Sevren Sunrunner

Sevren Sunrunner, 1st Duke of Taris was a politician of the House of Sunrunner who served as the two-time President of Taris during the latter days of the Republic.

A longtime supporter of, Sevren was named of Taris during the  for his longtime service to Palpatine's cause, and eventually ruled as  of the  during the days of the.

Early life
Sevren Sunrunner was born in the Sunrunner Palace on in, the second son of the reigning Count Sunrunner. Unlike his elder brother Sandar Sunrunner, Sevren was born with no inherent, and grew to resent his brother for his gifts.

As a young man, he turned his attention to politics, and soon became a rising star in Taris's right-wing party, Taris First. His public hatred for non-human species on Taris earned him much controversy and many enemies during his time, though his outright bigotry and unwillingness to bow to the reigning political establishment also won him much support from anti-alien groups both on Taris and in the greater Republic.

Presidency of Taris
After a number of decades spent serving in various capacities in Taris' congress, he announced his candidacy for the presidency of Taris. A relatively young newcomer, he was widely discounted as a viable candidate, but his passionate rhetoric and refusal to buckle under to critics and pundits won him much support, and against all odds, he was elected as President of Taris in.

His tenure was rife with controversy, as his human-friendly policies and discrimination against non-humans were met with varying degrees of disgust and anger. It was around this time, during a diplomatic visit to, that Sevren met a from. After a handful of conversations concerning their mutual ideals of government and policy, Sevren threw his support behind Palpatine's political career, and remained a steadfast ally of Palpatine's into his days as.

With the end of his term in, Sunrunner successfully ran for reelection, though voter support was less pronounced during his reelection bid than it had been for his first term. He refused to run for a third term, stepping down from the presidency in.

Governor of Taris
Sevren spent the next few decades serving the Taris First party in a subdued role, first as a commentator and then as an ancillary adviser to the Senator of Taris. During the latter capacity, he spent more time on Coruscant, and occasionally met with Palpatine at his apartments in the to discuss matter of state.

During Palpatine's for the  in, Sevren publicly campaigned on his behalf, and was responsible for raising much support for the Senator on Taris. Similarly, when Palpatine sought in, Sunrunner expanded his campaigning to include the greater.

As a reward for his many decades' worth of support, upon his enactment of the, Chancellor Palpatine named Sevren the of. As the governor of 's planetary headquarters, he became a close adviser and ally of, one of Palpatine's twenty regional governors and a future of the.

At the end of the and the, Palpatine additionally created the courtesy title Duke of Taris as a ceremonial means of securing Sevren's control over the Peerage of Taris and its noble families.

Sevren's brutal humanocentric rule over Taris was frequently lauded by Imperial propaganda as the epitome of, and the efficiency of his alien extermination efforts were praised by members of the.

Moff of the Taris sector
His efforts to rid Taris of its alien residents eventually won him the additional title of of the  in, thanks to the efforts of his longtime ally and confidante.

Sevren employed this new title as a means of extending his brutal extermination efforts to the greater sector. While his initial anti-alien efforts as Taris' governor had been met with praise, his ambition and zealotry, mixed with the gradual decay of his sanity over the years, earned him many enemies within the who viewed him as a loose cannon.

A number of conspiracies arose against him during this time, and after only five years as Moff, he was murdered while touring his newly constructed Leviation in orbit over Taris. As befitting a member of the Court and a Moff of the Empire, he was given a public state funeral on Taris attended by a number of important Imperial personages. His body was interred in his childhood home, the Sunrunner Palace.

Personality and traits
Despite his many controversial views and beliefs, Sevren Sunrunner was a deceptively amiable individual, capable of inspiring and motivating his followers in a manner consistent with that of a demagogue. A polished rhetor and public speaker, he was capable of stirring a crowd into a frenzy regardless of the topic at hand, a tactic he frequently employed to great effect during his candidacy for the Tarisian presidency.

Despite his pleasant outward demeanor, he was a mentally disturbed sociopath with a documented history of violent tendencies. He was known to harbor bigoted views on race relations and humanocentrism from the days of his early youth, views upon which he came to act in the days of his rule over Taris. The cold, brutal efficiency with which he exterminated non-human residents of Taris during his time as the planet's Imperial governor disconcerted even some proponents of Human High Culture, and eventually contributed to the circumstances of his death.