Yuuzhan Vong empire

For centuries, the nomadic Yuuzhan Vong were established at the edge of the galaxy. They established the Praetorite Vong, an advance force, as part of a secure position in advance of their incoming ships. Their scouts, assault troops, and combat engineers created the infrastructure for bases and supplies. The Galactic Republic was fully aware of the Yuuzhan Vong's presence on the galactic edge, as was the Chiss Ascendancy, who had a brief encountered with a force in the Unknown Regions. The Praetorite Vong also attempted to colonize the living planet Zonama Sekot, believing it to be similar to their own homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar, but the Vong flora and fauna were eradicated by Sekot's biosphere. Despite Sekot's attempt to negotiate with them, they launched an assault on the planet, but Jedi Knight Vergere, concealing her Jedi identity, convinced the Vong to cease their attack in exchange for traveling with them.

Although the enemy capital was captured, the warrior caste experienced devastating losses at this point, causing the Yuuzhan Vong to consolidate their newly obtained territories. To make up for the reduction in strength, they reorganized their forces as directed by the Supreme Overlord, utilizing slave troopers and auxiliaries to defend their positions.

This weakness contributed to the empire's defeat during the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, when the Galactic Alliance reclaimed Coruscant from the invaders and eliminated Supreme Overlord Shimrra.

The Supreme Overlord held the position of ruler within the Yuuzhan Vong Empire. The Great Council, composed of the heads of the four castes, assisted the Supreme Overlord. It is known that the Warmaster, High Prefect, and High Priest were members of the Council. In the event of the Supreme Overlord's death, an heir was usually present to take over the leadership of the Yuuzhan Vong empire. Within their political system, it was considered a duty to punish insubordination from lower-ranking individuals; in fact, it was generally expected that a newly appointed leader had killed their predecessors.

The Intendant caste governed local planets, with Prefects in charge of administering the worlds under their control. However, certain systems were known to have been granted to specific Domains. The Priest caste was responsible for overseeing ceremonies and ensuring the loyalty of the populace. As the war progressed, the Yuuzhan Vong noticed a troubling increase in secret gatherings among the lower castes, such as the Shamed Ones, who began to venerate the Jedi. The Order of Yun-Yuuzhan was recognized as a significant political force within the empire until Tsavong Lah had their ranks executed.

The Warrior caste formed the primary component of the Yuuzhan Vong empire's military, leading both the fleets and ground forces. The servitor race called the Chazrach and slaves who were transformed into Thralls through the use of surge coral provided support. The Praetorite Vong were among the military's elite units. The Yuuzhan Vong warriors were notorious for their bravery, lack of fear of death, infrequent retreats, and never surrendering. This made them effective warriors who were disciplined and obedient, adhering to the chain of command. However, these same qualities also presented weaknesses; the warriors rarely deviated from their initial plans, and their obedience made them inflexible, only obeying their superiors. Their bravery could lead to recklessness and a tendency to charge into situations without careful consideration. This changed to some extent during the tenure of Warmaster Nas Choka, who encouraged his subordinates to reconsider their strategies and allowed them to retreat in order to preserve their forces.

When outsiders contacted a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, they typically communicated with the lowest-ranking warrior. If the speaker could convince this individual of their value, the warrior would inform a superior. As a result, the speaker would then have to prove their worth to a higher-ranking warrior. A person attempting to communicate with a Yuuzhan Vong fleet often had to demonstrate their value through the various warrior ranks. Each success brought the speaker closer to addressing the fleet commander. This system was a method of alerting the senior officer to the most significant discoveries that warranted the commanding warrior's attention. Military analysis and communication were frequently handled by the yammosk war coordinators and Battle Tacticians.

The Yuuzhan Vong employed a range of military units. These included pod troopers, who were deployed from orbit in yorik coral shells onto a planet's surface. There were also paratroopers, who descended from ships in the atmosphere on membranous parachutes. Another aerial unit consisted of warrior caste soldiers carried by large mynock-sized creatures for deployment on the battlefield. The Yuuzhan Vong also employed highly skilled warriors known as Hunters for stealth attacks and tracking missions. Additionally, there was an elite group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors called Nuun, who used the Cloak of Nuun to blend into their surroundings. Towards the end of the war, the Yuuzhan Vong Shapers also developed a new type of soldier called Slayers.

New Republic Intelligence reported that, in the early stages of the war, the Yuuzhan Vong possessed thousands of capital ships that traveled in flotillas of up to seventy-five vessels. Their ranks included warships comparable to Super Star Destroyers, with firepower equivalent to the heaviest turbolasers and ion cannons.

During the war, the Yuuzhan Vong employed a variety of tactics against the galaxy's inhabitants. These included:

• Infiltration — a favored strategy of the Yuuzhan Vong during the early stages of the invasion, which involved inserting agents into enemy planets who wore Ooglith masquers to conceal their features. These individuals posed as members of other species while sabotaging equipment and intercepting messages that revealed the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong. This tactic was effective in silencing the ExGal Society outpost on Belkadan [18] and preventing a warning to Artorias about an incoming Yuuzhan Vong armada. [19]
• Information gathering — before the invasion began, the Yuuzhan Vong launched an extensive information-gathering campaign, which included capturing members of various species and experimenting on them to gain a better understanding. This led to the capture of Obroa-skai, where information from the world's vast libraries was translated into villip speech for ease of use. [14] Yuuzhan Vong commanders also sought to research the weaknesses of the galaxy's native races and determine how much pressure was needed to break them. [19]
• Tracking — The Yuuzhan Vong also used dovin basal mines to record the gravitational signatures of both friendly and enemy vessels for security purposes and to track potential threats. In addition, the Yuuzhan Vong had a history of locating displaced populations who were accepted as refugees and targeting those worlds, making few worlds willing to accept such individuals. [20]
• Far-reaches destabilization program — Created by Executor Nom Anor, the program involved a campaign of infiltration and subversion of various star systems to incite the enemy to fight each other, weakening them for the warrior caste to conquer easily. As the war progressed, this tactic began to fail due to the intervention of the Galactic Alliance. [21] Early in the war, the Yuuzhan Vong also attempted to turn the New Republic and its citizens against the Jedi by claiming that the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion would stop at Duro if the galaxy's governments surrendered their Jedi. [22]
• Interdiction — Orchestrated by Warmaster Tsavong Lah, this tactic involved deploying dovin basal interdiction mines along major space lanes to cripple enemy movements and monitor ship deployments through their gravitic signatures. [20]
• Holy programs — Secretly ordered by Supreme Overlord Shimrra, this project tasked Shapers with developing new organic technology in secret for use against the enemy. It involved attempting to shape the mind of Jedi captive Tahiri Veila into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, [23] and creating anti-Jedi weapons. [16]
• Resource acquisition — The Yuuzhan Vong empire made various attempts to bolster its resources as the invasion continued, including establishing a Shipwomb, [17] breeding larger biots such as dovin basals, [14] seeding planets with bio-organisms for later extraction as in Hutt Space, [17] and capturing slaves. [24]
• Communication disruption — Implemented near the end of the war, this plan involved deploying the newly created mabugat kan, which could trace and destroy HoloNet stations to disrupt the Galactic Alliance's ability to coordinate its forces. [25] However, this resulted in the Galactic Alliance using mobile transceiver stations, preventing the Yuuzhan Vong from monitoring their communications. [9]

In addition to these stratagems, the Yuuzhan Vong used their various biots for specialized tactics against the enemy. This included the devastating Yo'gand's Core tactic, which involved dropping a moon onto a planet, and the deployment of planetary shielding teams who inserted a dovin basal onto a planet, stripping it of its orbiting defenses. Yuuzhan Vong interdiction vessels became known for waiting just outside their assigned locations and suddenly revealing themselves to ambush vessels passing through that region of space.

After the defeat of Warmaster Tsavong Lah at the hands of Jacen Solo, the Yuuzhan Vong began a program to sacrifice Jedi to gain favor with the gods. This became known as the Solo Project and was an attempt by the Yuuzhan Vong to capture Jacen Solo and his twin Jaina Solo to pit them against each other.

The group of collaborators known as the Peace Brigade was used extensively by the empire to subvert planetary governments, provide information, and escort supply lines. The Yuuzhan Vong also used a technophobic terrorist group, the Red Knights of Life, as another supporting element in their forces.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Praetorite Vong's relations with any neighbors were virtually nonexistent because they were waging a holy war to cleanse the galaxy of anything not inherently Yuuzhan Vong and continued after formally establishing their empire. The Yuuzhan Vong believed that the galaxy, or "Promised Land," rightfully belonged to them and that they owned all of known space. To that end, they attempted to educate the inhabitants in the ways of the Yuuzhan Vong and their gods. The invaders also noted the vast diversity of races within the Promised Land, similar to those they had eliminated in their home galaxy long ago as part of a costly campaign that destroyed countless worlds. During the invasion, the Yuuzhan Vong sought to destroy only what was necessary to achieve their goals.

The Yuuzhan Vong regularly sent spies wearing Ooglith masquers, allowing them to infiltrate galactic society and subvert it from within. In at least one operation, the Deception sect was used to deploy a bioweapon against the Jedi. Furthermore, as part of the far-reaches destabilization program, the Yuuzhan Vong attempted to encourage conflict between the various governments in the galaxy. This included an attempt to frame the Chiss for an attack on the Esfandia base.

The Yuuzhan Vong's territory consisted of the planets conquered during the battles leading up to the conquest of Coruscant. This extended from the invasion corridor, starting with the Vector Prime entry point, all the way from the Outer Rim to the Core Worlds. During the later stages of the War, the Yuuzhan Vong also made incursions into the Unknown Regions, leading to several skirmishes with the Chiss Ascendancy.

During the initial invasion, the Yuuzhan Vong used the central part of the Tingel Arm to move their forces toward the Core Worlds. By the latter stages of the war, the Yuuzhan Vong empire began to experience similar problems as the New Republic and its successor, the Galactic Alliance, because it encompassed enough territory and resources that adequately protecting all of its space became difficult.

The empire's reasons for conquering a world often varied; planets such as Belkadan and Tynna were terraformed and used for producing vital materials such as dovin basals and villips, while the worlds of Malastare and Brentaal IV were captured to secure supply lines and establish strategic rendezvous points for Yuuzhan Vong fleets. Others, like Kalarba and New Plympto, were destroyed outright. Regardless of the purpose a given planet would ultimately serve, each successful attack expanded the Yuuzhan Vong empire's territory.