Velok the Younger
When I Was A Young Warthog
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: A new angle on cutting populations off from the Force. An opportunity for writers to reexamine their characters if cut off from the Force - entirely optionally. Also a partial antidote to huge mobs of faceless Forcers.
- Image Credit: "Power Vials" by Mateusz Wielgus, found at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/090wE
- Canon: N/A
- Links: Loosely comparable to pazhkic’dau, though species-specific, much more infectious, and much less effective in some ways.
- Name: Queller Plague
- Designation: Non-sentient
- Homeworld: None
- Language: None
- Average Lifespan: 12 hours, comparable to an average bacterium
- Estimated Population: Interplanetary
- Description: Queller Plague is a highly contagious bacterial infection that affects only humans and near-humans. To 99.9999% of the humanoid population, it's nothing but a cough and a mild fever. However, a large minority of Force-sensitives will lose their sensitivity permanently or until treated.
- Breathes: N/A
- Average height of adults: 1 micrometer
- Average length of adults: 1 micrometer
- Skin color: Translucent protoplasm
- Hair color: Translucent flagella
- Distinctions: Sithspawn bacterial infection
- Races: An especially virulent strain can cause itchiness.
- Strengths:
Highly infectious multi-vector contagion. - 30-40% of infected Force-sensitive humanoids lose their sensitivity in whole or in part, permanently unless treated.
- Reinfection after cure is entirely possible.
- Transmissible by any mammalian species.
[*]Weaknesses:
- Only affects humanoids and near-humans.
- All effects treatable with kolcta and similarly expensive substances/procedures.
- Loss of Force sensitivity occurs over several days.
- Infected do not become 'Force dead’ or anything along those lines; they just become normal people.
- Naturally telepathic/empathic species (e.g. Zeltron, Iktotchi) still retain a portion of their racial abilities.
- The worst a non-Force-sensitive would get is a fever.
- Absolutely nonlethal.
- Force Light (admittedly a rare ability even among Jedi Masters) will purge the infection at the cost of a risky fever.
CULTURE
- Diet: Forcivore
- Communication: N/A
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General Behavior: Symptoms include coughing, dizziness, and mild fever. Fever breaks after a few days, leaving the patient either unharmed or relieved of their Force-sensitivity. Transmission vectors include atmosphere and fluids.
In the end, most of the galaxy would be far better off if fewer humans could use the Force. This truth is inescapable. Velok the Younger, guardian of Toola, had no desire to escape it. Instead, he set out to make it happen.
He had no taste for Yuuzhan Vong biomechanics, the most obvious route given its use on Mandalore. Instead, he went for something older and objectively better: the alchemy woven into some of the most ancient breeds of Sithspawn. Tuk’ata and orbalisks, he knew, could subsist wholly or partially on the Force like his tyuksleen. Korribani pelko bugs found it appetizing, as did the Balanoro Force mites he'd used to make the baleeches. He'd noted comparable abilities in the creations and laboratory of the great alchemist Warren Valik. And, of course, his father had instilled that trait in the Greater Calama. With all these examples to work from, Velok created a bacterium that devoured the Force voraciously. The hard part was ensuring that it would only work on humans and near-humans, but he pulled that off as well. Species-group-specific bacteria are nothing new, after all.
He began testing the bacterial infection on prisoners and on unknowing others. To his deep surprise, more than a few found their new condition liberating. Force-sensitivity often comes with expectations and severe liabilities attached, after all. Some of the unwitting test subjects, such as [member="Mara Merrill-Valkner"], simply acclimated to a normal life and found it more meaningful.
With a mental shrug, Velok began distributing the Queller Plague everywhere he traveled. It caught on. One port at a time, Force-sensitivity became fractionally less common among humans and their scrawny hairless ilk.
