Xizor/Legends

"To contend with Xizor, is to lose."

- Xizor

Xizor was a Falleen Prince of House Sizhran and the leader of the powerful criminal organization Black Sun. Xizor was a ruthless competitor and charismatic public figure in high society with his headquarters in the city planet Coruscant. Close to the Imperial Palace, but less splendid, was Xizor's Palace: his home outside Falleen.

Following the Battle of Hoth, Xizor was considered one of the most influential beings in the galaxy, on a par with Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, due to his exceptional wealth and secret criminal dealings, assisted by Guri, an enigmatic and brutal Human replica droid assassin.

Early life (c. 100 BBY to 32 BBY)
Xizor was born on Falleen into a royal family where he developed his taste for an expensive lifestyle. Falleen was home to a biological weapons laboratory that worked on secret projects for Darth Vader.

Vying for Vigo
Mere months after Palpatine's Declaration of a New Order, Xizor had already climbed high in the ranks of the Black Sun, and was one of the top contenders to become a Vigo. Xizor's main rival for the position was a Nediji assassin named Kaird. The two competed for the favor of Underlord Dal Perhi, both by completing missions for the Black Sun, and by setting traps that would ruin the other's mission, or standing with the Underlord. The competition came to a head when Kaird set up Xizor to buy a stolen hypergem that had been stolen from a boss on Metellos, which would cause the Prince to lose favor with Perhi for angering an important ally of the Black Sun. However, Xizor had set up Kaird to come up with the scheme, and when Xizor purchased the hypergem, he took it to Underlord Perhi as a sign of his loyalty, and to turn Kaird in.

Believing that he had all but secured the position of Vigo, Xizor was given one final mission to carry out for Perhi: find and retrieve the droid 10-4TO. The droid was being hunted by both the Empire and a budding resistance movement known as the Whiplash, and Underlord Perhi wanted possession of the droid to use it as a bargaining chip to make sure the Empire did not interfere with the Black Sun's operations. However, obtaining the droid was not Perhi's objective for the mission, instead he was setting Xizor up to be assassinated by Kaird, who posed less of a threat to Perhi's power.

The assassination attempt failed, and with the help of 10-4TO, Xizor captured Kaird, and headed for the Factory District after a brief encounter with Jedi Jax Pavan and his band of companions who were hunting for the droid. There, Xizor revealed to Kaird that he planned to kill Underlord Perhi, and replace him with a human replica droid so that he could control Perhi and eventually rise to the rank of Underlord. He planned to brainwash Kaird into assassinating Perhi, but was foiled when he found that his team of scientists had been murdered by feral droids.

Xizor was then found by Nick Rostu, who led the Falleen to the rest of Jax Pavan's group, which had followed Xizor half way around Coruscant in pursuit of 10-4TO. With the help of the droid, Xizor subdued the group and tied them up. He was about to kill Pavan with his own lightsaber, when Rostu and the sentient protocol droid I-5YQ simultaneously attacked Xizor. Rostu's attack was easily beaten back, but I-5 was able to subdue Xizor by training his finger lasers on the Prince. Pavan called the droid off, and began dueling Xizor. Pavan was able to disarm Xizor when he regained his sporadic control of the Force. Xizor was able to escape by stealing a blaster from the unconscious Nick Rostu, and proceeded to steal Kaird's ship and fled the Factory District.

Family Tragedy
In 7 BBY, a flesh-eating bacterial agent was accidentally released from the bioweapons lab, causing Vader to order the lab, and the surrounding city, to be razed to prevent an outbreak and keep his projects secret. Xizor's father, King Haxim, was the ruler of the local region, and his parents, brother, two sisters and three uncles perished in the orbital bombardment. Xizor was off-planet at the time, cementing his position as a Vigo in Black Sun, which still hadn't recovered from the assassination of its leader Alexi Garyn. Upon his return, he had virtually all knowledge of his position destroyed. He planned revenge on Vader but didn't want knowledge of his personal vendetta made public.

Building an Empire
In the years that followed, Xizor built two concurrent empires: one legitimate, one criminal. Xizor emerged as the leader of Black Sun and the proprietor of several major galactic corporations. To fund and facilitate his illegal empire, Xizor had his legal firms, such as Xizor Transport Systems, funnel funds, transfer contraband and launder millions of credits. Xizor was driven by his desire to restore his opulent lifestyle and to destroy Darth Vader. Learning of Vader's quest for Luke Skywalker, Xizor attempted to frustrate it and simultaneously lower Vader in the Emperor's esteem by having the young Skywalker killed. To disguise his planned revenge, Xizor used his connections to remove all record of Vader's involvement in the death of his family. Everyone assumed their rivalry was jockeying for favor from Emperor Palpatine (who subtly encouraged the rivalry).

The Bounty Hunter Wars
Xizor worked with the Assembler, Kud'ar Mub'at to bring about the destruction of the Bounty Hunters Guild. The goal was to create a supply of freelance bounty hunters (i.e., Boba Fett) for the Empire. However, he only succeeded in splitting the Guild into two warring factions. At one point, he tried and failed to wrest control of Kuat Drive Yards from Kuat of Kuat.

Hutt politics


Xizor took a great deal of interest in dealing with the Hutts; knowing that they were the masters of all illegal activities in the Outer Rim, he hoped to ally himself with them and expand Black Sun's power to even greater levels.

The occasion for this was presented to him by the conflict between the two largest Hutt clans, Besadii and Desilijic, between 5 and 2 BBY. When Aruk the Hutt, head of Besadii clan, was assassinated by his rivals from Desilijic, Xizor offered his assistance to Aruk's heir, Durga; he offered to kill off Durga's rivals within the kajidic, ensuring a smooth transition of power, in exchange for his cut of the profits in Besadii's spice enterprise on Ylesia. Later on, he also provided Durga with security for Ylesia, by offering him the services of a private security company that normally worked with Black Sun; again, Durga agreed, and in exchange offered Xizor an even greater share of the Ylesian enterprise. When a Rebel strike team destroyed Ylesia anyway, Durga was left with little to no resources, and subsequently became one of Xizor's vigos, one of many subordinates in the Black Sun organization.

Even after the "acquisition" of Besadii, Xizor also had dealings with Jabba the Hutt, head of Desilijic, with Jabba addressing him in Basic, a very rare concession from a Hutt lord. In the end, Xizor had succeeded in extending Black Sun's power far into the Outer Rim, while eliminating the threat of serious Hutt competition. In the galactic underworld, Black Sun was a power without equal.

Shadows of the Empire
"I bowed and scraped to every one of Lord Vader’s demands. They couldn’t have found a more amenable business partner.''" "''Or a more dangerous enemy."

- Xizor and Guri

Shortly after the Subjugation of Bespin, Xizor contacted Tyber Zann, head of the Zann Consortium, a rival criminal organization and made a deal with him. Tyber agreed to steal tibanna from Bespin and share 50% of the profit with Xizor. Tyber did so, but suspecting a double cross, planted evidence pointing to Xizor during the raid, and kept all the tibanna for himself. Any fears of a reprisal from Xizor were soon calmed when Tyber learned from Thrawn shortly after the raid that Xizor was dead.



At this time, Xizor also worked with the Empire, assisting in the construction of the second Death Star. Xizor offered Darth Vader 300 ships for the construction project, and though Vader distrusted the crime lord, he could not refuse without answering to the Emperor's wrath.

Vader had good reason to distrust Xizor, however. He planned to destroy Lord Vader, the man who had condemned his entire family to death, by executing a masterstroke of vengeance. Xizor had Guri contact several bounty hunters through intermediaries (thus hiding his involvement), and gave them a contract on Luke Skywalker's life. Xizor planned to kill Skywalker, thus killing Vader's son and preventing him from gaining the apprentice he sought.

Xizor was in the midst of another plot, however. He managed to convince Palpatine to allow the Rebel Alliance to get a hold of the plans for the second Death Star. Xizor figured that he could profit from this in one of two ways: he could deliver the Rebels to Palpatine, therefore earning esteem with him if the Empire won&mdash;and if the Alliance did win the war, Xizor would make sure they didn't forget the Black Sun's invaluable contribution to their victory.

Vader discovered Xizor's plans when he interrogated a group of Barabel mercenaries that had captured Skywalker on Kothlis shortly after the capture of the Death Star II plans. Vader discovered that not only did he have a reward posted (for capturing Skywalker alive), but that the Black Sun had one posted as well, for delivering him dead.

The fall of Xizor's Palace
Soon after Luke's escape from the Barabel mercenaries, Skywalker, Dash Rendar, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian infiltrated Xizor's massive Coruscant palace in order to rescue Leia, who had gone to the palace to get to the bottom of the attempts on Luke's life.

Xizor confronted the group during their escape, attempting to kill Luke himself. A standoff ensued when Skywalker pulled a thermal detonator rigged to a deadman's switch (set to go off as soon as it was released); if Skywalker died, Xizor would die too. Calrissian threw another thermal detonator down a garbage chute, set on a five-minute delay, and the five escaped to the palace's roof where the Millennium Falcon was waiting for them. Xizor escaped in the Virago and fled to his orbiting skyhook, seething as his expensive palace collapsed to the ground under the thermal detonator's blast.

Xizor's death
"Carry out my orders, commander. Destroy the skyhook!"

- Darth Vader



Xizor wasn't finished, however. He ordered his StarViper fighters to fire on the Millennium Falcon. Leebo had gotten a message to Rogue Squadron who arrived to help the fleeing Rebels out, but the true turning point came from an unlikely source: the Empire.

During a communication with his skyhook, Xizor made the fundamental error of muttering Skywalker's name in his instructions to destroy a YT-1300 light freighter despite being warned by Vader not to go after him. Instead of being able to claim he was after a group of renegades flying a YT-1300 freighter, he had made things personal. As the Emperor was away inspecting the second Death Star, Vader was in command of Coruscant. He was aboard the Executor when the fateful message was intercepted and ordered his TIE Fighters to attack Xizor's StarVipers. Vader sent a holo-message to Falleen's Fist ordering Xizor to cease his attack immediately and surrender into Vader's custody. As the seconds ticked away, Vader listened to communications from the skyhook and the commander of Xizor's fleet who was begging to be allowed to surrender until his ship was destroyed. There was no answer from Xizor and when time was up, Vader gave the order to destroy the skyhook.

It hasn't been made clear whether or not Xizor slipped away from the battle as communications from the skyhook fell silent before its destruction although the Prince has not made an appearance since. Regardless, after Xizor's "death", his niece Savan took control of Black Sun, which underwent a civil war and at least one offshoot - Black Nebula.

Personality and traits
"If you cannot afford to lose, you should not play the game."

- Prince Xizor



Xizor, according to Moff Fliry Vorru, relied too much on his ability to read others. Whereas it was true that he was an excellent judge of character, he did believe himself to be inherently superior to everyone. The Falleen ability to produce intoxicating pheromones together with his formidable brain and resourcefulness backed up his claim somewhat. He did underestimate the power of the Force which was why Vader and Skywalker were able to get the better of him. He knew the Force existed and respected it but never truly understood it. Vader once Force Gripped him during a three-way conversation with the Emperor, but Palpatine told Vader to put him down, knowing the strength of Xizor's organization would prove to be a valuable ally.

He also considered himself a cultured man. He did appreciate High Coruscanti living, dining at exclusive restaurants, eating Moonglow three or four times a month (at the most exclusive restaurant on Coruscant, where he was a part-owner), sponsoring museums and galleries. He once forgave a rival after the rival presented him an extremely rare miniature Firethorn tree. Such a gift, Xizor mused, was enough to show him that the man was civilized and therefore his mistake could be forgiven.

Xizor also prided himself on his emotional control, which he attributed to his cold-blooded, reptilian ancestry. He felt that mammalian races such as Humans were too easily ruled by their emotions, and that in particular they were susceptible to uncontrolled rage. His own "cold" anger was more controllable, and thus, he felt, superior. While a Human might seek immediate vengeance, Xizor was content to plan his revenge carefully, so as to ensure success, even if it required waiting for years to implement the plan. However, while Xizor's anger built up slowly, in the end it was the very uncontrolled rage he believed himself immune to that doomed him.

Xizor kept himself in top physical condition. He disliked tedious exercise and so preferred to use myostim units that exercised individual muscles. Xizor was dangerous even when confronted alone. His excellent marksmanship and martial arts training made him a deadly opponent whether he was armed or not.

Romances


Generally a fan of the short-term relationship, Xizor naturally was quick to terminate his intimate relations, usually with large compensation to the female, other times with a green diamond pendant (which would deliver a lethal dose of radioactive emissions). He followed a strict no post-relationship contact policy, which on at least one noted occasion, he had to terminate the woman when she attempted to contact him again. When he was between relationships, Xizor was known to occasionally mate with Guri as she was fully female even in that respect.

Xizor also became enamored of Leia Organa and attempted to seduce her. As with his other schemes, this backfired dramatically. He used his pheromones upon her and for a while, Leia submitted to the scent. However, after Chewbacca brought her back to her senses, she quickly rebuffed his advances by kneeing him in the groin, leaving an enraged Xizor to lock her up.

Virago
The Falleen Prince's personal craft, the Virago, was a heavily modified StarViper Assault Fighter, a craft which resembled a Mandalorian Basilisk War Droid. It was custom made just for him. Upon completion, Xizor purchased all rights to the fighter, ensuring it was unique. After Xizor's death, MandalMotors reacquired the rights to production and produced powered-down versions. There is no record of Xizor flying it in combat, but it was always kept ready for immediate departure from his palace or his Skyhook, Falleen's Fist.

Behind the scenes
During the production of Shadows of the Empire, George Lucas instructed those involved to base Xizor on the Dashade.



Xizor makes many cameo appearances during the podrace scene in The Phantom Menace, as the micro-machine toy figurine of Xizor was used as a stand-in for members of the podrace crowd. However, as this cameo is used only as background fill-ins, it may not be considered an actual appearance of the character proper.

"Xizor's Theme," composed by Joel McNeely, can be heard on the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack.

Two action figures of Xizor were made in 1996 as part of the Shadows of the Empire assortment of the Power of the Force 2 line. The first was a single carded figure that included an energy weapon, and the second came packed with Darth Vader and a staff weapon, along with a reprinted comic. A new figure, made by Hasbro in 2008, was produced of Xizor along with Princess Leia and a reprinted Shadows of the Empire comic book as part of their Comic Pack lines.

Xizor's voice in the Shadows of the Empire video game was provided by Nick Tate.

In the game Star Wars: Empire at War, Xizor had a finished 3D model, but was excluded from the final game. He would make an appearance in holographic form in the expansion pack, Forces of Corruption.

In an introduction to the comic, Steve Perry said that "not all of the bad guys died in Shadows of the Empire". It could be construed that Xizor was not destroyed over Coruscant, after all. However, as there were actually two factions of "bad guys" (Black Sun and Empire) in the novel, he could have been referring to Darth Vader and Palpatine, instead. He could also have been referring to Guri, who survived in the novel.

Pronunciation
Despite being heavily debated among fans, the pronunciation of Xizor's name is well established in the novelization of Shadows of the Empire as "shē'zōr". The name could be a reference to the title Caesar, coinciding with the position and status that Xizor has in Black Sun and the intrigue common in the ancient Roman political system. Additionally, in the Middle East, Shezor (Hebrew: שזור‎) is a Galilean moshav, or village settlement, in northern Israel.

Making reference to the confusion over the pronunciation, in the 1999 film Free Enterprise, Mark is examining Star Wars merchandise and mutters, "At least they finally got rid of all that Prince Zeezor stuff from Shadows of the Empire." A child in the aisle corrects him, "It's Xizor!". Dan snaps back, "Shut up, kid. You weren't even born when Star Wars came out." Mark then tries to educate the kid on the history of science fiction pre-1977, but finally gives up when the kid says "I like Men in Black."