor there. The norm is probably roughly equivalent to Hutts for those who aren't literal space hermits.
• Elaborated on their Life Cycle under Distinctions and added a concept of 'rebirth'. It seemed appropriate, given their stellar origins.

DIVINITY:

• I'll be honest, I really like my Description as is and hope it can be salvaged - it sets the tone quite well, IMO. I made an attempt by tacking on an addendum that explicitly states their inability to do anything more than technology, FUs, or a combination thereof.
  • This same point also explicitly states that they are self-proclaimed gods. / TL;DR: They're self-proclaimed gods who aren't immortal and their miracles can be replicated by technology and/or regular Force Users.
  • The 'Once, they were gods.' part reads much like this episode of Grimm to me, but then I might have been vaguely remembering it when writing this up. It is meant to reference the fact that the time when they were percievedas gods has long since passed.
    • OK, TBH I was just really happy that I managed to start the Description in the same way as the Historical Information.
  • 'God-Kings' is surely acceptable, no? It's usually a reference to Egyptian Pharaohs and other monarchs claiming divinity. Examples from the Star Wars universe includes Darth Andeddu, a decidedly non-deific character.

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES:

• Astral was meant as a reference to stars, not some sort of celestial plane. I changed it to 'stellar' to make this unambigious.
• I prefer to keep my strengths and weaknesses concise and limited to the basics, if possible, but I've gone and clarified the whole 'Faith is Power' thing under Force Sensitivity, for readers that want anything more than the most barebones of explanations. The gist of it is that they draw from the innate connection all beings have with the Force to strengthen their own, butonly with the consciously or subconsciously willing. This could be a worshipper, a close friend, or a being that views them positively because they are currently helping them.
  • Tacked on a Weakness about losing access to the power and more options, e.g., Ysalamiri or their followers+ dying/doubting them. The intent is that they can do impressive things under optimal circumstances but that the ability is very much a house of cards in a fight.
• I would prefer not listing the various ways of killing them in the Weakness on principle alone, but I will if you demand it - my reasoning is simple: If I list them under Weaknesses there is a good chance it will read as an exhaustive list and it will imply that killing them is remarkable.

As an aside, the link to sarcasm in Intent was meant more as a lighthearted intro (I am quite fond of those) that genuine concern that this submission would be understood as some sort of unbeatable gods. It also (hopefully) sets the tone - these are beings that think excessively highly of themselves.

P.S. The fact that the submission both starts and stops with an explicit statement about them not being gods should hopefully make it idiot-proof.

P.S.S. If you'll forgive a parallel to non-SW sources, they're vaguely analogous to Goa'uld - somewhat parasitic beings that seem impressive next to an average human, but can absolutely be beaten and by relatively mundane means. They rely on ignorance to seem more powerful than they are.

 

[Judah Lesan]

Kal

We are getting closer.

I legitimately have a problem with people believing them making them stronger... and people's doubt making them weaker. That does more to make them seem divine as opposed to some alien race posing. When you combine that with the fact you have made them the product of star power which have to possess a physical form...

I think the only thing that will satisfy this is to remove that entirely. I don't care if they act like they are gods, or if people want to worship them as if they are... the minute that affects them from a strength stand point... the cross that line and ARE gods... and that's not okay. Don't think I'm gonna bend on this one.

I was thinking about Stargate when I was reading... which again as I keep pointing out... is not Star Wars, but I do think we can make it work. To your analogy though the species in that fandom is an organic being. If you are going to really go this route... then I need you to be sure you account for the fact this species could be limited by the weaknesses of their hosts perhaps. It would also be something to make them less godlike.

Everything else about the divinity aspect I think I can work with. You have done a good job everywhere else with making them self-glorifying... self propagating a false narrative of divinity.

God-kings could be acceptable if you remove any other reference that could make them appear divine. My point on that was added into everything else... it just makes it seem so.

I want to comment on the rebirth aspect. Keeping with your stargate example... when they Goa'uld die... they die. Yes there is the sarcophagus technology, but rebirth still feels like a work around to keep them "immortal" to me. Gonna let you explain what you are driving at here. Are you essentially saying that their collective memories live on and is passed on to another new entity... essentially reincarnation yes?

Okay... I think we are getting close.

 

[Kal]

Judah Lesan

All changes are summarised below, but the bigger part of it is me stripping out any mystical ambiguity from the parts meant to reflect cold, hard facts. They were never meant to have their power be directly proportional to the number of people worshipping them, or anything like that, but in hindsight I see that my more fluffy Strengths could and likely would be read that way. That is pretty deific, whereas I wanted parasitic or symbiotic, depending on the inclinations of the Starchild in question and their relationship to the people who worship / follow / are close to them.

• Adjusted 'Force Sensitivity' and 'Faith is Power'.
  • Explicitly states that they are as bound by their own abilities/experience as any other FU. Consciously or subconsciously willing beings can be used to enhance their abilities, or even just replenish their reserves, but that's about it.
  • In short, I envision it as what Palpatine did on Byss but pulling less per person and needing them willing. Even if an entire planet was somehow willing you'd need a pretty damn strong Starchild to be able to use that in any meaningful fashion; more likely than not, a device of sorts (perhaps Kwa or Rakata in origins) would be needed, but at that point it wouldn't be the species' ability anymore.
• Revamped the 'Mixed' Strengths/Weaknesses, only 'Celestial Storm' and 'Forcedriven' are unaltered.
  • 'Faith is Power' has been stripped of any potentially obfuscating mysticism - they gain exactly nothing from lip service or for that matter the worship of themselves in a vacuum. Worship is simply their favoured medium for putting people in the right mindset to function as the glorified batteries of Star Children; they have a strong inborn aptitude for channelling the Force Sensitivity of others. NFUs provide very little, the Force Attuned a bit more, and the Force Sensitive a decent amount. Proximity matters, as does their own strength.
    • Nowhere does it state or imply that this is a perfect process, nor that it is uninterruptable, nor that it makes them 'better' than other FUs. If anything such an overreliance on others might prevent them from developing their own reserves.
  • 'Poise is Power' splits off the confidence/fear/doubt part to clarify the distinction. The gist of it is that their abilities are unusually reliant on self-confidence. A Starchild can punch above its weight with enough confidence or be brought low by doubt - this makes them a bit of a glass cannon since fear and doubt are pretty natural consequences of facing adversity or defeat.
  • 'Varied Vessels' simply states that anything that can hurt them normally can probably hurt them more when they're compressed. Shoot a Starchild's 'cloud form' with a disruptor and you'll probably carve off a part, but that part'd be bigger if they're inside a humanoid.
• Added 'Vessels' under Distinctions to clarify their function and (dis)advantages. It's entirely possible a Starchild could just live inside some sort of smelting facility or reactor core (especially the nuclear variety) too, but that seems a pretty fringe / emergency solution.
• Changed "retains at least some of its progenitor's skills, memories, and quirks" to "a few" to clarify that the 'reborn' Starchild is a new being.
  • As an aside, Star Children are never stated as having perfect memories - they're probably just as fallible in that regards as humans. Even when a Starchild is born with some memories from a predecessor we'd be talking less collective memory, more 'I vaguely remember key details of the life of the person whose death made me and maybe their predecessor, if applicable'. Big maybe.
• Expanded their 'Diet' to let them live in gas giants long-term too. Now corresponds with the Abstainers 'race'.
• Made some minor changes in phrasing elsewhere. The contents/meaning should be unaltered.

 

[Judah Lesan]

Kal

First off thanks for being patient as we have gone through this. As I said from the start I really wanted to help get this to a place it was workable. I feel like we have accomplished this. I hate denying subs so thanks for rolling with everything I tossed at you.

[APPROVED]