Obo Rin was a controversial Human sentientologist and xenobiologist who worked for the Galactic Empire. Under commission by Lieutenant Pandur on behalf of the Emperor's personal servant, Darth Vader, Rin wrote the Catalog of Intelligent Life in the Galaxy as a reference for other scholars and Imperial personnel. Rin's correspondence with Pandur, Vader, and Major Vontenn, the Imperial Liaison Officer of Sentientology Studies, revealed him to be an Imperial loyalist and obsequious personality. However, Rin failed to endear himself to Major Herrit, an Imperial Intelligence officer who was also involved in the project. This enmity was at least in part due to Rin's extravagant research expenses—totaling nearly one million credits during production of the first installment of the Catalog. Despite an attempt by Herrit to discredit Rin and expose what Herrit alleged was a falsified curriculum vitae, Vader, through his aide Captain Solistein, insisted that Rin continue his work and that Herrit assist him by obtaining a Duinuogwuin corpse for dissection. Herrit died during the mission, and Rin went on to produce a revised edition and further updates to the work without interference as a member of Vader's personal staff. He remained active, affiliating himself with the remnants of the Empire after the defeat of Emperor Palpatine and the rise of the New Republic.

Rin's research drew on previous publications, classified data, personal observations, interviews, and dissections of the species under study. However, Rin's pro-Imperial leanings colored his work, turning it into pure propaganda at times. For instance, his Catalog claimed that the Mon Calamari species had no contact with the outside galaxy until Imperial scouts visited their world, and he described several species that had been enslaved by the Empire as willing laborers toiling for the New Order. Rin was a proponent of the theory that for a species to be considered sentient it had to be able not just to ponder abstract concepts but also to communicate such abstraction to others. He proposed a universal definition of life by which sentientologists could distinguish living species from other entities, such as droids, and he rejected the likelihood of the evolution of silicon-based life. Rin held that a species had to be understood in the context of its environment, and his Catalog included detailed overviews of the homeworlds of the lifeforms discussed. Despite his espoused loyalties to the New Order, Rin occasionally expressed sympathy for species he deemed to have been unfairly stereotyped in the galaxy. (Read more…)

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