Black Sun

The **Black Sun** was a criminal syndicate that came into prominence during the Clone Wars as the Jedi Order focused more on military affairs and less on law enforcement. Black Sun was allied with the Shadow Collective and its leader Darth Maul. The syndicate maintained bases on Mustafar and Ord Mantell and had many of the Falleen species as members. The syndicate held a massive amount of reach and influence, extending its tendrils of corruption deep in the various galactic governments of each era. It was infamous for its involvement in piracy and smuggling. But smuggling was just the tip of the iceberg of the galaxy-wide organization. It was involved in every known type of illegal activity; its information networks surpassed even the accuracy and scope of Imperial Intelligence. The resources available to Black Sun rivaled those belonging to a large planetary army, including foot soldiers. Below the leader of Black Sun were nine Vigos (Old Tionese for "nephew"), with a Vigo being a ruler over his or her own territory and sector.

## History

### Ancient Times

The **Black Sun** was formed after the Sith Empire claimed victory over the Galactic Republic during the Battle of Coruscant, Galactic City soon fell into chaos and rioting, overwhelming the already stretched thin police officers. Taking advantage of the situation, several prominent gangsters joined together and began seizing control of neighborhoods in the lower levels. With this, in reference to the gangsters, denizens of the lower levels coined the phrase "better a black sun than none" and the Black Sun crime syndicate was born. Black Sun quickly carved out a territory for itself and developed spice and weapons trafficking operations. In the following years, Black Sun's influence stretched beyond Coruscant and the gang became a galactic criminal syndicate.

### During the Clone Wars

By the time of the last decades of the Galactic Republic, the influence of the Black Sun stretched the length of the galaxy. With tens of thousands of foot soldiers and hundreds of leaders based on safe houses and fortresses across the galaxy, the syndicate was both covertly and openly a force to be reckoned with on a galactic scale. During the Clone Wars, Black Sun exploited the Republic's focus on the war to drastically expand its activities. At that time, a cabal of Falleen nobles led by Xomit Grunseit ran the Black Sun from a fortress on Mustafar. After Savage Opress murdered Grunseit and his ruling council, Ziton Moj assumed control of the syndicate and pledged allegiance to Darth Maul. Under direction of the Shadow Collective, Black Sun and Pyke Syndicate participated in the large Battle on Ord Mantell, defending against Separatist attackers led by Dooku and Grievous.

Towards the end of the Clone Wars, Black Sun's leader Ziton Moj proposed merging with the Pyke Syndicate, which specialized in distributing illegal narcotics. When the Pyke leader Marg Krim rejected his demands, Moj retaliated by kidnapping his family in order to force Krim to change his mind. Krim then hired two bounty hunters including the former Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress and the undercover Jedi Master Quinlan Vos to rescue his family. The two bounty hunters raided the Black Sun fortress on Mustafar and succeeded in rescuing Krim's family. During the rescue mission, Moj and his Falleen guards were assaulted by Ventress and Vos. Black Sun retaliated by sending a fleet to attack the Pyke stronghold of Oba Diah.

### Age of the Galactic Empire

After Palpatine transformed the Republic into his own Galactic Empire at the end of the Clone Wars, Black Sun formed a durable relationship with the new autocratic government. During the early days of the Galactic Empire, Black Sun would soon fall under the control of a Vigo named Xizor, a Falleen crime lord who would lead the Black Sun to unparalleled prestige by the onset of the coming Galactic Civil War. A year after the establishment of the Empire, Black Sun took an interest in Ahsoka Tano, one of their agents finding her and offering a job with them. When she refused, they attacked, but were driven away by Bail Organa's forces coming to her defense. During the Age of the Empire, the former Imperial cadets Sabine Wren and Ketsu Onyo decided to join Black Sun as bounty hunters. However, Ketsu got "greedy", left her former classmate for dead, and joined Black Sun by herself.

Years later, Ketsu accepted a Black Sun job to collect a GNK-Series power droid called EG-86, which was carrying information vital to the rebellion. This mission brought her into conflict with Sabine but the two reconciled and joined forces to escape the Empire and to deliver the droid to the rebellion. Some rebels like Sabine despised Black Sun for engaging in slave trafficking. As the war between the rebellion and the Empire escalated, under Xizor's leadership the Black Sun became so powerful that the Prince was considered by some Coruscant courtiers to be surpassed in power only by Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, with Vader being a major rival for Xizor. Black Sun's influence was tremendous. They had a practically limitless amount of credits; more than enough to finance any operation they wished to complete. They ruled the underworld and few individuals or organizations dared to cross them or pose a threat to them.

### Fall of the Galactic Empire

By the Battle of Hoth, Xizor had found himself and his organization in close dealings with the Emperor. As part of a grand scheme to ultimately destroy the rebellion, Palpatine made good use of Xizor's legitimate enterprise, Xizor Transport Systems. XTS would contract hundreds of ships to the Empire to help transport construction material to the Death Star II construction site over the Sanctuary Moon of Endor. At the time of the New Republic's founding, Black Sun was one of several major crime syndicates operating in the Outer Rim. However the reason Black Sun was able to attain such a high status was with two of the biggest centers of power in the galaxy fighting each other, thus creating an opportunity for crime to flourish. But since the New Republic has emerged victorious over the Empire, the Black Sun believed that the New Republic would turn its eyes on slavers, smugglers, gun runners, and others.

Decades after the Battle of Endor, the remnants of the Empire had established the foundation of a successor government called the First Order, which was slowly rising to be one of the dominant groups in the galaxy. The Black Sun established an uneasy partnership with the First Order, resulting in such events as the liberation of key prisoners and former Imperial officers taking part in the Black Sun's endeavors. In order to maintain an advantage over the New Republic, the Black Sun had established spies or otherwise bribed willing political figures all across the galaxy. By the time of the First Order's conflict with the Resistance, Black Sun was still active as one of the most powerful groups of the criminal underworld. It was dealing in illegal Imperial weapons, extortion, and was particularly active in the Outer Rim, where it was responsible for attacks on many transport ships.

## Black Sun Hierarchy

### Underlord

An **Underlord** was the highest title able to be achieved for leaders of the Black Sun. Ziton Moj was an Underlord during the Clone Wars after Xomit Grunseit was murdered by Darth Maul and Savage Opress, and later during the reign of the Galactic Empire Prince Xizor would claim the title and become the most powerful ruler of the Black Sun. Xizor won this title during competition with others looking to take it, though he was more commonly known as the Dark Prince. While the title Underlord is certainly used by the highest ranking of the syndicate, it may also have been the title given to all leaders of the criminal syndicate. Other criminal groups have used the title Underlord such as criminal organizations on Naboo.

### Vigo

A **Vigo** was a title used by the Black Sun crime syndicate to denote the organization's leadership. At any given time, nine of these lieutenants each oversaw a different region of the galaxy and reported directly to the organization's head, the Black Sun Underlord. Selected from the ranks of Black Sun's membership, the Vigos only numbered nine and were independently wealthy and possessed of great influence. Assigned to oversee the organization's operations in one of nine sectors of the galaxy, the Vigos reported directly to Black Sun's leader. When the Underlord died or was deposed, one of the sitting Vigos would replace him or her. Some notable Vigos included the Hutts Ziro Desilijic Tiure and Durga Besadii Tai, while another notable Vigo included Xizor's niece Savan.

### Members

* Guri (Formerly)
* Snoova