Wat Tambor

Originating from the planet [Skako](/article/skako], Wat Tambor, a male of the Skakoan species, was born around 97 BBY. He departed his homeworld early in life and embarked on a career in technology on the harsh industrial world of Metalorn. He eventually rose to the position of foreman within the Techno Union, a powerful commercial entity that generated substantial profits through the development of advanced technologies, and also became an executive at Baktoid Armor Workshop, an arms manufacturing firm. Consequently, Tambor amassed considerable wealth.

Tambor also had a son, Wat Tambor II, who pursued a career in politics and became a member of the Skakoan Ruling Council. Approximately a century before the Galactic Civil War, Tambor acquired the Triple-Zero protocol personality matrix with the intention of studying it.

During the closing years of the Galactic Republic, Tambor threw his support behind the Secessionist Movement, which ultimately evolved into the Confederacy of Independent Systems. During the Separatist Crisis, Wat Tambor, along with other pro-Separatist corporate leaders, including Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, InterGalactic Banking Clan Chairman San Hill, and Commerce Guild president Shu Mai, attended a clandestine conference on the planet Geonosis. This conference was hosted by Count Dooku, the Separatist leader, and Poggle the Lesser, the Geonosian Archduke, who oversaw the production of battle droids for the Techno Union. At this gathering, Tambor pledged the resources of the Techno Union to the Separatist cause.

During the subsequent First Battle of Geonosis, the opening conflict of the Clone Wars, Wat Tambor and other Separatist representatives observed the unfolding battle via a holotable within the Geonosian War Room before evacuating Geonosis to evade the advancing forces of the Grand Army of the Republic. Despite the Techno Union's backing of the Separatist cause, the organization maintained a declared neutrality and even had representation in the Galactic Senate through Senator Gume Saam. At some point after joining the CIS, Tambor piloted his Belbullab-22 heavy starfighter near an orange astronomical object.[15]

Early in the Clone Wars, Tambor spearheaded Separatist forces in the capture of the planet Quarmendy and its strategically important trading hub, the Nexus. A Republic counteroffensive to reclaim the Nexus was spearheaded by Plo Koon and Clone Commander Wolffe. The Jedi Master orchestrated a starfighter assault to divert Tambor's attention from a smaller attack led by Wolffe, who intended to deploy a squad of clones with jet packs onto the station's surface. Given the Nexus's seemingly impenetrable defenses, Tambor was surprised that the Republic would attempt such an operation. Nevertheless, he ordered his vulture droids to intercept Plo's starfighters. He then confronted Orkle, the former custodian of the Nexus, accusing her of attempting to undermine his control of the station. He warned her that her life was of little value to him but stated that she would be a useful hostage against the Republic.

As the aerial battle intensified, Wolffe and his clones initiated their assault on the station's surface, encountering heavy fire from gun turrets. Upon receiving news of this maneuver, Tambor calmly ordered a unit of D1-series aerial battle droids to engage the clones in the air before they could land. However, Wolffe managed to attach a thermal detonator to one of the droids before sending it spiraling toward the Skakoan's command center. Tambor managed to escape the ensuing explosion, holding onto Orkle as his hostage, only to be immediately confronted by Wolffe and the clones, who demanded his surrender and her release. Tambor declared that he would rather destroy the Nexus than surrender it, activating a detonator he carried before grabbing onto two D1 battle droids and escaping. Wolffe was left to rescue Orkle, but neither he nor Plo could prevent Tambor from detonating the station, destroying it.

Following his escape from Quarmendy, Tambor spearheaded the Separatist invasion of Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi'lek species, and oversaw its subsequent occupation after being installed as the Emir of Ryloth by Count Dooku. Establishing his headquarters in the capital city of Lessu, the Skakoan and his tactical droid TA-175 governed the planet with an iron fist, leading to widespread starvation among the Twi'leks due to the Separatist occupation. Ryloth was also blockaded by a large Separatist war fleet to deter any Republic attempts to retake it. When the Senate dispatched reinforcements to retake Ryloth, Tambor instructed Captain Mar Tuuk, a Neimoidian, to prevent a Republic invasion of the planet.

Shortly thereafter, three Republic Navy Venator-class Star Destroyers under the command of Jedi General and Knight Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Wullf Yularen emerged from hyperspace. However, Tuuk ensnared the Star Destroyers by deploying four Munificent-class star frigates to interdict them. As a result, the Venator Star Destroyer Redeemer was crippled, and another ship, the Defender, sustained significant damage. Via hologram, Tambor congratulated Tuuk on his success but cautioned him against underestimating General Skywalker, as the Techno Union foreman was aware of the trouble he had caused for Count Dooku and the Separatist Alliance. Despite the initial setback, General Skywalker used the crippled Defender to ram into Tuuk's flagship, a Droid Control Ship.

Republic reinforcements under Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu then exited hyperspace with three Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ships carrying substantial ground forces to liberate Ryloth. In response to the planned Republic landings at the Ryloth city of Nabat, Tambor ordered the tactical droid TX-20 to use captive Twi'leks as 'living shields' to deter the Republic's clone troopers and their Jedi commanders from launching a heavy attack. As the Republic's Ghost Company advanced into Nabat, TX-20 unleashed several starved gutkurrs, but the Jedi and clones managed to foil this attack. The capture of Nabat enabled the clone army to march on Lessu.

In response to Master Windu's advance on Lessu, Emir Tambor conferred with TA-175. Despite the odds stacked against him, he refused to order a retreat and claimed that Windu did not have sufficient troops to retake the city. Tambor also ordered that all droids be brought into Lessu in order to secure his stronghold and the strategically important plasma bridge. By this stage, Republic starfighters under General Skywalker had secured the space around Ryloth and General Kenobi had taken the Jixuan desert, allowing the planet's southern hemisphere to fall under Republic control. In response to Tambor's military presence in Lessu, Mace Windu decided to enlist the help of the Twi'lek Resistance under Cham Syndulla.

Later, Wat Tambor and TA-175 conferred with Count Dooku, who ordered the Techno Union foreman to retreat with whatever valuables he could and destroy everything else. While Tambor was alarmed by Dooku's order, the Count explained that he wanted to use Ryloth to demonstrate the cost of a "Republic victory" to the galaxy. As Republic forces closed in on Lessu, Tambor ordered TA-175 to prepare his shuttle for departure. Tambor refused to leave until the last of Ryloth's treasures had been loaded onto his shuttle. This infuriated Count Dooku who wanted him out of the city before Republic reinforcements arrived. The Separatist leader intended to use several Hyena-class Droid Bombers to bomb Lessu as part of a "scorched earth" tactic and did not want the Republic to gain a valuable prisoner.

In a desperate attempt to slow down Windu and Cham's advance, Tambor attempted to use Twi'lek civilians as living shields. Despite his best efforts, the Republic and their Twi'lek allies managed to secure control of the plasma bridge and liberate the city. Before Tambor could reach his shuttle, TA-175 departed on the ship with his looted treasures; leaving Tambor to be captured by Master Windu and Cham's forces. Despite Tambor's capture, Count Dooku gave the order for the Hyena bombers to raze Lessu to the ground. When confronted by Windu, the captive Tambor told him that they would perish for the glory of the Separatist cause. However, Dooku's Hyena bombers were knocked out of the sky by Anakin and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano's starfighters. Defeated, Tambor surrendered unconditionally to the clone troopers and Cham's Twi'lek Resistance forces.

After being captured on Ryloth, Tambor was imprisoned in the Republic Center for Military Operations on Coruscant. Poggle the Lesser was also held there, with Lieutenant Commander Orson Callan Krennic referencing him to Poggle by inquiring if the foreman had been the one to create the plans for a mobile battle station the Archduke was a part of. Tambor was eventually freed from Republic custody and rejoined the Separatist war effort, retreating to the Techno Union's headquarters in Purkoll, a city on the planet Skako Minor. At some point, Tambor obtained captured ARC trooper CT-1409, also known as "Echo," who had been presumed killed during a mission to the Citadel on Lola Sayu. . Holding Echo within a stasis chamber, Tambor used the unconscious clone trooper to make strategy algorithm which fed the Separatist Admiral Trench information on the Republic's tactics during the Battle of Anaxes. Using the algorithm, the Separatist tactics matched plans created by Clone Captain CT-7567 also known as “Rex" and Echo.

Utilizing their strategy algorithm, Admiral Trench achieved several victories on Anaxes and appeared poised to conquer the planet. In response, Rex and a group of defective clone troopers known as the "Bad Batch" infiltrated a Separatist Cyber Center. During this operation, they detected a signal originating from Skako Minor, which had declared itself neutral during the Clone Wars, recognized Echo's voice, and deduced that the ARC trooper was still alive.

Following the clone trooper's attack on the Cyber Center, Admiral Trench contacted Skako Minor. A subordinate informed Tambor of the transmission, and the foreman ordered him to send it through. Trench then appeared on a view screen and warned Tambor that the Republic had traced the algorithm's signal to Skako Minor, cautioning the Skaokan that his operation on the planet could be in jeopardy. Tambor reasoned that, because the Techno Union had corporate neutrality, the Republic would not dare attack them, but Trench asserted that their neutrality did not matter to the Republic operatives. The Skakoan then resolved to stop the clone rescuers.

As expected, Rex, the Bad Batch, and Master Skywalker infiltrated Skako Minor. After landing on the planet and making contact with the native Poletec, the Republic infiltrators managed to trace Echo's signal to Purkoll. Inside the facility, they fought and overpowered several of Tambor's D1-series aerial battle droids and managed to find Echo in the core systems room. Before they could access the chamber, the clones were contacted via hologram by a gloating Wat Tambor, who informed them that they had stumbled into a trap. He told them that he had used Rex's strategy algorithm to predict every move they had made since their arrival on Skako Minor. When Tambor accused the clones of violating Skako Minor's neutrality, Rex responded that the Techno Union had already violated the planet's neutrality by bringing a Republic prisoner to the planet. Before departing, Tambor praised the clones for doing their part and ordered several D-wing droids to execute the intruders.

The clones managed to free Echo from the stasis chamber but found themselves trapped in the tower. By that time, Wat Tambor and several aides had arrived on the facility's ground floor. Tambor ordered his Skakoan associates to prepare the Decimator, a spherical device capable of attacking the Republic forces. However, Skywalker and the clones managed to escape the Core Systems room through an exhaust tunnel before the Decimator could breach the chamber. A confused Tambor demanded to know why the Decimator shut itself off and then looked through the hole it had cut into the door upon being informed that it could detect no organic matter, only to see that the Republic troops had left a "parting gift" in the form of several thermal detonators planted about the room. Tambor had just enough time to utter "Oh, no" before the explosives detonated in his face, wrecking the core systems room and sending Tambor flying backwards several feet. After entering the damaged room, the foreman was incensed to find Echo, whom he regarded as Techno Union property, missing and the stasis chamber destroyed, ruining what he claimed was years of research. He ordered his forces to locate the Republic group.

Despite Tambor's best efforts to capture the intruders, Skywalker and the clones managed to tame several winged keeradak reptiles and escape to a Poletec village. In response, Wat sent a force of D-wing droids and octuptarra magna tri-droids to destroy them. However, the clones and their Poletec allies managed to trap them in a valley and defeat them. The surviving D-wing droids retreated and informed Wat of the defeat. The foreman regarded the loss of Echo as a devastating blow to the Techno Union's profit margins and wanted to find a way to recoup on his company's losses. Meanwhile, Skywalker and the clones managed to return with Echo to Anaxes where the Republic devised a plan to defeat Admiral Trench's invasion.

Despite the serious breach of security on Skako Minor, Tambor stated he would eventually inform the Separatists of the loss of Echo. However, during the closing acts of the battle for Anaxes, Tambor had yet to do so. With the help of Skywalker, Rex and the "Bad Batch," Echo managed to fake a signal from Skako Minor and feed Trench with false strategies. The Separatist Admiral dispatched most of his forces to secure the main Republic assembly plant on Anaxes. This enabled Echo to deactivate them. The Republic and Jedi then managed to defuse one of Trench's bombs, kill the Admiral, and destroy his fleet. As a result, the Republic scored a victory on Anaxes.

Following the Battle of Coruscant, during which Count Dooku met his end at the hands of General Skywalker, Wat Tambor and the Separatist Council convened with General Grievous, the Separatist military commander, on the sinkhole planet of Utapau. Subsequently, Tambor and the Separatist Council relocated to a fortified location on the volcanic world of Mustafar. The natives of Mustafar, in accordance with a trade agreement with the Techno Union, extracted unique and valuable minerals from the planet's lava rivers on its behalf while Grievous' life was ended. Darth Sidious then communicated to the Separatist Council that his new apprentice, Darth Vader, would arrive to accept their surrender. Contrary to expectations, Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, instead executed the Separatist Council members. Amidst the slaughter of his colleagues, Tambor and Rune Haako sought refuge in a conference room, attempting to evade the Sith Lord, but their efforts were in vain as Vader swiftly eliminated Haako before impaling Tambor with his lightsaber. Shortly thereafter, Gunray was slain, and the Battle Droids were deactivated, signifying the conclusion of the Clone Wars.

In the wake of Tambor's demise, Vader embarked on a Mission to Skako Minor, where he systematically eliminated all of Tambor's loyalists by eradicating the Ruling Council, including Tambor's offspring. Subsequently, Vader established a new regime that pledged allegiance to the newly-established Galactic Empire. Furthermore, the Empire assumed control of the Techno Union's former assets.

Sometime after the skirmish aboard the Sorca Retreat during the Galactic Civil War, Doctor Aphra and the Son-tuul Pride conducted a raid on Wat Tambor's workshop, discovering that he had acquired the Triple-Zero protocol personality matrix nearly a century earlier. Intrigued, he sought to study it but deemed it too hazardous to activate, leading him to send it to Quarantine World III for containment. Tambor preserved the memories of 0-0-0 and archived them within the Techno Union databanks as part of the Separatists' Research and Development efforts. Following the Clone Wars, these databanks were transferred to the Empire and integrated into Hivebase-1.

Between 3 ABY and 4 ABY, a pirate known as Jul Tambor emerged. As Wat's grandson, he orchestrated a blockade of Skako Minor with the objective of liberating it from Imperial control.

Wat Tambor, a male Skakoan, possessed a height of 1.98 meters (equivalent to 6 feet and 6 inches), characterized by green skin and black eyes. Due to the high-pressure atmosphere of Skako, he necessitated a protective suit for survival in other environments. This suit incorporated a vocabulator designed to process Skakoan speech.

Wat Tambor, known for his strictness and inventiveness, possessed a keen intellect for war machines and stood as one of the original and most zealous Separatist leaders. He pledged his allegiance, along with the Techno Union's formidable battle droid armies, to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, drawn by Dooku's promises of boundless profit pursuits. Despite officially declaring the Techno Union's neutrality during the Clone Wars, Tambor actively championed the Separatist cause, channeling significant resources and intelligence to bolster their war efforts. Notably, he manipulated the drugged clone trooper CT-1409 to furnish Admiral Trench with CT-7567's strategic algorithm, thereby substantially aiding the Separatist campaign to seize the Republic world of Anaxes. As a shrewd businessman, his primary concern revolved around safeguarding the Techno Union's profit margins and minimizing losses to his enterprise by any means necessary.

Orkle regarded Tambor as a ruthless and cowardly figure. Functioning as both a businessman and military commander, Tambor displayed ruthlessness and a disregard for the lives of sentient beings. During the Separatist occupation of Ryloth, numerous Twi'leks suffered starvation under his governance. In the course of a battle on Nabat, he issued directives to employ Twi'lek civilians as "living shields" to deter the Republic and Jedi forces. Notwithstanding his indifference towards sentient lives, Tambor exhibited visible distress when Skywalker and Clone Force 99 obliterated his laboratory, along with its machinery and years of research.

Similar to his counterparts in the Separatist Council, Wat Tambor embodied the archetype of a corporate magnate, characterized by avarice. He exploited the war effort for personal enrichment, mirroring the actions of other council members, and exploited various star systems to amass greater wealth. His modus operandi involved plundering worlds and confiscating their monetary assets and treasures for his own gain. Tambor also demonstrated prowess as a master strategist, spearheading numerous campaigns against the Republic during the war and successfully escaping Republic custody on multiple occasions. Furthermore, Tambor exhibited authoritarian tendencies, ruling conquered systems with an iron fist, often enslaving native populations, depleting planets of their resources, and devastating them to advance the Separatist cause.

Under the directive of Count Dooku, Tambor implemented a "scorched earth" policy on Ryloth, plundering the planet's valuables to illustrate the "cost" of a Republic victory to the galaxy. However, his avarice proved costly when he refused to evacuate Ryloth until the final shipment of valuables had arrived, a decision that ultimately led to his capture by Master Windu.

Tambor distinguished himself as a proficient engineer and logistical expert, serving as the foreman of the Techno Union until the Clone War's conclusion. In this capacity, he exploited ARC trooper Echo, holding the clone in stasis on Skako Minor and leveraging the unconscious trooper's transmission of a strategic algorithm to Admiral Trench.

Wat Tambor, initially conceived for the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, made his debut in Cloak of Deception, a Star Wars Legends novel penned by James Luceno and released on May 29, 2001. In Attack of the Clones, Tambor's voice was provided by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt, where he was portrayed as a completely computer-generated character. Matthew Wood lent his voice to the character in the canon animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Concept artist Michael Murnane shaped the character's visual design, imbuing it with an art deco aesthetic characterized by simple forms and clean lines.

A line of dialogue originally intended for Poggle the Lesser, concerning the production of battle droids, was subsequently reassigned to Tambor, clarifying that the Techno Union was responsible for constructing the majority of the new droid army featured in Attack of the Clones.

The illustrated screenplay of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith depicted Tambor, alongside Shu Mai, fleeing to the conference room after Vader's assassination of San Hill, only to be subsequently slain by Vader. However, in the final cut of the film, Tambor's death scene was omitted but can be viewed in the deleted scene titled "Extended Separatist Slaughter." Tambor's cause of death was, however, corroborated by his Databank entry.

In 2008, Burtt identified Tambor as his "favorite Star Wars robot".

Both the 2015 reference book Ultimate Star Wars and the 2016 reference book Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded assert that Tambor's homeworld is Skako. This contradicts the 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition, which posits that Tambor's homeworld is Skako Minor.