Klyn Shanga

A [world](/article/planet-legends] isolated and known as Renatasia III was the birthplace of Klyn Shanga. It was the site of an ancient Human colony that had lost track of its past. By the time Shanga was alive, the colony had just begun to explore the outer reaches of its system. Shanga's home territory, Mathilde, was often embroiled in conflicts with neighboring city-states, leading Shanga to participate in warfare from a young age. He distinguished himself, notably in the Battle of the Rood, earning recognition as a fighter pilot before retiring from active duty. The wars of Shanga's early years eventually gave way to decades of peace, during which he worked as a farmer and raised a family. These tranquil years came to an end in 13 BBY, when Renatasia was rediscovered by a passing trader, who spread the word of the colony's existence throughout the wider galaxy. Shortly thereafter, Shanga's homeworld was visited by two offworlders: a starfish-like alien named Vuffi Raa and his humanoid assistant, Osuno Whett. Raa and Whett were celebrated in the months that followed, during which they assisted Renatasia in forming a unified world government. This period was cut short when the Imperial fleet invaded 701 days after Raa's arrival. The Empire's brutal pacification efforts resulted in the deaths of two-thirds of Renatasia's population, with Shanga being one of the few to survive.

The survivors of Renatasia were left with little choice but to retaliate against the forces that had devastated their home. Despite the fact that Shanga, unlike many of his people, still had family alive on Renatasia, he chose to leave them behind to pursue vengeance. He assumed command of a diverse group of vigilantes known as the Renatasian Confederation. Although the Confederation consisted of survivors from all over Renatasia, Shanga, now a Fleet Admiral, was joined by several close friends from his early military service in Mathilde, including Colonel Kenow and Bern Nuladeg. Recognizing that the Empire was too vast and powerful to directly confront, the Confederation focused on a more attainable target: Vuffi Raa, whom they accused of betraying Renatasia and labeled the "Butcher of Renatasia." In the years that followed, Shanga's group scoured the galaxy for leads on Raa, traveling in a variety of outdated starfighters.

By 3 BBY, the Confederation's search led them to the thriving Oseon system, where Raa was working as a crewman on the freighter Millennium Falcon. Shanga led several dozen Renatasians on a long, tedious starfighter journey to intercept the Falcon in the Oseon asteroid belt. He was devastated when his old friend Kenow embarked on a reckless solo mission to ambush the Falcon while it was docked on Oseon 6845, only to be killed in hand-to-hand combat by the ship's captain, Lando Calrissian. Shanga was already facing significant challenges: the Falcon had arrived in the Oseon during Flamewind, an annual radiation storm that made travel through the system extremely dangerous. Shanga's men waited among the asteroids until they received a transmission that the Falcon had taken off, heading to Oseon 5792 on a job for Administrator Senior Lob Doluff.

Despite the Confederation's numerical advantage, the Falcon's superior technology, combined with Vuffi Raa's skillful piloting, led to the destruction of a significant portion of the Renatasian forces. Shanga himself was among the casualties, with only five of the 24 Renatasians who traveled to the Oseon surviving their initial encounter. Shanga rallied the remaining survivors to attack the Falcon again as it departed Oseon 5792, but they were once again easily defeated, and Shanga was taken prisoner. After being rendered unconscious during the fighting, Shanga awoke to find a curious Vuffi Raa and Calrissian, who were unaware of the Renatasians' motives for pursuing them. Shanga immediately attacked Raa, causing damage to his foe, but Calrissian managed to subdue him again by injecting him with a sedative. After he regained consciousness, his captors interrogated him, revealing that Raa was actually a droid programmed against aggression. They claimed that it was his companion Whett who had truly betrayed Renatasia to the Empire. Although Shanga made no promises that he would not pursue Raa again in the future, he peacefully accepted Calrissian and Raa's decision to drop him off unharmed at the nearest star system.

Despite the fact that his sworn enemy had shown him mercy, the Fleet Admiral refused to abandon his mission of revenge. Shanga rebuilt the remnants of the Renatasian Confederation for one final offensive, securing significant support. He forged a precarious alliance with Rokur Gepta, a violently insane Sorcerer of Tund who harbored his own grudge against Calrissian. By this point, Shanga's forces numbered only 23, with Bern Nuladeg being the sole survivor from those who had known him before Renatasia's downfall. Still not entirely convinced that Vuffi Raa was a droid, Shanga agreed to collaborate with Gepta to trap the Millennium Falcon within the ThonBoka, an isolated nebula where the ship had traveled to assist in defending the obscure Oswaft species from an Imperial blockade. As the Renatasians had never independently developed a method for hyperspace travel, they were reliant on Gepta, who transported them and their fighters to the ThonBoka aboard his flagship Wennis.

Although Shanga and his men provoked Gepta's anger by departing the Tund system to strike out for the ThonBoka first, Shanga was not afraid of the powerful Force user. Gepta still needed Shanga's men to navigate a perilous situation in the ThonBoka. The Empire was in the process of besieging the nebula's inhabitants, an obscure space-dwelling race known as the Oswaft. Shanga encountered further difficulties 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 persuade the Sorcerer to return him to Shanga's custody after they arrived at the ThonBoka, using the apparently formidable powers of the Oswaft, which he learned from one of Gepta's aides, Osuno Whett, whom Shanga did not recognize, as leverage. Shanga and his 23 men, including Nuladeg, landed on the ThonBoka amidst an increasingly violent Imperial siege, but they ignored the larger battle as Vuffi Raa was their only objective.

However, the Renatasians' second encounter with the Millennium Falcon unfolded much like the first. The freighter's guns devastated the Renatasian fighters, who were at a significant technological disadvantage. Shanga's squadron was rapidly dwindling when Gepta's Wennis arrived on the battlefield. Refusing to allow Shanga's men to interfere with his revenge on Calrissian, Gepta ordered his men to fire on any Renatasians who were too close to the Falcon, and Shanga watched in horror as his old friend Nuladeg was killed. Shanga was reduced to a helpless observer during Gepta and Calrissian's final confrontation, but his observation of their battle led him to a sudden realization. Finally recalling Osuno Whett from his visit to Renatasia, Shanga understood 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 triggering 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 possessed a friendly and approachable demeanor towards his friends and comrades, coupled with a passion for adventure and a wealth of experience. Outwardly, he displayed a casual, almost dismissive attitude towards those in positions of authority, which Rokur Gepta interpreted as a frustrating lack of respect. However, beneath the surface, the desire for vengeance burned intensely within him. By 3 BBY, Klyn Shanga had eliminated all other distractions, wants, and desires, focusing solely on his mission to destroy the "Butcher of Renatasia." Although he embarked on his mission to avenge his home, he gave little thought to it or the family he left behind, believing it unlikely that he would ever see them again. Despite his best efforts, he was constantly burdened by grief over lost friends and loved ones, a grief that never diminished. This grief was amplified by explosive rage towards Vuffi Raa, which ignited the moment Shanga encountered the droid in person.

In the later stages of Shanga's single-minded quest for revenge, his perspective began to broaden. Initially, he had only cared about Raa's demise, but he gradually developed a desire for greater retribution against all parties who had contributed to Renatasia's downfall. However, even Shanga hesitated at the prospect of partnering with Rokur Gepta, fearing that his men could be exploited for some exceedingly evil purpose in the Sorcerer's hands. Reflecting that his years as a farmer had made him too philosophical to ever be a good soldier again, he began to believe that death held no great purpose, even though he himself had no fear of it. Shanga was a skilled pilot and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. The years of warfare had taken a toll on him by 3 BBY, leaving his face so heavily scarred that little of the original flesh remained.

Klyn Shanga made his debut in Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, penned by L. Neil Smith and published in 1983.