Hoth nightwhale

The **Hoth nightwhale** or **Hoth subpolar whale** was a massive cetacean inhabiting the oceans of Hoth, so named because of its distinct black coloration and its migratory patterns, which rarely touched the freezing waters of Hoth's poles. Possessing a complex and remarkable brain, the nightwhale was the only native life on Hoth besides the Skel which could be described as sapient.

## Description

The Hoth nightwhale was a massive cetacean animal morphologically similar to the whaladons of Mon Cala, which it exceeded in size. The species received its name from its jet-black or "midnight" coloration. The nightwhale possessed a distinctive block-shaped head, which was a quarter to a third of its total body length. Said body length averaged at around fifteen meters for a male at maturity. The species was highly sexually dimorphic, with males possessing a larger size and weight than females. Males at maturity weighed around 45,000 kg, while females were comparably smaller at an average 30,000 kg. For ease of movement, the species maintained a tail fluke, two dorsal fins, and two sets of flippers, for a total of four. From either side of its head protruded distinctive barbels, whisker-like sensory organs that aided the nightwhale in low-visibility conditions.

## History

### Evolution and discovery

As its name indicates, the Hoth nightwhale evolved on the snowy world of Hoth, much of which was covered by deep, cold ocean waters. Over many thousands of millennia, the species grew to embody a cetacean body plan with some deviations—including a blockish head, an additional set of flippers, an additional dorsal fin, and a pair of barbels protruding from its face. The cetacean dwarfed all other life on the planet and remained by far the largest native organism by size and mass.

The nightwhale was also notable for its status as Hoth's only sentient fauna besides the Skel, thereby endowed with the ability to cogitate and reason abstractly. Pods of nightwhales thus organized themselves into political and social hierarchies based on vocal talent and lyricism in whalesong. In tandem with their political and social development, nightwhales developed a culture of sophisticated poetry and storytelling which furnished the content of their many and diverse songs and hymns. Said stories served as the foundation for nightwhale existence and the legitimation of their way of life.

### Contact with the Whaladon

About seven hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, the Whaladon species of Mon Cala began an exploratory initiative to locate and contact any other intelligent cetacean species of the Galaxy. In partnership with the Mon Calamari people, and adapting their technology, Whalodons launched an automated droid probe named the *Ceti Aurek* on a centuries-long voyage through space. The probe maintained an extensive catalogue of all known oceanic or marine worlds and visited each in an attempt to uncover whale or whalelike species.

In 91 BBY, the probe arrived at Hoth after over half a millennium of disappointment. When it entered standard orbit around Hoth, however, the probe detected a chorus of whalesong permeating Hoth's ocean. The probe, designed for submergence as well as spaceflight, descended into the Hoth ocean and made first contact with the Hoth nightwhale population. Over several weeks the two cetacean species exchanged languages, literature, culture, and mathematical and scientific knowledge. It thereafter returned to Mon Cala and sung its victorious news to its makers. The Whaladons thereafter retained diplomatic relations with the Hoth nightwhales, who exhibited no interest in interacting with any other alien races.

## Behind the scenes

The Hoth nightwhale is a fanonized expansion of the Hoth whale, a creature which makes a single appearance in the 1987 Japanese video game simply titled *Star Wars*. The nightwhale's appearance is based on Giglioli's whale, a cetacean cryptid claimed to have been discovered by respected zoologist Enrico Hillyer Giglioli. The whale is notable for its possession of two dorsal fins. It was given the scientific name *Amphiptera pacifica* by Giglioli, but modern cetology has not shown its existence.

## Sources

* *The Essential Guide to Galactic Fauna*

## Notes and references

1. ↑ Mitchell, Robbie. Monsters of the Deep? The Truth about Cryptid Whales. *Historic Mysteries.* May 26, 2023.