Denetrius Vidian Count Denetrius Vidian , born Lemuel Tharsa , was a wealthy mogul of the thorilide mining industry and one of the Galactic Empire ’ s most prominent efficiency experts . After threatening to expose corruption in the mining industry and catching a rare degenerative disease , Shilmer ' s syndrome , Tharsa recreated himself as Vidian , becoming a business consultant in the Galactic Empire . During the Age of the Empire , Vidian was granted control of the mining colony of Gorse and its moon Cynda , key to the Empire ' e expansion of its fleet . Vidian attempted to destroy Cynda in an unusual scheme to undermine his business rival Lero Danthe while simultaneously exploiting the moon ' s thorilide reserves . However , he was opposed by a motley group of rebels including Hera Syndulla , Kanan Jarrus , and Skelly . At the climax of the Gorse conflict , he was killed by Skelly aboard the " Forager " . Biography . Origins . The man who became Count Vidian was once a low - ranking safety inspector named Lemuel Tharsa who worked for the Interstellar Thorilide Guild . Due to his work as a safety inspector , Tharsa became acquainted with the thorilide trade and developed a distaste for the endemic corruption and bribery within the mining industry . While on a business trip to the Inner Rim world of Gorse , Tharsa fell ill with Shilmer ' s syndrome , a flesh – eating disease that he had contracted from the countless unsanitary factories he had visited . The disease devoured most of his body , reducing Tharsa to a sack of organs patched together by his surgeons . For the next two years , Tharsa remained unable to communicate due to the loss of most of his body parts , until he managed to re - establish rudimentary contact with one of the caretaker droids . Tharsa was eventually rebuilt as a cyborg with metallic limbs , synthskin coating , artificial yellowish – red alien eyes ( specifically chosen as they would look unsettling with a human face ) , and an artificial voice that had been carefully selected based on opinion research . Having gained a new lease on life , Tharsa adopted a new persona , " Count Denetrius Vidian " . Concealing his past as a safety inspector , Vidian reinvented himself as a defense contractor who had become a whistle - blower . The Rise of Count Vidian . Desiring vengeance against the corrupt mining firms that had almost destroyed his life , Vidian developed a reputation as a prominent corporate stalker while still living in the Gorse medcenter . After taking stakes in firms manufacturing comet - chaser harvesting vessels , Vidian bought a secret stake in Minerax Consulting about four years before the fall of the Galactic Republic . Using his former identity , Vidian became the company ' s chief researcher . Posing as Lemuel Tharsa , he produced reports that wiped out thorilide surface mining operations on Gorse and several other worlds ; driving several mining companies bankrupt . One of those companies was Introsphere , which later became Moonglow Polychemical . This single act damaged the guild he had once worked for while benefiting the interests of the comet - chaser industry , which he mostly controlled . Most of the mining operations on those worlds were run by companies he had once inspected . During the last years of the Galactic Republic , Count Vidian became a popular management guru whose management texts had become pop - culture hits despite his reluctance to appear on the business HoloNet s . From a meagre bank account , he developed a fortune through electronic trading . Following the rise of the Galactic Empire , Vidian curried favour with the new regime and became a member of Emperor Palpatine ' s cabinet . Due to his management skills and charisma , Vidian was assigned the task of speeding up production on Imperial mining worlds . As a workaholic , Vidian developed a reputation among industrial circles for his ruthlessness and putting profits ahead of people . His activities eventually drew the attention of the rebel operative Hera Syndulla , who was part of a rebel network that opposed the Empire . Visit to Gulvaanen . Under the orders of the Emperor , Count Vidian and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin traveled to the Inner Rim planet Gilvaanen to investigate the unsatisfactory rate of stormtrooper armor production there . While traveling aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer " Executrix " , Vidian and Tarkin debated their philosophical differences . Vidian argued that economic competition was necessary while Tarkin saw this as a threat to building a strong Empire . Despite their differences , the Emperor ordered the two men to work together and investigate what was slowing down armor production on Gilvaanen . Not fully trusting Vidian , Tarkin ordered Commander Rae Sloane to investigate his background . She discovered that he had gotten the Gozanti freighter program launched on time and under budget . Vidian and Tarkin visited Thetis Quelton ' s company Quelton Fabrication and found her testing a suit of Pikaati armor . Prior to his first meeting with Quelton , Vidian reviewed the facility and its workforce and issued seventeen recommendations for the military contractor to ensure maximum efficiency . These included converting the employee break room into a warehouse . Before Vidian could continue , Tarkin interjected and confronted Quelton about her factory ' s unsatisfactory rate or production . Quelton countered that the Ithorian workers at Cladtech were slowing down production by delaying the assembly of interior armor parts . At Quelton ' s request , Vidian and Tarkin agreed to settle the problem at Cladtech . At Cladtech , Vidian and Tarkin met with the Ithorian owner Mawdo Larrth . Vidian rankled Tarkin by defending the striking workers ' concerns . With the aid of stormtrooper s and Imperial Security Bureau personnel , they summoned the Ithorian workers for a meeting . In private , Vidian objected to Tarkin investigating his background . When Tarkin queried why he was defending the striking workers , Vidian reassured him that he was only concerned with improving production efficiency and vowed to resolve the matter . Later , the ISB disrupted an illegal meeting of the Cladtech supervisors . Tarkin wanted to execute the supervisors but Vidian convinced him to stop . Vidian then exposed Larrth as the ringleader behind the workers ' strikes after reviewing recordings which indicated that he was colluding with Quelton to instigate the strikes . After interrogating Larrth , Vidian broke his neck with his metallic fists . Vidian then informed the other workers that they were not in trouble and gave them a second chance to meet their production targets . He warned that failure would be punished by death . In private , Vidian convinced Tarkin to merge Cladtech and Quelton into one company . They then met Quelton at her mansion under the pretext of discussing the merger of the two factors . There , Tarkin confronted her for her role in delaying the production of stormtrooper armor . Vidian then entered uninvited and revealed that Quelton had been planting Bottleneck spores into the filtration system inside the stormtrooper helmets , which were fatal to human s . Before stormtroopers could apprehend Quelton , the businesswoman committed suicide by activating the hydrogen cyanide inside her Pikaati helmet . Following the death of Quelton , Count Vidian contacted the Emperor via hologram and advocated the " Imperialization " of Gilvaanen . Supporting Tarkin ' s assessment , he recommended bringing Gilvaanen ' s armor production under the Imperial Department of Military Research for security reasons . Vidian placed his aide Everi Chalis in charge of the restructuring . Vidian then proposed dealing with the inefficiencies in Star Destroyer resource production by visiting the mines and processors . Due to his service , Tarkin gave Count Vidian a Star Destroyer for his own personal use . At Vidian ' s recommendation , Tarkin assigned a green captain with " no attachment to past practices . " The Gorse Conflict . Inspection on Cynda . When thorilide production in the Gorse system fell behind schedule , the Emperor dispatched Count Vidian to restore productivity . Due to the closure of mining operations on Gorse , all mining operations had shifted to the planet ' s moon Cynda ; which until then had been a nature preserve and tourist destination . The thorilide processing took place at several refineries on Gorse , including one run by Moonglow Polychemical , the successor to Introsphere . For this mission , he traveled with Captain Rae Sloane on the Imperial Star Destroyer " Ultimatum " . Upon arriving , he countermanded Sloane ' s orders for the mining ships to make way for the Star Destroyer by ordering her crew to back away from the space traffic . Displeased with the slow pace of the mining convoy traveling between Gorse and Cynda , Vidian ordered the " Ultimatum " to destroy the freighter " Cynda Dreaming " in order to terrify the local population and to send a message that the Empire would not tolerate tardiness . Unknown to Vidian , the surveillance operator Hetto had informed Hera about Vidian ' s visit to Gorse , and she had witnessed the freighter ' s destruction . Count Vidian ' s first stop was the thorilide mine on Cynda , where he was greeted by several mining company representatives , including Palfa , the Neimoidian director of the Cyndan Mining Guild . His first act was to declare Security Condition One , which resulted in the arrest of 46 potential agitators working in the Cyndan mines . His second act was to impose an age cap on the mining crew and dismiss elderly workers . When Palfa protested , the cyborg personally beat him to death in front of the miners and his stormtrooper s . Retrenched workers were reassigned to more " suitable labor " on Gorse . To replace Palfa , Vidian ordered Sloane to inform Coruscant there was a job opening at the Cynda Mining Guild . When one of the miners , Okadiah Garson , was confronted by Vidian , he expressed shock at the Count ' s appearance , and in return the Count threatened to flay him and grabbed Okadiah ' s neck . At that point , he was confronted by a young man named Kanan Jarrus , who pointed a blaster at him . Kanan remonstrated with Vidian and convinced him that Okadiah could mentor younger miners . Vidian , who had already killed someone and was on a tight schedule , was persuaded by Kanan ' s words to back down . Unbeknownst to Vidian , he was being tailed by Hera , who had managed to infiltrate the Cyndan mine . While addressing a droidmaster and three aides in one of the mine ' s upper chambers , an underground explosion caused the floor beneath them to collapse into a sinkhole . The master and aides were trapped beneath the rubble , but Vidian managed to climb out due to his cyborg body . When the workers pleaded for help , Vidian coldly told them that help was on the way and reassured them that Cynda ' s crystal columns were supposed to prevent tremors . This explosion was the result of a bomb that had been set off by the dissident miner Skelly , a Clone Wars veteran who was opposed to mining Cynda . Skelly ' s research had found that the moon ' s internal structure was fragile . As a result , the Imperial authorities launched a manhunt for Skelly and stormtroopers were dispatched to Cynda . Managing Gorse . After departing Cynda on the Imperial shuttle " Truncheon " , Vidian considered visiting Moonglow Polychemical on Gorse after learning about the company from Kanan . Vidian had originally intended to confer with the planetary managers by hologram . Shortly later , he was contacted by Baron Lero Danthe of Corulag , the wealthy scion of a droid manufacturing dynasty with close ties to the Emperor . A political rival of Vidian , Danthe had convinced the Emperor to increase the thorilide production rate by 50 % more per week . Later , he met with Captain Sloane on the " Ultimatum " landing deck and informed her that he would be commencing his tour of the refineries on Gorse . While annoyed by his change of plans , she complied when he promised to secure her a permanent position as Captain of the " Ultimatum " . Shortly later , Skelly was apprehended by Kanan , who decided to hand him to Moonglow security after the dissident miner had endangered the lives of miners by planting a bomb in Cynda ' s Zone Forty - Two . Moonglow ' s chief operating officer Lal Grallik promptly contacted Count Vidian and informed him of Skelly ' s capture . In return , Vidian announced he was sending stormtroopers to arrest Skelly and that he would later visit Moonglow itself . In secret , he planned to dismantle the company due to his personal vendetta against its predecessor company , Introsphere . Before the Empire could take Skelly into custody , Hera hired the criminal gang the Sarlaccs to stage a theft outside the refinery ' s gate and helped him escape . Hera had considered recruiting him into the rebellion , but found Skelly too impulsive to manage and parted company with him . Meanwhile , Vidian enacted a raft of policies to speed up productivity on Gorse . He designed and issued new traffic patterns for cargo ships traveling between Gorse and Cynda , modified the Cynda loader droid s ' subroutines and ordered a security review of Transcept Media Solutions ' personnel . The security review led to the arrest of Hetto , a surveillance analyst in the company ' s surveillance division Myder ' s Mynocks , who had links to Hera . Prior to his scheduled visit , he also reorganised three guilds , merged several equipment suppliers into one company , and even shut down a medcenter and relocated its patients to an institution near the factories under the pretext of getting them back to work faster . His last order was intended to destroy all evidence that he had once been a patient named Lemuel Tharsa . Officially , Tharsa was still alive and listed as a mining consultant board the " Ultimatum " . While uneasy at the ruthlessness of some of Vidian ' s edicts , Captain Sloane and her officers nonetheless complied with his orders . On the eve of his visit to Gorse , Vidian was contacted by Baron Danthe , who informed him that the comet – chaser fleet had exhausted a once plentiful supply of thorilide – bearing comets . In addition , Vidian was irked to learn from his aides that Danthe had been casting doubt on his production scheme to the Emperor . While Baron Danthe had offered to supply droids to speed up production , Vidian saw his rival ' s offer as an attempt to " colonize " an industry that he felt rightfully belonged to him . Angered by the news and Danthe ' s interference , Vidian trashed his stateroom in a fit of rage . An Unlikely Opportunity . The following day , Count Vidian , accompanied by Captain Sloane and her men , traveled to the Moonglow Polychemical refinery on the Imperial shuttle " Truncheon " . While flying over the medcenter he had closed , he witnessed the planned demolition of the building . For the Moonglow tour , he was hosted by Lal Grallik and her husband Gord , the head of ground security at the refinery . Unbeknownst to Vidian , he was being tailed by Skelly , who had come to dissuade him from continuing mining operations on Cynda , and Hera , who was spying on Vidian . While Vidian and his hosts were inspecting a heavy bulk loader vehicle , his advanced sensors picked up Skelly ' s presence and he challenged the intruder to come out of hiding . Skelly identified himself as a whistleblower and urged him to cease mining on Cynda since it was eroding the moon ' s vulnerable crystalline structure . However , Vidian was determined to let nothing stand in the way of Imperial progress and assaulted Skelly , beating him severely . A wounded Skelly managed to escape by fleeing on the conveyor belt , but left the holodisk containing his research behind . When Sloane arrived at the scene , he told her that the holodisk was inconsequential and that he planned to destroy it . During a tour of the refinery ' s xenoboric acid bath , Vidian was contacted by Baron Danthe again . The Baron informed him that the Emperor had ordered a tripling of the thorilide production output . When Lal informed Vidian that the factory could not triple thorilide production within a week , Vidian pushed her into a trough of xenoboric acid , and then used a skimming pole to push her in further . Lal ' s murder was witnessed by the rebel operative Hera , who subsequently informed Lal ' s grieving husband Gord . Recalling his encounter with Skelly , Vidian decided not to destroy the holodisk , but use it to advance his plan to increase thorilide production by destroying Cynda . He promptly cut his trip short and decided to return to the " Ultimatum " . Before Vidian could leave on the " Truncheon " , Skelly destroyed it with a bomb that killed several Imperial personnel . An enraged Gord attempted to confront Vidian , but was beaten up by the Count ' s stormtroopers . With his shuttle destroyed , Vidian commandeered a hoverbus to a nearby Imperial spaceport . However , he was tailed by Skelly , Hera , Kanan , and an enraged Gord . Before Vidian could board his second shuttle , " Cudgel " , Skelly threw a second bomb that destroyed the vessel . Vidian and his men survived and then confronted Hera , Kanan , Skelly , and Gord . While the rebels escaped on the hoverbus , Vidian battered Gord to death with his cybernetic fists . When Captain Sloane arrived , Vidian ordered her to send several Imperial forces including two TIE fighters and Imperial Troop Transport s after them . However , the rebels managed to destroy their Imperial pursuers and dumped their bus in a quarry before disappearing into the night . Meanwhile , Vidian departed on a third shuttle called " Bastinade " for the " Ultimatum " . Despite the rebels ' escape , Vidian was mollified that his encounter with Skelly had provided him with an unexpected way to boost thorilide production in the Gorse system . A Desperate Gambit . After returning to the " Ultimatum " , Count Vidian began discussing his plans to destroy Cynda with Captain Sloane and her science officer Lieutenant Deltic . Despite the potential tidal damage , groundquakes , and meteor storms that Cynda ' s destruction could wreak on Gorse , Vidian was unconcerned and claimed that the thorilide would survive the moon ' s destruction . The Count claimed that the moon ' s destruction would make it easier for his harvester vessels to extract the thorilide and that the refining could be done on these ships . He dismissed Deltic ' s assessment that the moon ' s destruction could cause the fragile thorilide crystals to disintegrate . Vidian stated he was willing to sacrifice countless lives on Gorse in order to increase thorilide production . To test his theory that detonating Cynda would not destroy the thorilide crystals , he destroyed the mining encampment on the moon with a test blast , killing all the workers on shift at the time and destroying several mining ships . Based on these test results , Vidian claimed that Cynda ' s thorilide could be harvested for the next two thousand years . To cover up Vidian ' s scheme , the explosion was blamed on Moonglow Polychemical , which was subsequently nationalized by the Galactic Empire . In truth , Vidian had falsified the findings by publishing fake test results under his former identity , Lemuel Tharsa . In secret , Vidian ' s plan was to destroy Cynda and its thorilide reserves and frame his rival Baron Danthe . While Captain Sloane would also be implicated due to her supervisory role , Vidian reasoned that she was just collateral damage in his path to achieving victory . By discrediting Baron Danthe , Vidian planned to curry favor with the Emperor . Following the test blast , Vidian ordered all mining cargo ships in the Gorse system to follow the " Ultimatum " to the Calcoraan system , where he operated a depot that served as his base of operations in the sector . Vidian ' s depot also stored large quantities of baradium - 357 , an incendiary substance used in explosives . Imperial HoloNews claimed that Vidian was leading a " heroic " effort to stabilize Cynda . Unknown to the Count , the rebels Hera , Kanan , and Skelly had managed to infiltrate the mining convoy in the cargo freighter " Expedient " . They were joined by the Sullustan Zaluna Myder , who had decided to aid the rebels after she was dismissed from her job at Transcept Media Solutions due to her friend Hetto being arrested for contacting the rebel Hera . Having discerned Vidian ' s plot , the rebels resolved to stop the Count from destroying Cynda . Vidian ' s activities also attracted the notice of Baron Danthe , who secretly contacted Captain Sloane and told her to contact him if she needed help . After arriving at the Calcoraan Depot , Vidian took Captain Sloane on a tour of the depot ' s facilities . He had ordered his employees to reverse - engineer Baron Danthe ' s heatproof mining drone s under the pretext of " maintenance " . After showing Sloane the loading of the explosives , he departed on the pretext of needing to " file " a report with the Emperor . In his personal medcenter , Vidian crafted a falsified report that presented his Cynda project in a favourable light to the Emperor . Due to the advanced sensors built into his cyborg body , the Count soon detected the presence of two intruders : Hera and Kanan , who had infiltrated the facility . Using his mechanical body , Vidian was able to overpower the intruders quickly . Trouble with the Rebels . Before he could kill Hera and Kanan , Vidian was rendered unconscious by a rogue Interrogator droid that had been hijacked by Zaluna and Skelly . Under Zaluna ' s control , the droid had injected Vidian with a cocktail of drugs mixed by Skelly , which put him to sleep . Zaluna and Skelly then joined Kanan and Hera in Vidian ' s medcenter . With Vidian unconscious , the rebels proceeded to download his brain into a computer terminal . While examining Vidian ' s memories , the rebels discovered that the original Cynda test results indicated that the test blast caused the thorilide crystals to disintegrate and that the Count had sent a falsified report to the Emperor claiming otherwise . The rebels quickly realized that Vidian was planning to use Cynda ' s destruction to discredit Baron Danthe and gain favor with the Emperor . In addition , they found that Vidian and Lemuel Tharsa were the same person . To save Cynda and Gorse from Vidian ' s apocalyptic scheme , the rebels decided to get Captain Sloane to send the correct report to the Empire . Kanan lured Sloane into Vidian ' s executive chambers and then restrained her with a stasis field . Posing as an agent of the Emperor , the undercover Jedi Padawan and his rebel colleagues told Sloane to send the original report to the Emperor . Since Vidian controlled all communications at the depot , he told her to use the communications facilities aboard her Star Destroyer . Sloane reluctantly complied and the rebels escaped the Calcoraan Depot in the " Expedient " . Before leaving , the rebels also wiped Vidian ' s memories of the last hour to cover their tracks . When Vidian awoke from his drug - induced sleep , Captain Sloane reported that they had been accosted by a group of rebels who had been led by a man claiming to be an agent of the Emperor . Sloane had not sent the original report to the Emperor due to her skepticism over Kanan ' s claim that he was a deep undercover agent . Vidian , in a hasty attempt to ensure Sloane ' s loyalty and commitment to his plan , unintentionally roused her suspicions after he promised to make her the youngest Admiral in the Imperial Navy , which prompted her to send the original report after all . After summoning security and locking down the depot , Vidian realized that the rebel intruders were trying to tamper with his planned destruction of Cynda . He ordered Captain Sloane to prepare her Star Destroyer " Ultimatum " , and several TIE fighters and " Gozanti " - class freighter carriers . Believing Cynda ' s destruction was imminent , he offered to make favors to Sloane and Captain Yale Karlsen . Showdown above Cynda . Vidian traveled to Cynda in the " Forager " , a specialized mining vessel consisting of seven spheres that made it resemble a large segmented insect . He planned to commence harvesting the thorilide immediately after the moon ' s destruction . According to Vidian ' s plan , Captain Sloane would initiate the moon ' s detonation from her Star Destroyer " Ultimatum " . Meanwhile , the mining fleet began depositing their explosive cargo onto Cynda ' s surface . Before they could finish their work , Kanan pretended to be mentally affected by the coolant in his cargo of baradium - 357 , and began making threats across the intercom to confuse the mining cargo ships and provoke a response from Vidian . Using the " Expedient " , Hera and Kanan began disrupting the uploading process by attacking the TIE fighters escorting the cargo ships . The rebels then headed towards the " Forager " , but found that the ship was protected by a powerful deflector shield . The rebels then decided to board Vidian ' s ship , because it had a communications antenna through which they could broadcast a warning to the people of Gorse . Vidian ' s " Forager " was approaching the moon when one of his cybernetic crew detected the rebel freighter " Expedient " breaching the rearward gap in the " Forager " shield . Before the " Forager " defensive turret s could hit the ship , the " Expedient " managed to land in the ship ' s rear landing bay . With the " Forager " breached , Vidian ordered his stormtroopers to repel the intruders . The four rebels fought their way through the ship ' s factory compartments , which included many large vats of xenoboric acid . Despite the intruders , Vidian was determined to continue the countdown , and was still waiting for the mining ships to finish loading into the final injection site on Cynda . The rebel Zaluna managed to breach Vidian ' s command center , but was quickly cornered by Vidian , who knocked the Sullustan woman unconscious . Soon , Kanan caught up to Vidian and tried to shoot him . However , the count ' s metallic body deflected the blasts and he destroyed Kanan ' s blaster with his cybernetic hands . While Vidian wrestled with Kanan , Zaluna attempted to shoot him with her pistol . However , Vidian managed to grab her pistol during the struggle and crush the power cell , which blew up , blinding Zaluna . Despite the damage to his synthskin facial coating , Vidian was still in peak capacity and challenged Kanan to a duel . Before they could fight , Hera stormed the command room with a hijacked hover - forklift and rammed the machine into Vidian . Due to his metallic body , Vidian survived the impact . Following a heated verbal exchange , a defiant Vidian told the rebels that Cynda ' s optimal detonation window was only four minutes away . At that point , Vidian encountered a new , unexpected obstacle to his plans . Captain Sloane ordered the " Ultimatum " technical crew to rescind the Detonation Control link to the " Forager " and gave orders for her stormtroopers aboard the " Forager " to arrest the Count . Unknown to Vidian , Sloane had received a response from the Emperor ' s people , who had issued her with orders to stop the destruction of Cynda at all costs . Sloane charged the Count with numerous crimes , including multiple violations of the Imperial legal code : falsification of testimony to the Emperor , profiteering without the Emperor ' s permission , breach of faith with the Emperor , and attempting to damage or destroy vital strategic assets . Undaunted by Sloane ' s threats , Vidian revealed that he had another trick up his sleeve : he was still able to remotely control the Detonation Control uplink from the " Forager " . In response , Sloane ordered her stormtroopers to kill Vidian ' s cybernetic crew . A three - way battle soon ensued between Vidian , the rebels , and Sloane ' s stromtroopers . Using his enhanced cybernetic body , Vidian deflected a blaster shot from a stormtrooper and then crushed the culprit ' s head with his bare hands . Sloane ordered her gunnery crew to target the " Forager " transmission tower ; effectively destroying Vidian ' s plans to detonate Cynda . As a result , the cyborg Count fled the control room , heading for the ship ' s hangar . In the midst of the chaos , Kanan and Hera escaped with the wounded Zaluna on a life pod . The bombardment of the " Forager " released a flood of xenoboric acid which swept through the ship ' s corridors and facilities . Vidian ' s cybernetic body was badly damaged by the acid . Still defiant , Vidian attempted to use the rebels ' baradium hauler to travel to one of the drill sites on Cynda and detonate the explosives in order to meet the Emperor ' s thorilide quota . Before Vidian could complete his plan , he was accosted by Skelly , who was in bad shape after Vidian ' s earlier beating and falling from a ladder during the rebels ' initial boarding of the " Forager " . Skelly detonated a bomb which killed the two of them and destroyed the " Forager " in a fiery explosion . Legacy . Count Vidian ' s death above Cynda ended his plot to destroy the moon and saved millions of lives on Gorse . To cover up his treason , Imperial HoloNews claimed that the efficiency expert had died from a relapse of Shilmer ' s syndrome . In Vidian ' s absence , his rival Baron Danthe was granted oversight of the Gorse system . One of Danthe ' s first acts was to shut down all mining operations on Cynda and restore the moon to its status as a tourist destination . Danthe also opened the sunward side of Gorse to mining , using his company ' s heat - resistant mining drones for that dangerous work . Due to the reestablishment of mining on Gorse , the planet ' s refineries were able to remain open . In addition , Captain Sloane and Commander Chamas also rose in the Imperial Navy hierarchy due to their efforts to expose Vidian ' s deception to the Imperial authorities . Meanwhile , Hera and Kanan established a rebel cell after hiding Zaluna on a safe world . Personality and traits . As the safety inspector Lemuel Tharsa , Count Vidian felt himself to be useless and was frustrated by the rampant corruption that dominated the thorilide trade . Due to his work as a safety inspector in the mining industry , Vidian contracted a debilitating disease called Shilmer ' s syndrome , which destroyed most of his body functions and rendered him incommunicado for two years until he was able to establish rudimentary communications with a medical droid . The experience of being trapped in his own mind for years turned Vidian into an aggressive workaholic who disdained other sentient beings , particularly those who interfered with his plans . He did not believe in the Force , considering the tales of Jedi abilities that he had heard of mere superstition . After being fused into a cybernetic body , Tharsa abandoned his former identity and recreated himself as an intimidating character known as Count Denetrius Vidian . His mechanical presence unnerved many around him , having intentionally crafted his prosthetic replacements and mechanical voice box in a calculating way that was designed to intimidate those around him . As a cyborg , Vidian hardly even thought of himself as a " person " , an insecurity exasperated by his mechanical augmentations , which some compared to Darth Vader and General Grievous . Using his business acumen and insider skills , Vidian exacted revenge against the mining companies by publishing reports that discouraged surface thorilide mining in favor of space comet - chasing mining . As a workaholic , Vidian subscribed to the business mantra : " Keep moving , destroy barriers , see everything . " After monopolizing the thorolide trade , Vidian established himself as a well - respected business guru . During the Age of the Empire , Vidian became the Emperor ' s favourite efficiency expert , tasked with increasing productivity on laggard worlds and systems . As the Emperor ' s efficiency expert , Vidian was known to squeeze the last drop of raw material out of all of his projects , often at the expense of his workers ' lives . Vidian initially believed that competition was necessary to ensure efficiency . After thwarting a plot to sabotage stormtrooper armor on Gilvaanen , Vidian reconsidered his views and supported Tarkin ' s recommendation of bringing the planet ' s armor industry under the Imperial Department of Military Research . Vidian also disagreed with Tarkin ' s endorsement of collective punishment and instead executed the ringleader of the Ithorian strikers . Vidian also gave the workers a second chance but warned that failure would be met by death . Vidian was also known to study his subjects before meeting them . Despite his success as a well - respected business guru , Vidian was insecure and jealously guarded his business interests , including the Gorse system ' s thorilide mining industry . While Vidian strove to meet the Empire ' s unrealistic demands to double and subsequently triple Gorse ' s mining output , his personal ambitions to curry the Emperor ' s favor led him to reject help from perceived competitors like Baron Lero Danthe , whom he derided as a " snotty upstart " . Vidian ' s mining activities on Gorse ' s moon Cynda put him into conflict with Skelly , a dissident miner and Clone Wars veteran who regarded mining as detrimental to Cynda ' s existence . Vidian ' s obsession with undermining Danthe and gaining the Emperor ' s favor led him to embark on a secret plot to destroy Cynda and its thorilide reserves . However , Vidian was defeated by the combined efforts of a group of rebels led by Hera Syndulla and the Imperial Captain Rae Sloane . In addition , Vidian ' s obsession with increasing productivity and extracting all resources led him to take a dim view toward the lives of other sentient beings . Vidian had a volatile temperament and was known to fly into a rage when things did not go his way . He was also capable of cold - blooded murder . On two occasions , he brutally murdered the Cyndan Mining Guild ' s Director Palfa and Moonglow Polychemical ' s Chief Operations Officer Lal Grallik when they were unable to meet his goals and expectations . While serving as the Empire ' s efficiency expert in the Gorse system , he introduced several draconian measures including imprisoning dissident miners , sacking elderly miners , and closing down a medcenter . In his plot to destroy Cynda , Vidian had little regard for the adverse environmental effects that the moon ' s destruction would have on Gorse ' s people . Skills and abilities . Through his cybernetic augmentations , Vidian had access to a wide berth of information based around his motto : " Keep moving , destroy barriers , see everything " . With Vidian ' s formidable steel - coated body , he believed himself to have an " able body and thus an able mind " . Vidian ' s electronic voice box on his throat could channel its output straight into comlink receivers near his " ears " , private communication channels , giving himself total privacy in comlink and hologram conversations and thus " getting information directly , whenever possible " . Through his cybernetic eye implants , Vidian was able to channel his vision directly into security cameras and computer systems , having data streamed directly into his retinas and " giving him the upper hand " . His armor was woven with cortosis , which enabled him to be deflect blaster bolts and redirect the energy elsewhere . His lungs were also augmented to reject poisons . Vidian was also a careful observer and took care to research all information that he knew about his subjects . This led him to ascertain that the Ithorian foreman Larrth was conspiring with Thetis Quelton to sabotage stromtrooper armor production .