Star Wars: The High Republic has finally revealed its mysterious Force-eating monsters, known as “The Levelers.” These beasts have been harnassed by the evil space pirate collective The Nihil in their all-out assault on The Jedi Order, and they are a weapon unlike anything we’ve seen before in Star Wars. Levelers have been seen to completely reduce Jedi and other Force-sensitives to trembling messes, by cutting them off entirely from the Force before turning them into dusted husks. How that process works has been one mystery – but what the Levelers actually look like has been another mystery… until now.
The reason we don’t know what these Levelers look like is because of how their powers work. When Jedi and Force-sensitives get near a Leveler, the beasts spark wild hallucinations in them, twisting their minds with sheer terror. It’s basically Star Wars‘ version of Batman villain Scarecrow and his Fear Toxin – but, you know, for Jedi.
Well, in the final chapter of Star Wars: The High Republic – Trail of Shadows, one Jedi investigator, Emerick Caphtor, manages to do what his fellow Jedi could not: push through the Levelers’ evil void to a true look at the creatures:
The Nihil member Doctor Uttersond reveals to Emerick that the “Levelers” are also known as “The Shrii-Ka-Rai: Eaters of the Force” or simply “The Nameless.” In Uttersond’s explanation: “Their mere presence causes Madness, hallucinations, in Force users.”
Indeed The Shrii-Ka-Rai monster that Emerick and his partner Sian Holt encounter is even more fearsome in its true form than the hallucinations is causes in Force users. The creatures were frozen in ice in a remote part of the galaxy but were dug up and freed by Marchion Ro, the leader (or “Eye”) of the Nihil (in the novel Star Wars: The Rising Storm). Since first unleashing the Shrii-Ka-Rai against the Jedi (and killing master Loden Greatstorm), the beasts have been deployed in various ways against the Jedi – most notably in the Nihil’s attack on the Jedi/Republic outpost, Starlight Beacon.
In the new novel Star Wars: The Fallen Star, the Shrii-Ka-Rai are smuggled into Starlight station as a disruption to the Jedi while the Nihil infiltrated and sabotaged the station. The body count of Jedi these Levelers have dusted has also grown substantially (and includes some fan-favorite characters), with other Jedi, like Emerick, left with something close to PTSD after just near-encounters with them. Between the Shrii-Ka-Rai and Drengir plant monsters, The High Republic is showing how Jedi of that era had dark side threats well beyond the Sith to worry about…
When the ComicBook Nation crew sat down with Star Wars: The High Repbublic – Trail of Shadows writer Daniel José Older, he explained why The High Republic has kept the Shrii-Ka-Rai’s creature design such a big secret:
“You could think of it like Alien, you know? You take your time,” Older explains. “You don’t throw your monster on the first panel, or the first shot – you kinda work your way towards it. And I think what their effect is, is what’s most important. And sort of knowing that, as we move towards finding more about them – and we do find out more about them… So we do find out more and finding out more is what people are after.”
The Levelers, or Shrii-Ka-Rai, or Nameless will be appearing in Star Wars: The High Republic.
