Quarg

A Human male, Quarg grew up on the watery Outer Rim planet Drexel during the dying years of the Galactic Republic. Quarg's father was, for a time, a Republic official, serving as Governor of the Korteen asteroid belt. Quarg's father leveraged his position into personal profit, using his status as Governor to cover up his citizens' engaging in space-wrecking: the people of the Korteen belt would use sonic jammers to send passing ships careening into asteroids, where they would be stripped of their cargo. Quarg's father got a cut of every wreck, a business that gradually grew in profit.

Eventually, Quarg's father began bankrolling development of new, more powerful jammers, requiring an influx of special equipment and technicians that caught the notice of the Republic and the Jedi. When the heat inevitably came down, Quarg's father and several followers managed to escape to Drexel, where they built a city-ship around the wreckage of their laser-blasted craft. Quarg came of age aboard this "Great Ship," as the descendants of these fugitives contended for supremacy with a group of people known as the Dragon Lords: mutineers who had been exiled by Quarg's father and had discovered how to control Drexel's massive native sea-dragons. Quarg became the new "Governor" of the Great Ship after his father's death, dedicating his time to waging war on the Dragon Lords, while also continuing his father's business of wrecking passing ships, albeit on a smaller scale. After the Great Ship's sonic jammer brought down a ship from orbit, Quarg would dispatch men on hydra craft known as "skimmers" to strip them of anything valuable.

In 0 ABY, Quarg's scheme yielded him a new catch: a scout ship that had the misfortune of entering the skies over Drexel. Quarg dispatched three skimmers to the scene—they returned two vehicles down after an encounter with dragon lords, but with some even more valuable prizes in tow. Quarg's men had with them two droids, so rare on Drexel that most were not aware of their existence, and a young man wielding a lightsaber, whom they believed to be a Jedi. Although Quarg immediately called for the survivors to be hanged after finding that they had lost two skimmers, the governor's mood lightened after looking upon the catch. Quarg brought the prisoners within the ship, where he learned their identities: the "Jedi" was a young Rebel named Luke Skywalker, while his mechanical companions were the astromech droid R2-D2 and C-3PO.

Quarg's policy was to immediately execute all offworlders, but decided to waive the rule after Skywalker displayed what his droids could do. Skywalker set R2-D2 to work on the ship's crumbling skimmers, and Quarg was astonished by the droid's repair abilities, which far outpaced his Master Machinesmith. After R2-D2 finished his work on a skimmer, Quarg sent Skywalker out to test the craft, threatening him with execution if the skimmer did not work to his expectations. There, Skywalker was attacked by the Master Machinesmith, who felt threatened by Skywalker's droids. Skywalker managed to fight the man off, and his efforts to regain control of the hurtling skimmer after the brawl impressed Quarg enough to offer him a place on the ship. As for the Master Machinesmith, Quarg had the man hanged as a warning to the rest of the crew. As a gesture of his good faith, Quarg revealed to Skywalker that it was his men that were responsible for bringing down his ship.

But as fate would have it, a much bigger catch soon appeared in the skies over Drexel: a massive pirate battlecruiser that Quarg believed would provide them with enough metal salvage to last a lifetime. Although Quarg's technicians expressed doubt that the Great Ship's sonic jammer was powerful enough to bring down such a monstrous ship, Quarg ordered them to proceed. Despite their warning, Quarg quickly lost his patience when the jammer struggled to bring down the cruiser, accusing the technicians of being in league with the Dragon Lords. His fury was interrupted by a report from his lookouts: a massive Dragon Lord army had been sighted on the horizon, ready to attack. Believing that the Dragon Lords were after the cruiser, Quarg launched every skimmer he had and dispatched Skywalker to command a gunship, promising to dismantle his droids if he failed him. The ensuing battle was shocking in its brutality—the sea-dragons seemed frenzied, rampaging forward with abandon and tearing through Quarg's skimmers. Although Quarg's lieutenants advised that he flee the battle, Quarg's sights were still firmly set on the cruiser above, and the governor refused to shut down the sonic jammer in order to set sail.

In the midst of the battle, however, Quarg saw opportunity. Another ship, a freighter known as the Millennium Falcon—which had been conveyed to Drexel by the battlecruiser in orbit—crashed into the Drexel ocean during the fighting, and the grounded vessel was brought back to the Great Ship. As chance would have it, several of Skywalker's Rebel friends had been aboard, and Quarg learned that Skywalker had abandoned the attack to attempt to save them—despite this betrayal, Quarg still had use for the young man. With the sonic jammer still lacking the power to bring the orbiting cruiser down, Quarg immediately ordered Skywalker to link the Millennium Falcons engines with those of the Great Ship, expecting that to provide the extra boost the jammer needed. This time, Quarg had something he was sure would ensure his compliance: Skywalker's friend Leia Organa, whom had been discovered aboard the Falcon and taken as a hostage. Another captive, the imposing Wookiee Chewbacca, was rendered unconscious and kept prisoner in the ship's hold.

Quarg's captivity of the feisty Organa didn't last long. At her first opportunity, Organa attacked Quarg and attempted to escape, aided by Chewbacca, who suddenly awoke and burst through the wall to attack Quarg and his guards. Quarg managed to evade Chewbacca's attacks and chased Organa up to the ship's yardarm, cornering her high above the Drexel waves. Quarg planned to hang Organa for her insolence, but was interrupted by Skywalker, who swung in from the ship's mast on a rope. Quarg's hasty shot at the youth missed, and Skywalker caught Quarg square in the chest with a kick, sending the Governor to a watery grave.

A ruthless man, the corpulent and truculent Governor Quarg had no care for the men who served below him, caring only about the health of his skimmers, his war with the Dragon Lords, and his wrecking scheme. According to Luke Skywalker, the malice in Quarg's heart was similar to what he found in the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Quarg believed that the quickest and most effective way to send a message was with a hanging, and was apt to call for executions at the slightest provocations. However, Quarg could always be counted on to act in his own self-interest, and could be convinced to change his mind and go against his rules if it could benefit him. For instance, although Quarg originally intended to immediately put Luke Skywalker to death, he was legitimately impressed by the young man's droids—seeing that Skywalker could help him win the war with the Dragon Lords, Quarg decided instead to bring Skywalker into the fold, going so far as to hang the previous Master Machinesmith after he attacked his new crewman.

Quarg's direction in life was set by his father, the previous leader of the ship-dwellers, who brought the family to Drexel and passed on leadership of the group to his son. Although Quarg thought his father a fool, he pursued his ship-wrecking scheme with great enthusiasm, while continuing his father's war against the Dragon Lords with single-minded fury. When Quarg had his eyes on a ship to wreck, it became his only priority: he accepted no excuses for failure, and even went so far as accusing subordinates of treason when his sonic jammer did not work fast enough. And if the prize was big enough, Quarg was more than willing to sacrifice the lives of his men to ensure he got his hands on it. Quarg had brown hair, brown eyes and light skin.

The character of Governor Quarg first appeared in Star Wars (1977) 12, written by Archie Goodwin and released in 1978. Quarg appeared as a primary antagonist in the next two issues of the Marvel Star Wars series, before meeting his end in Star Wars (1977) 14. Although Quarg is thrown overboard at the end of Star Wars 14, his death was not explicitly confirmed until 2008, in his entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. During his appearances in the Marvel comics, Quarg was illustrated by Carmine Infantino.

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia