A yorik-et constructed from yorik coral The Yuuzhan Vong primarily used yorik coral as the building block for their ships. This material was cultivated on a planet in the shape of a starship, and later, symbiotic organisms were either implanted within it or allowed to grow there to manage the ship's operations. The coral would absorb the material it was grown upon (such as rock, raw ores, or even debris from enemy structures), but it also needed organic matter. In a completed vessel, the black yorik coral contained the nervous system that governed and coordinated the various biots, alongside a circulatory network that sustained them. Therefore, substantial damage to a ship's yorik coral would disrupt control and nourishment to all the different subsystems, leading to reduced effectiveness and, eventually, complete failure.
Missiles utilized in planetary bombardment were also made using yorik coral.
In the aftermath of the war between the Galactic Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong, five years later, yorik coral was incorporated as decoration in Unity Green park on Coruscant. This was part of a peace treaty established between the two factions. Additionally, it continued to propagate freely within the Coruscant undercity.
In the New Jedi Order books, the spelling of the coral's name is sometimes mistakenly written as "yorick."