Stafuv Rahz

"Fools! When Major Rahz receives an order from Lord Vader&hellip;it gets executed!"

- Stafuv Rahz

Stafuv Rahz was a major in the Imperial Military who served during the Galactic Civil War. A Gektl from Hoszh Iszhir, Rahz maintained his planet's shield system, which was used to protect the world from greedy magnates hoping to tap the planet's valuable natural resources. Imbued with vaulting ambition, Rahz effectively sold the freedom of his species for his own gain when offered Emperor Palpatine a way to bypass Hoszh Iszhir's shield in exchange for a commission in the Imperial Military. Palpatine accepted, and while the Gektls of Hoszh Iszhir were enslaved and put to work as miners, Rahz served the Empire and, more directly, Lord Darth Vader.

Following a raid on Kar'a'katok, which resulted in the recruitment of Ampotem Za, Rahz was ordered by Vader to kidnap the teacher Myoris Lin and her students on the planet Harix. Rahz did so, but one student, Berd, managed to escape his clutches. The escapee found asylum with the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and worked against Rahz to free his captive classmates and his mother, Lin. In an ensuing skirmish, Rahz' fleet was destroyed, but the Gektl attempted to save face by executing his prisoners. In attempting to utilize a sonic projector against the captives, Stafuv Rahz was killed, as the weapon had been sabotaged by Berd.

Ascension
Born and raised on inhospitable Hoszh Iszhir, Stafuv Rahz worked to maintain the planet's defense shields, which were used to ward away any prospectors that might try and mine the planet's valuable guerrerite reserves. Rahz, caring naught for his fellow Gektls, traveled to Imperial Center, hoping for an audience with Emperor Palpatine. He was granted one, and in his audience with the head of the Galactic Empire, he offered to supply Palpatine with the codes to bypass Hoszh Iszhir's shields in exchange for a commission in the Imperial Military, and supervision of control over his native star system.

Palpatine agreed to the terms, as he was eager to extract and utilize the valuable natural resources of Hoszh Iszhir. He had his Star Destroyers bombard the planet, and then enslaved the Gektls, putting them to work in the guerrerite mines. Rahz was assigned to Lord Darth Vader, who despised the Gektl for his dishonest and traitorous ways. Sent to Kar'a'katok, Rahz led an attack on the long-secluded planet. Rahz's men subdued and captured Ampotem Za, one of the planet's native Shimholt. Za managed to escape captivity and return to Kar'a'katok, but was shunned by his fellow Shimholt, as the planet's government had barred off world travel by the natives over four thousand years prior. Now an outcast, Za returned to Rahz' custody. The Gektl took Za before Palpatine, who installed the Shimholt as overlord of Mandalore.

Harix plot
In 1 ABY, Rahz was dispatched to Harix to kidnap a teacher, Myoris Lin, and her students. Lin was suspected of having sympathy to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and Vader hoped that by holding her and the children hostage, they could lure her Rebel contacts into a trap. The teacher attempted to herd her students though an escape channel in a desparate attempt to flee Rahz' clutches, but the Gektl was able to capture them nonetheless. However, one student, Lin's son Berd, was able to escape, and was rescued by Luke Skywalker, who had been hoping to deliver a series of illegal pre-New Order micro-books.

Skywalker, departing Harix, destroyed Rahz' small fleet of ships, prompting the Gektl to return to his Lord Vader's side. Shortly thereafter, he and Vader were met with the sight of a thousand enemy ships approaching their base. As Rahz and the Imperials prepared their defenses, the Gektl's entire fleet was destroyed in an avalanche of rubble that had been caused by Skywalker and his ally Han Solo. Horrified, Rahz hoped to save face by executing his prisoners with a sonic projector, but was attacked by his Rebel adversaries.

The attacking "fleet" was actually nothing more than a group of Deep Space Target Practice Units that had been altered to resemble spacecraft, which the Rebels had used as a distraction against the Imperials, while they attempted to save the captive children. Realizing that the situation was all but lost, Rahz instinctively shed his Gektl tail, and attempted to use the sonic projector once more. Unbeknownst to him, Berd had managed to sabotage the weapon, causing it to destroy Rahz instead of his intended targets.

Behind the scenes
Major Rahz made his first appearance in Russ Manning's comic strip, Bring Me the Children, where he was featured as the primary antagonist alongside Darth Vader. The character of Rahz went unused in Star Wars canon for over twenty years, until Abel G. Peña and Rich Handley featured him in their online supplement, Aliens in the Empire. The supplement also gave Rahz the first name "Stafuv," as a reference to the "Staff of Ra" artifact from Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, a film which George Lucas both conceived and worked on as executive producer.

Appearances

 * Bring Me the Children