Zorba Desilijic Tiure

"Zorba has been a shameful pus-filled boil on the glorious Hutt business community, and this sentencing is a heated lancing long overdue. His selfish antics have given an unwarranted criminal taint to the Hutt reputation that can now begin to rebuild with his absence."

- Aruk Besadii Aora

Zorba Desilijic Tiure (Zorba the Hutt) was the head of the Desilijic kajidic, a successful Hutt crime family operating out of Nal Hutta, and was the father of an infamous son: Jabba Desilijic Tiure. He was also the brother of Jiliac Desilijic Tiron. Zorba was a proud Hutt, who believed strongly in family. He appeared quite similar to Jabba: a long, worm-like form with an ample stomach, slimy, warty skin, a wide mouth and two reptilian eyes. Because of a genetic throwback, Zorba had long white hair and a beard, both of which he wore in braids.

Biography
Zorba was known as a financial adventure and was somewhat reckless with the Desilijic funds. Indeed, Jiliac bemoaned him to Jabba claiming he almost bankrupted the clan with his schemes. A few months before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Zorba was incarcerated on the prison planet of Kip for illegally mining precious gemstones. The hermaphroditic Hutt was about 400 years old when he shifted his gender to female and gave birth to a son, Jabba.

One year after the Battle of Endor, Kip was ransacked by marauding pirates, and Zorba was freed. Zorba's prison guards had never figured out how to operate Zorba's ship, Zorba's Express, so the vessel was ready for use when the Hutt reclaimed it. Zorba then headed for Tatooine (with a cargo of the gemstones still on board the ship) to be reunited with Jabba. Unknown to Zorba, his escape from prison was actually engineered by Ysanne Isard, who sought to use him to her advantage.



When Zorba arrived, he found to his dismay that his son was dead and the Hutt's massive desert palace was overrun by Ranats. Zorba went to Mos Eisley and offered a reward of five gemstones to anyone who could name Jabba's murderer. In a crowded cantina, Zorba learned from the Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa that Leia Organa was Jabba's killer. Zorba immediately rounded up the best bounty hunters he could find, including the Barabel Tibor, and reclaimed the long-vacant palace from the Ranats. In Jabba's Palace Zorba found a droid, CB-99, who held the will of Jabba. Jabba had given over his palace and his holdings on Cloud City to his father.

When Zorba arrived on Bespin he demanded ownership of Cloud City's opulent Holiday Towers. Not revealing his legitimate claim, Zorba tricked Cloud City administrator Lando Calrissian into a game of sabacc to settle ownership. As the the wager ballooned to include ownership of Cloud City, Zorba suddenly revealed Jabba's will. Zorba, owner of Holiday Towers, used his sabacc deck&mdash;specially marked&mdash;to allow him easy victory. He was now owner and Baron Administrator of Cloud City.

Zorba then put into motion his plan of revenge against Leia Organa, who was to visit Cloud City. He was not the only one seeking Leia, as would-be Emperor Trioculus sought her to be his queen. Zorba's spies informed him that Leia was held captive aboard Trioculus' cloud-riding Imperial factory barge. To ensure the delivery of Leia to him, Zorba captured another one of Trioculus' prey&mdash;the Jedi prince Ken. In exchange for the boy, Zorba demanded Trioculus shut down the polluting factory barge, and deliver Princess Leia to him. Trioculus refused, and Zorba swore him an enemy.

Trioculus was captured by Zorba and frozen in carbonite, and was put on display in Cloud City. His bounty-hunter forces attacked and destroyed the factory barge. Zorba, believing Princess Leia dead, rejoiced in his victory.



An entrepreneur, Zorba envisioned turning Jabba's abandoned palace into a high-security prison. While investigating that possibility, Imperial agents loyal to Trioculus recaptured his carbonite coffin and returned with it to Imperial space. Little did the Imperials know that they had stolen a copy of the coffin, while Trioculus was safe in Zorba's stores.

Zorba's celebration proved short-lived. The Hutt learned of Princess Leia's continued existence, and that Cloud City's profits were being seriously undercut by nearby Hologram Fun World. Enraged, Zorba dispatched his bounty hunters to terrorize Hologram Fun World, driving away the tourists. He had one of his hunters, Cobak, kidnap Princess Leia, who was vacationing at the Fun World with Han Solo at the time.

Zorba, finally face-to-face with Leia, introduced himself as Jabba's father, and vowed to take her to the Great Pit of Carkoon, where he would feed her to the Sarlacc. En route to Tatooine, the Zorba's Express was captured by the Imperial Moffship, and both Leia and Zorba were captured.

The Imperials unthawed the true sarcophagus of Trioculus, which was aboard the Zorba's Express. Trioculus reclaimed Leia, and had Zorba air-dropped into the Great Pit of Carkoon. The immense beast swallowed the Hutt whole&mdash;but later, the combination of the Hutt's bulk and protective mucous coating gave the Sarlacc a fit of indigestion. The Sarlacc vomited the Hutt into the desert night.

Back on Tatooine, Zorba secured passage to Mos Eisley aboard a Jawa sandcrawler. At the spaceport, he arranged for a trader to fly him to Null Space, where he visited the mysterious Prophets of the Dark Side, a strange sect of leaders who were influential among these particular fragments of the Empire. During a banquet held at the Prophets' Space Station Scardia, Zorba told them that the Imperial Moffs and Trioculus were plotting against the Prophets.



With Zorba's "testimony," the Prophets tried many of the Grand Moffs for their treachery against the Empire. The Prophets and remaining Grand Moffs continued on what would be an ill-fated venture to find the Lost City of the Jedi. Zorba did not follow on this fool's errand, and his fate remains unknown, though it is believed that he was dead as of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Given his tremendously old age by then, it is highly possible that he died of natural causes.

Behind the scenes
Zorba was introduced in the Jedi Prince series of Young Reader's books. While the series is generally marginalized by the rest of the Expanded Universe, Zorba has been amazingly prevalent in other works.

Zorba means "cruel" in Turkish.

Zorba's name may be a reference to Zorba the Greek, a novel and later a film starring Anthony Quinn.

Appearances

 * Episode I Adventures 5: The Ghostling Children
 * Rebel Dawn
 * Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
 * Mission from Mount Yoda
 * Queen of the Empire
 * Prophets of the Dark Side
 * Queen of the Empire
 * Prophets of the Dark Side