Darsha Assant was a Human female Jedi Padawan who wielded a yellow lightsaber and was the apprentice of Master Anoon Bondara prior to the Battle of Naboo.
During a mission that likely would have earned her Knighthood, had it been successfully completed, she instead became one of the many Jedi victims of Darth Maul.
A Force-sensitive Human, Darsha Assant was discovered as an orphan on her homeworld of Alderaan by Jedi Master Anoon Bondara when she was two years old. Bondara took the young girl to the Coruscant Jedi Temple where Assant was educated in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order's greatest instructors, including Master Qui-Gon Jinn. After passing through the Temple academy, Assant was selected by Master Bondara to continue her training as a Padawan.
During her training with Bondara, Padawan Assant constructed a yellow-bladed lightsaber, wielding it bravely and skillfully; during a training bout, Assant bested fellow Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. After years of study with Master Bondara to become a Guardian, the Twi'lek believed her ready to face the Trials of Knighthood and recommended her knighting to the Jedi High Council.
Standing before the High Council, Assant was tasked with recovering the Fondorian informant Oolth from Coruscant's undercity by Master of the Order Mace Windu. If she completed this mission successfully, the High Council would elevate her to the rank of Jedi Knight. While Assant was excited to face her first solo mission, her master was wary that it was too challenging for the girl, but would abide by the High Council's wisdom.
Delving into the Crimson Corridor's most dangerous and hostile area, Assant attempted to bring Oolth back to her skyhopper which had just fell in the hands of the notorious Raptors, a vicious gang of criminals. Using the force to control the minds of the numerous Raptor criminals, she worked her way to the skyhopper, but, was interrupted by Oolth's screams in the adjacent alley, who's leg was being bitten by an armored rat. Her connection to the force persuasion of the Raptor gang became severed. Assant was forced to fight off her attackers with her lightsaber, cutting off limbs and injuring many of the Raptors to the point of making them flee from her savage defense. In the ensuing melee, a Raptor's vibroblade damaged the skyhopper's control panel, rendering it inoperable. After rescuing Oolth from the armored rat and finding the skyhopper damaged, Assant realized they needed to ascend at least 20 meters through the fog layer to escape the Coruscant downlevels of the Crimson Corridor and arrange transportation back to the Jedi Temple. One or two of the Raptor gang still hadn't given up the previous assault and began firing on Assant and Oolth. So Assant fired her ascension gun above the fog layer to where the grappling hook would find purchase on the ledge of the nearest building. As they ascended with Oolth wrapped around Assant's body, they ran into a nest of the extremely territorial hawk-bats, that were defending a nearby nest. The hawk-bats began pecking at Assant & the Fondorian through the ascent up the building, causing deep cuts on both and eventually pecking out Oolth's eye, among other injuries. He let go of Assant to fight off the hawk-bats, and fell 10-15 meters to the pavement below, killing him. Assant used her lightsaber to break a glass window into the building to escape the hawk-bats' rage.
Having failed in her task, Assant returned to the Temple where she revealed her failure to her master. She expected her master and the Council to be angry at the news of her failure. In the end, however, he was just glad to see her alive. Master Bondara, not convinced of Oolth's death, accompanied Assant back to the area in search of the informant. Finding nothing left on the pavement but a blood spot, Bondara and Assant sensed a disturbance in the force nearby. Flying their speeder to the source of the disturbance, they saw Darth Maul using his Force Leap ability to catch up with Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ. Darth Maul had just performed the assassination of the Trade Federation employee Hath Monchar but left a Sith Holocron with knowledge of the Trade Federation's embargo of Naboo plans within Monchar's open safe in Monchar's apartment. Lorn Pavan retrieved this Sith Holocron when he was about to visit Monchar but found him dead just like Yanth the Hutt whom he tried to sell the Holocron to when he was interrupted by Darth Maul who took the Sith Holocron from Yanth's dead fingers.
Now, Lorn Pavan and his droid were running from Darth Maul's force leaps. Master Bondara then managed to incapacitate Darth Maul with Bondara's speeder and rescued Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ. Darth Maul, however, recovered faster than they anticipated. As they were leaving, Maul was able to force leap and hang onto the underside of the speeder. He began to cut into the the speeder, which damaged it, preventing the speeder from ascending past level 20. Darsha Assant used a force shove powerful enough to cause Maul to lose his grip and drop to the ground. Darth Maul proceeded to follow the speeder with a speederbike of his own but Bondara jumped onto Maul's speeder and engaged in a fierce lightsaber duel. Before leaping, Bondara told Assant to get back to the Jedi Temple and safeguard Lorn Pavan and I5, but Assant went to save her Master instead. Bondara fought Darth Maul on the roof of a nearby building where Maul's speederbike crashed, and, knowing he was overmatched, sent his lightsaber through Maul's speederbike into the repulsor drive housing causing the speeder bike's explosion, killing Bondara in the process and stunning Darth Maul who fell 50 stories to the pavement and remained unconscious for some time. Within the speeder skycar, Assant tried to steer away from the explosion but could not, damaging the skycar further, though I5 dragged away Lorn Pavan and Assant once the skycar settled to the Coruscant downlevel pavement just before the speeder exploded. Assant was knocked unconscious for a long while but later helped guide I5 and Lorn Pavan through the Coruscant underground to avoid Darth Maul.
Assant facing Darth Maul
Sensing the death of her master, Padawan Assant relied on Pavan to keep her from falling into a deep depression. Steeling her confidence in her own abilities, the group survived confrontations with Cthons and a taozin along with Darth Maul, before getting back to the regular Crimson Corridor level where Lorn Pavan and Darsha Assant began sensing a romantic attraction for one another though Lorn Pavan hated Jedi since the Jedi took his son Jax Pavan from him because he was force-sensitive and fired Lorn Pavan from his job at the Jedi Temple. Then, they were unknowingly tricked by the Zabrak assassin once uplevel when they visited a warehouse building. Attempting to call an air taxi, Padawan Assant opened a door within the warehouse uplevel section that contained the angry Sith Lord Maul. Assant stepped forward to engage Maul in a furious lightsaber duel while closing the door and preventing Lorn Pavan and his droid from entering.
Once she realized she could not defeat Maul though she had become one with the Force for the first time as an aspiring Jedi, she arranged for explosive chemicals in one area of the space in the warehouse rafters and caused an explosion that she hoped would kill her and Maul and that even Obi-Wan Kenobi saw from a distance while investigating Bondara's and Assant's disappearance from the Temple. I5, the pretty much sentient droid, convinced Lorn Pavan to squeeze into the carbonite freezing machine available in the warehouse, activating it just before the explosion, so that they survived. Darth Maul rode the explosion out of the warehouse just in time to escape but did not sense the survival of Lorn Pavan and I5 because they were unconscious from being frozen in carbonite.
In the shadow of the Temple district, Tuden Sal, Lorn Pavan's friend, saw Darth Maul getting into his starship to leave Coruscant as he was escorting Lorn Pavan and I5 to the Jedi Temple to deliver the crucial information and reveal the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo. Lorn Pavan asked Tuden Sal to deliver I5 to the Jedi Temple for him to deliver the important information so that Lorn Pavan could get to a starship of his own to follow Darth Maul and retrieve the Sith Holocron. Tuden Sal, once Lorn Pavan was gone, deactivated the almost sentient droid I-5YQ so that he could sell him and thus the Jedi didn't learn of the Naboo blockade by the Trade Federation until it had already begun.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was sent to investigate her disappearance, but upon his return, he was told by his Master to prepare immediately for another mission--to negotiate with the Trade Federation, which had just begun the blockade of Naboo. Kenobi delivered his sober report about the deaths of Bondara and Assant to the Jedi Council en route. Thus Assant's disappearance and death at the hands of the newly re-emerged Sith was never fully investigated, allowing Darth Maul and his Master to remain safely hidden.
Lorn Pavan followed Darth Maul to a space station orbiting Coruscant, and, using a taozin ball to block Darth Maul from sensing him with the Force, Pavan ambushed Darth Maul with a blaster on low power, stunning Maul temporarily but allowing Pavan to retrieve the Sith Holocron. However, Darth Maul quickly recovered and severed Lorn Pavan's hand, though Pavan was able to escape Maul and deliver the Sith Holocron to Senator Palpatine, who he encountered on the space station in the solarium. Palpatine secured medical attention for Pavan and set him up in a moderate hotel planetside. However, Maul was provided Pavan's location and soon arrived, fulfilling his mission by executing Lorn Pavan.
- The New Essential Guide to Characters
- Power of the Jedi Sourcebook
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 21
- The Essential Reader's Companion