Rulf Yage

Rulf Yage, a Human male, was born into the famed Yage family. He attended the Imperial Academy before starting off his career in the military of the Fel Empire as a starfighter pilot in the Imperial Navy. Yage became a member of Skull Squadron, an elite Predator-class starfighter squadron which was assigned to the defense of the Imperial capital Bastion, and he soon rose to the position of squadron commander. He married Nyna Calixte, the eventual Director of Imperial Intelligence, and the relationship resulted in a daughter, Gunn, whom Rulf raised as the son he always wanted. After serving in Skull Squadron, Yage was assigned to the Star Destroyer Ephin Sarreti, part of the Imperial Second Outer Rim Fleet. While aboard, he was responsible for coordinating the fleet's starfighter tactics. Yage was eventually promoted to the rank of admiral, but around the same time, Calixte left him for High Moff Morlish Veed, also a member of the Navy. In an effort to overcome the growing amount of bitterness in his life, Yage embedded himself in his duties. As a hardliner Imperial, Yage was among those who objected to Emperor Roan Fel's announcement that his daughter, Princess Marasiah Fel, would succeed him as leader of the Empire.

When the Galactic Alliance's Ossus Project, an effort by the Shaper caste of the Yuuzhan Vong to restore life to planets destroyed in their invasion of the galaxy from 25 ABY to 29 ABY, began to harm the inhabitants of the devastated worlds, the Council of Moffs decided to invoke the Treaty of Anaxes and declare war on the Alliance in 127 ABY. A year later, the Moffs, without the knowledge of Emperor Fel, allied with Dark Lord Darth Krayt's Sith Order—the very group of Sith who had sabotaged the Ossus Project. The Sith–Imperial War reached its final stage by 130 ABY, when above the Core World Caamas, Grand Admiral Veed's forces brought about a decisive Imperial victory when he forced the Alliance commanders into surrendering. Coruscant fell to the Empire around the same time. The members of the Alliance governing Triumvirate became nothing more than puppets to ensure the peaceful transition from Galactic Alliance to Galactic Empire; Emperor Fel then made them viceroys over what was left of Alliance Space.

The final act of the war, however, had yet to come. Yage, now a Grand Admiral, led an attack on the Jedi Academy on Ossus alongside Sith Lord Darth Nihl. Stormtroopers and Sith alike eradicated the majority of Jedi present, including High Council member and champion of the Ossus Project, Jedi Master Kol Skywalker. For his part in the massacre, Yage—who was praised as the ""—was appointed Moff and given a seat on the Moff Council, where he represented the interests of the Imperial Navy. The Council met on conquered Coruscant at a point following the massacre, and while Moff Veed was concluding his report to the Council and Emperor Fel on the events on Ossus, Darth Krayt and three of his minions—Wyyrlok, Maladi, and Nihl—entered Fel's throne room and proceeded to seize control of the Empire. The Dark Lord slayed the four Imperial Knight bodyguards present before assassinating the man who sat on the throne. Though Krayt had only killed a decoy, the Moffs were quick to pledge their loyalty to their new Emperor, Krayt.

Seven years into his reign as Emperor, Krayt began to realize that his body was failing him. He had become aware of the healing power that Jedi-turned-bounty hunter Cade Skywalker possessed through Moff Konrad Rus's contacts on Bastion, where Skywalker had returned Imperial heir Princess Marasiah Fel after she had been injured during an encounter with the Sith on Vendaxa. The Dark Lord of the Sith hoped to capture the former Jedi and convert him to the dark side of the Force with the hope that his abilities could be used to increase the Emperor's own longevity. Skywalker soon arrived on Coruscant in his Helot-class transport, the Mynock, and there he was pursued by Skull Squadron under the command of Moff Yage's daughter, Gunn "Gunner" Yage. On orders from the Moff to take Skywalker alive, Gunn and her pilots ultimately lost the Mynock when Skywalker hid it in the Coruscant Undercity.

Rulf awaited his daughter in the Skull Squadron Hangar when Gunn and her squad mates Jae Akura, Brodie Coburn, and Tev Rimon returned. Wasting no time in scolding his daughter, he announced that the loss of the Mynock had been unacceptable. Gunn replied that the ship's identification had not been confirmed, and that their failure was inevitable, as they would not have been able to take out the ship without risking Skywalker's death and therefore disobeying Rulf's own edict. The Moff began berating his daughter—he had issued an order, and had no desire to listen to their excuses for failing. Gunn proposed that, should her father be dissatisfied with her handling of the squadron, he could dismiss her whenever he wished. Rather than do so, he ordered his daughter to attend dinner with him the following evening—and not to be late. Akura was astonished that Gunn had been able to survive her childhood, but she stood up for her father, noting that he had wanted a son.

Skywalker ultimately fell into Krayt's hands when he was captured by Hands Talon and Nihl after infiltrating the Temple of the Sith and attempting to free the Bothan Jedi Hosk Trey'lis. At a meeting of the Moff Council the following day, Darth Maladi informed the Moffs that the search for Skywalker had been called off, but she refused to divulge any information despite Moff Calixte's assumption that Skywalker had been captured. As the discussions continued after Maladi cut her transmission, Yage, speaking to the Chiss Moff Fehlaaur, accused the Chiss Ascendancy of harboring the deposed Emperor Fel and his forces. Fehlaaur and Yage bickered over the reported sighting of the Mynock in the Coruscant Undercity until Moff Geist of the Imperial Army intervened, announcing that Skywalker's whereabouts were no longer relevant now that the search for the former Jedi had ended. Geist realized that the Council commanded less power than they had had under Fel, and Yage responded that their current predicament had been the result of Calixte's machinations with the Sith to bring them in on the Empire's side during the Sith-Imperial War. Calixte tried to defend her actions by reporting that the war—which the Council had wanted in the first place—had been going poorly for the Empire. Fehlaaur and Geist offered further opinions on the matter, but Morlish Veed put a halt to the debate and called for unity before revealing his intentions to capture Skywalker for the Council's own purposes against Krayt's Order. When Geist and Fehlaaur departed, Yage left for dinner with his daughter, leaving Veed and Calixte to discuss their own plans.

Yage met his daughter at the Naboo Queen restaurant, formerly the senatorial apartment of one-time Naboo queen and senator Padmé Amidala during the final days of the Old Republic. There, the two discussed the loyalty of Gunn's Skull Squadron before they were interrupted by Moff Calixte, Rulf's one-time wife and Gunn's mother. Calixte had come to question her daughter on Skull Squadron's chase of the Mynock, but the meeting quickly dissolved into arguing and name-calling. Rulf calmly ate his soup as Calixte and Gunn's debate continued, interjecting only when necessary—at one point, he reminded his daughter that Calixte was still a superior officer and deserved some respect. As Calixte departed, she commented on how nice their civil discussions could be; Rulf replied that they were more like civil wars, to the amusement of his daughter.

As Skywalker's imprisonment continued, the former Jedi managed to convince the Sith that he was willing to join them. But eventually, in Darth Krayt's throne room in the Temple of the Sith on Coruscant, he dueled Darth Nihl, the Nagai Sith Lord who had killed his father, and defeated him. Krayt urged Skywalker to kill Nihl, but Skywalker refused and instead attacked Krayt. In the atmosphere around the Temple, the Mynock—crewed by Skywalker's cohorts Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn, the Wookiee Chak, and the Devaronian Kee of the smuggling ship Grinning Liar—engaged Skull Squadron in an attempt to rescue Skywalker from the Temple. As Gunn locked on to the Mynock, Moff Yage was ordered by an Imperial admiral via hologram to call off the squadron, in compliance with a standing order that no Imperial vessels were to violate the Temple's airspace. Yage reluctantly complied, ordering his aide Captain Skolitz to recall the Skulls. Skywalker and his allies ultimately fled Coruscant, on the order of Cade's mother Morrigan Corde—an Imperial Intelligence alias of Moff Calixte.

Some time following Skywalker's escape from Coruscant, newly-appointed Regent Veed received intelligence of a planned meeting between members of the New Jedi Order and representatives of the Empire-in-exile—led by the exiled Emperor Fel himself—on the Outer Rim world of Agamar. Veed revealed this information to his comrades at a meeting of the Moff Council. Determined to break up the rendezvous and end the Imperial civil war, he launched Operation: Thunderstroke, with the primary objective of capturing Fel so that he could stand trial and be subsequently executed. The regent assigned Yage as commander of the Sith-Imperial forces participating in the operation.

With fellow Moff Fehlaaur serving as his lieutenant commander, Yage assumed command of the Star Destroyer War Hammer, using it as the flagship of his First Sith Imperial Strikeforce. While the War Hammer was in deep in hyperspace, en route to its destination, Yage briefed a squad of Sith pilots in preparation for the upcoming assault. Yage informed them that Fel had been located and was to be captured alive. The Moff tasked a number of Sith pilots with flying their Fury-class starfighters into battle as the first wave, leading Predator fighters in crippling all of Fel's ships and trapping the Emperor-in-exile on Agamar. Yage instructed them that, with the exceptions of Fel and his daughter, no one was to be left alive. After telling them that their success was compulsory, he dismissed them. Once they were gone, Yage spoke to Fehlaaur, telling the Chiss that he believed he had gone from serving the Empire to leading monsters.

Yage was later present in the War Hammers hangar speaking to Sith pilot Darth Rauder, who had been placed in command of Skull Squadron for the Agamar campaign. Gunn arrived to speak with her father about Morrigan Corde—whom Gunn had heard on a previous assignment was really her mother, Moff Calixte. When Gunn entered the hangar, she noticed that Skull Squadron's Predator fighters had been replaced by a new design. Moff Yage promptly introduced Rauder and explained that the Predators had been replaced on Rauder's command. Gunn and the Sith engaged in a brief argument over the decision, but Gunn backed down when Rauder threatened to execute anyone who questioned her orders. The Sith departed, leaving Moff Yage to question his daughter as to why she was making his life more difficult. Gunn proceeded to ask for her father's consul on her dilemma, careful to not reveal names or too many details. She told him that while she wanted to act on her uncertain information and damage the person involved, doing so could easily damage others. The Moff correctly deduced that his daughter was referring to Corde and suggested that she use her training as a fighter pilot to aid her in solving the problem. He noted that killing shots were efficient if planned properly, but could never be taken back—something he had learned the hard way on Ossus. Yage quickly changed the subject, announcing that they would be reaching Agamar shortly and that Gunn should familiarize her squad with the controls of their new fighters.

While the delegates representing the Empire-in-exile and the New Jedi Order met on Agamar, the First Sith Imperial Strikeforce emerged from hyperspace into the system and deployed its fighter squadrons. The Fel Imperial Star Destroyer Dauntless, commanded by Admiral Tohri Challon, did likewise, moving into broadside combat with the Sith Imperial destroyers while the squadrons engaged one another. The War Hammer destroyed the Dauntless, but it was unable to stop Fel from escaping to hyperspace in his shuttle. Princess Marasiah Fel, however, was captured by the Sith Imperial forces. Acting on orders from Regent Veed, Moff Yage brought the Princess to Coruscant, arriving at the capital one week after the battle had concluded.

When their shuttle landed, Yage escorted the Princess off the shuttle. She attempted to convince the Moff to release her and even defect, citing his prior service to Emperor Fel and his dissatisfaction for the Sith and their actions. Yage refused, knowing that his defection would only bring hardships down on his daughter. The Princess answered that she had misjudged him, saying that Yage lacked both courage and honor. The two were approached by the Inquisitor Darth Havok, who demanded that the Moff hand Fel over to him for transport to Korriban per Darth Wyyrlok's orders. Yage refused, citing the source of his own instructions, but even the arrival of Regent Veed and Moff Calixte did not convince Havok to back down. The Inquisitor escorted the Princess away, leaving the three Moffs to bicker among themselves.

Veed wondered how Yage could have botched the mission, but Yage defended himself, declaring that they had been betrayed and that they had at least succeeded in capturing Princess Fel. Yage vented his dislike for the Sith and their policies, specifically how they manipulated all of the Empire's servants into becoming minions of the Sith. Veed warned him of treason, but Yage quickly shot back, telling the Regent that they would just as quickly dispose of him if they saw the need. Turning to Calixte, Yage said that he would tell Gunn that Calixte had asked after her, noting that Gunn had only ever received such "civil lies" from them. Their conversation over, Yage left to ready the Strikeforce for immediate departure for the Da Soochan moon Napdu. For this mission, however, his superiors would be the Sith Lord Darth Azard and scientist Vul Isen, the being responsible for the destruction of all life on Dac.

A few days later, the War Hammer arrived in the Cyax system, settling into orbit above Napdu. Azard and Isen contacted the Hutt Azzim Anjiliac Atirue, who was believed to be hiding Mon Calamari refugees from Dac. When the Hutt proved uncooperative, Azard had Yage deploy the bomber group Quad Victor to release the toxin responsible for Dac's destruction onto Da Soocha, followed by the orbital bombardment of the moon Napdu and the deployment of fighters to obliterate any craft attempting to flee the Imperial assault. The Moff was stunned by Azard's orders, believing it all to be overkill, but Yage complied nevertheless. When the bombers completed their mission, Yage ordered the War Hammers turbolasers to open fire on the moon while Skull Squadron intercepted and destroyed any and all craft escaping the carnage. When all was complete, Isen had Yage order a recall before congratulating the Moff on his success. The scientist proclaimed Yage as the "Conqueror of Da Soocha" while the Moff reflected on the victory.

In 138 ABY, following Darth Krayt's return to power after his apparent death, Yage and the War Hammer participated in the Sith-Imperial recapture of the planet Borosk. After the battle, Yage was contacted by Grand Moff Veed, who was under the assumption that he had successfully executed Moff Calixte, Fel's spy within the Sith-Imperial ranks. In his transmission, Veed revealed the details of his encounter with Calixte, and the Grand Moff inquired if Yage had been aware of his former wife's true loyalties. Yage merely responded that Veed, having been Calixte's lover, had been unaware of her duplicity as well. Unsatisfied with Yage's response, Veed threatened the Moff with severe consequences if he could prove that Yage had had knowledge of Calixte's activities. When the transmission ended, Yage revealed to his daughter that he was greatly affected by the news, however inaccurate, of his ex-wife's death, despite the lack of feelings they had had for one another following their marriage.

Acting on intelligence gathered from the interrogation of Imperial Knight Antares Draco, the Sith-Imperial forces launched a strike on the Hidden Temple, a secret Jedi refuge located on the planet Taivas. Krayt charged Moff Yage with command of the Imperial fleet, though overall command of the engagement fell to Grand Admiral Veed. In the initial phases of the battle, Yage's forces unleashed an orbital bombardment on Taivas, but magnetic interference from the planet disrupted the Imperials' targeting computers, resulting in casualties from friendly-fire and no damage to the Hidden Temple. Resorting to a ground assault led by Moff Geist, the Sith-Imperials engaged the Jedi defenders of the Hidden Temple. In the midst of the attack, however, the combined fleets of the Galactic Alliance and the Empire-in-exile emerged from hyperspace, trapping the Sith-Imperial fleet between them and the planet.

Krayt had anticipated such a maneuver, and responded with the deployment of his force of Sith troopers. The arriving Sith reinforcements cut through allied and Sith-Imperial forces alike, inflicting severe casualties on both sides of the battle. The troopers' disregard for their own allies prompted both Moff and Captain Yage to reconsider their own allegiances. Gunn took the opportunity to kill Darth Rauder during a dogfight; she announced her decision to defect to Fel's forces to her father aboard the War Hammer. As his Sith overseer ordered the fleet to shoot down the captain, Moff Yage withdrew a blaster pistol and shot the Sith dead.

Spurred by his daughter's decision, Yage sent out a holotransmission to both the Sith-Imperial and allied fleets, declaring that he and the crew of the War Hammer were pledging their loyalty to Fel, the legitimate emperor. He called upon other officers of the Sith Empire to follow suit or risk being destroyed; many ships answered the Moff's summons. Imperial Knight Treis Sinde, having heard Yage's announcement, tasked a subordinate with contacting the Moff to officially welcome him to the Empire-in-exile. However, with the onslaught of the Sith troopers, any hope of defending the Hidden Temple was lost, and the Alliance, Jedi, and Empire-in-exile forces were compelled to flee with their new allies to Bastion.

At Bastion, the factions of Fel's alliance massed for a decisive attack on Coruscant, hoping that such a move would catch Krayt's Empire unaware and turn the tide of the war in the allies' favor. Yage, as admiral, served as one of the fleet commanders in charge of the assault on the capital, though overall command fell upon the senior Jedi. As preparations for the engagement continued, Yage and his daughter were joined by Morrigan Corde. Having abandoned her alter ego of Nyna Calixte, Corde revealed the details of her past to her former husband, including her ties to the Skywalker family, before stating that she was not looking for the Moff's forgiveness. Yage suggested that they discuss the revelation in detail some other time, but he did express his relief at seeing his ex-wife alive after Veed's attempt on her life. Shortly thereafter, Corde and the crew of the Mynock departed for Coruscant, leading a strike team to deactivate the capital's orbital defenses in preparation for the attack.

While the fleet made its final preparations, Admiral Yage stressed coordination against the Sith troopers and their Annihilator starfighters while in conference with Admiral Stazi and Emperor Fel. The commanders agreed with Yage's decision to utilize the allies' combined fighter squadrons against the Annihilators and Coruscant's operational ground defenses. With the battle plan hammered out, the fleet jumped into the Coruscant system just as Corde's strike force succeeded in its objective. Assisted by Jedi-produced battle meditation, the armada engaged the Sith-Imperial fleet, with Yage directing Skull and Rogue Squadrons to take out gun emplacements on the planet's surface. As the orbital battle raged on, Corde sneaked into the Imperial headquarters and killed Veed; Skywalker, meanwhile, set off to assassinate Krayt.

The allied fleet suffered heavy casualties, pushing its commanders to the limit. Yage tried to raise Emperor Fel on the Imperial flagship in the midst of the engagement, but the Emperor made no response, as he was preoccupied with thoughts of deploying the bioweapon Omega Red onto the capital. Fel's obsession with killing Krayt and the Sith drove him to the dark side of the Force; Imperial Knight Antares Draco was forced to intervene, killing the Emperor and saving the lives of the allied forces who would have perished had Fel deployed the bioweapon. Skywalker, meanwhile, killed Krayt once and for all, effectively ending the war as the remaining Sith went into hiding. In the battle's aftermath, a funeral service, which Yage attended, was held for Fel on liberated Coruscant. It was at this funeral that the galaxy was formally reorganized under the authority of the new Galactic Federation Triumvirate.

Moff Yage, a loyal Imperial, came from a notable family. Yage was not as cunning and devious as the other members of the Moff Council, something that his former wife Nyna Calixte would often point out to him. It was because of those traits, she claimed, that Morlish Veed was the High Moff rather than her former husband. Following his separation from Calixte, Yage led a bitter life, and he tried to hide that by throwing himself into his duties in the Navy. He was a skilled starfighter pilot and tactician, as shown by his command of the elite Skull Squadron and his coordination of fighter tactics for the Second Outer Rim Fleet. His skills eventually earned him the rank of Grand Admiral and, after his successful attack on the Jedi Temple on Ossus, a seat on the Council of Moffs. He was known to be one of the hardliner Moffs, objecting to Emperor Fel's decision to have his daughter, Princess Marasiah Fel, succeed him as ruler of the Empire. Additionally, the Moff expected all his directives to be carried out to the letter, and he had no time for excuses when those under his command were unable to follow those orders. In his opinion, only weak beings incapable of following instructions would attempt to justify their failure.

When Gunn Yage and Cade Skywalker were stranded on Tatooine, Gunn made an offhand remark to Skywalker about her father missing a few Jedi on Ossus. Skywalker was shocked to learn that Gunn was the daughter of the "Butcher of Ossus," but Gunn was quick to defend her father's—and the Empire's—actions. She said that the Moff had never even seen himself the "Hero of Ossus;" he had just been following the Sith's orders. According to her, following the conclusion of the massacre and Krayt's takeover of the Imperial government, Rulf was drunk for a week. Gunn noticed that he was never the same as he was before the attack, as he had become more of a recluse. The Moff later told to his daughter that while taking a killing shot was efficient means of dealing with someone, such an action could never be undone—a lesson he had learned on Ossus.

By the time of Operation: Thunderstroke, Yage was becoming disillusioned with the Empire; he found the Sith under his command to be nothing more than monsters, venting his fears of becoming a Sith minion to Moffs Veed and Calixte, the former warning Yage of the treasonous nature of such thoughts. Yage thought of defecting to Fel's Empire-in-exile, but was prevented from doing so because he feared what would happen to his daughter if he did. Fed up with the Sith's lack of honor, Yage and his daughter at last decided to defect during the attack on Taivas, leading multiple disillusioned Sith-Imperials in returning their loyalty to Emperor Fel and later participating in Fel's assault on the Sith-Imperial capital of Coruscant.

In addition to speaking Basic, Yage was fluent in Durese, the language of the Duros.

Moff Rulf Yage was first mentioned in 2006's Star Wars: Legacy (2006) 0, the preview issue of the Star Wars: Legacy series of comics. Yage would go on to appear as a background character in Legacy (2006) 1 and Legacy (2006) 8. He would not be given any dialogue until the Claws of the Dragon story arc; specifically, parts one, two, and six. Additionally, he appeared in Star Wars: Legacy (2006) 0½, an expanded version of Legacy 0. In all his appearances, save Legacy 8: Allies, Yage was illustrated by artist Jan Duursema. In Allies, Adam DeKraker took on the task of drawing Yage and the other Moffs.

In Legacy 19: Claws of the Dragon, Part 6, there are a few panels depicting Yage conversing with a holographic admiral. In the first of these, their text bubbles are switched—as a result, Yage is shown saying the admiral's line, and vice-versa. The error was not repeated in subsequent panels showing the rest of their conversation. This error was later corrected in the Claws of the Dragon trade paperback. In Legacy (2006) 37, Legacy—War 1, Legacy—War 2, and Legacy—War 4, Yage is referred to as "Ranulf." When questioned about the issue, John Ostrander stated that "Ranulf" was a mistake, though "Rulf" could very well be short for "Ranulf."

• Star Wars: Legacy (2006) 0
• "The Art of War" — Star Wars Insider 89
• Star Wars: Legacy (2006) 0½
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Legacy Era Campaign Guide