Battle of Iziz

In 4000 BBY, Galia, a Princess from the planet of Onderon, was taken captive by the Beast Riders, a group of outlaws hailing from her planet's wilderness. Under the leadership of Oron Kira, the Beast-Lord, the Beast Riders attacked the Royal Palace located in Iziz, the sole city on Onderon. This event coincided with the arrival of three Jedi Knights: Ulic Qel-Droma, his sibling Cay, and the Twi'lek Tott Doneeta. They had come to mediate a peaceful resolution to the centuries-long civil war raging between Kira's people and the city dwellers. Specialized Beast Warrior Commandos breached the palace's throne room, successfully abducting the princess and swiftly transporting her into Onderon's wilderness. Queen Amanoa, Galia's mother, invoked the authority of the Galactic Republic to demand that the Jedi rescue her daughter. The Jedi trio consented to free Galia and promptly embarked on their search.

After their starship, the Nebulon Ranger, was downed and crash-landed within Onderon's jungles, the Jedi encountered and befriended wild boma-beasts. These creatures guided them to the Beast Rider stronghold where the princess was held. To their astonishment, the Jedi witnessed Galia and Kira participating in a wedding ceremony, attended by nearly 400 Beast Riders. The Jedi disrupted the ceremony, believing Galia was being forced into the union. However, the princess clarified that she was willingly marrying Kira and refused to return to Iziz. Surprised, the Jedi were then invited by Modon, Oron Kira's father, to partake in the ceremony's continuation.

During the reception, the Jedi discovered that Amanoa was secretly practicing Sith magic, drawing power from the spirit of Freedon Nadd, an ancient and deceased Dark Lord of the Sith. Through Amanoa, the citizens of Iziz—the Naddists—revered Nadd's memory. Those who refused to submit to his power were exiled beyond the city walls, left to the mercy of the wild beasts inhabiting the wilderness. These exiles managed to subdue the beasts and form a substantial beast-riding army, intending to eventually challenge Amanoa's forces. After years of exchanging information and collaborating with the city's political underground, Modon believed the time for action had come. Ulic Qel-Droma convinced Galia and Oron to present their union as a truce to Amanoa, hoping she would end the war and reconcile with her adversaries. Modon, however, remained skeptical about the prospects of diplomacy and gathered the other Beast-Lords to prepare for war, anticipating the failure of the Jedi's peace mission. Under his banner, thousands of Beast Riders amassed in the wilderness, united in the largest gathering ever assembled on Onderon, ready for the final confrontation against the citizens of Iziz.

Escorted by Kira and several other Beast Riders mounted on flying beasts, Galia accompanied the Jedi back to the walled city aboard the Nebulon Ranger. Initially attacked by Iziz's defense towers, they were permitted to land in the city after revealing Galia's presence. The royal advisor, Novar, greeted them at the Iziz spaceport and swiftly escorted Galia, Kira, and the three Jedi into Amanoa's throne room. The queen was displeased to learn that her daughter had married into the Beast Rider's fold. Nevertheless, she entertained them, as the Jedi reiterated their offer of a place within the Republic, while Galia urged her mother to embrace the light. The opportunity to sway Amanoa vanished when Kira issued an ultimatum: acknowledge his and Galia's marriage as an end to their war, or face the Beast Riders' uprising in battle.

Amanoa rejected Galia and her companions, then invoked the spirit of Freedon Nadd, literally summoning darkness that swiftly enveloped the throne room and the palace. She further instructed her Royal Protector bodyguards to encircle the group, preventing their escape. The Jedi swiftly dealt with most of the Protectors, while Kira contacted his father and Commander Gobee, advising them to initiate their counterstrike, as peace negotiations had failed. Kira's arm was singed by enemy blaster fire at that moment, a painful realization that the final battle for Iziz had officially begun.

Outside Iziz's walls, both Gobee and Modon Kira received Oron's orders to commence the counterstrike. As Kira attempted to leave the palace, Gobee led his wings of Beast Riders in an aerial assault on Iziz's north and eastern walls, while Modon's forces advanced in boma-mounted ground formation. Their attack was met with turbolaser and ion cannon resistance, but Iziz's wall defenses were soon overwhelmed by the Beast Riders' superior numbers.

During the battle, Gobee landed his beast and continued leading the siege from the ground, successfully overtaking the ramparts of the northern wall. In a coordinated attack, Gobee and his ground troops scaled the defense towers as his flying squads rained heavy blaster fire from above. The commander and his troops captured the towers and eliminated the Naddist Wave gunners manning them. With the northern wall secured, the Beast Riders entered the city and overran the soldiers in Iziz's streets. However, the Royal Palace remained impenetrable, and the Beast Riders suffered their heaviest losses at its base. Gobee maintained his position near the citadel, from where Kira's last transmission had originated. When informed of the severe casualties inflicted on the Beast Riders by the palace resistance, Gobee instructed Flight leader Kurt to disengage the enemy in the east and suppress the fire from the palace roof. Gobee was soon joined by Kira, and together they commanded their forces. The Beast Riders eventually subdued the city from all sides and converged on the Royal Palace.

Inside the palace, Amanoa's royal guardsmen had the Jedi cornered. Recognizing the threat posed by her dark side powers, Cay Qel-Droma seized the queen, demanding she cease her spell-casting. He was then attacked from behind by a Royal Protector, causing his lightsaber to strike the leg of another Protector. Before Qel-Droma could retrieve his weapon, a third Protector attacked, severing his left arm. Amanoa used the distraction to retreat into the palace's depths, all the while invoking Freedon Nadd's spirit to strengthen her armies.

Ulic Qel-Droma fought through intense enemy fire to rescue his brother. With Cay in tow, Ulic retreated to Galia's father's abandoned laboratory, where he tended to Cay's wound. Cay found a dilapidated XT-6 service droid whose parts could be adapted for Human use and configured one of the droid's arms as a prosthetic replacement for himself. Ulic informed him that Galia had been taken to the Nebulon Ranger by Tott Doneeta, and that Kira had escaped the palace to join his Beast Riders in battle. They both noted Amanoa's unknown whereabouts.

Amanoa had retreated to the tunnels beneath the palace, drawing power from Freedon Nadd's tomb. Darkness engulfed the planet, and the Jedi felt their ability to use the Force diminish. Victory soon favored Amanoa's forces, as her spell increased their fighting spirit while weakening their enemies. The armies of Iziz retook the northern wall, and their armored companies moved in, their artillery bombardments driving the retreating Beast Riders from Iziz. In a short time, the city was once again under the city-dwellers' control.

Having assumed command in a sensor tower along Iziz's wall, Kira was surprised when Gobee arrived with Novar, a prisoner-of-war. However, the royal advisor openly mocked the Beast Riders with their impending defeat, reinforcing Amanoa's spell through his own dark side strength, causing Kira and Gobee to suffer from its effects. As Novar prepared to kill them, the unexpected arrival of an off-world starship and its occupant reversed the battle's tide once more.

In the skies above Iziz, Arcanian Jedi Master Arca Jeth began to reaffirm the Beast Riders' resolve from his starship, using an ancient Jedi Force technique known as battle meditation. Amanoa's darkness receded from Onderon's atmosphere as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by Jeth's light-side assault. The Beast Riders' courage was instantly restored, and they fought with renewed zeal to defeat the Freedon Nadd worshipers, who suffered from the demoralizing effects of Jeth's meditation. The battle was won. In the sensor tower above the city streets, Kira overpowered Novar.

Upon landing, Jeth was greeted by his three apprentices, sensing their Master's disdain. Jeth had sent them to Onderon only three days prior but felt his intervention was necessary as they had lost control. After the battle, Jeth focused on locating Amanoa and the source of her dark side power. Accompanied by Galia, Tott Doneeta, Ulic, and Cay Qel-Droma, Jeth descended into the lower levels beneath the palace, intending to confront the queen sorceress.

Guided by the Force, Jeth and his companions followed a path leading to a tomb beneath the palace, where they found Amanoa kneeling at Freedon Nadd's sarcophagus, chanting his name in reverence. Jeth's strength drove Nadd's influence from the catacombs, and Amanoa died, her supporting power gone. Jeth then telekinetically pushed back the massive lid of Nadd's coffin, revealing the skeletal remains of the deceased Sith Master, still brimming with potent dark side energies. Removing Nadd's ancient lightsaber from the tomb, Jeth declared the Dark Lord's power broken and Galia finally free of its influence.

With the centuries-long war between Onderon's peoples finally concluded, the marriage of Kira and Galia, the new king and queen, was officially recognized under Republic law, initiating an era of peace through their union. To ensure the complete eradication of Nadd's influence, Arca Jeth ordered the construction of a new tomb on Onderon's closest moon, Dxun, made of lightsaber-resistant Mandalorian iron. Nadd's remains, as well as Amanoa's, were to be housed there, under the protection of the moon's natural fauna. Following their formal union, the new king and queen oversaw the funeral procession of Amanoa and Nadd, attended by their Jedi allies, whose assistance in the battle of Iziz helped unify Onderon's warring factions under a single banner.

The battle at Iziz was created by Tom Veitch for the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi comic series, specifically the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi – Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon storyarc, released in 1993. The battle also featured in the audio version of the comic. Veitch established a significant foundation for Freedon Nadd's backstory in the audio drama, which he later expanded upon in the Freedon Nadd Uprising and Dark Lords of the Sith storyarcs. Veitch also used this battle as the means to eliminate the character of Amanoa.

There are conflicting accounts regarding the loss of Cay Qel-Droma's arm. In the comic, a Royal Protector severed Qel-Droma's arm with a bladed weapon. However, in the audio drama, Novar blasts off his arm and laughs.