Tryphon Leo was a Volpai male who operated as a freelance smuggler throughout the Galactic Empire's reign. After cozying up to the former pirate Queen Maz Kanata at her castle, he successfully acquired a book detailing the locations of Kanata's hidden treasure stashes.
Leo intended to utilize the wealth from these caches to create a fresh smuggling enterprise and seize control of the Spice Triangle with a starship fleet. Following the acquisition of equipment from a supplier on Vergesso, he journeyed to Pashvi aiming to unearth the treasure vault Kanata had concealed within the Shrove of the Left-Handed God Typhojem. During his search, a sizable rock dislodged and fatally crushed Leo on the Grand Causeway, resulting in his death.
Tryphon Leo, a male Volpai smuggler, piloted the starship known as the Lessu Dancer during the era the Galactic Empire reigned. Throughout his independent career, he accepted half of his payment upfront, no questions asked, trafficking in everything from blasters to biological components. He became a member of both the Corellian Merchants' Guild and the Mandroxan Cartel, and on at least one occasion, he navigated the Corkscrew within the Akkadese Maelstrom, resulting in hull damage to the Lessu Dancer from carbonbergs.
Leo became aware of a book possessed by the former pirate Queen Maz Kanata, suspecting it held information that could enable him to revolutionize the criminal world. To obtain this book, which would later be known as the Smuggler's Guide, he became a familiar face at Kanata's castle on the planet Takodana, exchanging favors with bartenders, bribing kitchen personnel, and generally endearing himself to the entire establishment. This eventually captured Kanata's attention, leading her to join him at a table with a drink he had purchased for her. Kanata disregarded the drink, scrutinized Leo, and declared that he would suffice, after which he successfully acquired the book.
Leveraging the book's contents—which encompassed trade routes, shadowports, criminal contacts, and the coordinates of Kanata's concealed treasure caches—Leo envisioned plundering one of the caches and subsequently utilizing the acquired wealth to establish his own trading network, before embarking on a quest to locate the remaining treasures. The trade route Leo aspired to establish would grant him control over all commerce within the Spice Triangle.
This would afford him dominion over all trade along the Death Wind Corridor and enable him to collect fees from the most profitable segments of the Triellus Trade Route and Corellian Run. To realize this ambition, he believed he needed to procure a fleet potentially composed of twenty HWK-290 light freighters, fifty YT-series freighters, and one hundred barges, and then initially offer bribes to the Hutt Cartel and Pyke Syndicate, in addition to the Imperial governor of Roon.
Prior to commencing his treasure hunt, Leo visited an outfitter on the asteroid Vergesso, recommended by Kanata, and expended the majority of his savings on equipment. Subsequently, he resolved to attempt to locate the treasure vault Kanata had secreted within the Shrove of the Left-Handed God Typhojem on Pashvi, as it represented the closest of the caches.
Convinced he could transport the entire cache onto his starship utilizing a gravsled, Leo elected to operate independently to avoid having to share the spoils. Anxious that the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn might discover the treasure, he maintained secrecy regarding his search for the vault while on Pashvi.
Leo met his death during his search when a substantial rock detached from the ceiling and crushed him approximately seventy meters along the Grand Causeway, in front of a Typhojem Thrall. His remains were discovered during the Typhojem Excavation by senior terrain trekker Reginald Danfillo, who retrieved Kanata's book from the smuggler's corpse and erroneously identified Leo as a human in a report concerning the book's recovery.
Tryphon Leo held the belief that he was a skilled smuggler who had rightfully earned the opportunity to leverage the information contained within Kanata's book to reshape the underworld according to his aspirations and amass a considerable fortune in the process. He regarded Kanata as a "dried-up fossil" and perceived her as more eccentric than omniscient, yet he was prepared to engage in flirtation with her to acquire the book. The smuggler also exhibited greed, assuming that anyone in the Outer Rim would be susceptible to bribery and opting to work alone to maximize his earnings in credits. As a member of the Volpai species, Leo was a four-armed bipedal being with blue skin.
Tryphon Leo received his initial mention in Star Wars: Smuggler's Guide, a 2018 reference book authored by Daniel Wallace, featuring illustrations of Leo created by Studio Hive and Adrián Rodriguez.