Purrgil, a species of colossal whale-like beings, exhibited semi-sentient traits. These creatures traversed the vast expanse of deep space, journeying between different star systems. While typical purrgil were comparable in size to a small starship, a distinct variant known as Purrgil Ultra possessed a significantly larger stature. Their bodies were streamlined, featuring smooth, bluish-purple skin, four substantial rear tentacles, and an array of fins. A defining characteristic was their bulbous head shape, adorned with a single eye on each side. These creatures lived in groups of up to dozens of individuals, and were capable of traversing hyperspace through the creation of simu-tunnels. The purrgil's innate ability served as the inspiration for sentients to develop hyperdrive technology and wayfinders, crucial tools for hyperspace navigation.
Hera Syndulla, the leader of the Spectres rebel cell, noted that many spacers regarded purrgil as nuisances. This perception stemmed from their tendency to approach and collide with starships along their flight paths, as well as the risk of ships encountering their swarms during hyperspace travel. Purrgil-related incidents were responsible for numerous spacer deaths, leading many to adopt a policy of firing upon them on sight. However, Ezra Bridger, a Jedi Padawan and fellow member of the Spectres, managed to forge a connection with the whales. This occurred during an encounter with a group of them at a gas refinery in 3 BBY.
Bridger later leveraged this bond to enlist the aid of a purrgil group against Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn's 7th Fleet during the liberation of Lothal, an Outer Rim planet. He effectively removed the fleet by having the purrgil entwine their tentacles around Thrawn's starship and initiate a jump to hyperspace. Around 9 ABY, near the planet Seatos, a group of Purrgil Ultra aided Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi, in her pursuit of the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth. Their goal was to prevent Elsbeth from retrieving Thrawn to the known galaxy. The creatures transported Tano and the Jedi droid Huyang aboard their T-6 shuttle to Peridea, an extragalactic planet.
Purrgil were a species of whale-like beings indigenous to the space environment. While standard purrgil were comparable in size to a small starship, the Purrgil Ultra variant was notably larger, reaching lengths equivalent to half of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. On average, they stood 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall and measured 30 meters (98 feet) in length. Purrgil possessed streamlined, torpedo-shaped bodies and distinctive bulbous heads. Their [blue](/article/color], cloudy eyes were positioned on opposite sides of their heads. They had four large rear tentacles, a single dorsal fin, two side fins, a ventral fin, and an anal fin, all of which facilitated graceful movement within the vacuum of space. The purrgil's skin had a smooth texture and exhibited a bluish-purple hue, often interspersed with gray and yellow patches, or white markings. Their expansive mouths sometimes contained irregularly spaced, egg-shaped teeth of varying sizes. Other individuals possessed full baleen structures in place of teeth. Some specimens displayed slender, whisker-like organs beneath their mouths. Purrgil Ultra exhibited a greater abundance of these whisker-like organs and more pronounced protrusions on the tops of their heads. Purrgil also possessed a brain.
Purrgil required the inhalation of Clouzon-36, a green gas, to sustain their respiratory functions. Insufficient access to this gas caused their skin to transition to a gray or brownish color. Upon adequate intake of Clouzon-36, they metabolized it into hypermatter fuel, enabling them to enter hyperspace, an alternate dimension that allowed traveling at lightspeed, by creating simu-tunnels. As they prepared to jump into hyperspace, their tentacles emitted a luminous glow.
Purrgil congregated in groups known as flocks, pods, or swarms, which could consist of up to dozens of individuals. These groups were typically led by a larger specimen. As a semi-sentient species, they exhibited a degree of intelligence, but their actions could inadvertently cause harm by colliding with starships, resulting in deaths. Wounded purrgil would often stagger to their side. When feeling threatened, purrgil emitted a sound that Ezra Bridger described as "kind of sad".
According to Huyang, purrgil were capable of traversing different galaxies using intergalactic hyperspace lanes. One such migration route terminated on the extragalactic planet Peridea, where Baylan Skoll claimed the whales went to die. The whales' remains transformed the planet into a graveyard as their bones formed a planetary ring.
Morgan Elsbeth stated that "in the days before time was counted" the Dathomirians were the first to tame and ride purrgil, referring to them as "travelers". Several millennia prior to the Cold War between the New Republic and the First Order, the purrgil's ability to travel through hyperspace inspired sentients to discover their own methods of entering that alternate dimension. By studying purrgil, sentient beings developed the hyperdrive. Peko-Peko Munzati stated that the first hyperspace scouts would follow purrgil. Their knowledge of purrgil and Clouzon-36 helped scientists discover that coaxium fuel could form at places subject to intense interstellar energy and therefore helped them locate natural reservoirs of the expensive starship fuel, such as those on Kessel or in the Redhurne system. Studies of purrgil brains and carcasses also inspired both the Jedi and the Sith to create wayfinders, ancient devices used to navigate challenging stretches of space.
Huyang stated that the intergalactic hyperspace lanes of purrgil were known to the Jedi Order, which preserved information about them inside the Jedi Archives in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The whales also appeared in a three-part tale called History of the Galaxy, Parts One, Two and Three that the Jedi droid told younglings at the Jedi Temple. Although few people actually witnessed their special ability to attain lightspeed, the purrgil became legendary for smugglers and pilots across the galaxy. However, due to their habit of unwittingly crashing into starships, the whales came to be regarded as threatening creatures, being called "a big, lumbering menace" by Hera Syndulla. Many purrgil were thus killed, with spacers puncturing them with hook-lashes to get rid of the potential threat. After they had bled to death, they were brought up on deck.
In 382 BBY, the EX droid EX-8C was drifting past a school of purrgil flying through crashing moons. Some of the first commercial vessels to offer hyperdrive travel, the MPO-1400 Purgill-class star cruisers manufactured by the Corellian Engineering Corporation, were not only inspired by the whales but also named after them. Passengers of one of the star cruisers, the Halcyon, which was operated by Chandrila Star Line, reported sightings of purrgil from aboard the ship. The Purrgil's Dream, a starship owned by the San Tekka clan member Precoria San Tekka, shared its name with the creature. In 229 BBY, the Vurk Jedi Master Harli Cogra wrote the book Chronicles of the Jedi, which documented the Jedi of the High Republic Era. In the book, Cogra included a mention of the purrgil, stating that prospectors, people dedicated to exploring the vastness of space, faced pods of purrgil while they traveled through hyperspace.
In 90 BBY, Jedi youngling Dooku and his sister Jenza attended a celebration on Serenno, where Jenza won a stuffed purrgil toy. During the Clone Wars, Tech of Clone Force 99 acquired a recording of purrgil as part of his collection of various creature sounds. At one point, the Sakavian Skoova Stev served as first mate as part of a fishing crew aboard the ship Grapnel under the Wan'yek Whett. They encountered a purrgil passing by Manaan, and accidentally collided with it, causing them to crash. Shortly thereafter, the fisherman was marooned in an escape pod, but the same purrgil accidentally saved him by colliding with his escape pod sometime later, sending him flying through space and ultimately crash-landing on a planet.
After Han Solo had successfully flown the Kessel Run in 10 BBY, Peko-Peko Munzati claimed in the journal of Tivoche Bilure that the route Solo took was inspired by an ancient purrgil migration trail. In 9 BBY, while talking to his adopted daughter Leia, Bail Organa said that when he was her age, he wished to chase purrgil.
In 3 BBY, the Mining Guild was running a gas refinery where they refined Clouzon-36 fuel. The refinery's operations prevented a group of purrgil from accessing the gas they needed to breathe, leading to conflicts between them and the Guild in which the Guild fired on the creatures. At one point, Ahhav encountered a group of purrgil in a TIE/mg Mining Guild starfighter and fired upon them in vengeance after having survived a previous encounter. That same year, the Spectres encountered a purrgil swarm led by the Purrgil King on a mission to steal fuel from the Mining Guild. At first, only Ezra Bridger was able to hear the purrgil's sounds which he described as "kind of sad." The rest of the crew did not believe him, but when they saw the creatures for themselves, both Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus recognized them.
At first, Syndulla wanted to fire on the purrgil, but Bridger and Jarrus stopped her from doing so, ultimately convincing her to follow the purrgil, causing the creatures to calm down and cease producing the noise Bridger was hearing. Looking into the eye of the Purrgil King and building a connection through the Force, Bridger noticed that it was upset by something. Shortly after that, Jarrus noticed two Mining Guild TIE fighters, which the crew eliminated. Following the creatures, soon the Spectres arrived at the Mining Guild's gas refinery, where the Guild had set up guns to fire on the purrgil and drive them off.
As the crew leaped down from the Ghost onto the asteroid, a purrgil accompanied Bridger. They fought their way through some of the Mining Guild's guards, when Sabine Wren was about to use explosives to ignite the volatile Clouzon-36 gas and create a diversion. However, she was stopped by Bridger when he realized that they could not detonate the gas without injuring the purrgil. That forced the crew to alter their plan, Bridger was now supposed to use a blaster cannon to cover Jarrus and Wren while they secured the landing zone. After the guards of the gas refinery had discovered them, the refinery boss Yushyn ordered his guards to defend the fuel. Distracted by his realization that the purrgil needed the Clouzon-36 to breathe, Bridger was knocked off his gun emplacement by a laser blast from the guards and fell into the gas-covered crater.
However, Bridger was saved by the Purrgil King and saw a vision in the Purrgil's eye. The Purrgil King also saved the Jedi from asphyxiation by finding his helmet, which he had lost during the fall. Staring into the creature's eye, Bridger was able to further strengthen his bond with the king through the Force. Meanwhile, Yushyn had ordered his guards to launch two of the Mining Guild's TIE fighters, but Bridger's connection with the purrgil enabled him to team up with the whales in the Spectres' fight against the Mining Guild. The purrgil helped the rebels by destroying one of the TIE fighters which were threatening to destroy the Ghost and dragging Yushyn into a crater, ultimately enabling them to steal the needed fuel. After the mission, Bridger told Jarrus that he was able to see what the whales were thinking, and the Spectres subsequently witnessed the purrgil's ability to jump through hyperspace firsthand, following their newly gained allies through hyperspace. By 2 BBY, Sabine Wren had a painting of a purrgil on the wall of her cabin aboard the Ghost.
In 1 BBY, during the liberation of Lothal from the Galactic Empire's control, Mart Mattin, Wolffe, and Cikatro Vizago sent a signal on Frequency Zero from the Ghost to call upon a group of purrgil and Purrgil Ultra. Upon their arrival, the creatures were led by the Ghost and completely wiped out Thrawn's 7th Fleet blockade of Lothal. The Purrgil Ultra also damaged the three Star Destroyers hovering in the planet's lower atmosphere above Capital City, including the Chimaera. Bridger then used the Force to control three Purrgil Ultra, which then wrapped their tentacles around the Chimaera, trapping Thrawn in a cold embrace, and jumped to hyperspace, ultimately removing the Imperial threat from Lothal.
In 9 ABY, a pod of purrgil was observed by Grogu aboard an N-1 starfighter as he traveled through hyperspace with Din Djarin while en route to Nevarro. Around the same time, the Charr wished to hunt purrgil, considering their hunt to be spectacular.
By around the same year, Wren had a purrgil painted on a shoulder plate of her Mandalorian armor. By the same time, Morgan Elsbeth and her associates had been developing the Eye of Sion over Seatos to recover Grand Admiral Thrawn from a neighboring galaxy. When Sabine Wren joined Ahsoka Tano and Huyang on their T-6 shuttle to prevent Thrawn's return—and to find Bridger—they stumbled upon a pod of Purrgil Ultra in Seatos' atmosphere while evading Elsbeth's starfighters, led by Shin Hati and Marrok. After eluding them by flying the shuttle through various purrgil and landing in a forest below, Wren remarked that it was her first reunion with the creatures since the Battle of Lothal.
To thwart Elsbeth's pursuit of Thrawn's supposed location in another galaxy, Tano and Wren hastened to the reflex point on Seatos. There, an ancient map was being utilized to determine the hyperspace coordinates necessary for a jump to the adjacent galaxy. Having defeated Marrok, Tano encountered Baylan Skoll, who was now employed by Elsbeth as a mercenary at the reflex point. Following a brief discussion and a subsequent lightsaber duel, Tano managed to seize the map, only to be hurled off a cliff by Skoll. Wren, having just escaped Hati, retrieved the map, but Skoll persuaded her to relinquish it, arguing that it was the only path to reuniting with Bridger. Once the Eye of Sion had acquired the required hyperspace coordinates, Skoll destroyed the map, and the ship entered hyperspace with Wren aboard, despite the efforts of New Republic General Hera Syndulla, her son Jacen Syndulla in the Ghost, and several X-wing starfighters to intervene.
After Tano's return from the World Between Worlds and her rescue by the Ghost, she employed her psychometry skills to ascertain Wren's whereabouts. Lacking the map, she couldn't pursue Elsebeth through conventional means. Nevertheless, the former Jedi devised a new strategy. She and Huyang re-entered Seatos' atmosphere in their T-6 shuttle, encountering the Purrgil Ultra pod once more. Aware that the route to the other galaxy had been discovered by studying purrgil migration patterns, Tano exited the shuttle, created a connection with one of the creatures, and together they entered the Purrgil Ultra's mouth aboard their vessel. Consequently, the purrgil initiated a hyperspace jump, carrying Tano and Huyang along.
During their voyage, Tano reminisced about Huyang's stories of the purrgil, which he used to tell her and other younglings in the Jedi Temple. The droid confirmed that he still possessed those narratives in his archive and began reciting History of the Galaxy, Parts One, Two and Three. As the Eye of Sion emerged from hyperspace and arrived at Peridea, Skoll remarked that the Jedi Archives contained information about this planet and its connection to the purrgil. On the planet's surface, Elsbeth and her allies convened with three Nightsisters, known as the Great Mothers, and Thrawn. The Mothers discerned that Tano had followed Elsbeth, and after informing Thrawn, the Chiss commanded Elsbeth to eliminate any purrgil approaching Peridea. When the whales exited hyperspace near Peridea, they quickly found themselves within an Imperial minefield. After briefly providing cover for Tano and Huyang's T-6 shuttle, the Purrgil Ultra reverted to hyperspace to evade the mines. Tano and Huyang—now also pursued by Elsbeth's fighters—chose to conceal themselves within the planetary ring composed of purrgil bones.
Pilots and journals frequently mentioned or referenced Purrgil; for instance, Alphabet Squadron pilot Nath Tensent, or Resistance gunner Paige Tico who kept a journal by 34 ABY. A purrgil entry was included in "Species From A to Z," a survival guide distributed by Carson Teva during the New Republic Era. At one point, an artist encountered a group of purrgil. He subsequently drew one in his journal, expressing surprise at their sudden appearance near his ship. No earlier than 34 ABY, the document containing the artist's drawing and comment was restored and published by the Graf Archive, a large repository of documents and other materials of public or historical importance.
The mid-season trailer for the second season of Star Wars Rebels, an animated television series, featured the initial depiction of purrgil. This trailer was uploaded to the official Star Wars YouTube channel on January 15, 2016. They officially debuted and were identified in "The Call," the fifteenth episode of the second season, which aired on February 10 of the same year. The episode's script referred to the leader of the purrgil group as the "Purrgil King." JP Balmet, a concept designer and illustrator based in Los Angeles, created the purrgil concept art for the episode. Although Syndulla uses "purrgils" in the episode, the correct plural form is "purrgil". In Rebels Recon, a series of behind-the-scenes YouTube videos about The Call episode, Dave Filoni, an animation producer involved in various Star Wars projects, explained that the idea for purrgil stemmed from the concept that the first hyperspace travel was not technological, but rather accomplished by creatures. In the same video, Pablo Hidalgo, a creative executive and author currently working for Lucasfilm within the Lucasfilm Story Group, also stated that purrgil added an element of ancient mythology to Star Wars.
In an interview with StarWars.com, Hidalgo drew parallels between vessels hunting purrgil and historical seafaring whaling practices. The Art of Star Wars Rebels (2020), a concept art book, described purrgil as biological hybrids of whales and squids capable of effortlessly traversing the vacuum of space and jumping into hyperspace to cross lightyears in an instant. The book also noted that purrgil had undergone significant evolutionary adaptations. In "On the Wings of Keeradaks," the third episode of the seventh and final season of the animated series The Clone Wars, released on March 6, 2020, the word "purrgil" is misspelled as "purgill" on clone commando Tech's visor. Purrgil also appear alongside the Black One, a T-70 X-wing starfighter piloted by Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, in the side mission "Poe to the Rescue" of the non-canon video game LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016). They are also mentioned in the non-canon video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022), where players can encounter an NPC named "Wandering Purrgil" who claims to be "on the Purrgil wavelength". Purrgil made their live-action debut on March 1, 2023 in "Chapter 17: The Apostate," the first episode of the third season of The Mandalorian.