Lillindri Nanimei Filda Vandelhelm XXXII, commonly known as Lilli, was one of the Venerated Ones, the scion of the metalsmithing dynasty on the planet Vandelhelm. Lilli and her younger brother Endro were kidnapped during their youth by the Galactic Empire and imprisoned on Ord Vaug, as their status as living symbols of Vandelhelm's biggest industry made them extremely valuable hostages. After three years' confinement, the siblings were rescued by the Alliance of Free Planets in 4 ABY, and returned home by Alliance hero Han Solo. Lilli was shortly afterward voted as the new Guildmaster of the planet's Metalsmiths Guild, where she maintained a strong loyalty to the Alliance's successor New Republic, which earned her enemies and even an assassination attempt from her own brother.
Lillindri Nanimei Filda Vandelhelm XXXII, known as "Lilli" for short, was—by the time of the Galactic Civil War—one of the last living descendants of Vandel and Helm, independent prospectors who discovered her homeworld of Vandelhelm around 3000 BBY and founded its metalsmithing dynasty. The two families intermarried extensively over the ensuing millennia, and their descendants became known as the Venerated Ones by the planet's Metalsmiths Guild, holding tremendous symbolic importance to the industry. Lilli and her brother Endrodanar Tiopuld Shaamador Vandelhelm XXIV—or simply "Endro"—were essentially hereditary royalty, and the extremely lucrative metalsmithing industry on Vandelhelm traditionally shut down entirely if the Venerated Ones were absent from the planet or refused to give their blessing.
The Venerated Ones of Vandelhelm in 5 ABY.
One exception occurred in 1 ABY, when sitting Guildmaster Orrk conspired with Imperial Admiral Mordur to have the two young Venerated Ones arrested and imprisoned in an internment facility on Ord Vaug, in order to exert greater control over the metalsmiths. The siblings languished on Ord Vaug for three years before they were finally freed by the Alliance of Free Planets in 4 ABY. Lilli and Endro returned to their homeworld in an Alliance freighter, the Millennium Falcon crewed by one-time Rebel heroes Han Solo and Nien Nunb.
Their return was covertly opposed by Orrk and Mordur, who mined the Vandelhelm system's asteroid belt, but the children reached Vandelhelm safely to a rapturous response from the public. However, Orrk made his move the first chance he got with the children, attempting to take Lilli hostage with a blaster. In the ensuing struggle Lilli managed to wrest the gun away from Orrk, firing a shot that threw him off balance and allowed Solo to throw Orrk to his death over a railing. Lilli then foiled Mordur's plot to send a shipment of materials into the sun instead of allowing it to reach the Alliance fleet, sending the command codes for the metalsmiths' drone barges to an Alliance cruiser so they could be shut down. Solo was surprised at Lilli's ingenuity, concluding what the young Venerated One saw as a "fun adventure."
Lilli replaced Orrk as Guildmaster by popular vote only a day after Solo's departure, aged just 15. Grateful to her rescuers and seeing Solo's example as one she should follow, she fostered very close relations with the New Republic during its early years, keeping prices down for the New Republic and refusing to sell metal to any who would call themselves Imperial. These policies led to a plateauing of profits, and in turn tension with smiths made greedy by freedom from Imperial constraints. She leaned heavily on her younger brother Endro during this time as her security advisor, spokesperson and liaison to the guild. Amid whispers of dissatisfaction among the smiths, Lilli ordered the guild to fulfill a massive shipbuilding job for the New Republic, requiring a large amount of Vandelhelm's finest alloys to create the Solo-class combat freighter in time for the 10 year anniversary of the return of the Venerated Ones.
To celebrate the anniversary, Lilli personally invited Solo and Nunb to return to Vandelhelm for festivities and the unveiling of the new freighter line that bore Solo's name. However, the ceremony quickly turned disastrous. As Lilli handed the control codes for the freighters to Solo, a protocol droid belonging to Endro suddenly fired its blaster cannon at Solo, an assassination attempt only foiled by Nunb's timely intervention. Endro was immediately implicated as the trigger man for a plot to replace Lilli as the only remaining Venerated One, in order to sell the Solo-class freighters to the highest bidder. The plan foiled, the Solo-class freighters were safely delivered to the New Republic.
Going by the shortened name "Lilli" unless protocol absolutely demanded it, Lillindri Nanimei Filda Vandelhelm XXXII was, by her mid-20s, considered a striking young woman, bred and educated from birth to lead. Although highly educated, Lilli's royal upbringing left her with somewhat stunted social skills, and she was noted for her idealism. Lilli's suffering at the hands of her Imperial captors instilled in her a deep revulsion for the Empire, and led to her refusing to work with the Imperials—a stand that led to tension with the metalsmiths who were used to profiting from all sides willing to pay. Lilli was disgusted with what she saw as the metalsmiths' greed, feeling that it was the right thing to repay what she saw as her own personal debt to the New Republic, regardless of what it meant for profit.
Beyond just being her rescuer, Lilli saw Han Solo as her role model, looking to him as the example she wanted to follow as a leader. Lilli was quickly enamored with Solo as a youth and she maintained that personal interest as an adult, as she wrote in her private holojournal of her jealousy of Solo's marriage with New Republic Chief of State Leia Organa Solo, and hoped to convince him to stay with her on Vandelhelm. In her personal time, Lilli enjoyed sculpting small metal figures in her royal studio, and practicing martial arts for both practical and relaxation purposes. Lilli went armed at all times as a matter of tradition, and as such was skilled with a blaster pistol.
Lilli appeared in Star Wars (1977) 98, written by Archie Goodwin and released in 1985. Her full name was later given in the 2004 Wizards of the Coast supplement Vandelhelm: Enemies and Alloys, written by Cory J. Herndon.