Sylvar

Early in her life on the Cathar homeworld, Sylvar was mentored by the Cathar holy man Kharr, who would continue to be a presence much later in her life. As her species mated for life, Sylvar chose Crado to be her companion, and together they traveled to Dantooine to study the ways of the Force. The pair took as their master the Krevaaki Vodo-Siosk Baas, who had previously trained such Jedi as Dace Diath, Qrrrl Toq, and Shoaneb Culu. During the time of their training, Master Vodo had another apprentice, the Human known as Exar Kun. Crado and Sylvar were pitted against Kun regularly in training for lightsaber combat, and found the Human to be a very skilled adversary. But while Crado developed an attitude of deference towards Exar Kun in defeat, Sylvar was less easily subdued.

After one match against Exar Kun in which her mate was defeated, Sylvar was called upon by their master to challenge the Human next. Sylvar was more than willing to accept, and the two rivals faced each other. During their combat, Kun attempted to break Sylvar's will, as he had done with Crado, by goading her and insulting nonhumans. But the effect was contrary to his goals, as the Cathar lashed out, raking his face with her claws. Exar Kun would bear the scar for the rest of his biological life and would not forget the being that inflicted it. Having been caught off-guard by the slash, the Human cast Sylvar to the ground indignantly, then demanded she take up her weapon and fight him as a Jedi. When Sylvar questioned Kun's very motives as a Jedi, the man prepared to attack her, only to have his lightsaber intercepted by Master Vodo's staff. Exar Kun was disarmed.

Crado then tossed his own weapon to the Human, challenging him to prove his assertions concerning nonhumans. In the duel between Sylvar's master and fellow apprentice, the Krevaaki Jedi continued to use only his staff, in an effort to teach Kun a lesson in strengths and weaknesses. But Exar Kun would not allow himself to be beaten, and, calling his own lightsaber back to him using the Force, the Human defeated Master Baas with an aggressive twin-weapon style of fighting. Exar Kun then departed, declaring himself a Jedi Knight and going in search of long-forgotten Sith secrets.

As Exar Kun sought his own Sith knowledge, another dark side cult was on the rise. The Krath were led by members of the Tetan elite who had traveled to Onderon and begun to dabble in the magic of the Sith; the cult and its followers had recently begun to stage attacks on the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. Master Vodo received news of a great meeting of the Jedi Order on the planet Deneba, which would address the growing problem as well as the Order's response to it. En route to Deneba, Sylvar shared moments of closeness with her mate Crado, who asked her to marry him. He expressed his desire to return to Cathar, where the pair could use the Jedi knowledge imparted to them by their master to gain notability. Sylvar evaded the proposal, telling Crado that while she was more than willing to bear his offspring, she would always remain a Jedi. Meanwhile, during the trip to Deneba, Master Vodo received intense Force-visions of Kun falling to the dark side and attempted to shield his former student with the light side. Sylvar, sensing Vodo's exertion in the Force, rushed to her master's aid; Master Vodo advised Sylvar that Exar's fall to the dark side was but the beginning of a storm that would consume the galaxy.

The Jedi on Deneba did not suspect that the Krath were plotting against them even as they gathered to discuss the threat. The Jedi Masters' servant droids had been reprogrammed by the Krath to attack their owners at their true masters' signal, and a ship loaded with war droids was ready to be deployed on the planet. Master Vodo and his remaining apprentices arrived as the attack began. Sylvar quickly joined the action when she spotted a Krath war droid attempting to kidnap Vima, the daughter of Jedi Nomi Sunrider. Before Nomi could respond, Sylvar quickly beheaded the automaton and introduced herself to Nomi, who would become a good friend from this point on. The battle continued, and the Jedi eventually won, although with great loss of life—including the legendary Arkanian Jedi Master, Arca Jeth.

Following the debacle of the Conclave on Deneba, Exar Kun returned to known space from his journeys, and traveled to the planet Ossus, where many of the Jedi had gathered. The Human, having secretly begun to study the knowledge of the Sith, sought more Jedi to join his cause, as well as an ancient Sith holocron in the possession of Master Odan-Urr. After Kun killed Odan-Urr and took possession of the holocron, he lied that the Draethos had declared him a Jedi Master and then died of natural causes. He was joined by a number of young Jedi who believed in his visions of a new Jedi Order. Crado was among those who left with Exar Kun for Yavin 4.

Not long after this, rumors began to arise that the Krath were apparently being led by a Jedi in their assaults on the Republic. Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, determined to convince the Galactic Senate to allow the Jedi to investigate and deal with this threat, gathered a group of Jedi Knights to travel to the galactic capital of Coruscant. Sylvar joined her master's party, which included his former apprentices, the Jedi Shadows Dace Diath, Qrrrl Toq, and Shoaneb Culu, as well as Nomi Sunrider, the Twi'lek Tott Doneeta, and Cay Qel-Droma. Arriving on the ecumenopolis, the Jedi were quickly informed that the rumors were, indeed, true. The Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma, the brother of Cay, had been spotted leading the Krath forces. Ulic had gone to the Krath in order to try and infiltrate and stop the cult's activities from within, but had instead been seduced by the dark side and joined them.

Sure enough, as the Jedi landed on Coruscant and started off for the Senate Hall, the Krath forces, led by Ulic Qel-Droma himself and bolstered by the armies of Mandalore the Indomitable, staged an attack on the capital world itself. The Republic forces, under the command of Netus, put up a strong defense, but found considerable difficulty in dealing with the Mandalorians' Basilisk war mounts. The Jedi were quick and efficient in joining Coruscant's defense. Sylvar, fighting alongside Dace Diath, deflected attacks by the Basilisks, allowing Cay to activate an aerial defense cannon while Nomi Sunrider rushed Master Vodo and the Supreme Chancellor to safety.

The party boarded a landspeeder headed for the Republic military control center, where Master Vodo and the Chancellor could gain control of the defense. However, Ulic Qel-Droma himself was also en route to the war room in order to crush the Coruscanti defense at its source. A group of Mandalorians accosted the Jedi before they could reach the command center, delaying them just long enough for Ulic to arrive. Before Master Vodo and his group reached them, Ulic's lover, the Krath sorceress Aleema Keto, arranged for Qel-Droma to be left behind, betraying him as she and Mandalore retreated with the bulk of their forces. Ulic Qel-Droma, fallen Jedi Knight and betrayer of the Republic and the Jedi Order, faced the Jedi alone once they had fought their way to the war room. Master Baas and the other Jedi present quickly disarmed Ulic, projecting a field in the Force to imprison and subdue him. Once his resistance had ended, the Jedi handed him over to Republic jurisdiction. The Chancellor promised the fallen Knight a trial, as well as a death sentence, for his crimes.

Sylvar was present on Coruscant when the trial began, and was joined by Nomi Sunrider and Cay Qel-Droma, who had rushed to the capital aboard the Nebulon Ranger to speak on behalf of their former friend. Sylvar did not share in their enthusiasm, believing that Ulic had brought his fate upon himself. As the trial proceeded, Ulic held forth in the Senate Hall, speaking out against the leadership of the Republic and prophesying the coming of a Golden Age which they would have no part in—a Golden Age of the Sith. Sylvar was furious, while Cay rushed to aid his brother. At that moment, Sylvar's old rival Exar Kun arrived, with Mandalore at his side, to rescue his new apprentice. It was then confirmed that Qel-Droma was not only a fallen Jedi, but a Dark Lord of the Sith.

As the Senate and the crowd were frozen in their seats, under the Sith spells of Exar Kun, Nomi rushed to beg Ulic to stop, and Sylvar attacked. Killing and maiming several of Kun's Massassi guards with her claws, the Cathar Jedi Knight demanded that Exar tell her what he had done with her mate Crado, who had always idolized the Human. The Sith Master, remembering the scar he still bore from his duel with her, told Sylvar that her mate was learning to become stronger than she was, and was on an errand for him. As Ulic Qel-Droma held the Jedi at bay, Exar Kun took control of the Chancellor, using the leader as a living puppet while he proclaimed the superiority and infallibility of the Sith and their ways. When Ulic told Cay that he'd either have to join him or die, Cay refused to confront his brother—but someone else did not.

At that moment, Master Vodo-Siosk Baas entered the Senate Hall, challenging Qel-Droma and Kun. He came to confront his former apprentice, still trying to instill a lesson in the Human. When Exar Kun asked that Vodo join his cause, the Jedi Master refused, and Kun drew his weapon. Master Vodo fought Kun, using his humble quarter staff as usual, debating with the Sith as they dueled. Yet Kun had a surprise—his lightsaber ignited from the other end, forming a saberstaff nearly unprecedented in the galaxy at the time. Exar Kun struck his older master—and Sylvar's—down, killing him. Sylvar immediately rushed to face the Human, only to be blown back by Kun's amplified new Force powers. As the new Dark Lords of the Sith departed the Hall, a dejected Sylvar was comforted by Nomi and Cay.

Following the debacle at the Senate Hall, Sylvar accompanied Nomi Sunrider and her daughter Vima to the planet Ambria. Nomi's first master, the Tchuukthai known as Thon, resided on the planet. On Ambria, Sylvar and Nomi hoped to find a much-needed respite from the war, as well as some additional training from Thon. However, Exar Kun wanted the Jedi Master dead, as part of his extensive plan to kill the aging Masters of the galaxy in order to make room for his new order. Thon's old student Oss Wilum, now possessed by Sith spirits and obedient to the Dark Lord, was sent to dispatch the Tchuukthai, and was accompanied by none other than Crado.

The pair summoned hssiss, dark side monsters, from Lake Natth, and proceeded to direct the beasts to Thon's house nearby. As they came over the last ridge, Crado saw that the Master was not alone: Nomi and Vima Sunrider were there, along with his former mate, Sylvar. With little hesitation, Crado ordered that all present must die for the Sith cause, betraying the woman he'd loved. As the hssiss set upon the Jedi, Sylvar and Nomi were hard-pressed to defend themselves—and Vima—from the monsters. Master Thon threw himself at the beasts, tearing at them with teeth and claws. Meanwhile, Nomi used her skills at battle meditation to throw the creatures into disarray, so that Thon and Sylvar could finish them off. After the Tchuukthai Master had confronted and disarmed Oss Wilum, Sylvar was approached by Crado, who did not think she would strike him. This was not so; Sylvar viciously slashed the face of her mate, declaring him a traitor and murderer for helping Exar Kun, who had gone on to kill their master. Crado fled Ambria, his treachery revealed.

Exar Kun's next plan was considerably more ambitious: he would lure in Republic and Jedi forces with a false attack on the space station Kemplex Nine, and then implode one of the stars of the nearby Cron Cluster in order to destroy his enemies. Crado, unaware that his mission would effectively be a suicide, joined Aleema Keto in command of the Sith forces attached to the attack. The mission was successful, and the Republic and Jedi pursuing the Sith forces involved were destroyed—along with the Sith ships themselves and their commanders. Crado, along with Aleema, was dead. The star they had manipulated went supernova, sending a massive shock wave through space towards the Jedi library world of Ossus.

Master Thon and the Jedi on Ambria rushed to aid in the evacuation of Ossus, along with most of the Jedi Order. A huge repository of information and artifacts, Ossus began to empty as its doom drew near. However, as the shock wave neared the system, Exar Kun himself arrived with Ulic Qel-Droma, in hopes of plundering the world while the Jedi scrambled from its surface. As Kun raided the archives and treasure rooms of the world—with less success than he had anticipated, due to the efforts of Neti Jedi Master Ood Bnar—he was confronted by an old adversary with new debts to avenge: Sylvar.

The Cathar Jedi condemned Exar Kun for his corruption of Crado and his murder of Vodo-Siosk Baas. After declaring that he would die, and by her very lightsaber, Sylvar pressed her attack. Slaughtering multitudes of the Massassi that followed him, she rushed to face Kun, only to be ultimately stopped by the red-skinned warriors. Critically injured, Sylvar was unable to prevent the Sith Lord from departing. Ulic Qel-Droma, after having realized his error when he killed his own brother Cay, was caught, however. Nomi Sunrider used a newfound ability she had learned to shut the fallen Jedi off from the Force, permanently.

Ulic Qel-Droma found a chance to aid the Jedi by leading their fleet to Yavin 4, where they hoped to confront Exar Kun. However, Kun found a way to escape his pursuers yet again, using the most dangerous forms of Sith alchemy to drain the life-force of nearly the entire Massassi race on the moon and transcending his physical existence. His living body perished along with most of the life on Yavin 4, but his spirit sought escape. Nomi Sunrider, realizing what Exar Kun was planning, used the Force to bind him to the planet, preventing him from going out into the galaxy. The Sith War had ended, its toll on the Republic and the lives of its citizens considerable.

Following the Sith War, Sylvar gained much renown and fame on her homeworld for her exploits as a Jedi. A detailed work of tree art was made for her by the Cathar people, as well as one for Crado. A full decade after the end of the war, the Jedi Order, now under the leadership of Nomi Sunrider, was called to a massive convocation to discuss their future. Sylvar, traveling with an escort of two male Cathar, arrived on Exis Station where the meeting was just beginning. Sylvar had come with a major issue that she wanted to address at the meeting.

Nomi Sunrider held forth before the assembled Jedi, recounting the tales of the Sith War and giving a message of hope and encouragement for the future. However, the meeting was soon interrupted. Vima, bored and displeased with her mother, slipped away, stealing one of the ion mining ships used on the station. But Vima's eagerness exceeded her skill and experience, and so she was soon in danger of being caught in the nearby star's magnetic storms. Sensing the girl's danger, Nomi, Thon, and Sylvar stopped the meeting, afraid for the girl. However, Vima was rescued by a late arrival to the conclave: the Twi'lek Jedi, Tott Doneeta.

Sylvar soon had her chance to speak before the assembly. She condemned Ulic Qel-Droma, last survivor of the Sith that had ravaged the Republic, and called attention to the fact that a man she considered to be a war criminal walked free. Sylvar would not relent from her argument, pointing out that she had been bound to Crado for life when he had been corrupted—and she believed betrayed and killed—by the Sith. After she had spoken, Sylvar was still filled with desire to see vengeance wrought on Qel-Droma. Tott Doneeta sensed the anger welling up inside the Cathar, and asked that she come to his homeworld of Ryloth to help him in his Jedi duties.

Tott's clan of origin, the Doneetas, had recently built a new subterranean city after being driven from their previous home by the rival R'lyek clan. The Doneetas' fortifications, however, were still incomplete, and shortly before the arrival of Sylvar and Tott Doneeta on Ryloth, the R'lyeks had attacked again, slaughtering many of Tott's kinsmen. When the two Jedi landed, they received news of the attack.

Tott Doneeta left to speak with both the Doneeta and R'lyek clan leaders, hoping to end the generations-long feud between the tribes. In the meantime, he sent Sylvar to the fortifications to help his people. Arriving on the construction scene, Sylvar soon found that she had no desire to help with the defenses. The Cathar spoke before the gathered Twi'leks, urging them to take up their tools as weapons. She told them that they should avenge themselves upon the R'lyeks for the years of predation they had suffered, and that they should attack where their enemies were most vulnerable—at their women and children.

As the gathered Doneetas began to agree with Sylvar, Tott returned from his errand, speaking against more bloodshed and announcing that a resolution had been reached between the clan leaders. After telling Sylvar that she was in error, the Twi'lek Jedi explained the peace accord. The two clan leaders had decided to go together into the Bright Lands, according to Rylothean tradition, sacrificing themselves to ensure peace between their peoples. A new head clan would be chosen to lead the two tribes, which would join together. Sylvar was displeased, and asked that Tott take her to her homeworld.

Sylvar received a hero's welcome on Cathar, much to her dismay. After being reunited with her old mentor Kharr, she and Tott took part in a parade attended by crowds of cheering Cathar. But Sylvar had not returned to her homeworld to be acclaimed; she sought peace and solitude. Meeting with Kharr under the stars, the Cathar Jedi came to the conclusion that in order to purge herself of her anger, she must go on a blood hunt. She asked Tott to accompany her on this quest for cleansing.

Traveling into the expansive Veldt grasslands, the two Jedi sought out the nesting grounds of the kiltik, large insects that devastated large portions of the world regularly. The blood hunts undertaken by Cathar warriors served a dual purpose: to cleanse the warrior of their primal urges, and to control the population of the destructive creatures they hunted. Arriving at a kiltik nesting mound, Sylvar and Tott Doneeta entered, igniting their lightsabers as they detected the insects drawing near. Quickly cutting their way through the colony's sentries, the Jedi arrived at the central chamber, and beheld the massive queen as well as her equally massive accompaniment of guardians. Sylvar nearly lost all control, declaring that she would kill all the kiltik present, and then doing so. As she continued to hack away at the dead bodies, Tott called for her to stop. He warned her against the path he believed she was on—the path of anger, the path of the dark side.

Later, hunting alone on the Veldt, Sylvar still found it difficult to vanquish the rage burning within her. Stalking prey could rid her of her instincts, but not her feelings. Soon enough, Sylvar detected someone stalking her. Confronting—and threatening—the interloper, she found that it was a scout bearing a message for her. Vima Sunrider, Nomi's daughter, had gone missing. Sylvar quickly departed Cathar, traveling to Exis Station to aid her longtime friend.

Arriving on Exis Station, Sylvar went to Nomi, who told the Cathar that Vima had gone to train under none other than Ulic Qel-Droma. The former Sith Lord was living in a self-imposed exile on the abandoned, glaciated planet Rhen Var. Sylvar was livid; she was angry with Nomi for having allowed this to happen, and deeply disturbed that the girl had gone to Ulic. The spacer known as Hoggon, who had transported both Ulic and Vima to Rhen Var, approached Sylvar and told her that he knew where to find them. Sylvar agreed to go with him on his vessel to the ice planet.

The pair arrived on Rhen Var just behind Nomi Sunrider, who had come to take Vima back with her. Hoggon wanted to catch Ulic by surprise, so he flew in from a different vector than he had originally taken when visiting the planet previously. The spacer offered to cover Sylvar with his blaster pistol should she need assistance, but she declined. When the Cathar Jedi happened upon Qel-Droma in the citadel, the former Sith Lord was alone. She told him that she had come to bring him to justice, igniting her lightsaber. Ulic drew his own weapon, and the pair fought, Ulic holding his own without being able to draw on the Force to guide his parries.

They argued as they fought: Sylvar demanding that Ulic answer for his crimes, Ulic trying to talk Sylvar out of her indignant rage. The Cathar told the former Jedi that one of them must die, that he must do more than defend himself. Still, he backed away and refused to press an attack, and the two eventually came to a precipice—Ulic was trapped. Qel-Droma refused to fight further, and deactivated his lightsaber. Sylvar swung her blade to strike the man down—and stopped. After all the time she had spent waiting and preparing to kill him, Ulic Qel-Droma had been the one to free Sylvar from her anger.

At that moment, however, the former Jedi and Dark Lord of the Sith was struck in the chest by a blaster bolt. Hoggon, seeking notoriety and fame as the one who killed the infamous war criminal, had shot Ulic Qel-Droma dead on Rhen Var. Nomi Sunrider and Vima rushed to their fallen friend, and Sylvar wheeled on Hoggon. Instead of punishing the spacer for stealing a kill she believed was rightfully hers, Sylvar told him that were it not for Ulic, he would be dead. The man Hoggon had just shot had saved his life, and Sylvar was finally free of her unrest and anger. Ulic faded away, in the manner of a Jedi Master; although he could no longer feel the Force, his connection to it remained strong.

Sylvar had strong doubts concerning Exar Kun from the very start, quite contrary to her mate Crado's admiration of the Human. Her commitment to the Jedi was stronger than Crado's, as well, as she did not wish to end her Jedi training and return to Cathar with her mate.

Sylvar had less pity for Ulic Qel-Droma than her friends Nomi Sunrider and Ulic's brother Cay did when Ulic stood trial in the Senate Hall. When Master Vodo died, Sylvar was overcome with anger and attacked fiercely, only to give in once Exar Kun had cast her aside using his superior Force skills. When she learned that Crado was indeed helping Kun in his plans, the Cathar Jedi did not falter, but lashed out at her very own mate, declaring him a traitor. In confronting Exar Kun once more on Ossus, Sylvar was not as relenting as she had been previously; she fought until Kun's Massassi guards had injured her enough that she could no longer fight.

Ten years after the Great Sith War, Sylvar still held considerable bitterness and anger for the events that had transpired. She had found a new target for her rage: the surviving Sith Lord, Ulic Qel-Droma. She was overcome with a desire to see Ulic brought to justice, and became consumed with anger and rage. Sylvar began skirting closer to the dark side, and started walking a dangerous path. Efforts to distract herself from this drive, including Jedi work with Tott Doneeta on Ryloth and a blood hunt on her home planet of Cathar, were not as effective as she had hoped. Only when she found herself facing an unwilling opponent—Ulic Qel-Droma himself—did Sylvar finally realize the error of her recent ways.

Sylvar was very capable with a lightsaber from a very early stage. During her Jedi training and throughout the Sith War, she wielded a yellow weapon; later, in the events leading up to the death of Ulic Qel-Droma, she changed to a lightsaber with a magenta blade.

Sylvar could more than hold her own against most lesser opponents, including Krath war droids, Exar Kun's Massassi warriors, and the hssiss beasts she fought on Ambria. Although Ulic Qel-Droma could hold Sylvar off during their duel on Rhen Var despite his inability to access the Force, his considerable skill with a lightsaber meant that Sylvar was more than a worthy opponent.

Additionally, Sylvar was skilled in deflection, as she showed when she fought alongside Dace Diath in defending her Master and the Supreme Chancellor from heavily armed Basilisk war droids. Sylvar even used the hilt of her lightsaber as a bludgeon when subduing Oss Wilum on Ambria.

When her lightsaber would not suffice, and sometimes even when it would, Sylvar used her razor-sharp claws to inflict serious damage on her opponents. Slashes against both Exar Kun and Crado left deep scars on their faces that they bore to their graves. Numerous Massassi fell to her swipes, even while she used her lightsaber in the other hand.

As a Cathar huntress, Sylvar possessed considerable talent in the tracking of prey, which she demonstrated on her blood hunt. She also showed particular skill at stealth. When she was approached by the scout bearing the news concerning Vima Sunrider, Sylvar managed to evade and ambush the tracker, whom she considered to be a potential adversary.

The character of Sylvar was created by writer Kevin J. Anderson and first appeared in Tales of the Jedi – Dark Lords of the Sith 1 from the comic book series Tales of the Jedi. Sylvar continued to appear in subsequent issues throughout the entire series. She is briefly mentioned in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, in which the player can find a robe that supposedly belonged to Sylvar.

• "Straight from the Horse's Mouth" — Star Wars Insider 23
• "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: A Guide to the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Universe, Part 1" — Star Wars Insider 26
• "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: A Guide to the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Universe, Part 3" — Star Wars Insider 28
• Tales of the Jedi Companion
• "" — Star Wars Kids (1997) 11
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• "ComicScan: 20 Tales to Tantalize" — Star Wars Galaxy Collector 5
• The Essential Chronology
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
• Power of the Jedi Sourcebook
• Ultimate Alien Anthology
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Prima Official Game Guide
• The New Essential Chronology
• Star Wars: The Comics Companion
• Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia