Behemoth from the World Below

The "Behemoth from the World Below" was once a regular lizard, but it was warped by the dark side of the Force. It became a massive, green-skinned creature that stood taller than most sentient beings and could crush a person with a single step. Its immense body was covered in scales, it possessed yellow eyes and massive teeth, and it had the raw strength to tear apart a mountain with its bare hands and swat skyspeeders aside like insects. Although the beast lay dormant for ages beneath the planet of Aduba-3, a Force-sensitive individual who knew how to create a mental link with it could awaken the monster—once awakened, the Behemoth would obey the summoner's instructions. However, if the person controlling it died or became incapacitated, the Behemoth would attack anyone nearby.

Sith Lord Seviss Vaa specifically engineered the Behemoth to be a threat to Jedi. As such, the Behemoth was extremely sensitive to the energy of a Jedi lightsaber, and sensing one nearby would send it into a frenzy. The Behemoth would then violently attack any Jedi in the vicinity, and Vaa even created a special organ inside the monster that could fire lightning bolts from its forehead. Though this beam attack was incredibly powerful, the Behemoth preferred to stomp on or swat away its opponents with its limbs, and it would also use nearby boulders as projectiles. Its hide was also so thick that it was almost entirely unaffected by blaster fire, making it nearly impossible to defeat through conventional means. However, the dark side energies that held the beast together were very unstable and could easily lose their cohesion. Ultimately, one of the monster's only weaknesses was the weapon it was designed to counter: the lightsaber. The closer a lightsaber got to the Behemoth, the more the weapon's aura affected the monster's lightning beam attack, and a well-placed strike from a lightsaber could cause the Behemoth's energy to go completely out of control, leading to its disintegration.

During the time of the New Sith Wars, Sith Lord Seviss Vaa became deeply interested in alchemical writings penned by the ancient Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow. As one of the most influential subordinates of Lord Skere Kaan in the Brotherhood of Darkness, Vaa resolved to revive the practice of Sith alchemy and create a repository of Sithspawn twisted by the dark side. Vaa tested his skills on various planets, including a remote world in the Outer Rim that would later be known as Aduba-3. In one of his initial experiments, Vaa transformed a native lizard into a dark side monster, designed to relentlessly target Jedi. Although the beast was flawed, Vaa believed it was worth further study and placed it in suspended animation within an underground cave, planning to return to it after working on other projects. However, Vaa was killed in the Ruusan campaign shortly after, and the creature was left to slumber beneath the earth.

Centuries later, colonists from the Sacred Way established the farming village of Onacra near the creature's burial site, and a Force-sensitive villager somehow learned about the beast's existence. Over time, the legend of the "Behemoth from the World Below" became well-known throughout Onacra, as generations passed down the story of a sleeping monster that would protect the village from harm. The stories told, among other things, that the Behemoth would be almost impossible to calm down once it went on the attack. At some points in Onacra's history, the Behemoth was the subject of worship by the villagers—stories told of times in the past where the beast had awoken to save the town from harm. By 0 ABY, the Old One, a Force-sensitive village mystic, was the last to keep the story of the Behemoth alive, having become obsessed with the monster after discovering its resting place in his youth.

By that time, Onacra had become a target for a violent bandit group known as the Cloud-Riders, who were causing destruction and chaos unless the village paid them to leave them alone. Although the people of Onacra hired Rebel hero Han Solo to form a posse and defend the village, the Old One's belief in the Behemoth as his home's savior was absolute. Convinced that he had the power to summon and control the beast, the Old One tried to convince Solo to leave the defense of the village to him—when Solo refused, the Old One stormed off to carry out his plan alone. The Cloud-Riders arrived soon after, sparking a chaotic gunfight with casualties on both sides. However, the fighting was interrupted by the shrieks and cries of the Old One, who wandered onto the battlefield and began to chant an incantation to awaken the Behemoth from its slumber.

Despite most people considering the Old One a senile fool for claiming to be connected to the mythical monster, the ground suddenly began to shake and tremble. To the amazement of everyone watching, the Behemoth from the World Below emerged from beneath the earth, snarling and ready for battle. Most surprisingly, the monster appeared to be following the Old One's commands, only targeting the Cloud-Riders while completely ignoring Solo's group, the Star-Hoppers. Serji-X Arrogantus, the leader of the Cloud-Riders, had grown up hearing stories about the Behemoth, and he turned his gang's full attention to fighting the beast, only to see his crew's skyspeeders easily destroyed one by one. With the Behemoth seemingly invincible, Arrogantus turned his skyspeeder and charged toward the Old One below, hoping that taking out the man commanding the monster would turn the tide of the battle.

Whether Arrogantus's attack ever reached the Old One became irrelevant, as the Behemoth crushed both of them with a single, massive stomp. The Behemoth quickly eliminated the few remaining Cloud-Riders, but with the Old One's mental link broken, there was nothing stopping the monster from attacking everyone else. The Behemoth soon turned its attention to Solo's Star-Hoppers, nearly killing gunslingers Jaxxon and Amaiza Foxtrain after causing a rockslide. However, the Behemoth's attack was diverted when Don-Wan Kihotay, one of Solo's companions who aspired to be a Jedi, activated a lightsaber. The weapon's appearance immediately caught the Behemoth's attention, and the monster focused all its energy on trying to kill Kihotay. Noticing how the monster reacted to Kihotay's lightsaber, Solo grabbed the weapon from the man's hands and, dodging several lightning beams, plunged the weapon into the monster's chest. After a moment, the Behemoth began to rage and convulse, and then disintegrated completely. Onacra had been saved from the very beast that had been summoned to protect it.

The events surrounding the battle for Onacra quickly became legendary throughout the galaxy, fueled by Solo's growing fame. In 2 ABY, Tri-Nebula Entertainment released the holo-doc Eight for Aduba-3: The Saga of the Starhoppers, which claimed to tell the true story of Solo's adventures. The holo-doc included the Behemoth's attack, but the depiction of a gigantic monster shooting a laser beam out of its head was too far-fetched for Voren Na'al, a Rebel historian, who traveled to Aduba-3 to find out exactly what happened there two years prior. Although he received accounts from locals that seemed to confirm the Behemoth's existence and involvement in the battle, Na'al left Aduba-3 still doubting that the creature was real.

The Behemoth from the World Below made its debut in Star Wars (1977) 9, which was written by Roy Thomas and released in 1977. The monster's encounter with Han Solo served as the plot for the series' next issue. More than two decades later, the Behemoth's backstory was revealed in the Star Wars Gamer 4 article The Starhoppers of Aduba-3, which was written by Pablo Hidalgo, Cory J. Herndon, and Michael Mikaelian. During the Behemoth's appearances in the comics, it was illustrated by Howard Chaykin, Tom Palmer, and Alan Kupperberg.