Noval Garaint

Noval Garaint was a Human who trained as a bounty hunter with the Ragnar Syndicate. Garaint partnered with the Taloron Crutag. On one mission in pursuit of a Rebel operative, Garaint accepted a significant bribe from the Rebel to release him. This corruption was witnessed by Crutag, who attempted to detain him. Garaint, however, proved too difficult for the Taloron, and wounded his former partner before escaping. Garaint swiftly reported the incident to the Ragnar Syndicate, making out that Crutag had initiated the attack. Following this incident, Crutag left the Syndicate, choosing to become an independent hunter, although carrying a significant grudge against Garaint.

Garaint was still an up-and-coming bounty hunter by the time of the Galactic Empire's invasion of Kheedar. The invasion was in response to a series of Rebel attacks against hydrocarbon processing facilities within the Outer Rim Territories, resulting in the destruction of six such facilities—in an effort to protect its resources and facilities, the Empire chose to occupy the planet.

Concurrent with the invasion of Kheedar, Noval Garaint was traveling to the planet with a number of prisoners whom he intended to sell to the local crime lord named Horch. However, Garaint arrived on the surface of Kheedar just as the Imperial attack, which was being led by the Victory-class Star Destroyer Pestage, began. Garaint watched on various holovids as the Imperials broadcast their attack on the planet, which included the palace belonging to Horch, whom Garaint had been on his way to see. At that moment, using the battle's confusion as a distraction, Garaint's prisoners attempted to escape back to their ship, which Garaint had brought with him to Kheedar. Realizing that a power vacuum was developing on the planet, and thus understanding that he would not be able to collect his reward for the prisoners, Garaint allowed them to reach their ship, content with knowing that he had rigged a thermal detonator to the ship's main drive, thus ensuring that those who had run would not escape alive.

Following this event, Garaint went to Horch's palace and, arriving ahead of the Imperials, he fought his way through the large number of henchmen that Horch had in place to defend himself. After dealing with the guards, Garaint was able to capture Horch just as the Imperials arrived. The Imperial officer in charge of the attack, however, could not believe that a single man had been the source of all of the dead bodies that littered the ground. Nonetheless, when Garaint produced his bounty hunter license, and showed that Horch had been apprehended, the Imperials moved on to their next designated objective.

Following the capture of Horch and the death of his henchmen, Garaint established himself as the new leader of the criminal empire, and began actively recruiting other bounty hunters and mercenaries into the fold. During this time, Garaint still continued his career as a bounty hunter, and used his skills and talents to build networks for his expanding criminal syndicate.

While Garaint consolidated his power base, Horch fell from grace and had become addicted to spice liquor—nonetheless, Garaint decided to keep Horch alive and use him as a figurehead for the criminal organization. Garaint made this decision because he did not want it publicly known that he was in charge, and also to help preserve his identity, which was a closely guarded secret. With Horch firmly in place as his puppet, Garaint was able to hold huge courts, similar to those of Jabba the Hutt, and gather much information through those who came to pay respect to the criminal empire—few of those people could have guessed that it was actually Garaint, who was acting as Horch's bodyguard, that was in charge of everything they saw.

Garaint controlled everything that Horch did, even right down to the temper-tantrums that the being threw every now and then—everything, Garaint reasoned, working to further his ends of both false impressions and furthering his own power. Throughout this time, Garaint became very adept at fostering the illusion of Horch being a strong and confident leader, while he continued to strengthen his base of power.

Under the leadership of Garaint, the criminal empire experienced a period of rapid growth in both strength and efficiency, while becoming a much more focused organization. At the behest of Garaint, his syndicate expanded its influence into many diverse fields: slavery, enforcement, security, black market work, as well as numerous military operations. During this time, it was rumored that the master thief known as "Tombat" managed to infiltrate Garaint's crime empire, and discovered that he had reprogrammed and rebuilt a large number of F1 Exploration Droids to act as heavily-armed bodyguards. Due to this and other factors, Garaint's control as a crime lord was able to foster improved relations with the Empire, which often harassed such criminal operations. Understanding that the Empire would leave him and his work alone if he went about it the right way, Garaint orchestrated his dealings to be as discreet as possible, and was not averse to fostering corruption among the Empire's ranks. Garaint realized that by being accommodating with the galactic rulers, his own work would be allowed to grow, thus making him extremely rich, powerful, and not the least of all, dangerous.

Noval Garaint was known to have been a tall and athletic Human, who was rather good looking. However, for reasons unknown, he made the decision early on to live his public life completely encased inside his Krail 210 Personal Armor. Throughout his career as a bounty hunter, and also as a crime lord, Garaint was always cunning, heartless, and he thrived on being vicious to all those who got in his way. Likewise, Garaint did not view violence as something that he enjoyed—rather, it was a way of life for him, and one that had worked well throughout his life. He had no qualms with accepting bribes from his quarry in exchange for letting them escape, nor with turning on a partner to gain an advantage.

Garaint utilized a modified set of Krail 210 Personal Armor, which he was never seen outside of. The armor set featured a fully integrated sensor pack and a stress-reinforced blast helmet, power suit boosters, retractable blades coming out of the wrists, and a line slinger with an attached magnetic grappling hook and winch. Garaint also wore an Arakyd Whisper jetpack on his back. Garaint's arsenal included a blaster rifle, a blaster pistol, a hold-out blaster, grenades, smoke grenades, and thermal flares. He also carried medpacs on his person at all times.

The character and story of Noval Garaint was created by authors Simon Smith and Eric S. Trautmann for the West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim, published in May of 1993. The two pictures of Garaint that appear throughout Fragments from the Rim were drawn by artist Mike Vilardi. Following this, Garaint was referenced in three other West End Games products.

Five years after the release of Fragments from the Rim, in February of 1998, the character of Noval Garaint was provided an appearance in the computer strategy game Star Wars: Rebellion. In the game, the player could use Garaint for a wide variety of missions ranging from abduction of enemy characters, to the assassination of Rebels, to the sabotage of enemy facilities. Alternatively, throughout a player's campaign, all minor characters have a chance (chosen randomly by the game engine) to become Force-sensitive and thus trained by either Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. If Noval Garaint is selected to be Force-sensitive, then his character could be trained in the ways of the Force by Vader. Garaint's Force-sensitivity, however, is non-canonical as it is decided purely by chance, and should not be confused with canon.

Garaint was again drawn by artist Mike Vilardi in Rogues Gallery:Bounty Hunters (Star Wars Gamer 6), though as an anonymous appearance.

• Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim
• Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters
• Classic Adventures: Volume Two
• Cynabar's Fantastic Technology: Droids
• Star Wars: Rebellion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
• "Rogues Gallery: Bounty Hunters" — Star Wars Gamer 6
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia