Warning: This infobox has missing parameters: parents, pronouns, children, siblings, partners, families, feathers and unrecognized parameters: era
- "That's Grand Moff Kintaro's sector, is it not? He has been lax in allowing such a base to become established. We will speak to him."
- ―Emperor Palpatine
Kintaro was one of the first twenty Grand Moffs of the Galactic Empire, ruling over the Sarin Oversector as its regional governor from 19 BBY until his death around 3.5 ABY. Kintaro was first appointed a Moff under the Galactic Republic during the final days of the Clone Wars as a result of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's Sector Governance Decree, which placed twenty military governors in command of the Republic's twenty Sector Armies to maximize the war effort. Supporting the Republic's Fifteenth Army in the Sarin Oversector, Kintaro maintained his military territory as Palpatine reorganized the Republic into the Empire and declared himself Emperor. Kintaro was soon elevated to Grand Moff and eventually established his capital on Talofan.
During the Galactic Civil War, Kintaro contributed to his own downfall by allowing the criminal venture Ororo Transportation to operate a large-scale spice trade in his territory in exchange for hefty kickbacks. Unbeknownst to Kintaro, Ororo's secret shipyard in the Bajic sector, which the Grand Moff helped to conceal, doubled as a sizable Rebel Alliance safe port. When the Emperor learned of the Rebel base from Prince Xizor of the Black Sun crime syndicate, Ororo's major rival, shortly before the Battle of Endor, he ordered it destroyed and had Kintaro executed for failing to secure his borders against Rebel incursion.
Biography
The first Grand Moffs
- "The regional governors now have direct control over their territories."
- ―Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin
The Galactic Republic prosecuted the Clone Wars against the Separatist rebellion by dividing its armed forces into twenty Sector Armies, each designed to protect a specific oversector, or priority sector, of the galaxy.[3] Near the conclusion of the war,[5] in 19 BBY,[6] Supreme Chancellor Palpatine enacted the Sector Governance Decree, which created a system of[7] twenty of the most powerful regional governors,[3] called Moffs, who were placed in command of each of the twenty Sector Armies and their respective territories to maximize the Republic's war effort. This command structure allowed the Moffs to act without needing to consult with squabbling senators.[7] Moff Kintaro was given the responsibility of supporting the Republic's Fifteenth Army, also known as Hook Nebula Command, in the Sarin Oversector, with sector headquarters at Qeimet. The Fifteenth Army was envisioned as primarily a reserve force to reinforce Republic troops fighting on the Corellian Run, Hydian Way, and Rimma Trade Route hyperlanes.[3]
The Sarin Oversector, Grand Moff Kintaro's power base
After the war's end, as the victorious Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire under the authority of Emperor Palpatine, the Sector Armies and the Moffs' military territories remained.[3] The Empire's militarization eventually reorganized the Republic's wartime boundaries into a more efficient and permanent set of oversectors, and the twenty original Republic Moffs became the first Grand Moffs of the Empire.[7] In the face of a largely superficial Imperial Senate that wielded no real legislative power or military control, the responsibility fell to Kintaro,[3] the Imperial High Commander of the Sarin Oversector,[8] and the other Grand Moffs to maintain peace, coordinate the vast resources of the Imperial Military, and ensure the doctrines of Palpatine's New Order.[3] The Emperor ultimately dissolved the Senate in 0 BBY, granting the Grand Moffs direct control over their territories.[9]
Corruption in the Bajic sector
Kintaro's sovereignty over the Sarin Oversector continued into the Galactic Civil War[10] and the year 3 ABY,[11] by which time he had established his capital on the planet Talofan. The Grand Moff also allowed a lucrative and illicit spice trade to operate within his domain. Ororo Transportation, a front company for the criminal Tenloss Syndicate, built a large, hidden shipyard in the remote Vergesso Asteroids, within the Lybeya system of the Bajic sector.[10] The facility, one of the largest shadowports in the galaxy,[8] served as the main distribution, storage, and repair hub for the Tenloss Syndicate's spice trade and other illicit dealings,[10] catering to thousands of tons of illegal cargo each year.[8]
Indeed, Kintaro's sector authorities were well aware of the hidden Ororo base,[10] but the Grand Moff deemed that it posed no threat to sector security, because he relied on the operation to supplement his income.[8] Ororo paid Kintaro well for his silence, delivering a hefty monthly tribute to his capital on Talofan. Kintaro was thereby satisfied with overlooking and even going so far as to conceal the operation from his own staff and officers. He refrained from bringing the base to the attention of Imperial Military forces[10] and ordered the local Imperial Security Bureau to ignore it. The ISB, in turn, gladly focused its resources on uncovering Rebel bases and Imperial traitors elsewhere.[8]
Kintaro and the ISB did not know, however, that the Ororo base also served as a major safe port for the Rebel Alliance and that much of the contraband that passed through the shipyard ended up in Rebel hands.[10] Many types of Rebel and other starships, from starfighters to cruisers, underwent repairs at the base right under Kintaro's nose.[12] Ororo developed sympathies for the Rebellion after too many encounters with the might of the Imperial Navy and privately wished to see the Empire replaced with a government that would prove less efficient in hampering its criminal operations.[10] In 3.5 ABY,[11] Ororo's growing spice business came to the attention of Prince Xizor, leader of the Black Sun criminal organization, a major competitor of the Tenloss Syndicate.[12] To both damage his rival and curry favor with the Emperor, Xizor informed the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader of the Ororo shipyard. The Emperor, displeased with Kintaro for allowing such a Rebel base to operate under his watch, ordered Vader to destroy the shipyard.[4]
The ensuing Battle of the Bajic Shipyards resulted in a tremendous Imperial victory,[4] as Vader's forces destroyed hundreds of Rebel ships and thousands of pilots and crew members.[12] Meanwhile, the Emperor had Kintaro executed for failing to secure his territory against Rebel invasion.[2]
Personality and traits
Grand Moff Kintaro's corruption proved to be his undoing as the Imperial governor of the Outer Rim Territories' Bajic sector,[2][10] a hotbed of illegal spice trading among both the Black Sun and Tenloss Syndicate criminal factions.[13] In accepting bribes to allow Ororo Transportation to operate its spice trade within his territory, Kintaro failed to realize that Ororo's Vergesso Asteroid base also catered heavily to the Rebel Alliance—not that he was likely to investigate either so long as his lavish kickbacks continued.[8] Kintaro's private arrangement with Ororo Transportation unwittingly left him vulnerable to the machinations of Prince Xizor of Black Sun,[4][10] who engineered the shipyard's destruction through the Emperor, thereby sealing Kintaro's fate, as vengeance against Ororo for daring to impede upon Black Sun's spice operations in that sector.[4]
Behind the scenes
Grand Moff Kintaro was first mentioned in passing in the May 1996 novel Shadows of the Empire, written by Steve Perry.[4] The accompanying June 1996 Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook, written by Peter Schweighofer, expanded upon the character's involvement in the Bajic sector's spice trade.[10]
The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, released in 2008, is the only source to establish that the Emperor indeed executed Kintaro for allowing the Rebel Alliance a foothold in his sector,[2] which the Shadows of the Empire novel hints at but never confirms.[4] The 2012 The Essential Guide to Warfare, co-authored by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart, created a backstory for Kintaro as one of the original Moffs appointed under the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars who is later named one of the first Grand Moffs in the early days of the Empire.[3]
Appearances
- Shadows of the Empire novel (First mentioned)
Sources
- Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
- Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide
- Star Wars Encyclopedia ("Vergesso asteroids")
- The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
- The Official Star Wars Fact File 125 (VER2, Vergesso Asteroid Field)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Guide to Warfare
Notes and references
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 219 ("Kintaro, Grand Moff") states that Emperor Palpatine had Kintaro executed after learning of the Rebel Alliance shipyard at Vergesso Base, as presented in the Shadows of the Empire novel. This time period corresponds to circa 3.5 ABY, according to The New Essential Chronology.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 219 ("Kintaro, Grand Moff")
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 The Essential Guide to Warfare
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Shadows of the Empire novel
- ↑ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization
- ↑ The Essential Reader's Companion
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Essential Atlas
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide
- ↑ The New Essential Chronology
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The New Essential Chronology dates the events of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire to 3.5 ABY.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 303 ("Vergesso asteroids")
- ↑ The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 55 ("Bajic sector")