ON NAR SHADDAA, UNEXPECTED HAVEN FOR FORCE BELIEVERS

Hutt mystics Quiga Len-Wi (left) and Master Borgga Agashjic (right) at Mezenti Spaceport in Nar Shaddaa. Visible in the distance is the spire of the rival Zurgolla Temple, a Hutt Clan-affiliated temple.

‘Spirituality’ isn’t the first word you think of when you think of Nar Shaddaa. But that’s exactly what Quiga Len-Wi (20) was seeking when he first set foot on the Huttese moon, three years ago. A native Mirialan, Baloo grew up in a culture with a deep connection to the Force, and with a deep affinity for it. If he had been born just a few years earlier, he probably would have grown up in the Jedi Order.

But these days, believers in the Force are cut off from any galactic community. The Jedi are gone, and ancient local practices face serious repressions from the Empire.

Len-Wi first heard about the Hutt mystics from a Twi’lek medic who visited his small town on Mirial. Charitable organizations from wealthy Core Worlds sometimes send out groups of medics and droids to provide care to the ‘magenta’ worlds - a list of worlds devastated by the fall of the Republic, so called for the magenta dots used to signify them on Imperial Holovision’s galactic map.

“She wanted to treat us,” Len-Wi recalls, “But most of us just wanted to hear what was going on in the galaxy. No one trusts Imperial Holovision on Mirial, so whenever we meet an offworlder, they’re sure to be bombarded with questions about Coruscant.”

The medic had never been to Coruscant, but she was happy to tell stories about her life on Nal Hutta.

“I’d spent my whole life wanting to be a Jedi,” Len-Wi says. “But there was no chance of that in the Empire. So when I heard about these Hutts who are in touch with the Force, who use it for spirituality and combat - I thought, what do I have to lose?”

Indeed, the similarities between Hutt mystics and Jedi are hard to ignore. “The Force is the Force,” Master Borgga Agashjic (724) says. “Certain species connect to it in different ways, but at their core, all Force traditions are similar.”

Aesthetically, Hutt mystics couldn’t be more opposite to the Jedi. A 12-foot-long Hutt, Borgga wears no robes, but instead a black-and-white mask with large antlers. Their amber eyes are hidden behind black lenses, and their mouth is covered by a gas mask built into the mask. Their green skin is covered in colorful body paint.

But when they practice their art, any human watcher is immediately reminded of the old stories about the Jedi. With a wave of their stubby arm, they levitate the row of mystic masks which line the walls. They lunge across the room like a dancer with a speed and delicacy which belies their size, and at times it almost seems that they defy gravity. Humans aren’t used to thinking of Hutts as beautiful, but watching them, it’s hard to deny their alien grace.

Unlike the great Jedi temple, there is no central locus for Hutt mystics. There are instead thousands of smaller temples, each with its own competing power structure and beliefs. But, like the Jedi and Sith of old, Hutt mystics are divided.

“The Force flows through all living beings,” Borgga emphasizes to me. “You, me, Emperor Palpatine - all of us equally. So how can you justify slavery?” They shake their great, masked head. “Nal Hutta is the capital of the greatest society that the galaxy has ever known - we don’t have to allow this unnatural state to stain our history.”

Borgga is not alone in their anti-slavery stance. The greater community of Hutt mystics is torn between unilateral support for the policies and practices of the ruling Hutt Clan, and a long tradition of societal criticism. Although Hutt mystics are often separate from the ruling clans and their financial dealings, they enjoy a certain degree of traditional protection, and they have always engaged in a delicate push-and-pull relationship with the ruling clans.

Borgga goes further than most, though. At Borgga’s small temple, crammed into a complex in the Nar Shaddaa industrial district, Hutt mystics practice their art alongside a handful of humanoids. Len-Wi is one of them. A tall fat man with green skin and black hair, his traditional Mirialan tattoos are hidden under body paint, and he wears a horned green mask.

“People always talk about Hutt chauvinism in the Empire, how the Hutts think they’re better than everyone else and look down on humanoids,” Len-Wi tells me. “But what about human chauvinism? I might look more like a human than a Hutt, but humans still treated me like dirt every day of my life in the Empire. There’s nothing left for me back there. Even if the Rebellion triumphed, I wouldn’t go back.” Because of the Hutt Clans’ relationship to the Empire, Hutt Space enjoys a measure of protection from the restrictions placed on Imperial citizens.

But not everyone in the mystic community has such a rosy view of life on Nar Shaddaa. Soan Starkiller, the only Twi’lek in Borgga’s temple, says that the movement still has a long way to go. “My family thinks I’m crazy for joining a Hutt temple,” she says. “Mostly, mystics are the same as other Hutts - they think a Twi’lek is a commodity, not a person. Master Borgga has done a lot for our people, but even here, all of the temple masters are Hutts. Humanoids, and especially Twi’leks, can only rise so far.”

When I point this out to Borgga, they look past me at my camera crew, and note that they’re all human. “Progress isn’t overnight,” they say. “But Hutts live a long time. If the Force is with us, I’ll live to see a Twi’lek temple master - and an Organa in the Imperial palace.”