Xev Xrexus

Born on Drazkel during the Republic's reign, Xev Xrexus would eventually become the namesake founder of the Xrexus Cartel, a criminal enterprise centered around the distribution of battle droids throughout the galaxy at predetermined prices. The Xrexus Cartel originated as a group of semi-legitimate droid manufacturing companies from the Mid Rim Territories that joined forces to redistribute unlicensed combat automata imported from the Outer Rim. This scheme quickly led Xrexus to forge connections and ties that extended throughout the galactic underworld, encompassing small pirate groups such as the Ohnaka Gang and major crime syndicates like the Hutt Clans, the Black Sun, and countless others. Xrexus managed her cartel from her own private space station, a lavish and expansive hideout orbiting the moon of her homeworld.

A meticulous crime boss, Xrexus worked to keep her cartel out of the reach of law enforcement, particularly that of the Galactic Republic, the galaxy's governing body. When the Xrexus Cartel dispatched a shipment of fake restraining bolts to the Republic capital of Coruscant, the Coruscant Security Force intercepted the shipment before it could reach its intended recipient. Despite the droid emancipation group known as the Droid Gotra not existing until 18 BBY, CSF Inspector Tan Divo's investigations led him to conclude in his reports that the shipment was destined for The Glitch, a supposed offshoot of the Gotra that was allegedly planning a droid revolt on Coruscant. While the true nature of the delivery and Divo's final conclusions were questionable, the Republic still uncovered the Xrexus Cartel's activities.

Around 33 BBY, scavengers working for Xrexus discovered a Republic transport that had been downed by pirates. Only one passenger, the Jedi Padawan Eldra Kaitis, survived the crash, which also killed the Jedi Knight escort. Xrexus instructed her scavengers to take Kaitis prisoner, and the Padawan was transported to Xrexus's hideout above the moon of Drazkel. Xrexus quickly decided to auction Kaitis to the highest bidder and began making preparations for the event. Xrexus personally selected several parties to invite, sending invitations to various crime lords and their entourages. The invitations only hinted at Kaitis as the prize, vaguely describing her as "a treasured rarity of extreme import and interest." Xrexus planned a party before the auction and requested that her guests respond to the invitation with their acceptance or denial and their choice of entrée by a specified date. Among those invited by Xrexus were the Black Sun, the Pyke Syndicate led by capo Lom Pyke, Grakkus the Hutt, Hondo Ohnaka and his gang, Moogan industrialist Jee Kra, the Haddrex Gang, and several groups of Kyuzo and Trandoshan hunters. To avoid legal repercussions, Xrexus held her auction outside of Republic territory and arranged several decoy events to divert law enforcement's attention from her true plans.

Upon arrival, Xrexus's guests gathered in a large garden hall within her space station. As they socialized and awaited the event's commencement, Xrexus and her entourage finalized preparations, and the Boss-Mistress emerged to address the crowd. Accompanied by a contingent of droidekas and uniformed subordinates, Xrexus welcomed her guests aboard her ship. Xrexus acknowledged recognizing several familiar faces but noted that some attendees were new to her. Addressing them collectively, Xrexus informed them that they would all have the opportunity to win a rare prize in the upcoming auction. Xev began recounting how her scavengers had discovered Kaitis and revealed a holographic image of the captured Padawan to her guests. She added that, while a Jedi Padawan was not as valuable as a Jedi Master, the criminal element could find various uses for a Knight-in-training. Xrexus announced that, due to the urgency of the matter, the auction would be held in two hours and concluded her address by inviting her guests to enjoy themselves and consider the possibilities presented by the Jedi.

After her speech, Xrexus was informed that one of the auction attendees had gone to Kaitis's cell. Xrexus and several of her droidekas proceeded to the cell block, where they found a cloaked figure standing before Kaitis's cell. Expressing her disappointment, Xrexus told him that he had committed a serious breach of protocol. Xrexus informed him that the area was off-limits, though she smugly added that her rogue guest was likely aware of that. Unbeknownst to Xrexus, the individual was actually the Sith Lord Darth Maul, who had learned of Xrexus's auction and sought to kill Kaitis out of intense hatred for the Jedi Order. Maul lied to Xrexus, claiming that he was being impulsive and simply wanted to see the Padawan before the auction. Xrexus responded that her other guests would be "disappointed" that one of the bidders had been granted a privilege they had not, adding that disappointing clients of their stature was bad for business.

Xev inquired about Maul's identity, and he falsely identified himself as "Seris Madreth" of the Haddrex Consortium, whom Maul had eliminated while searching for a way to the auction. Xrexus mocked Maul's use of the word "consortium" and suggested that they contact his employers to confirm his affiliation. She noted that they would be displeased if one of their representatives was caught straying, which prompted Maul to ask the Boss-Mistress to keep his excursion between them. Leading him out of the prison block, Xrexus told Maul that she saw no reason to cause unnecessary trouble and admitted that she appreciated his impulsiveness. Despite forgiving him, Xrexus warned that her forgiveness had limits and that she would have to vaporize him if he was caught again.

When the time came for the auction to begin, Xrexus resumed her position atop a platform with her droidekas and announced that a Jedi Padawan was up for auction, to be ransomed, maimed, or mutilated as the winner saw fit. Xrexus opened the bidding at 500,000 unmarked credits, which was quickly matched by a group of Kyuzo hunters. Several other bidders began raising the price, reaching 750,000 credits, then 900,000, 1 million, 1.5 million, and eventually 2 million. Jee Kra placed a bid of 2.5 million, which none of the other bidders attempted to surpass. Xrexus announced Kra's bid and added that the purchase of Kaitis included her lightsaber, the legendary Jedi weapon. She asked for a bid of 3 million but received no response. After an auction chant, Xrexus declared Kra the winner.

As Kra was congratulated on his victory, a group of bounty hunters led by Cad Bane, in collaboration with Maul, secretly attacked and killed the crew of Kra's transport. Xrexus had suspected that Maul and the "Haddrex Gang" would attempt to steal Kaitis from the winner, so she instructed several subordinates to wire a bomb and place it aboard Kra's gunship. While Xrexus hosted a party to console the auction's losers, Kra was killed by Maul and his bounty hunters, as she had predicted. When Maul attempted to escape with his coveted Jedi in Kra's ship, Xrexus detonated the bomb, sending the gunship spiraling down to the moon of Drazkel below. Away from her guests, Xrexus stood in a private room overlooking the moon. One of her servants arrived to inform her of the ship's crash. Sipping a glass of wine, Xrexus instructed her servant to inform the remaining guests of a new opportunity: a hunt would begin shortly, with a buy-in of 350,000 credits.

Gathering her auction attendees once more, Xrexus informed them of the crash. She revealed that scans indicated several life forms near the freighter, including Eldra Kaitis and her captors. Xrexus told her guests that the group would present a thrilling challenge for anyone seeking to pursue them. Xev promoted her game as a competition for bragging rights and a trophy, with the objective being the deaths of Kaitis's abductors. Before sending them off to participate in her game, Xrexus added that it was a pay-to-play scenario and that they would have to pay to go planetside and join the hunt. Her guests eagerly paid and traveled to the moon to begin the hunt. Kaitis and Maul reluctantly joined forces to fend off the hunters. Efficiently dispatching the oncoming criminals, Kaitis, Maul, and the bounty hunters managed to defeat the majority of the hunters seeking them.

Disheartened by the hunt after the bloodshed, several of the crime bosses decided to end their stay with Xrexus and began departing the system. Watching the moon from her private suite, Xrexus was informed of these developments by her servants. Anxious, Xrexus inquired whether their payments had cleared, which they had. Xrexus was relieved that there was no risk of losing her profits and told her servants that there was no harm in bloodshed, as that was what the hunters had paid for. On the moon, meanwhile, Maul and Kaitis turned on each other, and the Sith finally satisfied his desire for vengeance against the Jedi. With Kaitis dead and Xrexus's guests fleeing the moon, Maul turned to one final task and headed to Xrexus's station. Alone in her private suite, Xrexus ordered more Corellian wine over her comm, but received no response from any of her servants. Annoyed, she yelled over her comm for someone to respond to her demand, but the only response she received was from Maul, who silently entered the room.

Maul revealed that her servants had all been killed. Seemingly accepting her fate, Xrexus remarked that, had she known she had so little time left, she would have ordered a better vintage of wine. She finished her glass and despondently asked Maul if she could barter for her life, offering him money in exchange for her survival. Maul, however, told her that money was meaningless to him. Setting her glass down on the table beside her, Xrexus asked if his goal was vengeance for Kaitis and rhetorically asked if that was what his kind dealt in. She recognized Maul as a Sith and told him that she knew what he was, though she believed they had died out long ago. Maul waited for her to say the word, giving him a reason to strike. Xrexus closed her eyes and uttered the word "Sith," and Maul struck the Boss-Mistress down with his lightsaber.

While Darth Maul attempted to conceal his actions at Xrexus's auction from his Sith master, Darth Sidious, Sidious was aware of what he had done and commended his apprentice for it. To cover his apprentice's tracks, Darth Sidious, using his public identity as Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine of the Republic, issued a secret order from the Office of the Chancellor that classified information pertaining to Xrexus's auction, including the death of Jee Kra at Maul's hands. The fates of Xev Xrexus and Eldra Kaitis remained a mystery to all but the two Sith Lords. Further complicating the events surrounding Xrexus's auction were reports that the Xrexus Cartel had completely disappeared by 29 BBY, a rumor that proved false when the organization, still operating under the late Xrexus's name, continued to function in some capacity during the Imperial Era.

The events of Xrexus's auction became an unsolved case for Republic law enforcement, who were unable to unravel the mystery of what had occurred. Coruscant Security Force Inspector Divo led a failed investigation into the auction and, in his case files, referred to the case as a "maddening dead end." The only information Divo could confirm, based on his own findings and a seized invitation to the auction that Xrexus had sent to one of her guests, was that Xrexus had held an auction and that she and her cartel had later "vanished as if swallowed by a black hole." Xrexus's disappearance was not reported to any other agencies, and the Jedi Order had no record of what happened to her or Kaitis. The disappearance of Xrexus, as well as the suspected disappearance of her cartel, remained an unsolved case for the CSF until 19 BBY, when the Republic's successor state, the Galactic Empire, detained KRONOS-841, a member of the Droid Gotra. Inspector Divo oversaw the interrogation of KRONOS-841, who, in exchange for leniency, provided numerous data memories to the CSF.

Despite the Droid Gotra's short history at that time, long after the Xrexus Cartel's auction, KRONOS's sequestered memories contained several items pertinent to the Xrexus case, which, after being reconstructed, revealed images of the auction of Eldra Kaitis. Although KRONOS's data falsely claimed that the droid had been present at the auction on behalf of the Droid Gotra and had voted in the proceedings by proxy, Divo was able to piece together details of Xrexus's auction despite the erroneous details of KRONOS's involvement. Divo learned that Xrexus had auctioned Jedi Padawan Eldra Kaitis, who was won by industrialist Jee Kra for 2.5 million credits. Though KRONOS's information ended there, Divo discovered through further research that Kra had been killed in a shuttle crash beyond Republic borders, but attempts to investigate Kra's death were hampered by Chancellor Palpatine's old order classifying information on the subject. With no further leads, Divo concluded that Kaitis had been killed and speculated that Xrexus's disappearance was somehow linked to the Jedi, who, by the time of his investigation, had been wiped out.

Years after the fall of the Empire and the rise of the New Republic following the Galactic Civil War, Exantor Divo, the grandson of the late Tan Divo and the police commissioner on Hosnian Prime, was given his grandfather's old case files, which had long been thought lost during the Clone Wars. Compiling three generations' worth of case files on criminal activity across the galaxy, Exantor published Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious. Among the files included in the compilation was Tan Divo's unsolved case on Xrexus and her auction, which Exantor provided context for in his writings. Included in the file was the recreated data memory of the auction from KRONOS-841, as well as the invitation seized by Tan.

Xev Xrexus was a human female characterized by her fair complexion and blue eyes. Her blonde hair was styled with a sideswept arrangement to the right, exhibiting a color gradient transitioning from pink to orange. Despite her profession revolving around interactions with various criminal elements, Xrexus presented herself as a stylish and elegant woman. She embraced an opulent lifestyle commensurate with her status, indulging in luxuries such as vintage Corellian wines and overseeing a staff of servants aboard her space station. Xrexus perceived herself as possessing a forgiving nature, yet acknowledged her limitations and frequently displayed cruelty and demanding behavior towards those around her, including her staff. Despite cultivating an air of sophistication, Xrexus routinely engaged with a diverse spectrum of criminals and outlaws, ranging from expansive syndicates to petty scavengers and thieves. However, she held her underworld contacts in low regard, often deriding their attempts to conceal the true nature of their operations, as exemplified by her mockery of the Haddrex gang's use of the term "consortium." She demonstrated no reservations regarding illegality or violence, even advocating for the use of vaporization against those who disobeyed her.

Prioritizing her profits above all else, Xrexus functioned as a pragmatic leader, exhibiting a capacity to swiftly adapt her strategies to prevailing circumstances. Cognizant of the potential scenarios and unforeseen developments that could arise during her auction, she proactively implemented measures, such as rigging Jee Kra's ship with explosives, correctly anticipating that Darth Maul and his associates might attempt to seize Kaitis for themselves. Furthermore, Xrexus capitalized on the theft by orchestrating a pay-to-play hunt for Maul and Kaitis on the Drazkel moon, thereby demonstrating her preparedness with a contingency plan designed to maximize her profits by extorting her guests and potentially eliminating the two Force-wielders without directly involving herself in the hunt. Although the ensuing massacre on the moon's surface took her by surprise, Xrexus dismissed the bloodshed once she had confirmation that her credits were secure. Aware that Maul might seek her out for retribution, Xrexus became irritable. However, upon being confronted by the Sith Lord, she resigned herself to her impending demise and offered only a half-hearted attempt to barter for her life.

As a prominent black marketeer specializing in battle droids, Xev Xrexus had access to a contingent of droidekas, which served as bodyguards and provided protection for Xrexus during her auction and when confronting Maul in front of Eldra Kaitis's cell. During her auction, Xrexus donned a high-collared white vest paired with matching gloves, metallic red sleeves, and a black dress that flared out below her knees and gathered at the back.

Xev Xrexus made her debut appearance in Darth Maul (2017) 2, a 2017 canon comic authored by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Luke Ross.