Nirama

Nirama was an Oblee male who worked both as accountant for the criminal organization of Riboga the Hutt, and later as Riboga's personal majordomo. He achieved greater success as the crime lord who controlled all crime in the Cularin system, notorious for his opposition to slavery.
==Biography==
===Early career===
Initially, Nirama had been one of Riboga the Hutt's accountants, but his ambition and skills promoted him majordomo. He used his position to make it seem that the operations in the Cularin system were much less profitable than Riboga had thought. Riboga questioned and executed some of his subordinates, but did not identify Nirama as the cause of the problem.Living Force Campaign Guide
In 53 BBY, during one of their regular sabacc games, Riboga had commented on the increasing expenses, and Nirama offered to take the problem off his hands, betting two hundred fifty thousand credits against control of Riboga's criminal organization. Nirama won and, because Riboga believed that Cularin was too expensive to operate in, he was not angry with the loss; he left with a few loyal minions and his money.
===Cularin crime lord===
Nirama was more efficient than Riboga and more popular with his underlings, maintaining something of a moral code. He immediately abolished the slave trade Riboga had engaged in. This affected the slavers that had previously worked for Riboga, but some of them, such as Hlisk Squin, managed to hide their previous activities.
Nirama also reorganized the organization, placing less ambitious beings in the higher echelons of the organization—including Nadin Paal, who became a "trade envoy" or spokesman for the system. Len Markus was Nirama's unofficial right-hand man and representative to the smugglers. Nirama thought he was treacherous and manipulative, but also found him amusing and believed he could control Markus easily. Nirama also renewed agreements with the Smugglers' Confederation and the Trade Federation, obtaining a good profit as a result.
Nirama was known to occasionally use people from outside the organization. Smuggler Xav Verivax served Nirama as consultant, suggesting to Nirama's people creative ways to hide the contraband in their ships. Verivax did this mostly for the sake of fun, but Nirama nevertheless paid for his services.
Around 33 BBY, Nirama bought technology from the Filordi to use against the pirates. Soon afterward, he made a deal with the Thaereian military, who was officially protecting the system, to provide them with the supplies the pirates had been stealing from them. Nirama knew that Colonel Jir Tramsig was asking for more pieces than he was losing, and the crime lord wondered why the officer asked him for assets that could be legally bought in many systems. Nirama also provided Tramsig with "highly questionable technical material."
Nirama, like Riboga before him, had no control over the Cularin system's pirates. He would sometimes hire them to do a job for him. He always tried to monitor them, and even worked with two pirate groups, Red Fury Brotherhood and Order of Independent Trade, who wanted to take advantage on the other pirates during amiable talks; Nirama found their scheming amusing. Pirate predation was always a problem for the smugglers, and was one of the key ingredients in making it believable that Riboga was losing money. It had been said that Nirama had plots to kill key members of the Red Fury Brotherhood and the Order of Independent Trade, but their leadership changed so frequently, it probably would not have made a difference if he had. Both groups had their own thoughts about Nirama's position within the system, but no leader lasted long enough to initiate a solid plan against him.
In many other senses, Nirama continued Riboga's policies. For instance, Riboga had refused to meet with representatives of Verga Mer Mining Company, as they initially overlooked him when they attempted to invert in Genarius; Nirama was coherent with Riboga's acts, and also ignored any petition from Verga Mer. Nirama also kept the sponsorship on the starfighter races through the tunnels of Eskaron—and also gambled on the results—even though Nirama did not own that moon.
Although the droid factories of Uffel were built with Riboga's financial help, Uffel manager QS-2D had finished all the payments to the Hutt and was, by 53 BBY, the sole owner of the moon. Nirama distrusted droids that could include espionage programming and refused to use Uffel droids.
Nirama's headquarters on Cularin was in the platform city of Mikish, particularly in the mansion Riboga had built there. Nirama kept 50% of the local police as his "private retainer."
Nirama also used Riboga's old base in the Cularin asteroid belt to meet with the smugglers living there. Although Nirama inherited from Riboga both his public asteroid base and his secret asteroid base, it was unclear whether Nirama used both of the bases. Nirama's smugglers preferred to meet him in Cularin, where he could not take their ships as easily, nor could he use proxies to meeting them.
Prior to the Stark Hyperspace War, Nirama lent money to a pair of smuggler siblings, Kal and Dova Brigger, for them to perform upgrades on their YT-1300-class light freighter, Jackpot, which would become known by the name Millennium Falcon. As part of the deal, the Briggers had to agree to not engage in business with slavers. A standard year later, the Briggers reneged on their deal, so Nirama had a price put on their heads. Dova was caught, brought before Nirama, and was executed. Kal died elsewhere before the bounty could be claimed.
Nirama repeatedly tried to recruit Corellian starship mechanic Bran Isken, who had been working in the Forard spaceport of Almas, but Isken was satisfied with his current job for governor Klis Joo and rejected Nirama's offer.
Circa 31 BBY,The Living Force Campaign Guide states that the Living Force campaign is set one year after the Invasion of Naboo, an event that is dated to 32 BBY by The New Essential Chronology. The events of The Price of Business can thus be dated to around 31 BBY Nirama's pilot, Arraxx, was killed during a race through the moon of Eskaron. Arraxx came across a private race between Blood Raptors member Gael Kinner and intimidated entrepreneur Teeloo. To avoid collision, Kinner shot Arraxx's ship and destroyed it, making Nirama lose money, assets and his temper in front of people he respected. Upset, Nirama ordered Markus to bring both Kinner and Teelo's ships and crew, undamaged. Markus kidnapped them at Tolea Biqua and took them to Nirama's mansion in Mikish.
Markus notified Nirama that he had brought the offenders. Nirama looked at them and asked who had killed Arraxx. Kinner and his Raptor allies blamed Teeloo, but Nirama knew better, ordered silence and questioned each group separately. He understood who was really responsible and ordered to kill the Raptors. He had one thrown into the rancor cage in Bollin Exotic Animal Emporium. However, Nirama deemed Teeloo and his crew as partially responsible, as their participation in the race led to the incident. Graciously, he decreed that each of them owed him one favor that would be asked in due time. Teeloo, who was asked to remain a little longer, would immediately begin working for Nirama; he would also pay for Teeloo's ship's repairs.
Nirama's decision to abolish the slave trade was not popular with all the members of his organization. In 31 BBY, a conspiracy within the organization calling themselves the Cell came together with the purpose of deposing Nirama. They were able to hide their initial movements beneath the buildup of a large Metatheran Cartel presence in the system, but Nirama soon became aware of their existence.
The Cell managed to kidnap Nirama's pet rancor, Bender, whose mere existence was a well-kept secret. Unsure about whom he could trust—although he was sure he could trust Len Markus and Jobril, his master of properties in Cularin—Nirama used external help to get more information about The Cell. He hired some locals of Cularin to work undercover as security agents in the Red Sector. They discovered that the Cell was more powerful than Nirama had imagined, with hundreds of members, but they could not provide names. However, they returned his rancor, relatively unharmed.
One month later, among increasing street-speak about The Cell, Nirama's team raided a Cell base in the asteroid station, in the Cularin asteroid belt, named Darkside and found a datapad about "membership information" including the name of his former agents. Nirama sent Jobril to recruit them again and to work in Darkside. The independent agents found some less-than-threatening Cell members and sent them to Nirama. Nirama personally questioned them, uncovering important information.
Less than one month later, Nirama was rumored to be gathering those employees who were loyal to him, which included Markus and people from his main weapon storage facility of Rothe Gate: Cyria Dombasle, Maarten Haal, Gal O'Wei and Plu Markeela. At the same time, he got rid of his protocol droid N3-A2. He was also notified of the disappearance of his loyal employee Jobril, who had a cybernetic loyalty chip; as such, Nirama believed that Jobril had been killed.
However, a faction of The Cell under the control of his lieutenant, Ari Melast, was scheming against him. They reprogrammed N3-A2 and deceived Jobril so that both would work for The Cell while believing to be carrying on Nirama's orders. Jobril and the droid hired a team of independent agents that had already worked for Nirama, and took them to Rothe Gate, where they would discover false proofs against Nirama's trusted agents there.
Nirama discovered that Jobril had been seen in Rothe Gate and, apparently worried about his well-being, he took Markus and blazed to Rothe Gate to find some answers, under the cover of a surprise inspection. Once there, he noticed the independent agents he had previously employed and met with them. The Cell decided to speed up its scheme and take the chance to assassinate Nirama: Using Cell members for Nirama's security contingent, they staged their coup. The attack was unsuccessful thanks to the independent agents, who risked their own lives to save the crimelord while his reinforcements arrived. Nirama then discovered that Melast was behind the rebellion and ordered Markus to capture her.
In 31 BBY, one of Nirama's main lieutenants, Len Markus, disappeared when trying to leave the system with a Sith artifact and, in the process, caused the system to disappear from the galaxy for almost a decade. Nirama reacted to the void of power by promoting Nadin Paal as his second-in-command.
Circa 20 BBY,The Living Force Campaign Guide states that the Living Force campaign is set one year after the Invasion of Naboo, an event that is dated to 32 BBY by The New Essential Chronology. As the Living Force adventure Philology moved the campaign forward ten years to the time of the Clone Wars, and the adventure Night's Homecoming established that by Year 4 of the campaign over a year had elapsed since the events of Philology, A Mon Alone can therefore be dated to circa 20 BBY. the slaver Phylus Mon went to the Cularin system as a part of a scheme. When word of this tried to reach Nirama, he was in a secret meeting and could not be reached. As soon as he discovered that Phylus Mon was in the system, Nirama offered a reward for him, alive or dead.
==Personality and traits==
Nirama was an alien from a species nobody in Cularin remembered to have seen, although the species had lived in the system. He had two sets of eyes, one over the other, with the bottom set being pitch black and the top set grayish-blue. He had an additional left arm, facing his back, and he usually held a blaster in that hand to discourage an attack from behind . He also used a blast vest that he kept near him, and expensive clothing.
Although perceived as vile and disgusting, Nirama was not horribly evil. While he avoided unnecessary shows of power, he was not beyond killing people who remained in his way after being asked to move. Nirama valued talent and loyalty, and took pains to help those people who had proved their value to him in the past. Nirama had a reputation that he refused to outright lie, although he was willing to lie by omission or by not correcting other people's misconceptions. Despite this, he could be ruthless when he needed to be, such as when executing rebellious lieutenants.
Less ostentatious than other crime lords or people of his wealth, Nirama did not flatter his wealth in opulent rooms, even though he kept some nice chambers for himself with elegant furniture. He kept a personal space yacht, the Viper Wing, flaunting his wealth.
Nirama commonly signed his datapad messages with a stylized "N," apparently in the High Galactic alphabet.
==Behind the scenes==
Nirama was described as pink-skinned in The Price of Business and TopWorld. This was before his people returned and it was established that young members of his race were pink while mature adults were chalky white. Nirama was certainly a mature adult Oblee.
The role-playing game adventure UnderWorld features two possible endings: If the player characters side with Nirama, then he defeats a squad of Cell members and remains the crimelord of the system. However, if the player characters choose to not help him, the Cell captures, deposes and eventually executes Nirama, replacing his rule and thanking the characters. The official RPGA teams were suppossed to include this information in a "Critical Event Summary" that would be sent to the RPGA office, and the most common answer would be canon. Although the survey answers are not known, further sources still mention Nirama as the crimelord of Cularin, and thus implicitly reveal the results.
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Accountants
Category:Crime lords
Category:Cularin asteroid belt residents
Category:Majordomos
Category:Males
Category:Oblee