Skeksis

Two Skesis: SkekTek, the Scientist and SkekOk, the Scroll-Keeper

"For every Mystic there was a corresponding Skeksis... The Skeksis had control of the castle where the Crystal was kept; in its chamber they practiced their evil arts, hating each other as much as they hated the rest of the world."

- The Making of the Dark Crystal

About the Skeksis

When the Crystal cracked, one of the two races resulting from the split were the evil Skeksis, embodiments of the evil inside the UrSkeks. Possessing all of the negative attributes of society, and none of the positive ones, they live out a superficial existence of intrigue and plots against each other while struggling to retain their grip on Thra. They keep essence-drained Podlings as slaves, have their own personal army in the Garthim, and absolutely despise Gelflings, a race they think they have completely exterminated. There were originally 18 Skeksis, but by the time of the Great Conjunction when they rejoined the Mystics, only 8 remained.

A list of Skeksis

• skekAyuk the Gourmand
• skekEkt the Ornamentalist
• SkekLach the Collector
• skekNa the Slave-Master
• skekOk the Scroll-Keeper
• skekShod the Treasurer
• skekSil the Chamberlain
• SkekSo the Emperor
• skekTek the Scientist
• skekUng the Garthim-Master
• SkekZok the Ritual-Master

Creating the Skeksis

In The World of the Dark Crystal, Jim Henson commented that the Skeksis were based on the Seven Deadly Sins, but that since there were ten Skeksis in the movie and only seven deadly sins, they used some sins twice or simply made some sins up.

Originally the Skeksis spoke an alien language based on ancient Greek and Egyptian, specially created for them by linguist Alan Garner. Jim Henson stated, "My whole approach to this film is visual. I wanted as little dialogue as possible because I believe the story is stronger that way. Dialogue becomes a crutch. If you have all these alien-looking creatures, why should they be talking in English? An early concept was to have the Skeksis just making noises, but in a way you knew what they were saying." Gary Kurtz responded to the non-English version stating, "The audience thought that they were missing something. Actually, they didn't need to understand the Skeksis' dialogue at those points. The translation of what was being said is really quite banal. The strength of those scenes was instinctively knowing what's going on...But the Skeksis scenes were quite long. You had to concentrate. The audience wasn't prepared to do that." The response of the test audiences led to the replacement of the Skeksis language with English dialogue.

The Skeksis were full body puppets, operated in a very similar way to Big Bird: the puppeteer's left arm was in the arm of the skeksis, and the puppeteer's right arm was held up over the puppeteer's head and the hand operates the jaw. A monitor inside the suit allowed the puppeteer to see what he or she was doing.

Cultural references

• A verse of the Scissor Sisters' song "Return to Oz" makes reference to the Skeksis as a metaphor for drug-abusing rave-goers.
• A season ten episode of South Park features a "Nanny Skexis" who sounds like Chamberlain.