Rokur Gepta

"The best deception is the one that first deceives the deceiver."

- Rokur Gepta

Rokur Gepta was the last known Sorcerer of Tund, the Scrivinir of the Centrality, and nemesis of Lando Calrissian.

Biography
A Croke, he came from the planet Crakull in the Unknown Regions. His exact age is unknown, but he was at least 20,000 years old, predating the Sith and possibly the Jedi and Galactic Republic themselves.

Gepta was Force-sensitive and was a master of illusion and shapeshifting, using his Force abilities to supplement the natural traits of the Crokes. His preferred form was a humanoid with whirling eyes, dressed in ash-gray robes, his face mostly hidden by a turban. When dealing with different subjects, he liked to change his form to enhance his mystique.

The vast majority of his life is a mystery. What is known is that he carved out a powerbase for himself in the Unknown Regions, his Force talents, natural cunning, and brutal cruelty finding few worthy challenges. He made many, many enemies in the process; those he did not kill he simply outlived, having a very long (possibly indefinite) lifespan.

At some point he journeyed to the planet Tund to learn from the legendary Sorcerers that lived there, hiding his true evil nature. He distinguished himself as the greatest Sorcerer of Tund ever known, inventing Force powers such as torture by chagrin and the electromagnetic torpedo. Once he learned all he felt he could shortly before the rise of the Galactic Empire, he slew all the others, then used the electromagnetic torpedo on Tund, killing every life form on the planet.

At some point prior to the rise of the Empire, Gepta became an initiate into ancient Sith teachings.

He had an amiable relationship with Emperor Palpatine, who wanted to learn the secrets of Tund that now only Gepta possessed; thus, Gepta presumably was one of the few to know that Palpatine was also the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. To cement the relationship, Palpatine made Gepta Scrivinir of the Centrality, an allied state that was in truth little more than a puppet of the Empire, and provided him with a decommissioned warship, the Wennis.

Gepta was very cruel, even sadistic. He followed the Vader style of command and took it to the extreme, killing not only those subordinates who made mistakes but even those who simply brought him bad news. To make it as cruel as possible, he often didn't do it directly. He would give the victim the impression that they had gotten off with no punishment, then have one of his personal guard corner them once they were out of sight and believed they were safe; how they were then disposed of is unknown, though evidence points to Gepta feeding their remains to his pets. These pets&mdash;small, winged creatures that shunned light&mdash;were said to be the only creatures he held any positive emotion for.

Although ruler of the Centrality, Gepta intensely disliked formal ranks; the only title he would accept was "sir," and that was grudging. He did not even allow others to call him Scrivinir. The only title he ever called himself by was simply "Sorcerer of Tund." He also hated politics and distanced himself from them, doing little actual ruling to the point that one of the Centran Governors was said to have more political power than he. As a side-effect of his distaste for politics, he did not know several of the Centrality's most important secrets, such as the battle of Renatasia or the existence of the Oswaft. Gepta's ultimate goal was the Imperial throne and, from there, domination of the entire galaxy; he even planned to rule the entire universe eventually.



One of the steps he planned to take to help his climb to the top was the acquisition of the Mindharp, an ancient relic of the mysterious vanished race, the Sharu. The information supplied to him by his anthropologist Osuno Whett led him to believe the Mindharp was a mind-control device on a massive scale (Whett himself was a double agent who also worked for high-ranking Imperials, possibly even Palpatine, with the duty to spy on Gepta). To get it, he enlisted the services of Duttes Mer, Governor of the Rafa system, and (against his will) gambler Lando Calrissian. Mer oversaw the system where the Mindharp was believed to be located; Calrissian, when paired with the odd droid Vuffi Raa, fulfilled an ancient prophecy of the Toka, the destitute heirs to the Sharu.

Things did not go as planned. Although Calrissian and Vuffi Raa successfully recovered the Mindharp, Mer betrayed him, stealing it for himself. This led to Mer's death and the re-emergence of the Sharu, the true purpose of the Mindharp all along. Enraged, Gepta took to his personal fighter and tried to shoot down the gambler and his droid as they fled in the Millennium Falcon, but Calrissian fired first, shooting him down into the ruins of Teguta Lusat, once capital city of the Rafa system.

Swearing vengeance, Gepta developed and put into motion an incredibly complex plan. When Calrissian tried to become a legitimate businessman, Gepta used his influence as Scrivinir to ensure that he always lost money on every venture. He forced Lob Doluff, Administrator Senior of the Oseon system, to invite Calrissian to play sabacc, knowing the gambler by now would be too destitute to refuse. He killed Bohhuah Mutdah, drug lord and richest being in the galaxy, impersonated him and took his place, then made Doluff send Calrissian to accompany law enforcement agents Waywa Fybot and Bassi Vobah on a joint Imperial-Centran raid of Mutdah at Oseon 5792. Upon their arrival, the corrupt Fybot slew Vobah, and 'Mutdah' slew Fybot in turn, then revealing himself as Rokur Gepta. He took Calrissian prisoner and began to put him through torture by chagrin, using a machine to enhance his powers to make it especially painful.



However, revenge undid revenge, as the torture session was interrupted by a squadron of Renatasians who wanted vengeance on Vuffi Raa, falsely believed to be the Butcher of Renatasia. Calrissian used Gepta's distraction as an opportunity to jam a length of tinklewood&mdash;an item Gepta had recently made sure he couldn't sell&mdash;into the sorcerer's eye. Gepta howled in pain and fled.

But even the pain was an illusion. As he escaped in his personal fighter, he briefly returned to his true form, then back to his assumed one, thus removing the pain and damage.

Gepta continued to nurse his hatred for Calrissian, finding to his surprise that the gambler had risen to the rank of worthy adversary, something he had not had in a long while. He joined forces with Klyn Shanga, leader of the Renatasians, in an effort to destroy both their enemies. But he did not have long to try and gain his vengeance; his attention was soon occupied by the rediscovery of the Oswaft in the ThonBoka, a secret long known to many Centrans but which he himself had never taken the time to learn. These creatures worried even Palpatine, who ordered their destruction. Gepta was given full command of the Imperial and Centran fleets sent to do the job.

When he arrived, Calrissian was there, trying to save the Oswaft. After the first stage of the battle led to the destruction of 11% of the Imperial fleet, thanks to Calrissian's cunning plan, Gepta ordered a cease-fire, and then offered a proposition. The sorcerer would face off against the gambler and his droid in a duel in the vacuum of space, with the lives of the Oswaft as the wager; if Calrissian lost, or did not participate, Gepta would destroy the entire Oswaft race with his electromagnetic torpedo. Calrissian had no choice but to agree, not suspecting that Gepta gave orders to the Wennis to exterminate the Oswaft regardless of the outcome.

Both outfitted with blasters, Gepta and Calrissian bowed to each other before beginning their duel. Although Vuffi Raa was able to actively take part, something Gepta thought impossible, the sorcerer still had the upper hand, as all of Calrissian's shots passed harmlessly through his form, more illusory than normal. Gepta moved to finish the gambler once and for all, when the Wennis exploded, due to Shanga finally realizing Whett, and not Vuffi Raa, was the Butcher.

As Gepta stared in shock at the vaporized remnants of his flagship, Calrissian lined up a perfect shot...which was deflected when a piece of debris from the explosion hit him, the shot going through Gepta's ankle, where his true Croke body was. As he writhed, he accidentally scored a direct hit on Vuffi Raa, temporarily deactivating him. An enraged Calrissian tore through Gepta's spacesuit to find him, burnt badly but still alive. Calrissian took the Croke in his hands and squeezed, ensuring no Sorcerer of Tund would ever rule the galaxy.

Behind the scenes

 * Gepta's robes are mistakenly colored red, not gray, in his entry in The New Essential Guide to Characters. They have been altered to their proper hue for this article.

Appearances

 * Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu
 * Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
 * Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka
 * Rebel Dawn