Entechment

"It is joy. It is peace. It is freedom. It is our gift to you."

―Dev Sibwarra^[1]

The Truce at Bakura — Ssi-ruu entech a Human, while Dev Sibwarra looks on.

Entechment was a process by which a being's life-energy was drained from its body to be used as a power source for a machine. Entechment was developed by the Ssi-ruuk,^[2] who used it to power their ships. The number of life-forces required was determined by the size of the ship.

The most common species to undergo Ssi-ruuk entechment was the P'w'eck, the slaves of the Ssi-ruuk. When the Ssi-ruuk attacked Bakura about 4 ABY, they discovered after taking Imperial prisoners that Humans were a far more powerful source of energy than the P'w'eck.^[2]

The Ssi-ruuk claimed that the entechment process was entirely painless, although the victims would always scream as if in severe agony when hooked up to the entechment rigs. The Ssi-ruuk employed the Force-sensitive Human Dev Sibwarra to calm those being enteched, although they told even him that it was a painless process, even promising that he would someday be "allowed" to be enteched.^[1]

EntechmentRig-NEGWT — An entechment rig.

During a space battle involving Ssi-ruuk drone fighters, Luke Skywalker sensed that the beings who had been enteched were still conscious and in agony even after the process had been carried out. This proved to be advantageous to the Human forces, as Skywalker was able to reach out with the Force and help the enteched beings to break free from the will of their Ssi-ruuk masters and turn on each other in order to end their misery. Later, Skywalker was captured by the Ssi-ruuk and brought aboard their flagship. After being released by Dev Sibwarra, he went through Shriwirr destroying various components and freeing many more enteched beings.^[1]

In 12 ABY, Jedi trainee Nichos Marr was diagnosed with the fatal Quannot's Syndrome, an inexplicable degenerative decay of the nervous system. As Marr was hospitalized on Coruscant and his life quickly faded away, his lover Cray Mingla decided to try to use the forbidden Entechment technology to transfer Marr's essence into a droid body. The technicians of the biomedical institute on Coruscant constructed a droid carcass, recreating every detail of Marr's body, complete with a birthmark on his right hand. After performing the procedure of transferring Marr's essence, Mingla believed that she had succeeded and saved her fiancé from certain death. In fact, the transfer did not work as planned—the real Marr had succumbed to the disease and died, while the droid turned out to be nothing more than a machine programmed with Marr's memories and mannerisms.^[3]

By 28 ABY, the entechment process had been perfected. The Ssi-ruuk had found ways to nourish the enteched souls. The life energy distilled from concentrated banks of algae and other microscopic life could prevent the enteched souls from decaying. It also removed the torment many enteched souls felt. Thus, the enteched life energy would be preserved reducing the need for frequent replenishment. The Ssi-ruuk also attempted a second invasion of Bakura, though their plot backfired when their P'w'eck slaves revolted.^[4]