Join The Infernal Brotherhood of the Scruffy Looking, Nerf Herders as they explore Star Wars lore via their own personal Holocron. In this episode we look at The Gree species’ history.
Transcript
Cold Open
Long before the Jedi Order ever ignited a lightsaber or the Galactic Republic mapped its first hyperspace lane, an ancient, six-tentacled species controlled vast swathes of the galaxy using technology so absurdly advanced, even their own descendants eventually forgot how it actually worked.
Intro
Greetings, my fellow Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herders, and welcome back to The Infernal Brotherhood!
Today, we are stepping far outside the familiar timeline of the Empire and the Skywalker saga to journey over one hundred thousand years into the past. We’re opening the archives on one of the oldest, most enigmatic, and outright bizarre species in all of Star Wars Legends: The Gree.
If you’ve played Star Wars: The Old Republic, you’ve probably bumped into these strange, overly polite, highly methodical aliens on the frozen world of Ilum. But their history goes back deeper than just being a quirky side-quest faction. So, grab your holocrons, settle in, and let’s break down the history of the galaxy’s original hyper-engineers.
Discussion
Introduction: Legends Beyond the Core
Long before the rise of the Galactic Republic, before the discovery of hyperdrive engines, and millennia before the first Jedi bound themselves to the Light side of the Force, the galaxy belonged to giants. Ancient, enigmatic civilizations rose and fell across the stars, leaving behind monuments that defy modern physics.
Among these elder species, few inspire as much awe—and deep confusion—as the Gree.
Originating from the isolated Gree Enclave in the Outer Rim, this ancient non-humanoid species established an interstellar empire over one hundred thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. To the modern galaxy, the Gree appear as cephalopodic beings with multiple tentacles, glowing eyes, and a culture so deeply tied to abstract logic, geometry, and color that their language is nearly impossible for ordinary protocol droids to translate.
Yet, to look at the Gree today as a declining, insular species is to overlook one of the greatest technological superpowers the galaxy has ever known.
The Zenith of Gree Technology: Beyond Hyperdrive
At the height of their civilization, the Gree did not travel through hyperspace the way modern starships do. They did not calculate vector jump points or rely on hyperdrive engines. Instead, they folded space itself.
Through the creation of Hypergates—colossal, ring-like structures constructed from near-indestructible alloys—the Gree created a galaxy-wide transportation network. A Hypergate could open an instantaneous wormhole directly across thousands of light-years, linking star systems in the blink of an eye. With this technology, the Gree Enclave expanded rapidly, establishing research outposts and colonizing worlds long before other species had even discovered fire.
Their mastery extended far beyond mere travel:
- They were Genetic Engineering: The Gree engineered entire ecosystems, bio-crafting servitor species to maintain their facilities and guard their secrets.
- They had Computer Super-Architectures: They constructed planetary-scale AI computers capable of running predictive algorithms that calculated future galactic events thousands of years in advance.
- And they understood Matter Synthesis: Gree constructors could print complex starships and structures atom-by-atom using pure energy fields.
The Great Regression: A Empire Lost to Time
If the Gree were so vastly superior, why didn’t they conquer the galaxy?
The answer lies in a tragic concept known as the Great Regression. Tens of thousands of years ago, a catastrophic collapse shattered the golden age of the Gree Enclave. The exact cause remains debated by galactic historians. Some speculate it was a war with the aggressive Rakata Infinite Empire, whose Force-based technology clashed violently with Gree scientific logic. Others believe it was an internal stagnation—a culture so obsessed with perfection that it lost the capacity for innovation.
Whatever the cause, the results were devastating. The secret methods required to build and maintain their highest technologies were forgotten. Generations passed, and the knowledge degraded from active science into ritualized dogma.
Modern Gree do not “build” their ancestral artifacts; they simply operate them using rigid, sacred protocols. They view their ancestors’ creations with religious reverence, referring to advanced systems with abstract color-coded terminology—describing complex operational statuses as “Octagon Black” or “Secant Purple.”
Mysteries of the Gray Secant
Perhaps no single object encapsulates the mysterious nature of the Gree better than the Gray Secant.
Discovered during the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the Gray Secant is an ancient, ancient, starship-sized artifact shaped like a hyper-complex geometric vessel. Floating in the cold void above the ice world of Ilum, the Secant was not a weapon of war, but an automated, sentient analytical processor.
Programmed eons ago, the Gray Secant periodically wakes from slumber to analyze the galaxy’s physical and organic progress. It deploys droid caretakers and energy constructs to collect data, testing the military and intellectual capacity of modern species.
To the Sith, the ship represented an untapped superweapon of unimaginable power. To the Republic, it was a priceless treasure trove of lost science. Yet to the Gree who guarded it, the Gray Secant was simply performing a calculation set in motion before human history even began—an equation that may take another hundred thousand years to complete.
The Legacy of the Elder Race
Today, the Gree remain confined within the boundaries of the Gree Enclave—a secluded sector of space off-limits to casual traders and Republic scouts. They rarely intervene in galactic politics, remaining neutral during the Jedi-Sith wars, the Clone Wars, and the rise of the Galactic Empire.
When outsiders do encounter the Gree, it is usually because an ancient Gree vault or Hypergate has been disturbed on some remote world. Intruders who breach these ancient tombs quickly learn that even degraded Gree technology is far deadlier than modern blasters or turbolasers. Automated defense droids, light-scythe energy shields, and spatial distortion weapons still guard the secrets of the masters.
The story of the Gree serves as a quiet warning to the rest of the galaxy: no empire, no matter how advanced, is immune to the passage of time. As Jedi, Sith, and star fleets wage endless war across the cosmos, the silent monuments of the Gree Enclave stand as enduring relics of a time when giants walked among the stars—waiting for a galaxy that might one day understand them again.
Outro
Ultimately, the Gree serve as one of the most fascinating cautionary tales in Star Wars lore—a civilization that climbed to such staggering technological heights that they eventually became prisoners of their own legacy, guarding machines they could no longer truly comprehend.
What’s your favorite piece of ancient, pre-Republic Star Wars lore? Have you encountered the Gree while playing SWTOR? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you to my Creator Patrons Aaron Hardy & D. Robert Handy, Producer Patron David Galindo, Developer Patrons Chris Androu & Sam Ruiz and all of the YouTube Members!
Until we convene again, my fellow Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herders… May the Force be with you.