Vilos Cohaagen

Vilos Cohaagen was a male and one of the founders of the Galactic Alliance. Born on the of  in 34 BBY, he was the son of an  military man and rose to prominence during the post- chaos enveloping the, when he assumed control of the  and its neighbors. Cohaagen, however, only became known to the wider galaxy, when he and a group of officers overthrew the Republic in a coup d'état and instigated a military dictatorship masquerading as a democracy: the Galactic Alliance. Cohaagen was given nearly unregulated power and autonomy in the fields of diplomacy and propaganda, which he used to strengthen the bonds of the Alliance with various post-Thrawn Imperial factions.

During his career in the Galactic Empire, Cohaagen adopted a direct approach to problems, not afraid of executing harsh moves to regulate renegade s and. He retained this trait in the Galactic Alliance as well, sometimes making potentially offensive comments during public appearances. It was partly these characteristics of his that made him unpopular amongst the poorer or anti-Imperial populations, which inspired some groups to take lethal action: Vilos Cohaagen was ated on the Alliance capital planet in 39 ABY.

Early life
The male Vilos Cohaagen was born on the   in the  34 BBY. His father, Wox Cohaagen, was a communications officer in the, while his mother, Asu Cohaagen, worked at the national Anaxsi channel as an overseer of the inclusion of news items. The young Cohaagen received militaristic education at the Anaxsi educational establishment he was enrolled at, but he aimed for a political career and entered the Anaxsi University of Politics, from where he graduated in 8 BBY, summa cum laude.

Post-graduation
Following his graduation, Cohaagen participated in the councilor election held at his home town. He succeeded, and became the councilor of economics and one of his acts&mdash;the heavy taxation and permission of items that would otherwise have been illegal in the &mdash;attracted the attention of the planet's governor. Although some of the Imperial officials condemned his actions, the governor was impressed and made Cohaagen his financial advisor. Cohaagen spent twelve years working alongside him and gained respect among the other privileged in the.

Rise to prominence
In 4 ABY,  was  during the. The governor of the Axum system was in the ensuing power vacuum and chaos, and Vilos Cohaagen&mdash;being one of the deceased being's closest advisors&mdash;assumed control. Recruiting twelve members of the Anaxsi military to become his personal bodyguards, he slowly eroded his opposition by systematically delivering hate speeches against a selected person, who would thus eventually lynched by the public. Cohaagen survived an assassination attempt during this period, which saw two of his guards killed and him suffering minor injuries.

Cohaagen solidified his rule by 5 ABY and began to suppress the renegade political groups that emerged following the 's string of victories in the, and. Rallying the Anaxsi army and navy, he forcefully cracked down a series of protests on and destroyed a pirate  in an uninhabited system close to Anaxes. This earned him respect among the leaders of the Imperial s in the galactic core.

On the run
In 6 ABY, the New Republic seized the galactic capital planet and purged the Empire from the Core. Seeing the danger, Cohaagen ceded his position to one of his friends&mdash;who then proceeded to surrender Anaxes to the Republic&mdash;and escaped to the Imperial splinter faction with his bodyguards and advisors via. However, the leader of the faction, Grand Admiral, attempted to arrest and extradite him to the Republic to ensure his power. Cohaagen narrowly avoided the trap set at by using the weapons of his, the Judgment, to destroy the gravity well generators of the   that blocked his escape. He then fled to the, whose government was pro-Imperial enough to accept him.

Cohaagen purchased an estate on the Centrality's capital planet,, and took up the alias Cao Ventro in an effort to prevent recognition. He began to produce various plants on his fields and distilled alcoholic drinks from them as a cover-up for his covert operations to prepare a coup of the New Republic, which had been looking for him in the territory of the fragmented of the. Cohaagen first contacted the Centrality government to gain support for his idea, offering to-be captured s south of in return. The leaders of the Centrality approved the proposal and dispatched thirty operatives to aid him.

Preparing for revenge
In 8 ABY, Grand Admiral attacked the New Republic from his empire in the. This drew the focus of the Republic westwards, allowing Cohaagen to set his plans into motion. He traveled along the to the  under the pretext of purchasing machinery required for distilling, but the real cause was different: he prepared a meeting with the leaders of the  to negotiate financial aid for his operations. However, the attempt was unsuccessful: the Authority's government did not want to be involved in a potential war against the New Republic due to their reliance on various technologies imported from there and refused any support. Vilos Cohaagen considered this a failure and was deeply shaken by the event. He became a frequent sight in the casinos of the, gambling and consuming alcohol, which often led to emotional outbursts. The natural phenomenon of the system, the "flamewind" caused by the star Oseon's solar wind, also impacted him negatively; on one occasion in 11 ABY, the red colors of the wind caused him to verbally insult and attack a group of individuals that were working for the. The encounter resulted in Cohaagen being hospitalized after the criminals physically assaulted him and the time he spent there convinced him that he needed to step over his failure if he was to finish his plans. However, the negative experiences suffered in the casinos continued to haunt him and he became addicted to alcohol to a moderate level, which weakened his physique.

Eventually, Cohaagen set out to negotiate with the &mdash;which had used the New Republic's distraction by the Empire of the Hand during the Thrawn campaign to push into the Borderland Regions and conquer a swath of territory spinward of the Hydian Way hyperlane&mdash;in 12 ABY. Cohaagen intended to negotiate fiscal, political and military support for his future government and consult with Imperial theorists to develop a constitution that would be used by the state. The Remnant, having been strengthened, gave way to his idea and the concept of the Galactic Alliance began to be transplanted into reality. A batch of Imperial officers accompanied him on his way back to the Centrality, discussing the territory and military of the Alliance. The eventual compromise permitted Cohaagen's government to gain access to parts of the and the Borderlands as well as to slice into the space west of Coruscant, while it would be free to act in all other directions.

After forging alliance with the Imperial Remnant, Vilos Cohaagen sought out the other remaining Imperial faction: Grand Admiral Thrawn's Empire of the Hand. The admiral did not want his government to actively engage the New Republic, as his campaign weakened the state's economy, but offered political support. Cohaagen, not wanting to provoke Thrawn, agreed to this limited offer and returned to the Centrality shortly after.

Initiating the plan
"This is Vilos Cohaagen to all participants. Situation alpha; execute the plan."

- Vilos Cohaagen

By 13 ABY, Vilos Cohaagen secured support for his future government from various factions and decided to put his plans into motion. He dispatched Centrality agents to the New Republic, where they joined the navy and sought out dissatisfied personnel. Their task was eased when the Republic reduced the funding of the armed forces due to the relative peace, which resulted in lower salaries. Cohaagen's agent provocateurs used the situation to their advantage and organized secret meetings, where the navy's members and the operatives conspired against their senior officers. Other agents, especially the ones who attained officer ranks in the navy, contacted the commanders they suspected to be possible allies and attempted to convince them with bribery or other promises. Over the course of years, the web of corruption grew to include Greyer, the commander of the Republic fleets in the New Territories, the leaders of the planets, ,  and &mdash;all former pro-Imperial planets&mdash;and a Republic commando unit of 300 men, stationed on Coruscant.

In 25 ABY, Cohaagen decided to take action and form the Galactic Alliance. He traveled to Coruscant in disguise, accompanied by agents, and sent a signal telling his operatives and the corrupted officers to take action. The inhabitants of Anaxes, Bilbringi, Carida and Kuat rebelled and chased the New Republic garrisons away, while Cohaagen and the corrupt New Republic commandos stormed the, taking the individuals present there hostage.

At the same time, an Imperial Remnant rapid-reaction fleet reached Bilbringi&mdash;which had been abandoned by the bribed Admiral Greyer&mdash;and dispatched troops to the world to aid the population in cleansing operations. Other agents sabotaged a key New Republic transmission node in deep space near, thus preventing the trapped Republic forces in the New Territories from sending emergency messages. Greyer, meanwhile, led his fleet past and began to travel towards the neutral Corporate Sector along the Hydian Way.

Cohaagen then broadcast his demands over the : Coruscant's abandonment by the New Republic and the extraction of Republic units from the New Territories, else he would order his troops to massacre the politicians. Fearing this end, Coruscant's defense fleet retreated to, while the few loyalist forces in the northern quadrants fell back to. Hours later, the rapid-reaction task force of the Imperial Remnant entered the, and Cohaagen began to release the hostages, one by one. Although the Senators were all released, New Republic  was executed in an attempt to generate a succession crisis in the Republic. The politicians were then transported to Corellia by independent starship owners.

Galactic Alliance and death
In the years that followed, Cohaagen served in the Galactic Alliance's ruling council, along with two treacherous New Republic admirals, an Imperial Remnant delegate and corporate managers. Drawing on the New Republic's paralyzation by the execution of Cal Omas, Cohaagen's fleets raced down the Hydian Way and the Namadii Corridor while retaining their push against the fortified Republic holdings in the Arrowhead. However, following the incursion of the  into the galactic halo and the Unknown Regions, hostilities were temporarily ended and Cohaagen commanded a task force to support the Confederation of Non-Aligned Planets, which, by then, had been engaging the invaders at its central holdings around the capital planet. At Ilum, combined Confederation fleets, supplemented by units dispatched by various governments, stopped the Vong march and Cohaagen pursued the enemy until the border of the known galaxy. In exchange for this service, the Confederation awarded the Alliance with trade discounts, and the connection Cohaagen had established with the Corporate Sector Authority made the Galactic Alliance an ideal transit point for commerce between the two governments.

Vilos Cohaagen participated in various corporate summits and eventually revamped the Alliance economy, which had been a hybrid of Republic and Imperial practices. His new mechanism made income tax and customs the primary sources of the budget; companies transporting large amounts of goods would get a discount and so would those that conducted long-range spedition. However, the raised taxes had a side effect: the poorer inhabitants of Alliance worlds developed a hatred against the central government and Cohaagen, who had become the embodiment of the new economy and the Alliance itself. Cohaagen attempted to disperse the dissatisfaction by making sudden public appearances, but his speciesism and personality often worsened the situation. Following a failed bomb plot of his Coruscanti apartment, Cohaagen tightened his personal security: his 20-car airspeeder convoy would be escorted by ten police speeders and five military vehicles at all times. In 39 ABY, Cohaagen was heading to a meeting of the Alliance leadership within the old Senate Building. Whne the convoy entered a tunnel leading across a skyscraper, the front vehicle was disabled by an explosive, which ground the speeders to a halt. Cohaagen and fifteen of his bodyguards exited their limousine and attempted to escape on foot as the soldiers escorting him engaged a number of terrorists, but the old man broke away from his protectors in the dark and was killed by three armed individuals. His funeral was held twenty days later, on his home planet Anaxes.

Legacy
Vilos Cohaagen's death shattered the Galactic Alliance. The lack of a leader to keep the faction together resulted in internal tension, which was only resolved by the appointment of an Imperial general to serve as a regent. Though his fellow leaders were shaken by his assassination, much of the Alliance's population celebrated the event. On his funeral, an aging Imperial official of Anaxes referred to him as "the architect of a government worthy of succeeding the Empire."

Behind the scenes
The images and name of Vilos Cohaagen are derived from those of the main villain of the film . He is portrayed by the actor, guitarist and singer-songwriter.