Black Sun

Prince Xizor
This information has been taken directly from the Star Wars Databank (located here)

The Empire's control of the galaxy and the efforts of a ragtag Rebellion marked key moments in galactic history. Underneath these events, though, lurking in the shadows of the Empire, was Black Sun, a vast criminal organization possessed of incredible power and influence.

The syndicate's tentacles reach everywhere -- from the polished spires of Imperial Center to the seamiest Outer Rim tavern. Many of the organization's tens of thousands of operatives had no idea that they were benefiting Black Sun, so layered and intricate were the fronts that the syndicate hid behind. Black Sun had involvement in every known type of illegal activity, and its information network rivaled the accuracy and scope of even Imperial Intelligence.

Existing in one form or another for centuries, the modern era of Black Sun was sculpted by Prince Xizor, the elegant Falleen head of Xizor Transport Systems. Serving beneath him were a cadre of nine "Vigos" -- Old Tionese for "nephew" -- who monitored and managed activities in specific territories.

Xizor's personal vendetta against Lord Darth Vader nearly scuttled the entire organization. So fixated on exacting vengeance against Vader, Xizor's allowed his fortress to become infiltrated by Rebel Alliance agents. The devastation of his fortress by Rebel explosives was just the start of a downward spiral that culminated in Xizor's death in the destruction of his private skyhook.

In the resulting power vacuum, the Vigos desperately sought to carve up the criminal empire. Xizor's long-lost niece, Savan, secretly instigated a war between the Vigos as she attempted to take control of Black Sun herself. She failed in her bid to capture the human replica droid Guri, whose mechanical mind contained many vital Black Sun secrets. When Guri's memory was wiped, many of the most secret and lucrative Black Sun ventures were forever erased.

This was not the first time Black Sun had been decapitated. Decades earlier, Darth Maul infiltrated Black Sun and killed its then-leader Alexi Garyn. The remnants of Xizor's Black Sun did not rebound nearly as well as Garyn's organization, as no obvious heir as powerful or driven as Xizor appeared. A string of imitators emerged in the following years, and with each one Black Sun was further diminished. The corrupt Moff Flirry Voru controlled a sizable fragment, while other remains were reformed into Black Nebula by Lord Dequc. After years of directionless rule, Y'ull Acib attempted control, and finally Czethros was the last known ruler of the organization before it was finally crushed.

Allen Darksaber
After Czethros' defeat by the hands of a female jedi, and a powerful wookie Jedi, the Black Sun fell in a state of stasis. With their last leader frozen in a vat of carbonite, and then thawed and interrogated by the current Chief of State of the New Republic, Black Sun was essentially destroyed. It was during this time of absolute defeat that the reknown Dark Jedi Master Allen Darksaber established himself as the new leader of the Black Sun. Implimenting his own heirarchy of soldiers and spacers, Darksaber built his own dark empire and reestablished Black Sun's former power and influence. Darksaber was the head CEO of the Vendetta A Construction Company, using it as a cover for much criminal activity. Also during this time he established himself as a brief Governor of Vallera, but resigned from office to rather place one of his own operatives in office, Kesjiu Pvutn. In Black Sun, Darksaber had a cadre of nine "Vigos" as well, shaping the new Black Sun much in Xizor's reflection. Proving as his two personal hands, so to speak, were his operatives Dementia and Kesjiu Pvutn. They worked as his eyes, ears, and essential hands. However in Black Sun's military matters, Allen Darksaber dealt with them more personally. Establishing Black Sun's new main headquarters in an underwater, huge technologically advanced fortress - deep beneath the oceans of the southern hemisphere of Vallera. During Darksaber's rule over Black Sun, he was the one responsible for establishing Black Sun influence, and power on Vallera. He at first established an intricate information and spy network on Vallera, focusing more on Neo Vallera; and thus also attracting Darksaber's scornful scrutiny on the unfortunate Rukdah the Hutt. Then one day one of Darksaber's operatives introduced him to a certain Dug, calling himself Kramax. Kramax formed an allegiance with Darksaber, and they continued to create a plan to usurp Rukdah's influence from Vallera, and take the mantle for themselves. With the ground and space support of Kramax's Red Star Raiders, Black Sun was able to severly cripple Rukdah and his brother's forces and power. Both Black Sun and the Red Star Raiders were victorious, but Darksaber had an agenda of his own. Turning his own forces against the Red Star Raiders, and using their dependency of Black Sun as a weapon itself, he put a wound in Kramax's forces, and sent him cowering back to Iosis; thus leaving control over Vallera solely to Black Sun. It was recorded that Darksaber used Black Sun to further many of his own goals, but he did a huge part in reestablishing Black Sun's former glory and power, and recreating one of the most insidious, and infamous criminal organizations to ever haunt the galaxy. At some unrecorded time Allen Darksaber left Black Sun, leaving it's control to his two operatives, Dementia and Kesjiu Pvutn.

Kesjiu Pvtun
Black Sun, admittedly, took on a more neighborly persona when Kesjiu took control. At first, Kesjiu was working under Allen Darksaber and just pretending to be the leader under Allen's instructions. This probably added to the impression that Kesjiu wasn't a totally take charge kind of guy in terms of the criminal orginization. Eventually, though, Kesjiu found himself left to his own devices in regards to the criminal syndicate. Struggling with wanting to find himself more on the light side of the force, due to his beloved friend Sileen being a source of constant inspiration for him, he tried in vain to remake the Black Sun to be less criminal and more business and community conscious. Yes, this could certainly be seen as a sign of weakness to outside observers. While attempting this, he did slip up a few times and still kept some criminal activities going, but he started a large propaganda campaign to paint himself in a more upstanding light to the general public. Imperial higher ups did not like Kesjiu's activities at all and launched quite the campaign to take him down. It didn't help that some of his remaining criminal activities included the capture of Kuole, Klave's son. Another sign of lingering criminal activity was that he forced Tesree Jr. to build him an HRD, which he'd planned as a gift to Allen, but which didn't turn out that way, since Allen had seemed to have disappeared. It eventually ended up becoming a planet-wide thing after he captured Kuole. Kesjiu was eventually caught, but then released after negotiations that involved much credits. It was after this negotiation that Kesjiu found heading the Black Sun not condusive to his overall goals. So, he appointed new leadership, if you can call it that, and abandoned the Black Sun and went into relative hiding while still maintaining his own personal business ventures and emmassing great personal wealth, independant of the Black Sun. He did, however, leave people loyal to him in charge of Black Sun, which the next person to take over would have to erradicate. Kesjiu's downfall was that he could not serve two masters. He could not serve the light and the dark.

The Purge
Not much is known about the coup that threw Kesjiu Pvutn out of power and placed a new, more formidable leader as head of Black Sun. Mystra, a former agent of the Imperial Remnant (retired), took control of the criminal organization when it became apparent that it had grown weak under Pvutn's leadership. It should not be assumed that Mystra was indebted to Pvutn for saving her life several years previous; she wished to control Black Sun, and so she took it. The fact that Kesjiu still remained alive, however, could be attributed to the life debt owed to him.

When Mystra took control, everything about Black Sun was gutted. The weeding out process began. Naturally, this took some time. Mystra and then companion, Matmar T'gan, systematically hunted down each and every operative that had ever been loyal to, or worked under, Kesjiu Pvutn. Each operative was questioned and their loyalty to their former boss established. Profiles were drawn, and they were thoroughly watched. Any advisors or top echelon people closest to Pvutn were removed and replaced. These operatives, if they could be used, were given positions elsewhere in the organization. If their loyalty was questionable, they were destroyed. In their place were put operatives from outside of the organization, Mystra's own chosen group of people. Their loyalty had already been tried and tested throughout the take-over process and, for the time being, they were suitable to the tasks laid before them.

Once her command crew were in place, she started assigning seemingly important tasks to those operatives who used to be under the control of Pvutn. The tasks served Black Sun well enough; if they hadn't at least seemed important, they wouldn't have succeeded where they were most valuable – feeding the former Pvutn loyalists false or misleading information. The purpose was to further weed out those who had managed to make it through the initial round of questioning, yet still remained loyal to Pvutn. It wasn't long before even those operatives good enough at thier jobs were killed and replaced – once it became clear that Mystra's own people could be trusted. Of course, for someone of Mystra's expertise, ensuring loyalty was not difficult.

The Rebirth
If the dismantling of the Black Sun organization was easy, rebuilding it from the ground up was a more arduous task. Around the time Mystra was beginning the design of her own hierarchy and setting up what would soon become the best security system in the criminal world, Matmar T'gan, a once trusted and loyal member of Black Sun, ceased to be useful. He was frozen in carbonite, and Mystra was able to continue her planning without his interference.

It was her contention that Black Sun would be divided into different sects. Each sect would have their own specialty, and would form only a part of the bigger hierarchy. Each sect had its own security clearance levels based on the proven loyalty of their members. Naturally, the more loyal and trustworthy a member of Black Sun was, the more security clearance they would have. Once the hierarchy was put in place, the ranks began fulling up.

It didn't take Black Sun long to regain its former glory, but their power would remain hidden for the time being. Rumours circulated about the weakness of Black Sun, that the new leadership and destruction of Pvutn's cartel had left the organization in tatters. Information dripped down from the highest echelon, whispers that Black Sun had fragmented and that they were unprepared, that their influence in political arenas had weakened. It wasn't long before those loyalists who had managed to remain hidden thus far began to show their true colours. It made it easier to further remove any potential upsets to the new criminal powerhouse.

Working under the assumption of complete disarray, it wasn't long before the new and improved Black Sun had wheedled its way back into the governments and organizations they had always influenced. They'd managed to add a few more groups to their circle of influence, and as of the time of this accounting, they continue to do so. Deceptively strong, they firmly crushed any attempt to take advantage of their supposedly weakened state, and continue to do so to this day.

Order of Thorns
The new Black Sun is organized in a structure that Mystra calls the "Order of Thorns." The structure itself and it's inner workings are not widely known to anyone outside of the organization, and Mystra prefers to keep it that way. Symbolically speaking, the Order of Thorns is represented by a ring of concentric circles. At the very heart of these circles is the leader of Black Sun. Those most loyal to the organization, those who can be trusted beyond question, reside within the first ring around the leader, who is, in this case, Mystra. The next circle, naturally, is a circle of lesser trust; the circle after that, even lesser, and so forth. The closer the circle is to the leader, the smaller it is - which means that there are less people within that circle at any given time. The larger the circle, the more people it can hold. Each ring of the circle has its own designation. The level of trust a person has attained within the organization also denotes what their role within it is. The lowest of the low will start as Enforcers (the largest circle, and also the one with the least amount of credibility) and will be required to work their way up. Obviously, if an Enforcer doesn't show promise, he or she will never move to a higher circle, and may risk being removed entirely.

Time spent at each level is considered necessary before one can be promoted to the next. Promotion to the next circle is based on loyalty, performance and overall success within the organization. A system has been implemented whereby three members of the circle above the one seeking the promotion must vouch for them before they can advance. Ultimately, that promotion must be approved before it can be finalized.

Strongholds
Throughout the reign of Mystra as Black Sun's leader, it has been the organization's goal not to control planets overtly, but to spread itself throughout the underworlds of every populated planet in the Galaxy. This goal, although vast in its magnitude, will see its completion within the next few galactic standard years. One planet that remains inextricably Black Sun's is the planet of Vallera, deep within Hutt space.

Surrounded by Hutt worlds, Black Sun has kept an uneasy alliance with the various Hutt syndicates still operating. The Hutts, not as powerful as they used to be, bowed to the superior complexity and splendor of Black Sun... and it's skilled leader. Although one or two Hutt crime lords remain within Black Sun's "pocket" (so to speak), the Hutts themselves tend to mind their own business. Which, generally speaking, includes anything that doesn't interfere with Black Sun.

Black Sun boasts several sprawling compounds on and around the planet of Vallera, including unmentioned outposts on various other worlds where their control is slightly more than passing. They have one compound within the volcano upon Vallera, and from there deep into the water there is another one under the sea bed. This one belongs predominantly to Aedian Khor, bestowed to him by Damascus Renato upon their alliance. A third facility is located in an asteroid belt several thousand kilometers away from the Vallera System, in an area that is uncharted and unreachable through any known space lane.

Allegiances
Currently, Black Sun is allied with a group of Dark Jedi, led by Dark Lord of the Sith Aedian Khor, called The Ascension. Together, The Ascension and Black Sun form the Circle of Chaos.