Sarn Shild

Sarn Shild was a Human male who served as the Moff of Baxel sector immediately prior to the Galactic Civil War.

Biography
Shild was known for his corruption and often accepted "gifts" from powerful Hutts, such as Jiliac and Aruk. These gifts helped ensure that Shild would turn a blind eye toward the innumerable illegal activities going on in Hutt Space. However, in response to growing Rebel activity, Emperor Palpatine ordered that the Moffs crack down on their sectors to further strengthen Imperial authority.

It was during this time that Bria Tharen began working for the Rebel Alliance as an undercover agent. She posed as a mistress of Shild's in public to demonstrate to others that he shared publicly acceptable sexual tastes. Bria was free from anything intimate with Shild, whose tastes were anything but publicly acceptable for an Imperial Moff and did not include Human girls. However, this was not obvious to Han Solo, who had been assigned by Jiliac to visit Shild on Coruscant with the hope of bribing him from "cracking down". Not only did Han fail to bribe the Moff, but he was further devastated emotionally by seeing Bria as his "mistress".

Having refused the Hutts' bribe, Shild made it no secret that he intended to destroy Nar Shaddaa. He had denounced his corrupt ways with the intent of rising through Imperial ranks &mdash; he even entertained the thought of leading an insurrection and challenging Palpatine, creating his own version of the Corporate Sector (Bria Tharen would later speculate to Han Solo that Shild seemed to have been "encouraged" by an unseen force in his rebel thoughts, possibly the Emperor himself using the Force to push a disloyal servant into self-destruction). However, a bribe of the highest expense given to Admiral Winstel Greelanx, leader of Shild's strike force, ensured Imperial defeat during the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. Bria Tharen later suspected a secret order from Palpatine himself to Greelanx to throw the battle also influenced the assault. Indeed, the smugglers' fleet defeated the Imperial force decisively. When Shild learned of this shocking turn of events, he committed suicide in order to avoid the inevitable wrath of the Emperor.

Behind the scenes
Sarn Shild was a character who first appeared in the novel The Hutt Gambit. Although the ending of the book made very clear that he committed suicide, it was left ambiguous as to whether Shild committed the act of suicide via a blaster bolt or by ingesting poison.

Appearances

 * The Hutt Gambit
 * Rebel Dawn
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse