Taxer Sundown, a significant land baron, exerted considerable influence over the moisture farming lands of Ord Mantell in 37 BBY, during the concluding decades of the era of the Galactic Republic.
Sundown made his way to Ord Mantell with the stated intention of "improving" the planet, but in reality, he simply murdered the existing land barons and seized control of their operations. Subsequently, Sundown falsely attributed the killings to the Mantellian Savrips, provoking the local villagers into hunting them down. Concurrently, Sundown established his base of operations on Ten Mile Plateau, where he managed a solar energy harvesting facility. To bolster his perceived image as a Jedi Knight, he employed a group of enforcers who wielded training lightsaber weapons to guard his facility.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had arrived on Ord Mantell to investigate the demise of the Venan nobleman, Baron Sando, found themselves under attack by Sundown's mercenaries, as he sought to prevent their investigation from succeeding. Following their victory over the mercenaries, the two Jedi discovered that the enforcers lacked any independent thought, suggesting that Sundown was manipulating them through the Force. As the Jedi began to uncover Sundown's true motives, he attempted to abduct their new ally, Nella Bold, and eliminate them. However, his efforts were unsuccessful, and the Jedi, in alliance with a tribe of Savrips led by Mawkran, triumphed over Sundown's private army, compelling him to flee the planet. During his escape attempt in Nella's T-24 airspeeder, Obi-Wan successfully destroyed its top fin, causing Sundown to lose control of the vehicle. The airspeeder crashed on Ten Mile Plateau, resulting in Sundown's death from a broken neck. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan then found that Sundown had been utilizing a mind control device to reinforce his claims of being a Jedi Knight, as part of a larger scheme orchestrated by the Venan Baroness Omnino aimed at discrediting the Jedi Order.