'Star Wars' History: The Return And Fall Of Crimson Dawn
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Star Wars has had a lot of comic book storylines over the years, some smaller in scope, others helping build things that continued to matter years after the fact. As part of this pattern, the big set-piece storyline for Star Wars throughout the 2020 comic runs from Marvel was the return of Crimson Dawn and Qi’ra. With the rocky financial results of Solo, fans of the film (who have also desired a sequel in some form) can rest easy knowing that Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn’s storyline did continue on, and in a phenomenal way. Today, we’re going to explore each stage of Crimson Dawn’s return and their surprising motivations as opposed to other criminal groups in the galactic underworld. We’ve spoken about this plotline in parts over the years, but this article today will be a summation of the entire narrative.
The Disappearance
Through various issues of the comic storyline, we come to understand, or at least infer, a great deal about what happened to Crimson Dawn after the events of Solo, and the death of Dryden Vos. We know that Maul began to train Qi’ra as he saw potential in her after Vos’ death, but by the point of the Rebels Season 2 finale, Maul and Qi’ra had seemingly parted ways, with her taking full control of the organization. She also took the unorthodox step of removing Crimson Dawn from the criminal halls of power, going radio silent and letting the wider underworld assume that the group was disbanded. Maul’s grip on the underworld also fully collapsed at this point, as it seems likely that Crimson Dawn’s retreat meant he no longer had the resources to oversee the galaxy’s criminals. With the Dawn’s departure and Maul vanishing, the criminal groups probably felt more free to compete once again, though we hear little of major criminal conflicts in the years that followed.
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The Auction
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The opening salvo in Crimson Dawn’s return to the galaxy was the theft of the carbonite-frozen Han Solo from Boba Fett during transit to Jabba the Hutt. This act, while dangerous, showed Crimson Dawn’s resources and power, as it was assumed by some that Boba Fett had betrayed Jabba for Qi’ra. He hadn’t, and others knew of the theft, but stealing a major bounty from one of the best hunters in the galaxy also sent its own message.
Qi’ra’s next step was to host a lavish auction aboard the Dawn’s new massive flagship, the Vermillion, to show the galaxy that they were truly back. The auction’s prize was Han Solo, and Qi’ra invited dozens of criminal organizations, as well as the Galactic Empire, to take part in the event. Vast quantities of food and drink were expended, guests were shown through beautiful hallways, and given a glimpse at the wealth and power of the Dawn despite over a decade passing since their last period of activity.
The auction began, and this is when Qi’ra’s manipulations began to come into play. We’ll discuss more of this later, but there were Crimson Dawn agents spread across the galaxy in many different organizations. One of these was Bokku the Hutt, a member of the Hutt Council, who pushed Jabba to bid for Solo by bidding himself in direct competition with the Council’s most powerful member. While this was partly at the request of Darth Vader, this goal still served Qi’ra’s ends too, but Bokku lost out to Jabba’s deeper pockets.
But the presence of the Empire at the auction, in the form of military officials and Sly Moore, gave way to Darth Vader, who advanced into the room. He made Jabba stand down from his winning bid and insisted on taking Solo for himself. In the time since he’d given the slab to Boba Fett, Vader had endured a lot and was now laser-focused on forcing Luke to join him by any means necessary. He intended to use Han as a trap, to lure in his son, but did not voice this out loud.
Then Qi’ra stepped in and blocked Vader’s acquisition when the Empire refused to pay the Dawn the sum in Jabba’s winning bid. A brief fight began, and while Lady Qi’ra was ultimately bested by Vader, the unexpected encounter again played to her advantage. Criminals in attendance were now aware that the Dawn was no friend of the Empire and would be willing to stand up to them. The fact that Qi’ra had stood toe to toe with Vader of all people, for any length of time, and got away alive, also had its own powerful symbolism. Han was eventually removed from the Vermillion by the Empire, but Bokku now acted out Qi’ra’s will.
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He convinced his fellow Hutt councilors that Vader’s actions had been a slight against all of them, as Jabba’s departure from the auction soon after Vader’s arrival and the surrender of Solo made them all look weak. While Vader pursued Luke in a fierce dogfight overhead (his son and his allies had come to save Han), the Hutts suddenly launched an attack on the orbiting Imperial forces. Vader had to break off his pursuit of Luke to instead board the Hutt flagship to end the conflict. There, all of the councilors were killed, even Bokku, but not before he revealed his true allegiance to Vader.
The Underworld War
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In the wake of the auction, the criminals of the galaxy knew that Crimson Dawn was back and meant business. This business soon took the form of Qi’ra and her most trusted confidants, Margo and Trinia, traveling to high-up operatives in different criminal organizations like the Black Sun, and weaving a well-constructed lie. They all claimed the Dawn had no desire for competition with the five biggest criminal groups in the galaxy at that time, instead offering their services as mercenaries and information brokers. They also “revealed” a false bit of information: the Emperor was unhappy with the Hutts. Years prior, Darth Vader and Jabba had executed a deal that drew the Hutt Cartel and the Galactic Empire closer together in the wake of the destruction of the first Death Star. But the battle in orbit above Qi’ra’s auction seemed to prove that such an alliance was fracturing. If another criminal organization showed its strength and power at the cost of other criminal groups, perhaps the Emperor would consider them for the role of the Empire’s criminal partner.
This touched off a war in the galactic underworld. Old rivalries flared up into intense firefights, assassinations, and considerable criminal chaos that saw the Empire scrambling to clamp down on rampant crime. Qi’ra and her operatives, meanwhile, helped stoke the conflicts, directly pitting many of the groups against each other through anonymous attacks, all while also supporting the Rebel Alliance to further weaken the Galactic Empire. Elsewhere, the Dawn made an interesting move regarding Corellia’s most powerful criminal gangs, the Mourner’s Wail and the Unbroken Clan. Events years prior had seen a scion to both criminal organizations come about through a forbidden love, but the child was kept hidden and safe by a bounty hunter known to both Boba Fett and Beilert Valance.
This hunter was killed soon after The Empire Strikes Back, but their charge, a young girl named Cadeliah, fell into Valance’s care. He eventually passed the young woman to people he trusted in the Rebel Alliance, but this protection didn’t last long. The Dawn had an agent in the Unbroken Clan and helped them destroy the Mourner’s Wail, though the Clan was later destroyed as well. Cadeliah, though, was abducted by the half-Nightsister assassin Deathstick, who served Qi’ra during this time and actively led the forces of Commander Zahra to the Rebel base to serve as a distraction for her abduction of the criminal scion.
But Qi’ra did not want to hurt, ransom, or do anything nefarious with Cadeliah. No, instead, she wanted something of a ward. She was entering the midpoint of her endgame, in a fight she knew would be hard and might have difficulties down the road. To that end, she wanted to impart her knowledge onto Cadeliah, a girl from her homeworld, with a great deal of resources in her future, and with an independent spirit that she felt she could help shape. As a result, the two began to sit and talk frequently over the coming weeks and months as events unfolded, not quite to Qi’ra’s design.
The Hidden Empire
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Eventually, the Emperor had had enough of the chaos in the galaxy. He got representatives of the five major criminal organizations into a shared holocall and demanded that the conflict stop. Through this discussion, the truth came out that Crimson Dawn was behind all of the chaos. Palpatine and Vader had also spoken about Qi’ra’s training and her connections to Maul, and resolved to devote their resources to more intensely rooting out Crimson Dawn. Over the past few months, Vader had gone on a warpath, uncovering Crimson Dawn agents in the Empire after Bokku’s brief final discussion with the Sith Lord tipped the Sith Lord off to the infiltration.
However, his warpath was manipulated, and a number of those he killed were loyal Imperials, or at least were guiltless of the crimes he accused them of. Meanwhile, Qi’ra had assassinated a whole contingent of Sidious’ Royal Guards with the help of a loyalty-complex Ochi of Bestoon, who had temporarily turned on his masters after events on Exegol. She had also activated all of her agents to cause even more chaos now that her plotting had been discovered. The era’s two Sith turned their full focus toward this attacker that assailed them from the shadows, but why had her machinations chosen to focus on the Sith?
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Because Qi’ra knew the truth. From Maul, Qi’ra learned about Sidious, about Vader, and about the Sith. She came to understand that Palpatine had manufactured a cruel, unjust society built on lies, fabrications, and overwhelming, abusive power. As a poor girl growing up on Corellia, she had once been on the lowest levels of a vast pyramid of power that stretched up to Sidious with Vader at his right hand. Over time, she had climbed the slopes, and while she was certainly no angel, she felt a deep drive to take down this system, and the Sith, and to try to begin righting their wrongs. Maul had had a plan to defeat his old master, but with his death, she had inherited it, and so she’d put it into motion.
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Alongside countless agents across the galaxy, hiding among the criminal syndicates, amidst the Empire, the Rebellion, and everything in between, she had recruited a crack team of warriors, scholars, and assassins to execute her plans. We have previously mentioned Ochi and Deathstick, but the Orphans led by Chanath Cha, Sava Madeline Sun, aka the Archivist, and the Knights of Ren were also her keenest instruments.
Outside of the assassinations and criminal manipulations, Qi’ra’s biggest target was locating and opening the Fermata Cage. This artifact of the Sith, created by Lord Momin, was capable of putting an individual into stasis for an extended period of time. Upon its acquisition, Qi’ra and Sidious spoke, and her plan was ultimately revealed. She claimed that within the Cage, an ancient Sith was imprisoned. She would unleash them and doom Sidious and Vader to conflict against another equal to their mystical power.
The Defeat
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But it was not to be, as the first attempt to open the Cage failed. Still, the effort caused ripples to echo across the galaxy, like a stone thrown into a pond, and led to some difficulties for Force users. The second attempt also failed, as Vader arrived, forcing the Archivist and her assistant to flee, and saw the death of Chanath Cha and the defeat of her Orphans.
Qi’ra’s assets were burned, one by one, as people began to waver in their support. For example, the Knights of Ren, who had lost group members in their assistance of Qi'ra’s quest, had recently been used as living batteries to try and open the Cage on the first attempt. They were not happy, but Qi’ra was able to call on them for the final battle. Her end-all gamble against the Sith would involve luring them to an ancient alien space station rediscovered during the High Republic during the Great Hyperspace Disaster: The Amaxine battle station.
Qi’ra also rallied her forces, dozens of ships, perhaps hundreds of fighters, and assembled a flotilla to meet the Empire in battle around the ancient sphere. The Archivist began to activate the Cage, draining the excess of plantlife still aboard the station, which was suspiciously strong with the Dark Side of the Force (likely some remnant of the Drengir’s influence, though they were long defeated). Meanwhile, to Cadeliah, Qi’ra left the girl’s existing inheritance (such as it was), but also a considerable sum and other resources, keeping her safe and away from the fight. Qi’ra’s fight came down to this one, singular moment, and she ALMOST won.
Both Vader and Sidious arrived with Imperial forces to confront and stop Qi’ra. Joined by Royal Guards, they boarded the ancient station and made for the central chamber. Vader, temporarily waylaid by a Spark Eternal-possessed Doctor Aphra (one of Qi’ra’s more unexpected assets), defeated the foe and was at his master’s side as they beheld the opening of the device. Only, nothing but a small disc came tumbling out. Confused, Sidious realized too late that he had fallen into Qi'ra’s trap. The Cage began to close, and in doing so, it would freeze and contain Sidious and Vader within for Qi’ra’s quick and easy disposal. But the late arrival of the Knights of Ren changed everything.
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Annoyed with Qi’ra, and seeing that the Sith were in trouble, Ren made a decision driven by his ego and anger: he sabotaged Qi’ra’s great plan. The Knights came blazing in and destroyed the Cage’s mechanism to Qi’ra’s horror, allowing the Sith to walk free. With her forces being slaughtered all around her, Qi’ra ordered them all to scatter, but few would escape the Empire’s lethal response. As for the Knights of Ren, despite believing the Sith would owe them, Sidious merely shot them all with lightning and very much enforced his will over them. They had saved the Emperor, only for him to become their new master, who would one day make use of these new tools to disastrous ends.
Qi’ra herself survived the disaster, as did the Archivist. Other agents of the Dawn went their separate ways, Ochi returning to the Sith, Deathstick eventually returning to her order of assassins, and so on. While the Archivist’s fate is not known, she at least survived long enough to record a history of the events on a unique storage device. Cadeliah, meanwhile, made contact with friendly bounty hunters and was last seen hoping to become a bounty hunter herself in exchange for her fortune helping bankroll their dream of a cantina. Qi’ra simply faded into the background of the galaxy, and when reports of the second Death Star’s destruction echoed across the holonet, she was sitting by herself in a backwater bar. Alone, without friends…but that changed when someone came and joined her at the table, someone familiar with who she was. But that is all the story we have at present.
Conclusion
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Qi’ra’s plan was audacious, complex, and relied on her skills of deception to fool a master at the craft, and it all almost worked. But part of the Archivist’s assessment does ring true: Qi’ra did it alone. For as much as she professed a common cause and unity with those under her command, she often used them and manipulated them as well. Most were aware of this fact, but for a long time, she offered them enough encouragement to stay on with her project, and while she never revealed the full extent of her plan to them, she did make sure they played their part, and knew to keep their eyes on the prize.
But compassion was a weakness to Qi’ra, and in those final weeks, she isolated herself. Her two oldest confidants, Margo and Trinia, were sent away to safety, while Cadeliah sat by her side, and was taught everything she needed. It was only with this young orphan did Qi’ra shed her tears, and implore the girl to be free, and to choose the path she wanted in life, with Qi’ra feeling she had never been free herself. She was ultimately a highly skilled adversary, with considerable complexity, and her actions echoed in the months to come, and perhaps further, should we see more stories with Qi’ra someday. Of course, the one major side effect of Qi’ra’s plan that perhaps not even the Archivist realized was the release of a dangerous threat. First it came for the metal, then it came for the muddle…but we’ll have to discuss the Scourge another time.
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