#Bouris Ulgo

[ospreyeamon]

some heads are not fit to wear the crown

Houses Ulgo and Rist’s assassination of Price Gaul and Queen Silara Panteer is one of those decisions where – though murder is wrong, though it triggered great strife – I absolutely understand why they did it. Ulgo and Rist removed what they viewed as dangerously incompetent leadership because they believed it was necessary to protect Alderaan.

The Galactic Republic agreed to sign the Treaty of Coruscant because they lost the Great Galactic War. The Imperial fleet had succeeded in occupying Coruscant’s skies, giving them the ability to launch an orbital bombardment at will, while the Republic lacked the means to dislodge them. Imperial troops had taken the Galactic Senate hostage and killed the Supreme Chancellor. Because the Empire had already been winning the war even before they seized the capital to use as a bargaining chip, the Sith Emperor was the one to set the terms of the frosty peace.

The Treaty of Coruscant was a shockingly good deal for the Republic under the circumstances (which is why many in the Empire were so resentful of it). The only territory the Empire demanded they cede which the Empire had not already occupied or was actively contesting was seven uninhabited star systems, when the Republic did not expect to be able to hold most of those fronts. The Empire had Republic representatives followed around by droids to monitor their adherence to the Treaty, but did not demand any Republic citizens be handed over to stand trial in the Empire for crimes real or invented. Crucially, Empire set no caps on the Republic’s ship building or military expenditure and extracted no economic reparations.

Those like Gaul Panteer, Leontyne Saresh and Elin Garza who publicly decried the Treaty, saying that the Republic should have kept fighting rather than accept peace with the Empire, were in denial about the political reality of the situation. At that time, the Republic had no prospect of being able to swing the tide of the war to put themselves in a stronger position in the peace negotiations. If the Republic had refused to ratify the Treaty the Empire could have levelled its capital, killing billions and decapitating institutions like the SIS headquartered on the planet. The only meaningful blow the Republic was dealt by the Treaty of Coruscant was to its pride.

Bouris Ulgo hated the Sith Empire, but he wasn’t an idiot. The Treaty of Coruscant, humiliating though it may have been, gave the Republic the perfect opportunity to rearm itself in the breathing space provided by the Cold War. The Republic was bigger than the Empire – bigger economy, bigger population – so given the opportunity they could out produce and out recruit the Empire. If the Republic was patient, then they could have their vengeance and victory.

But being protected by the Treaty of Coruscant long enough to rearm required remaining part of the Galactic Republic, because the Empire made the Treaty with the Republic. The moment Alderaan seceded, it was no longer protected by the Empire’s promise to withdraw, and the Imperial Military could launch a second invasion without breaking the Treaty. And why wouldn’t the Sith Empire invade Alderaan? What else did all their forces ordered to break off the attacks on Coruscant and other Republic worlds have to do? Gaul Panteer’s very loud and public removal Alderaan from the Republic must have looked like an open invitation for the Empire to come and conquer some beautiful new camping sites.

And for what? Was Gaul Panteer arrogant enough to believe Alderaan so important that he could manipulate the Republic into abandoning the Treaty of Coruscant? Was he so myopic that he imagined he could sit on Alderaan feeling self-righteous with no consequences he hadn’t considered in the heat of the moment? Did he think that he could leverage Alderaan’s status as a Core Founder to extract concessions from the Republic to undo the cessation and stop opposing the Treaty – is that what his secret negotiations with the Republic were about?

Declaring the secession was an act of short-sighted rage. Failing to walk it back was self-absorbed irresponsibly. He placed his people in the firing line of a second invasion without so much as a warning, let alone a consultation.

Gaul Panteer was Alderaan’s senator, not Alderaan’s head of state. He wasn’t the elected monarch, just the reigning Queen’s heir. The decision to take Alderaan out of the Republic never should have been his to make; the question should have been decided by Queen Silara and the aristocratic assembly at the Elysium (and, if Alderaan were actually a democracy during this period, a general referendum).

This raises the question of why Queen Silara didn’t countermand her son’s declaration of secession. Maybe Gaul inherited his lack of strategic acumen from Silara. Maybe she disagreed with the secession, but decided that it was more important to avoid undermining the son she had appointed senator than to keep Alderaan in the Republic; that risk of House Panteer losing face took precedence over the risk of the planet being invaded. Or maybe Queen Silara, who suddenly fell ill upon her son’s return from Coruscant, lost control over the situation because Gaul took advantage of her poor health to usurp her authority.

Whatever the reasons, House Panteer was not doing a good job of fulfilling one of the most ancient traditional functions of any monarchy: making sure your lands won’t be conquered by an external power. Alderaan’s other great noble houses were not doing a good job of encouraging House Panteer to take their job more seriously. Probably the Elysium was already bogged down in the gridlock which would later prevent them from electing Queen Silara’s successor.

Bouris Ulgo was the head of the Alderaani military, its planetary defence force. It was his job to protect Alderaan from invasion. Gaul Panteer had made that job impossible. House Rist, infamous as spies as well as assassins, agreed with his assessment. Possibly the Rists had gotten wind of the Imperial Diplomatic Services overtures to House Thul.

Bouris Ulgo was a soldier, who had killed many times before in defence of his homeworld. Everyone and their pet Thranta on Alderaan seems to know the Rists are assassins; the nobility tolerating a house of assassins among their number implies a tactic approval of the occasional convenient murder.

To protect Alderaan, Ulgo and Rist decided, Gaul and Silara Panteer had to die. Only by killing them could they instigate the election of a new monarch – a monarch who would return Alderaan to the safety of the Republic before the Empire could take advantage.

According to his lore entry, Bouris Ulgo didn’t return to Alderaan after the Treaty with any ambitions of becoming king. I suspect he came back to see to the wellbeing of his lands and his vassals as he hadn’t been able to after the Battle of Alderaan, to keep an experienced eye on the planet’s defences during Panteer’s foolishness, expecting to soon leave again to assist in the Republic’s preparations for the anticipated second war. While some sources say he intended to usurp House Panteer, if that were true it would have made far more sense from him to announce the imposition of martial law and declare himself king immediately after the Panteers’ assassination while loudly denouncing the murders as obviously the work of the Sith Empire, not wait until it was clear that the election of Queen Silara’s successor had ground to a holt because of the assembly’s bickering and House Thul had appeared, plainly planning on letting the Empire in by the back door.

To me, Bouris Ulgo is a deeply tragic figure because his assessment that he alone of the heads of the Great Houses cared more for the good of Alderaan than petty politics was correct. Unfortunately, he was a military man with a military mindset who lacked the skill at political manipulation to achieve his desired goal of returning Alderaan to the Republic, falling back to military tactics inappropriate to the problem he was attempting to fix out of desperation. It feels unfair that Ulgo should be saddled with blame for the civil war over Panteer, when Gaul Panteer’s decision to secede was the pivotal domino in the chain of events which resulted in Alderaan becoming the stage for an Imperial-Republic proxy war.

It really says something about House Panteer that in their planetary missions they accept both factions’ solicitations of alliance and can be swayed to either side. Organa or Thul, Republic or Empire, Jedi or Sith – one is as good as the other if vengeance on Bouris Ulgo will be reaped.

Gaul Panteer claimed such outrage that the Republic conceded to a frankly beneficial peace with the Sith Empire that he took Alderaan out of the Republic, drastically increasing the odds the Sith Empire would launch another attack on the planet. The surviving members of House Panteer claim such outrage that the heads of their house were assassinated because they put the planet in incredible danger that they are willing to support the Thul puppets of that same Sith Empire Gaul Panteer deemed it unacceptable to compromise with, even at the cost of billions of lives. House Panteer’s effective foreign policy is that the last attacker to have assaulted Castle Panteer is the devil who must be destroyed, regardless of the potential cost to Alderaan. Truly, some heads are not fit to wear the crown.

[meatbag-status]

GUYS!! I FUCKING FORGOT BOURIS ULGO IS RELATED TO TRASK!!!!! HOW COULD I HAVE EVER FORGOTTEN??? ULGO!!! FFFFFFFFFFFFUCK!

[keldae]

Writers Month 2020: Day Seven

Alderaan's winters were not for the faint of heart. Even on the best of days, there was the ever-present risk of frostbite from the cold air, or a rogue blizzard that escaped the weather tracking satellites, or the ice that lurked treacherously under the snow. 

Add in hidden snipers from House Ulgo, who apparently still had a grudge against the Jedi Knight who had taken down Bouris Ulgo, the would-be king from years ago, and the scenic mountains became a nightmare. Xaja couldn't tell if the darkness in her vision was due to a concussion or dusk falling. Or… hells, there had been a snowstorm in the forecast, hadn't there? She curled up in a tight ball against a rock and tried to not wince at the pain that motion caused. When the sniper shot had hit her speeder and sent her flying, the rock had stopped her from falling over the cliff a perilously short meter away, but at the cost of what felt like cracked or broken ribs. And she couldn't raise Theron on the holo -- it had to be the fault of the storm coming in, interfering with comm signals.

Move, she tried to tell herself. Hypothermia will kill you. Move. But hells, even breathing hurt, and motion made her head swim, and she yelped when she tried to brace herself on her arm to get back up. Her wrist ached -- had she broken it landing? It was hard to tell. All I need is hungry wildlife coming by for an easy meal. The way today's going… She wasn't even sure that she could have fought off a territorial or hungry animal right now. She was so bloody tired, and everything hurt… but at least the sensation of cold was easing up. Some part of her mind remembered that that was really bad, that it meant the hypothermia was winning out. But she couldn't move enough to care, when she just wanted to pass out…

A ship's engine roared as a vessel settled down a few paces away. Struggling to get up, Xaja cracked an eye open to look at the hulking mass of the ship; her vision was too blurry to make out more than lights around the entry hatch and a humanoid figure running down the ramp. But then she felt hands picking her up, a pair of arms holding her against a broad chest as her rescuer started running back to the ship -- hells, she swore she could feel worry that wasn't her own. Force knew she was too out of it to have the energy for any worry. If she just… closed her eyes again for a minute--

The arms holding her gave her a quick, short shake. "Stay awake!" Theron's voice barked over her head as he hurried up the stairs into the Serenity's main hold. Xaja groaned softly as she tried to force her eyes open again, and groaned again, this time in relief, when she felt the warmth of the air inside her ship -- a welcome change from the storm outside.

"Th-Theron…?" she tried to ask, through lips numb with cold and a mouth too exhausted to form words correctly. "Wha…?"

"You missed the rendezvous…" Theron's voice sounded like it was coming from underwater, drifting in and out of Xaja's hearing. "... picked up comm chatter… gloating about shooting you… last known location… didn't find you before the storm…" She could just sense Theron twisting his upper body, hitting something with his hip -- then she heard the hiss of the door to her cabin opening. Theron's long strides brought them to her bed in a second, and then she moaned in complaint as he set her down. Dammit, he had been warm! 

"You're barely shivering…" she heard Theron's voice mutter worriedly as his deft hands started undoing her wet, half-frozen clothing. She hissed in pain as he jostled some of her injuries, and thought she heard his mumbled apology around the rustle of fabric. Had he said something about kolto for her wounds, when she was less frozen? She wasn't sure -- while she was trying to figure out if she'd heard him correctly, she realized Theron had stripped her to her underwear and was trying to get her barely-responsive body under the blankets. She groaned again, shivering at the cool sheets under her.

"Sorry," she heard the mumble over her head, around the rustle of more clothing being removed -- what felt like seconds later, she felt Theron sliding into bed with her, pulling her as close to him as he could. If he was uncomfortable with her cold skin pressed against his own, he didn't say anything -- just wrapped his arms tighter around her shoulders, his warm lips leaving a kiss on her brow before he tugged her face into the crook of his neck. Right then, Xaja was eternally grateful that her boyfriend was a walking furnace -- she moaned as the feeling started to return to her limbs, leaving burning pain in their wake. Frostbite, she knew, shivering despite Theron's tight hug. But she could still, after a moment to muster up the energy, wiggle her fingers and toes -- amputation was not a risk today. She was incredibly lucky today, it seemed. If Theron hadn't found her when he did…

She finally shifted enough to kiss his jaw, and felt him hum softly at that. "Thank you," she whispered through teeth that still insisted on chattering, and felt him move to kiss her hair, not loosening his tight grip on her.

“Mmm. Wasn’t going to lose you out there.” Theron sighed heavily, his chest making her head move with the motion. “Wouldn’t mind it if you quit trying to find new and interesting ways to give me a heart attack, though.”

“Sorry,” Xaja sheepishly murmured. “But you found me…”

“I’d be a lousy spy and an even worse boyfriend if I didn’t.” Another kiss was left in her hair. “I’ll get some kolto once you’re warmed up a bit more. You feeling okay?”

“Much better,” Xaja assured him, snuggling in closer and finally feeling her tense muscles start to relax. She was safe, and secure, and starting to finally feel warm again. Today was going to get a happy ending after all.

[mariacallous]

“So ends the reign of Bouris Ulgo.”

*Force Choke*

Me:

[rainofaugustsith]

I already knew this very well - Vette approves of sass, as well as killing people and other DS choices when it makes sense - but going through Alderaan with Mara!Viri it was nice to be reminded again.  Mara!Viri: Kendoh’s going to die, you can count on that. (Vette approves) Mara!Viri: You’re about to have a very big problem.  (Vette approves) Mara!Viri: (when asked if she needs assistance killing Kendoh): I don’t need any help.  (Vette approves) Mara!Viri: That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.  (Vette approves) Mara!Viri: (choosing the kill option for an NPC) So ends the reign of Bouris Ulgo.  (Vette approves)

[corelliaxdreaming]

The Core World of Alderaan, a founding world of the Republic, suffered the loss of its Queen Silara Panteer and her son Gaul Panteer, Alderaan's Senator, not long after the Senator declared Alderaan's independence following the Treaty of Coruscant. The death of the Panteers led to a crisis of succession that gave way to a three-way civil war as the formerly exiled House Thul returned with Imperial backing and General Bouris Ulgo declared himself king before wiping out the Panteers. Houses Thul and Ulgo are opposed by the Republic-allied House Organa, and they all vie for supremacy as the minor houses ally themselves with the various factions. To make matters worse, amid the political conflict, hives of the insectoid Killik species have awoken across Alderaan and are wreaking havoc.

So...quite literally Star Wars: Game of Thrones, then?

[fleeting-sanity]

The Separated Twins

Born from a self-exiled Jedi Knight named Vianiel, the twins were separated at birth. The younger twin, Riornivo was lucky to still be able to live with his family while Rionnic went on quite the journey before he was even able to talk.

Rionnic was separated due to an accident caused by Vianiel’s brother, Enzaran. Trying to make up for his mistake, Enzaran left to search for his missing nephew while his sister raised Riornivo. The newborn ended up in Balmorra, where Enzaran was supposed to deliver his smuggled weapons shipment. Before his uncle could reach him, The Empire’s forces seized the planet, and the family who took him in perished by the war. 

Believed dead, Vianiel's memory of Rionnic was erased by a powerful Mind Trick.

A messenger from house Thul found him, and took him back to Alderaan. Their time together was short lived. The messenger was found assassinated, but not before she gave Rionnic away to a servant of the ruling House Panteer. From there, Gaul Panteer took him as his own and raised him as a royalty. He was known as “Aevrel”.

As a child, Rionnic was always fascinated by the idea of being Sith. He sneaked out for a shuttle heading to Dromund Kaas and began training in Korriban. Gaul couldn’t do much to retrieve him due to the political turmoil at that moment. Unfortunately, training as a Sith was truly not what the child expected it to be. He went through harsh practices and tortures, morally questionable acts, and slaughtered his way for survival. Rhys, a critical thinking and unorthodox Sith Lord saw potential and took him as his apprentice. His teachings changed the brutal ways of young Rionnic to a more refined and pragmatical discipline.

Commoners would refer to him as just another faceless Sith Warrior, as he always wore either a helmet or a mask.

He adopted the name “Xarethe” as he rose up the ranks. Shortly after becoming a Sith Lord, his adopted sister Katei found out about him and contacted him with news of Gaul’s death. Even though he responded indifferently, he secretly returned to Alderaan and executed Bouris Ulgo, forging evidence to place his death on Republic hands. The next day, he hunted down and executed the Rist assassin responsible for Gaul’s demise.

A fateful mission arranged his meeting with his twin brother. Upon seeing the face of the Jedi under the hood of his robe, he froze. The Jedi took this opportunity to flee with his injury by the Sith Lord. 

Riornivo was raised by a loving family. He showed Force potency as a child and was taken by his Stepfather to train as a Jedi. A model student, he was looked upon for wisdom and admiration alike. His rather brash and rebellious half-sister caused her share of troubles in the Academy, but he always solved them in stride and rationality. 

He was never told about the existence of his twin brother.

Known for the everlasting gentle expression on his face and a “killer” smile that helps in diplomatic missions and persuasion. While he isn’t much of a lightsaber fighter, he was the most powerful Force-wielder of his generation. The raw power he possessed was the Jedi Order’s objective to keep in control. Even if he knew, young Riornivo would understand why and agree with it. Healing was always what he prefers to do.

At times, he would feel sudden, unexplained pain. It was a result from the Force Bond shared between him and his twin. Though he was focused on becoming a good Jedi, deep inside he had always wondered about his true Father and the source of the recurring, unknown pain. 

Thinking that the masked Sith Lord was the key to all of this, he set out alone on a quest of truth. He successfully lured him out by posing as a Sith, interacting with his personal crew and isolating them aboard a space station. When Rionnic arrived, his crew was released and offered to fight the Jedi alongside him. He declined, preferring to duel the Jedi who wore his face instead.

This time, Riornivo was prepared to use the full extent of his power if necessary. Conjuring a powerful Force Turbulence, the Sith Lord’s mask was destroyed, revealing his own face. Attempting to heal the badly injured Sith Lord was a bad move for him. Before the hatred-stricken Rionnic managed to drive his saber into his twin’s heart, Riornivo was rescued by his half-sister who had secretly followed him.

Note : OK, that was LONG. Their story arc spans from here to the Dread Masters, Ziost, and eventually KoTFEET. It’ll be too long to tell them all in here. 

See also : [ Zakuulan Twin Princesses ]

[visionmarred-archive]

some Ulgos really live like this and don’t see the problem

[depizan]

Gaul Panteer’s very loud and public removal Alderaan from the Republic must have looked like an open invitation for the Empire to come and conquer some beautiful new camping sites.

This is a really good point. Bouris Ulgo was a diplomatic disaster for himself and his rule, but it seems like no one else on Alderaan really grasped the potential consequences of Gaul's actions. At least no one with sufficient power or presence to do something about it. (Whether that was take the sort of action Bouris did, or convince Queen Silara and/or enough heads of noble houses to take less violent political action.)

It's actually a little surprising that the Empire didn't just sweep in and take over. ... Or, then again, maybe it's not. If they'd done as Bouris feared, that might have reduced the chances that other systems and planets would withdraw from the Republic. By just aiding one faction of the internal conflict, the Empire could downplay the threat they posed to independent worlds. And we know from Ord Mantell that they were trying to get more worlds to secede from the Republic.

And, honestly, that's probably the best way to ensure that they'd win when the Cold War heated back up. There's no way that the military and strategic minds of the Empire didn't know they were out numbered. But if they used the time of peace to pick away at the Republic, fracture it, capture bits of it through internal conflicts, then they might meet on less uneven footing next time.

How unfortunate for Bouris, who might have been the hero of Alderaan if the Empire had acted a little more rashly.

some heads are not fit to wear the crown

Houses Ulgo and Rist’s assassination of Price Gaul and Queen Silara Panteer is one of those decisions where – though murder is wrong, though it triggered great strife – I absolutely understand why they did it. Ulgo and Rist removed what they viewed as dangerously incompetent leadership because they believed it was necessary to protect Alderaan.

The Galactic Republic agreed to sign the Treaty of Coruscant because they lost the Great Galactic War. The Imperial fleet had succeeded in occupying Coruscant’s skies, giving them the ability to launch an orbital bombardment at will, while the Republic lacked the means to dislodge them. Imperial troops had taken the Galactic Senate hostage and killed the Supreme Chancellor. Because the Empire had already been winning the war even before they seized the capital to use as a bargaining chip, the Sith Emperor was the one to set the terms of the frosty peace.

The Treaty of Coruscant was a shockingly good deal for the Republic under the circumstances (which is why many in the Empire were so resentful of it). The only territory the Empire demanded they cede which the Empire had not already occupied or was actively contesting was seven uninhabited star systems, when the Republic did not expect to be able to hold most of those fronts. The Empire had Republic representatives followed around by droids to monitor their adherence to the Treaty, but did not demand any Republic citizens be handed over to stand trial in the Empire for crimes real or invented. Crucially, Empire set no caps on the Republic’s ship building or military expenditure and extracted no economic reparations.

Those like Gaul Panteer, Leontyne Saresh and Elin Garza who publicly decried the Treaty, saying that the Republic should have kept fighting rather than accept peace with the Empire, were in denial about the political reality of the situation. At that time, the Republic had no prospect of being able to swing the tide of the war to put themselves in a stronger position in the peace negotiations. If the Republic had refused to ratify the Treaty the Empire could have levelled its capital, killing billions and decapitating institutions like the SIS headquartered on the planet. The only meaningful blow the Republic was dealt by the Treaty of Coruscant was to its pride.

Bouris Ulgo hated the Sith Empire, but he wasn’t an idiot. The Treaty of Coruscant, humiliating though it may have been, gave the Republic the perfect opportunity to rearm itself in the breathing space provided by the Cold War. The Republic was bigger than the Empire – bigger economy, bigger population – so given the opportunity they could out produce and out recruit the Empire. If the Republic was patient, then they could have their vengeance and victory.

But being protected by the Treaty of Coruscant long enough to rearm required remaining part of the Galactic Republic, because the Empire made the Treaty with the Republic. The moment Alderaan seceded, it was no longer protected by the Empire’s promise to withdraw, and the Imperial Military could launch a second invasion without breaking the Treaty. And why wouldn’t the Sith Empire invade Alderaan? What else did all their forces ordered to break off the attacks on Coruscant and other Republic worlds have to do? Gaul Panteer’s very loud and public removal Alderaan from the Republic must have looked like an open invitation for the Empire to come and conquer some beautiful new camping sites.

And for what? Was Gaul Panteer arrogant enough to believe Alderaan so important that he could manipulate the Republic into abandoning the Treaty of Coruscant? Was he so myopic that he imagined he could sit on Alderaan feeling self-righteous with no consequences he hadn’t considered in the heat of the moment? Did he think that he could leverage Alderaan’s status as a Core Founder to extract concessions from the Republic to undo the cessation and stop opposing the Treaty – is that what his secret negotiations with the Republic were about?

Declaring the secession was an act of short-sighted rage. Failing to walk it back was self-absorbed irresponsibly. He placed his people in the firing line of a second invasion without so much as a warning, let alone a consultation.

Gaul Panteer was Alderaan’s senator, not Alderaan’s head of state. He wasn’t the elected monarch, just the reigning Queen’s heir. The decision to take Alderaan out of the Republic never should have been his to make; the question should have been decided by Queen Silara and the aristocratic assembly at the Elysium (and, if Alderaan were actually a democracy during this period, a general referendum).

This raises the question of why Queen Silara didn’t countermand her son’s declaration of secession. Maybe Gaul inherited his lack of strategic acumen from Silara. Maybe she disagreed with the secession, but decided that it was more important to avoid undermining the son she had appointed senator than to keep Alderaan in the Republic; that risk of House Panteer losing face took precedence over the risk of the planet being invaded. Or maybe Queen Silara, who suddenly fell ill upon her son’s return from Coruscant, lost control over the situation because Gaul took advantage of her poor health to usurp her authority.

Whatever the reasons, House Panteer was not doing a good job of fulfilling one of the most ancient traditional functions of any monarchy: making sure your lands won’t be conquered by an external power. Alderaan’s other great noble houses were not doing a good job of encouraging House Panteer to take their job more seriously. Probably the Elysium was already bogged down in the gridlock which would later prevent them from electing Queen Silara’s successor.

Bouris Ulgo was the head of the Alderaani military, its planetary defence force. It was his job to protect Alderaan from invasion. Gaul Panteer had made that job impossible. House Rist, infamous as spies as well as assassins, agreed with his assessment. Possibly the Rists had gotten wind of the Imperial Diplomatic Services overtures to House Thul.

Bouris Ulgo was a soldier, who had killed many times before in defence of his homeworld. Everyone and their pet Thranta on Alderaan seems to know the Rists are assassins; the nobility tolerating a house of assassins among their number implies a tactic approval of the occasional convenient murder.

To protect Alderaan, Ulgo and Rist decided, Gaul and Silara Panteer had to die. Only by killing them could they instigate the election of a new monarch – a monarch who would return Alderaan to the safety of the Republic before the Empire could take advantage.

According to his lore entry, Bouris Ulgo didn’t return to Alderaan after the Treaty with any ambitions of becoming king. I suspect he came back to see to the wellbeing of his lands and his vassals as he hadn’t been able to after the Battle of Alderaan, to keep an experienced eye on the planet’s defences during Panteer’s foolishness, expecting to soon leave again to assist in the Republic’s preparations for the anticipated second war. While some sources say he intended to usurp House Panteer, if that were true it would have made far more sense from him to announce the imposition of martial law and declare himself king immediately after the Panteers’ assassination while loudly denouncing the murders as obviously the work of the Sith Empire, not wait until it was clear that the election of Queen Silara’s successor had ground to a holt because of the assembly’s bickering and House Thul had appeared, plainly planning on letting the Empire in by the back door.

To me, Bouris Ulgo is a deeply tragic figure because his assessment that he alone of the heads of the Great Houses cared more for the good of Alderaan than petty politics was correct. Unfortunately, he was a military man with a military mindset who lacked the skill at political manipulation to achieve his desired goal of returning Alderaan to the Republic, falling back to military tactics inappropriate to the problem he was attempting to fix out of desperation. It feels unfair that Ulgo should be saddled with blame for the civil war over Panteer, when Gaul Panteer’s decision to secede was the pivotal domino in the chain of events which resulted in Alderaan becoming the stage for an Imperial-Republic proxy war.

It really says something about House Panteer that in their planetary missions they accept both factions’ solicitations of alliance and can be swayed to either side. Organa or Thul, Republic or Empire, Jedi or Sith – one is as good as the other if vengeance on Bouris Ulgo will be reaped.

Gaul Panteer claimed such outrage that the Republic conceded to a frankly beneficial peace with the Sith Empire that he took Alderaan out of the Republic, drastically increasing the odds the Sith Empire would launch another attack on the planet. The surviving members of House Panteer claim such outrage that the heads of their house were assassinated because they put the planet in incredible danger that they are willing to support the Thul puppets of that same Sith Empire Gaul Panteer deemed it unacceptable to compromise with, even at the cost of billions of lives. House Panteer’s effective foreign policy is that the last attacker to have assaulted Castle Panteer is the devil who must be destroyed, regardless of the potential cost to Alderaan. Truly, some heads are not fit to wear the crown.