Oasis mother

The oasis mother was a species of sentient, predatory plant that was native to the desert-covered world of Endregaad. Oasis mothers lived atop small pools of water. Their bodies consisted of a series of intertwined vines that formed a trunk with over-hanging branches. From the limbs hung sacks that contained immature oasis children, juvenile forms of the plant. Oasis children were mobile and bipedal in form, and their main role was to hunt living animals to feed to their mother. Though sentient, oasis mothers had very different thought patterns from other intelligent species and were completely amoral, caring only about their own well-being. During the time of the New Republic, a band of oasis children attacked a caravan of travelers that that was passing through the wildernesses of Endregaad en route to the planet's Temple Valley region.
==Biology and appearance==
The oasis mother was a self-aware species of plant that was native to the desert-covered planet Endregaad in the Indrexu sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Ranging from fifteen to twenty meters high in their adult form, oasis mothers resembled large trees. They lived atop small pools of water, with a body that consisted of a mass of interwoven, tough fibrous vines that made up the trunk of the plant and extended into the water below. Over-hanging branches extended from the trunk and supported hanging gold-colored, fibrous bloodsacks almost the size of a small child. These sacks, which resembled large fruits, contained immature oasis children, the mobile, juvenile form of the plant, which took a week for the mother to grow. Sprouting from the main body were a number of shorter, flexible tendrils with sharp ends, which were used to feed on prey; the vines could lash out at targets up to four meters from the trunk. At the heart of the oasis mother, beneath the vines that formed the plant's trunk, was a fungal growth that acted as the plant's brain. Oasis mothers were semi-immobile, being able to move very slowly and only at night. Through scent and an acute sense of hearing, oasis mothers could detect other beings and objects that were up to fifty meters away from them.
Though they were omnivorous, oasis mothers were predatory and fed primarily on wild animals. Oasis children hunted living prey on behalf of their mother and dumped the bodies into the water pool on which the mother dwelled. The oasis mother then surrounded each body with vines, and the plant's sharp-ended tendrils pierced the cadaver and drained it of blood and other bodily fluids. The remaining husk was then swallowed by the vines and turned into mulch to aid the mother's growth.
The juvenile "oasis children" were essentially mobile portions of the mother that bore them. The children were bipedal and stood at 1.2 meters in height, resembling headless apes. Their bodies were made of fibrous materials and covered in spiky extrusions, and they were colored to blend in with the desert wilderness in which they lived. They had long, powerful arms, which were tipped with poisoned claws that were used to incapacitate prey and drag it back to be fed to their mother. The oasis children had little cognitive function and were barely intelligent, but they were telepathically linked to their mother and could receive and understand basic commands. The children could keep in contact with their progenitor over distances of up to 25 kilometers; oasis mothers could not communicate with oasis children that were born to another mother. Oasis children did not eat, and they only lived for a few weeks.
==Society and culture==
While they were sentient, oasis mothers had very different thought processes from other intelligent beings, and they lacked any form of native spoken or written language. Due to the challenges of surviving in the harsh deserts of Endregaad and their isolation from other sentient species, Oasis mothers were completely amoral, with no sense of right and wrong, and they cared only about their own survival and safety. The mothers always hungered for food and sent their children large distances in search of nourishment.
Oasis children were nocturnal. They were devoted completely to their task of providing food for their mother. The children hunted in packs and through their telepathic connection to their mother, they could communicate with each other to convey the presence and location of food or potential threats to the mother. When they detected prey, oasis children set up an ambush and they normally pounced at dawn or dusk. If an oasis mother sensed that something was coming to attack her, she immediately summoned back all her oasis children from their hunting missions to defend her.
==History==
The oasis mothers were unknown to the other sentient inhabitants of Endregaad, but the creatures occasionally preyed upon passing travelers; indeed, folk tales persisted among the Endregaad population of monsters that lived in the deserts. In 19 ABY, during the reign of the New Republic,Scourge a caravan of travelers led by the merchant Simol Toc passed through the hunting grounds of an oasis mother while en route to the Temple Valley region. They established an encampment, and during the night, a band of oasis children apprehended the guard Rondo and dragged him away to feed him to their mother. The following evening, the oasis children returned and staged another attack on the caravan's guards.
==Behind the scenes==
The oasis mothers first featured in the 2002 Wizards of the Coast roleplaying adventure Tempest Feud, by Jeff Grubb and Owen K.C. Stephens, which also featured a visual depiction of the species in an image by the artist Adi Granov. The plants were subsequently given an entry in the StarWars.com Databank in November 2008 and later that year, they became the subject of an entry in the compendium The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.
In Tempest Feud, the player characters role-played as a group of agents who were journeying to the Temple Valley on an assignment, and they could interact with oasis children and an oasis mother en route. If the players were traveling as part of Simol Toc's caravan, they could follow the tracks of the oasis children that abducted Rondo back to the oasis mother, and another group of children ambushed the players when they got within one kilometer of the mother. Alternately, if the players were traveling alone, oasis children would attack their camp for every night that they stayed within the children's hunting grounds. The players could also confront and kill the oasis mother that was directing the children.
In 2012, Scourge—a novelization of Tempest Feud written by Jeff Grubb—was published and established the canon series of events for the role-playing adventure, depicting the characters Eddey Be'ray, Reen Irana and Mander Zuma in the place of the Tempest Feud player characters. However, the novel made no mention of the oasis mother or the oasis children, and it had Be'ray, Irana and Zuma travel directly to the Temple Valley aboard a skiff, rather than spending a night camping in the oasis mother's territory. As it is unclear whether or not the Tempest Feud player characters' encounter with the plants happens "off-scene" during the events of Scourge, this article therefore assumes that the players' interactions with the oasis children and oasis mother are non-canon.
==Appearances==
*Tempest Feud 
==Sources==
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
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==Notes and references==
Category:Botanical sentient species
Category:Carnivorous plants
Category:Outer Rim Territories species