Star Wars Has A New Force Killer Weapon And It Is Terrifying

Star Wars has revealed a new 'Force killer' weapon - and it is terrifying to behold! This mysterious new weapon, "The Leveler" has not yet been fully revealed yet, but it is quickly changing the entire nature of the current Star Wars: The High Republic storyline. This Force-killer weapon made its first, teaser, debut in the pages of Cavan Scott's second-wave High Republic novel, The Rising Storm, as a master plan unleashed by Marchion Ro, leader of the savage galactic pirates, The Nihil. However, it is in the latest issue of Scott's The High Republic comic that we learn more about just what a game-changing weapon this truly is! 

(WARNING: Star Wars: The HIgh Republic SPOILERS Follow!) 

In The Rising Storm, The Nihil stage a bloody raid on Valo's "Republic Fair" event, which is meant to show the Outer Rim territories the new civilized world The Republic and The Jedi are building. After that mass casualty event, The Jedi and Republic regroup and decide to take the fight to the Nihil. The "Battle of Grizal" sees the Jedi infiltrate and raid a Nihil base, only to discover one of their own - Loden Greatstorm - being held there. In the fierce battle, Marchion Ro uses an artifact to control the Leveler beast he freed from the ice of a distant planet; the Leveler's initial attack leaves Loden Greatstorm turned to stone, and nearly broke the mind of this padawan, Bell Zettifar. 

In the most recent arc of The High Republic comic series, Jedi Knights Kreeve Trennis and bond-twin Terec have gone undercover in the Nihil to determine more about what this mysterious weapon is all about. Well, the undercover work takes a hard turn when a former Hutt associate exposes Kreeve and Terec, making the Nihil exact a terrible punishment. One of the Nihil "Tempest Runners" who caused the most havoc on Valo (Lourna Dee) tests the Leveler a second time against the Jedi, and the result is equally as terrible! 

In Star Wars: The High Republic #11we get the most information yet (and more importantly - visuals) about what the Leveler does, exactly, to a Force user like a Jedi. Like Bell, Kreeve is nearly driven mad by visions of pure fear the Leveler pushes into her brain; Terec is turned into stone just like Loden Greatstorm was. 

Back on the Jedi's Starlight Beacon base, Terec's bond-twin Ceret interprets what the Leveler is doing to their twin, as the Force-bond means that Ceret are indirectly affected as well. According to Ceret's ramblings, the Leveler's effect is not the same as, say, the plant-monsters known as the Drengir, who are directly connected to the dark side. The Leveler causes what Ceret describes as "nothing. This is emptiness. This is void." 

Further description by Ceret states that "the Force is gone" from his bond-twin entirely after the Leveler's attack. Starlight Base Marshall Avar Kriss notes she senses Terec and Ceret's shared essence has been "eradicated," leaving them "not dead, but neither are they alive. They're just missing." Eventually, when Kriss and Keeve's master Sskeer stage a rescue mission, it's noted that they can no longer feel their fellow Jedi who are being held hostage - as if their entire connection to the Force itself has been destroyed in that place. 

As stated, this "Leveler" has not been fully revealed yet; we just know that can fit inside the space of a box that's about the size and shape of a coffin. The beast seems to be a psychically-powered entity that can destroy not just a Force user's connection to the Force, but seemingly the Force itself. It stands to reason that the powerful and experienced (and attuned) a Jedi is, the more disastrous the Leveler's powers are. We have to wonder why the creature design is being kept so secret: could The High Republic be saving a major twist regarding a familiar creature or species that eventually emerges from that box? 

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