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 . Biology and appearance . Vor was the name of the sentient species native to the planet Vortex , in the Glythe sector of the Mid Rim . They were a species of humanoids with avian , mammalian , and reptilian characteristics . An adult individual could reach as much as two meters in height . The Vor body was covered with hairless , soft , rubbery skin that was green in color with white and grey spots . Each Vor had graceful physical features that emphasized the species ' natural agility . They were slender beings , particularly in their limbs , being generally weaker than most Humans . The Vor head was flat and pointed , dominated by a vestigial beak . Their pupil - less , ebon - black eyes were covered by lids that were occasionally prone to callosities . Although they could move by walking , Vors were winged beings and had two leathery , transparent flaps going from the wrist to the hip . The Vors could use these wings to fly although their three - meter wingspan was almost too short to allow this . Vors could also glide using their wings along with their hollow bones — a skill that changeling species were unable to reproduce . Their flight ability was also adapted to the natural , gale - force winds of their homeworld ; while non - native pilots found that flying in those winds was very difficult , Vors boasted great maneuverability during the stronger cyclones there . Much of this was due to their experience in intently watching the native currents ; over a lifetime , a Vor could predict the changes in weather more efficiently than specialized technology . At the end of each wing , a Vor had one four - fingered manipulative appendage . The hand had an inter - digital membrane similar in appearance to their wings , although this film did not reach the last phalanges of the fingers . The most external digit was a partially opposable thumb . As the hands and arms were attached to the wings , a Vor could hold items such as weapons in hand while flying , but he or she could not use them . Each leg ended in a foot with three forward - pointing toes . Vor lungs were adapted to the pollution - free atmosphere of Vortex ; consequently , they were very susceptible to contracting illnesses in more polluted environments . Diseases to which Vors were susceptible included dioxo - brionchiectasis shock , hemorrhagic molting , lungrot , and silicalung . The Vors were very intelligent beings , comparable to the Cereans in sheer reasoning capacity . Although autonomous individuals , Vors coordinated well in groups , working together with little or no communication and making use of a sort of collective mind . Other species believed that this ability was more related to natural bio - chemicals than to cultural reasons . With a life expectancy of 85 standard years , a Vor was considered an adult at 16 and could work until he or she was 70 years of age . Society and culture . 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 , 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 . Habitat . Vortex , the native planet of the Vors , had an unusual axial obliquity that caused severe seasonal changes and very strong winds during a months - long season . Some 6 . 5 billion Vors lived in a tribal society on the world , which was classified as their homeworld by the Republic to reflect that it was not primarily a trading center or a stronghold of any kind . The Vors shared the planet with the non - sentient bird known as the goa lawah . The Vors lived in small , partially buried dwellings in the mountains and plains of Vortex , which were covered in magenta , tan , and vermilion - colored grass . Vors commonly took shelter from stronger tempests and hurricanes in their domiciles whenever they noticed a storm coming and during the season of storms . As the Vors were technologically advanced , they could have easily built more resistant buildings , but they considered individual homes to be of little historical relevance and thus more useful if they were recyclable . Monuments , on the other hand , were supposed to be perdurable and impressive , with the Vors using their natural sense of harmony and keen aesthetic sense to build elegant wonders and impressive artistic achievements . The bunker - like , circular homes were built in concentric circles around a cultural center of their civilization . Each settlement was considered autonomous and unrelated to the others , but Vors worked together , regardless of their area of origin , to maintain monuments and spaceports . The Cathedral of Winds . The Cathedral of Winds , sculpted by the Vors millennia before the Battle of Yavin in the grass plains of Vortex , was a mountain - high building of several hundred meters in height . Whenever the wind blew through it , the Cathedral vibrated , producing music . The Vors decided to build it because they were prone to sing and create music whenever they worked . The Cathedral reflected the sunlight on its outer surface . It was mostly hollow , with hundreds of open chambers , rooms , and corridors of different sizes . Although ethereal , delicate , and crystalline in aspect with some organic tint , the Cathedral was a very strong building . This was due to the fact that its construction was based on a complex organic blueprint , which gave it a hardened structure able to resist the strongest winds for dozens of decades . Once a year , during the solstice of the storm season , the Vors celebrated a galaxy - renowned cultural fete known as the Concert of the Winds . During the event , flying Vors manipulated the windows , doors , and openings of the Cathedral of Winds , sometimes covering them with their own bodies , according to a choreographed plan that they communicated to each other secretly and without sound in a completely synchronized way . Thus , the wind blew through the thousands of flutes and over them , transforming the Cathedral into an enormous organ as it was struck by and filled with the strong winds . This exquisite , re - echoing , plaintive sound was known as the music of the winds . This was an eagerly awaited event , because the music , partially created by the specific weather , partly by the secretive Vors , could not be repeated . Additionally , the Vors did not allow any kind of recording of the concert . To the Vors , the Cathedral of Winds was the core of both their society and their planet , physically and spiritually , as well as their most cherished masterpiece . The Vors also believed that playing in the Concert was the highest distinction a person might aspire to . 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 3977 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 . In 19 BBY , Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of Naboo proclaimed himself Emperor of the Galaxy and began the Galactic Empire . The Vors considered the Empire as the perpetrator of several excesses that were to be resisted . As the Vors were a peaceful species , they did not resist militarily ; instead , they ceased to welcome visiting aliens , although they did not close the borders of Vortex to tourists . Also , as an objection to Palpatine , the Vors sealed all the openings in the Cathedral of Winds to prevent its music from sounding , thus canceling the annual Concert of the Winds . During Palpatine ' s reign , the species refused to perform for any non - Vor . During the New Republic ' s rule , the Shi ' ido anthropologist Mammon Hoole included an entry on the Vors in his publication " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " . The New Republic . In 11 ABY , after Palpatine ' s death , the New Republic made advances to the Vors , courting them to join the new , anti - Imperial government . As a token of good will , the Vors invited Leia Organa Solo , a diplomat from the New Republic , to the Concert of the Winds . Organa Solo ' s friend , Admiral Gial Ackbar decided to ferry her using his personal ship , a B - Wing shuttle customized by himself and by his trusted chief mechanic Terpfen . Unbeknownst to Ackbar , Terpfen was an unwilling agent of the Galactic Empire , obeying Imperial Ambassador Furgan . Terpfen sabotaged the ship , causing Ackbar to crash into the Cathedral itself , destroying it and causing the death of more than 358 Vors . The Vors began the reconstruction of their Cathedral almost immediately and with a near - religious fervor . Instead of building the exact same Cathedral , they followed a new layout that apparently existed only in their collective minds . This new Cathedral , although still bright , crystalline , and made of cylinders , was sleeker than the original and had a more organic aspect . The Vors directed all of their creative energies to this new task , not wanting to sing or perform any music until they could finish . Although the unflappable species filed no official complaint against the New Republic , the government retired the membership offer they had made to the Vors . Initial investigation , also sabotaged by Terpfen , suggested that the only possible cause of the disaster was a piloting error by Ackbar himself . The Admiral thus resigned from his post . New Republic Chief of State Mon Mothma sent a Human relief team to help the Vors rebuild with General Wedge Antilles as their temporary leader . Antilles visited Vortex along with Qwi Xux , an Imperial scientist whom he was to protect . A former musician herself , Xux picked a flute from the ruins of the Cathedral and extemporized a melody , inadvertently breaking the Vor taboo against music until the work was complete . The Vors , still peaceful , realized that their point of view had not been understood and sent Krini - shen , Chief Council of Vortex , to make an official communiqué explaining that music in Vortex could be considered a mockery but clarifying that Xux ' s melody would not be reproved as it had been clearly a misunderstanding . Partly as an apology , Xux provided the Vor with quantum crystalline technology of her own creation for use in the new Cathedral ; the Vors accepted the gift . Xux ' s memories of these events were strong enough to survive a mind erasing performed on her by a Dark Jedi soon afterward . Before the Cathedral was rebuilt , Organa Solo discovered the Imperial involvement in its destruction . She then cleared Ackbar ' s name and that of the New Republic , and notified Vortex and other planets . Only months after the disaster , the Vors completed the Cathedral and again invited New Republic dignitaries to a new Concert . Many attended , including a pleasantly surprised Ackbar and Xux . For the first time in decades , the Cathedral played again , performed by flying Vors and with no machine recording the music . The Vors opened all the windows and doors for the grand finale . Although the Vors mostly adhered to the same rules and laws as before the accident , they established a no - fly zone of two kilometers around the Cathedral to avoid a similar disaster in the future . The New Jedi Order and beyond . In 13 ABY , Xux ended a romantic relationship with Antilles . Xux considered that Vortex was the only place in the galaxy where she had done a good deed and decided to return to there . She asked the Vors to allow her to work on Vortex , and the Vors welcomed her to carry out a job of her choosing on their planet . She stayed there for more than a decade , until at least 25 ABY , not hiding her presence there . At that point , the population of Vortex numbered in the billions . Later that same year , with the Yuuzhan Vong War intensifying , several Vor refugees went to Salliche Ag ' s camp on Ruan . There , the Vors built an artificial nest to avoid living in the garbage ; thanks to this , they lived better than most of the other refugees , except for the Rybet s . In 26 ABY , Vors made up a sizable percentage of the 12 , 000 refugees hosted by the Senate Select Committee for Refugees in the Settlement 32 of the planet Duro . As Duro was a highly polluted planet and Vors were prone to pollution - sicknesses , breaches in the dome were a high , if potential , danger , so the dome had to be carefully maintained . These Vors , like many of the others , felt a great respect for Jaina Solo , a pilot of Rogue Squadron and war hero . The one Hutt among the refugees , Randa Besadii Diori , considered that treating him like one of the Vors — who were being treated like any other refugee there — was an insult , and he demanded special privileges . Due to a possible infection of Yuuzhan Vong bio - technology , Settlement 32 was evacuated , with the émigrés sent to nearby Gateway . The Vors , being more vulnerable than many species , were provided with breath masks . Gateway was afraid of some external agent entering their area in the fur of some aliens , so they offered to accept only Vors and Vuvrian s because , lacking any hair , they could be irradiated quickly . However , the leader of the derelicts , Jacen Solo , refused . Once on Gateway , the Vors offered to perform a dangerous and much needed maintenance task that could potentially sicken them . Jacen Solo respected their pride and willingness but asked them to call him should they find any threat . They did so when attacked by Fefze beetle s sent by Yuuzhan Vong leader Nom Anor . Solo took care of the beetles and assessed the threat that the perimeter breach would mean ; considering pros and cons , Solo made the refugees abandon Duro , as they were no longer safe there . In 27 ABY , Vortex came under direct attack from the Yuuzhan Vong . The New Republic pilots of Wraith Squadron spent six months trying to go through the frontier between Corellia and Vortex , during the Battle of Vortex . However , the Yuuzhan Vong had too many dovin basal interdictors in the area , and the Wraiths were unable to win the fight . The Vors became one of the species more directly impacted by the Yuuzhan Vong advances . In 28 ABY , the New Republic lost most of its area of influence , including Coruscant , as well as their leader , Chief of State Borsk Fey ' lya . Moving the command center to the planet Mon Calamari and forfeiting self - proclaimed Chief of State Pwoe , the New Republic organized a new election . The main contenders were Cal Omas from Alderaan and Fyor Rodan from Commenor . The Vor Senator Fyg Boras of Vortex , a supporter of Rodan , managed to reach Mon Calamari with many Vor refugees . Boras was then approached by representatives of the Smugglers ' Alliance , led by Lando Calrissian and Talon Karrde . Calrissian offered Boras 25 tons of supplies for the refugees in exchange for his support to the YVH 1 combat droids , produced by Tendrando Arms — an interest of the Alliance . Boras accepted the supplies and tried to sell them for his own profit . Unbeknownst to him , Karrde and Calrissian had flooded the market with similar products , preventing Boras from gaining anything . After the vote , Calrissian used a recording of his previous conversation with Boras to blackmail him unless Boras changed his support from Rodan to Omas . This , along with other measures , eventually led to Omas being chosen Chief of State . Over a century later , by 137 ABY , the Vor homeworld had fallen into territory controlled by Darth Krayt ' s Galactic Empire . Vors in the galaxy . Except for a minority , Vors held little interest in leaving Vortex to visit other worlds . Even those who did so rarely ranged far from their homeworld . Instead , Vors tended to choose a simple life away from galactic politics and free from the dominant trends of the galaxy . Vortex did have advanced technology due to their contact with the galaxy . Vors on other planets were rarely fighters , preferring to concentrate on research , diplomacy , or technology . Some became " aerobat s " : striking , show - off fliers who danced and pirouetted in flight for their own enjoyment . During the time preceding the Clone Wars , some Vors lived on the planet Coruscant and , due to the great use of contaminants there , suffered a number of illnesses . Later , during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion , Vortex was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong . Thousands of Vors were forced to abandon their native planet and re - settle in camps on worlds such as Ruan , Duro , and , later , Mon Calamari . Many of these Vors supported the New Republic and its military pilots , who were fighting determinedly , to recover Vortex from the extra - galactic invaders . Behind the scenes . The Vor species first appeared in the novel " Dark Apprentice " by Kevin J . Anderson , published in 1994 . The background of the species was first detailed in " The Jedi Academy Sourcebook " in 1996 , written by Paul Sudlow and published by West End Games . The Vors were first graphically depicted by R . K . Post for " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " in 2001 . There are discrepancies in descriptions of the species . " The Jedi Academy Sourcebook " specifies that an average adult is between 1 . 40 and 1 . 90 meters tall ; however , two further sources , " The Essential Guide to Alien Species " and " Ultimate Alien Anthology " ( 2003 ) , contradict this by saying that an average adult Vor is two meters tall . While these three sources describe the Vors as reptilian , the novel " " call them mammals ; no source has described Vors as reptomammal s ; thus , some of the sources could be mistaken . The " Ultimate Alien Anthology " specifies that Vor skin is green ; at the same time , the accompanying illustration , by Jeremy Jarvis , shows a Vor with yellow and green skin and a silvery beak , apparently contradicting itself .