Character
The Council of the Five Syndicates Meeting Room.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide some context about the state of the Five Syndicates, and to create potential future villains.
- Image Credit: Meeting Room, Norzu the Hutt, Midasia Roche, Hidrin Quone, Julius Kestral, Jej Ulchtar
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Five Crime Syndicates, Jej Ulchtar
- Crew Name: Council of the Five Syndicates
- Crew Type: Multi-Syndicate Organization
- Base of Operations: 500 Republica, Coruscant
- Crew Size: Technically only five members, but each member represents the interests of a much larger syndicate. Lesser members of the Five Syndicates usually attend meetings, but are not considered formal parts of the council.
- Loyalties: N/A
- Description: The Council of the Five Syndicates is the meeting body for the infamous group of the most powerful criminal organizations in the Galaxy. Coalescing in a secret meeting chamber in the prestigious 500 Republica apartment building, the council makes deals which will decide the dates of billions throughout the Galaxy. The council meets on a semi-monthly basis, to discuss deals between the different syndicates, and negotiate resolutions to potential conflicts. To ensure the safety of all members, meetings do not begin until all five members of the council have arrived.
- Name: Norzu Choliliak Ikten
- Age: 276
- Species: Hutt
- Role: Representative of the Hutt Cartel.
- Languages: Huttese (primary language), Galactic Basic (understands), Rodese (understands), Durese (understands), Aqualish (understands)
- Description: The young and ambitious Norzu Choliliak Ikten represents the interests of the Hutt Cartel on the Council. Outwardly, Norzu the Hutt presents himself as a moderating voice of reason both within the Hutt Cartel, and the Council of the Five Syndicates. This is why he was appointed to represent the cartel on the council, despite not being the single most powerful Hutt in the Cartel. However, this likable voice of reason he presents is not really his true self. At his core, Norzu is a purely self-serving opportunist. Like any crime boss worth his spice, he will deceive, bribe, or backstab anyone who gets between him and more power and influence. In terms of physical appearance, Norzu is fairly small for a Hutt, both in terms of height and girth. He rarely partakes in combat, but can display surprising strength and determination to survive if attacked. The large scar on his back is a testament to this determination. His independent criminal enterprise is known as the Choliliak Kajidic, and focuses heavily on the slave trade and the smuggling of illegal weapons.
- Name: Midasia Vos Roche
- Age: 39
- Species: Near-Human (same species as Dryden Vos)
- Role: Representative of Crimson Dawn.
- Languages: Galactic Basic (primary language), Imroosian (fluent), Huttese (fluent), Pyke (mostly insults)
- Description: Midasia Vos Roche is the Frontwoman of Crimson Dawn, and represents their interests on the Council of the Five Syndicates. Out of all of the council members, she is the most outwardly aggressive, and a major source of conflict within the group. She is a direct descendant of Dryden Vos, and looks extraordinarily similar to him. She is descended from several other prominent crime lords in addition to Vos, and is very proud of this fact. Her pride should not be confused with arrogance though, as she wields more than enough power and influence to make good on her claims and threats. Additionally, she herself is an extremely skilled fighter, both with blasters, and in unarmed combat. However, she did recently loose a war against the Pyke Syndicate, which is a sore spot for her ego. She has a personal vendetta against Pyke leader Jej Ulchtar because of this. She has a noticeable affinity for gold, and owns many collector’s items made of the substance. Her independent criminal enterprises consist mostly of organized heists, protection rackets, and illicit gambling operations.
- Name: Hidrin Quone
- Age: 67
- Species: Bith
- Role: Representative of the Crymorah Syndicate.
- Languages: Bith (primary language), Galactic Basic (fluent), Huttese (conversational), Falleen (conversational), Pyke (conversational)
- Description: Hidrin Quone is the General Secretary of the Crymorah Syndicate. As a Bith, Quone takes a dispassionate and calculated approach both to representing the Crymorah Syndicate on the council, and to managing his own criminal enterprises. He is an engineer by training, and was originally only in charge of the Syndicate’s severely underfunded Starship Engineering Department. He only ended up leading the syndicate due to the fact that most of the Crymorah Syndicate’s higher officers ended up dying either during the Crymo-Pyke War, or during the bloody power struggles in its aftermath. Despite initial assumptions about how he would do, he has managed to hold on to his power for over 10 years. He does not like to take risks, and advocates for a more conservative, less aggressive approach for the Five Syndicates to take. Of course, this approach is partially motivated by the fact that the Crymorah Syndicate is the weakest of the Five, and by far the least likely to survive a serious crackdown on galactic crime. This often puts him at odds with Midasia Roche. He and Jej Ulchtar also dislike each other, thanks to lingering hatred from the Crymo-Pyke War. Combined with Roche and Ulchtar’s mutual dislike for each other, this forms a triangle of enmity which plays a significant role in council meetings. He himself lacks any combat abilities, and is quite physically weak. To make up for this, he always travels with a pair of G-2 Premium Security Droids who act as bodyguards. His own criminal enterprises mostly consist of space piracy, illicit poaching operations, and contract killings.
- Name: Julius Kestral
- Age: 47
- Species: Arcona
- Role: Representative of Black Sun.
- Languages: Arconese (Primary Language), Galactic Basic (fluent), Huttese (fluent), Falleen (fluent)
- Description: Julius Kestral is the most powerful Vigo in Black Sun, and holds the authority to command all of the other Vigos. He is not the official leader of Black Sun, but is trusted enough by both the Underlord (his superior), and the other members of the council to act as a stand in. Compared to his fellow council members, he is relatively relaxed, even jovial. This lightness of spirit should not be confused with stupidity. He is just as intelligent as the rest of his peers, and twice as creative. He has a unique penchant for thinking of innovative solutions to problems he encounters, and is very difficult to predict. During council meetings, he acts as a “wildcard” who could potentially side with anyone else in a dispute. Another notable difference between him and the other council members is that he has ethical standards with which he manages his syndicate. He is wise enough to not try to impose these morals on the rest of the council though. In terms of combat capabilities, he can use a blaster well enough, but is not particularly impressive beyond that. His own criminal enterprises mostly consist of money laundering, corporate espionage, and large-scale investment fraud.
- Name: Jej Ulchtar
- Age: 58
- Species: Pyke
- Role: Representative of the Pyke Syndicate.
- Languages: Pyke (primary language), Galactic Basic (fluent), Huttese (fluent), Rodese (conversational), Durese (conversational), ur-Kittât (understands)
- Description: See Here.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Council of the Five Syndicates first convened in the year 31 BBY, as an informal meeting to discuss the ramifications of the Invasion of Naboo for the Five Syndicates. The council’s original members were Jabba the Hutt (Hutt Cartel), Cadmund Vos (Crimson Dawn), Baldassare “BB” Baldamiro (Crymorah Syndicate), Xomit Grunseit (Black Sun), and Lom Pyke (Pyke Syndicate). The council met more and more frequently in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. The council lost three key members during the war: Xomit Grunseit (killed by Savage Opress during a hostile takeover of Black Sun), Cadmund Vos (killed by a Republic black ops unit for financially supporting the Separatists), and Lom Pyke (killed by Darth Tyranus after exposing his identity).
During the Imperial Era, the council’s membership included Jabba the Hutt, Dryden Vos (Crimson Dawn), Gorfon Rang (Crymorah Syndicate), Ziton Moj (Black Sun), and Marg Krim (Pyke Syndicate). By necessity, the Council temporarily suspended meetings during the Syndicate War, but resumed them shortly afterwards (with the exclusion of Crimson Dawn, the syndicate which had started the war). After Crimson Dawn’s fall, their seat on the council was instead given to Yonak of the Son-tuul Pride.
During the New Republic Era, the Five Syndicates became less prominent (The untimely death of Jabba the Hutt at the hands of the Rebel Alliance was a major blow to their power). Despite this, the Council continued to meet. However, it was not until the aftermath of the First Order-Resistance War that the Five Syndicates reclaimed their dominance over Galactic crime.
In the end, it would take the onset of the Gulag Plague to fully break the power of the Council of the Five Syndicates. In-person council meetings were no longer possible, and crime throughout the Galaxy became highly disorganized. One by one, each of the Five Syndicates collapsed into anarchy, with the Hutt Cartel being the last to fall.
After the Gulag Plague ended, the Five Syndicates began gradually rebuilding themselves. Once Galactic society was fully up-and-running again, the Council of the Five Syndicates followed shortly thereafter.
The reformation of the Council of the Five Syndicates was something of a passion-project for Norzu the Hutt. He envisioned a return to glory of the Late Republic Era, when the Five Syndicates worked in tandem to bend the fate of entire swaths of the Galaxy, rather than wasted resources trying to destroy each other. After getting the approval of the other Hutts in the Hutt Cartel, Norzu reached out to the Crymorah Syndicate, the Black Sun, and the Pyke Syndicate’s leaders. The new iteration of Crimson Dawn was allowed to reclaim their former seat as well, due to the absence of the Son-tuul Pride. Some of the Syndicate leaders required some persuasion that the meeting was not a trap. Terpadas Tokine, the paranoid General Secretary of the Crymorah Syndicate, was difficult to convince in particular. But in the end, Norzu managed to get the leaders of all four of the other Syndicates to attend a meeting on the planet Daiyu. This initial meeting was followed by more meetings on various other planets, until a permanent venue was agreed upon in the form of the prestigious 500 Republica building on Coruscant. Coruscant was an agreeable location for all parties involved, thanks to its central position in the Galaxy, and the fact that it was neutral territory not controlled by any one criminal organization.
The new Council of the Five Syndicates initially consisted of Norzu the Hutt (Hutt Cartel), Tantalak Vos (Crimson Dawn), Terpadas Tokine (Crymorah Syndicate), Xuxand Drunever (Black Sun), and Dazat Eios (Pyke Syndicate). The new Council’s first major challenge was dealing with the newer upstart criminal organizations, such as the Black Claw Gang on Zygerria and the Neo-Tarkinite Front on Eriadu. The Council unanimously agreed that these groups would need to be destroyed, and signed a formal agreement to do so. Thus began what came to be known as Norzu the Hutt’s War, thanks to his role in restoring the Council of the Five Syndicates. This war lasted for only two years before the Five Syndicates emerged victorious over the newer gangs. As a result of the war, the Black Claw Gang and Neo-Tarkinite Front were disbanded entirely, and several other small crime factions were forced to pay tribute to the Five Syndicates.
Since then, the Council has rotated through most of its members, with the exception of Norzu the Hutt. With the exception of Tantalak Vos who died of old age, most of their lives ended in rather dramatic assassinations:
- Xuxand Drunever died in a rather infamous assassination which took place while he was on his way to a Council meeting. The assassin was the revenge-seeking widow of a corporate accountant. (The accountant had tried to expose Drunever’s high-level financial crimes to the public, so the Black Sun leader ordered his death.) She managed to kill the Black Sun Underlord by shooting him with a concealed blaster pistol during a moment where his two bodyguards had a lapse in their attention thanks to an accomplice distracting them. This killing happened in broad daylight on the busy streets of Coruscant, so the assassin did not manage to get very far before she was apprehended by a nearby police droid. She was sentenced to death for her crime (Black Sun-allied politicians in Coruscant’s government made sure of this), but many people considered her a martyr. Thanks to this incident, the Black Sun no longer sends its official leader to council meetings, only a particularly powerful Vigo.
- Dazat Eios died when a bomb attached to his personal shuttle exploded, killing everyone on board. At first, it was unclear what exactly had happened. It eventually became clear that the bomb had been planted by Polm Clin, Eios’s trusted bodyguard who was conveniently not on the shuttle when it exploded. After a good deal of “enhanced interrogation”, Clin confessed that he had been bribed by the Crymorah Syndicate to plant the bomb. In the aftermath of the incident, Jej Ulchtar succeeded Dazat Eios, and a 9-year war broke out between the Pykes and the Crymorah Syndicate.
- Out of all of the assassinations, Terpadas Tokine’s was definitely the most mysterious. The killing had no witnesses, except for his four bodyguards who were also killed, and the killer left no trace of their identity in Tokine’s estate. The four guards were evidently killed with lightsabers, and Tokine himself was burnt to a crisp by an intense electrical current. This evidence naturally raised suspicions that a Sith was behind the killing, but all of the major branches of the Sith have sworn up-and-down that they were not behind it. In reality, the killer was Jej Ulchtar, who did the deed during his Sith apprenticeship to Darth Dikter. It was an act of revenge, done in retribution for the Crymorah Syndicate’s release of a stolen bio-weapon on his home planet. The bio-weapon had killed millions of Pykes, including Ulchtar’s wife and eldest son. Tokine’s death caused a power struggle in the Crymorah Syndicate which eventually ended with Hidrin Quone taking power.
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