Mnggal-Mnggal

The Mnggal-Mnggal is a fictional entity created by Daniel Wallace for Lucasfilm's Star Wars Expanded Universe role-playing game supplement The Unknown Regions. A terrifying and mysterious entity known throughout the Unknown Regions, it was a sentient, shape-shifting organism that was essentially a viral infection, capable of taking over and controlling the bodies of those it infected. This creature existed as a collective consciousness, meaning that every part of it was connected and shared the same mind. The Mnggal-Mnggal's essence was spread across the galaxy, and it could take control of any being that comes into contact with it.
==Description==
Mnggal-Mnggal desired nothing more than control, and subsequently sought to spread its body and influence over as many worlds as possible. If possible, it would destroy entire planets as it had with Mugg Fallow, but the idle amusement of torturing and killing other sentients was entertaining as well.
Mnggal-Mnggal delighted in torturing and consuming other beings; indeed, it seemed to thrive more on beings' suffering than on the sustenance their bodies provided. Using its possession abilities, it would create torturous scenarios such as reuniting a grieving mother with the reanimated corpse of their youngling time and time again. It would persuade other beings by playing with their emotions into making deadly decisions such as opening a ship's airlocks or deactivating perimeter fences.
When conversing in its natural form, Mnggal-Mnggal spoke in dreamlike observations, often in verse, metaphors, and riddles. Due to its long life, it also spoke ancient languages and conversed in long-forgotten conventions of speech. Though it told tales of the Celestials, Rakata, and the dawn of the Jedi Order, and seemed to know the current plots of galactic rulers, the locations of lost treasures, and the answers to age-old mysteries, some believed that every word it spoke was a lie.
===Characteristics and Abilities ===
*Hive Mind: The Mnggal-Mnggal operated with a collective intelligence, meaning all parts of it were aware of the actions and thoughts of any other part.
*Infection and Control: It could infect living beings by taking over their bodies, essentially turning them into zombie-like creatures under its control. Once infected, the original being's consciousness was typically suppressed or destroyed.
*Shapeshifting: It had the ability to take on various forms, depending on the hosts it controlled. This could range from humanoid shapes to more monstrous, grotesque forms.
*Assimilation: It could assimilate other life forms, absorbing their knowledge and experiences into its collective mind.
*Persistence: Mnggal-Mnggal was incredibly difficult to destroy, as it existed across multiple locations at once. Destroying one part of it would not eradicate the whole entity.
*Terror: The creature used psychological fear as one of its weapons, preying on the fear and helplessness of its victims.
==History==
Mnggal-Mnggal's origins were shrouded in mystery. It was a completely unique being, without analog even in species catalogs as extensive as those of the University of Sanbra. It was believed by some, including the Chiss, to be extra-dimensional in origin, and comparisons were made to beings such as Waru. It was so ancient, at least by its own account, that it existed alongside the Celestials, and witnessed their sudden departure from the galaxy. The hyperspace anomaly that bisected the galaxy, separating the highly populated portion of the galactic disk from the Unknown Regions, was presumed by some to have been created by the powerful Celestials, possibly as a defensive measure against Mnggal-Mnggal and its infectious intentions.
Mnggal-Mnggal was a being composed solely of a thick gray ooze, able to move quickly and create a multitude of different forms. It was slimy to the touch and smelled of sweet rot. While it was a shapeshifter, it could not form the complex disguises of species like the Shi'ido, but its abilities were still versatile. It would form far-ranging pseudopods and eyestalks to explore or interact with others, or attack others with a fanged mouth. It could break its mass apart, spreading by creating worm-like forms, and was even able to fly by forming bat-like creatures.
Mnggal-Mnggal's most prolific—and deadly—form of movement, however, was by infecting and controlling other sentient beings. While it could possess creatures, such as nexu or banthas, Mnggal-Mnggal preferred sentients, and once a potential victim was in its sights, it went to work quickly. Once a being encountered a pool of Mnggal-Mnggal, the surface of the pool would explode outward, showering the being in droplets of the entity's body. The drops would then begin to slide toward the being's mouth and nostrils, but was also able to enter the body through the pores in a being's skin if need be. It would first penetrate the cranium and digest the brain, then move on to the internal organs and tissues, increasing its mass all the while. It digested its victims from the inside out, filling every body part as it expanded and grew within the lifeless husk. Within twenty-four hours, the victim was dead, filled entirely with Mnggal-Mnggal.
It could then fully control the victim's body, and was able to do so with enough precision to pilot vehicles. This was also how it obtained its sustenance, though it is unknown if the nutrients obtained were somehow spread throughout the being's myriad parts. A Mnggal-Mnggal-possessed zombie could be easily distinguished from the body's former self. The possession was evidenced by a vacant gaze, a stiff-legged gait, and utter stillness when at rest. The victim's voice was also distorted, as Mnggal-Mnggal would have digested its vocal cords and lungs (or analogous organs) already; their voice would become buzzy and flat. Mnggal-Mnggal was not able to preserve its hosts, and after a week they would begin to decay, with the entity's gray ooze slipping from their facial orifices. The zombies were also used to further infect others, by spewing Mnggal-Mnggal in the faces of new victims.
All parts of Mnggal-Mnggal, no matter what form or how far-flung across the galaxy, shared a single mind, which is what led others to classify the entity as a single being rather than a hive-minded species.
At a long-forgotten point in the past, it had taken over and rendered lifeless the planet of Mugg Fallow. Eons later, Mnggal-Mnggal had spread so far across the planet, even filling its former oceans, that all that remained visible of the former world were barren continents and the remains of fossilized trees. Its "body" ran so far and deep across the planet that it ran in rivers across the continents and filled underground grottos. As testament to its depraved mind, Mnggal-Mnggal created a macabre decoration of a fleet of derelict ships forming a ring around the planet, their origins ranging across millennia. Mnggal-Mnggal used its mind-controlled zombies to pilot the ships there, with Gree sailships and a treasure barge once belonging to Xim the Despot among the lifeless fleet.
Over the course of its existence, Mnggal-Mnggal staked its claim to thousands of worlds, moons, and space stations throughout the Unknown Regions, with infestations ranging from small pools in dark sewers to worlds ravaged and rendered as lifeless as Mugg Fallow.
As Mnggal-Mnggal spread throughout the Unknown Regions, some species native to the region opposed its incursions and sought to destroy the entity, knowing the extreme danger it posed. The Lugubraa and the Croke attempted to prevent any infestations within their territories, while the Chiss took a more proactive stance. They not only possessed the most extensive collection of information on the entity in their great data library on Csilla—including the location of Mugg Fallow and all possible information on its origins—they also paid bounties to any parties willing to attack infestations of Mnggal-Mnggal. The Viis Empire was decimated at one point by a Mnggal-Mnggal outbreak. Other violent outbreaks were responsible for similar power-changing events in the history of the Unknown Regions. On some primitive planets, it was worshiped by local tribes and known as the "rot god".
In later years, reports of Mnggal-Mnggal existed beyond the Unknown Regions, and it seemed as though it had managed to spread into Wild Space and even the Outer Rim Territories. During the reign of the Empire, some beings noted the similarities between Mnggal-Mnggal and the deadly plagues created by the Imperials' Project Blackwing.
==Lovecraftian Influences==
In the context of the Star Wars universe, Mnggal-Mnggal represented the intrusion of cosmic horror into a galaxy traditionally defined by the battle between good and evil. It introduced an element of terror that could not be fought with lightsabers or the Force, embodying the same existential dread that Lovecraft’s works evoke. 
===Cosmic Horror=== 
*Unfathomable Origin: Like many of H.P. Lovecraft's deities, Mnggal-Mnggal was an ancient, mysterious entity with an unclear origin, suggesting it might have been older than the galaxy itself.
*Indifference to Life: Mnggal-Mnggal, much like Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones or Outer Gods, was indifferent to the concepts of good and evil. It acted purely out of its own desire to spread and consume, with little regard for the suffering it caused.
===Eldritch Nature=== 
*Shape-Shifting and Amorphous Form: Mnggal-Mnggal's ability to change shape, ooze through environments, and infect living beings is reminiscent of the amorphous, shape-shifting creatures in Lovecraft's works, such as Shoggoths or Nyarlathotep. These beings are often depicted as having a fluid, ever-changing form that defies natural laws.
*Mind Control and Madness: The way Mnggal-Mnggal took over the minds and bodies of its victims, erasing their will and turning them into grotesque puppets, is similar to Lovecraftian themes where beings or forces drive humans to madness or enslave their minds.
===Existential Dread===
*Hive Mind: The collective consciousness of Mnggal-Mnggal is another Lovecraftian theme. Mnggal-Mnggal's hive mind represents a similar concept, where individuality is meaningless, and all are subsumed into a greater, malevolent whole.
*The Unknowable: Mnggal-Mnggal embodied the terror of the unknown. Just like the ancient gods and creatures in Lovecraft's stories, Mnggal-Mnggal operated on a scale and in a manner that is beyond the understanding of most beings in the Star Wars universe.
=== Doom and Inevitability === 
*Persistence and Ubiquity: The idea that Mnggal-Mnggal existed in multiple places simultaneously and was nearly impossible to eradicate echoes Lovecraft’s theme of inescapable doom. No matter how much one tries to fight against such a being, it always remains, waiting to resurface.
==Behind the Mythos==
In a post on his personal blog, games designer Daniel Wallace wrote that when creating the Mnggal-Mnggal, he was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, although he fails to go into detail about what exactly brought about the inspiration."Endnotes for Star Wars: The Unknown Regions at the Internet Archive, archived from Daniel Wallace's Geekosity blog
With Disney's acquisition of the Star Wars franchise in 2012, Mnggal-Mnggal's canonicity in the Star Wars universe is dubious.
==References==
Category:Extraterrestrial Characters
Category:Characters Originating From Mythos-Inspired Works