Sun Guard

Originally, the Sun Guard functioned as a special operations division within the Thyrsus military and adhered to its hierarchical structure. In contrast to their Echani predecessors, the Thyrsians were a male-dominated society that emphasized armor and bladed weaponry. In their early days, the Sun Guard held strong religious beliefs, drawing spiritual significance from the sun. As they expanded from Thyrsus into the galaxy, they leveraged their unparalleled combat skills and reorganized into a mercenary group similar to the Mandalorians, with religion taking a backseat to financial motivation. However, religious influence resurfaced when the Sun Guard fell under the sway of the [Sith](/article/sith-legends], although they continued to operate as mercenaries and demand payment for their services. Renowned for their ferocity, the Sun Guard were a dedicated and fanatical group whose mere appearance in their uniforms instilled fear. They commanded high fees for their services, which encompassed sabotage, kidnapping, rescue operations, warfare, and a wide range of other tasks. What united all Sun Guard missions was the fact that others had attempted and failed to complete them.

As a military organization, the Guard was structured into regiments, legions, and various other levels of command, often operating in four-member teams. The entry-level rank for new recruits was Stellar Legionnaire. They served a probationary period of one year, during which time they could be dismissed for violating Sun Guard protocols, such as displaying cowardice or engaging in undisciplined intoxication. Legionnaires who successfully completed their probationary period were promoted to Stellar Tribune and given responsibility for a legion of the Sun Guard, consisting of twenty to forty soldiers. Officers were less common within the Sun Guard, as only exceptionally heroic Tribunes were considered for admission into the officer corps. Officer ranks included Twisuns Legate, who commanded two to four legions, Twisuns Praetor, Thychani Commander, Thychani Dictator, and ultimately Supreme Sun Guardian, who held supreme command over the entire Sun Guard. Advancement was based on acts of military heroism, while cowardice was grounds for expulsion at any rank.

The Sun Guard's origins can be traced back to the special forces of Thyrsus, a planet inhabited by the near-Human Echani species. Thyrsus was part of the Echani Command, a group of six worlds known as the Six Sisters governed by a female council. While the Thyrsians shared the Echani's aptitude for interpreting subtle cues in body language, their culture differed in several respects. Thyrsus was a male-dominated society with dark hair and skin. Their spiritual focus was on the sun rather than the moon, and they favored bladed weapons and heavy armor over unarmed combat. Thyrsus, along with Begali, seceded from the Echani Command during the Begali Uprising in 1154 BBY. Although Begali rejoined Eshan less than a century later, Thyrsus remained fiercely independent, and their military units adopted a symbol featuring Thyrsus' red suns. Over time, the planet's special forces evolved into the Sun Guard, engaging in numerous battles with the Echani before the Pact of Almera officially recognized Thyrsus's independence in 899 BBY.

As centuries of peace among the Six Sisters went by, the Sun Guard gained more autonomy, largely leaving Thyrsus to embrace a semi-nomadic existence as a renowned mercenary force. Many Sun Guards worked as bounty hunters and gladiators, and they also participated in various conflicts throughout the galaxy. The Sun Guard soon found themselves in competition with the Mandalorian warrior culture, whose expansion alarmed them. Members of both groups often engaged in small-scale duels to the death rather than large military engagements. To counter the Mandalorians' reliance on jetpacks in aerial combat, which the Sun Guards disdained, they developed new tactics. This rivalry between the Sun Guard and the Mandalorians persisted for centuries, reaching its climax at the Battle of Sintheti in 402 BBY. Both groups were hired by rival claimants to the Horned Throne, resulting in over three years of duels and battles amidst the planet's crags and catacombs.

Despite initially focusing on religion, the Sun Guard eventually shifted towards a mercenary outlook after realizing that warfare only led to poverty. However, religion continued to exert influence on them. Over a century before the rise of the Galactic Empire, Thyrsus's culture developed a fascination with matters related to the Force, particularly a prophecy about a galactic savior known as "the son of suns." The Order of the Sith Lords, who were in hiding at the time, exploited the Thyrsians' belief that they were the subjects of the prophecy, encouraging the spread of Sith interpretations of Jedi beliefs. As a result, the Sun Guards were transformed into a Sith cult.

During the Republic's final century, Darth Plagueis, a Muun Dark Lord of the Sith, employed a company of silver-armored Echani Sun Guards to secure his residence on the moon Sojourn, replacing the Iotran Brandsmen who had previously defended the world. Additionally, a contingent of Echani provided protection for members of Damask Holdings, a Muunilinst-based company led by Plagueis under his public identity, "Hego Damask." As a powerful financier, Damask negotiated a deal with Foreman Wat Tambor of the Techno Union to grant the Sun Guard access to Hypori as a training ground.

In 67 BBY, several Sun Guards accompanied Damask's deputy Larsh Hill and other Damask Holdings personnel to High Port Space Center on Muunilinst to meet Damask, who had just arrived from an off-world trip, at the port's customs control section. Shortly thereafter, Damask hosted a Gathering, an annual meeting of influential figures on Sojourn, with his Sun Guards overseeing the event. During the conclave, Plagueis instructed the Sun Guard commander to abandon four Gossam senior managers of Subtext Mining on a remote world in the Tingel Arm after their actions angered Plagueis. The Guards also detected a perimeter breach when Darth Venamis, a Bith Sith Lord seeking to challenge Plagueis, arrived on Sojourn during the Gathering. Plagueis defeated Venamis in a duel and ordered the Sun Guard to locate Venamis' ship, transport the vessel and the incapacitated Bith to Plagueis' residence on Muunilinst.

Two years later, in 65 BBY, Plagueis dispatched his Sun Guards to retrieve the stranded Gossams from the Tingel Arm, execute them, and leave their bodies outside Subtext Mining's headquarters on Corellia as a warning to the firm. Later that year, Palpatine, a Human associate of Damask, murdered his family aboard their starship while traveling along the Hydian Way hyperlane. Desperate, Palpatine contacted Damask for assistance, and the Muun sent Sun Guards and the droid 11-4D to take control of Palpatine's ship and conceal the young man's crime. Following the massacre, Palpatine became Plagueis' Sith apprentice under the name "Darth Sidious."

Around this time, the Sith orchestrated the rise of [Thull Wulain](/article/thull_wulain], a Sun Guard, to the position of Supreme Sun Guardian. Upon assuming the role, Wulain pledged allegiance to Darth Sidious. The Sun Guard provided security at another Gathering Damask hosted on Sojourn in 52 BBY. Sometime afterward, Santhe Security, allies of Plagueis' rival Senator Pax Teem, captured Palpatine and took him to a deserted factory in The Works region of Coruscant. At Plagueis' request, a team of Sun Guards assaulted the facility, rescued Palpatine, and defeated the Santhe Security agents. The Guardsmen traced a signal from Teem to the Panoply Orbital Facility above Coruscant, and Plagueis sent the entire team of Sun Guards, except for two, to attack the station. Accompanied by the two reserve Sun Guards, Plagueis traveled to the lodge of the Order of the Canted Circle, an elite social order that Larsh Hill was to be initiated into. During Hill's inauguration ceremony, Maladian assassins hired by Teem attacked the lodge in an attempt on Damask's life. The two Sun Guards died defending their employer, but not before killing several of the Maladians, and Plagueis ultimately survived the attack.

Two months after the failed assassination attempt, Plagueis summoned Palpatine to Muunilinst, and two Sun Guards escorted the Sith Lord to Plagueis' residence in an airspeeder. Damask became increasingly reclusive after the attack, and in the following years, he retreated to Sojourn, where he continued to maintain a small company of Sun Guards. The Guards' duties were limited to escorting Damask's few visitors and maintaining the moon's ground-based turbolasers. Damask rarely communicated with the Guardsmen, relaying orders through 11-4D. Plagueis allowed Palpatine, who was now a senator in the Galactic Senate, to progress independently. The Sun Guards informed Palpatine of his master's obsessive and erratic behavior.

In 33 BBY, King Ars Veruna of Naboo launched a nuclear attack on Sojourn in an attempt to eliminate Damask. The Sun Guards stationed on the moon perished during the bombardment, but Plagueis survived. He considered the Guards to have deserved their fate for failing to prevent the attack. The Muun contacted the Sun Guards on Thyrsus to hire replacements, and at least four Sun Guards protected Damask in his new permanent residence, a Coruscant penthouse.

Sometime before 32 BBY, Sidious used his influence as a Sith to consolidate the Sun Guard in the Thyrsus system under his command. He assigned some of them to guard his stronghold on Coruscant, where they eliminated any underdwellers who ventured too close. The Sun Guard played a crucial role in Sidious' plans for the Battle of Naboo, as he used them to assassinate reluctant businessmen and pivotal senators before his planned election as Supreme Chancellor as Palpatine of Naboo. Sidious' apprentice, Darth Maul, used the Sun Guard as sparring partners in his practice duels. Shortly after the invasion of Naboo, a group of mercenaries led by a Sun Guard kidnapped Queen Padmé Amidala on Coruscant and imprisoned her in the Restricted Area of the Coruscant Underworld. Quarsh Panaka, the captain of her guard, rescued the Queen and killed the Sun Guard. Soon after, Palpatine's plans came to fruition, and he was nominated as a candidate to become the new Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Plagueis gave his Sun Guards the night off on the day of Palpatine's election. In their absence, Palpatine murdered his master and became the new reigning Sith Lord.

During the Sith Lords' search for a prime clone for the Grand Army of the Republic, Sun Guards from the ranks of the Thychani Commanders and Thychani Dictators were considered by the [Kaminoans](/article/kaminoan-legends]. In 29 BBY, the holocron of the ancient Sith king Adas was recovered by the student Norval, and Sidious dispatched a Sun Guard to retrieve it. The Guard intercepted Norval's vessel over Ploo II. Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived in pursuit. The Guard opened fire on them and, when Kenobi left for Norval's vessel, turned his weapons on that ship. Although Norval was confident the Sun Guard would save him, the Jedi retrieved the holocron. The Guard destroyed Norval when it became apparent he no longer had the prize, in a failed attempt to prevent the Jedi from escaping with it. Sidious later executed the man for his failure.

The Sun Guard participated in the Clone Wars, where their 2nd Regiment was crushed by Republic General Solomahal. Early in the war, two Sun Guards were deployed during a Trandoshan-led attack on the Republic-held world of Kashyyyk. There, they confronted two Jedi Padawans near the YT-2400 light freighter Star Runner. The Guardsmen were defeated and killed. Sarsius Torne, a Sun Guard mercenary, was recruited by Zeta Magnus, a mutant geneticist terrorist, to serve as the prime clone for a clone army. Torne trained the first four clones designated as Tark Squad, who would infiltrate the Republic's clone army disguised as clone commandos. During the conflict, rogue factions of the Sun Guard led a mercenary army in a campaign against the Mistryl Shadow Guard and carried out an orbital bombardment of the Shadow Guard's homeworld, Emberlene. Near the end of the war, when Sidious' plans for the Sun Guard were complete, his apprentice Count Dooku ordered Asajj Ventress to eliminate most of the organization. Some of the most devoted Sun Guards were placed in Palpatine's Red Guard, later joining his Royal Guard. Those who were Force-sensitive were selected as candidates for the Emperor's Shadow Guard, while others like Kenix Jir became cloning templates.

Palpatine's rise to power and manipulation of the Sun Guard caused division within Thyrsian society. Most Thyrsians supported the Emperor and viewed the Royal Guard as the Sun Guard's successors. Many Thyrsians joined the Imperial Army and the Stormtrooper Corps, but some viewed Palpatine's actions as detrimental to the Sun Guards and sought to restore their traditions. After Palpatine's death in 4 ABY, Thyrsus became an isolationist world. However, a new generation of Sun Guards emerged during the Yuuzhan Vong War of 25–29 ABY. These Sun Guards defended Thyrsus against the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong and sought to restore their organization's traditions, reputation, and honor.

Members of the Sun Guard sported headgear akin to that worn by the Republic's Senate Guard, from whom they likely drew inspiration. The Sun Guard helmet's visor possessed the capability to visualize thermal signatures, in addition to infrared and ultraviolet light waves. A macrobinocular scope, integrated into the helmet, facilitated both reconnaissance and sharpshooting activities. These warriors were clad in weighty, characteristically dark armor, although alternative color schemes such as yellow, silver, and crimson were also observed. Despite its resilience to damage, the Sun Guard armor imposed minimal restrictions on the wearer's agility. Furthermore, Sun Guards were equipped with belt-spats encircling their midsections, which subsequently served as a blueprint for the kama utilized by the Grand Army of the Republic. The Sun Guard uniform, donned by a historically dreaded military entity, was instantly recognizable and widely perceived as intimidating. Alongside the attire of the Mandalorian Death Watch, it served as a key influence for the Galactic Empire in the design of the armor worn by its feared Imperial Royal Guard. Before his demise, the Sun Guard who failed in his mission to recover Adas's holocron fathered his own Royal Guard, known as Carnor Jax; Upon ascending to a leadership position within the Empire, Jax adopted a black guardsman's uniform, drawing inspiration from the color palette of his father's Sun Guard armor. The bounty hunter Moxin Tark was among several hunters who acquired Sun Guard armor and weaponry, equipping himself with a replicated version of their distinctive battle dress. Doctor Nashiak Llalik, an Imperial armor designer, found the armor of the Sun Guard to be a wellspring of ideas, which motivated him in his youth to create the armor suits employed by numerous specialized stormtrooper divisions within the Empire. Luskin Exovar, a former scout, possessed a pair of battle-worn Sun Guard helmets, a part of his personal collection amassed during his expeditions. Despite their allegiance to Sith cults, the Sun Guard generally exhibited a lack of Force sensitivity, although exceptions did occur. Their training emphasized both covert operations and close-quarters combat, with a preference for engaging adversaries at short distances. It is believed that the echani martial art originated from their techniques, later refined by Palpatine's experts to enhance its brutality and lethality. The design of Sun Guard armor was specifically tailored to enhance close-range engagements; vibroblades integrated into the gauntlets, along with spikes embedded in the boots and knee pads, were commonplace. Furthermore, the forearm gauntlets and fist plates could be rapidly heated to temperatures capable of inflicting severe burns. Many Sun Guards amplified their offensive capabilities through the incorporation of flamethrowers and dart launchers concealed beneath their arms. The pike served as the signature weapon of the Sun Guard, revered with near-sacred devotion. While variations existed, the standard pike measured approximately one meter in length, wielded with both hands, and featured blades at either extremity. These blades typically consisted of double-edged vibroblades, frequently fortified with cortosis ore to provide resistance against lightsabers. Ritual pikes, known as solar pikes, inherited by the Sun Guard from the Echani, could be activated via a grip-mounted control to heat the tips to intense, red-hot temperatures. Force pikes incorporated stun modules at both ends, designed to incapacitate enemies through paralysis. During their conflicts with the Mandalorians, the Sun Guard devised methods for employing pikes as anti-aircraft weaponry, effectively disabling or overloading the jetpacks upon which their adversaries relied and which they held in disdain. The Sun Guard also utilized alternative armaments; at least one Guard was known to wield a vibro-ax. The Sun Guard possessed unparalleled combat prowess; only the Mandalorians could truly challenge them. Similar to the Echani, they exhibited the ability to interpret body language, enabling them to anticipate their opponents' maneuvers. They could equal any foe in hand-to-hand combat, and those who participated in gladiatorial arenas sometimes received additional compensation for their exceptional skills. Sun Guards also possessed expertise in urban warfare, trained in building-clearing tactics and the systematic elimination of enemies on a block-by-block basis. Some Sun Guards also engaged in space combat; during his mission to retrieve Adas' holocron, one Sun Guard piloted a streamlined gray vessel, attempting to fend off a Jedi starfighter.

The Sun Guard originated as a brief reference in the initial edition of the Imperial Sourcebook by Greg Gorden. This mention indicated that they served as the inspiration for the design of Imperial Royal Guard armor, a detail later employed in the depiction of Moxin Tark—and his Sun Guard-inspired armor—in Wanted by Cracken. The majority of the Sun Guard's appearances within the canon consisted of such brief mentions, until Abel G. Peña significantly expanded their history in Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties. In addition to integrating the Sun Guard into various existing elements of the Expanded Universe—including Carnor Jax from the Star Wars: Crimson Empire comic series—Evil Never Dies retconned the group into two prior works. The Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace video game featured a mercenary boss dressed in a black-colored Royal Guard uniform, which Evil Never Dies designated as the inaugural appearance of a Sun Guard. Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: The Followers, meanwhile, presented a scene in which a mysterious servant of the Sith assassinates the antagonist Norval; Evil Never Dies subsequently revealed this figure to be a Sun Guard.

Working in collaboration with Peña, Daniel Wallace further elaborated on the Sun Guard in the 2009 roleplaying game sourcebook Galaxy at War. Having recently authored the entry on Mandalorian Protectors, and recognizing a connection with the Sun Guards' emphasis on armor, Wallace opted to establish the Sun Guards and Mandalorians as adversaries. He also expanded upon the Echani connection mentioned in earlier sources, conceiving of a "male-dominant, hot, and angry" faction to contrast with the Echani's "female-dominant, cold, and controlled" nature. For the Sun Guard's ranks, Wallace employed names reminiscent of the Roman Empire. Among his references to prior works, Wallace drew upon a line from the second draft of George Lucas' script for Star Wars, which foretold a prophecy of a savior known as "the son of the suns". Although a previous reference to this excised line in another work by Wallace had been removed by Lucasfilm, the reference in Galaxy at War successfully navigated the editing process, much to his surprise.

In 2012, the Sun Guards were featured in the novel Darth Plagueis, penned by James Luceno, which expounded upon the Guards' relationship with the Sith. Later that year, the Guards made another appearance in the game Kinect Star Wars, where two Sun Guards served as adversaries encountered by the player in the game's "Jedi Destiny" mode. A Sun Guard also appeared as a challengeable opponent in Kinect's "Duel of the Fates" mini-game. Jason Fry, the author of the 2012 reference guide The Essential Guide to Warfare, initially intended to include a "unit profile" on the Sun Guards in the book, as they served his objectives of traversing the galactic timeline and blending familiar elements with more obscure continuity. Given that the organization had already been covered in Galaxy at War, the section was ultimately omitted due to space constraints. On November 4, 2013, the second installment of the Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut blog series featured the excised section discussing the Sun Guard, thereby introducing these elements into canon.