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| Who’s Who Dr. Silas Tagge |
Dr. Silas Tagge was a nobleman and scientist active in the Tagge Company during the mid-30s rS; first appearing in “Return to Tatooine!”, he was
a member of the senior line of the baronial House of Tagge, and had three brothers (Orman, Cassio, and Ulric) and one sister (Domina). It is never
stated explicitly, but he is probably a son of Sanya, Baroness Tagge, who was head of the House of Tagge as of 13 rS, according to “House of Tagge
Sides with Loyalists”, and was probably raised on the House’s throne world of Tepasi in the Core Worlds Region; although he was elder than Ulric
and Domina and younger than Orman – who became the Baron Tagge at age seventeen in 15 rS during the Clone War – it is not known whether he
was elder or younger than Cassio. Dr. Tagge himself says in “Thunder in the Stars!” that “with my older brother [the Lord Tagge] indisposed I am
next in line for the title,” but as this takes place after Cassio’s death at the Battle of Yavin in 35 rS, there is no way of knowing whether his place in
line of succession to the barony was changed or not. As seen in “Red Queen Rising!”, he once suggested that Domina be married into the Imperial
Family once she was of age, but the Lord Tagge struck him and threatened to kill him if he ever suggested anything like that again. Although a rating
addressed him as “Dr. Tagge” in “Thunder in the Stars!”, he does not appear to have been preoccupied with formality, as everyone else seen to
speak to him calls him simply “Silas.”
Unlike his elder brother the Lord Tagge – an aggressive corporate executive and player of intrigues at the Imperial court – and his more martial
brothers Cassio and Ulric – both of them Imperial general officers – Dr. Tagge was interested only in science and engineering, and was appointed
“chief scientist of all the Tagge Industries” (the Lord Tagge’s words in “Saber Clash!”) or “chief scientist for the House of Tagge” (his own words
from “Thunder in the Stars!”), and moreover lacked his brothers’ concerns with “family honor and personal vendettas”; he aspired to be
unemotional, logical, and objective at all times, and even disliked “real meat,” finding it crude and almost barbarous in an age “when science provides
something as efficient as food paste.” According to Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, Dr. Tagge was the lead designer of the multimillion credit
Achtnak Station which appeared in “Siege at Yavin!” and was destroyed in “Doom Mission!” With the failure of that scheme, he created the Omega
Frost, a system of destructively flash-freezing even the slightest amount of moisture in virtually any substance, and accompanied his brother the
Lord Tagge to Tatooine for the purpose of testing the system in the desert planet’s harsh heat and inhospitable terrain (the Lord Tagge remarked to
his brother, “There were several arid planets that fit your conditions... but a name in the Imperial Census records drew me to this one. Luke
Skywalker.”).
The three surviving Tagge brothers – the Lord Tagge, Dr. Tagge, and Major General Ulric Tagge – plotted to use the Omega Frost to destroy a rebel
fleet en route to the port world of Junction – then Massassi Base’s “chief source of supplies” – and in the process displace Darth Vader in the
Galactic Emperor’s favor (Dr. Tagge himself disclaimed any ambition in this project, telling Lieutenant Shanks, “I’m a scientist. Having invented
something... it’s logical I should wish to see it used”). He disapproved of the Lord Tagge’s plan to revenge himself on rebel pilot Luke Skywalker at
the same time, and arranged for the TIE/ln fighter that Skywalker was supposed to use to escape to have “no armament, no communications... and
just enough fuel to carry him to disaster,” saying that “Orman is the romantic. I am not.” After his encounter with Skywalker left the Lord Tagge in
shock in “Saber Clash!”, Dr. Tagge became taken with the thought that he was indeed next in line to the barony after his elder brother’s death and,
egged on by Shanks in “Thunder in the Stars!” he ensured that the Lord Tagge was “given extra drugs” in sickbay to prevent him from recovering in
time to resume control of the operation, allowing Dr. Tagge to claim credit for success. When Skywalker sabotaged the Omega Frost and the rebel
fleet continued unopposed, Dr. Tagge panicked and fled the control room of the mining explorer and begged his elder brother to fix the situation; their
ship was destroyed soon after, but as Vader explained in “Dark Lord’s Gambit,” the Tagge brothers’ “compartment suffered no damage... the
emergency seals kept it airtight,” and Vader’s spies recovered their bodies and placed them in suspended animation, to hold as hostages forcing the
surviving brother Ulric – now Baron Tagge in his brother’s place – to cooperate and put an end to the feud between the Sith Lord and the House of
Tagge. Dr. Tagge’s ultimate fate is unknown, but it is not likely that he was ever revived.
References:
Carey, Craig R., Jason Fry, Jeff Quick and Daniel E. Wallace. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Wizards of the Coast, Inc., 2004.
Goodwin, Archie. “Dark Lord’s Gambit.” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 35. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Doom Mission!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 26. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Red Queen Rising!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 36. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Return to Tatooine!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 31. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Saber Clash!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 33. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Siege at Yavin!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 25. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Thunder in the Stars!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 34. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Hidalgo, Pablo. “New Tagge Baron Leads Tech Initiative.” Republic HoloNet News. Star Wars Insider No. 74. Paizo Publishing LLC, 2004.
“House of Tagge Sides with Loyalists.” HoloNet News Vol. 531, No. 49. Lucasfilm Ltd., 2002.
a member of the senior line of the baronial House of Tagge, and had three brothers (Orman, Cassio, and Ulric) and one sister (Domina). It is never
stated explicitly, but he is probably a son of Sanya, Baroness Tagge, who was head of the House of Tagge as of 13 rS, according to “House of Tagge
Sides with Loyalists”, and was probably raised on the House’s throne world of Tepasi in the Core Worlds Region; although he was elder than Ulric
and Domina and younger than Orman – who became the Baron Tagge at age seventeen in 15 rS during the Clone War – it is not known whether he
was elder or younger than Cassio. Dr. Tagge himself says in “Thunder in the Stars!” that “with my older brother [the Lord Tagge] indisposed I am
next in line for the title,” but as this takes place after Cassio’s death at the Battle of Yavin in 35 rS, there is no way of knowing whether his place in
line of succession to the barony was changed or not. As seen in “Red Queen Rising!”, he once suggested that Domina be married into the Imperial
Family once she was of age, but the Lord Tagge struck him and threatened to kill him if he ever suggested anything like that again. Although a rating
addressed him as “Dr. Tagge” in “Thunder in the Stars!”, he does not appear to have been preoccupied with formality, as everyone else seen to
speak to him calls him simply “Silas.”
Unlike his elder brother the Lord Tagge – an aggressive corporate executive and player of intrigues at the Imperial court – and his more martial
brothers Cassio and Ulric – both of them Imperial general officers – Dr. Tagge was interested only in science and engineering, and was appointed
“chief scientist of all the Tagge Industries” (the Lord Tagge’s words in “Saber Clash!”) or “chief scientist for the House of Tagge” (his own words
from “Thunder in the Stars!”), and moreover lacked his brothers’ concerns with “family honor and personal vendettas”; he aspired to be
unemotional, logical, and objective at all times, and even disliked “real meat,” finding it crude and almost barbarous in an age “when science provides
something as efficient as food paste.” According to Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, Dr. Tagge was the lead designer of the multimillion credit
Achtnak Station which appeared in “Siege at Yavin!” and was destroyed in “Doom Mission!” With the failure of that scheme, he created the Omega
Frost, a system of destructively flash-freezing even the slightest amount of moisture in virtually any substance, and accompanied his brother the
Lord Tagge to Tatooine for the purpose of testing the system in the desert planet’s harsh heat and inhospitable terrain (the Lord Tagge remarked to
his brother, “There were several arid planets that fit your conditions... but a name in the Imperial Census records drew me to this one. Luke
Skywalker.”).
The three surviving Tagge brothers – the Lord Tagge, Dr. Tagge, and Major General Ulric Tagge – plotted to use the Omega Frost to destroy a rebel
fleet en route to the port world of Junction – then Massassi Base’s “chief source of supplies” – and in the process displace Darth Vader in the
Galactic Emperor’s favor (Dr. Tagge himself disclaimed any ambition in this project, telling Lieutenant Shanks, “I’m a scientist. Having invented
something... it’s logical I should wish to see it used”). He disapproved of the Lord Tagge’s plan to revenge himself on rebel pilot Luke Skywalker at
the same time, and arranged for the TIE/ln fighter that Skywalker was supposed to use to escape to have “no armament, no communications... and
just enough fuel to carry him to disaster,” saying that “Orman is the romantic. I am not.” After his encounter with Skywalker left the Lord Tagge in
shock in “Saber Clash!”, Dr. Tagge became taken with the thought that he was indeed next in line to the barony after his elder brother’s death and,
egged on by Shanks in “Thunder in the Stars!” he ensured that the Lord Tagge was “given extra drugs” in sickbay to prevent him from recovering in
time to resume control of the operation, allowing Dr. Tagge to claim credit for success. When Skywalker sabotaged the Omega Frost and the rebel
fleet continued unopposed, Dr. Tagge panicked and fled the control room of the mining explorer and begged his elder brother to fix the situation; their
ship was destroyed soon after, but as Vader explained in “Dark Lord’s Gambit,” the Tagge brothers’ “compartment suffered no damage... the
emergency seals kept it airtight,” and Vader’s spies recovered their bodies and placed them in suspended animation, to hold as hostages forcing the
surviving brother Ulric – now Baron Tagge in his brother’s place – to cooperate and put an end to the feud between the Sith Lord and the House of
Tagge. Dr. Tagge’s ultimate fate is unknown, but it is not likely that he was ever revived.
References:
Carey, Craig R., Jason Fry, Jeff Quick and Daniel E. Wallace. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Wizards of the Coast, Inc., 2004.
Goodwin, Archie. “Dark Lord’s Gambit.” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 35. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Doom Mission!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 26. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Red Queen Rising!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 36. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Return to Tatooine!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 31. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Saber Clash!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 33. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Goodwin, Archie. “Siege at Yavin!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 25. Marvel Comics Group, 1979.
Goodwin, Archie. “Thunder in the Stars!” Star Wars Vol. 1, No. 34. Marvel Comics Group, 1980.
Hidalgo, Pablo. “New Tagge Baron Leads Tech Initiative.” Republic HoloNet News. Star Wars Insider No. 74. Paizo Publishing LLC, 2004.
“House of Tagge Sides with Loyalists.” HoloNet News Vol. 531, No. 49. Lucasfilm Ltd., 2002.
| This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended. Star Wars and related materials are © Lucasfilm Ltd., which reserves all rights thereto. All original material is © Julius Sykes. Please do not use without permission. |
| This biography was originally added in 2005. It was republished on 6 October 2007. |