Javul Charn

Born in the years surrounding the fall of the Galactic Republic, the Human female Javul Charn spent at least part of her early childhood living on the Hutt moon Nar Shaddaa with her parents and younger brother, Ayx. During the early years of the Galactic Empire, Charn's father, a veteran of the Republic Navy, and mother worked as musicians and toured throughout the Mid and Outer Rim. The tours served as a cover for their involvement with the fledgling resistance movement in opposition to Imperial rule, allowing them to smuggle information between cells on different planets. Despite keeping a low profile, Charn's father was one of many former Republic Military personnel classified as a potential insurgent by the Empire. When Charn was fourteen years old, Imperial forces raided a venue where her parents were performing on the Bothan homeworld Bothawui. Both of her parents were killed in the shooting, along with three of their backing musicians.

Following their parents' deaths, Charn and Ayx moved to live in the spaceport town of Mos Eisley on the Outer Rim planet Tatooine with the family of a friend of their father who had served with him in the Republic Navy. Charn soon became best friends with the man's teenage daughter, Kendara Farlion, and the pair spent much of their time together. Charn's looks and burgeoning singing talent gained her attention from several men on her adopted homeworld, including a group of Imperial stormtroopers, a Zabrak spacer who hoped to marry her and a man who proposed buying Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley and installing Charn as the house chanteuse.

When Charn was old enough, she decided to follow her parents by joining the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Working with Commander Yanus Melikan of the Corellian Guard, Charn started performing on the Corellian circuit using the identity Alai Jance, the daughter of a Nar Shaddaa pirate, with an act that included singing, dancing and dramatic scenes based on cultural legends. Like her parents before her, however, her singing career was a front for her Rebel activities, moving cargo and information for the resistance. She remained a small-time performer until, during a performance at the Quarek'k club on the galactic capital of Coruscant, a song cycle about Human immigrants on Mandalore brought her to the attention of Hityamun Kris, a Mandalorian who had turned his back on his clan to join the Black Sun crime syndicate and had subsequently risen to the rank of Vigo. Although she quickly became aware of Kris's illegal activities, Charn nevertheless began a relationship with him and the pair were eventually engaged to marry. With Kris's financial backing, Charn's career soon took a turn for the better and her relationship offered some protection from the Imperial authorities, as well as providing the Alliance with information on Black Sun's activities.

During one of her tours, Charn's ship ran into trouble and dropped out of hyperspace suddenly, damaging one of the equipment containers aboard the ship in the process. An attempt to fix the container revealed a body inside, which Charn turned the body over to the authorities on Coruscant. The official story was that the dead man was a fan who had stowed away and died of asphyxiation, but the Rebels learned that he was a diplomat who was wanted by the Empire. The incident led them to discover that Kris had been using Charn's tours to move items including narcotics, weapons, biological agents and sentient beings around the galaxy without attracting the attention of the Empire or rival Vigos. Since Kris's actions were endangering her work with the Rebellion, Charn decided to end their relationship.

After parting company with Kris, she started using the stage name Javul Charn. Her official biography claimed that she was born in the lightless sublevels of Coruscant and grew up in a neighborhood plagued by gang shootings. Charn's career soon eclipsed that of Alai Jance's and her elaborate performances, which combined singing, dancing and acting with holographically projected landscapes, helped her become famous throughout the galaxy. The extensive equipment required for her concerts was split between two ships: the freighter Deep Core and her luxury private yacht, the Nova's Heart, a modified SoroSuub PLY-3500 named after her first holo-album to sell over ten billion copies. Charn's entourage and crew traveled with her aboard the Nova's Heart, from where they produced and managed her concerts, holocasts and personal appearances. Among the crew were several Rebels, including Melikan in the role of cargo master, the Nova's Hearts captain, Serdor Marrak, and Charn's friend, Farlion, who acted as her road manager. Not all members of the crew were aware of Charn's Rebel activities, but the Rebels took care to check all crew members for Imperial or Black Sun connections.

Kris reacted angrily to Charn's departure, threatening and pleading with her to return to him. When Charn refused, Kris made a point of cutting off all contact with her. However, the Rebels discovered that Kris was still using the Nova's Heart to smuggle contraband. Contraband was often found and removed before taking off, but there were several occasions when contraband was not found until after departure. Among the cargo smuggled aboard by Kris's agents where more sentients, including victims of turf wars between Kris and his fellow Vigos, criminals fleeing the authorities and political abductees. Although some survived the journey, all suffered food, water and oxygen deprivation and a total of three beings were found dead aboard the ship. When the Rebels discovered an important Black Sun cargo aboard the Nova's Heart, Charn saw the opportunity to stop the crime syndicate's interference and convince the Empire that she was a loyal citizen at the same time. She turned over the cargo to the Imperial Security Bureau and provided them with much information about Black Sun's activities, including the names of ships and their captains, timetables, cargoes, methods of operation and recognition codes. The information led to the arrests and conviction of several senior members of Black Sun operating around the Corellian Trade Spine, including a couple of Vigos. At the same time as crippling Black Sun's activities and forcing the syndicate's leader, Prince Xizor, to redesign his organization's operations along the Corellian Spine, Charn's actions made room for the Alliance to increase its own activities in that region.

For a time, Charn's tours started to run smoothly without Black Sun interference. Around 1 BBY, Charn visited Cloud City on the planet Bespin, where she recruited the Bothan Tereez Dza'lar as a costumer. In 0 BBY, Charn was scheduled to embark on a tour from Rodia in the Outer Rim to Alderaan in the Core Worlds, via Christophsis, Falleen, Bannistar Station and Bacrana. The tour would also serve as cover for a mission for the Alliance. Charn was instructed to pick up a container holding a set of stolen Imperial military plans during her stop on Bannistar Station and deliver it to her Alliance liaison on Alderaan. However, following a concert on Coruscant shortly before the tour, Charn received some threatening messages among her fan mail. When she and her entourage were showered with black fire lilies as they boarded the Nova's Heart after a personal appearance, she realized that the messages had come from somebody who was capable of getting close to her and started to suspect that somebody in Black Sun was behind the threat. As a result, Farlion insisted that they hire security for the tour. Charn was reluctant, fearing that the presence of bodyguards might interfere with her Rebel activities, so Farlion suggested avoiding professional security firms and instead hiring somebody in her hometown of Mos Eisley.

In Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley, Charn and Farlion encountered the smuggler and freelance pilot Dash Rendar, who was seeking work to finance repairs to his YT-2400 light freighter, the Outrider, which had been damaged on a recent smuggling run. Explaining only that she required protection from a stalker, Charn hired Rendar as her bodyguard, along with his Nautolan co-pilot Eaden Vrill and his LE-series repair droid Leebo. With Charn's new security crew aboard, the Nova's Heart departed Tatooine for Rodia. Shortly after leaving, Charn was in her quarters with Farlion when the ship suddenly lost power, dropping out of hyperspace, and an alarm sounded to signal a hull breach. Finding the door locked, the pair took a hidden escape passage from Charn's quarters to the cargo hold. When they returned to Charn's quarters with Melikan, they found several crew members, including Rendar, Vrill and Leebo, searching for them. Rendar was concerned that the incident was the result of sabotage and Charn instructed the ship's executive officer, Bran Finnick, to run diagnostics. The Nova's Hearts systems showed no further signs of sabotage and the ship's Twi'lek engineer, Arruna Var, determined that the power cut had been triggered by a signal embedded within the approach protocols sent by the Rodian Space Authority. This made Rendar suspect that the stalker was someone more dangerous than an overzealous fan. When he spoke to Charn, she told Rendar that she suspected Black Sun as she was often mistaken for Alai Jance, the former lover of a Black Sun Vigo. With the upcoming Rodia concerts taking place at the Holosseum in Equator City, a center of Black Sun activity, Rendar suggested canceling the show. Unable to disrupt the tour without risking her mission, Charn refused.

The Nova's Heart docked at a private landing facility at Equator City's spaceport and Charn took a shuttle to the Holosseum, where she was greeted by a large group of fans, many of whom had camped out overnight to see her arrive. Concerned that Charn was too exposed, Rendar quickly ushered her inside the building. Charn's show, which included a section in which she portrayed a sprite, saw her "fly" on a support cable from four sets suspended above the stage. As Charn rehearsed, the door in the stage floor leading to the storage area below opened and concert seats came flying out and started to move into position. One bank of seats clipped Charn's support cable as it passed, dragging her towards another seating bank. Charn freed herself from the cable to avoid being crushed and activated her emergency antigrav unit to slow her descent. Moments later, however, her antigrav unit failed and she dropped in an uncontrolled fall. Vrill caught Charn at the last moment, saving her from being crushed by the closing stage door.

Var ascertained that a power surge from the city grid had overloaded Charn's antigrav unit and triggered the stage door to open, but only somebody in the building could have made it close again. Rendar was concerned that the saboteur may be among Charn's crew, but she still refused to cancel the concerts. The possibility of Black Sun involvement led Rendar to suspect Hityamun Kris, who was operating on Rodia. When he mentioned this to Charn, she confessed that she was Alai Jance and admitted that Kris was a likely suspect. Despite Rendar's concerns, Charn's first two concerts on Rodia were uneventful. On the night of the third and final concert, however, Kris arrived at the Holosseum with three bodyguards and proceeded straight to Charn in the backstage area. The Mandalorian told Charn that he still hoped to win her back and warned her not to be stubborn. Although shaken by the encounter, Charn regained control of her emotions and completed the concert without further incident.

With the possibility of a saboteur within her crew, Charn decided to abandon the Nova's Heart and most of the crew and continue the tour aboard a different ship. To that end, after returning to her yacht later that night, Charn disguised herself and left the ship while the crew slept. She headed to Every Delight, a club in Equator City's Port Town, where she hired an individual known to her only as Rancor's Wrath to attack her ship as it left the planet the following day. As she was leaving, Charn was confronted by Rendar and Vrill, who had tracked her down after discovering she was missing. Rendar was angry that Charn had taken an unnecessary risk, but she merely lied that she had needed to unwind and forget her troubles.

The Deep Core departed Rodia the following afternoon, with the Nova's Heart following two hours later. As the yacht cleared the Rodia system, Rancor's Wrath attacked as planned. An explosive charge timed to go off at the same time as the attack damaged the cargo bay airlock before Rancor's Wrath withdrew. Following the attack, Charn met with the senior crew. Playing up the idea that the saboteur was behind the latest attack, she announced her intention to continue the tour in a different ship and offered to pay for repairs to Rendar's Outrider if he agreed to act as her pilot. After arriving on Tatooine, however, Rendar's mechanic confirmed that the repairs could not be completed in time to get her to Christophsis for her next concert. Forced to locate another pilot at Chalmun's Cantina, Charn hired the Corellian smuggler and old-time rival of Rendar, Han Solo, who agreed to take her and a small crew in his YT-1300 light freighter, the Millennium Falcon. Rendar initially refused to work with Solo and threatened to quit. When Charn asked him to change his mind, Rendar demanded to know the truth about her stalker. Still hiding her Rebel connections, Charn revealed the extent of her dealings with Black Sun and that there was a chance that it was Prince Xizor himself who was seeking revenge. Concerned about her safety, Rendar agreed to stay.

As soon as Charn's cargo was aboard, the Millennium Falcon departed Tatooine, leaving Marrak to conduct repairs on the Nova's Heart and look for further signs of sabotage before rejoining the tour later. To ensure that the saboteur was left behind, Charn opted to take only a minimal crew with her. In addition to Solo, Rendar, Vrill and Leebo, the crew comprised Farlion, Melikan, his Sullustan assistant Nik, and several cargo droids, including Melikan's Otoga-222 maintenance droid Oto. Despite these precautions, however, it soon became clear that the saboteur had tampered with the Millennium Falcon when a sudden gravity failure in the ship's cargo hold almost resulted in Rendar being crushed by falling crates. Since the gravity failure had been set to trigger when the ship entered or exited hyperspace, there was no way to tell whether the saboteur was still aboard.

The Christophsis leg of Charn's tour saw her perform three successful nights in an amphitheater in the capital city of Chaleydonia. The next stop was a single concert in Falleen Throne—the capital city of Prince Xizor's homeworld, Falleen—where Charn was also due to meet with a Rebel contact. As the Millennium Falcon and Deep Core were loaded for departure following the final night on Christophsis, Hityamun Kris paid Charn a visit in her dressing room. The Vigo admitted that he had been attempting to frighten her into returning to him, but warned that Xizor wanted her dead and there was nothing he could do to protect her if she insisted on going to Falleen. When he tried to force the issue, however, Rendar, Vrill, Solo and Melikan arrived and disarmed him and his bodyguards. Back at the Millennium Falcon, Rendar also tried to convince Charn to cancel the visit to Falleen. When Charn, who was unable to miss the scheduled rendezvous, once again refused, a frustrated Rendar grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. Charn admitted that Xizor had ample reason to want her dead, but told Rendar only that she would not let her fans down.

Rendar kept security tight during Charn's three concerts on Falleen, but there were no signs of any threat to her and the performances were well received by the thousands of Falleen in attendance. As the crew of the Millennium Falcon prepared for departure following the third concert, Charn sneaked out in disguise. She found her contact waiting in the guise of an Equilibrate priest at a Wayfarer's Temple near the spaceport. The priest provided Charn with a data wafer containing updated orders and codes to access the container she was to pick up on Bannistar Station, which officially held replacement parts for her holographic rig. As Charn turned to leave, she found Rendar waiting near the exit, having seen her leaving the ship and followed her to the temple. Charn disguised her true purpose, telling Rendar that she was a member of the Equilibriate religion and had visited the temple to replace her lost copy of the Fulcrum, the holy text of that order.

The pair took the turbolift back to their hangar, but when the turbolift door opened they found an Anomid assassin named Edge waiting for them. Rendar quickly pulled Charn to safety and closed the turbolift door moments before it was struck by the assassin's Kerestian darkstick. As they rode the turbolift back down, Rendar contacted Vrill and Solo, who arranged to pick them up in an empty hangar bay three levels below the Millennium Falcons current level. The deception only bought them a few moments and Edge reached the new level moments after Charn and Rendar, opening fire as they ran towards where Solo, Vrill and Melikan were waiting by the hangar door. As their allies returned fire, Edge launched a Repulsor throwing razor after the fleeing Humans. As Rendar leaped out of the razor's path, Charn removed her robe and threw it at the razor, slowing it down enough for her to get a clear shot with her blaster. Moments later, the assassin was struck in the leg by a blaster bolt, slowing his progress enough for Charn's group to retreat to their ship and escape.

After making the jump to hyperspace, Rendar suggested that Charn change her name and go with him on the Outrider to somewhere Edge would not find her. At Melikan's prompting, Charn finally revealed to Rendar her involvement with the Rebel Alliance and the true nature of her mission. Given the increased danger, Melikan and Charn decided to skip the rest of the tour after picking up their cargo during Charn's next performance on Bannistar Station. Although Rendar wanted no part in the Rebellion, he agreed to remain and ensure Charn safely reached Alderaan. Solo, however, was unwilling to risk himself or his ship by carrying their cargo to the Core Worlds and, despite Charn's offer to double his pay, would only agree to stay for the Bannistar Station stop and a subsequent rendezvous with the Nova's Heart.

Bannistar Station was an Imperial refueling station consisting of a series of interconnected fuel tanks floating above a planetoid. The Rebels' cargo had been stored aboard the module to which the Nova's Heart had originally been due to dock. However, because of the Millennium Falcons different configuration, the freighter was directed to a docking facility on another module from which the cargo was inaccessible. In order to reach it, Charn hoped to convince the Imperial authorities to rearrange the modules, ostensibly to allow her to perform on a large transparisteel spiral staircase suspended in the free space between them.

Charn's group were met by Bannistar Station's commanding officer, Commander Arno D'Vox, who offered to personally take Charn on a tour of the facility. Charn accepted D'Vox's offer, but insisted that Rendar and Vrill accompany her on the tour. D'Vox took Charn and her security to see the station's command center before leading them to a cantina in a communal habitat area, ensuring that Rendar and Vrill were seated at a different table while he enjoyed a private lunch with Charn. Realizing that D'Vox's obvious attraction to her might make him amenable to rearranging the station modules, Charn agreed to have dinner alone with the commander that evening. In case she was unsuccessful, however, Charn gave Rendar the data wafer containing the location of the cargo and asked him to devise a backup plan to retrieve it.

Charn and D'Vox dined in a private room at The Nadir, a restaurant located at the lowest point of the station's primary module, and she accompanied him back to his quarters to discuss her requirements for the concert. When Charn explained that she would need to scale down her show in order to perform inside the station, D'Vox proposed rearranging the modules to accommodate an outdoor show. However, his plans did not include the module Charn required. Unwilling to arouse suspicion by pressing the point, Charn agreed to D'Vox's suggested configuration and the Imperial contacted the command center to give the order. This prompted a visit from D'Vox's security chief, Red Rishyk, who was concerned about the order. Rishyk's arrival gave Charn an excuse to return to her own quarters and escape D'Vox's amorous advances. Although Charn was unsuccessful, Rendar and Solo negotiated a business deal with a pair of local spacers which allowed them to get close enough to retrieve her cargo.

The following evening, as Charn performed in front of a large crowd gathered on the catwalks and balconies of the surrounding modules, Edge struck again. The Anomid swung across to the transparisteel staircase on which Charn was performing, followed shortly by Rendar, who landed between the assassin and his target. Charn narrowly avoided a throwing razor by throwing her jacket into the air to confuse its tracking mechanism. Moments later, the stage lights cut out, plunging the staircase into darkness and leaving Charn exposed due to the light shining from her holo-emitter lenses. Rendar initially told Charn to close her eyes to cut out the light; as Edge approached, Rendar instructed her to open her eyes again and look right at the assassin. With Edge momentarily blinded by the bright light, Rendar opened fire, but Edge continued to attack, driving a vibroblade into Rendar's leg. Before Edge could turn his attention to Charn, however, Vrill landed on the staircase and tackled the assassin, sending them both plunging off the edge towards the planetoid below. After Charn and Rendar were treated for their injuries, they were questioned by D'Vox and Rishyk. D'Vox was inclined to turn them over to Xizor, despite Charn's efforts to bribe him. However, Melikan, Solo and Nik came to her rescue, disarming the Imperials and locking them in a refresher before fleeing aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Angry over Vrill's death, Solo agreed to take Charn straight to Alderaan. They did not get far before Leebo revealed that Oto had been trying to shoot Charn during Edge's attack. When questioned, the droid admitted to being the saboteur. Bran Finnick, secretly working for Hityamun Kris, had arranged for Oto to be reprogrammed to sabotage Charn's tour and scare her into returning to the Vigo, but the new subroutines had also allowed Xizor to gain access to the droid and program him to kill Charn, and the Imperial Security Bureau had used them to program Oto to gather evidence of Charn's involvement with the Rebel Alliance. Oto was due to send their location to both Xizor and the Empire when they next dropped out of hyperspace. Rendar suggested using this to their advantage. Deactivating the droid, they contacted Marrak to warn him about Finnick and arranged to meet the Nova's Heart in the Circarpous system. They then made another jump in the wrong direction, reactivating Oto temporarily in an effort to lead Black Sun and the Empire away from their intended destination. Before they could re-enter hyperspace, however, Kris arrived aboard his personal yacht. Charn convinced the Vigo to allow them to leave, but the speed of his arrival alerted them to an independent transponder embedded in Oto that was broadcasting their signal even when the droid was deactivated.

Intending to use the Nova's Heart to draw off Charn's pursuers, the Millennium Falcon proceeded to the rendezvous near Circarpous V, where the Rebels transferred Oto and the transponder to the yacht, along with Farlion and Nik. The rendezvous was interrupted by the arrival of Xizor aboard his own yacht. As the two ships separated and fled, Xizor was tricked into chasing Oto aboard the Nova's Heart. The Millennium Falcon was not in the clear, however, as they found their path blocked by an Imperial Star Destroyer and a pair of cruisers. At that moment, Kris arrived in the system and used his own ship to draw off the Imperials, allowing the Millennium Falcon to escape to hyperspace. Contacting Charn one last time, Kris informed her that her dangerous Rebel activities had convinced him to abandon his pursuit of her.

With the Millennium Falcon running low on fuel, Solo took the ship to Commenor to refuel. However, after finding the Imperial Dreadnaught Avenger waiting for them, the crew were forced to jump back into hyperspace and attempt to reach Alderaan. After finally dropping out of hyperspace on the outskirts of the Alderaan system, they were contacted by Alderaan Space Control. Charn responded with her personal identification code and the Millennium Falcon was directed to land in a secure spaceport in the capital city, Aldera. As the ship came in to land, Charn and Melikan thanked Rendar and Solo for their help and asked them to join the Rebel Alliance, but, to Charn's disappointment, the smugglers were unwilling to give up their independence and declined. Before disembarking, Charn admitted to Rendar that she had personal reasons for asking him to stay and kissed him. Leaving Leebo aboard, the four Humans were met by a group of Royal Guards and Charn and Melikan were led away for a debriefing. After Charn's cargo and equipment was unloaded, she watched with Princess Leia Organa of the Alderaanian royal family from a viewing gallery as Rendar and Solo re-boarded the Millennium Falcon and departed.

Charn kept her word by paying for the repairs to the Outrider and had it moved to the Bestine Port Authority for safekeeping in his absence. She left a message with Rendar's mechanic, directing the smuggler to a hotel in Tatooine's capital city, Bestine, where she had arranged for him to stay in a luxury suite for as long as he wanted. She also sent a HoloNet message in which she thanked Rendar for all his help and told him that she hoped one day to be able to thank him in person.

Javul Charn was created for the 2011 novel Shadow Games by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. The concept for Shadow Games originated around five years earlier when Reaves and fellow author Steve Perry were discussing ideas for a Star Wars novel they intended to write together. Perry's initial idea revolved around a musician who hires some bodyguards when they find themselves in danger and is later revealed to be less innocent than they appear. The character that became Charn was originally conceived as male, but was changed to female as the pair refined the idea. Publisher Del Rey wanted significant changes from the initial pitch, which ultimately resulted in Perry dropping out but agreeing to let Reaves work on the project with Bohnhoff instead.

Charn, along with Rendar and Leebo, was one of the characters who featured in Reaves and Bohnhoff's original outline of the story and her prominence in the story led to the book being originally known by the working title Holostar. Although Rendar and Leebo were existing characters, Reaves and Bohnhoff decided that the titular holostar should be a new character with no established backstory and free from reader expectations. While deciding upon the nature of Charn's stage act, the authors were keen to integrate the technology available in the Star Wars universe into her performances. The combination of music and theater in Charn's stage act was influenced by Bohnhoff's own experience in both fields. An illustration of Charn by Chris Scalf was included in the 2012 reference book The Essential Reader's Companion.

• The Essential Reader's Companion