Profiles of Villainy: The Drengir

Star Wars

Nov 30

The Drengir were introduced early into The High Republic and over a handful of stories, left a long-lasting impact on the lore of Star Wars. Allies of the Sith, but betrayed and put into hibernation for millennia, they woke up hungry and determined to harvest the galaxy anew.

Their defeat came at the hands of the Jedi in Phase 1, but by the time of Phase 3, we see them as gravely weakened and fleeing from the blight that has begun to spread across the galaxy. While we can find some sympathy for them during Phase 3, they were nonetheless villains and a force of evil in their prime. Today, on Profiles of Villainy, we tackle the Drengir.

Warning: This article will contain spoilers up to and including Wave 2, Phase 3 of The High Republic.

Background

While the Drengir emerged in the era of the High Republic, they are much older creatures. Their apex of power was sometime around 2,500 years before the Battle of Yavin (about 2,300 years before Phases 1 and 3 of The High Republic), where they allied with the Sith in a reaping of the galaxy.

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We know little of how their alliance started, or what the terms were, but it is clear the Drengir benefited greatly by acquiring “meat,” their term for the galaxy’s denizens they chose to consume. But shortly after this alliance, the Sith betrayed the Drengir and sealed them away with four binding statues, imprisoning the Drengir’s leader, the Great Progenitor, on a space station belonging to the Amaxine warriors. This warrior culture, interestingly, disappeared from the galaxy near the Fall of the Old Republic a little over 1,000 years before the Battle of Yavin.

It is likely that the Amaxine were involved in sealing the Drengir away, given the station belonged to them, but also because the Drengir specifically mentioned the group when they reawakened.

They also imply that it was the Amaxine who discovered and unleashed the Drengir on the galaxy and that the Drengir killed many of them in the conflict that ensued. But, what could cause the Sith to turn on their allies is unclear. It may be that the Sith realized the Drengir were a force too powerful for them to control as they wanted, or the Sith became disillusioned with the alliance, feeling the Drengir were too chaotic. Regardless, sealing of the Great Progenitor put all or the vast majority of other Drengir into a state of dormancy, until the Great Hyperspace Disaster saw them emerge into the galaxy once again.

Abilities/Skills

The Drengir are unique in the Star Wars galaxy as living plant-based organisms. While Star Wars has species like the Lonto, who are highly attuned to plant life, the Drengir are fully made of vegetation. Their nature as plants gives them many defenses through traits like thorns, dense physical forms, and natural toxins resting in their bodies.

We see that these various toxins are highly sophisticated, capable of causing various sorts of pain and suffering, and are even lethal enough to cause death, as Affie Hollow almost died after pricking herself on one thorn from the plant life growing out of the dormant Drengir.

Their plant forms are also highly adaptable to their local environment. For example, on the planet Banchii, their normal forms with a single maw and horns wreathed in layers of tendrils, transformed to a far taller, narrower form with large jaws and long thorned tendrils. In Phase 3, we also see that the Drengir used huge seed pods to float to land, so that they could infest an island on the ocean world of Eiram.

But we’re not done yet with the benefits found in their physical forms. They are capable of incredible recovery when damaged by physical attacks, even to the point of duplicating into two new complete beings if chopped in half. This makes them highly resilient in the face of lightsabers.

Turning to their non-physical abilities, the Drengir have a deep, natural affinity with the Dark Side. This effect is so strong that multiple Jedi note its power in the stories that involve these creatures, and how they have to fight to remain focused against such a force.

The other notable trait of the Drengir is their Root-Mind. This hive-mind network is how all Drengir across the galaxy remain connected to each other, and it all runs back to the first of their kind, the Great Progenitor. Individual Drengir are still intelligent, capable of wielding tools and controlling machines, but the Root-Mind helps unite the creatures together for greater organization.

The Root-Mind is also strong, so strong that it is able to dominate the will of individuals infested with Drengir growths, from Jedi Masters like Skeer to animals. For instance, in The High Republic (2021), we can see a native species of giant ants assisting the Drengir, controlled by such growths. But, this Root-Mind was also a critical weakness of the Drengir. Individuals could access the network and put information into it, which is what Keeve Trennis did twice.

Once, to help convince the Drengir to retreat from their expansion across the galaxy by tricking them into believing “the meat was tainted,” and later when the Great Progenitor held Avar Kriss in her grasp but we will speak more about this detail later. One final weakness of the Drengir was fire, though with their regenerative bodies, the flames would need to be constant and substantial to prevent the creatures from regenerating what was lost.

Acts of Villainy

The Drengir, while they are almost like a force of nature, are also a force of malevolence, and enjoy the suffering they can inflict on the living. They are explicitly stated to enjoy causing fear in their victims, hunting the weak or isolated of any chosen population. They also consume their victims while they are still alive, further adding to their horror. Their natural toxins are another tool in their arsenal, which they could use to torture people, as they did with an injured Dez Rydan in Into the Dark when he was deposited onto a planet that held many of their kind.

They then compelled him to fight Reath Silas while promising they would end his pain, though the Drengir likely intended to eat both at the end of the duel. There is also the fact that the Drengir are open to dealings with dark forces. Their alliance with the Sith likely caused galactic levels of suffering, while the Nihil seemingly made a deal with some or all of Drengir to help them spread their seeds across the galaxy. The Nihil did this as a battle tactic, and it was highly effective, with both sides greatly benefiting.

Final Act

Midway through Phase 1, the Drengir were defeated after a concerted effort between the Hutts and the Jedi led by Avar Kriss and Hutt War Master Myarga. Tracking the Great Progenitor back to the Drengir homeworld of Mulita, Avar was unfortunately captured and infested by the Drengir leader. She assumed that with this new pawn, the Jedi would be hers to influence, but instead, Keeve Trennis and the other Jedi on Mulita turned Avar’s unique ability to connect through the Force back on the Great Progenitor, cutting her off from her fellow Drengir and leading to her capture.

Once again without the Great Progenitor, the Drengir began to slowly dwindle in number, either returning to hibernation or degenerating into a more animal mindset without the sophisticated coordination they once had.

Fast forward a few years into Phase 3, and the spread of the blight due to the imbalance caused by the removal of so many Nameless from Planet X has sent the remaining Drengir into retreat. They seem able to detect the blight before it arrives and have responded accordingly, fleeing from its gradual spread across the galaxy. Exactly how they are doing this is unclear, but they are intelligent enough to control spacecraft, stow away aboard ships, and probably possess enough power to infest and control a sentient pilot to help them leave.

Their ultimate fate is unknown right now, but they might have persisted long after the High Republic era in a decentralized capacity. We see that the Amaxine station remains in the Skywalker Saga, and is full of plant life, much of it likely derived from the organisms growing from the Drengir and their long slumber there two centuries ago. There are also certain plants in some Star Wars stories that seem to possess individual traits of the Drengir though these may simply be hostile and alien flora. Regardless, we are sure to learn their fate by the time The High Republic ends next year!

Notable Appearances

Below is a list of some of the notable stories in which the Drengir have appeared. We encourage people to check them out if they have any interest in these monstrous plant creatures!

Into the Dark - The introduction of the Drengir.
The High Republic (2021) Issues #2 and #3 - The first appearance of the Drengir in the comics.
Race to Crashpoint Tower - A story showing the way the Nihil spread the seeds of the Drengir to their advantage.
Temptation of the Force - A jump into Phase 3, and investigating the Drengir a few years after their emergence.

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