Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi, later known as Ben Kenobi during his exile, was a legendary Jedi Master who played a significant role in the fate of the galaxy during the waning days of the Galactic Republic. He was the mentor of both Anakin and Luke Skywalker, training both in the ways of the Force. He had a long and tumultuous career that helped shape the fate of the entire galaxy.

Born in 57 BBY on Stewjon, Kenobi was taken as the Jedi apprentice of Qui-Gon Jinn and traveled on many missions with him. During the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY, Kenobi became the first Jedi in approximately 1,000 years to defeat a Sith Lord in combat when he defeated Darth Maul during the Second Battle of Theed, yet lost his master in the same duel. In 22 BBY, Kenobi found the Clone army on Kamino, and he was captured and almost executed in the Petranaki arena on Geonosis, along with Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala. The newly arrived clone troopers rescued them, but the following battle began the galaxy-wide Clone Wars.

Kenobi fought during many battles of the Clone Wars, and was one of the last members of the Jedi High Council. Even after his apprentice became a Jedi Knight, Kenobi and Skywalker fought together many times, becoming a widely renowned pair. Kenobi earned the sobriquet "The Negotiator" through his charm and calm demeanor as well as the quiet threat of his abilities with a lightsaber. During the war, an old enemy returned to haunt Kenobi: Darth Maul, the murderer of Qui-Gon Jinn. With aid of his brother, Savage Opress, the revived Sith Lord went to create a criminal empire, all the while plotting revenge on his most despised adversary. Kenobi clashed blades with Maul on occasion across the galaxy. He was devastated as Maul slew the Jedi's past love interest, Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, in cold blood, yet remained strong throughout the conflict. Later in the war, Skywalker saved his life in a battle fought over Coruscant, after which Kenobi killed General Grievous on Utapau. However, he was soon betrayed, as Commander Cody, following Order 66, opened fire on him.

Kenobi met up with his old mentor Grand Master Yoda, and the two realized that not many Jedi had survived the attacks. The two returned to the Jedi Temple, where they learned the agonizing truth: Skywalker, now lost to the dark side of the Force, had led an attack to kill all Jedi remaining in the Jedi Temple, following orders from Chancellor Palpatine, the ruler of the successor of the Republic, the Galactic Empire. Kenobi traveled to Mustafar in order to duel his former apprentice and friend, now the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Finally, Vader was taken in by a storm of lava, and Kenobi remorsefully left him to die. While Yoda, one of the few other Jedi to survive the Great Jedi Purge, went into exile, Kenobi took the son of Skywalker and Amidala, Luke Skywalker, to live with the Lars family on Tatooine. He became a friend of the young Skywalker as he grew up, but he did not tell Skywalker his actual identity.

Kenobi re-emerged in 0 BBY, shortly before the Battle of Yavin. After Leia Organa, Vader's daughter and Luke Skywalker's twin sister, was captured by the Empire, she contacted him desperately. Kenobi gave Luke his father's lightsaber and traveled with him to Alderaan in Han Solo's Millennium Falcon, only to realize that the Death Star had destroyed the planet. Kenobi entered the Death Star with Luke, Han, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2, in order to rescue Organa, but Darth Vader sensed his presence. In a duel with his former apprentice, Kenobi gave up his life to allow Luke to escape, vanishing into the Force the moment Vader struck him down with his weapon. Three years later, his spirit returned to Luke to lead him to Dagobah in order to learn from Master Yoda. He even carried out his role as a mentor to the younger Jedi beyond his natural life through use of the Force, remaining a significant influence on Luke Skywalker's foundation of the New Jedi Order.

House of Organa

The House of Organa, also known as the Royal House of Alderaan or simply House Organa, was an Alderaanian Noble House that dated back to the earliest days of Alderaan's colonization. Throughout history, the Organa dynasty was the one that ruled over their homeworld the longest, and as such was known as the Royal House of Alderaan. Throughout several millennia of existence, the House Organa sired many well-known figures of the pan–galactic politics. Two of its most renowned scions were Viceroy Bail Prestor Organa and his adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa. Following the destruction of Alderaan in 0 BBY, the name of Organa died out.

Juno Eclipse

Juno Eclipse was a Human female who served the Galactic Empire as an Imperial officer and pilot during the Great Jedi Purge. Her exceptional skills in leadership and combat were noticed by several high-ranking officials in the Imperial Military, including the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Rising through ranks in record time, Captain Eclipse was personally chosen by Vader to lead his Black Eight Squadron. Although she initially considered service under Emperor Palpatine's right-hand man to be the highlight of her career, her role in the Bombing of Callos caused her to doubt some of the Empire's policies.

Although her beliefs wavered due to the mass genocide and complete sterilization that rendered Callos uninhabitable, Captain Eclipse was unwilling to abandon her allegiance to the Empire, nor her hard-earned position under Darth Vader's command. However, Vader came to the conclusion that Eclipse lacked a certain quality in ruthlessness that he found necessary in those who served him. As a consequence, he reassigned her to a highly confidential detail. Hence, in 3 BBY, Eclipse became the latest pilot of the Rogue Shadow, a stealth vessel that was piloted by several individuals in turn. The purpose of her top secret assignment was to transport Darth Vader's agent to wherever his missions required him to go. During that time, she was unaware that the mysterious young man was Vader's secret apprentice, codenamed "Starkiller."

Although she learned that Starkiller was a Force-sensitive assassin, who was tasked with hunting down the last of the Jedi, her attempts to learn any personal information about him were met with failure. Upon inadvertently discovering Vader's plot to kill Emperor Palpatine with Starkiller's aid, Eclipse's loyalties became divided between her Emperor and immediate superior. Nevertheless, she continued to carry out her orders to the letter, and took great care to not allow the apprentice to learn of her accidental discovery. But when Vader unexpectedly betrayed his disciple at the behest of the Emperor, the Dark Lord branded Captain Eclipse as a traitor due to her association with Starkiller. Stripped of her rank and all that she worked hard to gain, Eclipse was imprisoned on the Empirical.

Six months later, Juno Eclipse was freed by Starkiller, whose apparent death was faked by Darth Vader in order to continue their assassination plot against Palpatine. Eclipse, forced into the life of a fugitive, reluctantly renounced her allegiance to the Galactic Empire and joined with Starkiller on his mission to create the Rebel Alliance. However, she was unaware of the fact that the apprentice remained loyal to his master; nor did she realize that the Rebellion's purpose was to distract the Emperor's attention in order to create a new opportunity to kill him.

During their adventures, Eclipse and Starkiller gradually developed a rapport that eventually turned into love. When Vader betrayed the apprentice for a second time, Starkiller denounced the Sith and embraced his Jedi heritage. By that time, Eclipse learned that the apprentice's birth name was "Galen Marek." However, their relationship was brought to an untimely end when Marek perished in battle against Emperor Palpatine by sacrificing his own life in order to save the founders of the Rebel Alliance.

Shortly after Marek's death, Eclipse witnessed the official founding of the Alliance to Restore the Republic on Kashyyyk. She chose to honor the fallen apprentice's legacy by joining the Alliance Fleet as one of its first officers. Less than a year later, Juno Eclipse was commissioned as the captain of the Rebel flagship, the Salvation.

Grand Army of the Republic

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), also known as the Grand Army and the Clone Army, was a major branch of the Galactic Republic Military composed entirely of clone troopers, an army of elite soldiers created from the genetically altered template of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Bred in secret within the cloning facilities of the planet Kamino, the Grand Army was officially formed by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine at the behest of the Galactic Senate in response to the Separatist Crisis which threatened to divide the galaxy between the Republic and the newly born Confederacy of Independent Systems. The members of the Jedi Order were commissioned as high-ranking commanders and generals in the Grand Army, second in authority only to Chancellor Palpatine, who held the rank of Supreme Commander. Under the leadership of their Jedi officers, the Grand Army engaged the Separatist Droid Army on many worlds during the Clone Wars, suffering heavy casualties for three years while restoring Republic sovereignty to numerous rebellious areas throughout the galaxy.

By the year 19 BBY, the Clone Wars was nearly over and the Republic was on the verge of a decisive victory. In the midst of the final battles, particularly in the Outer Rim Campaign, Chancellor Palpatine issued Order 66, an executive command calling on all clone troopers to neutralize their Jedi officers with lethal force in the event of a Jedi insurrection. The vast majority of clones, genetically engineered for loyalty and conditioned to obey all orders without question or debate, turned their weapons on the Jedi and promptly gunned them down. On Coruscant, the newly-anointed Sith Lord Darth Vader led the 501st Legion in an attack on the Jedi Temple, killing nearly all of its inhabitants mere days before the Chancellor's Declaration of a New Order. Immediately following the Republic's transition into the first Galactic Empire, the Grand Army of the Republic was reorganized into the Stormtrooper Corps; its remaining clone soldiers composing the ranks of the reformed branch in addition to the millions of new clones engineered by Spaarti technology. Under the reign of Emperor Palpatine, the Imperial stormtroopers became a symbol of the New Order, most notably due to their unwavering loyalty to the Emperor.

Many years after the Clone Wars, it was discovered that Palpatine was secretly Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith who belonged to an order dedicated to the fall of the Republic and the destruction of the Jedi. As Palpatine and Sidious, the Dark Lord controlled both sides of the civil war and used the Grand Army as an instrument to restore Sith rule to the galaxy while simultaneously purging it of the Jedi Knights. As a result, the Grand Army of the Republic was remembered as a key factor in the Sith plot that brought about the era of the Dark Times and the subsequent Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Pong Krell

 Pong Krell was a male Besalisk Jedi Master who served as a Jedi General in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. A powerful Jedi and a recognized war hero, he was relentless in his tactics on the battlefield, seeking success at all costs. As a combatant, he was an especially ferocious lightsaber duelist; the advantage of four arms allowed him to wield two double-bladed lightsabers at the same time. As a general, Krell found insubordination intolerable and required strict adherence to command from all of his soldiers. During the war, Krell foresaw how the Republic would be destroyed from within, thus paving the way for the rise of a New Order. This vision, coupled with his lust for power, ultimately caused Krell to abandon the Jedi way. Outwardly, he maintained the appearance of his ties to the Jedi and Republic. In secret, Pong Krell had embraced the dark side of the Force.

Around 21 BBY, when the shadow planet Umbara seceded from the Republic, Pong Krell was given command over the 501st Legion, serving as an interim general during Anakin Skywalker's absence. Krell deliberately crafted incompetent battle strategies in order to sabotage the Republic's campaign to retake the planet. By covertly assisting the Separatists' efforts to retain Umbara, Krell hoped to join the Sith ranks as a disciple of the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus, thus securing a place for himself in the future Empire.

Krell's plans were ultimately thwarted by the clone troopers under his own command. When his duplicity was uncovered, Krell was confronted by Captain CT-7567 (nicknamed "Rex") and troopers from the 501st Legion and the 212th Attack Battalion. Although he single-handedly slaughtered scores of clones, eventually he was captured and detained. While restrained by binder cuffs, Krell was fatally shot in the back by Dogma, his most loyal soldier, thus ending the fallen Jedi's life.

Galen Marek

Galen Marek, codenamed Starkiller, was a male Human apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Vader. A powerful Force-user who lived during the era of the Galactic Empire, Marek originated from the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk as the sole offspring of two Jedi Knights—Mallie and Kento Marek—who deserted the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Following the death of his mother, the young Marek's father was killed in battle by Darth Vader. Though only a child, Marek possessed an exceptionally strong connection to the Force that the Dark Lord of the Sith sought to exploit.

Thus, Darth Vader abducted Marek in order to train the orphan in the ways of the Sith Order. Although the Sith were limited to only two members at any given time, Vader nonetheless trained Marek as a secret apprentice during his own apprenticeship to Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who ruled the galaxy as Emperor Palpatine. The physical and psychological trauma of Vader's unforgiving training regimen resulted in Marek's immersion within the dark side of the Force as his Master intended. With his childhood memories suppressed and his original identity forgotten, Marek only knew himself as the Dark Lord's apprentice; a Sith assassin who operated under the codename "Starkiller" and a living weapon to be deployed against the enemies of Darth Vader.

In addition to the assassination of numerous targets that included Vader's many rivals, the apprentice trained for years in preparation for the day when he would be ready to aid his Master in a confrontation with Darth Sidious. This singular goal became Starkiller's obsession as he longed to become a true Sith Lord. The pinnacle of Starkiller's training saw him deployed against Jedi targets for the first time in his life in 3 BBY and culminated in victories against the fugitive Jedi Masters Rahm Kota, Kazdan Paratus and Shaak Ti. With the death of Ti, one of the few members of the Jedi High Council who survived Order 66, Darth Vader declared that the time had come to execute their plan to overthrow the Emperor. Elated at the prospect of finally fulfilling his sole purpose in life, Starkiller rendezvoused with Vader on the Executor only to be betrayed and severely wounded by his Master who claimed that Sidious's spies had discovered the existence of the secret apprentice. Pressured by the Emperor, Vader demonstrated his loyalty by seemingly killing Starkiller. In truth, the betrayal was a ruse that allowed Vader to save his apprentice's life.

Upon Starkiller's full recovery in 2 BBY, Vader revealed his contingency plan: the creation of a full-scale rebellion against the Galactic Empire. The apprentice was instructed by his Master to assemble an army of rebels and dissidents in order to distract the Emperor's attention with a civil war, hence allowing them both another opportunity to assassinate Sidious. Though bitter and resentful toward Vader, Starkiller complied and searched several parts of the galaxy for influential contacts that would be crucial to the formation of an insurrection on a galactic-scale. Through Starkiller's efforts, three disillusioned members of the Imperial Senate—Bail Organa, Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma—convened on the planet Corellia where they agreed to join their resources together in opposition to the Emperor's rule. However, the mission proved to be another deception on Vader's part; the Dark Lord betrayed Starkiller once more and captured the senators. Outraged by the discovery that his Master was unwilling to challenge Darth Sidious with Starkiller's aid, the former apprentice journeyed to the incomplete Death Star and intended to rescue his new-found allies from execution. Abandoning the persona of Starkiller, he re-embraced his Jedi heritage as Galen Marek through the partial recovery of his suppressed memories.

During the apprentice's infiltration of the nearly-complete battlestation, Galen Marek confronted and defeated his former Master in battle. Sidious hoped to claim Marek as his new apprentice and goaded him to kill Vader. Instead, Marek attacked the Emperor in a move to provide the senators with enough time to escape the Death Star. His plan succeeded, but ultimately cost the apprentice his life. Nevertheless, his sacrifice facilitated the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War. The early founders of the Rebellion remembered the apprentice as Galen Marek, the original architect of the Rebel Alliance, and honored his memory by adopting the Marek family crest as the official emblem of the Alliance.

Unknown to the Rebels, Darth Vader preserved his former apprentice's corpse as a genetic template for the creation of a more powerful and obedient version of the original Starkiller. But due to the inherent difficulties of cloning Force-wielders, coupled with the flaws of a modified version of the Kaminoan technique, the initial results were less than satisfactory. Vader was forced to replicate his fallen disciple on multiple occasions in a bid to gradually correct the imperfect procedure. Approximately six months after Marek's death, the Dark Lord's experiment—conducted in secret within the Timira City Cloning Facility—produced hundreds of abject failures and a rogue clone who escaped from Kamino. Despite such setbacks, Darth Vader ultimately succeeded in his goal to engineer the perfect clone of his former apprentice. A far more powerful version of Marek, the clone successfully purged himself of the emotional imprints that undermined his precursors.

CR90 corvette

The CR90 corvette, commonly referred to as the Corellian corvette or the Rebel blockade runner, was a small, multi-purpose capital ship manufactured by Corellian Engineering Corporation.

The CR90 had a wide variety of users throughout the galaxy, from pirates to corporations to galactic navies, and had a known operational life from at least as early as 52 BBY to as late as 137 ABY. It possessed the same legendary adaptability as other CEC products, which allowed it to serve in roles as mundane as freight hauling or as a high-profile diplomatic escort.

Twi'lek

Twi'leks (pronounced /'twilɛk/), sometimes referred to disparagingly as "Tail-heads", were an omnivorous humanoid species originating from the planet Ryloth. They tended to eat cultivated molds, fungi, and rycrit meat. Their distinctive features included colorful skin, which varied in pigment from individual to individual, and a pair of shapely prehensile tentacles that grew from the base of their skulls. The tentacles, called "brain-tails", "lekku", "tchun-tchin", or "head-tails" were advanced organs used for communication and cognitive functions. Twi'leks possessed a fairly standard humanoid vocal structure and were capable of learning most alien languages; however, they usually preferred their native language of Ryl, which incorporated subtle movement of the lekku. When they wished, they could even communicate in complete secrecy using their versatile brain-tails. Twi'lek females were often used as slaves or dancers because of their beauty.

Gotals

 Gotals were a species of tall, hairy humanoid sentients native to the moon Antar 4. Their most distinctive features were the twin conical horns growing on the top of their heads, which acted as highly responsive electromagnetic sensors. These head cones were sensitive enough to pick up subtle changes in another being's electromagnetic emissions from emotional changes, making Gotals natural empaths. The unique nature of these sensors shaped Gotal culture, and helped individual Gotals carve niches in galactic society ranging from bounty hunters to diplomats.

Gotals were part of galactic society as far back as the early days of the Galactic Republic. During this time, Gotals served the Republic as Jedi and as Antarian Rangers. In the Republic's later years, however, their relations with other cultures became troubled. Conflicts such as the Duinuogwuin-Gotal conflict and the Separatist Crisis resulted in the Gotals taking the losing side in the Clone Wars. Distrusted by and distrusting of the Galactic Empire, the Gotals returned to the mainstream as part of the New Republic and later, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.

Bane's Heart

Bane's Heart was the name given to the lightsaber of the Sith Lord Darth Zannah, a name shared with one of the two synthetic crystals used to focus its blade. The double-bladed weapon was created to suit both her petite figure and particular choice in lightsaber combat style, Form III: Soresu. Darth Zannah's lightsaber served her during the early decades of the reformed Galactic Republic and was instrumental in the defeat of many an opponent, including her own Sith Master, Darth Bane. It was rediscovered during the Clone Wars by the infamous Jedi killer General Grievous and was later counted among the weapons of the prototype combat droid N-K Necrosis.

The Seventh Battle of Ruusan

The Seventh Battle of Ruusan was the final major engagement of the conflict known as the New Sith Wars. There were actually seven prior battles on the world during the last days of the war, but the pivotal and last battle is the one most remembered, due to the use of the thought bomb; it is usually referred to just as the Battle of Ruusan. This was also the event that would lead to the Ruusan Reformation of the Galactic Republic.

"I ask that you join me in one last task: the creation of a weapon so powerful that when it is detonated, the victors shall become the vanquished and be swept from the pages of history."
―Kaan
The New Sith Wars began 2,000 years before the Battle of Yavin and ended after a thousand years of conflict, including internal Sith conflict, and all-out assaults on the Galactic Republic. At one stage during the long war, the Sith had been in control of most of the galaxy, but the Army of Light slowly regained the Republic's lost territory with decades of hard-fought campaigns.

Eventually, the Sith retreated to Ruusan, where, after six months of battle with the Jedi in six separate battles, the Sith were near defeat.

The Jedi Lord Valenthyne Farfalla crushed the Sith in the pivotal seventh battle of Ruusan, and Lord Hoth journeyed to apprehend the leaders of the Brotherhood of Darkness. The Sith, however, were waiting for them and had one final weapon.

"What is this?"
"Kaan's smartest decision—his suicide."
―Zannah and Darth Bane.
In an act of desperation, Lord Kaan, leader of the Sith, unleashed the thought bomb and in an instant, every Force-sensitive in the blast radius was destroyed. Lord Farfalla had retreated with the majority of the Army of Light in accordance with Lord Hoth's final orders. The only surviving Sith was Darth Bane, who, while leaving the battlefield, came across the young girl Zannah.

Count Dooku

Dooku was a Jedi Master who fell to the dark side of the Force and became a Dark Lord of the Sith, known as Darth Tyranus. Born into a noble family on the planet Serenno, he was the heir to vast wealth and the noble title of Count. Dooku was taken by the Jedi Order as a child and apprenticed to Thame Cerulian. As a Jedi Knight, he took Qui-Gon Jinn as his first Padawan, and later trained Komari Vosa. Dooku was a respected instructor in the Jedi Temple and one of the most renowned swordsmen in the galaxy, on par only with Masters Yoda and Mace Windu.

Dooku spent nearly seventy years as a Jedi, but a disastrous battle on Galidraan shook his faith in the Order and the Galactic Republic. He fell under the influence of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of Naboo, and left the Jedi Order. After learning that Palpatine was secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, Dooku turned to the dark side and became a Dark Lord of the Sith himself, replacing Darth Maul as Sidious's second apprentice. His new master bestowed upon him the Sith title of Darth Tyranus.

Reclaiming his birthright as Count of Serenno and his vast fortune, Dooku conspired with Sidious to force the galaxy into a war that would bring the Sith to power. He forged ties between corporations and planets discontented with the Republic, and became the leader of the Separatist movement that coalesced into the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Thousands of star systems flocked to Dooku's banner and seceded from the Galactic Republic.

As the political leader of the Confederacy, Dooku led the organization against the Republic in a conflict that would become known as the Clone Wars. He recruited and trained four of his greatest warriors to lead the Separatist Droid Army: Durge, the brutish Gen'Dai bounty hunter; Asajj Ventress, Dooku's protégé and Dark Jedi apprentice; General Sev'rance Tann, Chiss commander and Dark Acolyte; and General Grievous, the infamous Jedi-slaying cyborg and droid leader.

The war culminated in a great battle over the Republic capital of Coruscant. In a duel aboard the Separatist flagship Invisible Hand, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker defeated Dooku. Skywalker then executed the dismembered and helpless Dooku at the instigation of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Tyranus's own Sith Master. He would quickly be replaced by the very man who had killed him, Anakin Skywalker, who would soon fall to the dark side and be transformed into the fearsome Darth Vader.

Cato Neimoidia

The oldest of the Neimoidian purse worlds, Cato Neimoidia was the location of Nute Gunray's secret redoubt. The planet was near the Neimoidian homeworld of Neimoidia, also in the Colonies region.

Only the richest of the Neimoidians were allowed to live on the planet. Their treasures were protected in vaults located in difficult landscape and protected by B1 battle droids. The cities of Cato Neimoidia were built on large bridges spanning massive rock arches.

Cato Neimoidia featured vast forests rich in flora and fauna. Notable species included the Neimoidian kreehawk, a dangerous but beautiful avian found in some aviaries.