Cult of M'dweshuu

Those who studied the records of the Cult of M'dweshuu considered it to be quite strange. Cultists would sacrifice those they considered impure, hoping to appease the spirit of the M'dweshuu Nova.

The star M'dweshuu was an unstable celestial body situated in the heart of the Si'Klaata Cluster within the Outer Rim Territories. Millions of years prior to the establishment of the Republic, the dying star emitted massive amounts of radiation as it neared its end, which reached the nearby star system that contained the unremarkable, blue-green world of Kintan. The radiation entered the planet's atmosphere, wiping out the majority of Kintan's original inhabitants. Although some species managed to survive, the radiation caused significant mutations in them. Over thousands of years, instead of millions, giant, terrifying monsters emerged, resembling the infamous rancor of Dathomir. The world became a dangerous place because of creatures like spine dragons, tuskbeasts, and horned trogwhales. However, the radiation had different effects on different species, causing certain small, non-sentient reptilian quadrupeds to evolve into an intelligent, sentient species: the Nikto.

The Nikto's environment was dangerous, which made them a tough, warlike species. After making many technological advances, they used atomic weapons to rid their world of some of its more dangerous predators, but in the process turned it into a desert wasteland. The Nikto eventually discovered the M'dweshuu Nova through their scientific advancements, as well as the source of the creatures they had destroyed their planet to eliminate. News of the radiation and its effects on the planet quickly spread, which led to the rise of a death cult known as the Cult of M'dweshuu.

Later eras had very few details about the cult's beginnings. Some Nikto began to worship M'dweshuu as a god of death, and this led to a religion that promoted living, sentient sacrifices to the deity. Its followers also had a doomsday prophecy that was connected to the star. Later historians considered the cult to be strange, and no one was really sure how or why it had come to be. The cult grew in size and influence, starting a reign of terror. Thousands of "infidels" were killed by the growing cult, or "purified". Thousands joined the cult and accepted its beliefs, but the majority of Nikto went into hiding and waited for the tyranny to end. The cultists built many strongholds on Kintan, as well as a primary, though relatively small, headquarters on the planet's northern continent.

Those who joined the cult to protect themselves spread its beliefs to every part of Kintan, until the cult gained control of the world. Its followers were savage and fanatical, fierce and unpredictable warriors. Its subjects lived in fear. Even though the cult had fewer members than the people it terrorized, it had a strong grip on Kintan's population and ruled comfortably for thirty years from its small, northern seat of power. However, while the cult's leaders thought their subjects were loyal, the Nikto actually hated the Cult of M'dweshuu.

However, three decades after taking power, the cult finally encountered a worthy opponent. The Hutt Empire, which was fighting Xim the Despot, the ruler of another interstellar empire, sent envoys to the Si'Klaata Cluster to find warriors to help in the fight against Xim and his empire. Churabba was the Hutt envoy who was sent to Kintan. The Hutts had already recruited the Vodrans and Klatooinians to their cause while they were in the Si'Klaata Cluster, but the Nikto posed a much greater challenge because they were more technologically advanced. Churabba, who was astute and business-minded, realized that the Nikto population feared the cultists and that they were ready for a rebellion that they were destined to win when she arrived in the Kintan system. Churabba was said to have respected the cult because it was small but ruled over many.

Churabba decided to simply bombard the cult's seat of power from orbit. She did this without any regret, destroying the stronghold and killing many cultists, while also showing the Hutts' power and the cult's fallibility. Many Nikto saw the Hutts as saviors, and all were grateful for Churabba's actions. As a result, it didn't take much convincing for them to sign the Treaty of Vontor in 25,100 BBY. The Nikto and two other species, the Vodrans and Klatooinians, were bound to the Hutts as permanent slaves by the treaty. This was a coup for the Hutts because the Nikto were much more technologically advanced than the Vodrans or Klatooinians, and Churabba was afraid that it would take a lot of bargaining or trickery to recruit them. At the Third Battle of Vontor, hordes of Nikto warriors fought against Xim's empire, which helped the Hutts defeat him. The pact between the Nikto and their Hutt masters remained unbroken for centuries, and the cult was thought to have been defeated.

However, the Hutts began to take a large portion of Kintan's population to planets like Nal Hutta and give the Nikto less and less say in their own affairs. The species began to resent their former saviors and question the value the Hutts had brought to their lives, as millions had died fighting the Hutts' wars and millions more had been forced to leave their homes for their masters. The Cult of M'dweshuu reappeared around 4000 BBY. The Nikto looked back at their history and saw that the cult was against the Hutts, so they saw it as the best way to gain freedom. The entire population embraced the cult fully, unlike before, and the Cult of M'dweshuu quickly grew in popularity and power. Its members overthrew the small Hutt presence on Kintan, but the Hutts responded by sending in an army of mercenaries to violently put down the uprising. The Republic was in the middle of its own war, so it did not come to the Nikto's aid.

The cult was destroyed, but it kept coming back in different forms and starting small insurrections for centuries. The Hutts, who ruled the Si'Klaata cluster, consistently suppressed the cult, only to see it rise again. The cult once again gained prominence across the planet one thousand years before the Battle of Yavin and managed to drive the Hutts off Kintan for a second time. However, the Hutts responded with force once more, regaining control after a series of bloody mercenary attacks that killed almost a third of Kintan's population. After this, the Hutts completely eliminated the Nikto government, giving the Nikto no say in how their homeworld was run. Minor uprisings and insurrections against the Hutts occurred almost every year, but these were disorganized and often unpopular, especially since Nikto who lived off-world didn't care much about their homeworld. Each uprising was put down by the Hutts, the Jedi, or the Nikto themselves. The Hutts still saw the species as dangerous, though, and tried to keep them in check.

Around the time of the Separatist Crisis, the cult resurfaced. The cultists, who numbered less than one hundred, were based in a series of caverns deep within the Endless Wastes and were described as intelligent, ruthless, and well-armed. The cultists were primarily active off-world, along the Sisar Run where Kintan was located, and they engaged in a bloody campaign of scattered violence against the many traders who used the route. The Nikto plagued and terrorized the Sisar Run for a period of time, killing over twenty-seven travelers by 22 BBY while piloting their own freighters in Nikto "war packs." This angered the Republic and drew a lot of media attention. The Bureau of Ships and Services warned spacers using the Sisar Run to exercise caution, and many local businesses and planetary governments put bounties on any free Niktos, those not employed by the Hutt Empire, believing them to be potential cultists.

The Hutts, through Dorosii, the Appointed Intermediate to the Senate, assured the Republic that they could handle the cultists themselves and hired mercenaries to scout the Nikto's suspected hideout. The Jedi High Council disregarded the Hutts' assurance and sent Jedi Master Ma'kis'shaalas, who was himself a Nikto, and his Hiitian Padawan to Kintan early in the Clone Wars. The Jedi and mercenaries then worked together to fight the cultists, eventually tracking a war pack from Kintan to Sriluur, where the cultists murdered a number of Republic-sanctioned Vaathkree traders. These attacks led the Republic to send another task force to Sriluur. This force, along with Ma'kis and the Hutt mercenaries, tracked the cultists to the slick volcanic canyons of the world's deserts and defeated them. This further increased media interest in the M'dweshuu affair. The cult continued to exist in some form during the Clone Wars. The mentally unstable Jasper McKnives was one of its followers during this time, fighting in gladiator tournaments on Rattatak out of fanatical devotion to the cult.

During the Galactic Civil War, a group of Nikto cultists had established a base on Naboo, a Mid Rim world. They had constructed a small stronghold inside a cave in the Nabooian wilderness.

In 1 ABY, the mercenary group Azure Cabal used this group of cultists as tools in their ongoing conflict with other mercenary groups. Cam'doen, a Mon Calamari leader of the Azure Cabal, thought the Nikto were not very bright and easily manipulated. They would quickly attack targets of his choosing if given the right incentive. So Cam'doen instructed a member of his organization to break into a safe house belonging to the rival Mistryl Shadow Guard on Naboo and steal some of their Emberlene essence. The mercenary then attacked the cultists' stronghold while using the stolen essence to mask his own scent, leading the Nikto to believe that the Mistryl had attacked them.

When the terrorist group Mon'Shallok unsuccessfully attempted to slice the Azure Cabal's database, the Azure Cabal identified their data trail. Cam'doen decided to once again manipulate the blood cult into attacking the Azure Cabal's enemies. He sent his mercenary back to the M'dweshuui stronghold and had him kill several of the cult's overseers. The mercenary then sliced into the stronghold's power grid and deliberately did a poor job, leaving the Mon'Shallok's data trail behind.

Pablo Hidalgo created the Cult of M'dweshuu for Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens — Enemies and Allies in 1995. It was later mentioned in The Essential Guide to Alien Species, University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Nikto, Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, several StarWars.com Databank entries, and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, as well as Hidalgo's HoloNet News Vol. 531 45. The developers of the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies added a dungeon of M'dweshuui cultists to the game as part of the Azure Cabal quest series in the Chapter 6 update in April 2007.

There are some timeline and continuity errors related to the cult. Galaxy Guide 12 says that a major cult revolt occurred on Kintan in 4,000 BBY, which ended with Hutt mercenaries putting down the revolt and the Hutts taking a lot of power away from the Nikto. However, University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Nikto and The Essential Guide to Alien Species mention a revolt with the same description as having taken place in 1,000 BBY. This could be an error, or it could be considered a separate revolt.

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia says that Churabba the Hutt put down the 4,000 BBY revolt. However, Galaxy Guide 12 says that Churabba lived over twenty thousand years earlier and that her actions against the cult were completely separate from the revolt.