Xim Wars

Around 25,130 BBY, Xim the Despot, a warlord, inherited the spoils of the Cronese Sweeps inside the Kingdom of Cron from his pirate father, who was notorious for his ruthlessness. Continuing in his father's path, Xim launched invasions and seized control of vast stretches of neighboring territory. His armies and fleets possessed the most advanced technology of the time, including beam tubes, kiirium, mytag crystals, and war-robots. He maintained control over his conquered lands through the GenoHaradan, his dreaded secret police, and by employing terror tactics, such as carrying out mass executions.

The initial phase of Xim's reign is known as his Expansionist Period, during which he took control of the majority of the Tion Cluster, which included the Livien League and the world of Desevro. Xim's empire ultimately spanned from the Radama Void to the Maw, encompassing thousands of planets.

However, by the time he conquered the Kiirium Reaches, whispers began to reach Xim about a formidable empire situated just beyond his borders. This empire was the Hutt Empire, rumored to be incredibly wealthy and as extensive as Xim's own domain. Intrigued by the Hutts, Xim recognized that conquering them outright was beyond his capabilities. Instead, he aimed to coexist with them while simultaneously preparing for a potential conflict. The Kiirium Reaches were fortified, and the hyperspace beacon network was expanded to create a hyperlane, known as the Warrior's Trace, stretching to the borders of Hutt Space.

Information gathered from GenoHaradan interrogations of traders provided the Tionese with a basic understanding of the Hutt territories. Ko Vari, a temperate planet located on the fringes of Hutt Space, served as the starting point for trade routes leading into the intricate network of Hutt satrapies within the Si'Klaata Cluster. Beyond that lay Sleheyron, a treasure-rich planet marking the boundary of the Hutts' primary sphere of influence, where only their most trusted slaves were permitted.

A diplomatic delegation was dispatched to the distant Hutt colony of Ko Vari, where approximately a dozen Hutt nobles were present. The Hutts, however, viewed the presence of Xim's representative, identified as Oziaf the Insignificant, as a grave offense. Despite this, they couldn't overlook the magnitude of Xim's conquests. Instead, they extended an offer to him and the Tionese: the opportunity to live under Hutt rule as particularly favored slaves.

Xim, infuriated by this proposition, resolved to conquer the Hutts. During a lavish ceremony held on his capital world of Chandaar, he adopted the ancient Rakatan title of Daritha, meaning "Ruler of Worlds." In a provocative move, he declared Sleheyron as the Ninth Throne of his empire.

The specific details of the conflict's execution are not well documented, as both Hutt and Tionese records have either been lost or altered over the centuries. What is known is that Xim's war fleet extended the Warrior's Trace to encircle Hutt territories, advancing to the Kossimur system in order to flank Ko Vari, and reaching as far south as Xoloch and Moralan to encircle Sleheyron. In the twenty-fifth year of his reign, Xim initiated a dual assault on Ko Vari and Sleheyron.

Ko Vari was brutally sacked and devastated by an orbital bombardment. However, Boonta Hestilic Shad'ruu, the commander of the Hutt defense, inflicted significant losses on the Tionese by using countless slaves in suicidal attacks against the Despot's ships and ground forces. Furthermore, the attempt to capture Sleheyron failed, and Xim's ships were forced back to Xo's Eye, where many were lost within the Maw black hole cluster.

Despite this triumph, the Hutts came to view Xim as a formidable and dangerous adversary. Boonta the Hutt's defense of Ko Vari had bought them valuable time, and as a result, the Hutts defended Sleheyron while resorting to unconventional strategies. Impressed by Boonta's military prowess, Clan-General Kossak Inijic Ar'durv, the Hutt leader, placed him in command of privateers to harass Xim's shipping. These raids depleted Xim's resources and led him to manage logistics with increasing paranoia, sending secret shipments to fortified bases.

Meanwhile, Kossak manipulated Xim by accusing him of being cowardly and hiding behind overwhelming numbers. Xim was lured into a ritual combat at Vontor, a location historically used by the Hutts for such purposes and, as it turned out, a source of the increasingly scarce kiirium needed for Xim's war effort.

In 25,100 BBY, Xim's fleet was obliterated by the Hutts at the First Battle of Vontor, with the Hutt strategy being coordinated by Boonta Hestilic Shad'ruu. Despite this defeat, Xim ignored the Hutts' demands that he withdraw from occupied worlds claimed by them. Xim rebuilt his forces and dispatched newly constructed warships into the Si'klaata Cluster to raid Kintan, Klatooine, and Vodran. Additionally, the Tionese supported an uprising among the Hutt slaves on Moralan, who successfully overthrew their oppressors. The Parliament of Moralan declared the establishment of an independent Moralan republic.

A year later, Kossak challenged Xim to another ritual combat. Xim chose to fight on the ground in the Second Battle of Vontor, only to witness his elite Duinarbulon Star Lancers and other ground forces being defeated by Jilruan flechetteers and Cyborrean heavy infantry. Nevertheless, he managed to escape with a significant amount of Vontorian kiirium.

Xim's High Command began to oppose the war, warning about the Hutt pirates operating freely in the Kiirium Reaches and suggesting that the Despot halt the campaign and fortify his empire. Xim considered this to be treason and ordered the execution of many officers at the Forbidden Gardens of Nuswatta. He bought time by ceding the Moralan system to the Hutts. Boonta the Hutt's forces promptly sterilized the planet as a demonstration to the Hutts' slave species.

Xim nearly bankrupted his empire in order to rebuild his fleets and armies. Meanwhile, Boonta led the recapture of Ko Vari, and Kossak challenged Xim to a third ritual combat. If Xim emerged victorious, he would gain control of Ko Vari and the remnants of Moralan. If he was defeated, he would relinquish all claims to the Kiirium Reaches.

Xim agreed to the combat, confident in his inevitable victory. However, Hutt representatives had brokered an agreement known as the Treaty of Vontor with several warlike sentient species from the Si'Klaata Cluster, including the Klatooinians, Vodrans, and Nikto. This agreement sealed the fate of these species in perpetual Hutt servitude.

Xim was defeated by Kossak and Boonta at the Third Battle of Vontor due to the manpower provided by the newly enslaved races, in addition to the Weequay species. His remaining armies, stationed on the planet, were already depleted of ordnance due to privateering harassment and suffered from low morale due to previous defeats. They were ultimately wiped out by the Hutt forces.

Xim met his end, blind and imprisoned in the dismal dungeons of Kossak at Varl, the Hutt capital, although Tionese history claims that he was treacherously murdered at Vontor. His treasure ship, the Queen of Ranroon, escaped to the planet of Dellalt, where it would be guarded for millennia by a contingent of Xim's war-robots known as the Guardian Corps and a secret brotherhood known as the "Survivors," descended from the original crew and elite guards who were aboard the ship.

The sentient species that were initially recruited as allies to defeat Xim were forced into Hutt servitude well into the era of the New Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Vontor. Ko Vari was renamed Boonta in honor of its defender, but it never fully recovered its former prominence and became a relatively insignificant location throughout the reign of the Galactic Republic.

Boonta the Hutt would also be honored with the holiday of Boonta's Eve, which is said to commemorate the night before the Third Battle of Vontor, when Boonta addressed his kin, retainers, and slaves. On Boonta's Eve, Hutt slaves would renew their vows of obedience and were rewarded with a feast and gifts from their masters.

The Tion Cluster fractured into several warring factions, including the Honorable Union of Desevro & Tion, the Jaminere Marches, the Indrexu Confederation, the Keldrath Alignment, the Thanium Worlds, and the Kingdom of Cron. The Hutts maintained control over the Kiirium Reaches as a buffer zone between themselves and the Tion, raiding it for slaves and maintaining the Warrior's Trace as a potential invasion route. When the Galactic Republic first encountered the Tionese shortly before the Tionese War in 24,500 BBY, the Hutts interpreted it as a precursor to a Tionese alliance with the Republic and took preemptive action, devastating the Kiirium Reaches in a genocidal campaign known as the Devouring. The desolate region of space between Hutt Space and the Tion Cluster became known as the Ash Worlds.

Despite his reign lasting only thirty standard years, Xim's influence would persist throughout history, with the study of him and his empire being referred to as Ximology. It was even rumored that the GenoHaradan continued to exist as a secretive but powerful criminal syndicate as late as the Jedi Civil War. The allure of Xim's lost treasure would inspire fortune-seekers throughout history, until it was discovered millennia later by Han Solo and the Ruurian historian S. V. Skynx.