Crèche

The Crèche, a religion native to the planet Ovanis, dedicated themselves to the worship, protection, and sustenance of a large glowing blue egg located within the Cave of the Crèche. They revered the entity contained within as their yet-to-be-born savior. For generations, adherents of the Crèche committed their lives to the preservation of this egg. Their belief system centered on the notion that the egg held the key to their salvation. They anticipated receiving their reward upon the egg's eventual hatching. The Crèche's leadership was vested in a female elder, a humanoid being distinguished by black eyes. The religious group comprised several humans, an Ottegan, and a Trandoshan. Members of the Crèche adorned their foreheads with blue markings. Furthermore, a number of Crèche members were armed with blasters.

The Crèche existed as a religion on the isolated world of Ovanis. Across generations, the Crèche's followers devoted themselves to the worship and protection of the Crèche egg, housed within the Cave of the Crèche. Several years prior to the Cold War, the explorer Lor San Tekka paid a visit to the Crèche, spending two seasons immersed in their practices and communicating with the "savior unborn." He was embraced as a brother and gained access to their secrets. In the aftermath of Operation: Sabre Strike, General Leia Organa, the leader of the Resistance, dispatched Captain Poe Dameron along with his Black Squadron to Ovanis, tasking them with inquiring about the whereabouts of Lor San Tekka from the Crèche. Leia was of the opinion that Tekka could assist in locating her missing brother, Luke Skywalker, who had vanished after a failed attempt to re-establish the Jedi Order.

Poe and his droid companion, BB-8, piloted their T-70 X-wing starfighter to a landing inside the Cave of the Crèche. Shortly after their arrival, armed members of the Crèche confronted the two newcomers. One of them discharged Poe's comlink from his grasp. Poe successfully de-escalated the situation and explained the purpose of his visit to the Crèche. The Crèche elder acknowledged familiarity with Tekka, but informed Poe that he had departed a considerable time ago. She conveyed the cult's unwavering devotion to the Crèche egg and proposed sharing their secrets with Poe, contingent upon his joining their ranks. BB-8 detected a tracker affixed to their starfighter and alerted Poe, who subsequently confronted the Crèche.

Misinterpreting the tracker as a detonator, the elder surmised that Poe was threatening the egg, prompting her to instruct her followers to restrain him. Poe managed to diffuse the situation and clarified that he was being tracked by individuals who posed a danger to the egg. Poe then persuaded the Crèche to permit him to contact his fellow pilots so that they could safeguard the group. Poe soon discovered that a First Order landing platform had positioned itself above the Cave of the Crèche and was in the process of deploying numerous stormtroopers, equipped with jetpacks.

Poe succeeded in persuading the Crèche to conceal him and BB-8. They attempted to seal the cave entrance, but Agent Terex of the First Order breached the door using his First Order speeder bike. The Crèche elder and her followers confronted Terex with blasters, demanding his departure and asserting that his presence contaminated the sacred energies within the chamber. However, Terex's stormtroopers infiltrated the cave. Terex offered to repair their door and informed the Crèche that he had arrived in search of Poe Dameron. The Crèche elder feigned ignorance, but a stormtrooper succeeded in locating Poe's tracker.

When Terex threatened to incinerate the Crèche egg, Poe surrendered himself and proposed a discussion with Terex. Upon Poe's revelation that his Black Squadron comrades were engaging Terex's First Order forces, Terex remained unfazed and ordered his flametroopers to commence torching the egg. He further disclosed that he had brought reinforcements in the form of the Maxima-A class heavy cruiser Ravenous and additional TIE/fo space superiority fighters. Amidst the exchange between Terex and Poe, the flamethrowers wielded by the flametroopers caused the Crèche egg to hatch, releasing a large blue-skinned creature.

In the belief that the creature was their prophesied savior, the Crèche elder implored it to reveal how to redeem this sinful world. Instead, the creature turned on the Crèche, striking the cultists with its enormous wings. The Crèche creature then proceeded to attack Terex's stormtroopers. When the Crèche elder confronted the creature, questioning how they had incurred its wrath, the creature attempted to devour her but was intercepted by a large black winged creature. The two creatures engaged in combat, breaching a hole through the cave's ceiling and disrupting an aerial dogfight between Black Squadron and Terex's TIE fighters. Ultimately, the black winged creature emerged victorious over the blue winged creature, dispatching it with a red beam.

Following the battle, the Crèche worshipers disarmed Terex and his surviving stormtroopers. To avert a war between the First Order and the New Republic, Poe made the decision to release Terex and his men. The Crèche cultists mounted the back of the Crèche creature and departed in search of a new home. Before their departure, Poe inquired of the Crèche elder whether she knew the contents of the egg. The lady conceded that they did not, but remarked that that was never the central point. The Crèche then left Black Squadron and Terex's men behind in the cave.

The Crèche made their inaugural appearance in the 2016 comic Poe Dameron 1, penned by Charles Soule and brought to life by Phil Noto's illustrations.