A smiling viper
Despite being exiled from the Galactic Empire, Admiral Zhayn retains the uniform, airs, and prestige of his military rank. His command of the Manticore means that his status is unlikely to be questioned any time soon.
Less of an organisation in the sense that the other major criminal cartels in the region are, the exiled Imperial Admiral Zhayn acts as something of a disruptive force, having arrived in the sector with a military fleet well beyond anything any local power might seriously challenge. However, as a stranger in a strange land, Zhayn has become adept at remaining neutral, offering his services as a heavy-handed dispute resolution mechanism, and otherwise playing each other faction against one another. His ultimate aims remain unknown.
Admiral Zhayn is rumoured to have been sent into exile from the Core Worlds—and forced to surrender both his holdings and influence—after a failed coup against a rival Imperial warlord. Having fled to the Outer Rim, his military power and tactical nous has found a voracious market amongst the violence of the sector-wide conflicts in the Veilmarch. Zhayn has since created a private military and intelligence operation with no known peer in the Outer Rim. While he maintains a strange allegiance to the mandate created by the New Order, and carries all the airs and graces of his now-defunct military rank, he has through careful manoeuvring and sheer intimidation won himself a great deal of respect in the sector.
He is known to almost everyone outside of his own faction as “the smiling viper”, since he publicly exhibits a polished, diplomatic charm honed from decades serving in the slippery environment of Imperial politics. Yet, most who deal with him find him equally cold and calculating, and though he proffers a degree of cheer in his demeanour, more than one has likened it to the grinning of a snake; hence his sobriquet.
Retaining command of the Imperial Star Destroyer Manticore, the flagship of his formidable fleet, Zhayn continues to maintain the structure and discipline of the Galactic Empire’s military machine, and despite now operating on the fringes of the Outer Rim has wielded his power with notable subtlety and restraint. Outwardly, Zhayn presents himself as a neutral third party in the affairs of the sector, and tends to be deployed as something of a conflict-resolution entity, or a place where rival groups can meet in the knowledge that one side or the other cannot engineer some kind of double-cross or betrayal—at least not without compromising Zhayn himself. The Admiral seems to have worked hard to engineer his visage as that of a broker of information, security, and peace—albeit usually only where he and his colossal ship happen to be at any given time; in truth, many suspect he is a blade sheathed behind a smile, always watching and always calculating—though to what end, none other than Zhayn’s senior officers likely know.
Naturally, Zhayn’s ambitions are the subject of a great deal of speculation. Some have presumed he is awaiting an obvious vulnerability or weakness among one major faction or another in order to overwhelm them and absorb their assets; or whether his interests remain aligned with keeping order, true to his military past, so that he may continue to profit from the ongoing bloodshed. Others suspect he has a far more broad-ranging vision, ultimately seeking to dominate the entire sector, or even that his history as an “exile” is merely cover for the designs of the Galactic Empire on the Outer Rim.
Relations. Zhayn has quite a respectful relationship with the Jade Moon Cartel, who share a strict hierarchical nature and, as a powerful faction, want to retain the status quo. While workable, his connection to the Black Ember Covenant is mutually suspicious; he distrusts their fanaticism and they distrust his purported neutrality. Further to that, the Covenant know full well that he harbours a small army of droids on his many ships, and perhaps has cybernetically-enhanced soldiers or agents working for him as well.
Zhayn has also been known to call upon the services to both the Void Hounds and the Cold Debt Crew for various missions, particularly if they are too obviously distasteful for him to undertake personally.
Throne World: none (based on the nomadic Imperial Star Destroyer Manticore)
Major Rival: unknown
: Report : Broker-X : Information Merchant
