Domus Publica
 |  |
| Who’s Who Getelles |
Getelles was a Moff of the Empire and Sector Governor in the service of the Imperial State in the 30s and 40s rS. According to Planet of Twilight,
Getelles was a graduate of the Military Academy at Carida, where he was a classmate of Cadet Larm and Cadet Daala. Unlike the pornocratic Daala,
however, he actually graduated and received a Galactic Emperor’s commission in the Imperial Navy – Daala herself states that “I was not allowed to
advance along with my classmates” and that when she began her amorous relationship with the late Wilhuff Tarkin, Moff Governor of Seswenna
Sector, “I was a lowly corporal working in the kitchen” in Darksaber, conclusively proving that she was neither a Galactic Emperor’s Commissioned
Officer nor even an enlisted sailor in the Imperial Navy – and began a successful career in the Navy; years later, in 48 rS, Daala alleged that Getelles
had “shared the test results at the Academy,” implying that he cheated and helped his right-hand man, Larm, to pass. He was eventually promoted to
the rank of post captain (“over my head,” Daala would contend, despite the fact that she was not even in the Imperial Navy, corporal being an
enlisted rank use by the Army or the Marines; one wonders how Daala’s contemporaries felt about her own promotion to the rank of fleet admiral in
Grand Moff Tarkin’s Oversector Outer despite her lack of any sort of commission at all with the Imperial Navy, to say nothing of the fact that she
was in fact sleeping with the man, a gross act of fraternization). Despite – or perhaps because of – Getelles’s success, his old classmate hated him
intensely, calling him a “quibbling, incompetent, boot-licking, corset-laced little sand maggot” in 48, at least 20 years after they’d attended class
together.
Getelles continued to rise through the ranks, keeping Larm with him as his alter ego and client. He was eventually appointed a Moff and Governor of
Antemeridian Sector in or around 35 rS; the diplomatic reception held in honor of his elevation to Moffhood was one of the last such receptions
Senator the Princess Leia of Alderaan (Alderaan) ever attended in the Imperial Palace. There, she recalled Larm as having been “of the flat-backed, by-
the-book, spit-and-polish, boot-kissing school of soldiering” – here, the Princess shows her lubberly ignorance, as no Naval servicemember, officer or
sailor, is referred to as a “soldier,” although Daala also made the same elementary mistake in Darksaber, calling herself an “Imperial soldier” –
“toadying Getelles and every other Moff and Governor without ever relaxing his tough-warrior manner,” a “dark-visaged and sternly efficient foil to
the new Moff’s hail-fellow-well-met fairness.” Getelles pulled the necessary strings to ensure that his client Larm was promoted to the rank of
admiral “over the heads of several better-qualified candidates.” He would continue to hold onto power in the Antemeridian Sector, ruling “in the
name of the Emperor” as late as 48, blissfully unaffected by Daala’s murder of the most powerful Deep Core rogue warlords in 47 rS, although he
lacked the military/naval strength to seriously challenge the New Republic’s holding of the neighboring Meridian Sector. Holojournalist Yarbolk
Yemm of TriNebulon News uncovered evidence from his sources at Getelles’s court that the Loronar Corporation “is pretty much backing Getelles’s
whole household,” and that Gnifmak Dymurra, Chief Executive Officer of Loronar Corporation for the Core Worlds Regions, lived in decadent
luxury at Getelles’s court, with “sex droids, vibrobaths, plug-ins, glitterstim, four different chefs, self-conforming slippers, independently controlled
environments in every room of his mansion,” including “some stuff that isn’t legal anywhere.” By this time, Larm had begun being styled “Grand
Admiral Larm,” which suggests that Getelles may have been planning on using him as a figurehead for further expansion of his power.
According to the New Republic Historical Council’s The Essential Chronology, Getelles was pressured into recognizing Vice Admiral Gilad Pellaeon,
caudillo of the Outer Rim ‘Empire’ as his nominal suzerain; Pellaeon had inherited command of Daala’s amalgamated warlord fleet, while Daala
herself resigned in disgrace after her disastrous and humiliating defeat at Yavn IV in Darksaber, becoming President of the Independent Company of
Settlers and leasing 1.5 billion acres on Pedducis Chorios from Warlord K’iin of the Silver Unifir. According to the Princess Leia in Planet of Twilight,
Getelles was receiving information from a security leak in the New Republic Council, along with Pellaeon and Moff Shargael of I Sector; the leak was
subsequently revealed to be New Republic Councillor Q-Varx (Calamari), floor leader of the Rationalist Party of the New Republic. Getelles,
resenting Pellaeon’s newfound preeminence among the various Palpatinist and neo-Imperial splinter states and factions remaining in the galaxy,
hatched a plot with Dymurra, and Seti Ashgad, Jr. – actually the senior Seti Ashgad, former Galactic Senator and rival of Palpatine of Naboo, who
had been exiled by the same to Nam Chorios in 16 rS and was now posing as his own son – to destabilize the Meridian Sector, allowing Getelles’s
forces under Larm to annex the Sector, opening it to material exploitation by Loronar and making Ashgad a very rich man. To that end, Loronar began
subsidizing “armed revolt or religious rioting or uprisings from minority tribes or groups” all throughout the Meridian Sector, including the instigation
of a rebellion against the Durrn Central Planetary Council, casting the New Republic’s defense agreements – including permission to maintain a major
fleet orbital base in Durren space – into doubt. Once the confusion was in full swing, Getelles’s forces invaded the Sector, but was foiled by New
Republic interference; Larm and Ashgad both perished in a space battle over Nam Chorios, and according to The Essential Chronology, the New
Republic pressed the attack, invading the Antemeridian Sector proper with “two full fleets” and annexing the Sector itself as well as “a huge chunk of
neighboring space,” until Pellaeon’s forces halted the New Republic advance at the cost of his flagship, the former HIMS Reaper, a Super Star
Destroyer obtained from the former Pentastar Alignment. Getelles’s fate is unknown after he lost control of Antemeridian Sector; possibly he took
up residence as a Moff-in-exile at Pellaeon’s own court, but this is unattested.
Getelles’s bitter and vindictive classmate Daala described him as “corset-laced,” which is probably intended as a crude implication of transvestitism
(if not outright homosexuality); she also called him a “boot-kissing, talentless, jumped-up catamite,” which cannot be interpreted as anything but an
accusation of homosexuality. Getelles himself never appears, but he was described (rather more dispassionately) by the Princess Leia of Alderaan as
having been noted for his “hail-fellow-well-met fairness,” so one might well conclude that the intensely jealous Daala (who actually did sleep her way
to power) was slandering him on the basis of a certain degree of effeminacy on his part, or perhaps dandified courtly manners.
References:
Anderson, Kevin J. Darksaber. Bantam Books, 1995.
Anderson, Kevin J. and Daniel E. Wallace. The Essential Chronology. Del Rey Books, 2000.
Hambly, Barbara. Planet of Twilight. Bantam Books, 1997.
Getelles was a graduate of the Military Academy at Carida, where he was a classmate of Cadet Larm and Cadet Daala. Unlike the pornocratic Daala,
however, he actually graduated and received a Galactic Emperor’s commission in the Imperial Navy – Daala herself states that “I was not allowed to
advance along with my classmates” and that when she began her amorous relationship with the late Wilhuff Tarkin, Moff Governor of Seswenna
Sector, “I was a lowly corporal working in the kitchen” in Darksaber, conclusively proving that she was neither a Galactic Emperor’s Commissioned
Officer nor even an enlisted sailor in the Imperial Navy – and began a successful career in the Navy; years later, in 48 rS, Daala alleged that Getelles
had “shared the test results at the Academy,” implying that he cheated and helped his right-hand man, Larm, to pass. He was eventually promoted to
the rank of post captain (“over my head,” Daala would contend, despite the fact that she was not even in the Imperial Navy, corporal being an
enlisted rank use by the Army or the Marines; one wonders how Daala’s contemporaries felt about her own promotion to the rank of fleet admiral in
Grand Moff Tarkin’s Oversector Outer despite her lack of any sort of commission at all with the Imperial Navy, to say nothing of the fact that she
was in fact sleeping with the man, a gross act of fraternization). Despite – or perhaps because of – Getelles’s success, his old classmate hated him
intensely, calling him a “quibbling, incompetent, boot-licking, corset-laced little sand maggot” in 48, at least 20 years after they’d attended class
together.
Getelles continued to rise through the ranks, keeping Larm with him as his alter ego and client. He was eventually appointed a Moff and Governor of
Antemeridian Sector in or around 35 rS; the diplomatic reception held in honor of his elevation to Moffhood was one of the last such receptions
Senator the Princess Leia of Alderaan (Alderaan) ever attended in the Imperial Palace. There, she recalled Larm as having been “of the flat-backed, by-
the-book, spit-and-polish, boot-kissing school of soldiering” – here, the Princess shows her lubberly ignorance, as no Naval servicemember, officer or
sailor, is referred to as a “soldier,” although Daala also made the same elementary mistake in Darksaber, calling herself an “Imperial soldier” –
“toadying Getelles and every other Moff and Governor without ever relaxing his tough-warrior manner,” a “dark-visaged and sternly efficient foil to
the new Moff’s hail-fellow-well-met fairness.” Getelles pulled the necessary strings to ensure that his client Larm was promoted to the rank of
admiral “over the heads of several better-qualified candidates.” He would continue to hold onto power in the Antemeridian Sector, ruling “in the
name of the Emperor” as late as 48, blissfully unaffected by Daala’s murder of the most powerful Deep Core rogue warlords in 47 rS, although he
lacked the military/naval strength to seriously challenge the New Republic’s holding of the neighboring Meridian Sector. Holojournalist Yarbolk
Yemm of TriNebulon News uncovered evidence from his sources at Getelles’s court that the Loronar Corporation “is pretty much backing Getelles’s
whole household,” and that Gnifmak Dymurra, Chief Executive Officer of Loronar Corporation for the Core Worlds Regions, lived in decadent
luxury at Getelles’s court, with “sex droids, vibrobaths, plug-ins, glitterstim, four different chefs, self-conforming slippers, independently controlled
environments in every room of his mansion,” including “some stuff that isn’t legal anywhere.” By this time, Larm had begun being styled “Grand
Admiral Larm,” which suggests that Getelles may have been planning on using him as a figurehead for further expansion of his power.
According to the New Republic Historical Council’s The Essential Chronology, Getelles was pressured into recognizing Vice Admiral Gilad Pellaeon,
caudillo of the Outer Rim ‘Empire’ as his nominal suzerain; Pellaeon had inherited command of Daala’s amalgamated warlord fleet, while Daala
herself resigned in disgrace after her disastrous and humiliating defeat at Yavn IV in Darksaber, becoming President of the Independent Company of
Settlers and leasing 1.5 billion acres on Pedducis Chorios from Warlord K’iin of the Silver Unifir. According to the Princess Leia in Planet of Twilight,
Getelles was receiving information from a security leak in the New Republic Council, along with Pellaeon and Moff Shargael of I Sector; the leak was
subsequently revealed to be New Republic Councillor Q-Varx (Calamari), floor leader of the Rationalist Party of the New Republic. Getelles,
resenting Pellaeon’s newfound preeminence among the various Palpatinist and neo-Imperial splinter states and factions remaining in the galaxy,
hatched a plot with Dymurra, and Seti Ashgad, Jr. – actually the senior Seti Ashgad, former Galactic Senator and rival of Palpatine of Naboo, who
had been exiled by the same to Nam Chorios in 16 rS and was now posing as his own son – to destabilize the Meridian Sector, allowing Getelles’s
forces under Larm to annex the Sector, opening it to material exploitation by Loronar and making Ashgad a very rich man. To that end, Loronar began
subsidizing “armed revolt or religious rioting or uprisings from minority tribes or groups” all throughout the Meridian Sector, including the instigation
of a rebellion against the Durrn Central Planetary Council, casting the New Republic’s defense agreements – including permission to maintain a major
fleet orbital base in Durren space – into doubt. Once the confusion was in full swing, Getelles’s forces invaded the Sector, but was foiled by New
Republic interference; Larm and Ashgad both perished in a space battle over Nam Chorios, and according to The Essential Chronology, the New
Republic pressed the attack, invading the Antemeridian Sector proper with “two full fleets” and annexing the Sector itself as well as “a huge chunk of
neighboring space,” until Pellaeon’s forces halted the New Republic advance at the cost of his flagship, the former HIMS Reaper, a Super Star
Destroyer obtained from the former Pentastar Alignment. Getelles’s fate is unknown after he lost control of Antemeridian Sector; possibly he took
up residence as a Moff-in-exile at Pellaeon’s own court, but this is unattested.
Getelles’s bitter and vindictive classmate Daala described him as “corset-laced,” which is probably intended as a crude implication of transvestitism
(if not outright homosexuality); she also called him a “boot-kissing, talentless, jumped-up catamite,” which cannot be interpreted as anything but an
accusation of homosexuality. Getelles himself never appears, but he was described (rather more dispassionately) by the Princess Leia of Alderaan as
having been noted for his “hail-fellow-well-met fairness,” so one might well conclude that the intensely jealous Daala (who actually did sleep her way
to power) was slandering him on the basis of a certain degree of effeminacy on his part, or perhaps dandified courtly manners.
References:
Anderson, Kevin J. Darksaber. Bantam Books, 1995.
Anderson, Kevin J. and Daniel E. Wallace. The Essential Chronology. Del Rey Books, 2000.
Hambly, Barbara. Planet of Twilight. Bantam Books, 1997.
| 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 7 October 2007. |