Mammon Hoole

Mammon Hoole was born on Sh'shuun, a jungle-covered planet located in the Unknown Regions, when the Galactic Republic was still the ruling government of the galaxy. He belonged to the Shi'ido, a species of long-lived humanoids that had the uncanny ability to change shape at will. He had at least one sibling, Moloch, who later married a Human female from Alderaan named Beryl. Because the Shi'ido believed all their relatives were part of their close family, Hoole went on to accept his new Alderaanian kinsmen as if they were one of his own.

During his school time on his homeworld, Hoole stood out as a serious and excellent student. Eventually, he left Sh'shuun and embarked on a scientific career. He attended the Chandrilan Academy of Sciences, where he befriended a fellow Shi'ido named Borborygmus Gog. The two shared a great enthusiasm and a sense of ambition in their research, and they ended up graduating together. After the academy, the two changelings parted ways for some time. While Gog went on to infiltrate the secretive cloners who dwelled on the planets Khomm and Kamino, Hoole decided to study among the famous geneticists of Ithor and Lur.

By his own admission, Hoole regarded himself as a brilliant mind, and he craved for fame in the field of genetics; he was no longer satisfied with mere cloning ventures and wished to tamper with the creation of life itself. It was Hoole's scientific pride that ultimately led him to a four-year period of his life he would later regret.

In the fifth month of the year 22 BBY, a war erupted between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a separatist union led by a former Jedi Master, the Count Dooku of Serenno. Since the ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic were made of clone troopers grown on Kamino, the conflict was referred to as the Clone Wars. Around 20 BBY, the Confederacy had started using clone-killing bioweapons. In response, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Republic, set up a new research project in which Mammon Hoole and his former colleague Borborygmus Gog got reunited.

Under the watchful eye of Sly Moore, Palpatine's Umbaran aide, the two Shi'ido were initially tasked with helping the Republic's Ministry of Science develop countermeasures to the Confederacy's attacks. However, their unique discoveries quickly aroused the interest of the Chancellor in person. At the latter's request, Hoole and Gog were committed to conducting experiments in abiogenesis, the spontaneous generation of life, and not the mere replication of it. Moore provided the scientists with a subject for their experiments, a submissive Human female from Bordal named Niobi.

The challenge of creating life was so exciting and ambitious that Hoole and his colleague remained unconcerned about the moral and ethical considerations. However, their initial experiments went wrong, resulting in the birth of multi-headed homunculi with deformed limbs. Ultimately, Hoole and Gog eliminated most abnormalities and produced a single viable specimen. The child, however, was still a mutant and bore a third eye on the forehead, which earned him the name of Trioculus. Almost immediately, the newborn child and his mother were spirited away by order of Sarcev Quest, one of Palpatine's protégés. In their pride, the Shi'ido scientists blamed their failure on Niobi and started using themselves as test subjects for further experiments. They even dared to cross their Shi'ido genes with those of a Clawdite, another species of changeling from the planet Zolan, which enhanced their natural shapechanging skills to an unprecedented level.

Following the slaughter of the Confederacy leaders in 19 BBY, the Clone Wars ended, having left very deep wounds all over the galaxy. Palpatine, who was in fact a powerful Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious, destroyed the Republic from within and replaced it with his authoritarian Galactic Empire. Hoole and Gog were finished with what they considered "basic" experiments and found themselves in need of a larger laboratory. The newly-anointed Galactic Emperor then offered them a huge private laboratory on the world of Kiva, where they could explore the secrets of life in death more freely. At the time, Hoole did not suspect how evil the Emperor was—nor did most of the galactic community—and he was too thrilled about the new possibilities to get bogged down in political ethics, which is why he accepted Palpatine's gift. In their laboratory, the geneticists understood that they needed to gather a vast amount of power to create life out of the thin air. In order to achieve that, they built massive generators that could concentrate an entire star's energy into a very small test tube. Unbeknownst to Hoole, the whole process would inevitably lead would to the destruction of all life on Kiva. While Gog was supposed to make sure the experiments stayed within safe limits, he lied to Hoole and convinced him they would cause no harm. However, the Shi'ido lost control of their experiments and, instead of producing life as expected, they released a burst of energy that wiped out every living organism on Kiva and leaving its inhabitants as disembodied wraiths. Hoole did attempt to broadcast a warning message, the deadly energy wave disrupted the transmission before it could reach the Kivans. Only Hoole and Gog managed to escape the disaster in extremis.

Because of the accident that killed millions of Kivans, Hoole experienced a shocking moral awakening. Although Gog was clearly responsible for what had happened on Kiva, Hoole was too proud to lay the blame on anyone else than himself, considering that he should have detected his partner's duplicity. Disgusted with his life and with the Empire, he decided to leave the Emperor's service for good, after four years of dangerous experiments. Gog, however, remained with the Empire and implemented Project Starscream, which was aimed at creating an army of supersoldiers. The Imperials placed the blame for the Kivan genocide on Hoole, thus purposely destroying his reputation and protecting Gog at the same time. While the latter's responsibility for the massacre was erased of all the records, the Empire spread the word that a Shi'ido named Mammon had exterminated out an entire civilization. Haunted by the horrors that had taken place back on Kiva, Hoole was forced into exile. In an attempt to bury his past, he also decided to forsake his first name, which had become that of a planet-killer condemned by everyone in the galaxy, even the Emperor.

Around 16 BBY, Hoole had started a new life and enrolled at the Galactic Research Academy on Koaan. At the end of his period of formation, he became a professor of anthropology, dedicating himself to recording the customs and mores of many species across the Known Universe. Now bearing the title of Senior Anthropologist, Hoole simply wandered the galaxy for some time, using his species' uncanny shape-changing abilities to infiltrate several alien cultures. He notably visited the sun-scorched planet Tatooine, where he studied the Jawa and Ghorfa societies. During his stay there, Hoole got accepted into the Nkik clan of Jawas by posing as one of its members, and he even took temporary residence in the palace of the local crime lord Jabba the Hutt. A detailed account of his Tatooinian sojourn was published under the name of "(Indeterminate) Hoole."

During most of his years as an anthropologist, Hoole usually worked alone, or with his custom made research assistant, DV-9. Only when studying species that he could not mimic did he take on an assistant. Sadly, some of these assistants were eaten by Arachnors on Arzid. One such assistant to meet this fate was Chlar Kotchmin.

In 0 BBY, the Imperial Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin chose to demonstrate the full power of the Death Star, a brand new moon-sized battlestation equipped with a planet-killing superlaser, on Alderaan, homeworld of his sister-in-law Beryl and her relatives, the couple Kalf and Milessa Arranda. Their two children, Tash and Zak Arranda, had been on a field trip off-planet when the Death Star's superlaser hit the surface of Alderaan, and had become orphans. Being their closest relative alive, Hoole became their caregiver. He kept the children on his starship, the Lightrunner, where he and DV-9 taught them as Hoole attended to different parts of the galaxy for his studies. He continued his work until the trio angered key representatives of the Empire by meddling in the affairs of Borborygmus Gog's Project Starscream, and a bounty was put on their heads. Unable to continue their research, the three settled into a home in an undisclosed location, possibly New Alderaan.

At his home-based laboratory, Hoole began compiling the notes and data he had collected into a book. With the threat of Imperial discovery easing, Tash and Zak went off to college. When the data was compiled, Hoole sent it to professional writer Ann Margaret Lewis who, after completing the text, sent it to a publisher on Coruscant. Realizing the importance of such a book, the publisher immediately published it, and the reference book, entitled The Essential Guide to Alien Species, became available on most planets.

When interacting with his adopted niece and nephew, Hoole would often assume a very Human-looking shape with a few distinctively alien features such as extra-long fingers and dark gray skin. Most of the time, Hoole could hide his feelings, keeping a stern and unreadable face. When angered, his gaze was sharp and cold.

Even for a Shi'ido, Mammon Hoole was a particularly skilled shapeshifter. Legends even told of him taking on the shape of a Whaladon once.

Mammon Hoole was first mentioned in the 1995 reference book The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, in which he was used as the in-universe author of the Tatooine chapter. In that book, he was formally referred to as "(Indeterminate) Hoole." His character was expanded upon in Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear, a series of young readers novels of the teen-horror genre written by John Whitman, which starred the Shi'ido scientist and his young wards. In 2001 and 2006 respectively, Hoole was used once again as the in-universe narrator in both editions of The Essential Guide to Alien Species. In 2009, author Adrick Tolliver reused Hoole and his wards in Death in the Slave Pits of Lorrd, a piece of short fiction that appeared on StarWars.com. The story took the form of an essay written by Tash Arranda and edited by DV-9, featuring hand-made drawings by Pablo Hidalgo.

In Army of Terror, the sixth book in the series, Hoole revealed that he had started working for the Empire "almost twenty years ago" from current time. According to The Essential Reader's Companion, the Galaxy of Fear series took place between 6 and 18 months after the Battle of Yavin, which occurred in 0 BBY. This placed the beginning of Hoole's work with the Empire around 20 BBY. However, the 2005 movie Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith showed that the Empire was not founded until 19 BBY, one year later. In Aliens in the Empire, an online supplement to the 96th and 97th issues of the Star Wars Insider magazine, author Abel G. Peña retconned Hoole's early activities as taking place during Palpatine's last mandate as Chancellor of the Republic.

Mammon is a biblical term describing love of riches, often personified as a deity. In Paradise Lost, the 17th-century English poet John Milton used Mammon as one of the fallen angels in hell, along with Belial and Moloch. Those demonic names have been used in the EU as Shi'ido names.

• The Illustrated Star Wars Universe
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• "The University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life: The Marvel Series" — Star Wars Gamer 1
• The Essential Guide to Alien Species
• The Official Star Wars Fact File63
• The New Essential Guide to Alien Species
• Aliens in the Empire, Part 1: Hierarchy of Power on Hyperspace
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Reader's Companion