Guther Bartyn was the Administrator of Outer Rim Oreworks' Mining Station LM0228 in Lamaredd, as well as the mayor of the local town known as Bartyn's Landing and the owner of the company Bartyn Gourmet Delicacies, holding all of these ranks because he was the inheritor to the original founder Hugo Bartyn and not because of his skill. Bartyn, who would rather resort to bribery and not to hard work, was disliked by his subjects and workers, but nonetheless his authority was respected.
Bartyn was in charge of Lamaredd when the native sentient species of the planet, the Menahuun, reappeared five centuries after what was believed to have been their extinction at the hands of Hugo Barytn.
Guther Bartyn was born in 62 BBY. He was the descendant of Hugo Bartyn, a scout who had founded the mines of Lamaredd for Outer Rim Oreworks, become the Administrator and also founded a local fishing city, Bartyn's Landing, that became the headquarters to his personal successful seafood export enterprise Bartyn Gourmet Delicacies around five hundred years before the Battle of Naboo. Through the years, the jobs as Administrator of the mines, manager and owner of the Delicacies and mayor of the Landing had been inherited by Bartyn's descendants.
The mines were fully automated and droids extracted metals without the intervention of any organic. Supposedly ORO sent inspectors to check the mines, but the Bartyns bribed ORO officers to avoid this situation. The Bartyns felt no need to visit the mine. They did not know either that the native Menahuun species—believed to be extinct due to the ruthless hunting in which Hugo Bartyn had engaged—had sneaked there and created their own city. Nonetheless, when Guther was a child, he did visit the outside of the mines, apparently not finding any Menahuun there.
In 36 BBY, Guther Bartyn took part in the hunting of a krugga deer; the prey managed to lose the tracker at Krakana's Maw range. As Bartyn was near the family mines, he decided to go there and have a look. He was greeted with laser fire from the defenses of the mines, operated by Menahuun. He survived, but decided to not tell anyone about this event. Bartyn mistakenly believed that a gang of outlaws, hiding in the Maw, were behind the attack.
At some point before 29 BBY, Guther Bartyn became mayor of Bartyn's Landing, the twenty-third Bartyn to hold this title. He was not particularly liked or respected. The local constable and Security Chief, the Mon Calamari Mix Liddell, felt not trust toward Bartyn, but Liddell did respect the command chain and recognized Bartyn as his chief.
Bartyn managed the annual Landing Shootout, a public show of snipers shooting static targets, with the best five receiving awards. Bartyn donated 4,600 credits for the second to fifth prizes; former champion Liddell, a skilled weapon craftsman, personally manufactured a pearl-handed slugthrower that went to the winner. As the Shootout was also a party, many visitors went to food and drink stands.
Bartyn contacted with Ubrikkian Industries and asked them for a personal aquatic yacht following the contract GBX-005. Still noticing that his subjects did not really love him, Bartyn named the ship Tria Blue after his popular ancestor Tria Bartyn, known as "Benevolent Tria" by the people. Not a sailor himself, Bartyn used the expensive vehicle for his personal rest, and sometimes to compete with a visiting Neimoidian dignitary in a global race — obviously using a hired crew.
In 29 BBY, a faction of the mine-dwelling Menahuun decided to initiate guerrilla attacks against Bartyn's Landing, as a reprisal for several perceived crimes against their race. As the Menahuun were discreet, they were not really detected except as "gremlins" attacking the docks. Bartyn, worried about the security of the Tria Blue, assigned six guards from the ORO spaceport security staff to the deck of his yacht, in what was an unpopular movement — because the spaceport security was disliked in the Landing. He nonetheless failed to increase the budget of the security of the port, even if he had received reports about increasing accidents and the disappearance of several trawlers.
Bartyn also prompted Security Chief Liddell to investigate. As Lidell had just hired new Seconds, the Calamarian sent them to the port. By then, a couple of Menahuun had already executed Bartyn's security and were trying to sabotage and detonate the boat using advanced technology. The Seconds got visual contact with the Menahuuns, after which Liddell encouraged them to meet directly with Bartyn. Bartyn agreed to give them an interview, although he intended to reveal as little information as possible — perhaps not telling them about a secret tunnel from the Bartyn mansion to the mines.
Liddell's second discovered the hidden Menahuun community and negotiated with them. They discovered that the Menahuun wanted to live in peace and helped them to join the community of Landing. Although Bartyn was unhappy with this arrangement, he helped his subjects — and took good care to close the tunnel. ORO, however, did not want any scandal about Menahuun genocide affecting them, and abandoned Lamaredd, which led to a gradual loss of power to the Bartyn family. For the first time, the Administrator was democratically elected. Bartyn lost this election to Liddell and then lost his edge: The former Administrator re-programmed two MMV security droids to attack Menahuun citizens.
Guther Bartyn was a young Human male with a balding head. He curled the hair he still had at 33 years of age. He liked wearing expensive clothing and smoking cigarra.
Bartyn was a skilled bureaucrat and was familiar with the nuances of his business, including the maintenance of droids and the management of inherited money, sometimes spending it in the form of bribes. He believed to be a skillful speaker, able to hide information in a questioning. However, he lacked any personality or social skills, being unaware of even his own shortages. Some people knowing him considered Bartyn to be a pompous being.
Guther Bartyn was fluent in some of the most extended languages in Lamaredd, including Basic, Chagri, Mon Calamarian and Quarrenese. He had received some training in the use of blaster weapons, and he sometimes carried a hold-out blaster with himself.
Bartyn tried to impress people with important expenses. He attempted to gain the esteem of his subjects by naming his flamboyant personal yacht after a much-beloved predecessor and relative of himself. He also took any foreign visitor to the luxurious Three Jetties Gourmet Restaurant, which he himself partially owned.
Bartyn was known to hire specialized help in the form of mercenaries. He was also a frequent visitor to Miss Mylla's Saloon whenever he was not in his yacht or at his opulent mansion. There, he used personal guards, a bronze-colored protocol droid and a secretary.
Guther Bartyn was created by writer Cory J. Herndon and featured in the article Bartyn's Landing and in the role-playing adventure Reckonings, both of them published in the magazine Star Wars Gamer #7 (2001).
The article assumes that the player characters of Reckonings achieve the best possible ending but, should they fail, the adventure offers an alternative path that takes place during an open war between the Menahuun and the citizens of Bartyn's Landing. In this situation, Guther Bartyn gains control of the people and uses heavy weapons to protect both the Landing and his own mansion. He also recruits the constable, his men and even his own sailors as soldiers; and asks ORO for corporate shock troopers. Non-combatant civilians try to leave by sea, although the Menahuun appear to be almost everywhere in Lamaredd — as discovered by Bartyn when he sent some hired people to his home at the island Bartyn's Retreat, by then full of Menahuun.
As the local police corps had became soldiers, the local crime increases, and even the traditionally benevolent Sailor's Union turned into a crime syndicate. As a consequence, Bartyn hired some agents to infiltrate the Union and "neutralize" it.
Even if the Menahuun crisis is solved, Bartyn would keep high security controls to stop a possible new "infestation."
- "Bartyn's Landing" — Star Wars Gamer 7
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia