Attendants

The **Attendants** were a group of Force-sensitive alien navigators from an ancient insectoid species that served the Grysk in the Unknown Regions, where they originated. They were active in the Imperial–Grysk conflict during the Age of the Empire, as well as during the time of the war between the First Order and the Resistance, serving under First Order Supreme Leader Snoke.

## History

#### The Hives

Before contact with the Grysk, Attendants traveled the Unknown Regions in vast hive swarms of living ships. These ships were domesticated spacefaring cephalopods with hard shells, capable of burrowing through hyperspace naturally by sensing and following twisted magnetic fields. These Attendants traveled like swarms of locusts, consuming all of the organic matter of a system before moving on to strip the next system.

What deal the Grysk made with the Attendants was lost to history, or perhaps the Attendants were conquered. Either way, when the Grysk created their first Client hives, Attendant drones formed the core of those hives. Within a few centuries, independent Attendant hive swarms fell into legend. Whatever name the species had for themselves was lost.

#### Imperial Era

The Attendants were active in the Imperial Era, during which time they served the Grysk Hegemony. Under the Hegemony, the Attendants formed the core of Client hiveminds that enabled Grysk warships to travel through the Unknown Regions. After an attack on a Grysk warship by the Galactic Empire and Chiss Ascendancy, allied forces rescued Un'hee, a Chiss Force-sensitive. Imperial Chiss Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo and Ascendancy Admiral Ar'alani questioned Un'hee if there were other Chiss aboard the Grysk vessels that the allied forces were combating, which they denied as there were only Clients aboard the warship. Any who had once been Chiss were no longer.

Following the fall of the Galactic Empire at the Battle of Jakku, what was left of the Empire fled to the Unknown Regions in order to escape from the New Republic and plan their revenge. Although most of the surviving Imperial officers would have likely died while crossing the uncharted Regions, ancient hyperspace trails known by the Attendants helped them to stay there, where they eventually formed the First Order. These Attendants had been stolen from their Client hives to serve the First Order's Supreme Leader Snoke, who had lured a mated queen and her nurses from the Grysk as part of a plan to breed his own hive to be controlled by him through the Force. At least two Attendants served aboard Snoke's flagship, the *Supremacy*, after the evacuation of D'Qar in 34 ABY, where they had designed and operated the oculus viewing scope in Snoke's throne room.

Two Attendants were in Snoke's throne room when General Armitage Hux entered the chamber after the battle over D'Qar. As Hux and Snoke conversed, the Attendants carried on with their mysterious work at the oculus viewing scope. Later, as Kylo Ren arrived, the Attendants slowly turned to look over to Snoke before turning back to the oculus. As Ren knelt before his master, the Attendant closest to the throne turned and slowly looked to Ren and kept its gaze on him while the other Attendant's attention remained on the oculus. As Snoke moved from his throne to Ren, the Attendant turned back to the oculus as the second Attendant moved to watch the interaction between Snoke and Ren.

Both watched and did not react as the Supreme Leader struck Ren with Force lightning when he attempted to attack Snoke in a fit of anger. They continued to remain still as Snoke returned to his throne. Later, as Ren brought Rey before Snoke, two Attendants were present in the throne room, standing before the oculus looking towards the Supreme Leader. Sometime later, Hux entered the throne room to find it in shambles and on fire. Looking around he saw that the Attendants had fled before seeing Snoke dead in a crumpled heap before his throne.

## Biology and Appearance

Attendants wore sweeping floor-length robes and blank masks with glowing eyes. These robes and masks kept their true forms hidden from casual perusal. What these true forms were seemed to depend on the observer as that observer was beset by visions caused by the Attendant's attempt to communicate. The end result was a sanity-flensing synesthesia that tended to cause migraines and nightmares in the observer. However, most attempts at description involved something insectoid with far too many limbs in colors that should not be.

## Language

Attendants communicated with each other through a combination of pheromones and mental contact through the Force that they experienced as bursts of color. Attendants who were implanted as Clients had also learned to incorporate such concepts as 'hive-presence' and 'hive-thought' into their language. The end result was a language barrier between those Attendants who had been implanted and those who were not as millennia of time spent as Clients caused the Attendants to grow used to the specific type of mental contact afforded by a Grysk Client hive.