Paron Ree

Paron Ree was a male human villager from the First Wavers, a group of settlers who had been exiled to the Outer Rim planet of Jelucan for remaining loyal to their king several centuries before the Age of the Empire. He married Verine Ree, a fellow First Waver. About nineteen years before the Battle of Yavin, Paron's wife gave birth to two baby girls: Wynnet and Ciena Ree. Wynnet died in childbirth but Ciena survived, leaving Paron and Verine with one child.

When Ciena was eight years old, Paron and his family traveled with their muunyak beast to Valentia, the capital city of Jelucan. Valentia had been settled by a more affluent and multi-species wave of migrants known collectively as the Second-wavers, who looked down on the valley dwellers as primitive and superstitious peasants. The Rees were traveling to Valentia to attend a ceremony celebrating Jelucan's formal incorporation into the Galactic Empire. Due to the mountainous terrain, their journey took two hours.

After a few second-waver boys made fun of the Rees and their muunyak, Paron told his daughter Ciena not to let their comments affect her. He added that their day was over and that they knew it. Knowing they were in a second-waver area, Verine then whispered for her husband to keep his voice down. Before leaving to attend a speech by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Paron remarked that the Empire respected hard work and absolute loyalty, values that the valley dwellers shared. He added that the second-wavers were more concerned with making money. He also said that the Empire would be bringing Ciena and her generation more choices to excel and that the Force was guiding them.

During the trip, Ciena befriended a second-waver boy named Thane Kyrell, who had defended her from a group of bullies. After meeting Tarkin himself, the two children decided to aspire for a career in the Imperial Navy. Ciena and Thane became friends after he offered to let her use his flight simulator.

Over the next eight years, Paron and his wife Verine continued supporting their daughter Ciena's ambitions to secure a place at the Imperial Academy, which prepared Imperial citizens for service in the Imperial Military. When Ciena was thirteen, Paron and Verine sent their daughter Ciena to support Nierre and his family, whose family honor was at stake after Nierre was accused of abusing his position as an Imperial communications monitor. The Rees believed that nobody should want to hide anything from the Empire and the Nierre's accusers were dishonorable. In the end, the Rees celebrated when Nierre was acquitted.

Paron and his wife also found work at a nearby mine, where Verine worked as a supervisor. One evening, Paron returned on their family's ridgecrawler, a mountain-ready hovercraft introduced by Imperial-backed merchants. Verine was unable to return early since she had another late night shift. Though Paron missed her, he took pride in her work. When Ciena asked if she could borrow the ridgecrawler so that she could practice on Thane's flight simulator, Paron expressed a disapproval of his daughter's close friendship with a second-waver and suggested that she practice with the new simulators in Valentia.

When Ciena responded that she helped Thane and that he respected her, Paron relented and allowed his daughter to borrow the ridgecrawler so that she could travel to Thane's home. In return, he secured a promise from Ciena that would have finished her lessons and cleaned the kitchens by the time that they had returned. Paron urged his daughter to become a better pilot than the Kyrell boy and to aim for a place at the Imperial Academy. Ciena laughed and responded that she and Thane were going to join the Imperial Navy. Paron smiled at his daughter's remark.

Paron and Verine's loving relationship with their daughter contrasted with Thane's abusive relationship with his father Oris Kyrell, who had a foul temper and occasionally assaulted his son in a drunken fit of rage. Oris favored Thane's older brother Dalven Kyrell and neglected his younger son. Paron and his wife were delighted when their daughter Ciena secured a place at the prestigious Royal Imperial Academy in the galactic capital Coruscant at the age of sixteen. Both Paron and Verine accompanied Ciena to the spaceport and hugged her on the landing ramp before she departed for Coruscant.

Paron and Verine kept in touch with their daughter while she was studying at the Royal Imperial Academy. In the third year of Ciena's study, they contacted her by hologram to inform her about the death of their beloved muunyak beast. Ciena excelled in her studies at the Imperial Academy and was allocated a place in the Academy's command track. She would go on to serve in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War against the Rebel Alliance.

Following the Battle of Hoth, Paron's wife Verine was falsely accused of embezzling funds from the mine that she worked at. Verine was remanded in Imperial custody prior to her trial. In the meantime, Paron secured work as an administrator at a local Imperial garrison. Due to the charges stacked against his wife, Paron had to work hard to prove his loyalty and integrity and could not afford to turn up late. Paron informed his daughter Ciena of the news via hologram. Ciena, who was now a Lieutenant Commander, was given leave by her superiors to return to Jelucan and support her family through their trial.

After Ciena arrived home, Paron remarked that he should not have asked her to come since that would have endangered her position in the Imperial Navy. Ciena reassured her father that her superiors would understand a mistake had been made and that the truth would come out. However, Paron was pessimistic that the authorities would identify the real culprit. Ciena then expressed her hope that the real culprit would be caught and noted that her father was looking frail. Paron replied that he had lost track of time since Verine's arrest and had stopped eating regularly. To expedite the case, Ciena requested a meeting with the magistrate the following day.

Paron then brought out some meat and root vegetables from the refrigeration unit, which Ciena started making into a stew. While Ciena was cooking, he expressed his relief that his daughter had come. When Ciena apologized for not visiting earlier, he stated that he understood that she was fighting a war. When Ciena noted that none of their kindred had posted flags outside their house to support their family in their hour of trial, Paron replied that none had come to offer their support. While their fellow valley kindred knew that the charges against Verine were false, Paron explained that they were unwilling to stand against the Empire, which they had pledged their loyalty to.

Despite the fabricated nature of the charges, Paron refused to challenged the Empire since it would break the Jelucani tradition of honor. Realizing that he had raised his voice, Paron apologized to his daughter and explained that he was facing a difficult trial. After dinner, father and daughter resumed their conversation about Verine's trial. When Ciena asked her father why he was pessimistic that the Empire would find out the real culprit, he responded that she already knew the answer and told her not to insult them both by making him tell her why.

At that point, Ciena deduced that the embezzler was a high-ranking Imperial official who had falsified the records. After Ciena noted that the magistrate would not publicly question Imperial officials, Paron told his daughter that she should take pride in being a member of the Imperial Navy and that she and other like-minded individuals embodied the good in the Empire. However, he pointed out that every ruler had its bad side and admitted that the people of Jelucan had seen more of the Empire's negative side, including pollution and environmental despoliation. Despite this injustice, Paron endeavored to remain loyal to the Empire.

Since none of their kindred had come to support the Ree family in their hour of need, Ciena volunteered to maintain a vigil at midnight so that he father could rest. Fortunately for the Rees, Ciena's old friend Thane Kyrell, who had joined the Rebel Alliance, arrived in a ridgecrawler, and volunteered to stand vigil with them. Out of respect for the Rees, he even brought a red flag to show solidarity with them. In line with the Jelucani tradition of hospitality, Paron offered Thane his protection and hospitality, even serving him a bowl of soup. At his daughter's urging, Paron retired to bed.

The following morning, Paron went to work at the local Imperial garrison. In his absence, Ciena and Thane flew in the Kyrell family's old V-171 airspeeder to their childhood hideout known as the Fortress. There, the two made love and discussed their political differences about the Empire and the Rebellion. The following day, Thane left to rejoin the Rebel Alliance. Paron and his daughter then attended the trial. He kept his head bowed low throughout the proceedings since he could not bear to see his wife in the dock. Despite the fabricated nature of the charges, the magistrate swiftly convicted his wife of all the charges and sentenced her to six years of hard labor.

Following the trial, Ciena remarked that Verine's conviction was a miscarriage of justice. Despite the injustice, Paron was unwilling to challenge the Imperial government's verdict on the grounds that they had pledged their loyalty to the Empire. He added that while life was unfair, they would endure and prevail "not as crude matter but in the realm of the spirit." While disagreeing with her father's unwavering loyalty to the Empire, Ciena still hugged and comforted him. Later, Ciena returned to Imperial service and was caught up in the rapid decline of the Empire which followed the Battle of Endor.

Paron Ree was a human man. By the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, he was a middle-aged man with graying hair. Paron Ree was known for his unyielding and tough but fair-minded personality. As a Jelucani valley dweller, he believed that it was honorable not to break an oath that want had made. He initially welcomed the Empire for bring jobs and development to Jelucan but became disillusioned with the corruption and pollution that accompanied Imperial rule. Paron was a loving husband to his wife Verine and a supportive father to his daughter Ciena. He believed in supporting fellow kindred when their loyalty and integrity was called into question. Despite recognizing that his wife had been falsely convicted by the Empire, he refused to oppose the Empire since he was unwilling to break his oath to the Empire.

Paron Ree first appeared in Claudia Gray's 2015 novel Lost Stars.