The Crèche were a religion on the planet Ovanis in Outer Rim Territories, upon which they protected a giant egg that they believed would one day hatch a savior and lead to the salvation of the galaxy. The galactic explorer Lor San Tekka lived with them for two years to understand their ways. Many years later, Commander Poe Dameron of the Resistance found the Crèche and attempted to gain their trust as part of his search for the old explorer. The Crèche were later caught up in a conflict between the Resistance and the First Order, a successor state of the Galactic Empire. The Crèche later adopted a black-skinned wing creature as their savior and left with it to find a new home.
A Crèche elder, admiring the Crèche egg.
The Crèche were a religion on the planet Ovanis who worshiped, protected, and nourished a large glowing blue egg in the Cave of the Crèche. They regarded the creature inside as their savior unborn. Members of the Crèche dedicated their entire lives to protecting the egg for generations. They believed that the egg held their salvation. When the egg hatched, they believed that they would receive their reward. The Crèche was led by a female elder who was a humanoid with black eyes. The religion included several humans, an Ottegan, and a Trandoshan. Members of the Crèche wore blue markings on their foreheads. Several members of the Crèche wielded blasters.
The Crèche creature, hatched
The Crèche were a religion on the remote planet of Ovanis. For generations, followers the Crèche spent their time protecting and worshiping the Crèche egg, which they kep in the Cave of the Crèche. Several years before the Cold War, the explorer Lor San Tekka visited the Crèche and spent two seasons learning their ways and communicating with the "savior unborn." He became their brother and learned their secrets. Following Operation: Sabre Strike, the Resistance leader General Leia Organa dispatched Captain Poe Dameron and his Black Squadron to the planet Ovanis to ask the Crèche about the whereabouts of Lor San Tekka. Leia believed that Tekka could help find her missing brother Luke Skywalker, who disappeared after a failed attempt to restart the Jedi Order.
Poe and his droid BB-8 landed their T-70 X-wing starfighter in the Cave of the Crèche. Shortly after landing, armed Crèche members confronted the two strangers. One shot Poe's comlink out of his hand. Poe managed to calm the Crèche and told them about the purpose of his visit. The Crèche elder was familiar with Tekka but told him he had left a long time ago. She told Poe about the cult's devotion to the Crèche egg and offered to share their secrets if he would join them. BB-8 discovered a tracker on his starfighter and alerted Poe, who confronted them.
Mistaking the tracker for a detonator, the elder thought that Poe was threatening the egg and ordered her followers to subdue him. Poe managed to calm the situation down and told them that he was being tracked by people who would endanger the egg. Poe convinced the Crèche to let him contact his fellow pilots so that they could protect the group. Poe soon discovered that a First Order landing platform had arrived above the Cave of the Crèche and was deploying several stormtroopers, who were equipped with jetpacks.
Poe managed to convince the Crèche to hide him and BB-8. They tried to seal the door to the cave but the First Order Agent Terex blasted through the door with his First Order speeder bike. The Crèche elder and her followers confronted Terex with blasters and ordered him to leave, claiming that his presence polluted the sacred energies in the chamber. However, Terex's stormtroopers swarmed the cave. Terex offered to fix their door and informed the Crèche that he had come to find Poe Dameron. The Crèche elder feigned ignorance but a stormtrooper manage to pick up Poe's tracker.
When Terex threatened to torch the Crèche egg, Poe surrendered himself and offered to talk with Terex. When Poe informed Terex that his Black Squadron comrades were attacking Terex's First Order forces, Terex was unperturbed and ordered his flametroopers to begin torching the egg. He also revealed that he had brought reinforcements in the form of the Maxima-A class heavy cruiser Ravenous and more TIE/fo space superiority fighters. While Terex and Poe argued, the flametrooper's flamethrowers caused the Crèche egg to hatch, releasing a large blue-skinned creature.
Believing the creature to be their savior, the Crèche elder asked the creature how to save this sinner's world. The creature instead attacked the Crèche and swiped the cultists with its massive wings. The Crèche creature then proceeded to attack Terex's stormtroopers. When the Crèche elder confronted the creature and asked how they had angered it, the creature tried to devour her but was attacked by a large black winged creature. The two creatures fought and broke a hole through the cave's ceiling, interrupting an aerial dogfight between Black Squadron and Terex's TIE fighters. Ultimately, the black winged creature triumphed over the blue winged creature and fired a red beam through the latter, killing it.
Following the battle, the Crèche worshipers disarmed Terex and his surviving stormtroopers. To avoid war between the First Order and the New Republic, Poe decided to release Terex and his men. The Crèche cultists climbed onto the back of the Crèche creature and departed to a new home. Before leaving, Poe asked the Crèche elder if she knew what was inside the egg. The lady admitted they did not know but remarked that was never the point. The Crèche then left Black Squadron and Terex's men in the cave.
The Crèche first appeared in the 2016 comic Poe Dameron 1, written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Phil Noto.
- Poe Dameron: Flight Log
- Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia
- Star Wars: Timelines