In countless star systems across the Outer Rim Territories, the galactic government that
presides from Courscant, Chandrila or any other core world has no real meaning.
To the disparate peoples of the frontier, the decline of the High Republic, the Clone
Wars, the Rise of the Empire and the re-establishment of the New Republic all might have occurred
without any significant impact on their lives.
Some might not have even realized that these events occurred at all, or what the Republic
and Empire even were.
Only a different kind of power can take root in the Outer Rim.
It is one that does not stem from the ideals of liberty, or legions of armed soldiers,
it is instead a corrupting force; the dirty side of sharp credits.
It has gone by many names across many eras, but very few have ever evoked so much fear
as the criminal empire helmed by Jabba Desilijic Tiure
To the galaxy at large, Jabba’s empire was presented as a legitimate business conglomerate
with a sizable stake in various mining concerns, manufacturing industries, private banks and
entertainment services.
Dozens and potentially hundreds of casinos, cantinas, gambling halls and even sporting
arenas were owned by Jabba, and leveraged to boost the Hutt’s personal image.
Jabba routinely presided over major events held at these businesses, even personally
signaling the start of the Boonta Eve Classic, an annual podrace popular across the Outer
Rim.
These public displays of wealth and power made Jabba a beloved figure on worlds in which
he maintained a significant presence, but were in fact a carefully curated veneer used
to conceal the true nature of his business.
The majority of his wealth was generated through illicit means, notably glitterstim spice harvesting,
arms dealing, organized piracy, smuggling and the slave trade.
At the more local level, secondary activities included protection racketeering, trafficking,
extortion and money laundering.
Modeled on the cartels favored by the Hutt Crime families, Jabba’s empire was a loose
confederation of hundreds of individual groups, each laying claim over a territory, typically
a town, village or business venture.
While in many areas they represented the most powerful group within that territory, Jabba
rarely sought to conquer an area directly, or legitimize his monopoly of violence.
Instead, his agents typically bribed any local officials so they might act openly and with
impunity.
Many of these groups were not directly linked to Jabba or the Hutts, but rather semi-independent
vassals allowed to conduct their own affairs so long as they did not interfere with the
primary business, and pledged loyalty to Jabba above all.
Jabba’s status as a member of the Grand Hutt Council ensured his empire was intertwined
with the Hutt Cartels as a whole.
By design, the power structure of Jabba’s Empire within the Hutt Cartels was difficult
to define, with its various cells compartmentalized to avoid the compromise of one endangering
the survival of all.
Yet every group existed within a deeply hierarchical, united and pyramidal association, with Jabba
above all at its peak.
A number of lesser lieutenants comprised Jabba’s direct subordinates, a mixture of blood family
and senior members of the greater crime family.
To maintain a level of distance from its illegal activities, Jabba’s empire also favored
using freelancers for many of its more dangerous operations, notably when smuggling and bounty
hunting.
At its height, Jabba’s Empire spread across dozens of star systems throughout the Outer
Rim Territories but was centered on the backwater desert world of Tatooine for the majority
of its existence.
A palace located in the Northern Dune Sea of that world served as the Empire’s de
facto capital, a former monastery constructed by the B’omarr Order, refitted and fortified
to serve Jabba’s unique needs.
Within its subterranean depths were housed Jabba’s small fleet of starships, cargo
skiffs and sail barges.
It was also noted, and feared, for the menagerie of exotic creatures housed there, to which
individuals that had displeased Jabba were often fed.
604 years old at the time of his death, Jabba was almost certainly a major criminal figure
within the Outer Rim for several centuries.
The earliest details of his rise to power remain unknown, but he was rumored to have
closely collaborated with a set of crime families known as the Crymorah syndicate, and this
association in some way led to his place on the Hutt Council.
Jabba’s Empire benefited enormously from the outbreak of the Clone Wars.
The Galactic Republic, which might have otherwise attempted to arrest him or curtail his activities,
instead brokered an alliance with Jabba, hoping to use secret hyperspace lanes known only
to the Hutts in their war against the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
Legitimized by this new relationship with the Republic, Jabba’s Criminal Empire engaged
in extensive war-profiteering, selling materials at vastly inflated prices to support the expanding
Clone Armies.
In the era of the Galactic Empire, Jabba’s criminal enterprises were seen as a valuable
tool that could be exploited by the new Imperial system.
Raw materials mined within Jabba’s labor camps were of particular interest to the Imperial
starfleet, and Jabba’s Empire was one of the few criminal organizations allowed to
act even semi-openly.
Despite their close relationship with the Galactic Empire however, the rampant profiteering
that marked the Clone Wars was severely curtailed by stricter Imperial negotiators.
The criminal empire came to an abrupt end just prior to the destruction of the Second
Death Star when Jabba himself was killed during an incident on Tatooine.
During a botched execution of a captured smuggler, Jabba was supposedly strangled to death, according
to some accounts, by later New Republic Senator and Princess of Alderaan Leia Organa.
Regardless, his sudden death threw his organization into chaos as rival vassals and former lieutenants
began attempting to carve out pieces of Jabba’s empire for themselves.
Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s chief steward was among these, assuming control of the Palace itself,
but failing to consolidate the remainder of the empire.
The remaining Hutts were similarly paralized, endlessly debating the nature of Jabba’s
last will and testament, and letting his Empire rot in their absence.
Jabba’s Empire was among the largest of its kind in the history of the Outer Rim,
a center of power in a place where even the Galactic Republic and Empire had largely failed.
It would seem inevitable that with the death of its crime lord, the organization would
fall to dust, with even its once grand palace swept beneath the sands of Tatooine.
Instead, rumors are swirling across the Outer Rim that a new successor to the Criminal Empire
has declared himself, a man as greatly feared as Jabba was once, but determined to rule
with respect.