Black Sun

"They're a crime syndicate, hardly a force to rally with."

- Pre Vizsla

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 Clone Wars
"Quiet! We are the Black Sun."

- Xomit Grunseit, to Darth Maul

During the Clone Wars, the syndicate was very influential throughout the galaxy and run by a group of Falleen noblemen from a fortress on Mustafar. During the war, Black Sun was coerced by Darth Maul into joining his Shadow Collective after he killed their leader. Black Sun openly maintained a base on Ord Mantell.

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 Count 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 independent bounty hunters&mdash;the former Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress and the undercover Jedi Master Quinlan Vos&mdash;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 Empire
"Pilot Ashla. Congratulations. You have come to the attention of Black Sun."

- Unidentified Black Sun agent, to Ahsoka Tano

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. 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.

New Republic
At the time of the New Republic's founding, Black Sun was one of several major crime syndicates operating in the Outer Rim. In 5 ABY, the Black Sun Boss Gyuti placed a bounty on the head of the Zabrak bounty hunter Jas Emari for debts incurred by her aunt Sugi. Underboss Rynscar and her henchmen ambushed Jas and Sugi while they were visiting Nar Shaddaa for information on Han Solo's whereabouts. Jas managed to convince Rynscar not to turn her in by offering to repay them double the amount she owed. Rysncar also provided Jas with information about Han Solo's whereabouts.

Shortly before the Battle of Jakku, the bounty hunter Mercurial Swift decided to collect Gyuti's bounty on Emari's head in retaliation for her role in ambushing him on the planet Taris. Later, Black Sun conspired with the upstart Red Key Raiders to prolong the Galactic Civil War. They bribed and blackmailed five New Republic Senators Ashmin Ek, Dor Wieedo, Rethalow, Grelka Sorka, and Nim Tar into opposing Chancellor Mon Mothma's resolution to send New Republic military forces to the Inner Rim world of Jakku, where the Galactic Empire had retreated to. Their plot was foiled by a team led by Sinjir Rath Velus and Han Solo, who managed to rescue Nim Tar's child and convince the senators to change their votes in return for pardons and political favors.

Behind the scenes
Black Sun first appeared in the now-Star Wars Legends multimedia project Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, released in 1996 as a novel, comic book, video game, and more. During the development of "Eminence," the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it was decided that Darth Maul would be given a base of power within the criminal underworld. Dave Filoni, the show's supervising director, had remembered Black Sun from Shadows of the Empire, and knew that the Expanded Universe showed Darth Maul as having fought against Black Sun prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. With that, Filoni and his team opted to bring Black Sun into the show.

Black Sun also appeared as minor antagonists in two of Chuck Wendig's Aftermath Trilogy novels and in E. K. Johnston's 2016 young adult novel Ahsoka.

Appearances

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