Gideon Longspar was a warlord and bandit who, in 3 ABY, terrorized the moisture farmers of Beheboth by raiding their farms for every drop of water they had and re-selling it on the black market. Longspar and his gang accomplished this after discovering how to manipulate and control the Tirrith, an empathic gaseous culture of hive-minded sentient particles that became key to his scheme. However, local farmer Darial Anglethorn and her friend Luke Skywalker joined forces with the vengeful Tirrith to defeat Longspar and destroy his operation.
Luke Skywalker knocks Gideon Longspar out cold.
Formerly a first-contact specialist who encountered Jedi during the Clone Wars, Gideon Longspar had failed in his previous profession by 3 ABY, when he had come to lead a gang of brigands on the planet Beheboth. Longspar encountered a unique creature called the Tirrith, an empathic gaseous culture of hive-minded sentient particles—after realizing the immense power that large groups of Tirrith had when joined together, Longspar captured a group of Tirrith and held them hostage to ensure the rest of the collective's cooperation in a lucrative new scheme. Beheboth was a desert world that had by that time not experienced rain in many years, meaning water was extremely valuable—Longspar began a series of devastating raids on local moisture farms, using the Tirrith to put any defenders to sleep before taking every bit of water and reselling it for a fortune on the black market.
Operating out of a remote mountain base, Longspar and his gang successfully robbed a number of farms in the vicinity of the town of Garrotine, driving many of the locals to desperation. Longspar eventually took a crack at the largest moisture farm on the planet, in doing so kidnapping owner Darial Anglethorn, who had taken a leading role in organizing farmers to defend their homes. In response, Anglethorn's friend Luke Skywalker—a Rebel officer stranded on Beheboth due to a damaged starfighter—stormed Longspar's stronghold himself, only to be captured and imprisoned along with Anglethorn. A vengeful Tirrith helped free Longspar's prisoners, and when Longspar attempted to waylay them with Skywalker's confiscated lightsaber, Skywalker instead maneuvered Longspar into accidentally destroying the Tirrith's restraining globe and freeing the remainder of the culture. Skywalker then knocked Longspar out cold with a left hook, and Anglethorn followed by destroying Longspar's water tanks, wiping out his operation and ending the threat of his brigands.
A ruthless bandit without empathy for others, Gideon Longspar was both boastful of his achievements and personally lazy—Longspar did not believe in doing work that someone else could do for him instead. A cruel man willing to consign many to die in order to make a profit, Longspar was personally confident in his own abilities, beleiving that he could effectively use a lightsaber despite not having seen such a weapon in decades.
Gideon Longspar appeared in Star Wars (1977) 66, written by David Michelinie, illustrated by Walt Simonson and released in 1982.
- "Alien Anthology Addendum" — Star Wars Gamer 7
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia