This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Trail of Shadows #1.
Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The High Republic transmedia initiative appears to have brought a Sith monster from the old Expanded Universe back into canon. Star Wars: The High Republic has been one of Lucasfilm’s boldest initiatives to date, a range of stories set roughly 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Lucasfilm has promised this narrative will reveal the Jedi’s greatest fear, and that promise is finally being fulfilled – with the unleashing of a creature called the Leveler.
The Leveler was introduced in Cavan Scott’s novel Rising Storm, and it has been explored further in Daniel Jose Older and David Wachter’s Star Wars: Trail of Shadows #1. These creatures seem to have scoured the galaxy millennia ago, but their existence has been forgotten in the mists of time; only a sinister lullaby remains that speaks of their power, suggesting the beasts would choose vulnerable prey and reduce them to dust. A dormant Leveler was awoken by the space Vikings known as the Nihil, and it proved itself the ultimate Force predator, effortlessly consuming a powerful Jedi Master. Intriguingly, the Leveler bears striking similarities to a beast seen in the old Expanded Universe, suggesting Lucasfilm has brought a monstrous creature back into canon.
Hailing from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the terentateks were fearsome beasts who consumed the blood of Jedi. “The terentatek is a predator, and we are its prey,” Jedi Knight Deesra Luur Jada explained. There were several version of terentateks in Legends, with many resembling rancors; this had led to speculation the Sith created them from rancors, twisting them with the power of the dark side. The terentateks were resistant, and some even immune, to the power of the Force, their very presence disrupting it. The Sith unleashed them across the galaxy in an attempt to destroy the Jedi, who responded by hunting them to – they believed – extinction. Still, some terentateks survived, becoming dormant as the balance of the Force tilted towards the slight, slumbering until the dark side became dominant once again.
All these details correspond quite well to the creature the ruthless pirates known as the Nihil call the Leveler. It clearly has a hunger for Force-sensitives; when unleashed it went straight for the most vulnerable Jedi at hand. Its very presence disrupts the Force, to the extent that Jedi Knights and Masters nearby were left reeling, shaken at what they had sensed for those horrendous moments. And, like the terentateks, the Leveler lay dormant for untold millennia until it was awoken by the Nihil. There are some differences – apparently the Leveler consumes the midichlorians from a Jedi, not their blood – but these seem like logical extensions of the idea.
It seems Star Wars has brought the greatest Force predator back from the old Expanded Universe, unleashing a terentatek upon the High Republic Era. But if one terentatek has survived to this time, then there could well be others – and the Nihil would no doubt be happy to mimic the Sith, releasing terentateks across the galaxy. The Jedi have good reason to be afraid in Star Wars: The High Republic.
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