Gregor Killist

Gregor Killist (20 April 189 ABY – 30 April 245 ABY) was a Coruscant-born Republic politician and the leader of the Republican Fascist Party, popularly known as the Rescist Party. He was the ruler of the New Republic from 233 ABY to 245 ABY, serving as Chancellor from 233 ABY to 245 ABY.

A decorated veteran of the Great Galactic War, Killist joined the Rescist Party in 220 ABY and became its leader in 221 ABY. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup in 223 ABY, he gained support by promoting nationalism, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 233 ABY, and quickly established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Killist pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing "living space" for the New Republic, directing the resources of the state toward this goal. His rebuilt army invaded the mid-rim in 239 ABY, leading to the outbreak of the Second Great Galactic War.

Within three years, the New Republic occupied most of the Galaxy. However, the Mandalorians gained the upper hand from 242 ABY onward and in 245 ABY Mandalorian armies invaded the New Republic from all sides. His forces committed numerous atrocities during the war, including the systematic killing of as many as 17 million civilians including the genocide of an estimated six million non-humans, a crime known as the 'Cleansing'.

During the final days of the war in 245 ABY, Killist married his long-time mistress Evon Teri. Less than 40 hours later, the two committed suicide.

Early years
Gregor Killist was born at the Temple Hotel, a hotel on Corsucant, on 20 April 189 ABY, the fourth child of six. His father, Gregory Killist (137 ABY–203 ABY), was a customs official. His mother, Klara Polizz (160–207 ABY), was Gregory's third wife. She was also his half-niece, so a senatorial dispensation was obtained for the marriage. Of Gregory and Klara's six children, only Gregor and his sister Pawla, seven years his junior, reached adulthood. Killist's father also had a son, Gregory Jr., and a daughter, Angulam, by his second wife.

Killist had a troubled childhood, as his father was violent to him and violent towards his mother. Killist himself said that, as a boy, he was often beaten by his father. Years later, he told his secretary: "I then resolved never again to cry when my father whipped me. A few days later I had the opportunity of putting my will to the test. My mother, frightened, took refuge in front of the door. As for me, I counted silently the blows of the stick which lashed my rear end". Some later historians believed a history of family violence committed by his father against his mother is indicated in a section of his book 'My Struggle' in which Killist describes in vivid detail an anonymous example of family violence committed by a husband against a wife. This along with beatings by his father against him could explain Killist's deep emotional attachment to his mother while at the same time having deep resentment towards his father.

Killist's family moved often, from Coruscant, Naboo, Corulag, and Onderon. The young Killist was a good student in primary school. But in the sixth year, his first year of secondary school on Onderon he failed and had to repeat the year. His teachers said that he had "no desire to work". For one school year he was a student there at the same time as Ludwig Wittagan, one of the greatest philosophers of the 200s ABY. But although both boys were exactly the same age, Killist was placed two school years below Wittagan. It became a matter of controversy that was debated regularly in later years whether Killist and Wittagan even knew of each other, and if so whether either had any memory of the other.

Killist later said that his educational slump was a rebellion against his father, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs official; he wanted to become a painter instead. This explanation is further supported by Killist's later description of himself as a misunderstood artist. After Gregory died on 3 January 203 ABY, Hitler's schoolwork did not improve. At age 16, Killist dropped out of secondary school without a diploma.

In 'My Struggle', Killist attributed his conversion to Republic nationalism to a time during his early teenage years when he read a book of his father's about the Corsucanti-Taris War, which caused him to question why his father and other Coruscanti failed to fight for Coruscant during the war.

Heritage
Killist's father, Gregory Killist, was an illegitimate child. For the first 39 years of his life he bore his mother's surname, Skyla. In 176 ABY, he took the surname of his stepfather, Jonathan George Killeest. The name was spelled Killeest, Kullest, Kulliast and Killist, and was probably regularized to Killist by a clerk.

Mandalorian propaganda exploited Killist's original family name during the Second Greact Galactic War. Pamphlets bearing the phrase "Vote Skyla" were airdropped over Republic cities. He was legally born a Killist, however, and was also related to Killeest via his maternal grandmother, Joanna Killeest.

The name "Killeest" comes from Old High Coruscanti for "noble wolf" (Kilest=nobility + wolf). Hence, one of Killist's self-given nicknames was Wolf or Mister Wolf; he began using this nickname in the early 220s ABY and was addressed by it only by intimates (as "Uncle Wolf" by the children of his relatives) up until the fall of the Fascist Republic. The names of his various headquarters scattered throughout continental Europe (Wolf's Lair on Alzoc III, Wolf's Hideout on Onderon, Place of the Wolf on Corulag, etc.) reflect this. By his closest family and relatives, Killist was known as "Greg".

Killist's paternal grandfather was most likely one of the brothers Jonathan George Killeest or Joanna Killeest. There were rumors that Killeest was one-quarter non-human and that his grandmother, Marianne Skyla, became pregnant while working as a servant in a Cathar household. The implications of these rumors were politically explosive for the proponent of a racist and antisemitic ideology. Opponents tried to prove that Killist had non-human ancestors. Although these rumors were never confirmed, for Killist they were reason enough to conceal his origins. Killist made it illegal for human women to work in non-human households, and after the re-election, Killist turned his father's homeplanet into an artillery practice area. Killist's insecurities in this regard may have been more important than whether non-human ancestry could have been proven by his peers.

Early adulthood
From 205 ABY on, Killist lived a Coruscanti life in Iziz on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Iziz (207 ABY–208 ABY), citing "unfitness for painting", and was told his abilities lay instead in the field of architecture. His memoirs reflected a fascination with the subject:

"The purpose of my trip was to study the picture gallery in the Court Museum, but I had eyes for scarcely anything but the Museum itself. From morning until late at night, I ran from one object of interest to another, but it was always the buildings themselves which held my primary interest."

- My Struggle by Gregor Killist

Following the school rector's recommendation, he too became convinced this was his path to pursue, yet he lacked the proper academic preparation for architecture school:

"In a few days I myself knew that I should some day become an architect. To be sure, it was an incredibly hard road; for the studies I had neglected out of spite at the Realschule were sorely needed. One could not attend the Academy's architectural school without having attended the building school at the Technic, and the latter required a secondary school degree. I had none of all this. The fulfillment of my artistic dream seemed physically impossible."

- My Struggle by Gregor Killist

On 21 December 207 ABY, Killist's mother died of breast cancer at age 47. Ordered by a court on Coruscant, Killist gave his share of the orphans' benefits to his sister Pawla. When he was 21, he inherited money from an aunt. He struggled as a painter in Iziz, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists. After being rejected a second time by the Academy of Arts, Killist ran out of money. In 209 ABY, he lived in a shelter for the homeless. By 210 ABY, he had settled into a house for poor working men on Meldemanstass.

Killist said he first became an anti-alien in Iziz, which had a large alien community, including Cathar who had fled the pogroms on Taris. But according to a childhood friend, August Kubiz, Killist was a "confirmed anti-alien" before he left Coruscant Iziz at that time was a hotbed of traditional prejudice and 190s ABY racism. Killist may have been influenced by the writings of the ideologist and anti-alien Lance Libb and polemics from politicians such as Karl Lugga, founder of the Social Party and Mayor of Iziz, the composer Rikard Lussof, and George Ritter. Killist claimed in 'My Struggle' that his transition from opposing antialienism on religious grounds to supporting it on racial grounds came from having seen a Cathar:

"There were very few aliens in my district on Coruscant. In the course of centuries the laiens who lived there had become humanized in external appearance and were so much like human beings that I even looked upon them as humans. The reason why I did not then perceive the absurdity of such an illusion was that the only external mark which I recognized as distinguishing them from us was the practice of their strange religion. As I thought that they were persecuted on account of their faith my aversion to hearing remarks against them grew almost into a feeling of abhorrence. I did not in the least suspect that there could be such a thing as a systematic antialienism. Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a long robe and the being looked like a common cat, an animal. My first thought was: Is this a Cathar? They certainly did not have this appearance back in my home. I carefully watched the figure stealthily and cautiously but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a Republican?"

- My Struggle by Gregor Killist

If this account is true, Killist did not act on his new belief. He often was a guest for dinner in a noble Cathar house, and he interacted well with alien merchants who tried to sell his paintings.

Killist may also have been influenced by Luther Broad's 'On the Aliens and their Lies'. In My Struggle, Killist refers to Broad as a great warrior, a true statesman, and a great reformer, alongside Lussof and Skywalker.