Droma

A male Ryn, Droma, like many members of his nomadic species, lived in the Corporate Sector working as a pilot and a scout in order to contribute to the support of his extended family. In 25 ABY, shortly after the extra-galactic race of religious zealots known as the Yuuzhan Vong began their invasion of the galaxy, Droma was part of a caravan of Ryn ships heading from the Corporate Sector to the Lesser Plooriod Cluster when the Yuuzhan Vong entered the Ottega system and attacked Ithor. The attack scattered the caravan, and Droma, in addition to several other Ryn, ended up as refugees aboard the Jubilee Wheel, a space station orbiting Ord Mantell.

While Droma was aboard the Jubilee Wheel, the station was attacked by a Yuuzhan Vong dread weapon. The creature began ripping away the station's exterior bulkheads and inhaling the passengers into its gaping mouth. Droma resisted the pull by grabbing hold of the knees of another passenger, who turned out to be Han Solo, a famous pilot and hero of the Rebellion, who had been aboard the station with his friend Roa. Droma suggested to Solo that the two of them close the corridor's blast shield, thus blocking the interior of the station from the pull. Solo agreed, but was caught in the creature's pull during the execution of the maneuver; the Ryn snagged Solo's body with his tail, holding him in place while the shield was closing. Knowing where the station's launching bays were, Droma then led Solo and a large group of frightened passengers there and summoned an R2 unit to open a locked hatch for them in the process by playing his flute-like beak. Leading the passengers into a civilian shuttle, Solo and Droma took the shuttle's controls and left the station. They found themselves in a battlefield above Ord Mantell full of X-wing fighters, TIE Interceptors, and Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers.

An angered Solo attempted to attack the dread weapon, which had swallowed Roa, but a frantic Droma reminded him that they were piloting an unarmed shuttle. At the co-pilot's station, Droma used the auxiliary controls to break the ship free of a Yuuzhan Vong warship's dovin basals and helped Solo evade four coralskippers that began to chase them through the melee of the battle. As the Star Destroyer Erinnic of the New Republic Defense Force and its accompanying armada chased the Yuuzhan Vong fleet off, Solo plotted a course down toward Ord Mantell. After landing the ship at the planet's primary spaceport, the two parted ways. Annoyed with Droma, Solo stated that he hoped not to see the Ryn again any time soon.

Along with many other refugees, Droma stowed away aboard the luxury liner Queen of Empire with only enough credits to secure his passage as far as Vortex. While onboard, he once again encountered Solo, who was pursuing Reck Desh—a pilot of the Peace Brigade who was collaborating with the Yuuzhan Vong—to Bilbringi. Introductions were finally made, with Solo claiming to be named Roaky Laamu. The two shared a steak at a cafeteria, but, disliking the taste, headed to a restaurant. Solo was enraged to discover that the establishment did not serve Ryn and promptly ordered two meals to go. Eating with Droma in the observation bay, Solo asked many questions about the Ryn species, which he had never encountered before landing on the Jubilee Wheel. Droma later kibitzed a game of sabacc involving Solo, telling him that it was a fool's enterprise, and forced Solo to play against the randomizer, which Droma believed was the only worthy opponent. Solo won the game, took the equivalent of his buy-in stakes, and gave the rest to Droma. Droma passed most of it on to some deserving passengers on the lower decks but kept enough for himself to secure passage to Bilbringi, where he believed he could more easily secure a ride to Ralltiir. As Ralltiir was accepting refugees displaced by the invading Yuuzhan Vong, Droma thought it a good starting point for the search for his family. At the now-empty sabacc table, he used the game's cards to tell Solo's fortune.

After sharing Solo's cabin space overnight and annoying him with his swishing tail, Droma was again abandoned by the frustrated pilot, but caught up to him in a corridor as Solo was in mid-conversation with Major Showolter, an agent of New Republic Intelligence. Injured from an attack by Yuuzhan Vong warriors, Showolter bid Solo to hide two defectors from the Yuuzhan Vong, Elan and Vergere. Droma was surprised to hear Solo's real name, but would later claim it was a name he hadn't heard before. Solo, after sending Showolter to sick bay, attempted to prevent Droma from involving himself in the situation, but the Ryn reminded Solo that he knew the ship better, including good places to hide the defectors. After Solo reluctantly agreed, the Queen was interdicted from hyperspace, and announcements were made over the ship's loudspeakers that the bridge was under assault by raiders. The party of four made their way to the ship's docking bay, but on the way, Solo saw Reck Desh and temporarily left the other three in order to confront him. All four were captured by Desh's Peace Brigade companions, and Desh realized that Elan and Vergere were Yuuzhan Vong defectors. He took them into custody, and, hoping to get rid of Solo, forced his foe to step into a deactivated drop shaft. Solo survived the fall by grabbing hold of Droma's tail. The move caused Droma grievous pain, but Solo insisted that he wouldn't forget that the Ryn had just saved his life.

Chasing after Desh, the two arrived at the docking bay just as New Republic Elite Forces were boarding the Queen, which had arrived at Bilbringi. Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, had also just landed on the space station, and Solo's wife, Leia Organa Solo, departed down its boarding ramp, accompanied by her brother, Luke Skywalker; his wife, Mara Jade Skywalker; and the droids C-3PO and R2-D2. Solo forestalled a warm welcome with his family in order to ask his wife where Desh's ship had departed to, and hurriedly introduced her to Droma as he raced up the ramp. A confused Droma followed, and the two left the others behind as they began to pursue Desh and the defectors in the Falcon.

New to the Falcon, Droma doubted that it could catch Desh. However, the Yuuzhan Vong had attacked Bilbringi, and in the midst of the space battle there, Droma and Solo found Desh's shuttle drifting dead in space. Droma took over the pilot's station as Solo boarded, and found the entire crew, including Desh, dead. The two defectors had survived, however; Solo brought them aboard the Falcon, and Droma recognized Vergere as belonging to the Fosh, a species he had seen before. The wary Ryn warned Solo that she could not have been of extra-galactic origin. Suddenly suspicious, Solo realized that the Yuuzhan Vong warship which had started firing on them was deliberately missing, and suspected a trap. As he left his ship's cockpit in order to confront the defectors, Droma took the controls again, but abandoned his post on a hunch and entered the rear hold. As the door to the hold opened, Solo emerged, gasping for breath, and swallowed some fresh air after having inhaled some of Elan's bo'tous poison. Droma was shocked to discover that Elan was actually a Yuuzhan Vong agent who had been assigned to poison and wipe out Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order, and was now dead, having committed suicide by swallowing her own poison. Droma then killed the insect-like creatures that the bo'tous spore produced and raced back to the cockpit while Solo searched the ship's corridors for Vergere. She fled in an escape pod, and Droma and Solo veered the Falcon away from the Yuuzhan Vong warship, which was then repulsed by the Quasar Fire-class bulk cruiser Thurse of the New Republic Defense Fleet. Droma and Solo returned to the galactic capital of Coruscant, where Solo delivered a report to New Republic Intelligence, and, thankful for having his life saved twice, vowed to help Droma find his clanmates.

In the newly-painted matte-black Millennium Falcon, Solo and Droma began searching for Droma's clanmates while also hoping to uncover information on Roa's whereabouts in the process. Their travels brought them to Vortex and a lush world of green and purple forests. As they prepared to depart the latter world for Sriluur, Droma confessed his hesitancy to travel near Hutt Space, as Hutts had historically enslaved the Ryn. On their way to Sriluur, Solo received intelligence from his wife that five of Droma's six clanmates had been evacuated from Gyndine, while his sister had been left behind.

Above Sriluur, the Falcon was attacked by a group of coralskippers. Droma attempted to plot a hyperspace jump to Nar Shaddaa, but Solo insisted on challenging the ships in the planet's atmosphere. Droma immediately agreed to the task and proved himself a very able co-pilot in the ensuing firefight, even destroying several of the enemy craft himself. After finishing off its attackers, the Falcon entered hyperspace, and Solo complimented the Ryn on his shooting. However, a power converter that had been damaged in the firefight left the ship without enough power to get to Nar Shaddaa. Droma suggested Kashyyyk as a location to obtain a new power converter, but Solo insisted on Tholatin.

With a damaged hyperdrive, the Falcon made a long, slow trip to Tholatin. Upon arrival, Droma and Solo landed in Esau's Ridge, a rift in the planet often used by smugglers on the otherwise uninhabited world. With Droma posing as the ship's captain and Solo acting as Miek, his first mate, they presented passcodes obtained from Solo's smuggling days to Plaan, the Weequay security chief. Droma claimed that they had received the codes from the mechanic Shug Ninx on Nar Shaddaa. Plaan informed them of a contractor who was paying freelancers to transport refugees to planets that the Yuuzhan Vong planned to attack and that a group of refugees was due to be transported off Ruan very soon. Following the trail, Solo and Droma headed to Ruan.

After passing through Ruan customs, Droma was eager to begin the search, but Solo wondered if his clanmates would have joined the mercenaries who intended to transport them offworld. Droma, in response, insisted that his clanmates were far too clever. With over 100 refugee camps to search, the two checked the central databank on a tip from a BFL-series droid named Baffle and then hitched a ride on the droid's landspeeder to the camp which the databank claimed housed five of Droma's clanmates. Upon their arrival at the camp, Droma was mistaken for another Ryn and was arrested on charges of forgery of official documents, a crime which his clanmates had actually committed. Solo was advised to get offworld, else he would be charged as an accessory after the fact. Droma was forced into labor at a product enhancement facility, but was soon rescued by Solo. After convincing Bow, a sentry at the facility, to take Droma in for a medical evaluation, Solo drew a blaster on Bow in the turbolift of the facility's east wing and told Droma to hide him in a closet. The Ryn deposited the sentry in a room full of deactivated droids and rendezvoused with Solo, who, unbeknownst to Droma, had reactivated hundreds of the facility's droids as a favor to Baffle. Bow thus escaped his captivity and chased the two out of the facility; Droma and Solo, in turn, commandeered Bow's landspeeder and escaped.

Hoping to avoid the surface scans of the pursuing speeders, Solo dropped their landspeeder into an irrigation channel. Nevertheless, a gate in the channel was closed by Bow, which caused the pair's speeder to crash and deposit them in a muddy ditch. Manipulating weather control, Bow then caused a tidal wave to engulf them. After nearly drowning, Solo boarded the floating speeder and dragged Droma, who was a poor swimmer, aboard, just before the vehicle went tumbling over a waterfall. Solo and Droma were both forced by the water's current through white-water rapids before being caught in a fine-mesh net and picked up by a Scout Collector. Believing that they were about to be flash-frozen, the two were shocked to discover that they had in fact been rescued by Baffle and were directly beneath the spaceport where the Falcon was docked. Thanking Solo for his assistance in reactivating the droids, Baffle revealed that the refugee ship Trevee was headed for Fondor. Droma was surprised to learn that his clanmates were aboard and not still on Ruan. Baffle suggested that they save themselves three hyperspace jumps and use the Gandeal-Fondor Hyperlane.

Remembering what Plaan had told them, Solo and Droma realized that the Yuuzhan Vong would soon be attacking Fondor, but headed there anyway. Upon arrival in Fondorian space, they gave New Republic First Fleet Command and Control a legitimate transponder signal and identified themselves as the Falcon. Despite their honesty, a New Republic controller told them that the Trevee had dropped its cargo in an area off-limits to unregistered ships and would not let them proceed. Thinking quickly, Solo and Droma figured that the mercenaries who had made the drop would want to flee as far away as possible from the Yuuzhan Vong's next targets. The two decided on Tholatin as the most likely location. While preparing to make a hyperspace jump to Tholatin, they located the Trevee at the edge of Fondorian space and decided to attack it. As Fondorian Flight Operations protested, Solo and Droma informed them that the Yuuzhan Vong were coming. As if on cue, the Yuuzhan Vong indeed arrived just then, and a large space battle ensued. Solo and Droma aided a group of X-wings in destroying a Yuuzhan Vong vessel, and the group of X-wing pilots turned out to be Kyp's Dozen. Squadron leader Kyp Durron, a Jedi Master and old friend of Solo's, assigned two of his craft to aid the Falcon in pursuing the Trevee.

The outgunned crew of the Trevee agreed to help Droma and Solo recover the refugees from the empty shipyards where they had been deposited. Droma was dropped off by Solo at the shipyards, and, along with the pirates and one of the Dozen's pilots, set to work rescuing the refugees. Droma was reunited with five of his clanmates and stayed behind to locate fifty unaccounted-for refugees before blasting off in the Trevee. Meanwhile, Durron rescued a number of prisoners from the nearby Yuuzhan Vong clustership Crèche and brought them aboard the Falcon; among the rescued were Roa and Sapha, Droma's sister and final missing clanmate.

In 26 ABY, as world after world closed its doors to refugees, Droma joined Solo and his son Jacen on Duro, whose government had begun allowing refugees to live in camps on the planet's surface. Solo had registered with SELCORE—an organization founded by the New Republic in order to settle refugees from worlds ravaged by the Yuuzhan Vong—as a sponsor of the Ryn in order to settle them somewhere, and Droma had decided to aid the Solos in their efforts. The trio administered Settlement 32, which contained two Ryn clans among other refugees. Droma, along with the Ryn Mezza and Romany, handled most of the administrative work, despite Solo's status as the official administrator. Droma and Solo often tinkered with the Falcon when not performing administrative duties.

When Settlement 32 was infested by Naotebe winglings brought onto Duro by the Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator Nom Anor, Droma aided in the evacuation of its refugees, remaining at the camp until everyone had boarded a land crawler. The refugees were taken to Gateway, the main SELCORE complex on Duro, where Droma held off having his fur shaved in the decontamination process until the quarantine order against the refugees from Settlement 32 was lifted. Wearing chemical suits, he and Jacen led a team of refugees back to the settlement to seek out any spaceworthy vessels that had survived the infestation, only to discover that the settlement had been overrun by Fefze beetles. The team was forced to flee from the swarming beetles, but Droma remained behind with Jacen, using a vibroblade to kill several of the insects. Realizing that they were attracted to sources of light, Droma told Jacen to throw his lightsaber at the swarm. With the insects distracted, the two left the settlement and returned to Gateway.

When it was discovered that the Yuuzhan Vong had infiltrated the settlements, the Solo family decided to evacuate the refugees from the planet as quickly as possible. Han Solo and Droma snuck around Gateway, looking for a cargo hauler that could be used to transport passengers, but ended up spotting and fleeing from the Yuuzhan Vong beasts Sgauru and Tu-Scart. Droma and Solo were soon located by Yuuzhan Vong warriors and hid in a pile of mowed grass. While hiding, they discovered a cavern housing an old WQ 445 transport. After gathering as many refugees aboard the transport as possible, Droma and Solo realized they were finally saying goodbye to each other, and both regretted having to do so. Droma also regretted that he had never been able to properly meet Luke Skywalker. The comm unit aboard the hauler was dead, which prompted Solo to give his comlink to the Ryn. Before the two parted ways, Solo suggested that at the end of their acquaintance, it was Droma who finally owed Solo. Droma piloted the hauler through a raging space battle above the planet and to a jump point outside of Duro's orbit, escorted by Solo in the Falcon. The Ryn took the hauler to the Senex-Juvex region, which he thought was still accepting refugees.

Droma's association with Solo gave him high standing among his people. The Ryn had traditionally been leaderless nomads, but Droma began to turn what many others in the galaxy regarded as the species' weaknesses into strengths. The species traveled to many places, saw many things, often stowed away aboard ships, spread news to each other via gossip, and were rarely stopped by security; Droma used all of these habits to their advantage by founding the Ryn Network, an intelligence organization which helped undo the damage inflicted upon the galaxy by the Yuuzhan Vong. Near the beginning of 28 ABY, he began running the network out of the Thorny Toe, a cantina on Onadax, and only intended to stay there for three months, believing that dormancy would compromise the network's secrecy. However, it took six months for him to ensure that the network was running smoothly before he was able to leave.

At the end of these six months, Droma received intelligence from Ryn Network agents on Galantos and Bakura that Han Solo had taken the Millennium Falcon on a diplomatic mission to make contact with areas of the galaxy that had been cut off from the Galactic Alliance—the galactic government which had succeeded the New Republic. Droma's agents also reported that the Yuuzhan Vong were planning to attack the planet Esfandia. Droma instructed his agent Goure Conor on Bakura to direct Solo to Onadax; Solo arrived in the Falcon, accompanied by its escort ship, the Galactic Alliance Defense Force craft Pride of Selonia. Solo was summoned by Droma while playing a game of sabacc at the Thorny Toe and was interrogated by the Ryn, who remained hidden and spoke to Solo over speakers, not revealing his identity. After the interrogation, Droma followed Solo to the Falcon and banged on the side of the ship, demanding to be let in. The hatch was opened by his surprised friend, and with Droma as its newest passenger, the Falcon departed the planet.

Droma was greeted by a confused Han Solo, as well as Leia and their daughter, the Jedi Knight Jaina Solo. Lying, he told the Solos that he had applied to be a part of the Ryn Network but had been rejected. Hoping to lead the Solos to Esfandia, he mentioned the impending Yuuzhan Vong attack on the planet and asked them to drop him off at Juvex, which was on the way. The Solos realized that Esfandia was one of only two places to contain a relay base servicing the Unknown Regions, which Luke Skywalker had recently led a search party into. As such, the Falcon and the Selonia headed to Esfandia, where they discovered a Yuuzhan Vong armada led by Commander B'shith Vorrik and an Imperial fleet under the command of Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon that had been chasing Vorrik's fleet across the galaxy. Solo pledged the Falcon to Pellaeon's fight and took the ship planetside in order to locate the relay base. After the ship landed on the surface, Droma was the first to hear a strange noise, which turned out to be Esfandia's inhabitants, the Brrbrlpp, who were speaking in trinary code. After Solo's protocol droid, C-3PO, spoke to the Brrbrlpp at length, a plan was hatched to protect the bystanders under the Falcons shields while presenting the ship as a cold target to the Yuuzhan Vong armada, which would in turn converge and become an easy target for Pellaeon's Star Destroyers. The plan made Droma nervous but was nevertheless set into motion.

As the Yuuzhan Vong bombarded the area around the Falcon, it soon became apparent to the ship's crew that they were trapped. Droma suggested faking surrender and, believing that they were going to die, was ready to reveal himself as the head of the Ryn Network. However, the Brrbrlpp insisted that the Falcon hide in their nesting plains. Following the Brrbrlpp inside, the ship's crew discovered the hidden relay base, which was being overseen by Commander Ashpidar. Ashpidar gave Droma and Leia a tour of the base, during which she indicated that she believed a traitor to be in their midst. Droma was wary of Eniknar, Ashpidar's Noghri security chief, but joined Solo in taking Eniknar and two other members of Ashpidar's team on speeder bikes to reprogram the base's relay transponder. Arriving at the transponder, they rendezvoused with Jaina Solo and her comrades Jagged Fel and Tahiri Veila. Droma helped lay mines around the base while it was being reprogrammed before several Yuuzhan Vong appeared riding armed vehicles. A skirmish between the two sides ensued.

Droma took a hit to the steering vane of his speeder, rendering the vehicle useless. As Jaina had been knocked unconscious during the skirmish, Droma took her on Fel's speeder back to safety while Fel and Veila remained at the transponder to cover his back. After waking up, Jaina neutralized one of their Yuuzhan Vong pursuers with a thermal detonator, but a second adversary managed to cover Droma and her with the sticky threads of netting beetles, forcing them to pull the speeder bike over. Droma told Jaina of a trick he had seen Veila perform earlier: using the Force to close the throats of the Tsik-Seru's plasma launchers. Jaina mimicked the move, and the vehicle exploded, but its Yuuzhan Vong pilot survived and continued to pursue them on foot. The warrior knocked Droma out of the way before a distraction by the Brrbrlpp allowed Jaina to kill him. Pellaeon's fleet then defeated Vorrik's, and in the aftermath of the victory, Droma offered Veila a role in the Ryn Network, having received positive reports about her from his agents on Galantos and Bakura. After Veila declined, he quietly slipped away on the Ryn ship Fortune Seeker, believing that the less evidence of the network and his position as its head that existed, the better.

A short time later, Droma commed Solo, who was with the Galactic Alliance on Mon Calamari, and warned him of small, unpiloted drones that the Yuuzhan Vong had been developing. Although Droma didn't know what their function was, he did know that the Yuuzhan Vong were excited about them, and suspected that they were dangerous. After communicating as much to Solo, he quickly ended the call. Droma was on the run for the remainder of the war, but the Yuuzhan Vong were soon defeated at Coruscant, marking the end of a long and bloody conflict, albeit one that allowed the Ryn Network to benefit. The network was still active twelve years later.

Like many members of his species, Droma was a perceptive and shrewd observer, which allowed him to perform the various sleight-of-hand techniques for which the Ryn were famous, and to often finish others' sentences. He felt that possessions were merely things to be lost, and shared many of his species' superstitions, such as never sleeping twice in the same spot or eating thrice from the same bowl. He would, however, eat almost anything if it had the right spices. Droma was a self-proclaimed professional pilot, scout, and all-around spacer, and Leia Organa Solo observed that despite his deep concern for his family, he was a rogue and a drifter at heart, addicted to adventure.

Droma displayed a knack for calming intense situations, including several instances where he convinced Han Solo not to strike out in anger. Droma was often sarcastic and bitter and, at times, challenged Solo, accusing him of such things as attempting to out-race tragedy and of using his anger to cover up heartache. Although Droma's sarcasm often irritated Solo, his companionship was a sobering experience, and Solo's wife thought of their relationship as not entirely amicable yet still perfectly natural. It was Droma's partnership and empathy that helped Solo realize he couldn't run away from his loved ones or from his loss. Droma believed that everyone lived for love.

Droma was not a very strong swimmer but, owing to his tail, was well-equipped for acrobatics. He was a very able co-pilot and displayed skills as a mechanic, although he was better at intuitive problem solving than he was with hydrospanners or macrofusers. He was also fluent in several languages, including Basic, his native Ryn dialect, Huttese, and Binary.

Like most males of his species, Droma had short, smoke-colored fur covering most of his body, and sported a head of snow-white hair and a drooping white mustache. His nose was a chitinous beak that curved down over a thin-lipped mouth and was perforated like a musical instrument. He favored wearing a brimless cap of bright red and blue squares, which he wore at a rakish angle, as well as a brightly-colored vest, culottes, and ankle boots.

Droma was created by author James Luceno as a major character in the Agents of Chaos Duology, two paperback books published in 2000 as part of The New Jedi Order series. In both books, Hero's Trial and Jedi Eclipse, Droma acted as a partner and co-pilot to a grieving Han Solo and helped Solo come to terms with the death of his longtime friend and partner, Chewbacca. Luceno found it tricky to design a character who would complement Solo by being more than a mere partner and co-pilot, which he felt would have cheapened Chewbacca's death. As such, he wrote Droma as guiding Solo through his grief and dislocation.

Although The New Jedi Orders planning team was unsure how readers would react to Droma, Luceno hoped for him to be a partner and co-pilot to Solo throughout much of the series. When reader response indicated that fans wanted to see Leia Organa Solo take Chewbacca's position at Solo's side, however, he revised his plans. Luceno was directly involved in planning much of the series, and saw to it that Droma faded into the background after The New Jedi Order: Balance Point, the next book in the series.

When Kathy Tyers was writing Balance Point, no image of Droma or any member of his species existed yet. As such, Luceno provided Tyers with a sketch of Droma. Tyers praised the character and felt that Luceno's way of writing him could not be duplicated. Following Balance Points publication, Droma later appeared in 2003's The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic III: Reunion and The New Jedi Order: The Final Prophecy. His major role in The New Jedi Order earned him entries in 2002's The New Jedi Order Sourcebook and The New Essential Guide to Characters, as well as 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

James Luceno's inspiration for the Ryn species was Earth's Romany people, and "drom" is a Romany word meaning "road" or "way." The plural of "drom" is "droma," meaning "roads."

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