Ssi-Ruuk as proto-Yuuzhan Vong?

[Tam_OConnor]

So, I'm running a highly modified Star Wars game (Rebels lost at Endor) and I had an odd thought while doing research. It seems to me that the Ssi-Ruuk greatly resemble the Yuuzhan Vong, even down to the social structure. They've got organic-looking (or actually organic) ships, a caste-based society and odd relationships to the Force (entechment and the whole 'absent from the Force' schtick), to say nothing of the whole intergalactic (or Galactic Fringe) invaders bit.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like the Vong are just a massively scaled-up version of the Bakura invasion. Anyone here think the same, or am I just a mad, heretic questioner of canon?

[Gaelbert]

I'm no big Star Wars expert, but I definitely agree with you. I kept getting the two mixed up when I started reading the novels.

[Wizzardman]

It does sound similar enough, although I don't remember the Ssi-Ruuk ships being organic in nature. Also, they were more... Dinosaurs than the Vong ever were. But you're right, they were conceptually very similar.

[Closet_Skeleton]

The Yuuzhan Vong are often derided as being not very Star Wars, but they're very similar to a number of already existing Star Wars races.

[Cubey]

There are some similiarities between these two, but there is more differences:
Ssi-Ruuk do not use biological tech. They simply transfer energy (and apparently souls in the process) from living beings to non-biological devices they create. I think most "sentient" devices in the SW universe, droids and fighters for example, are powered in the same way, only using the energy of animals instead of humans and other sentient races - but I've read the book a while ago so I may be wrong. Also, the race is insensitive to the Force, but it doesn't mean the Force cannot affect it, only that they can't use its powers.

[Tam_OConnor]

It's not that they used biotech, it's that their ship designs *look* organic, like Mon Cal ships.

[Obrysii]

On a related note ...

I thought that the Yuuzhan Vong invaded at the time that they did because the Empire was crushed and the Republic nowhere near the former government's military power?

It'd add an ironic twist: the Empire is what saved the Galaxy from the intense war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

[captain_decadence]

The Yuuzhan Vong and the Sri-Ruuk are not anything at all alike, at least as far as I could tell.

The Sri-Ruuk take the energy from captured slaves and use them to power their machines. They do not have organic ships (And droids don't use animal energy, I don't know where that idea came from. They are just programmed). They are not cut off from the force, they just don't have a force tradition (and maybe can't use the force, but there are a few races that just can't become jedi, so that's not unusual).

Having a caste system is not that weird and doesn't make them that similar to the Vong. Also, the Vong p-wned the Sri-Ruuk and destroyed them, so I'm guessing they aren't really related.

[Moff Chumley]

Having a caste system is not that weird and doesn't make them that similar to the Vong. Also, the Vong p-wned the Sri-Ruuk and destroyed them, so I'm guessing they aren't really related.

Extrapolate, please. When, where, etc.

I find them sort of similar, perhaps the Ruuk broke off from the Vong at a point before memory?

[Obrysii]

Extrapolate, please. When, where, etc.

I find them sort of similar, perhaps the Ruuk broke off from the Vong at a point before memory?

The Vong were largely extragalactic until after the battle of ender - so unless they managed to get to this galaxy, get separated enough to cause a divulging evolution ...

It seems unlikely.

[Nibleswick]

They are similar in that they are warrior races with a strong caste society, but after that there a very ways that they are comparable.