The Tirrith represented a distinctive form of sentient life: empathic gaseous entities sentient originating from the planet Beheboth. Their society was structured around hives, with individual energy wisps forming the collective. These wisps shared both sensory experiences and intellect, enabling them to perceive the hive's overall state. Tirrith hives possessed the collective capability to manipulate the atmosphere of Beheboth, orchestrating weather patterns or generating gases capable of inducing unconsciousness in other sentient beings. Characterized by their reclusive and pacifistic nature, the Tirrith's elusive presence meant that Human settlers on Beheboth took years to recognize the organism's intelligence and abilities. However, the revelation of their unique powers attracted the attention of several malicious individuals who sought to exploit the Tirrith for their personal gain.
The Tirrith were a gaseous sentient species lacking a conventional physical structure, manifesting instead as softly illuminated green vaporous clouds of energy. As an empathic species, individual Tirrith were psychically interconnected within their family group, sharing sensations like pain. Though individual Tirrith could survive independently, their death while separated from the hive could trigger the demise of linked Tirrith due to the empathic connection. Conversely, this bond amplified the strength of larger Tirrith hives. They could modify the chemical composition of Beheboth, their homeworld's atmosphere, even creating entire weather systems with significant effort.
Despite their intangible nature rendering them impervious to most threats, Tirrith were vulnerable to hard vacuum, strong winds, and electrical currents. Their defensive capabilities were limited, primarily involving atmospheric manipulation to produce a non-lethal gas that could incapacitate adversaries. During the New Republic period, a mutated subgroup emerged with the ability to generate lethal toxins, eliminating targets by compressing the air around their skin with a potent poison, resulting in excruciatingly painful deaths.
Tirrith communicated through telepathy, capable of conveying messages to any being in the galaxy regardless of language barriers—recipients would mentally perceive the communication in their own language. Yet, the Tirrith remained enigmatic. By 8 ABY, scientists still debated whether the species was a single colonial organism comprising 17 million individuals or several thousand smaller colonies. Individual Tirrith could attain lifespans exceeding 1,000 years.
Tirrith society revolved around hive structures. The empathic connection among hive members enhanced their collective strength but also exposed them to shared pain and adversity. Their society was notably reclusive and deeply pacifistic, with the Tirrith struggling to comprehend the concept of inflicting harm. However, the well-being of the hive took precedence, making them susceptible to manipulation by malicious entities seeking to safeguard individuals within the hive. In extreme situations, prolonged captivity and torture could compel isolated Tirrith hives to abandon their nonviolent principles and become ruthless killers. Lacking a spoken language or discernible civilization, their communication relied solely on telepathy.
The Tirrith were the sole sentient inhabitants of Beheboth, a sparsely populated desert world within the Outer Rim's Sanbra sector. Bothan and later Human moisture farmers colonized Beheboth during the Republic era, but the Tirrith's existence went unnoticed until 3 ABY due to their lack of physical form and conventional civilization. Prior to this, they were merely observed as atmospheric phenomena producing unusual colors.
Their isolation ended in 3 ABY when Gideon Longspar, a brigand leader on Beheboth, discovered their true nature and captured a hive to force their assistance in a scheme targeting local moisture farms. By threatening a portion of the hive, Longspar coerced the rest to aid his gang in raiding farms for water. These raids severely threatened Beheboth's Human colonies until Longspar targeted the farm of Darial Anglethorn, a leader in the farmers' defense. Longspar's capture of Anglethorn drew the intervention of her friend Luke Skywalker. The Tirrith aided Anglethorn and Skywalker in defeating Longspar's crew by unleashing a torrent of stolen water. In gratitude, the Tirrith induced a major rainfall, ending centuries of drought.
While the rainfall led to a brief ecological and economic recovery for Beheboth, the Tirrith soon reverted to their reclusive ways, ignoring requests for further rain. By 8 ABY, Beheboth faced renewed drought threats, and the Tirrith faced renewed manipulation when Mils Giel, a disgraced Imperial admiral, captured a Tirrith hive and began experimenting on it to create a killing machine to regain his status. Giel, posing as a moisture farmer, and Quarren doctor Kimp Minmirn created a suitable hive through generations of experimentation, one capable of killing efficiently. Giel tested his mutated Tirrith on Behebothans, including wiping out a New Republic outpost in Longspar's old fortress, before Anglethorn—now peacekeeper of Prosperity—uncovered the plot while investigating a Tirrith-caused murder. With Skywalker's help, Anglethorn drove Giel off-planet, though the admiral escaped with a tank of his captive Tirrith.
The Tirrith debuted in Star Wars (1977) 66, authored by David Michelinie, illustrated by Walt Simonson, and published in 1982. Additional details regarding the Tirrith and their physiology were provided in Alien Anthology Addendum, an article in 2001's Star Wars Gamer 7.