User:Harrar/Workbench

Viqi Shesh was a female Human politician from the Kuat system who attained galactic infamy due to her collaboration with the invading Yuuzhan Vong species during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Obssessed with power, Shesh rose to prominence as the representative of Kuat in the New Republic Senate. When the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong invaded in 25 ABY, Shesh soon decided that her best chances of survival lay with the winning side, and passed vital information and military intelligence to Yuuzhan Vong spymasters with the intention of encouraging the invaders to spare Kuat and provide her with a position of power. A skilled politician, Shesh managed to secure herself as the head of the Senate Select Committee for Refugees, whereupon she channelled millions of displaced persons to worlds she knew would be targeted by the Yuuzhan Vong, such as Duro. When Warmaster Tsavong Lah, the military leader of the Yuuzhan Vong, came to the fore to spearhead the invasion, Shesh maintained personal contact with the fierce warrior, unaware that she was being used and was ultimately to be discarded. A vocal opponent of the Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order, Shesh aided the warmaster in his vendetta against the Jedi by pushing for their exile from the New Republic and championing the betrayal of the Order to the invaders in return for peace.

Shesh's manipulations went undiscovered, and although her rival Leia Organa Solo had her removed from her position as head of SELCORE, Shesh remained prominent in the senate, presenting herself as a rival to Bothan Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya. Warmaster Lah later promised Shesh the position of puppet Chief of State in return for her collaboration, with the proviso that she arrange the assassination of Fey'lya. Shesh's attempt failed and, as her alliance with Tsavong Lah drew her further into the murky world of assassination and abduction, she became increasingly distanced from her life as a high profile senator. When the warmaster's armada attacked Coruscant in 27 ABY, Shesh was soon embroiled in the chaos that gripped the galactic capital. Disguised and eager to present her masters with a prize, she launched an elaborate kidnapping attempt on the infant Ben Skywalker, attacking Leia Organa Solo and her husband, abducting the child and fleeing the planet. Shesh was foiled in her scheme, however, and was left with little choice but to present herself to Tsavong Lah empty handed.

Openly known as a traitor to the New Republic, Shesh had rendered herself useless as a spy and was sentenced to execution by the warmaster. Providing the warrior with advice in return for her continued survival, Shesh spent a short time acting as Lah's spymaster, directing agent Tam Elgrin during the Borleias campaign before being dispatched to the ruined surface of Coruscant to hunt down Jedi alongside a team of Yuuzhan Vong warriors. The former senator spent the last days of her life on the run from Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, a New Republic insertion team, a deranged Dark Jedi and the Yuuzhan Vong warriors whom she betrayed, travelling across Coruscant's despoiled cityscape in search for a means of escape. When she was finally outmaneuveured and confronted by her numerous enemies, Viqi Shesh chose to commit suicide, plummeting to her death in the shadows of Coruscanti buildings she had helped to topple.

Rise to power
Viqi Shesh was born into a wealthy ship-building family on the prosperous world of Kuat, a planet famed for its shipyard industries. Shesh's opulent lifestyle ensured that the Human woman became used to the trappings of luxury and her upbringing led her to believe that power was her birthright. The Shesh family's involvement with the shipbuilding industry brought tribulation, however, when the head of Kuat Drive Yards, Kuat of Kuat, committed suicide in 4 ABY, destroying 20% of the planet's orbital shipyards in the process. During the subsequent reconstruction efforts, Shesh's family lost status and instead turned to the New Republic, secretly forging ties with the new government. By the time Kuat was wrested from the Galactic Empire in 8 ABY, the Shesh family's secret betrayal of Imperial interests reaped vast dividends. Deluged with offers from eager clients affiliated with the New Republic, the Shesh family became used to billion credit contracts.

The young Viqi Shesh was able to find a job in Kuati corporate marketing and, despite her indifference toward the work, learned much about society and how beings could be manipulated by fears and hopes. Ultimately, however, Shesh's apathy with her corporate post encouraged her to seek a career in the public sector. She wanted power and influence and had the ambition and resources to attain both; in 19 ABY, Shesh began a political campaign to become elected to the New Republic Senate as the representative of Kuat, utilizing her family's wealth for funds. Shesh's inexperience as a senator, rather than being viewed as a weakness, was taken up by the media as a sign that the Kuati woman was a new breed of politician who could breathe new life into the New Republic's political system. Prominent at Shesh's side was Staff Chief Victor Pomt, who aided the senator in day to day life as her aide, keeping track of her schedule and helping to arrange her political appointments. In 23 ABY, four years after Shesh entered galactic politics, incumbent Chief of State Leia Organa Solo lost out to the Bothan Borsk Fey'lya. By 25 ABY, Shesh had manipulated the media into portraying her as a fair-minded, just and caring woman, largely due to her encouragement of broad coverage of her efforts on the behalf of refugees. She was soon granted a seat on the Senate Select Committee for Refugees. The senator from Kuat was considered the rising star of the New Republic.

Choosing loyalties
In 25 ABY, Shesh was present at a convocation of the New Republic at which former Chief of State Leia Organa Solo, acting as an envoy from the Outer Rim world of Dubrillion, delivered a report which claimed that a hitherto unencountered alien species had launched an extragalactic invasion]]. Despite Organa Solo's willingness to provide evidence of the invasion and her vocal statements concerning the danger faced by the New Republic, a bloc of non-Human senators, including the Quarren Pwoe and the Sullustan Niuk Niuv, ridiculed the former Chief of State for what they assumed was an attempt to regain political notability. Little support was provided by Chief of State Fey'lya, who was highly dubious of Organa Solo's claims that this unknown species utilized advanced biotechnology. With Caamasi senator Elegos A'Kla acting as Organa Solo's only supporter, Shesh watched as the Human woman left the chamber in disgust. Contrary to what Pwoe and Niuv believed, Organa Solo was not making a bid for power; the threat of the alien Yuuzhan Vong was real. This fact only became obvious over the next months, as a host of planets in the Outer Rim Territories were lost to the seemingly relentless advance of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. The greatest shock came with the destruction of Ithor, a well-known planet on the edge of the Mid Rim. Senator Shesh began to take stock of the situation as the New Republic slowly mobilized itself for action against the invaders.


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Collaborator
Aiding Shesh in her campaign to whip up support for the Peace Vote was Staff Chief Pomt.

Last days
"Yuuzhan Vong can't kill me. Noghri can't. Jedi can't. You're all beneath me. There's only one thing in this universe that can kill Viqi Shesh."

- Viqi Shesh to Denua Ku, moments before her suicide

Personality and traits
Keen intellect Talent for deception Greed Lust for power Ambition Pragmatism Selfishness - no regard for those she purported to represent

Behind the scenes
Viqi Shesh was a significant character in The New Jedi Order series of novels and was developed by several different authors throughout her character's story arc. Although introduced in Michael Stackpole's Dark Tide I: Onslaught, Shesh's character was further expanded upon, and her nature as a collaborator revealed, in James Luceno's Agents of Chaos duology. In Balance Point and Star by Star, two other novels in which Shesh featured as a supporting character, her treasonous actions against the New Republic were closely followed, acting as a source of dramatic irony as other characters remained unaware of her true loyalties. Balance Point, published in 2000, the year after Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released, features a scene during which Jacen Solo compares Shesh to Emperor Palpatine in the days of his rise to power, reflecting new links between the prequel trilogy and the Expanded Universe novels. In his Enemy Lines duology, Aaron Allston brought Shesh's arc to its conclusion, with the former senator's suicide occurring at the finale of the Mission to Coruscant section. Her prominent role in the series earned her an entry in The New Essential Guide to Characters, written by Daniel Wallace, as well as in the 108th installment of The Official Star Wars Fact File. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, Shesh, portrayed in the novels as an attractive and refined woman, was illustrated by Michael Sutfin, providing the only canonical image of the senator to date.

Appearances

 * Dark Tide I: Onslaught
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Recovery
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
 * Destiny's Way
 * Ylesia
 * The Unifying Force

Notes and references
Viqi Shesh Viqi Shesh

Quotations
"Politics is a practical profession. If someone has what you need, then you do business with him or you go without. And frankly, I've always been more interested in business than politics."

- Viqi Shesh

Good Tsavong Lah BtS quotation