The Hutt Cartel

[Star Wars Legacies]

The Hutt Cartell

History
Hutt Society
Hutt Cartell Ranks - Basadi
Hutt Cartell Ranks - Vigo
Hutt Cartell Ranks - Kajidii
Hutt Cartell Ranks - Supreme Mogul



The Glorious History of the Hutt Empire

The Hutts are a race who have influenced the galaxies shaping for eons, longer even than the stalwart Jedi. A powerful race, whom in their own language their species’ name means “glorious” or “almighty”, hail from the fetid planet of Nal Hutta, where they built an empire for themselves in a swath of space that had yet to technologically advance to spaceflight. They conquered nearby planets, expanding from Kaltooine to Nar Kaaga. Unlike many galactic powers during the eve of the Republic, the Hutt Empire expanded through colonization, annexation, and corruption, preferring economic avenues over militaristic conquest when possible.

The Hutt Empire, led by the powerful Bareesh Dynasty, was no stranger to warfare and conquest however, and often found itself at war against other ancient powers. During once such war, the Hutt Empire devastated a region of space that eventually became known as the Ash Worlds, committing atrocious acts of genocide and planetary destruction that leaves scars to this day during an event dubbed “The Devouring”. For ten chiliad the Hutt Empire was a galactic threat, preventing the Republic from amassing any true hold in the Outer Rim and the regions beyond.

The Hutt Cataclysms​

This all changed during a civil war known as the Hutt Cataclysms. The Hutt Cataclysms was a civil war that lasted 78 years, though the Hutts kept it from the public eye for most of the war, maintaining an outward facade of unified strength. It began when the Empress of the Bareesh Dynasty died, alongside most of her court, when a supervolcano on her homeworld of Kor Bareesh erupted. Two Kajidic quickly ascent to self-proclaimed thrones, declaring themselves the Desilijic Dynasty and Besadii Dynasty, ripping apart the uneasy unity of the Hutt Empire.

The Besadi and Desilijic, and other contenders and allies, fought amongst each other for supremacy. Fleets were constructed or hired, fighting throughout the region that had long since been referred to as Hutt Space by the galaxy. Entire planets and species were enslaved to man the Hutts’ armies. The Civil war came to an abrupt end during the Battle of Varl, when the star Evona was consumed by a nearby black hole. It sister star and the star of Varl, Ardos, expelled its gaseous outer layers in response, devastating Varl, along with the fleets and armies that were fighting there.

The Hutt Cartel​

With the loss of their fleets and armies, nine clans, or Kajidics, came together to rebuild the crumbling Hutt Empire into the Hutt Cartel seen today. The Kajidics, among them Desilijic, Besadi, and Bareesh, reformed the Hutt society to focus on economic power, and branding an underworld empire using the Hutt Empire’s remains as tools. The enslavement of planets to fuel its war machines transformed into a bustling slave market. Remnants of fleets were used to establish smuggling and piracy operations, though many fleets rebelled and seceded, forming their own piratical entities. Powerful weapons and spice, illegal in the Republic and other galactic powers were sold in the newly-forming black markets, enticing civilizations like candy. The Hutt Cartel began grasping on commerce, forging a niche it would never let go.

Loyalty to one’s Kajidic was seen as paramount to the new Hutt society. Competition and rivalry continued, but the Hutts had long since learned the lessons of the Hutt Cataclysms to avoid open warfare among one another. Their economy grew and their underworld empire even more so. However, the Republic and the Jedi limited the Cartel’s spread, hacking away at the criminal enterprises as they were found. Once, the Republic had not been a threat, but the civil war had hindered the Cartels ability to openly defy the Republic. Eventually the Hutts built sprawling cities on Nar Shaddaa, forging their homeworlds moon into a regional portworld, luring in commerce and trade, corrupting all that touched it.

The Rise of Gulla Hestilic Ujalli​

For millennia, the Hutts were frozen in the limbo of stagnation, expanding its influence, but minute compared to the glorious age of the Bareesh Dynasty. Things began to change however when Gulla Hestilic Ujalli ascended to the Hestilic Kajidic, a criminal empire that had once held supremacy in the black market but had long since been pushed out by the Vosadii and Bareesh. Gulla ignored the fruitless efforts of spice, and instead focused on information. Initially he sought information to learn who he could approach, who he should avoid, and who to destroy. In these early years he grew an appetite for secrets, eventually wrapping the information gathering services and blackmail operations under one banner, his banner. He proposed this as a coalescence of information, to gather all the secrets the Hutts gathered into one place for them to operate more efficiently against their foes, an “Exchange” of information.

Gulla pretended to be the loyal lapdog, handing out secrets as lures to earn the trust of the various Kajidic leaders, the Kajidii, also known as Lordas. In truth, Gulla was careful in his sharing, giving information to those he could nurture into allies and giving bad intel to those whom he deemed enemies, allowing their operations to blow up in their faces. His Vigos nurtured a relationship with the Kajidic Gnuda, aiding their colonization of Matou. The Exchange fanned the rivalry between the Desilijic and the Besadii.

The Hundred Year Darkness​

When the Hundred Year Darkness began, the Jedi were no longer a thorn in the Hutt Cartel’s side. Gulla seized this chance, strong arming the Kajidic under one rule, his rule. Under Gulla’s leadership, the Kajidics organized in sync, used in concert with one another rather than fighting for power. Seeing a chance for revenge against the Jedi and the Republic who had hindered them for so long, the Hutt Cartel began to secretly support the Exiles, funneling funds, slaves and war materials to the various Exile Warlords. Through the Exchange, Gulla also pushed the Hutt Cartel’s competitors to more openly support the Exiles, ensuring that should the war end in the Jedi’s favor, their wrath would come down upon the rivals of the Hutt Cartel.

For decades the Cartel watched as the war dragged on, carefully calculating their actions to influence its outcome. Piracy was increased in Republic space, to force trade away from the beleaguered trade alliance. Likewise actions were taken to prevent trade from detouring around Hutt Space, with attacks along the various trade routes increasing while security along Hutt trade routes strengthened. After the Siege of Tython, with the Exiles suffering a devastating loss, Gulla quietly withdrew the Hutt Cartel’s support of the dissident darksiders, the flow of credits and essential warmaking materials vanishing overnight. Uncaring of who the final victor of the war was, Gulla was determined that the Hutt Cartel would come out ahead, the true winner of the conflict.

During the last decades of the Hundred Year Darkness, Gulla focused the Hutt Cartel’s resources on expanding their criminal enterprise and influence, seeing the war as a foregone conclusion. Only the Tragedy at Ilum took the Supreme Mogul by surprise, a surprise he considered pleasant. With both the Jedi and their Exiles struck low, the Hutt Cartel was in a better position than ever. Declaring a Great Hunt, bounties were issued on the heads of Jedi and Exiles alike, the Supreme Mogul seeking to exterminate both of their kind from the galaxy. With the Republic’s eyes turned inwards and the Jedi struggling to survive, the Hutt Cartel’s influence creeps steadily outwards, corrupting planets once untainted and considered untouchable. The Hutt Cartel grows, but not all are complacent under Gulla’s leadership. Aspirations of power are among the greatest of the ancient sins and virtues…

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Hutt Society​

For a civilization, to use it lightly, the Hutt Cartel is one of the few with such large influence that has no formal government. The Hutts have an honor code, used more among each other than their subordinates, but no formal list of laws and rules outside the Supreme Mogul’s decrees. The Hutt Cartel survives through the intermingling clans of Hutts called Kajidics, which are families, criminal enterprises, businesses and miniatures societies wrapped in one. Largely Kajidics focus on Hutt supremacy, with the alien subordinates viewed as servants and pets, but some allow for equal footing if aliens can prove their worth in a Kajidic. Loyalty to ones Kajidic is paramount in Hutt culture. While Hutts are known to betray each other internally to rise in rank, the thought of betraying their Kajidic is sacrilegious; this is because to hurt the Kajidic is to hurt one’s power. Even to lower ranked individuals, this holds truth, because a Kajidic is just your assets waiting to be seized.

The Hutt Cartel is comprised of a cornucopia of individuals. Civilians are the bulk of those living within the Cartel’s influence, feeding the minute operations of everyday life. Aspiring criminals have been known to seek employ by a Kajidic in order to learn the ropes, and gangs litter the streets of Hutt worlds, the majority of which have little interaction with the Cartel or its operatives beyond paying taxes to their Hutt overlords and avoiding conflict with the Cartel’s Enforcers. Drug dealers, slavers, gangsters, pirates and smugglers litter Hutt Space, a haven for criminals of any variety, with the only law that matters in Hutt Space being the decrees of the Supreme Mogul. Slaves are a commodity, bought and sold as laborers and soldiers, with some fighting in the pits of the Hutt arenas. Gladiators are bestowed pseudo-citizenship as they kill each other and slay beasts for their masters sick entertainment. The rank-and file Besadi are the gears that carry out the Kajidic operations, all under the command of the Lorda and their Vigos.

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Hutt Cartel Ranks​

Basadi (Operatives)​

Crime is the economic lifeblood of the Hutt Cartel. Profits flow upwards, with each level taking their cut, the stream of credits and other profitable materials ending their journey in the glittering vaults of the Supreme Mogul. The flavors of crime within the Hutt Cartel are boundless, though a few mainstays reap consistent returns or otherwise serve an essential function to the Cartel. These criminal enterprises are ran on the ground level by the Basadi (Operatives), who report directly to their Vigos as they turn a profit for the Cartel. The rank Basadi is rather diverse, covering a large spectrum of criminal enterprises, and for the most part can be split into these six categories:

Enforcers​

The strong arm of the Hutt Cartel and the primary point of contact between the Vigo’s and the citizens of Hutt space, Cartel Enforcers, or Bauboka as they are known to their Hutt masters are cold hearted mercenaries. Imposing the will of their Hutt masters, Enforcers have a wide variety of duties, varying from collecting their Vigo’s taxes from gangs and businesses, policing the various gangs and keeping unnecessary conflict within Hutt space to a minimum, and protecting their Hutt masters with their lives. Some enforcers are a collection of hired hands, while some are more organized, such as the Gnuda's secretive Kouhan Order

An Enforcer has two obligations to the Lorda and their Vigos. They must vow to remain loyal to the Hutt Cartel for life, and earn their superiors money. When called by their superiors they must oblige without reservation. Enforcers operate fairly independently of the Lordas, their orders coming down through their Vigo’s from up above. While they work directly for a Vigo, Enforcers are expected to generate income beyond whatever operations they run for their Vigo, passing a small cut of the profit from their own operations up the chain of command. The prosperity of an Enforcer is directly attributed to their own success, with many only earning enough to live day to day, while others run multiple side hustles, keeping the credits flowing in order to maintain lavish lifestyles.

Bounty Hunters​

Deadly contractors that associate loosely with the Hutt Cartel, Bounty Hunters, known as Murishani to the Hutts, are often used as the long arm of the Cartel’s justice. Unlike the Enforcers who swear loyalty to the Cartel, Bounty Hunters are for the most part free agents, their loyalty to the credits that the Cartel pays them for their work. However, once a skilled Bounty Hunter takes on a Cartel job, they usually find themselves working for the Cartel more often, sometimes even to the point of exclusivity, with many Lorda and their Vigos paying hefty retainer fees to maintain their services and loyalty.

The majority of a Bounty Hunter’s work for the Cartel consists of manhunting, tracking down and retrieving or killing those who have slighted or harmed the Cartel, with many of their targets being ex-Cartel associates. This is not the full extent of their employment by the Cartel however, and they are more than willing to carry out more dangerous, and often illegal jobs. Assassination, sabotage, grand theft, and a variety of other illicit activities, none of these are too dirty a job to the usual Cartel Bounty Hunter… For the right price.

Pirates​

Pirates and Privateers, known as Kohhodeth to the Hutts, serve an essential duty to the Hutt Cartel. Their primary capacity is twofold. Harass and loot the trade lanes and space routes that don’t directly contribute to the Hutt Cartel’s coffers, and protect the ones that do. Working with a large degree of independence from the Cartel, they kick a small bit of profit from their raids to the Vigo’s to maintain a degree of protection from other Cartel aligned pirates, while keeping the majority of the spoils for themselves. This arrangement works well for the Cartel, as the activity of these pirates leads to increased traffic through Cartel ports and outposts, where they charge exorbitant trade levies, docking fees, and protection rackets. Ultimately these fees are still more profitable for traders than having their entire cargo hold emptied by a Cartel pirate raid.

These are not the only activities that Cartel Pirates engage in however. More ambitious Pirates may also moonlight as slavers, hitting small outposts or backwater worlds to steal away some of the more able bodied sentients to sell at the slave markets on Nal Hutta or Nar Shaddaa; in severe cases, some pirates have been known to forcibly take over a colony or backwater world. Whatever goods and wealth these settlements or outposts might possess are an added bonus to such activity, making it an attractive and lucrative side activity to many Pirate crews, especially if the settlements are poorly defended.

Smugglers​

Crafty and daring, Smugglers, or Ulwan, are responsible for part of the Cartel’s earnings that originate outside of Cartel space. With a fast ship and a bit of luck on their side, Cartel Smugglers transport a large variety of illicit goods to and from Hutt space. Spice, arms and slaves make up the majority of their Cartel hauls to the black market. Due to the illegal and immoral nature of these goods, Smugglers are one of the most likely groups to end up with a Bounty Hunter on their tail after dumping a load of spice before customs or freeing a shipment of slaves during a morality crisis.

Of course not all of a Smugglers haul will be of the highly illegal nature. The majority of goods transported lay somewhere in the grey area of legality. Luxury foodstuffs, bootleg holovids, exotic creatures, and counterfeit designer goods are just a small sampling of the variety that might be in a smugglers hold. Even mundane goods such as clothing and electronics are often smuggled merely to avoid fees and taxes. Due to the dwindling war, more philanthropic Smugglers can often be found transporting refugees and medical supplies.

Slicers​

The world of the Slicer is exotic and unknown to the average sentient. The Slicers of the Cartel, or Hhonvola, are enigmatic cyber criminals whose domain is numbers and code. Generally motivated by personal gain, though some may be bound by an ethical code, slicers work clandestinely to gain an unauthorized access to privileged information and make a profit. They have several codenames and all but their closest associates are kept in the dark as to their true identity, as they would rather not have to spend their time evading law-enforcement personnel, bounty hunters, and fringers with personal vendettas. They are self-taught computer experts and master cryptographs. Some are recruited into the Exchange, Gulla's intelligence gathering network.

Exploiting system vulnerabilities in order to accomplish malicious deeds, a slicer may steal information to commit identity theft when working with Smugglers or to relay to Agents as part of greater operations, damage or bring down systems and, often, hold those systems hostage to collect ransom. They evolve within larger networks through which they exchange hacking information and tradecraft. Criminal hackers, who sometimes lack their own technical skills, often use scripts and other specifically designed software programs to break into their target networks. With the recent proliferation of slicer droids however, more and more criminal figures think the costs of resorting to a slicer now outweigh the benefits it could potentially yield. While preferring the security of their personal safe houses or sanctuaries, occasionally a Slicer may need to venture into the field to gain physical access to highly secure targets, or at the least planetary proximity, the boundless void of space making systems inaccessible to their digital reach.

Agents​

None are more diverse in their duties to the Hutt Cartel than Cartel Agents, or Basanh. Masters of white collar crime, Agents rarely associate with the average street criminal, preferring to rub elbows with corporate executives or political officials as they spread the corruption of the Hutt Cartel throughout the galaxy. Bribery and extortion are the name of the game for the Cartel Agent, whether it be collecting protection money from large corporate and industrial entities around the galaxy, or greasing the palms of politicians to ease the passing of laws that benefit the Cartel. Should they find resistance to their insidious practices, a bit of digging or forgery is sure to supply them with the means to blackmail their targets into compliance.

While normally non violent in their criminal enterprise, it is not uncommon for an Agent to need a little muscle to make a point. While usually capable of defending themselves, sometimes an Enforcer or Bounty Hunter can speed processes along, eliminate obstacles, and otherwise do the dirty work when an Agent can’t get their hands dirty. Agents usually maintain a network of reliable associates, Smugglers to get them in and out of secure systems, Slicers to dig up corporate dirt or personal information, Enforcers and Bounty Hunters to put pressure on a target, and even the odd Pirate to apply pressure to a system or corporation.

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Vigo​

Vigo are the lieutenants of the Kajidic leaders. The amount of Vigos varies greatly from Kajidic to Kajidic, largely dependent on their power and scope of influence. Whereas the Kajidic Lordas are exclusively Hutts, Vigo is the pinnacle of alien elevation, not limited to one’s species. Vigo have a diversity of duties, sometimes kingpins in their own right, managing individual criminal enterprises of a Kajidic. Oftentimes, Vigo will serve as the representative of a Kajidic, for both security reasons and laziness of some Hutts. No Hutt has reached the position of Lorda without having first been a Vigo, proving their ability and worth to the Kajidic. Though many Lorda favor their family for the positions of Vigo, many Hutts are more than happy to award it to outsiders who prove their worth, loyalty, and profitability to the Kajidic.

Vigo Organizations​

The influence of a Vigo is wide and ever expanding, and this is reflected by a level of control only afforded to characters that reach the rank of Vigo. Upon reaching the rank of Vigo, a character’s operations can grow to such size as to allow them control of a small gang, similar to a Player Character Organization within the Hutt Cartel. These gangs can be quite diverse, often influenced by the type of Player Character that attains the rank of Vigo. Street gangs, pirate crews, hunter’s guilds, and corporations are some of the many possible organizations that a Vigo can lead. These organizations can be expanded and enriched by further activity. Vigo Organizations require an approved write up containing the information and assets of the Organization. Any changes or expansions will also require approval.

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Kajidii of the Hutt Grand Council​

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The Kajidii are the leaders of a Kajidic, though to most of the galaxy they are commonly referred to as Lorda. Kajidii command great power, the top authority of their respective Kajidic. Each Kajidic is its own criminal and business syndicate, the line between crime and business non-existent in the minds of the Hutts. Unlike most criminal syndicates, the Hutt Kajidic operate openly and unafraid, at the height of their once great power each Kajidic claimed ownership over dozens of worlds.

Criminal kingpins whose word is law in Hutt space, the Kajidii’s numbers make up the Hutt Grand Council, the governing body and advisory council to the Supreme Mogul. As masters of the criminal underworld, they steal, cheat, and murder without regret. Only the most cunning and clever Hutts survive the deadly competition to become Kajidii, meaning that only the smartest and most successful ever ascend to the rank. Even among the Kajidii competition is fierce, with many rivalries between Kajidics being held in check by the power of the Supreme Mogul.

Supreme Mogul​

The Supreme Mogul is the ultimate leader of the Hutt Cartel, having strong armed most of the Kajidics under his command, with the others falling into place when outnumbered by the power of those loyal the Supreme Mogul. The Supreme Mogul treats the entirety of the Hutt Cartel as his own personal Kajidic, forcing the individual Kajidics to work together as a well oiled machine. However, though the Hutt clans have begun working more effectively together, not all the agree with this direction and seek to bring their own Kajidics into supremacy once more.

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