Mulchive Wermis

During the Galactic Civil War, a conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Mulchive Wermis, a male Human, served the Empire. Despite his cowardly nature and general incompetence, Wermis climbed the ranks of the Imperial Navy. By the year 0 BBY, he had replaced an officer named Pychor to become the captain of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator, the flagship of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.

In that same year, 0 BBY, Wermis was in command when the Devastator intercepted the CR90 corvette Tantive IV near Toprawa, a diplomatic vessel from Alderaan. The Devastator pursued the Tantive IV to Tatooine and disabled it. Stormtroopers, led by Vader, boarded the ship to find the plans for the Death Star battle station, which they believed were being transported to the Rebel Alliance. Although they failed to find the plans, they captured princess Leia Organa, an Alderaanian diplomat suspected of aiding the Alliance. Subsequently, the Devastator dispatched Stormtroopers to Tatooine to search for the plans, theorizing they might have been jettisoned in escape pods from the Tantive IV. While orbiting Tatooine, the Devastator was attacked by Blue Squadron, a squadron of Rebel fighters based in Anchorhead. The Rebels intercepted a group of TIE/LN starfighters, destroyed the Star Destroyer's cannons and deflector shield generators, and damaged its bridge.

Following the events above Tatooine, the Devastator journeyed to the Death Star. Captain Wermis informed Vader of their arrival, prompting Vader to summon Princess Leia to witness the battle station before docking. Shortly after, the Rebel Alliance successfully destroyed the Death Star above Yavin Prime, utilizing the plans obtained by the Tantive IV. As a result, the Galactic Emperor Palpatine reassigned the Devastator from Vader to a young colonel named Kell Bircher, who became its new captain.

However, later that year, Bircher was exposed as a Rebel spy who had infiltrated the Empire's databases. Wermis, having regained his captaincy, accompanied Vader on a mission to Ultaar in search of a Rebel information outpost. While en route to Ultaar, Vader sensed a presence in the Force and instructed Wermis to investigate the coordinates associated with it. Wermis assigned this task to a team of technicians, while Vader traveled to Ultaar with a contingent of Stormtroopers. On the surface, Vader discovered that the outpost had been destroyed by Beilert Valance, a cyborg bounty hunter searching for Luke Skywalker and his companions. Before departing Ultaar, Vader received a message from Wermis reporting that nothing was found at the specified coordinates and dismissing the search as a waste of time. Vader reprimanded Wermis, emphasizing the importance of tracking down other Force users, and ordered him to identify the closest location a starship could have reached from those coordinates. Wermis then informed Vader that the Wheel space station was the nearest location and set course accordingly. Vader compelled Wermis to push the star Destroyer to its limits to reach the Wheel quickly, fearing his target might escape. When Wermis questioned the journey, Vader used a Force choke to demonstrate the power of the Force and dismiss Wermis's doubts. He then forced Wermis to crawl to him and mocked the man's stamina. Upon arriving at the Wheel, Wermis informed Vader and reported transmissions indicating turmoil on the station due to Imperial commander Zertik Strom trapping Rebels there. Instead of announcing their arrival, Vader ordered Wermis to scan the station to locate the Rebels and intercept them if they attempted to flee. As Vader suspected, Strom failed to capture the Rebels and was killed by Simon Greyshade, the Wheel's administrator. Meanwhile, Vader's targets, Luke Skywalker and his companions, attempted to escape in Greyshade's yacht Spoilt Sport and discovered the Devastator awaiting them. Wermis assured Vader that the Rebels would not escape but was thrown to the ground when the Devastator's bridge was struck by fire from the Millennium Falcon, a YT-1300 light freighter piloted by Han Solo, another of Luke's companions. Recognizing the Falcon as the ship that had attacked him at the Battle of Yavin, Vader ordered Wermis to prioritize its destruction. However, before the Devastator could destroy the Falcon, Luke, overwhelmed by anguish, instinctively used the Force, stunning Vader and allowing both targets to escape.

Wermis later witnessed Vader torturing a Rebel prisoner to discover the name of a deserter who might reveal the identity of the Hero of Yavin, the pilot who destroyed the Death Star. The sight made Wermis nauseous, and he asked to leave, earning Vader's mockery. Nevertheless, Vader learned the name Tyler Lucian, a Rebel who had deserted the Great Temple Rebel base before the Battle of Yavin. Vader then ordered Wermis to take him to Centares, the planet to which Tyler had fled, and proceeded alone to track him down. Vader returned without the Hero's name, as Beilert Valance had also tracked down Lucian and fought Vader upon their encounter. Vader killed Valance, but not before the hunter persuaded Lucian to commit suicide rather than give Vader what he wanted. Upon returning to the ship, Vader gave Wermis new coordinates and put the ship on high alert. Vader continued his pursuit of the mystery pilot and eventually learned his name from another Rebel he interrogated after destroying a Rebel refueling station. With the pilot's name finally known, Vader ordered Wermis to rendezvous with the fleet of Baron Ulric Tagge, surprising Wermis due to Vader's previous issues with the house of Tagge, specifically his rivalry with Ulric's brother, Orman Tagge. When Wermis voiced his concerns, Vader instructed him to simply follow orders, which Wermis did. Upon reaching Tagge's fleet, Ulric boarded the Devastator, where Vader questioned him about a recent defeat he and his family had suffered at the hands of Luke Skywalker, in which Ulric believed his brothers Orman and Silas Tagge had been killed. Vader revealed that they had survived but were unconscious and recovering. He then offered Ulric the opportunity to keep his brothers unconscious, thus allowing Ulric to remain Baron, in exchange for his absolute loyalty. Ulric agreed, and after the baron departed, Wermis expressed his surprise at Vader's alliance with Tagge, expecting the Sith Lord to eliminate the Tagge line entirely.

With the Tagges now serving as his pawns, Vader had Wermis take him to Monastery, where Ulric's sister Domina Tagge was a member of the Order of the Sacred Circle. Vader and Domina devised a plan to lure Luke Skywalker to the planet and capture him. Domina traveled to the Rebel base on Yavin, informing the Alliance that the Empire had sent an envoy to persuade the order to side with them. She convinced the Rebels that Luke should accompany her back to Monastery as their own envoy, which he did along with Han Solo, his co-pilot Chewbacca, and princess Leia Organa. Upon their arrival, Vader confronted Luke, revealing himself as the opposing envoy, and instructed Wermis via comm unit to initiate the next phase of the plan. Wermis located the Millennium Falcon orbiting Monastery, still crewed by Solo, Chewbacca, and Organa, and ordered them to prepare for Imperial inspection. After using the Devastator's tractor beam to bring the Falcon aboard, Wermis confronted Solo, who presented forged papers claiming the Imperials had no issues with him. Wermis destroyed the papers, revealing that he knew Solo's true identity due to Vader's careful planning. Wermis then ordered his stormtroopers to search the ship for the princess, believing she was hidden in a spice hold. When the search proved fruitless, Solo offered to leave without a report to avoid Wermis's superiors discovering he had captured the wrong ship, but Wermis refused and had Solo and Chewbacca imprisoned. After leaving the Falcon, Wermis learned that Orman Tagge, who was still being kept on the ship, had fully recovered. Lacking instructions from Vader on how to proceed, Wermis ordered that Orman be kept in his life support capsule. Immediately after giving the order, however, explosions rocked the lower decks of the Devastator, originating from two supply holds. Rushing to the medical bay, he discovered that the explosions had shattered the Tagges' life support capsules and that Orman was missing. One of Wermis's troops suggested that House Tagge agents might be responsible for the explosions, an idea Wermis pretended to have had himself, hoping Vader would accept it and not blame him. Before he could begin the search for Tagge, the Devastator's artificial gravity was deactivated, leaving Wermis floating in the medical bay. Princess Organa was, in fact, behind the sabotages, using a propulsion pack to navigate the ship while the Imperials were unprepared. Amidst the chaos caused by the gravity change, Organa freed Solo and Chewbacca, and the trio escaped Wermis's clutches in the Falcon, with Orman also stowing away on board. Vader's plans on Monastery also failed, with the Rebels escaping and only Orman being killed after he forced Han and Leia to take him to Vader and Luke. With the Rebels gone, Vader returned to the Devastator and had Wermis leave the system soon after.

Sometime after the events at Monastery, Wermis was reassigned from naval duty to a desk job as Administrator of the Wheel. The Wheel had been governed by a council with the assistance of the droid Master-Com since Greyshade's death, but was then seized by the Empire. Upon assuming his position, Wermis shut down the Wheel for two months to repair the damage caused by the Proton grenade Greyshade had used to kill Strom. After reopening, many were hesitant to return due to the Imperial presence, but the allure of gambling attracted enough customers to sustain the station. All profits from the Wheel during this period were transferred to the Empire, except for those Wermis secretly kept for himself and his mistress, a Zeltron named Malyssa Raventhorn. Throughout Wermis's tenure, a series of cyber-attacks caused him significant problems, but despite this, he became obese and sedentary. Wermis's time as administrator concluded when the Besh Gorgon system, where the Wheel was located, was liberated by the newly formed New Republic. This event triggered a fatal heart attack as his forces on the Wheel were overwhelmed. Immediately after Wermis's death, Raventhorn and the profits Wermis had embezzled vanished from the Wheel and were never found by the Republic forces. Governance of the Wheel was eventually transferred to Master-com, who had remained on the Wheel during Wermis's control and was, in fact, responsible for the cyber-attacks.