This article contains spoilers for Star Wars The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #1.
The Star Wars comics have introduced the creepiest Jedi lullaby ever. In the real world, it's often said that there's an element of truth to every legend. The island of Santorini is believed to be the basis for the legend of Atlantis, a volcanic eruption at Crater Lake in Oregon could be the basis for Native American beliefs it's the gateway to the underworld, and euphoria-inducing natural gases in the area around Delphi in Greece seem to have inspired tales of the Oracles, who would breathe in sweet-smelling vapors that caused them to enter into a state of frenzy and speak gibberish.
The Star Wars galaxy has its own legends and myths as well, and - just as in the real world - there seems to be an element of truth in many of them. Some of these have been told in George Mann's books, Myths & Fables, and Dark Legends; they reveal accounts of the Sith redoubt of Exegol, legends of the monstrous creatures known as the Drengir, and secrets of the Force that have been lost in the mists of time.
Now Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The High Republic transmedia initiative has introduced the creepiest Jedi lullaby ever - and it, too, appears to have a basis in reality. It was first introduced in Cavan Scott's audio-book Tempest Runner, but it's really fleshed out in Daniel Jose Older and David Wachter's Star Wars: Trail of Shadows #1. Here are the lyrics:
"Shrii ka rai ka rai
We're coming to take you away
Shrii ka rai ka rai
We're coming to take you away
They'll do what they can
And they'll do what they must
But when they do find you all you'll be is...
Dust."
Apparently, the creepy nursery rhyme was particularly well-known among the Jedi, with Jedi Master Vidyarvrikt singing it to Younglings when they wouldn't sleep. Even adult Jedi associate the song with fear, and it's not hard to see why; these Younglings would naturally have been dealing with real abandonment issues, having just been separated from their families and brought to the Jedi Temple. No doubt some of the more imaginative Younglings wondered whether the Jedi themselves were the "we" in the nursery rhyme, and went quiet lest they be turned to dust. It's likely Vidyarvrikt did this quite deliberately, because fear is of the dark side, and this would force the Younglings to confront their fears at such an early age.
But here is the disturbing thing about the Jedi nursery rhyme: it seems there's an element of truth to it. The space pirates known as the Nihil have uncovered an ancient being they call a Leveler, which appears to be related to the Sith terentateks from the old Expanded Universe. It looks as though this predator really did stalk through the night, seeking out Force-sensitives and feasting on the midichlorians in their bodies, turning them to dust. It seems in Star Wars, the creature that inspired the Jedi's most terrifying nursery rhyme is actually real.
