Hirono Tavira

"Probably the smartest, and most attractive, of the Imperial warlords. Too bad she has to die."

- Lando Calrissian

Hirono Tavira, nicknamed Queen of the Empire, was a human female Moff and later self proclaimed of the Second Imperium. After the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader in the Battle of Endor, she started her own empire, the Second Imperium. Using her wealth, Hirono hired hundreds of engineers and scientists to work on the Death Star III. The New Republic found out, and sent a fleet to destroy it. Despite the defenses the Imperium put up, it was destroyed and Hirono was killed aboard it.

Early Life
Hirono was born sometime prior to the Galactic Civil War. In the years leading up to it, she was a slave of a planetary Governor. At age sixteen, Hirono killed him and took his place. The Emperor, who did not like the governor, approved and made it official. At age eighteen, he made her the Moff of the Samix sector. Throughout her career, she made many deals in which she gained mass profit. It made the sector very rich. Hirono supported Grand Moff Tarkin's Death Star Project, and sometimes wished she could be part of. She began plans to make her own Death Star. During the Civil War, Hirono watched the progress of Max Harkov, an ace TIE test pilot, and thought of a way to recruit him into her fleet.

Own Empire
However, in 4 ABY, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were killed aboard the Death Star II over Endor. Following the Battle of Endor, Hirono immediately sent her small fleet to claim several nearby sectors. The sectors nearby had either no Moffs or ones with weaker forces. Several joined her, expanding her fleet. As the New Republic was formed, Hirono created the Second Imperium. It was essentially a smaller Empire. Hirono contacted Max Harkov, who was on Coruscant, and told him to join her. Max, who had fallen for her, agreed. She used him and his squadron for security purposes. When Grand Admiral Thrawn emerged from the Unknown Regions, she reluctantly let Max leave for a while and fight for Thrawn's Confederacy. He then fought for the resurrected Palpatine and his Dark Empire. Following it's defeat, he returned and resumed guard duty of the Death Star III.

Final Battle
When the New Republic found out about Hirono's project, they deployed a fleet under Admiral Ackbar himself to destroy it. Hirono had confidence that her three Imperial-class Star Destroyers (Imperator, Predator, and Superior) and Max's TIE squadrons could hold them off long enough for the laser to charge. She proved right, but was on,y able to destroy four Mon Calamari cruisers before the station was destroyed by Republic pilots.

Legacy
Hirono proved to the nervous Republic leaders that even the smallest warlord kingdoms could be potentially dangerous. Leia Organa Solo noted that they were lucky to destroy the station before it could attack a planet. Max was later told by a female Twi'lek Imperial Intelligence agent named Terra Zaarin that Hirono did not love him back and manipulated him so he would work for her.

Personality & Traits
Hirono was known to be very cold and ambitious. It became clear to Palpatine after he found that she killed a governor, and liked her attitude, promoting her to Moff. She later manipulated Max Harkov into working for her.