Q ' anah ( pirate ) Q ' anah was the assumed name used by a female human who led the Senex - Juvex pirate group known as Q ' anah ' s Marauders . The daughter of a former bodyguard , she fell in love with a young noble from House Elegin of the planet Asmeru and joined the pirate crew he secretly led . Following his death , however , she took charge of the crew and sought revenge on the ships and settlements of the Senex - Juvex worlds , earning a name for herself and becoming a folk hero . Following a violent encounter with the Judicial Department , Q ' anah and her men were forced to relocate to the Greater Seswenna region of the galaxy where they began to prey upon the lommite shipments from the planet Eriadu . The Marauders were hugely successful in their lommite raids for sometime , using a pattern devised by Q ' anah which essentially spelt out her name across each shipment . The pattern was eventually worked out by a young Outland Regions Security Force lieutenant named Wilhuff Tarkin , who used the information to predict the Marauders raids . Using a virus rigged into the cargo containers Q ' anah tried to steal , the security forces were able to capture her and execute her by leaving her on a ship programmed to fly into a nearby sun . Biography . A noble ' s mistress and a pirate queen . This female human was born on the Core World planet Brentaal IV as the only daughter of a former bodyguard for House Cormond . After her birth , her father received a lucrative offer to leave the Core and oversee security for House Elegin on the planet Asmeru , which he accepted . The daughter moved with him to the world , where she adopted a new name , Q ' anah , which in an ancient language native to Asmeru referred to a festival celebrated on the 234th day of the planet ' s 16th month . While on Asmeru , she fell in love with the youngest son of the House her father served and became his mistress . The young noble lived a double life leading a group of pirate s which Q ' anah eventually joined up with and fought alongside . While serving with her lover ' s crew she gave birth to his triplets , but the father of her children was eventually captured and sentenced to death , being executed on the planet Karfeddion . Following the death of her lover , Q ' anah took lead of his crew , who became known as Q ' anah ' s Marauders , and began targeting starship s and settlements across the Senex - Juvex sector s and , due to her audacious raids , became a folk hero in the Senex . During this time she became the subject of many HoloNet News stories and rumors , surviving starship collisions , starfighter crashes , blaster - bolt and vibroblade wounds , fistfights , and personal duels . On one occasion she became stranded on an isolated moon while awaiting rescue and was forced to chew off her own infected hand . Twice she was captured , but instead of being sentenced to death she was given lengthy sentences in maximum security prisons due to her connections to House Elegin , although both times her pirates rescued her from incarceration . After destroying six vessels in a battle against the Judicial Forces , the Republic placed a bounty on her head which forced her to move to the Greater Seswenna region , where the Judicials rarely patrolled . Raiding in the Greater Seswenna . In the Greater Seswenna , the pirate and her crew allied with several other pirate groups who agreed to an alliance in order to prey upon the planet Eriadu ' s lommite shipments to the Core . One set of pirates would monitor or engage the limited number of vessels of the local Outland Regions Security Force and keep the others informed of their location , meaning Q ' anah could safely lead the rest of the Marauders in raids on the poorly protected lommite convoys . The fastest of the Marauder ' s ships would attack the shepherd vessel accompanying the convoy and any security ships , while others would deliver troops to board five specific slave - rigged cargo containers carrying the lommite . The containers targeted were decided by a simple pattern Q ' anah employed using the digits 23416 , from the date of the Q ' anah festival , with each number linked to a letter from her adopted name . The ships corresponding to these numbers would then be chosen , although the way the pattern was applied varied , sometimes starting at the front vessel , sometimes at the back , sometimes in reverse and sometimes carried over multiple convoys . These containers would then be unslaved from the convoy ' s shepherd vessel and instead slaved to a pirate vessel , which would lead them away to be pillaged . Q ' anah and her men would then sell the lommite or turn it over to whatever group had hired them for that specific raid . Eriadu Mining , the company who owned the lommite , eventually accepted that handing over the containers to the Marauders was cheaper than trying to defend them , which almost invariably lead to the loss of expensive company ships . Attempts were made to include dummy or explosive containers , but Q ' anah ' s Marauders never once targeted these traps and they were discontinued due to expense . Eventually a young lieutenant in the Outland Regions Security Force named Wilhuff Tarkin worked out the pattern Q ' anah used by spending months studying all her previous raids , and managed to persuade the security forces and mining company of his success , with evidence from several further raids which followed the lieutenant ' s predictions . Tarkin ' s cousin Ranulph , a commander in the security force , then proposed that the predicted containers be rigged with a hyperdrive motivator virus which would allow the security force to control the pirate ' s hyperspace jumps . Following the costly implementation of the virus , Q ' anah and her crew did not strike for some time ; however , when they did finally carry out another raid the virus successfully diverted their ships to travel to a predetermined spot where a large fleet of Outland Region Security Forces ' vessels awaited them . 46 years prior to the Battle of Yavin , Q ' anah and her men were shackled and brought before the young Wilhuff , who she mocked and defied , even after realizing he had worked out her pattern . The pirate queen and her crew were then place onboard a cargo container which was programmed to fly slowly toward the sun of the system Q ' anah had been captured in . Wilhuff had the audio and video feeds from the container left on so that both the security forces and other pirates could witness the Marauder ' s demise , as all the captured pirates onboard , including Q ' anah , were cooked alive by the heat of the sun . Several other Marauder vessels arrived in the star system and attempted to rescue their leader , but all were destroyed on site by security force vessels . Those members of Q ' anah ' s flotilla that didn ' t perish with her or die trying to save her went into hiding after witnessing her gruesome demise . Personality and traits . Before becoming the mistress of the young Elegin noble , Q ' anah was trained in combat by her father , and became eager for adventure . While serving with her lover ' s crew she lived a colorful and baudy life , but became bent on revenge against the Senex - Juvex after his death . Rumored to be both incredibly quick on the draw and an extremely flexible dancer , Q ' anah inspired great loyalty in her crew , who practically worshipped her and rescued her from imprisonment several times . She was a vain individual and created a pattern for raiding lommite convoys which consisted of spelling out her own name across the vessels . This arrogance lead to her downfall , but even after capture she refused to admit defeat and mocked her captor Wilhuff Tarkin for his age , although she was briefly shocked when she realized he had worked out her raid pattern . When speaking with Tarkin she showed no fear of death and claimed others would replace her , but while roasting in the doomed cargo container she eventually broke and wailed along with the rest of her dying crew . Equipment . During her time as pirate queen , Q ' anah had two artificial arms and one artificial leg from the knee down . She also had one ocular implant and possibly other cybernetic enhancements . She commanded a pirate flotilla that contained large numbers of corvette s and frigate s . Behind the scenes . Q ' anah first appeared in a flashback to Tarkin ' s youth in " Tarkin " , a novel released in 2014 and written by James Luceno . The book does not reveal her birth name .