Marg Krim

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"Did you honestly think you'd get away with fooling a Pyke?"

―Marg Krim, to Trace and Rafa Martez^[5]

Marg Krim, formally addressed as the Illustrious Imperator, was a male Pyke who served as a powerful member of the Pyke Syndicate during the Clone Wars. He was the husband of Tezzka Krim and the father of Laalee and Vram.

Biography

Threatened by Black Sun

"My supposedly devoted men are willing to let my family die if it means they do not have to join Black Sun. That hateful group sees this attack on my family as a victory either way, because they know it will hurt me. My family must be returned safely…and secretly. This will show both Black Sun and my own men that Marg Krim is still a powerful member of the Pyke Family. Family…"

―A drugged Marg Krim, to Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress^[2]

Following the death of Lom Pyke, the leader of the Pyke Syndicate, Marg Krim served as the leader of the Pyke Syndicate.^[1] The Pyke Syndicate specialized in the distribution of all types of illegal spice and experienced considerable internal rivalry and back-stabbing. His majordomo was named Fife.^[2] When Black Sun leader Ziton Moj proposed a merger between the two criminal organizations, Krim refused, leading Moj to orchestrate the capture of Krim's family to compel Krim to change his mind. Krim was unable to rely on his own henchmen since many of them disagreed with his decision not to join Black Sun.^[2]

In desperation, Krim turned to two independent bounty hunters, the Dathomirian Nightsister Asajj Ventress and her partner, the undercover Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. Krim's contacts met Ventress on Coruscant's Level 1313 and invited her to Krim's palace on Oba Diah. Upon arriving there, Krim's majordomo Fife led the "bounty seekers" to Krim's throne. There, the Pyke crime lord outlined his predicament and pleaded with the two bounty hunters to rescue his wife Tezzka and their children Laalee and Vram. When Vos asked him why he was not sending his own men to rescue his family, Krim replied that he could not trust his own men and stressed that saving his family would restore his prestige.^[2]

Ventress and Vos traveled to the volcanic planet of Mustafar where they managed to rescue Krim's family from the Black Sun fortress. After assaulting the Black Sun leader Ziton Moj and his Falleen henchmen, the bounty hunters returned with the hostages to Oba Diah where they reunited Krim with his family. As a reward, Krim paid Ventress and Vos twice the original amount he had offered them. Krim's elation however was short-lived because the Black Sun returned with a sizeable fleet of starfighters and Interceptor-class frigates to settle scores with Krim.^[2]

A spice shipment gone wrong

At a later point in the war, Krim arranged a deal via Kinash Lock, majordomo of King Yaruba of Kessel, to hire Rafa Martez of Coruscant to transport spice to Oba Diah. However, when the pilot she had originally hired backed out, Rafa was forced to turn to her younger sister Trace and her untested ship, the Silver Angel. Trace's new friend, former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, insisted on coming along to keep the sisters out of trouble, although Rafa mistrusted her motives. After picking up the spice from Kessel, when Trace learned that they were going to Oba Diah and Tano told her that the Pykes were vicious gangsters, the girl panicked and ejected their cargo into hyperspace. In desperation, since the girls now owed the Pykes 30,000 credits, Tano came up with a plan to swindle Krim. Arriving at the Pyke Palace, Rafa, Trace and Tano were met by Krim, Fife and a squad of guards. Krim intended to inspect their cargo personally, but Tano covertly mind tricked him into giving them their payment so they could leave. However, Fife grew suspicious of Krim's odd behavior and blasted open the crates himself as the girls were leaving. Finding them empty, he ordered several Pyke patrol ships to catch the Silver Angel in a tractor beam before it could escape.^[3]

Fooling a Pyke

After being captured by the Pykes, Ahsoka, Trace, and Rafa were imprisoned while their captors prepared to torture them for the spice's location. However, after Rafa was interrogated and Trace was taken out of their cell, Ahsoka discretely used the Force to deactivate the cell's security and help the sisters escape. The three of them managed to take out a few more Pyke guards before Trace and Rafa were finally found by Fife and a few other guards. Upon capturing them, Fife opened a transmission to Krim, who asked them if they thought they would get away with fooling a Pyke. Rafa attempted to bargain for her and her sister's lives by reminding Krim of the spice's location. But Krim responded by saying that he would torture their friend for the information. Krim then ordered Fife to execute the sisters before ending the transmission. Though unbeknownst to him, the sisters would nearly escape once more with Ahsoka before the three of them were finally captured and returned to their cell.^[5]

One more chance

Back in captivity, Krim gave Rafa an ultimatum; pay her debt or watch her friends die slowly. However, Ahsoka then cut in and offered to make a deal with Krim, feigning ambivalence towards Trace and Rafa's fates. Krim asked her once more for the location of the spice and Ahsoka responded that she didn't know where it was; only that the sisters had hidden it off-world. She then told Krim to give them one rotation to return the spice. If they didn't, she would inform Krim of their family's location. Krim asked Ahsoka what she would get out of this, to which Ahsoka said that she simply wanted her percentage. After thinking it over for a moment, Krim agreed to the terms. Though he also added that if Trace and Rafa didn't return with the spice, then he would torture and kill Tano before doing the same to the sisters and their family. Once the three of them left, Fife told Krim that this was just another deception. Krim then revealed that he knew this, but that he also didn't have much of a choice, since his life depended on regaining that spice as much as theirs. Fife asked Krim if he thought Lord Maul would find out about this mishap, to which Krim responded that he knows since he always knows.^[4]

Threatened by Maul

Afterwards, Krim was contacted by Maul, whose Shadow Collective the Pyke Syndicate still served. Krim insisted that the current delay would not change things and that their operations would proceed as planned. Maul then reminded Krim that he was but one small piece in the mechanism he designed. Yet when he faltered, it jeopardized everything. Maul asked Krim if he understood, to which Krim responded by reminding Maul that the Republic was cracking down on his operations. He even referenced a specific incident from a week before where they raided one of his shipments arriving on Coruscant. When Maul asked Krim if there were Jedi, Krim stated that he didn't know, since none of his men made it out. Maul then reasoned that the answer was yes before turning away briefly as he sensed Tano nearby. Turning back to Krim, Maul stated that he had more important things to attend to other than the Pyke's incompetence. He then told Krim to make sure there were no more delays. Though if there were, then he was certain Crimson Dawn would love the opportunity to take control of his operation. Once the transmission ended, Fife told Krim that Maul played members of the Collective against one another, to which Krim conceded that this was an efficient way of dealing with their kind of business. Fife expressed certainty that Maul knew of the Pykes' unwillingness to jump to his command. Though Krim then asked Fife if he would like to make that clear to him. Just then, Krim was informed by another Pyke guard of Ahsoka's escape and ran off with them to find her. Ahsoka was able to locate Maul on Mandalore before being discovered by Krim, who demanded to know who she was. Ahsoka then used the Force to fight off the guards, though she was quickly surrounded and forced to surrender. Realizing she was in fact a Jedi, Krim asked her if her friends were Jedi as well. Ahsoka answered that they weren't and that they were unaware of her true identity. Krim threatened that the Jedi Council would regret sending her there and had one of his guards stun her before taking her away.^[4]

An explosive confrontation

With his prisoner back in stuncuffs, Krim admitted that he wanted to thank Ahsoka, since her execution would help restore the Pykes' reputation. Trace and Rafa then entered the room, claiming to have brought the spice. However, Krim stated that he knew the sisters were working for the Republic and Ahsoka, who he revealed to be a Jedi. Rafa expressed disbelief at this claim, leading Krim to conclude that Ahsoka had played them both. Trace asked Ahsoka why she didn't tell her, to which Ahsoka responded by asking how she could after what they had told her about their parents. Rafa then asked if she truly was a Jedi and Ahsoka explained that she was a Jedi once before she left. Cutting off their conversation, Krim ordered his guards to execute the three of them. But before they could fire, Ahsoka activated a series of detonators she had previously planted throughout the Pyke Palace. While Krim and his guards were stunned by the explosions, Ahsoka, Trace and Rafa managed to escape from the palace. Krim ordered his guards to capture them or they would all suffer the consequences. Though unfortunately for Krim, Tano and the sisters would evade capture one last time before finally leaving Oba Diah, placing the Pyke in further danger of reprimand from Maul.^[4]

The end of the war

At the end of the Clone Wars, during the height of the Siege of Mandalore, Maul contacted Krim via hologram, alongside Moj and the public leader of Crimson Dawn Dryden Vos, to instruct them to go into hiding, as Maul had foreseen the imminent fall of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire.^[6]

Legacy

Marg Krim's time leading the Pykes was mentioned in "Index of Organizations," a survival compendium sent out by Carson Teva during the New Republic Era.^[7]

Personality and traits

"What I can say is that Black Sun is trying to move in on the Pyke Syndicate. Marg Krim has been put in a terrible position. Much is on the line for him. Black Sun wants all his business. He risks both losing face with our syndicate and ... well, the rest I will leave for him to share."

―Fife describing Krim's predicament^[2]

Marg Krim was a male Pyke^[2] with purple eyes and green skin.^[3] As a Pyke, Krim was a tall humanoid with long, spindly limbs that ended in three digits^[2] and a height of 1.91 meters, or 6 feet, 3 inches.^[1] He had a large elongated head with a tapered skull and a smallish face. As the leader of the Pyke Syndicate, Krim wanted to protect his crime syndicate's interests from other competitors like Black Sun.^[2] Despite his position, however, he was weak-minded enough to be vulnerable to mind tricks.^[3] Krim sought to expand the illegal spice trade and striked deals with Kessel's elite to smuggle the valuable substance offworld.^[1] Due to the complex internal rivalries and external challenges facing the Pyke Syndicate, Marg did not want to look weak. He greatly loved his wife Tezzka and their two children Laalee and Vram and was greatly distraught by their kidnapping. Krim distrusted his own henchmen because many of them wanted to merge the Pyke Syndicate with Black Sun. As Illustrious Imperator, he wore a metallic mask that looked like rays of the sun or the plumes of a bird. He used it to hide his emotions when dealing with outsiders like Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos.^[2] Krim took orders from Maul^[4] and at the end of the Clone War, obeyed the former Sith Lord's warning to keep a low profile.^[6]

Skills and abilities

As the leader of the Pyke Syndicate, Krim was experienced in negotiations, intimidation and persuasion, striking deals with Kessel's elite to smuggle illegal spice off world.^[1]

Behind the scenes

Marg Krim first debuted as a minor character in Christie Golden's 2015 novel Dark Disciple, which was based on four unfinished episodes and four unproduced screenplays that formed a larger story arc in the canceled Cartoon Network TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Dark Disciple is part of the Canon The Clone Wars Legacy, a multimedia project using material from the canceled series.^[2]