Totem Master

Totem Master was an antagonist from the relatively obscure Ewoks cartoon series - which in turn is loosely associated with the expanded Star Wars universe.

The thief of Endor
The being known as the Totem Master began his career of thievery after coming into possession of a powerful artifact, which allowed him to enslave other individuals to his will. This device, a ring that he wore on his left hand, doubled as a weapon with the ability to fire bolts of energy. Through the use of the ring, the Totem Master created a group of thieves to serve him. The three beings making up this tiny band included a brown biped, a green arthropod and a blue biped. As a mark of their enslavement to the Totem Master, their eyes glowed red, and they were forced to carry out his every order. At an unspecified point, the Totem Master and his slaves found themselves on the forest moon of Endor, where they began to steal from the locals.

In order to carry out his capers on the Endorians, the Totem Master would pose as a simple trader, riding his primitive wagon into the center of their villages and offering the citizens a simple gift—a totem pole. In order to make sure the villagers would accept his present, the Totem Master would make various claims about the object, appealing to his customer's vanity. In reality, the gift was made up of the Totem Master's three slaves, stacked one on top of the other. The Totem Master's ring had the ability to change the trio into stationary blocks of wood, making the illusion of a real totem pole flawless. Once the villagers had all gone to sleep, the Totem Master would reappear in the village and remove the spell, sending his slaves out to steal everything of value from the settlement. The spoils would be placed in the back of the Totem Master's wagon, and the group would be gone before the morning, moving on to the next target.

In Bright Tree Village
Eventually, the Totem Master and his thieves found themselves outside of Bright Tree Village. Surveying the area, the Totem Master saw several young Ewoks harvesting dangleberry juice. Believing them to be easy marks for his totem pole gift, the Totem Master began to speak with the Ewoks. After overhearing that one Ewok, Wicket W. Warrick, considered himself a powerful warrior, the Totem Master appealed to the Ewok's pride, telling Wicket that his totem pole was something that only the greatest warriors possessed to protect their villages. Despite warnings by Wicket's friend Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, Wicket agreed to take the gift, much to the Totem Master's delight, and he departed before the Ewok could change his mind.

That night, the Totem Master sent his thieves into the village, and they began to gather all the valuables from the Ewoks' huts. However, in their hurry to collect their plunder, one of the thieves, the blue biped, accidentally awoke one of the Ewok children from his slumber. Teebo, shocked at the thieves' presence in the village, tried to stop the group from escaping, but the Totem Master used his ring to enslave Teebo as well. After adding the Ewok to the totem pole, the thieves left the village. Before their departure, Wicket briefly saw the Totem Master, but believing himself to be dreaming, decided to go back to sleep.

In Strutter Village
The Totem Master began to make his way to the next village but decided to stop briefly to appraise the things he had stolen. The Totem Master judged the majority of it to be worthless garbage, casting many of the objects into the forest. However, Wicket and his friends Kneesaa and Latara had been tailing the Totem Master after they had discovered Wicket's "dream" to have been real. Latara, after seeing her possessions described as junk, could not bear to sit idly by, and she decided to confront the Totem Master despite her friends' protests. However, Latara's confrontation of the Totem Master only resulted in the same fate that had befallen Teebo, and she was quickly added to the totem pole as well. After creating another Ewok slave, the Totem Master departed on a heading for the Strutter Village.

Using a different approach than he had in Bright Tree Village, the Totem Master drove his wagon straight into the center of town and offloaded his now much larger totem pole. Although the Strutters were initially dismissive of the Totem Master, he was once again able to appeal to his target's vanity, convincing the Strutters to accept the totem pole. Before leaving, the Totem Master took one last look at his totem pole, recognizing that it had somehow grown taller, but not recognizing that the two Ewoks who had been following him were perched on the top of the totem pole.

Later that night, as in the other villages, the Totem Master returned and released his slaves from their totem configuration, ordering them to plunder the settlement. Meanwhile, Wicket and Kneesaa, having removed themselves from the top of the totem pole, had devised a trap for the Totem Master. As he walked towards a nearby tree, the two Ewoks prepared to drop a bale of hay upon the Totem Master. Their plan succeeded, but when the Ewoks went to steal the Totem Master's ring, he was able to recover, aiming his ring at the would-be rescuers. However, Wicket and Kneesaa were able to avoid the blast from the ring, and they fled from their attacker. Furious at the two Ewoks having escaped him, the Totem Master yelled to his slaves, ordering them to capture the fleeing meddlers.

Confrontation
As the Totem Master's slaves rushed to obey him, a chase ensued with the Ewoks fleeing frantically through the Strutter village. The Totem Master continued to fire his ring at the Ewoks, but they were too fast for him. Still attempting to catch the Ewoks, the Totem Master crashed into his green arthropod servant and crashed to the ground. However, just as it seemed that the Ewoks would escape, they ran into their two enslaved friends. Mistakenly believing that their friends were there to help them, Wicket and Kneesaa ceased their escape. Latara and Teebo, still under the Totem Master's control, dropped their loot and grabbed their friends, holding them for their master. Although the two Ewoks struggled against their friends, they were unable to escape before the Totem Master had them at his mercy.

As the Totem Master gloated his triumph over the Ewoks, Wicket happened to spy a mirror that Teebo had dropped when capturing his friend. Anticipating the Totem Master's next move, Wicket was able to snatch up the mirror just as the Totem Master used his ring on the Ewoks. The blast from the Totem Master's ring reflected off of the mirror and hit the Totem Master directly. The energy from the ring surrounded the Totem Master, causing him to scream in agony. With his eyes wide in shock, the Totem Master's body began to transform into a solid block of wood, just as he had once done to his slaves.

Aftermath
After the Totem Master's defeat, his ring slid off his wooden fingers and smashed to pieces on the ground. The destruction of the artifact removed the control that the Totem Master had placed over his slaves. As a signal of their freedom from their overlord, the slaves' red eyes reverted to their normal demeanor. With the Totem Master transformed into wood, the three original servants celebrated their liberation and then disappeared into the nearby forest. The four Ewok friends reunited, and Latara and Teebo thanked their friends for rescuing them. With the rescue complete, the Ewoks took the Totem Master's wagon and went back to Bright Tree Village, returning all the stolen property to their fellow Ewoks. The Totem Master's wooden body remained in the Strutter village upon their departure. With his magic ring destroyed, it seemed unlikely that the Totem Master could be released from his wooden form.