Garm Bel Iblis

Garm Bel Iblis was a supporting character introduced in the Star Wars novel Dark Force Rising.
Like Han Solo and Wedge Antilles Bel Iblis was a native of Corellia. In the final years of the Republic Bel Iblis represented Corellia in the Galactic Republic's Senate. Opposed to the direction that Senator and later Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was taking the Republic, Bel Iblis became allies with other Senators like Bail Organa of Alderaan and Mon Mothma of Chandrilla. He opposed the Clone Wars as he saw it as a power grab by Palpatine.
==Biography==
===Legends Continuity===
During the Clone Wars, Bel Iblis invoked the ancient Corellian prerogative of Contemplanys Hermi to keep the Corellian Sector out of the Clone Wars. This prerogative was written into the Republic's constitution, and applied only to Corellia. It closed the borders of the Corellian Sector, recalled Corellia's delegation to the Senate, and prevented the Republic from drawing on Corellian personnel and resources for their war against the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
At the conclusion of the war when the Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire, and Bel Iblis continued to represent Corellia in the Imperial Senate. During a visit home, Bel Iblis participated in a convocation held at the school that Han Solo attended. During the assembly the 11 year old Solo asked a couple questions having to deal with specific instances of corruption in the Senate along with anti-nonhuman bias that was creeping into the Senate. Not the kind of questions he'd expect from a kid Solo's age, Bel Iblis asked the school's administrators about Solo, and kept track of him in the following years. Bel Iblis was disappointed to see Solo get kicked out of the Imperial military, feeling that a strong officer corps would keep the Empire from becoming completely despotic, but later realized that it was probably for the best as Solo would sooner or later be killed in the purge of officers Palpatine couldn't completely seduce to his side. 
Bel Iblis continued to speak out against the Empire even though it put a strain on his marriage to his wife, who supported the Galactic Empire. Both his wife and children were murdered by Imperial agents and Bel Iblis was forced to go into hiding. Forming a resistance movement he began to fight against the Empire. Two years before the Battle of Yavin, Bel Iblis convinced the three largest rebel movements opposing the Empire to meet with him, guaranteeing their security during the meeting. Despite a later popular belief that it had been Organa and Mothma who got those movements to combine into a larger Rebel Alliance, it was actually Bel Iblis who convinced the groups to do so. Thus Bel Iblis became one of the primary leaders of the Alliance alongside Organa and Mothma. 
When Organa was killed during the Death Star's attack on Alderaan, the Rebellion lost the moderating influence Organa long held on Mothma, and she began to take over. Without Organa to mediate between them, the tension between Mothma and Bel Iblis boiled over. Bel Iblis refused to participate in an attack Mothma ordered on what she believed was a Imperial garrison on Milvayne, having information that it was not a simple garrison but was an Imperial Ubiqtorate base. He refused to commit his troops to such an attack and in return Mothma dismissed him from the Alliance. (Bel Iblis turned out to be correct, and the attack resulted in a defeat for the Alliance). Bel Iblis left and started his own private war against the Empire. Bel Iblis obtained six Dreadnaught class cruisers that had been part of the Katana fleet. 
Following the defeat of the Empire at Endor, Bel Iblis watched to see what direction Mothma would take the New Republic, whether she was serious about restoring democracy or if she was the power hungry tyrant he believed her to be who would turn the New Republic into another Empire. For several years he watched as he was proven wrong about Mothma.
About five years after the Battle of Endor, Bel Iblis met Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Resistant at first to the idea of joining the New Republic, Bel Iblis swallowed his pride and offered his services to Leia Organa and the New Republic. Mothma did what she could to welcome Bel Iblis back to the fold, and Bel Iblis realized he had been totally wrong about Mothma. He realized that she was not power hungry but rather did what she had to in order to keep the Rebellion going, and that she had a need to have people she totally trusted helping her. Mothma overheard Bel Iblis explaining this to Leia and asked him to take command of Coruscant's defenses during an attack by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
After Thrawn's death, Bel Iblis continued to serve in a senior leadership role in the New Republic, fighting against the reborn Emperor, Admiral Natasi Daala, and Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon. Almost two decades after Yavin, Pellaeon finally concluded that it was useless to continue the war against the Republic, and what was left of the Empire signed a peace treaty with the New Republic. Once the treaty was signed Bel Iblis decided to retire from active service, but when the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy he returned to active duty to help the New Republic and the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances that followed fight off the invaders.
===Canon Continuity===
In the years leading up to the downfall of the Republic, Bel Iblis represented Corellia in the Galactic Senate. He along with Organa and Mothma decided that at the conclusion of the Clone Wars they would take action against Palpatine's government, despite knowledge that it would not be popular with other Senators.
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