Ysalamiri

Ysalamiri were four-eyed, lizard-like creatures.^[1] During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn had two sculptures of ysalamiri made out of green, brown, and yellow material in his office aboard the Chimaera, placed behind his desk.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Continuities[]

"The first thing that occurred to me […] was the idea of the ysalamiri creatures that could reduce the Force to a point where Jedi could not access it."

―Timothy Zahn on his initial idea for ysalamiri^[3]

Ysalamiri first appeared in Star Wars canon as sculptures in the 2017 Star Wars Rebels episode "Through Imperial Eyes,"^[2] the seventeenth episode of the show's third season.^[4] The creature's name was first identified in the Behind-the-Scenes Gallery of the episode guide that accompanied "Through Imperial Eyes" on StarWars.com.^[1] They first appeared in the Star Wars Legends continuity in the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. In Legends, ysalamiri was the plural form of the creature's name and the singular form was ysalamir.^[5] According to Zahn, the idea of a creature that could impede a Jedi's access to The Force was the first idea he had for the story after hearing from his agent about the offer to write a book series that continued the story of Star Wars after Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.^[3]

Stories in Legends[]

In Heir to the Empire, ysalamiri were furry lizard-like creatures native to the planet Myrkr that could impede a Jedi's access to the Force. They were used by Thrawn to keep the powers of his tenuous ally, the insane Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth, at bay.^[5] Thrawn later employed them against his enemy Luke Skywalker in the subsequent installments of The Thrawn Trilogy.^[6] Ysalamiri went on to appear in several other Legends works, including Zahn's own Vision of the Future.^[7]

Zahn initially received many complaints from readers regarding Thrawn's explanation in Heir to the Empire that ysalamiri could "push back" the Force on the grounds that the Force was created by all living beings and could not be "pushed back" in that manner. He would clarify that Thrawn's explanation was inaccurate and ysalamiri simply supress the level of the Force present, a distinction that was later shown more clearly.^[8]