Blight

The Blight, first known as the blight, and also known as the Gray, was the term used to refer to an affliction that arose during the High Republic Era. Speculatively referred to as a disease, the blight affected matter, living or otherwise, and drained it of life, leaving it a calcified husk, similar to the effect that the Nameless creatures had on Force-sensitive individuals. The blight spread through contact, slowly consuming whatever it touched. Being affected by the Blight did not cause pain but instead simply made the affected area feel empty, as if life was not present.

The Blight was actually an ancient hunger emerging within a void between the light and dark sides of the Force in a Force nexus on the planet Sophros. From the nexus evolved the Shrikarai, whose eggs were produced by the vergence itself. The Shrikarai consumed equal amounts of light and dark, the oppositional Force energy working together to keep the hunger contained. When the Shrikarai began being forcibly removed from their homeworld, the balance began to shift, eventually reaching a breaking point in which the remaining Shrikarai could not hold back the hunger. This resulted in the Blight erupting on various worlds. With each Shrikarai that died, the Blight grew worse.

Although a coming blight was foreseen in 382 BBY, the affliction had begun to spread across worlds of the galaxy by 228 BBY. In that year, it emerged on the moon of Arli, whose residents were trapped on the moon by the Nihil marauders. San Tekka family members Jordanna Sparkburn and Cair San Tekka traveled to the moon to find the former's relatives, but the latter was inadvertently infected with the blight, which slowly calcified his hand. The two were able to cut San Tekka's hand off and isolate it within a containment field, preventing the spread of the blight. Sparkburn delivered the blighted hand to Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh, who brought it to the Jedi Council. The hand was later given to Knight Reath Silas, who presented it to former Jedi Azlin Rell during their investigations into the Nameless.

Text and facts from the “Blight” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.