Hume Tarl
Biographical information
Homeworld	Corellia[1]
Physical description
Species	Human[1]
Gender	Male[1]
Chronological and political information
Era(s)	Rebellion era[1]
Affiliation	Galactic Empire[1] Stormtrooper Corps[1] Tempest Force[1]

[Source]

Hume Tarl was a Human male sergeant who served in the ranks of the New Order's Imperial Stormtrooper Corps during the height of the Galactic Civil War. A native of the planet Corellia, Tarl's career as a stormtrooper in Tempest Force resulted in his participation in several notable assignments, including the assault on the Tantive IV and the Battle of Endor.

BiographyEdit

Imperial StormtrooperEdit

Prior to the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, Hume Tarl left his home planet of Corellia in the pursuit of a career in the Imperial Military. After completing his training on the planet Corulag, Tarl became a stormtrooper, an elite soldier of the Galactic Empire.^[1] For six years, Tarl served in Darth Vader's Tempest Force and was eventually elevated to the rank of sergeant. In that time period, he participated in various military operations on several worlds, such as Kashyyyk, Marcelan Prime, Sarko, and Aurimaus.^[2]

CorelliaEdit

Sometime after destruction of the first Death Star, Sergeant Tarl returned to his homeworld where he was stationed in the city of Coronet. During this assignment, he came to suspect that one of his informants, a female named Dina Whisper, was selling sensitive information to the Rebel Alliance.^[3]

No longer able to trust Whisper, Sergeant Tarl enlisted the aid of a spacer who possessed a strong sense of allegiance to the Galactic Empire. The spacer inquired the details behind Whisper's alleged treason, but Tarl remained vague, simply stating that she could longer be trusted due to the secrets she knew. The spacer nonetheless faithfully fulfilled his contract by capturing Whisper outside of Coronet. With Whisper in Imperial custody, Tarl paid a reward of one hundred credits to the spacer.^[3]

Through the interrogation of Dina Whisper, Tarl discovered a small black market outpost located outside of Coronet City. He then recruited the same spacer who apprehended Whisper and charged the individual with the responsibility of shutting down the illegal operation. The Sergeant also insinuated that the spacer would be threatened with charges of treason unless the mission was completed exactly to Tarl's expectations.^[3]

Ultimately, the Imperial-aligned spacer agreed to destroy the outpost. The spacer disabled the black market, but not before being confronted by the individual who ran it, a profiteer who adamantly opposed Imperial authority. The two fought until the profiteer was killed by the spacer. Afterward, Tarl congratulated his mercenary for completing the assignment in the service of the Empire. He then directed the spacer to seek further work with Captain Gilad Pellaeon.^[3]

Deployment to EndorEdit

The Empire's decision to construct a new and more powerful Death Star led to the selection of the Forest Moon of Endor as the site for this clandestine operation. As such, Tempest Force was reassigned to guard the battlestation during its construction, as well as to establish an Imperial outpost on the moon itself. With the exception of occasional visits to Annaj, Sergeant Tarl and his troopers lived on Endor for nearly a year, much to their chagrin and growing boredom. Though they discovered the moon to possess an indigenous species known as Ewoks, Tarl and the rest of the Imperials dismissed the creatures as semi-intelligent, primitive dwarfs who posed little threat to the Imperial Military.^[2]

In 4 ABY, Emperor Palpatine chose to personally oversee the completion of the Death Star; Sergeant Tarl was among the many soldiers who greeted the Emperor upon his arrival in the near-finished battlestation. He then returned to Endor, where a Rebel surrendered himself to Imperial authorities. Tarl, unaware of the fact that the young Rebel was actually Luke Skywalker, accompanied the prisoner during his transfer into Darth Vader's custody.^[2]

The Massacre on EndorEdit

When a group of Rebel guerrillas attempted to destroy the Death Star's deflector shield generator, located on top of an Imperial base on Endor, Sergeant Tarl and a legion of the Emperor's hand-picked soldiers intercepted and captured the insurgents. Yet just as Tarl assumed that the Empire was on the verge of a decisive victory, the Ewoks launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Imperials, thus revealing their alliance with the Rebellion.^[2]

Much to Tarl's shock and horror, the Empire's elite soldiers proved ineffective against the guerrilla warfare tactics of primitive natives. He saw his fellow troopers die by the multitudes as many were killed by poisoned arrows; others were beaten to death after being overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the Ewoks. The situation worsened for the Empire after the bunker was destroyed, thus enabling the Alliance Fleet to destroy the unfinished Death Star. Sergeant Tarl was among the Imperial survivors of Endor, but ultimately only lived to witness the following disintegration of the Empire that he served as a patriot.^[2]

A Soldier's Story: Death in the WoodsEdit

Many years after the Battle of Endor, Hume Tarl was interviewed in 41 ABY by Cindel Towani, who wished to hear about the Galactic Civil War from the perspective of an Imperial veteran. At this late stage in Tarl's life, the retired sergeant was a bitter man who lamented the fall of the Galactic Empire and the deaths of his comrades on Endor; he also accused history and popular culture of taking a biased approach to the conflict between the Empire and the Alliance. From Tarl's point of view, the victorious Rebels were hypocrites who condemned the Imperials for atrocities committed in the name of the Empire, yet were quick to overlook the massacre of Human beings on Endor as an atrocity. Furthermore, he deeply hated the Ewoks, which he regarded as monstrous savages who slaughtered the Imperials like animals.^[2]

Behind the scenesEdit

Hume Tarl appeared as a non-player character in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, a massively multiplayer online-role playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts. The game was shut down on December 15, 2011. Players who performed a series of quests for Tarl had to escort Dina Whisper to Coronet, and kill a black market profiteer outside of town. Although the player could choose not to do Tarl's quests, this article assumes 100% game completion.^[3]

AppearancesEdit

•  Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (First appearance)

SourcesEdit

• Star Wars Customizable Card Game – Endor Limited (Card: Sergeant Tarl) (First identified as Tarl)
• The Essential Guide to Warfare (First identified as Hume Tarl)

Notes and referencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Sergeant Tarl on SWG Wiki