Although consisting of five influential families, the Tarkin family was the most powerful and famous family of the Quintad, dominating politics in the Seswenna sector in the waning days of the Galactic Republic and throughout the reign of the Galactic Empire.
Of Corulag ancestry, the Quintad were an oligarchy of five influential and driven families that dominated Eriadu's politics and industries. The Quintad made up a portion of Eriadu's privileged few, otherwise consisting of a handful of Outer Rim business leaders and high-level bureaucrats. These wealthy magnates enjoyed opulent excesses and resided in palatial estates that dot the outskirts of Eriadu City.
The Quintad shared their name with Quintad Orbital Manufacturing, a manufacturing firm that was dominated by the Tarkin family in the waning years of the Galactic Republic.
Originally hailing from Corulag in the Core Worlds, the powerful and ambitious Quintad emigrated to Eriadu in the Outer Rim in approximately 900 BBY, establishing a ruling oligarchy over the planet. At the time of their emigration, Eriadu was best known for its local delicate shellwork jewelry, though the driven families of the Quintad sought to remake the planet into the "Coruscant of the Outer Rim."
By the Battle of Yavin, Eriadu had turned into an economic powerhouse under the Quintad's leadership and guidance. The Quintad had developed Eriadu into a manufacturing giant with prestigious shipyards and caused the Seswenna sector to move its capital from Seswenna to Eriadu, rerouting the Hydian Way into Eriadu and establishing it as a major Outer Rim planet. However, under the Quintad's rule, the planet suffered from serious pollution and depended on a substantial slave population, only liberated under the New Republic.
Wilhuff Tarkin was a member of the Quintad's leading family
During the Clone Wars, Eriadu was a bastion of the Galactic Republic amid Separatist sectors. The Quintad's Tarkin family rose to prominence during the war, with Brigadier Gideon Tarkin assisting Republic forces in battle, while his brother Wilhuff Tarkin oversaw the Republic's Eighteenth Army.
After the Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire, Greater Seswenna was reorganized into Oversector Outer, making Tarkin the most powerful man in the Outer Rim. After Tarkin's death and the fragmentation of the empire, Admiral Sander Delvardus established the Eriadu Authority based around the Seswenna sector. Having wed an heiress of the Tarkin family, Delvardus had the support of the Quintad, though the five families wielded great influence over him. When Delvardus pushed toward conquering Coreward, he fell out with Eriadu's ruling families and thereupon lost the support of the Quintad―the Quintad was concerned with defending the Eriadu system's interests, not Coreward expansion.
The Tarkin family was the most famous and powerful of the five Quintad families, who dominated the high offices of the Seswenna sector's corporations, shipyards, and political parties.
The Eriadu News Service reporter Eris Harro was the heiress of one of the Quintad houses and was wed to Shea Hublin after he was named air marshal of Greater Seswenna and granted a marquisate on Eriadu.
- Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Guide to Warfare