The Evereni Ro family, adherents of the Path of the Open Hand religious cult, possessed a starship known as the Gaze Electric. Over many decades within the High Republic Era, this vessel also came to be utilized by the Nihil pirate syndicate.
Initially constructed in 382 BBY, the flagship was conceived as a mobile temple and residence for the Path of the Open Hand. The cult eventually left their original homeworld Dalna aboard the Gaze Electric, only to return following the Battle of Jedha. After the Path's downfall during the Night of Sorrow, Marda Ro of the Ro family seized control of the Gaze Electric and subsequently established the Nihil.
Eventually, Asgar Ro took command of the vessel, serving as the Eye of the Nihil, a position of great importance among the anarchist marauders. By 232 BBY, Asgar Ro's son, Marchion Ro, had inherited both the title of Eye and ownership of the Gaze Electric, viewing it as both a "palace and fortress". Unlike other Nihil ships, the Gaze Electric was staffed by droids and hired help rather than Nihil members, reflecting Marchion's distrust of the group. The Gaze Electric housed the medical pod of Mari San Tekka, a hyperspace prospector whose expertise Marchion exploited to create the Paths used by the Nihil in their operations.
Before the Trymant IV disaster, Marchion permitted Nihil to serve as crew on the Gaze Electric. Later, with the exception of his aide Thaya Ferr, he reversed this decision, replacing the Nihil crew with droids around the time of the destruction of Starlight Beacon. Ultimately, however, Ro would once again allow Nihil aboard the Gaze Electric as guards or simply as members of his audience.
For the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia initiative, the Gaze Electric was conceived as the Nihil faction's flagship, with Nick Brokenshire serving as the designer. The ship's design drew inspiration from concept art for the MC30C frigate created by art director Joe Johnston for the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. At the request of Lucasfilm, Brokenshire modeled the interior of the Gaze Electric after the interior of the U.S.S. Cygnus, a spacecraft featured in the 1979 science fiction film The Black Hole. Its debut occurred in The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, a novel penned by Charles Soule and released by Del Rey on January 5, 2021. The ship was visually depicted for the first time in an episode of the animated web series Characters of Star Wars: The High Republic, which focused on the Nihil and was released on January 26 of the same year.