In Stone-in-the-Wood, they said an unseen tragedy happened around one century after Mother Aughra left the Crystal of Truth to the Skeksis. Overnight, all the guards and servants of the castle had died. The lords of the Crystal explained there had been an alliance between Arathims and Gruenaks who went and attempted at their life, and thus the lords requested to all the Maudras a whole new staff and the best warriors as their new guards in order to do a revengeful raid on them. The Stonewood Maudra of the time was not fully convinced given the very suspicious circumstances : every non-Skeksis person who could have heard or seen something in the castle died, and yet the main targets the Skeksis were alright... at least physically. And a few Stonewoods were sure and certain during their trades with the Castle of the Crystal there had been traces of Skeksis children in the past trines. Maybe not Skeksis but they sure heard or glanced children running around, while another was sure some of the lords had been seen carrying bundles from afar. But the Emperor was clear : they were godly and could not reproduce. This must have been their imagination, and they should only focus on the raid to avenge the fallen guards and servants. But why did these Stonewoods had the same collective memories as fake as it was ? The one thing they were sure of, was the Skeksis were truely compassionate, were crushed by these deaths : for indeed, that night, their desperate cries and wails of sorrow and anguish reached Stone-in-the-wood from the castle

The truth if you remember my posts on Tumblr is I HC Skeksis used to have skeklings but SkekSo, one century after the Great Division, grew paranoid they could topple him over one day so he forbid any reproduction and ordered all the skeklings to be brought to him and executed them all in front of their parents. The Skekling Massacre, somber episode in Skeksis history and SkekSo's greatest assertion to power, as well as a taboo event. There was a determination to hide Skeksis were able to die so the bodies were destroyed with no funeral, all the records of their existence were erased and any witness of their existence were slaughtered the same night, giving a new pretext to attack Arathims and Gruenaks. The parents were unable to mourn correctly and thus grew even more somber, cruel and crazier than they were, more scared of death, it was the start of the Skeksis downfall. However as loathing of SkekSo they became, they never rebelled for Skeksis hierarchy works under brutality, strength and cruelty, which he proved to be even more capable of than by just smashing a skull with his scepter. The fact they kept living and respecting the killer of their children was not good for their mourning and mental health, especially since he forbid any mention of them and thus the parents found themselves with a pain they couldn't talk about. They sure all chuckled in secret at his death in the movie
There were 5, maybe 7 little victims. SkekViir, the oldest, 6 in human years, daughter of SkekEkt and SkekAyuk ; her death made her parents' bond grow even stronger with support out of survival instinct, but SkekEkt became even more anxious than he/she was and still has nightmares from time time to time, and SkekAyuk started stress eating and get fatter. SkekSosh, 5 in human years, son of SkekLach and SkekLi (they didn't love each other he was an accident) ; his death had SkekLach develop her pustules out of stress and she hides the reason by accusing knowledge, subconsciously her knowledge of motherhood. SkekIkr, toddler, daughter of SkekOk and SkekShod ; her death caused SkekShod to go even more introverted than he was and the shock of having to erase her name from the records himself drew SkekOk to still be unable to this day to harm any baby or toddler from any species to this day, and even though they still love each other, their relationship became an on and off one because staying together too long hurts them. SkekNetk and SkekSsaz, born 4,5 weeks before the massacre (some think the fact they were twins was what triggered SkekSo), sons of SkekSil and SkekUng ; their death was what completely destroyed the relationship between the parents who as a way to cope blamed each other "YOU COULD HAVE HIDDEN THEM" "YOU SHOULDNT HAVE GIVEN BIRTH TO 2" "YOU COULD HAVE PROTECTED THEM" "YOU COULD HAVE NOT GOTTEN PREGNANT SO WE WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN ATTACHED" "YOU COULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN ME PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE" etc, leaving them cold, hateful, frustrated, bitter andyetdeepdowntheystillhavesomethingforeachotherbutareintoomuchpainrageandgrieftoadmitit, hence why SkekSil lost his cool and almost broke his manipulative plan with Rian "DEATH IS UNNATURAL", SkekSil also got more individualstic that day and SkekUng sometimes has PTSD if he hears "twins" and "babies" in the same sentence (and the fact my piece of paper had torn a little was perfect to draw SkekSil and SkekUng on each side. Unexpected symbolism !). 2 more unborn Skeklings were also victims : SkekLi who was pregnant of SkekLach (again they didn't love each other but they loved SkekSosh so they decided to try again BUT this time he would be the one going through pregnancy) was forced to abort with no anaesthesia and SkekZok hid his own unexpected pregnancy for weeks thinking about how to hide the baby or other before all the stress had him go through a painful miscarriage ; the irony was that he had no idea who the father was since he had been sleeping around, but I know it was SkekSo

The Dark Crystal and the Skeksis © the Jim Henson Company
Drawing, idea, theories, SkekNetk, SkekSsaz, SkekViir, SkekSosh and SkekIkr © me