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Encyclopedia | Characters | Skeksis

Description
Description
Reptilian and bird-like creatures with long necks and six limbs (four arms, two
legs). The Skeksis are rapacious, whimsical and cruel. List of Skeksis

History
· Origin
· Lords of the Dark Crystal
· The Garthim War
List of Skeksis
Production
· Development
skekSo the Emperor
- Concept Design
skekZok the Ritual-Master - Prototypes
skekUng the Garthim-Master - Costumes
· Performers
skekSil the Chamberlain

skekTek the Scientist

skekAyuk the Gourmand

skekNa the Slave-Master

skekShod the Treasurer

Appears in:
skekZok
skekOk the Scroll-Keeper · The Dark Crystal
The Ritual-Master
skekEkt the Ornamentalist
· The Legends of the Dark
skekMal the Hunter Crystal: The Garthim
skekVar the General Wars

skekLach the Collector · The Legends of the Dark

Crystal: Trial by Fire
skekGra the Conquerer

skekLi the Satirist · The Dark Crystal - Creation

Myths, Vol. 1
skekSa the Mariner

skekHak · The Dark Crystal - Creation

Myths, Vol. 2
skekYi
· The Dark Crystal - Creation
Myths, Vol. 3

· Shadows of the Dark Crystal

History
Origin

At the close of the Age of Harmony, the second Great Conjunction occurred and The World of The Dark
marked the beginning of the Age of Division. During this Great Conjunction, the Crystal
urSkeks stepped into the light of the suns that filtered through the Crystal and
refracted through the urSkeks’ mirrors. Unintentionally, the urSkeks were split The Making of the Dark
into two separate creatures: the Skeksis and the urRu. Crystal

The Dark Crystal: Creation

The Skeksis were the personification of their destructive, cruel and aggressive Myths, Vol. 1
impulses while the urRu were the personification of their creative, healing and
passive impulses. For every urRu, there was a corresponding Skeksis. Immediately The Dark Crystal: Creation
following the split, confused fighting erupted. Two Skeksis, and therefore two Myths, Vol. 2
urRu, were murdered.
The Dark Crystal: Creation
Myths, Vol. 3
Destructive behavior continued, and one of the Skeksis struck the Crystal and
cracked it. The resulting release of energy – the kakoi – broke off a dagger-shaped Shadows of the Dark Crystal
shard and changed everything.

The Crystal darkened, turning from pure bright white to dimly glowing violet.
And with the darkening of the Crystal, so too did the world turn dark. A blighted
wasteland slowly and inexorably crept from the Castle and strange creatures began
appearing throughout Thra’s wilderness.

Lords of the Dark Crystal

After the initial shock of the cracking of the

Crystal, the Skeksis settled into their roles as
Lords of the Dark Crystal. Led by Emperor
skekSo, they played the role of extravagant hosts
to both Gelfling and Podling alike, holding grand
feasts and games.

Meanwhile, over the course of hundreds of trine,

The rejuvenation chart
the Skeksis went from eccentric nobles to mad
of the Skeksis
despots. With the passage of time, their powers
began to fade. The Skeksis scientist called
skekTek experimented with the Dark Crystal. It discovered how to use the
refracted light of the Crystal to drain the essence and weaken the will of Gelfling
and Podlings, turning them into mindless slaves.

This final act shocked the Gelfling out of their naiveté. Why would the Skeksis
harm them? The Skeksis provided no answer other than to cull more of the
Gelfling for use as slaves and sources of essence.

The Garthim War

When the Skeksis learned of the Prophecy, they immediately sought to thwart it.
In their madness and paranoia, they created the Garthim soldiers and Crystal Bat
spies, dispatching them to hunt down and exterminate the Gelfling. They even
manufactured false shards to hinder the Gelfling in their quest to heal the Crystal.

Ultimately, the Skeksis were seemingly successful in eliminating all but two of the
Gelfling — Jen and Kira.

Production
Development

Concept Design

When it was time to build the Skeksis puppets, the builders had a fairly clear idea
how each of the characters should look. Brian Froud had established that, and
dozens of maquettes had been built.

Brian Froud artwork of a Skeksis

Prototypes

Much work on the Skeksis had been done by Lyle Conway, a sculptor who had
considerable experience as a designer of dolls. He had also done stop-motion work
for commercials and for the motion picture Vortex. But even when prototypes had
been assembled, many of the questions about how to make the puppets work
remained unanswered.

How could a Skeksis – as large as a man but considerably more bulky and
awkward – be made to move convincingly? Even using the lightest materials
available, each Skeksis would weigh thirty pounds or more. How could the face of
a Skeksis be made to be fully expressive? No matter how beautifully the features
were sculpted or how carefully they were cast in latex, the matter of giving each
Skeksis a sufficient range of smiles, sneers, and facial tics needed to be solved. As
for larger motor functions, how could a Skeksis wield a sword? Or snatch the
scepter from the dying Emperor?

Some of the pioneering work on these challenges

had been completed in New York. A prototype
Skeksis hand mechanism – in effect, a fairly
sophisticated artificial limb operated by cable
controls – had been built and fully tested by
Leigh Donaldson. Flexible rods, inserted through
tubes and operated by a remote, hand-held
trigger device, regulated the motor functions of
each joint and each finger. It had been decided
that cable control would be the device by which
many of the puppets’ primary and secondary
A Skeksis prototype
movements could be activated. Each Skeksis, for
example, would be in the charge of a principal
puppeteer who would control the broader movements of the body and head. The
principal puppeteer would be assisted by a cable crew of up to four people, who
under his direction would be responsible for eye movements and many other
functions.

These cable controls could be concealed by the voluminous robes each Skeksis
wore, which would serve, in effect, as a kind of portable puppet theater in which
the kneeling puppeteer could hide (one hand and arm thrust above his own head
into the neck and head of the puppet). At the same time this “portable theater”
had to be attached to the puppeteer’s body in such a way that it would move
naturally when he moved (reverting from theater back to puppet). Special
lightweight metal harnesses had to be devised so that the weight of the entire
assembly could be cantilevered off the puppeteer’s hips – the hips being the most
efficient load-bearing area. This harness would have to support the armature for
the entire Skeksis assembly, and that assembly would need to float free of the
puppeteer’s body so that the movements he transmitted to the puppet would have
a character of their own. What was to be avoided at all costs was the impression
that a Skeksis was simply a human being in an elaborate costume. Each Skeksis
had to be a seamless union of puppet, costume and theater.

“I didn’t find it difficult to get a performance out of the Garthim-

Master,” Dave Goelz insists. “Each Skeksis had a clearly defined
character, a certain gait, a particular set of facial tics. There was a lot to
work with.”

Successful prototypes had been made, but variants were needed, each having to be
tailored to the specific needs of the puppeteers who would be manipulating them.
SkekSil the Chamberlain, performed by Frank Oz, became the most complex of all
the Skeksis. As finally built, the chamberlain was equipped with twenty-one cable-
controlled functions, requiring up to four people to operate – undoubtedly one of
the most elaborate puppets ever constructed. Its eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, beak and
hands were all fully articulated. Pneumatic devices hidden within the head gave Oz
a considerable repertoire of sneers and sadistic grins with which to work. In his
hands, the latex mask became almost as expressive as a human face. SkekZok the
Ritual-Master, performed by Jim Henson, and SkekUng the Garthim-Master,
performed by Dave Goelz, were almost as complex. Other Skeksis were somewhat
simpler, but each required a cable crew or at least two people to complement the
primary performer within the character.

Costumes

Like the urRu, each Skeksis had to be

differentiated from all others by means of
physical attributes and costume. The Skeksis
unit, under Sarah Bradpiece, set about translating
the evocative notions into reality. Since the
Skeksis were to be a ruling caste in the final
stages of decadence, their robes were made from
costly silks, velvets, laces, damasks, brocades, furs
and exotic feathers. After the costumes were
sewn together, they were deliberately torn apart,
ripped to shreds and tatters, sprayed with paint,
Costuming on a Skeksis
and caked with simulated filth. The results were
stunningly effective.

Performers

Jim Henson skekZok the Ritual-Master

Frank Oz skekSil the Chamberlain

Dave Goelz skekUng the Garthim-Master

Steve Whitmire skekTek the Scientist

Louise Gold skekAyuk the Gourmand

Brian Muehl skekEkt the Ornamentalist

Bob Payne skekOk the Scroll-Keeper

Mike Quinn skekNa the Slave Master

Tim Rose skekShod the Treasurer

See Also
urRu

urSkeks

Castle of the Crystal

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