Phan-tu Zenn

"This is Phan-tu Zenn. The people of Eiram and E'ronoh must recognize, once and for all, that our planets are stronger together than apart. We've been so busy following the blueprints of our mutual destruction that we can't see the obvious. That we can be the architects of good. Together. The Jedi have only ever wanted peace between our planets. For once, this is their time of need. And it is our time to fight for the truth—and what the Path has always known. If Eiram and E'ronoh were to unite, there would be no tidal wave, no groundquake, no storm, and no Path that could ever shatter us."

―Phan-tu Zenn^[4]

Phan-tu Zenn was a human^[3] male heir to the Eiram royal family during the High Republic Era. His mother was the ruling queen of the planet Eiram in^[1] 382 BBY. That year,^[5] after a chance meeting, he and Princess Xiri A'lbaran of E'ronoh agreed to marry in the hopes of bringing peace to their planets, which had been at war for five years.^[1] However, that peace was destroyed at the Battle of Jedha, leaving the two to deal with the aftermath. After a diplomatic mission to speak with the Path of the Open Hand cult on Dalna turned into an extensive battle against them and the Jedi, he and A'lbaran managed to escape the planet and the battle. The two, with the help of Supreme Chancellor Orlen Mollo, then united their planets against the Path and turned the tide of the battle in the Jedi's favor, all while bringing lasting peace to their worlds.^[4]

Biography

Early life

Phan-tu was born into a poor family on the Outer Rim planet Eiram^[1] around 407 BBY.^[2] They lived in the Rayes Canal area of Erasmus Capital City, a district that was particularly susceptible to flooding. During one particularly disastrous flood, Phan-tu and his family were swept out to sea, with Phan-tu being the only survivor. Following this, the boy was found and adopted into the Eiram royal family by Queen Adrialla, who had been unable to have children with her wife, Queen Consort Odelia. As a result, Phan-tu became the heir to Eiram's throne. In 387 BBY, Eiram and its twin planet of E'ronoh initiated a five-year war that caused much death and destruction on both planets.^[1]

Peace negotiations with E'ronoh

The summit aboard the Paxion

In 382 BBY,^[2] a brief ceasefire was negotiated between the worlds by Princess Xiri A'lbaran of E'ronoh. The aim was to allow both planets time to receive aid - E'ronoh was waiting on a delivery of ice, while Eiram had requested medical supplies from the Galactic Republic. However, the arrival of these shipments was botched, leading to a skirmish between E'roni and Eirami forces, during which Princess Xiri herself crash-landed on Eiram, close to the Rayes Canal. Phan-tu witnessed the crash and rushed to help, diving into the water and rescuing Xiri from the wreckage of her starfighter, using her ceremonial bane blade to cut her free. Yet once Phan-tu had pulled her to shore she attacked him, holding the dagger to his throat before turning it on herself when Eirami guards began converging on them. Phan-tu managed to persuade her surrender with the promise that she could get an audience with Queen Adrialla. In this audience, Adrialla played a message that had been sent by Xiri's father, Monarch A'lbaran, who threatened to raze Eiram to the ground if his daughter was not returned to him. She also played another message, sent by Chancellor Orlen Mollo, who had arrived in the system alongside the Jedi who had been sent to provide Eiram's medical supplies. Mollo wanted to broker a lasting peace between Eiram and E'ronoh and had invited Adrialla aboard his flagship, the Paxion, to engage in negotiations with A'lbaran. Xiri agreed to go with the Eirami to these negotiations and they set off for the Paxion that night, with the trip being Phan-tu's first time offworld.^[1]

The first few days of negotiations failed to achieve much, with E'ronoh's hawkish Viceroy Ferrol goading A'lbaran into levelling several accusations at Adrialla. During this period, Phan-tu developed a positive relationship with Xiri, sparring with her and the Jedi Knight Gella Nattai, who was part of the Republic contingent. Then Mollo and the Jedi screened footage of the suffering of ordinary people on both Eiram and E'ronoh throughout the ship to motivate the delegations to compromise. The next day, Xiri proposed that she and Phan-tu should be married, a proposal that was initially unpopular with both Adrialla and A'lbaran, though both Phan-tu and Xiri were able to prevail upon their parents in private to secure their agreement. That night, Phan-tu found the dead body of the E'roni captain Jerrod Segaru in his bed, a discover that reminded all that there were forces at work trying to undermine the peace process, with Xiri suspecting the work of Ferrol. At that moment, they were also joined by Axel Greylark, son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark, who had been sent by his mother to represent her interests in the negotiations.^[1]

Touring E'ronoh

Both parties travelled down to E'ronoh's capital, the Rook, to attend the funeral of Captain Segaru. After the ceremony, Phan-tu and the Eirami were pelted with stones by an extremist pro-war faction known as the Children of E'ronoh, who were protesting their presence on the planet. It was decided that, while the monarchs would remain at the Rook, Phan-tu and Xiri, accompanied by Nattai and Greylark, would go on a tour of the world to distribute relief, curry favor, and also potentially draw out the disruptors who had clearly been working against efforts to achieve peace.^[1]

Travelling aboard the royal sail barge, the Amaryliss, the group visited numerous locations across the desert planet, including Barakat Outpost, A'ranni, and U'ronoh. Over the course of the trip, Phan-tu and Xiri grew increasingly close, united by their shared vision for peace and mutual respect for one another. They also developed positive relationships with both Nattai and Greylark, with Phan-tu and the latter striking up a surprising friendship. At Barakat, Xiri won a duel with a disaffected miner, while at A'ranni the group helped end a skirmish between groups of E'roni and Eirami soldiers who had not heard of the ceasefire. There, Phan-tu fell through the ground into a cave system, briefly separating him from the group. In making his way back to the surface, he became covered in thylefire scorpions, creatures held significant by the E'roni people. His emergence, covered as he was by the scorpions, caused amazement in the ranks of the surrendered E'roni soldiers.^[1]

At U'ronoh, the group's last stop, they found that the villagers had been taken hostage by the Children of E'ronoh, led by Viceroy Ferrol's son, Rev. Phan-tu and Xiri surrendered themselves so that the villagers would be released and they were taken aboard a shuttle which was set to autopilot to crash into the Rook. Luckily, both Nattai and Greylark were able to sneak aboard the shuttle; Nattai dealt with the Children and Rev, while Greylark overrode the autopilot process. The group then leapt from the shuttle and parachuted down to the village, where a celebration was held that night. On their return to the Rook, Viceroy Ferrol was taken into custody, however another attempt on Xiri's life by a Kage girl named Abda highlighted how another party, separate from the Children, was still working to stop the peace; before Abda could be interrogated properly, she was herself poisoned to prevent her from talking. Phan-tu and Xiri nevertheless pressed on with the wedding and had the first part of the ceremony, before returning to Eiram for the second part.^[1]

A royal wedding

Greylark and Nattai went to investigate the assassination attempt by chasing a lead on Hesperys Station. When they returned to Eiram, allegedly with proof linking Viceroy Ferrol to the plot, Phan-tu asked Greylark to take him to Arium Island, the location of a secret Eirami research facility. Phan-tu believed the poison that was used on Abda was very similar to that of the Eirami blue scorpion, and he therefore wanted to investigate the facility which had, until recently, been attempting to produce poison that could be used in the war with E'ronoh. Adrialla had told Phan-tu that she had shut down the program, but when they arrived they discovered that the facility was still functional, albeit in the process of destroying some of the samples. While there, Phan-tu and Greylark were attacked by escaped blue scorpions, with Greylark jumping in front of a sting in order to save Phan-tu's life. The Prince brought his friend back to Erasmus Capital City deathly sick, however the Eirami doctors were able to stabilize and cure him. Meanwhile, Phan-tu confronted his mother about the existence of the program. Adrialla claimed that she had only done so in order to bring a swift end to the war and that she had been coerced into it by someone known as the Mother, the leader of the extremist Force cult known as the Path of the Open Hand, who had offered Eiram aid. Their conversation was overheard by Xiri, who argued that the facility should not be shut down - both Eiram and E'ronoh would need a failsafe in case new enemies rose up in the future and the Republic was not there to provide them with help.^[1]

A few days later, Phan-tu and Xiri were married by Chancellor Mollo. However, the ceremony was marred by the actions of Greylark who, unbeknownst to everyone, had been working for the Path of the Open Hand the entire time. Greylark's treachery was uncovered by Nattai, who had found his quarters empty aside from the dead body of Viceroy Ferrol and Greylark's damaged therapy droid, QN-1. She had rebuilt the droid and found numerous holorecordings detailing his communications with the Mother. Though she attempted to capture him, Nattai could not prevent him from blowing up the towers that produced the dome protecting Erasmus Capital City from flooding by the ocean. Greylark had also left a tracking beacon in the wedding venue, which caused droves of bounty hunters to converge on the ceremony in an attempt to capture him and claim the bounty that had earlier been placed on his head by an old associate he had wronged. With the other Jedi fighting the bounty hunters to stop them bursting into the venue, Phan-tu and Xiri urged Mollo to proceed with the ceremony and the Chancellor indeed proclaimed them married. As Xiri gunned down a bounty hunter who had broke through, Phan-tu declared his love for her.^[1]

With fighting enveloping the capital, matters were made worse by the flooding that was sweeping into the Rayes Canal area due to the destruction of the dome. Meanwhile, the Children of E'ronoh led by Rev Ferrol appeared in E'roni drill ships in the sky, tearing through the Paxion and sending it crashing into the ocean. While Xiri went to fight these newcomers, Phan-tu mounted an agopie and raced off to the Rayes Canal, taking personal charge of the evacuation of the district that had once been his home. In the event, the Jedi managed to repel the bounty hunters, Xiri defeated and killed Rev Ferrol, and Nattai captured Greylark. With calm restored, the Eirami and E'roni delegations met to discuss where the peace would be officially signed, and it was agreed that the summit would take place on the holy moon of Jedha, a neutral location.^[1]