Even though the Separatist cause wasn’t originally
all that bad, the Confederacy of Independent Systems was led by some of the most evil beings
in galactic history. The sociopath Count Dooku, the genocidal maniac General Grievous,
and the unfathomably greedy Nute Gunray are just three morally bankrupt
Spepartist leaders who spring to mind. But, believe it or not, none of these three
were the most evil person in the CIS; instead, it was a character you’ve probably forgotten
about. It was a Separatist Council member by the name of Shu Mai. In this video, we’ll
be revealing what made her so horrible. Shu Mai was born on Castell, the homeworld of her
species, the Gossam. Castell was located in the Colonies, a wealthy region of space near the Core
Worlds, and during the Republic’s final centuries, it grew prosperous from trade in the
Outer Rim. Business took a turn, however, when the Galactic Senate began taxing the
Outer Rim Free Trade Zones to curtail abuses by the Trade Federation. Castell’s economy
imploded, and the planet entered a severe decade-long economic depression. The situation
on the planet grew so extreme that Gossams began murdering each other in the streets over food,
credits, and escape from their failing homeworld. The Commerce Guild saved Castell from this
crisis. The Guild approached the Gossam and offered them a deal - they would invest heavily
in Castell and rebuild the planetary economy, and in exchange the Gossam would sell them their
services and virtually all property on the planet. Castell accepted, allowing the Guild to pretty
much buy up the planet and its inhabitants. The Commerce Guild rebuilt the planetary
economy and gave Castell a second chance as a major manufacturing hub. In exchange, however,
the Gossam workforce was effectively enslaved, and since the planet was now the property of
the Commerce Guild, they were charged rent. Shu Mai was one of the lucky ones. Instead
of being forced into manufacturing, like many Gossam were, she got a job in
Commerce Guild management. Her superiors soon took notice of her determination, business
sense, and aggressive tactics, and Mai began to steadily climb the ranks. Her rise was bolstered
by the widespread support of the Gossam people, who trusted her to represent their interests,
as she was one of many Gossams who had lost everything during the repression. Their
support, combined with Guild superiors’ approval of her tactics, allowed Shu Mai to
become the Guild’s Chief of Property Resources. As Chief of Property Resources, Shu Mai was
able to bring Castell out of its economic slump thanks to her aggressive business tactics
and occasional deals with illegal organizations. In time, the Commerce Guild gave her a chance
to repurchase Castell for the Gossam people, freeing them from the Guild’s rule. Mai did
repurchase the planet - but she didn’t give it back to the Gossam people. Instead, she claimed
Castell for herself, and imposed even harsher demands on her people. Instead of being freed from
servitude and the Commerce Guild’s high rent rate, the Gossam people were subjected to even
higher rent and constant demands of tribute, all to benefit Shu Mai, now the sole proprietor
of the entire planet. This moral bankruptcy won her the respect of Commerce Guild leadership,
and after a few dozen of Mai’s rivals met with mysterious fatal accidents, Shu Mai
became Presidente of the Commerce Guild. That story alone illustrates just how terrible Shu
Mai was, and we have many more like it to share. Before we get into them, however, we’d like to pay
special attention to who Shu Mai was as a person, because it adds a whole new dimension
to her actions. Shu Mai had a personal philosophy that wasn’t just defensive of immoral
actions or anything like that, but actively anti-moral. The concept of morality, Mai believed,
was a waste of time, an inefficiency that, quote, “encumbers and slows the appropriate development
of a truly advanced society.” Not only was she an openly terrible person, but she also had
the gall to look down on people who weren’t. Shu Mai didn’t really see people as
people; she saw them as financial assets to be manipulated in an endless quest
for power and profit. The suffering of others, up to and including the entire population of
her homeworld, not only didn’t matter to her, but didn’t really register with her, either. To
Shu Mai, other life-forms, even sentient ones, were just property of another sort; the only being
in the universe that she cared about was herself. But she wasn’t insane or ignorant; she was aware
of how normal beings valued life, and she actively frowned upon it. That, perhaps, is what made Shu
Mai more evil than her contemporaries. She was fully aware that what she was doing was absolutely
terrible, and she prided herself for it. Shu Mai presided over the Commerce Guild
during the Republic’s final decade. Under her, the Guild became even more
aggressive and predatory. Many planets, especially mining worlds, suffered fates similar
to that of Castell, and were purchased by the Commerce Guild and its subsidiaries. Following the
lead of the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guild also built a droid army during this period, the
Punitive Security Forces, which is a sinister name if ever there was one. Shu Mai unleashed this
army, largely composed of fearsome spider droids, against small mining worlds that she wanted to
acquire, invading them and butchering native populations if they refused to join the Guild.
When miners on Guild-owned worlds went on strike over abysmal pay and conditions, Mai unleashed
the Punitive Security Forces against them, too. But Mai wasn’t reckless, and was wary of being too
liberal in the use of droid armies, in light of what happened to the Trade Federation after the
Battle of Naboo. By and large, Mai only sicced armies on worlds beyond the reach of the Republic,
and usually kept it a secret when she did so. Within Republic space, Mai preferred to use
political manipulation and covert assassination to get her way. Though she was careful to never
break Republic law herself, Mai was willing to have anyone from potential rivals to people who
criticized her during board meetings killed. Shu Mai was also politically savvy enough to get
her way without using force. During elections on Sullust, she orchestrated a victory for a
candidate friendly to SoroSuub, a Sullust-based Commerce Guild subsidiary. This was despite the
fact that said candidate was generally unpopular, thanks to his proposal that the votes of
SoroSuub shareholders should count as twice as much as those of normal Sullustans. During
the Separatist Crisis, Mai also attempted to manipulate the people of Ansion into seceding from
the Republic, something that would have led to the secession of forty other allied star systems.
Though Mai conspired with Count Dooku during the Ansion crisis, she again did this for her
own personal gain. During the Separatist Crisis, Mai and the Commerce Guild had taken advantage of
secessions by buying up resource-rich worlds that seceded and giving them the Castell treatment. She
planned to do the same to Ansion and its allies. Shu Mai saw opportunity in the rise of
the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but when Count Dooku offered her a spot on the
Separatist Council, she initially only accepted in secret, not wanting to be charged with treason
by the Republic. She kept the Commerce Guild’s alignment with the CIS and its involvement
in building the Droid Army a secret right up until the outbreak of the Battle of Geonosis.
After that, the jig was up, and Shu Mai made her support for the CIS public, merging the
Punitive Security Forces into the droid army. Shu Mai and her aide, fellow Gossam Cat Miin,
served on the Separatist Council throughout the Clone Wars, helping oversee the management of the
CIS Military. Mai was also heavily involved with the CIS Shadowfeed, the Separatists’ propaganda
newsnet, on which she made infrequent appearances. One of these appearances was shortly after the
Battle of Bassadro, an infamous clash over a Commerce Guild mining world in which Republic
forces indirectly killed over four hundred native miners. The Shadowfeed made its grand debut by
putting the Republic on blast over this war crime, with Mai giving a statement condemning the
atrocity. To again quote the Gossam herself: “The callous lack of value shown by the
Republic in this exercise is appalling. Each of those miners represented a hard
worker with invested skill levels. The synergistic aggregate of the village total
was far beyond the worth of each individual.” Note the words used there. Even
as part of a propaganda piece, Mai didn’t even pretend to care about the
lives of the miners who died on Bassadro. Instead, she criticized the Republic
for wasting perfectly good labor. Mai spent a good chunk of the Clone Wars on
Felucia, the Commerce Guild headquarters, where she had a number of industrial facilities,
a huge droid army, and a personal stronghold. This meant that Felucia was a major target for Republic
forces. For most of the war, the Separatist garrison there, combined with Felucia’s hellish
jungle environment, allowed the Confederacy to repulse Republic attacks on the planet. During
the Outer Rim Sieges, however, the Republic gained enough of an upper hand in the war to lay
siege to Felucia, classing it alongside Saleucami and Mygeeto as priority targets, what Supreme
Chancellor Palpatine called a Triad of Evil. Slowly, the Republic began to gain ground
on Felucia, forcing Shu Mai to evacuate her stronghold. Before she left, however, she ordered
her troops to poison Felucia’s water supply, a move that would render the entire
planet uninhabitable within a few months. This wasn’t the first time the CIS had
done this; they had done the same thing on Atraken early in the war, wiping out
90% of the planet’s civilian population. Felucia was narrowly spared from a similar
fate by the intervention of the Jedi. After fleeing Felucia, Shu Mai rendezvoused
with the rest of the Separatist Council, who were placed under the
protection of General Grievous. Grievous relocated them first
to Utapau and then Mustafar. After everything we’ve talked about so far, we
don’t blame you if you’ve been waiting for this part. As a prize for getting to the end, here’s a
passage from the Revenge of the Sith novelization. “Shu Mai, president and CEO of the
Commerce Guild, looked up from her knees, hands clashed before her, tears
streaming down her shriveled cheeks. ‘We were promised a reward,’
she gasped. ‘A handsome reward-’ ‘I am your reward,’ the Sith Lord
said. ‘You don’t find me handsome?’ ‘Please!’ she screeched through her sobbing.
‘Pleee-’ The blue-white blade cut into and out from her skull, and her corpse
swayed. A negligent flip of the wrist slashed through her column of neck rings.
Her brain-burned head tumbled to the floor.” So, that’s the story of Shu Mai, the most
morally bankrupt person in the entire CIS. But what do you think? Would you like to
talk about any of the other Separatist Council leaders? Feel free to post
your thoughts in the comments below.
