Is the Black Sun just Falleen or what?

I'm reading Scoundrels, by Timothy Zahn, and it's a fun read so far. But at one point a character sees a Falleen and immediately goes "OMG Black Sun!"

The other characters discuss this, "Black Sun has more than just Falleen, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's Black Sun", but they all figure it's a reasonable assumption that a Falleen must be a member of Black Sun.

This happened in The Clone Wars as well, when Darth Maul was organizing various underworld groups together. The Black Sun were represented by a group of identically dressed Falleen. At the time I figured this was mainly to distinguish visually (and to limit the number of new models to design and animate), in a storyline with lots of new characters and groups.

It's been a while since I read Shadows of the Empire, but in that novel I got the impression that Prince Xizor was a Falleen, but that he just happened to be that race, and the rest of Black Sun was a huge organization with a lot of different races involved.

Did it mention in that novel that just because Xizor was Falleen, that many members of the organization were as well? Did he bring his family with him?

Personally I like it better if Xizor is a little more unique, not necessarily surrounded by other members of his race. If it should ever come up in my game that's how I'd play it.

Just wanted to see what others thought.

Black Sun (heading an entire Fringe faction) is one of the major players in our games, so I did quite a lot of reading about them. As far as I can see, the Vigos are comprised of all kinds of species and I wouldn't see an issue in having Xizor as the only faleen. That said, they seem to be aiming at a 'crime family'/Mafia type thing, so having other faleen doesn't seem like a problem either.

We're having a 'Fringe civil war', with the PCs supporting Savan Sivhran as the marginally 'lesser of two evils' against Xizor. I liked the fact that Xizor had reason to hate the Empire, and the 'evil vs evil' idea.

I also thought the 'Shadows of the Empire' concept was very cool (it's our first real look at the Fringe) but the plot with Luke and Vader felt forced and silly. I'm just using it in our games as a way to explore the upper echelons of the Fringe and how it might involve into a powerful but unstable player in the Galactic Civil War.

XIzor was suppose to be leader of the Black Sun

But there were numerous Vigo's all in control of their own areas, one of them was even a Hutt.

The problem is, most fans of SW, when they see a Falleen they immediately think of Xizor.

But like most aliens in star wars, it is a new Alien species represented by ONE character, that is later expanded into a whole race, planet and culture, but that first appearance sticks in peoples mind.

It is like a game of association:

(these are from my games)

Thweek is a kubaz, you know, that Alien who leads the troopers to the docking bay where the falcon was

The bartender is a Chiss, you know the Blue skinned humanoids like Thrawn

The Cab driver is a Nautolan, you know like the tentacled jedi that smiles when he force pushes 3pO

The MEchanic is a Chadra-fan, you know the little alien that was begging for a drink at the Mos Eisley Cantina

The slicer is a Balosar, you know the one that tried to sell Obi-wan death sticks

etc etc etc

There are many falleen, but not all of them work for Black sun

I believe the reason for the immediate conclusion jump is that Falleen royalty rarely range off-planet; and having the most prominent example of your species be the worst-kept secret crimelord evar probably helps. And since they were checking out someone dirty anyways, perhaps that character was simply prejudiced.

I believe the reason for the immediate conclusion jump is that Falleen royalty rarely range off-planet; and having the most prominent example of your species be the worst-kept secret crimelord evar probably helps. And since they were checking out someone dirty anyways, perhaps that character was simply prejudiced.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"...because I'm a Falleen driving a speeder?"

Species profiling...one of the many untold injustices in the Star Wars galaxy.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"...because I'm a Falleen driving a speeder?"

From what I saw, Xizor was simply the head of Black Sun (which has the acronym BS) and did so on his own abilities. He was simply racist against humans.

There may be a few other Falleen in the organization, but it's not a Falleen-based one. Steve Perry even made a point of saying that.

This may also be a result of the fact that a group of Falleen nobles were portrayed as running the Black Sun in a couple of episodes of the Clone Wars series. This is now considered canon for better or worse.

I think we also have to note why/how Xizor became the leader of Black Sun.

Remember that Vader bombarded Falleen due to an experimental chemical weapon being leaked and unleashed on the populace. Casualties were in the ballpark of two hundred thousand (200,000) Falleen, including Xizor's father and siblings.

One could speculate that Xizor hired others that were similarly displaced, or he could have become the banner that those Falleen who were angry with the Empire would rally to.

It could also be noted that there was a Black Sun presence on the planet, so seeing Falleen suddenly show up to look into a member can be seen as that group being Xizor's men due to his need of the capabilities Falleen possess.

But like most aliens in star wars, it is a new Alien species represented by ONE character, that is later expanded into a whole race, planet and culture, but that first appearance sticks in peoples mind.

We have a Chiss PC, Reya, who plays head games with this concept:

'Why does every bloody human I meet ask me about HIM? I don't assume every one of you is related to Tarkin, do I? Pro tip: not every 'alien' you meet is part of some special family..."

"How very quaint. They assume we are brother and sister or something equally ridiculous. Or that every one of my kind came off some kind of clone production line, identical in personality. Let me assure you: I hate art. I don't give a Squib's ass about the Empire or the Alliance. People always ask me stupid things, such as whether we have musicians... Why wouldn't we? I'm not a living avatar of my people. I'm a mercenary. We don't make war with kloo horns."

" The amulet? It's a Chiss 'Emerald Spider'. It's a physical manifestation of my duty to my family and my desire to hunt down those who wronged us. Only when I have slain enough of our ancestral foes and made amends can I return to my people. Actually, I'm only kidding. I bought it off a Whiphid in Savloia. It just looks cool. I have no idea what it signifies, if anything..."

" Just think of it as a weird alien Chiss thing. Maybe when we reach a certain age, we have to swear allegiance to an extended family unit. Or perhaps I'm a secret spy for our mighty navy, gathering intelligence on you all before we invade. Or something. Just make it up, like you do everything else about me."

Jo: 'What are you doing?

Reya: 'After a Chiss kills another sentient, we must take something personal belonging to them. Else we fear that the restless spirit of the dead will return to haunt us.'

Jo: 'Really?'

Reya: 'No. I'm just looting his pockets for credits.'

We had a similar thing with Bothans.

"Seriously? The entire species are famous for being spies? How do any of them get work anywhere important? It's not like the Empire is big on affirmative action...."

I kind of saw this Falleen thing in Scoundrels being akin to someone being racist about Italians and assuming that All Falleen are in Black Sun and that all of Black Sun is Falleen.

However, we have whole planets with one ecosystem in Star Wars, so who knows. :-)

The black sun is a huge, ancient syndicate. Lucas film even allowed the black sun to be in SWTOR, that is quite a while back so to say.

Like the others already said, the clone wars series, together with the shadows of the empire story with Xizor, has given a distinct look to the upper part of the black sun. If you look it up on wookiepedia, you can read that Xizor "took over" from a human called Dal Perhi.