Stybla honoring ceremony

The Stybla honoring ceremony, also known as the Stybla honoring ritual and the odo ceremony, was a ritual in which the Stybla family conferred the suffix "odo" onto the name of an honored individual. Odo meant "guardian" in Tybroic, the original, ancient, and long-dead language of the Stybla. The ceremony was a tradition dating back over five-thousand years, and it used the ancient language of Tybroic throughout most of the event. The ceremony was open to few individuals—usually only the high-ranking members among the Chiss Syndicure were invited.^[1]

Following the rescue of contraband at Pleknok and before the Vagaari pirate operations, Mid Commander Mitth'raw'nuru, core name "Thrawn", underwent the Stybla honoring ceremony, becoming Mitth'raw'nuruodo. The Stybla medal was awarded to Thrawn and put on his honor chains. There had only been eight other non-Stybla that have undergone the ceremony; one of which included the "tragic" patriarch of the Mitth: Mitth'omo'rossodo, who had lost all four of her sons saving the Ascendancy.^[1]

Description

The ceremony was formal yet simple; it had formal clothing and only very few people were invited to the ritual. Those attending the ritual were usually high-up political figures in the Stybla family, or a person of the family in which the honor was being presented to—the Mitth family attended Mitth'raw'nurodo's honoring ceremony. Being such a formal event, the interaction between most attendees was based on politics, which was thus courtly and held very few emotions. On top of the formality, the ritual was very rare. The Stybla Patriarch Lamiov stated it was an infrequent event, but Thrass regarded it as more than infrequent. Thrass also compared the ritual to Mitth welcoming ceremonies but stated that the Stybla event held a deeper meaning than the former.^[1]

The person of honor in the ceremony had to memorize and recite lines during the event. Often times, the participant would practice their lines while others were not around.^[1]

The place in which the ceremony was held—the Stybla Stronghold on the planet of Naporar—held tapestries from the original Stybla assembly hall from when the Stybla were still regarded as a/the Ruling Family.^[1]

Behind the scenes

The Stybla honoring ceremony appeared in the last book of the Ascendancy Trilogy by Timothy Zahn: Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil in November of 2021. It is seen in the 11th "memories" chapter which features Mitth'raw'nuruodo and Mitth'ras'safis as first-time brothers.

Appearances

• Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil (and audiobook) (First appearance) (In flashback(s))

Sources

• Thrass Meets the Future Grand Admiral in Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil – Exclusive Excerpt on StarWars.com (backup link) (First pictured)

Notes and references