Ta'laam Ranth

Ta'laam Ranth was a male Gotal, senator of Antar 4 to the New Republic and head of the Senate Justice Council. (For unknown reasons - possibly a erroneous entry in theforce.net's Unofficial Encyclopedia - Ranth's sex used to be debated. It has since been clarified on the sw.com boards that, canonically, Ta'laam Ranth has always been male.)

During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy, Ranth oversaw the investigation of Viqi Shesh that led to Shesh's deposition. Ranth, in person, questioned Shesh.

Later, after the Fall of Coruscant, Ranth managed to reach Dac, where the New Republic regrouped. Due to the death of Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya of the New Republic, a new campaign to choose a Chief of State began. Ranth was nominated as one of the candidates along with Cal Omas, Fyor Rodan and Cola Quis. Ranth got a great deal of supporters, but it was obvious that she did not have enough support to become Chief of State. Other senators, including Triebakk worried that Ranth was building support only to withdraw at the last moment and give his votes to another candidate in exchange for political favors. Both Fyor Rodan and Cal Omas tried to get Ranth's votes.

The initial results gave 35% of the votes to Rodan; 28% to Omas; 18% to Ranth and 10% to Quis. The remaining votes were abstentions or scattered among other minor candidates, surprisingly including Pwoe. Triebakk (as Omas' representative) tried to convince Quis to give his votes to Omas, as it was clear that Quis couldn't win. Rodan also tried to get Ranth's votes. Ranth, however, when asked to give his votes, asked for more time, hoping to get more floor votes to show his value as an ally; she would ask for a seat on the Advisory Council for herself, plus places in the government for some allies.

Ranth increased his support to 22%, being then able to deliver the election to one of the main candidates, while Quis dropped out of the race when Omas promised to name him chairman of the Commerce Council plus midlevel ministry jobs for several of his friends, and an office of the Kellmer Institute on Ryloth. But the following vote gave Omas 46% support and Rodan only 24%. Ranth had 20% support. Then, Omas promised Ranth a position on a committee overseeing the actions of the Jedi Knights, and Ranth supported Omas. Omas became the new Chief of State with an 85%, though Rodan and a few of his partners refused to make the vote unanimous (and three loyalists voted for Pwoe). Ranth got a seat on the High Council as one of the six non-Jedi, New Republic representatives. Apparently, Ranth was not a great supporter of the Jedi, and considered that this place was useful to stop the Jedi from being too autonomous from their government. However, Ranth voted with the Jedi in opposition to Alpha Red.