Arihnda Pryce | |
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Arihnda Pryce, Governor of Lothal | |
Vital statistics
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Position | Governor of the Galactic Empire |
Age | Unknown |
Status | Deceased |
Physical attributes
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Height | 1.74 Meters |
Weight | 59 Kilograms |
Arihnda Pryce was the Imperial Governor of Lothal Sector, a confident leader, and believer in the Empire. While Lothal was under control Pryce had wanted to eradicate Rebellion threats, going so far as to enlist the services of the Imperial Seventh Fleet. She'd held a heavy military presence on the planet Lothal, particularly at a Capital City, and constructed many of the factories and mines to support the might of the Empire. She was an ambitious woman who looked down at her Lothalian roots. While she was from Lothal, she had no interest of remaining at Lothal. She sold out her homeworld to their Emperor and allowed the Empire to make Lothal an local headquarters in the Lothal Sector. As the Governor of Lothal, she would be absent from their planet several times and instead had local ministers take over while being away.
She'd placed her ambitions and a career aspiration over the interests of her citizens and rarely visited Lothal only to had return to her home world because the planet had become a haven for rebels. Pryce saw an Grand Admiral Thrawn as a valuable asset in her fight against this rebel presence in the Lothal Sector. During the course of Rebel insurgency, Pryce fought Rebels insurgents, took part in an unsuccessful hunt for the rebel leader Mon Mothma and took part in the Battle of Atollon. Eventually, Governor Pryce had fallen out of their Grand Admiral Thrawn's favor when she then destroyed the Lothal City fuel depot killing Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus in the process one year before a battle at Yavin. A governor Pryce later perished during a Liberation on Lothal, remaining loyal to the Galactic Empire to the end then embraced her death.
Biography
Early Life
Rise to Governorship
Arihnda Pryce was a human born to Talmoor and Elainye Pryce, owners and operators of Pryce Mining on Lothal, and worked for the family business in the logistics department. While she had enjoyed her homeplanet as an child, as Pryce became an adult the planet became dull and backward in her eyes, due in part to a supposed attempts by the planetary Lothal Governor Ryder Azadi's office to acquire controlling interest in their familys company. Matters eventually came to an head when, after Arik Uris attempted to convince her to sell to Azadi's office, her mother was arrested on a charge of embezzlement. She had gathered evidence to support her mother's innocence-implicating a likely innocent employee of the company in the process-and presented it to the senator Domus Renking. The two soon brokered a deal in which the Pryces surrendered control of the company in exchange for new offworld positions: Arihnda Pryce to Coruscant and her parents to a mining facility at Batonn. Pryce initially started helping with Lothal natives working on Coruscant, before the senator from Lothal Domus Renking had Arihnda transferred to a new office to oversee workers from an multiple worlds.
While Pryce recognized it as a move to make use of her abilities while also disassociating her from him in the event her abrasive methods grew unpopular, she was pleased to be making her way up in that planet, with her initial goal being to eventually reclaim Pryce Mining. Prior to her rise to being the Lothal Governor, Pryce would have such jobs as being an manager at Pryce Mining, aide to Lothal senator Domus Renking, manager in Bartanish Four Sector Citizen's Office, an employee at the Proam Avenue Citizen Assistance, and a member in the Higher Skies Advocacy Group. Eventually she had managed to secure an Governorship of Lothal by trading information about the Higher Skies' espionage activities to Imperial Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. During her rise to power, she forged a alliance with the Imperial Navy officer Thrawn. Once in office, she outmaneuvered then engineered the downfall of her political rivals Ryder Azadi and Domus Renking. As Governor of Lothal, Pryce presided over the expansion of the Imperial military presence on Lothal, which became an major Imperial base in the Outer Rim. She was often absent and delegated the governing of this world to local ministers.
Governor of Lothal
Rebellion Insurgency
During an rebellion insurgency at Batonn, Pryce had rescued her parents during an conflict between the insurgents and Empire. After she was elected as the Governor on Lothal to replace Ryder, who was imprisoned for treason because he supported the anti-Imperial broadcasts of Ephraim Bridger and his wife. Pryce had a minister Maketh Tua govern during her absence, her dislike of her planet having grown into contempt. At one point during Tua's governing, the Senator Bail Organa loaned her two of his droids, C-3PO and R2-D2 to oversee an Imperials arms deal. However, these droids were secretly sent to prevent the weapons shipment from falling into Empire hands, at which they succeeded with the help of a band of rebels. Tua would later stand in for Pryce during the Empire Day festivities at Lothal, as Pryce was apparently invited to attend celebrations on Coruscant with the Emperor. Eventually Tua would go against the Empire and seek the help of the rebels in trying to escape. Kallus would find out and when the Rebels arrived, Darth Vader placed explosives in the ship and once she got into the ship Vader detonated explosives killing Tua, this made rebels look guilty of murder.
After repeated successes by rebels against the Empire, Pryce was summoned by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin who asked just how she did intend to solve this persistent problem. Pryce responded that she needed "someone who saw a bigger picture", who turned out to be Grand Admiral Thrawn. Governor Pryce later joined an Agent Kallus and Admiral Kassius Konstantine-the latter of which she regarded as an politician more than a tactician-as they traveled to Reklam Station to investigate rebel theft of several Y-Wing starfighters. Pryce contacted Thrawn, who upon learning the full strength of the rebel Force ordered the group to break off the attack and let the Rebels escape. Pryce explained to a confused Kassius that Thrawn had bigger plans than the destruction of a handful of Rebels. Later, she discovered that cadets of Skystrike Academy intended to defect to the rebellion, and it was here that she encountered the rebel Sabine Wren, though Pryce was unable to prevent them from escaping. Pryce then along with Thrawn and Kallus inspected Lothal factory for rebels who have been sabotaging their vehicles and following a investigation it was concluded that a spy was within the ranks.
Durgin the course of the insurgency, Pryce fought the rebel insurgents on several occasions, including her unsuccessful hunt for the Rebels leader Mon Mothma. Unknown to Pryce for a time, Agent Kallus was the undercover rebel informant known as Fulcrum whom the Imperials had searched for. Thrawn deduced Kallus was Fulcrum, then manipulated Kallus so that he would lead them to the rebels hidden base. After learning the rebels location on Atollon, Kallus was taken into custody and the Empire mobilized the military for a attack against the rebels, a attack in which governor Pryce would be part of aboard the Star Destroyer Chimaera during the Battle of Atollon and even be given command of this Empire fleet for some time during this conflict. Their attack against the rebels had prevented them from carrying out a planned attack against the Empire factories at Lothal. They were successful in inflicting heavy casualties on the rebel forces, destroying numerous starships and starfighters, and destroying the base. However, in the end the Imperials were unable to prevent the rebels from escaping, and Kallus managed to flee and join the rebels. Pryce was displeased with the Rebels escape.
Losing Imperial Control
Pryce along with Grand Admiral Thrawn arrived at a Lothal Empire airfield to witness a test of a improved TIE Defender prototype, though before this flight test could be properly performed the Rebels Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger hijacked this elite fighter. Thrawn used this opportunity to test elite fighter combat capabilities and after their "test" was complete Pryce ordered the activation of the kill switch that caused the Elite Fighter to crash. Pryce worked with a operative Rukh to find fleeing Rebels, and while Rukh was able to assist in locating the rebels for a time, the rebels managed to escape both tanks and bombardment with the help of the Loth-wolves. Knowing of the impending attack on Lothals fuel depots and the factory where the TIE Defenders were being manufactured, Thrawn tasked Pryce with defending of that factory, but an attack from the Lothal ground rebels had left the factory vulnerable to attack. However to their fortune the Rebels strike force was decimated by the Empire before they could reach the factory. Among the Rebel pilot survivors captured by Rukh was the infamous rebellion pilot Hera Syndulla, who Pryce then stunned when encountering her during capture.
After capturing Syndulla, Pryce brings her back to the Imperial base for interrogation. However, during the interrogation, as Pryce takes pleasure in torturing Hera and giving her a truth serum to spill the beans about the location of the Lothal rebel hidden base, Thrawn is summoned to speak to the Emperor at Coruscant regarding the TIE Defender project and the funding for it. With Thrawn gone, She is caught off-guard when Kanan, Ezra, and Sabine arrive to liberate Hera and escape. Pursuing them in a AT-AT walkers to the city's fuel depot, Pryce orders her men to fire on the fuel pods, despite objections as to the consequences. This results in this fuel depot going up in flames, but Pryce learns that a Jedi Kanan Jarrus was killed in this explosion. Pryce attempted to use an parade celebration and the death of the Jedi as an way to downplay the consequences of her actions, but Thrawn was furious to discover her actions then scolds her that the loss of the fuel depot put the TIE Defender program in grave jeopardy. Thrawn then warns this Governor Pryce that when he would return to the planet Lothal, the Governor would then be facing severe punishment if not execution for her actions.
Pryce hunted the rebels in desperate attempts to regain Thrawn's favor out of fear for her life, Pryce learned that one of the Rebels were offering to give up the location of their hideout in return for amnesty. Taking up their offer, Pryce arrives with Rukh and her forces to capture the rebels, but it turns out that she was lured into a trap. With aid from Loth-Wolves the rebels were able to overpower the Imperials and capture Governor Pryce who pleaded for mercy before being taken into rebel custody. Pryce is then forced to help the rebels gain access to the capital city, so they can summon all Empire garrison troops into the central command center to launch into the sky, destroy it and liberate Lothal. Despite the Grand Admiral Thrawn and Rukh's efforts to prevent the rebellion victory on Lothal, the Empire's blockade is then wiped out by several Purrgils and Rukh is killed while trying to prevent this shield from activating. With the city safe, the dome with all their Empire forces on it was about to be launched into the sky and destroyed, and though Pryce was offered mercy she decided to die with the others remaining loyal to their Empire and facing death with dignity, ridding Lothal of this Empire.