Vor

Vor

Species: Vor
Home Planet: Vortex

Vor
The Vors were a sentient species inhabiting the Mid Rim world Vortex. They were thin, brittle-boned reptilian mammals who flew on leathery wings. Although they were a flying species, they lived in underground hummocks. While Vors seemed inscrutable and nearly emotionless by Human standards, they were capable of creating music that was considered beautiful both by the Vors themselves and by members of other species.

Throughout the galaxy, the Vors were renowned for the Cathedral of Winds, a colossal building on Vortex that created music by vibrating with the wind. Annually, the Vors played a concert in the Cathedral, flying through it to open and close windows and doors, using the Cathedral like an organ. The structure became one of the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy but was generally considered a myth until the Vors joined the Old Republic.

However, the Vors still had few extra-planetary interests. When the Galactic Empire replaced the Republic, the Vors felt repelled and refused to play their annual concert again. In 11 ABY, they began playing their music again and they invited dignitaries from the New Republic, which had since succeeded the Empire. However, remnants of the Empire sabotaged the event, and the Cathedral was destroyed, with the blame initially going to the New Republic. Once the real guilty party was identified, the Vors—who had already built a new Cathedral—joined the New Republic. They aided that government during the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of the galaxy years later.

Society & Culture
The Vors were a creative, studious, and hard-working people who disliked conflict and made good use of their natural intelligence without rejecting manual work. Nevertheless, to outsiders they were most famous as emotionless, imperturbable beings who seemed not to react to important or dramatic events happening around them. As such, the species appeared not to be affected in moments of great tragedy, or even joy; however, this was a wrong impression on the part of strangers. Vors were indeed concerned and touched by such events, like most other sentients; they simply did not express those feelings in a way that non-Vors could easily interpret—except when they composed music with this goal. Indeed, the calm, peaceful, spiritual Vors tried to stifle their personal emotions and maintain composure when among others. As a species, Vors were much more centered around the needs of a collective before those of any individual, trying to grasp what they called "the bigger picture." Vors allowed themselves outbursts of emotion only in private. A side effect of this talent to hide emotions was an unparalleled skill at negotiation and a penchant for deceit in games of chance. Despite their closed nature, parts of the Vors' body language could be understood by aliens: for example, baby Vors nested and curled up to protect themselves.

Vor music had galaxy-wide reputation, as it could elicit emotions in other beings, although the exact feeling depended on the listener. Aliens considered the Vor voices to be particularly beautiful when in song—and the winged beings usually sang whenever working at something that did not require them to use their voice for other purposes. However, non-Vors found the species' speaking voices less appealing and weak. This view notwithstanding, the Vorese language,[5] also known as Vortexlex, had a rhythmic, melodic sound that made good use of the Vor ability to chirp. Vors wrote their language in imitation of the natural wind spirals of Vortex, and most of them could also speak Basic. Vors commonly had one-word names, such as Deskalur, Inchiiri, Kaliopi, Wiliran, and Yiruthir. Others had names of two parts separated by a hyphen, such as Krini-shen and Sha-viri. Vors could also have a name and a surname, as exemplified by Senator Fyg Boras.

Vors had little need for clothes, as they interfered with flying, but they did cover their genitals and, in the case of women, the top of their chest. Vors manufactured a delicate material known as Vors-glass that was used in ornamental glassware through the galaxy from at least 19 BBY to at least 27 ABY.

History
The Vors were recorded to inhabit the galaxy during the Pius Dea crusades (12,000 BBY–11,000 BBY), albeit only unofficially. During this conflict, the scout Hicco became the first outsider to view the Cathedral of Winds. The general population outside Vortex considered stories of such a monument magnificent but ultimately no more than legend. Nonetheless, the Cathedral became one of the Twenty Wonders of the Galaxy as compiled by Vicendi in 10,000 BBY. Only when Vortex joined the Galactic Republic in 3,977 BBY did their symbol and their species enter the conception of reality of the average galactic citizen.

Despite this affiliation with the Republic, Vortex was only a symbolic member, as Vors rarely desired to leave Vortex. They adopted technology from the Republic, including space travel. They built spaceports for aliens, albeit only limited-service ones, because the Vors themselves would rather fly by their own means in their atmosphere and felt little need to fly outside Vortex. Once the spaceports were finished, the Vors welcomed tourists and began to export food and raw materials, buying in exchange middle- and high-level technology. The Vors even bought weather-predicting satellites to keep track of unexpected storms; the Vors themselves, being better meteorologists than the satellites, did not need these, but incoming tourists felt comfort from knowing that such devices were available. In 188 BBY, the Treaty of Vors was signed.

In 22 BBY, during the Separatist Crisis, a number of Vors were living on the planet Coruscant. A study of the Rhire Medical Academy showed that the high pollution in the galactic capital was very harmful for the weak-lunged Vors, as well as for several other species, including six avian species. The contamination was mostly caused by industry and by civilian traffic, and it could cause severe illnesses. Soon after this event, during the Clone Wars, Vortex fell within the territory controlled by the Republic rather than its rival, the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Attribute Dice: 12D
DEXTERITY 1D/2D+1
KNOWLEDGE 1D/2D
MECHANICAL 1D/2D+2
PERCEPTION 2D/4D
STRENGTH 2D/4D
TECHNICAL 1D/3D

Special Abilities:
Strength skills: Flight: Time use: one round

Move: 5/9 walking, 15/22 flying
Size: 1.4-1.9 meters tall
Source: The Jedi Academy Sourcebook (page 117), Ultimate Alien Anthology (pages 178-179) & Wookieepedia (For the Vor Description)