Klyn Shanga

Klyn Shanga was a native of Renatasia III, an isolated world home to an ancient Human colony that had forgotten its origins and, by Shanga's lifetime, had just started to explore the outer reaches of its system. His home region of Mathilde often found itself in conflict with other neighboring city-states, and Shanga went to war at a young age. Shanga distinguished himself in the , among others, earning acclaim as a fighter pilot before leaving active service. The wars of Shanga's youth eventually gave way to decades of peacetime, during which Shanga plied his trade as a farmer and raised a family. These peaceful years ended in 13 BBY, when Renatasia was rediscovered by a passing trader, who brought word of the colony's existence to the wider galaxy. Shanga's homeworld was shortly afterward visited by two offworlders, a starfish-like alien called Vuffi Raa and a humanoid assistant, Osuno Whett. Raa and Whett were feted in the coming months, during which time they helped Renatasia form a unified world government, before the Imperial fleet invaded 701 days after Raa's arrival. The Empire's brutal pacification efforts killed two-thirds of Renatasia's population—Shanga himself was one of the few survivors.

Little remained for the remnants of Renatasia except to strike back at the forces that had destroyed their home. Although—unlike many of his people—Shanga still had family left alive on Renatasia, he left them behind anyway on a mission of vengeance, taking command of a motley group of vigilantes called the Renatasian Confederation. Although the Confederation was comprised of survivors from all over Renatasia, the now-Fleet Admiral Shanga was joined by several close friends from his early military days in Mathilde's service, including Colonel Kenow and Bern Nuladeg. Although the Empire was too large and powerful to make a meaningful strike against, the Confederation had a more manageable target to focus on: Vuffi Raa, whom they blamed for betraying Renatasia and whom they named the "Butcher of Renatasia." Over the coming years, Shanga's group hunted the galaxy for leads on Raa, traveling in an assortment of obsolete starfighters.

By 3 BBY, the Confederation's search led it to the prosperous Oseon system, where Raa had traveled as a crewman on the freighter Millennium Falcon. Shanga led several dozen Renatasians in a long, dull starfighter journey to intercept the Falcon in the Oseon asteroid belt, although he was grief-stricken when his old friend Kenow departed on a reckless solo mission to waylay the Falcon where it was docked on Oseon 6845, only to be killed in hand-to-hand combat by the ship's captain, Lando Calrissian. Shanga already was facing enough problems: the Falcon had arrived in the Oseon during Flamewind, an annual radiation storm that made travel through the system extremely hazardous. Shanga's men lay in wait amidst the asteroids until receiving a transmission that the Falcon had lifted off, en route to Oseon 5792 on a job for Administrator Senior Lob Doluff.

Although the Confederation had greater numbers, the Falcons technological advantage, along with Vuffi Raa's deft piloting, led to the destruction of much of the Renatasian forces—including Shanga himself, only five of the 24 Renatasians who traveled to the Oseon survived their first encounter. Shanga rallied the remaining survivors to attack the Falcon again as it departed Oseon 5792, but they were again easily defeated and Shanga was taken prisoner. Having been rendered unconscious during the fighting, Shanga awoke to a curious Vuffi Raa and Calrissian, who knew nothing of why the Renatasians had been hounding them. Shanga immediately attacked Raa and damaged his foe, but Calrissian managed to subdue him again by injecting him with a sedative. His captors interrogated him after he revived, revealing to Shanga that Raa was actually a droid programmed against aggression, and claiming that it was his companion Whett who had truly sold out Renatasia to the Empire. Although Shanga did not make any promises that he would not come after Raa again someday, he went peacefully as Calrissian and Raa dropped him unharmed at the nearest star system.

Although his sworn enemy had shown Shanga mercy, the Fleet Admiral refused to turn away from his mission of revenge. Shanga reformed what remained of the Renatasian Confederation for one last offensive, and acquired significant backup—Shanga created a delicate partnership with Rokur Gepta, a violently insane Sorcerer of Tund who had his own grudge against Calrissian. By this point, Shanga's men numbered just 23, with only Bern Nuladeg remaining from those who had known him before Renatasia's fall. Still not fully believing Vuffi Raa was a droid, Shanga agreed to work together with Gepta to trap the Millennium Falcon within the ThonBoka, an isolated nebula where the ship had traveled to help defend the obscure Oswaft species from an Imperial blockade. As the Renatasians had never independently developed a method for hyperspace travel, they found themselves dependent on Gepta, who transported them and their fighters to the ThonBoka aboard his flagship Wennis.

Although Shanga and his men earned Gepta's ire by leaving the Tund system to strike out for the ThonBoka first, Shanga had no fear of the powerful Force-user, who still needed Shanga's men to navigate a perilous situation in the ThonBoka—the Empire was in the midst of besieging the nebula's inhabitants, an obscure space-dwelling race known as the Oswaft. Shanga faced more trouble along the way when his old friend Nuladeg was imprisoned aboard the Wennis after attempting to steal a pinnace and make a solo run to the ThonBoka. Although Gepta wanted Nuladeg executed, Shanga managed to get the Sorcerer to return him to Shanga's custody after they arrived at the ThonBoka, using the apparently formidable powers of the Oswaft—learned from one of Gepta's aides, Osuno Whett, whom Shanga did not recognize—as leverage. Shanga and his 23 men, Nuladeg included, alighted upon the ThonBoka in the midst of an Imperial siege turning ever more violent, but ignored the wider battle as Vuffi Raa was their only goal.

However the Renatasians' second encounter with the Millennium Falcon went much like the first: the freighter's guns ravaged the Renatasian fighters, who were at a severe technological disadvantage. Shanga's squadron was dwindling severely when Gepta's Wennis arrived on the battlefield. Refusing to allow Shanga's men to get in the way of his revenge on Calrissian, Gepta ordered his men to fire on any Renatasians too close to the Falcon, and Shanga watched in horror as his old friend Nuladeg was killed. Shanga was rendered a helpless onlooker to Gepta and Calrissian's final confrontation, but his observation of their battle caused him to have an epiphany—finally recalling Osuno Whett from his visit to Renatasia, Shanga realized that Whett was the true "Butcher" they had been searching for. Shanga ordered all of his remaining men to attack the pinnace carrying Whett, causing the vessel to crash into the Wennis and resulting in a massive explosion that allowed Calrissian to kill a distracted Gepta. Shanga and a few of his Renatasians survived the chaos of the remaining battle, even sharing a game of sabacc with Calrissian and Vuffi Raa afterward.

Klyn Shanga had an easy, amiable manner to his friends and comrades, with a love for adventure and a lifetime of experience. On the outside, he projected a casual, almost flippant attitude towards those supposed to be his superiors, which Rokur Gepta interpreted as a vexing lack of respect. Inside, however the fires of vengeance burned in his heart—by 3 BBY Klyn Shanga had eliminated all other distractions, all other wants and desires, except for his mission to destroy the "Butcher of Renatasia." Although he undertook his mission to avenge his home, he thought little of it or of the family he left behind, seeing little point as he thought himself highly unlikely to ever see them again. However, despite his best efforts he was constantly weighted down by grief at lost friends and loved ones, a grief that never got easier to bear. That grief was buffeted by explosive rage at Vuffi Raa, that ignited in a moment when Shanga encountered the droid in person.

In the latter days of Shanga's singleminded quest for revenge, Shanga started to think bigger—where once he had cared only for Raa's demise, he found himself desiring a greater revenge against all parties who had once contributed to Renatasia's demise. However, even Shanga balked somewhat at partnering with Rokur Gepta, fearing that in the Sorcerer's hands his men could be used for some surpassingly evil purpose. Waxing that his years as a farmer had made him too philosophical to ever again be a good soldier, he began to believe that there was no great purpose in death, even though he himself had no fear of it. Shanga was a skilled pilot and formidable hand-to-hand combatant, and many years of warfare had taken its toll by 3 BBY—his face was so heavily scarred that it appeared little of the original flesh remained.

Klyn Shanga first appeared in Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, written by L. Neil Smith and released in 1983.

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