Uueg Tching

"There are three ways to defeat your enemy. The first, and most obvious, is to better him in a trial of force. The best way is to have him destroy himself; few enemies are so obliging. The middle way is to destroy your enemy from within. Judicious application of the middle way shall make your blows more effective if you later take the way of force. From the middle way it is also possible to push your enemy onto the path of self-destruction."

- Uueg Tching's oft-quoted saying

Uueg Tching, a male member of the Kitel Phard Dynasty and the fifty-fourth Emperor of Atrisia, was famous for his ability to keep order through espionage, assassination, and deception. Through his direction, he was able to subvert over thirty rebellions to his rule; Uueg's empire was used a basis for the Galactic Empire, which was founded by Palpatine some 3,000 years after Uueg's death.

Uueg's ascension to Emperor coincided with the discovery of several additional continents on his homeworld, but he was able to unify the continents through oppression, until the Atrisian Empire ruled the entire planet. Uueg was revered by many of his subjects, and he was constantly trailed by a cadre of scribes, who documented his teachings on scrolls, which eventually became known as the Sayings, lessons he hoped would help his descendants thrive when they reached power themselves. After his death, few members of the Tching Dynasty grasped his teachings, though those who did had very successful reigns. The Sayings became famous across the galaxy centuries after Uueg's time; they were quoted at Commission for the Protection of the Republic rallies, in historical documents, and were taught to all new recruits of Imperial Intelligence.

Rule
"Look at the Atrisi system, for example. The principal planet still recalls the Kitel Phard Dynasty with pride. These rulers unified the entire homeworld, eliminating opposition and establishing a golden age. This tale is typical of imperial legends and histories throughout the galaxy, containing those elements that are common to intergalactic memory. Few recall the negative aspects of imperial rule, preferring to remember the power and glory that comes from an overarching code of law and a common tongue."

- Arhul Hextrophon

Uueg Tching was a native of Atrisia (also known as Kitel Phard), the prime planet of the Atrisi system, born during the height of the Galactic Republic, over 3,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. A member of the Kitel Phard Dynasty, he eventually became the fifty-fourth Atrisian Emperor. The Kitel Phard Dynasty was almost as old as the Republic itself, and was known for its violent philosophy&mdash;all disputes were settled with considerable bloodshed and open warfare. Uueg sought to change this.

Uueg had a keen mind for espionage, deception, diplomacy, and strategy, and he used this knowledge to great effect during his reign. Soon after his ascension, several new continents were discovered on Atrisia, and Uueg was tasked with unifying the world by conquering the other continents. Using various means&mdash;such as infiltration, assassination, and espionage&mdash;that were far more subtle than what was considered normal on his homeworld, Uueg was able to successfully increase the Atrisian Empire's rule, until he controlled the entire planet, both directly and indirectly. Under Uueg, a previously-unknown order was kept, and over thirty rebellions against him were quashed. His rule was considered by many to be tyrannical, though the majority of his subjects respected him, believing that he and the Kitel Phard Dynasty had established a golden age.

Uueg was revered by many on his native planet, and during his time as Emperor, a group of scribes followed him everywhere, recording his teachings on how to rule an empire. He began to teach several potential heirs, with cold-blooded parables and analogies. One of his parables talked of a gardener, who was attentive enough to notice signs of decay within a tree he was caring for, and to cut through healthy bark to heal the tree. According to Uueg, those who utilized the tree were in the gardener's debt, for he had maintained the tree. The tree represented an empire, such as Uueg's; the rotting corruption of any kind; the person using its shade the subjects of the empire; and the gardener the being who presided over the empire and kept order. In another of his teachings, he stated there were three ways to defeat an enemy: via direct confrontation, to have him destroy himself, or to destroy him from within. Uueg advocated using all three methods when dealing with enemies.

He taught these lessons&mdash;which were later recorded by his scribes and dubbed the Sayings&mdash;to his heirs, and Uueg intended them to be a guide to his descendants. The scribes' writing was written in black ink on several scrolls, in Atrisian script, but many of Uueg's handwritten addenda were etched in red ink. Eventually, Uueg perished, and was replaced by a new Atrisian Empire of the Tching Dynasty.

Legacy
"An enlightened despot, he is remembered by Atrisians for his skill in diplomacy, in war, and in maintaining order."

- Corellia Antilles

Few of Uueg's descendants really mastered his teachings, though those that did&mdash;Oeana Tching, the so-called "Invisible Empress," and Eoaq the Expansive were the most well-known&mdash;were extremely successful in their reigns. The original document of the Sayings was kept safely in the Rare Books Department of the Atrisian Imperial Historical Library on Atrisia for over 3,000 years. In 1,489 BBY, a small number of copies of the Sayings was printed, in a propaganda effort by the then-Emperor of Atrisia, who wanted to showcase the supposed superiority of his ancestor in an attempt to make himself seem stronger to his fellow nobles.

Uueg's empire, like the majority of such systems, only lasted for so long, and shortly prior to 529 BBY, the newly formed Atrisian Parliament rested power from the nobles; one of the Parliament's first acts, in an attempt to highlight the power they had assumed and to raise money, was to publicly release the Sayings on an easily-accessible database. Hundreds of years later, the Sayings, particularly Uueg's quote about how best to deal with enemies, were widely-known across the galaxy.

During the Clone Wars, members of the Commission for the Protection of the Republic's SAGroup publicly quoted Uueg Tching's Sayings about the routing of corruption during a ceremony on Coruscant, meant to show their support for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Palpatine eventually abolished the Republic and formed the first Galactic Empire; it was modeled after the ancient empires of Atrisia, and others. In 1 BBY, Palpatine requested that the original manuscript of the Sayings be transported to the Galactic Museum on Coruscant, though before long it had again been moved, this time into Palpatine's personal vault of ancient treasures. Historians speculated that Emperor Palpatine simply wanted the scrolls as a trophy, as he had already mastered Uueg's ways. Uueg's Sayings were mandatory reading for new recruits of Imperial Intelligence. The Sayings ' original scrolls were taken to the Deep Core after the Liberation of Coruscant, and, despite her efforts, New Republic historian Corellia Antilles was unable to locate any trace of them. She hoped that recovering the scrolls would help improve relations between the New Republic and the Atrisian Commonwealth. Uueg's quote on defeating enemies was still well-known as of the Yuuzhan Vong War, starting in 25 ABY.

Personality and traits
"Even the greatest of trees can rot from within, but the vigilant gardener keeps attentive to the signs of decay. The Gardener is not afraid to cut through the polished skin to tear away a malignant heart, to save the life of that tree. Those who seek shade under that tree would best remember the work of that gardener."

- Uueg Tching

Uueg Tching was a obsessed with power, and he clung to it with his life. Despite this, he was fiercely patriotic, and cared greatly for his subjects. He hated corruption, and he did what he could to ensure that it was not present during his regime. Uueg was a master strategist, and he had always had multiple ways to deal with his enemies. He was merciless during his reign, unifying his planet through violence and defeating those who were unhappy with his reign without remorse. He cared about the future, and hoped his ancestors would utilize his teachings to great effect. Uueg was not above using unscrupulous means to achieve his goals, and espionage, trickery, and cold-blooded assassination were all the tools of his trade.

Behind the scenes
The character of Uueg Tching was first mentioned in the first edition of Greg Gorden's Imperial Sourcebook, in October 1989. He was again mentioned in the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition, although no changes were made to the information surrounding him. He went unreferenced until 1997, when Timothy S. O'Brien's From the Files of Corellia Antilles was published in the fourteenth issue of the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal. Uueg Tching's famous quote, originally from the Imperial Sourcebook, appeared in Force Heretic I: Remnant, by Shane Dix and Sean Williams, in 2003, and later in that year, Daniel Wallace and Pablo Hidalgo mentioned the character in Republic HoloNet News Core Edition 14:9:04, published in Star Wars Insider 70.

In the Imperial Sourcebook and From the Files of Corellia Antilles, Uueg Tching is referred to only by his first name, even though both are historical documents, in-universe. No explanation is given for this, though it is possible that his surname was often omitted because of his status as a monarch; alternatively, Atrisian naming conventions may be different to those of most Star Wars species.

The name "Uueg" may be derived from WEG, the acronym for West End Games (publisher of the Imperial Sourcebook).

Appearances

 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant