Sidon Ithano

"I'm Sidon Ithano. I don't die so easily."

- The Crimson Corsair speaks

Sidon Ithano, nicknamed the "Crimson Corsair," was a pirate in the Outer Rim Territories in the decades after the Galactic Civil War. Ithano, who wore a distinctive red Kaleesh mask, led a crew of pirates and gained a reputation as the best pirate in the region. He and his crew discovered a downed Separatist ship from the Clone Wars and raided it under the assumption that they would find valuable kyber crystals that once belonged to Count Dooku, but instead they found a Galactic Republic clone trooper named Kix who had been frozen in stasis&mdash;along with the location of former Separatist bases.

A pirate's life
Sidon Ithano was a male humanoid who lived as a pirate in the Outer Rim Territories region of the galaxy during the years leading into the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance. During this time, Ithano became the most notorious thief of his species, and he earned the title of the "Crimson Corsair" due to his choice in garb: he wore crimson robes that covered most of his body and a red mask that resembled that of the reptilian Kaleesh species. Some time later, Ithano formed a crew of fellow pirates, who headquartered on the Corsair's starship, the Meson Martinet, which he captained, and in a cantina on an Outer Rim desert planet, Ponemah,

Ithano served alongside the Weequay pirate Scorza aboard the New Gilliland, an Outer Rim centered cruiser, for several years. However, the New Gilliland was destroyed by the Hutt syndicate after Scarzo betrayed Ithano and others to the Hutts. The Corsair managed to survive the attack and even gained enough credits to finance his crew&mdash;though he did not invite Scarzo to join him, as Scarzo had betrayed him; a decision that Scarzo took personally and vowed to have revenge against Ithano for.

The Corsair and his crew fought in several battles over the years, including at Adratharpe 7, where Ithano won much renown: he was the fiercest fighter at the battle. Ithano was also the first pirate to ever sail the Lost Clusters, a treacherous location located beyond the Outer Rim. Ithano rarely spoke, relying instead on his loyal crew to know his orders by their bond or through hand gestures&mdash;which only furthered his reputation as a legendary pirate.

Capturing the lost treasure of Count Dooku
At the mark of 50 standard years after the Clone Wars, Ithano's crew consisted of Quiggold, an amphibious Gabdorin&mdash;who was also Ithano's first mate&mdash;the Ishi Tib Pendewqell, an Arcona, Reeg Brosna, Reveth, a female red-skinned Twi'lek, and a porcine Gamorrean who went by the name of Squeaky.

One day, Ithano and his six crew members received a transmission that dated back to the Clone Wars while enjoying the services of the Penomah cantina. The message was relayed from B1-CC14, a B1 battle droid that was stationed aboard Confederacy of Independent Systems Providence-class dreadnaught, the Obrexta III, that had crash-landed on Penomah during the Clone Wars with the treasure of Count Dooku, the political leader of the Separatist party, aboard. Pendewqell persuaded his captain and the crew to seek out the crashed cruiser and claim the treasure before other pirates claimed it their own, so Ithano and his crew raced from the northern hemisphere of the planet, to the southern region known as the Sea of Sand, which was plagued by lightning storms, magma geysers, and 15-meter waves of caustic sand that acted as Penohma's sea. Consequently, starships could not fly under those conditions; therefore, Ithano and his crew took off in the crew's sail barge, the custom red-painted Shrike. While journeying, Ithano's crew came to the conclusion that Dooku's treasure was the collection of Jedi lightsabers that the Count had collected during the Clone Wars, which were worth a massive fortune on the black market. However, unknown to the Corsair and his crew at the time, several other criminal gangs had taken pursuit of the Shrike, including Scarzo and his gang, the Gray Gundarks, a biker gang, and the Ortolan One-Eye, who manned a sandcrawler.

The Corsair's sail barge soon entered the Sea of Sand and managed to clear the massive sand waves, though a massive sandstorm-tornado managed to pull the Shrike off-course. Ithano gestured to Quiggold, who translated the message to fire a kinetic disruptor torpedo into the tornado, and thereby freeze the storm and allow them to continue on their journey. Brosna and Quiggold fired the torpedo as ordered, though it had a delayed trigger and did not immediately detonate.

Scarzo, however, had caught up the the Shrike and fired his skiff's laser cannons at Ithano's vessel, which knocked Brosna overboard and did significant damage to the barge. The Corsair saw his chance at survival and launched tow cable's onto Scorza's skiff. Scorza had no choice but to pull Ithano's men away from the vortex as the Shrike reeled in towards Scarzo's skiff. However, the Gray Gundarks interrupted with their attack; firing and boarding both vessels indiscriminately. As the battle raged, a geyser of lava erupted and set many of the bikers ablaze, as well as both pirate vessels. Ithano dueled two bikers, when Scarzo confronted him to have his revenge, shooting the two bikers with a blaster and taunting the captain with his tale of revenge. The Corsair, however, spoke, telling Scarzo that he did not recognize the old Weequay pirate; Ithano had met a lot of Weequay pirates in his life. Scarzo, infuriated, attacked his former friend with a vibro-blade, and Ithano, likewise, drew his own. Ithano quickly gained the upper hand and kicked the Weequay over the railing of the Shrike just as the kinetic disruptor detonated, freezing the vortex in place like a statue. The wreckage of the Obrexta III was just on the other side of the vortex, and Ithano and his crew raced towards it, leaving their enemies to die in the flames.

The Corsair and his crew reached an airlock to the cruiser soon thereafter, though Ithano's crew was not the first to reach the wreckage: the bodies of the members of the Fangs of the Hutt lay dead inside the Separatist ship, poisoned by durilliam gasses that had been leaking for over five decades. Therefore, Ithano and his crew donned rebreathers and entered the wreckage. The cruiser was cluttered with deactivated battle droids and corroded metal, so they stepped carefully through the maze of a ship until the reached the bridge of the battleship. A ion storm had swept the region months before, so the ship and battle droids aboard were slowly reactivating. The Corsair expressed his worriment about the danger the droids posed to Quiggold, so Quiggold questioned Pendewqell, respectively if he was an idiot for bringing the crew there&mdash;it had been Pendewqell's idea to begin the endeavor in the first place.

Ithano and his companions raced throught the ship, trying to find and claim the lost treasure before the droids could pose a threat. Soon after, the crew located the ship's vault and surgically opened it with blaster fire and explosives. What they found within surprised even the Corsair: A Cryo-cycle stasis pod with a sleeping being within&mdash;not lightsaber kyber crystals. Pendewqell reasoned that even though it wasn't the crystals, it had to be valuable because it was in the vault. Ithano agreed and gestured for his crew to awaken the pod. They did so, and a Galactic Republic clone trooper emerged. The trooper had learned of a Sith plot to destroy the Jedi Order during the Clone War, but had been captured and put in stasis by Dooku before he could save the Jedi and the Republic. The trooper, CT-6116, or "Kix", was a medic, and he hastily explained that he needed to save the Republic by reporting what he had learned to Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker. Th Corsair gestured for his first mate and Squeaky to subdue the clone so they could escape the reactivating cruiser. Kix, however, fell into unconsciousness.

Quiggold berated Pendewqell for leading them on the foolhardy treasure hunt that had led to a discovery that did not matter anymore. Pendewqell, however, fled, fearing the Corsair would punish him greatly for. Ithano was upset and Pendewqell's hast departure, but told his crew to carry the unconscious clone and run for back to the Shrike as the Obrexta III began to fall apart, and the droids reactivated around them. However, Scorza emerged and pointed a blaster at the pirates, deamnding they stop. Quiggold, like Ithano, did not recognize Scarzo, but watched in contempt as a squad of B2 super battle droids walked up behind Scarzo and shot him; allowing Ithano and his crew to escape once more. They reached the airlock from where they had entered just in time to watch a massive sand worm devour the Shrike. The Corsair was becoming exasperated at the turn of events, and at losing his sail barge. And at Quiggold's suggestion, they headed for the Obrexta III's escape pods.

Only one escape pod remained active, and not everyone could fit in the pod, so Ithano selflessly stayed behind in the damned ship, and sent his crew to safety in the pod, just as a sand worm tore through the wreck, causing it to explode. Ithano survived, however, and retrieved the Obrexta III's' memory core, which contained the locations of every base and droid factory the Separatists ever operated. The Corsair eventually escaped the wreckage and the Sand of Sea: three weeks after awakening Kix, the Corsair made it back to their cantina&mdash;much to the shock of everyone, though Quiggold had faithfully refused to accept that his friend had been killed. Ithano gave Kix the memory core, who assured everyone that they would be rich if they plundered the forgotten bases, with Kix as their guide, because he was an expert in Clone Wars-era military technology. Quiggold, however, inquired as to how the Crimson Corsair had escaped the fire, sand, worms, and droids. Ithano decided to speak, saying only that he was Sidon Ithano; he always survived.

Behind the scenes
Sidon Ithano was first pictured in a Vanity Fair article released May 4, 2015, which included a group photo of characters in Maz Kanata's castle. The character later appeared in a video shown at Comic-Con, and he made his first in-universe appearance in "The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku," a short story by Landry Q. Walker, which was published as an eBook on November 29.

Appearances

 * "The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku"
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens