Dhara Leonis was a human female who possessed Force-sensitivity. She was an Imperial cadet studying at the Academy for Young Imperials located on the planet of Lothal. This occurred around fourteen years after the Galactic Empire's ascension. During her time at the academy, she vanished. The Empire claimed she had deserted, but her brother, Zare Leonis, did not accept their explanation. To uncover the truth behind his sister's disappearance, he enrolled as a cadet at the Imperial Academy.
Dhara's Force-sensitivity was detected, leading to her abduction by the Grand Inquisitor as part of the Project Harvester, a secret Imperial initiative. Later, Zare Leonis was transferred to the officers' academy on Arkanis, the same location where his sister was being held. His efforts nearly ended in failure when he was exposed as a traitor to the Empire and faced execution. However, with the assistance of his friend Beck Ollet, his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf, his parents and Spanjaf's parents, and a brave group of rebels known as "the Spectres," he managed to escape and successfully execute a daring rescue. The entire group then sought refuge in Garel City on the planet Garel.
Born in 22 BBY, Dhara Leonis was the offspring of Leo and Tepha Leonis, both of whom were agricultural scientists employed by the Imperial Ministry of Agriculture. She was one year older than her younger sibling, Zare Leonis, who enjoyed playing grav-ball. Dhara and Zare were primarily raised by the family's nanny droid, affectionately known as Auntie Nags. Due to their parents' profession requiring frequent relocation, Dhara and Zare spent much of their early years traveling across the galaxy. They had previously resided on worlds such as Hosk Station, Moorja, and Viamarr. Dhara shared a close and amicable relationship with her younger brother. According to Zare, she consistently won when they played "hide and seek."
Approximately fourteen years following the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Dhara and her family relocated to Lothal, a previously quiet world in the Outer Rim that was undergoing significant industrialization under Imperial control. At the age of fifteen, Dhara enrolled in Lothal's Academy for Young Imperials, while her family settled into an apartment in Capital City, Lothal's main urban center. As Zare was a year younger, he was required to attend the Junior Academy of Applied Sciences. To commemorate Dhara's acceptance into the Imperial Academy, her family hosted a celebratory dinner at their Capital City apartment, attended by several prominent local Imperial figures, including Assistant Vice Minister Sarkos, Lieutenant Piers Roddance, and Governor Arihnda Pryce.
During the farewell dinner, her father, Leo, delivered a speech praising the Empire's advancements and offering his daughter's service to the Empire. Dhara also introduced one of her new Imperial Academy classmates, Ames Bunkle, to Governor Pryce. Before departing, Dhara had a brief conversation with her brother. She confided that she would miss him. She also promised to communicate with him regularly and provide updates on Academy life after orientation. She also assured Zare that he would succeed at his new school and urged him to excel in his studies. Following Governor Pryce's speech, Dhara departed for the Imperial Academy.
One month later, Zare and her parents visited her during the Academy's Visiting Day. After the singing of the Imperial anthem and a speech by Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko, Dhara joined her family at a table in a large amphitheater. Following an exchange of jokes with Zare, she informed her family that she had been chosen for the Imperial officers' training program. While her father, Leo, expressed pride in his daughter's opportunity to lead stormtroopers into battle, her mother, Tepha, worried about her daughter being sent to the battlefield.
During their meeting, Dhara and her family discussed Zare's "unhappy adventure" at Beck Ollet's former orchard in the Westhills. Tepha mentioned that one of her colleagues in the Ag Ministry had mistakenly filed the land for mineral extraction. Leo defended the land reclassification, arguing that Lothal was too distant from trade routes to support a viable jogan fruit trade and that Ollet's former orchard would be more profitable as a mine. This conversation highlighted the growing tension between her pro-Imperial father and her more liberal mother and brother. When Dhara inquired about the family's nanny droid, Auntie Nags, Zare chuckled that she disapproved of his involvement in grav-ball, which the droid considered a dangerous and dirty sport.
During the winter break that year, Dhara returned home to visit her family for the holidays. By this time, Zare was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Empire's policies on Lothal. Her brother was unhappy that the Empire was converting good farmland and orchards into mineral mines. Zare was also in conflict with his athletic director, Janus Fhurek, a bigoted Imperial loyalist who disliked aliens. While her mother, Tepha, was becoming concerned about the Empire's heavy-handed policies, her father, Leo, continued to defend the Empire's policies as a necessary step towards progress.
Dhara arrived home in time to celebrate Zare's fifteenth birthday. Having turned fifteen, Zare was now eligible to enroll in the Academy for Young Imperials and was preparing his enrollment application. After their parents reviewed Zare's application, Dhara vouched for her brother's good moral character. She joked about Zare's history of stealing cookies and annoying their nanny droid but affirmed that Zare had no history of insurrection, rebellion, or aiding the Empire's enemies. Consequently, Zare was able to submit his enrollment application to the Imperial Academy.
Later, Dhara and Zare had a private conversation in her bedroom. Zare observed that her bed was impeccably made, a trait Dhara attributed to her highly regimented academy training. At Dhara's prompting, Zare shared his grievances with the Empire, specifically the destruction of his friend Ollet's orchards and his issues with Fhurek. Sensing her younger brother's despondency and disillusionment, Dhara attempted to encourage Zare to consider the "bigger picture." She reasoned that Ollet's orchards were a minor loss compared to the potential wealth and development that would result from Imperial mining projects. She also acknowledged that the Empire's civil servants made mistakes but argued that these did not invalidate the Empire. Dhara also advised her brother Zare to avoid antagonizing the Empire and reiterated her familial affection for him.
By the time spring arrived on Lothal, Dhara had made progress in her officer training at the Academy for Young Imperials. With a green status, she applied for an internship program at the Imperial Headquarters in Capital City. Dhara also participated in an Imperial military training exercise in Lothal's Easthills and was out of contact with her family for over a week. After a week had passed, her family received word from Commandant Aresko that she had allegedly deserted during her training exercise. This news shocked her family, who knew that Dhara was a loyal and committed Imperial citizen. The Imperial authorities issued a planet-wide alert for her, but despite their efforts, she was not found.
Her brother Zare suspected that the Empire was not being truthful and devised a plan to infiltrate the Academy for Young Imperials to uncover the truth behind Dhara's disappearance. Zare received tacit support from their mother, Tepha, who promised to keep this plan a secret from their pro-Imperial father, Leo. With the help of his hacker girlfriend, Merei Spanjaf, Zare discovered that his sister had been forcibly recruited by the Grand Inquisitor into a secret Imperial project called Project Harvester, which aimed to identify Force-sensitive individuals for training as Inquisitors, secret agents of the Empire tasked with hunting down Jedi survivors of the Purge. Project Harvester was operated from a clandestine facility on the planet Arkanis connected to the Imperial Academy there.
Zare and Merei shared this information with Tepha but kept it hidden from Leo, who believed that the Empire was doing everything possible to find his daughter. While Zare was determined to rescue his sister, his mother, Tepha, feared losing both her children. Later, Zare was transferred to the Arkanis Academy mid-year, ostensibly as a reward for his loyalty to the Empire. However, this was part of a plan by the Grand Inquisitor to uncover Zare's connection to a local rebel cell.
During her captivity, Dhara was confined to a cell in Area Null, a tower at the Arkanis Academy used by the Empire for various classified operations. She was held in Cell Seventeen and isolated from her family for several months. As a result of her prolonged imprisonment, Dhara became delusional and initially mistook her brother Zare for an illusion created by the Grand Inquisitor. Her brother Zare had infiltrated the Arkanis Academy as a Cadet, hoping to rescue her. However, he was exposed as a traitor and scheduled for execution. With the help of his former classmates Beck Ollet, Merei Spanjaf, and a rebel group known as the Spectres, Zare managed to escape his cell and enter Area Null.
While Dhara initially mistook her brother for an illusion, Zare managed to convince her that he was real. Zare also informed her that the Inquisitor, her former tormentor, was dead and that their parents were waiting to see them. Consequently, Zare gained her trust and led her out of the cell. Upon exiting the cell, Zare's companions, Beck and Merei, reported that several stormtroopers were pursuing them. While fleeing past the control room, Beck sacrificed his life to allow his companions to escape by charging at the Imperials with a thermal detonator. The resulting explosion buried Beck and the stormtroopers under a large pile of stone fragments and jagged metal debris.
Shortly afterward, the doors of an auxiliary elevator opened, and an Imperial military officer named Lieutenant Chiron emerged with four stormtroopers. Chiron attempted to force Zare and his companions to surrender. Zare responded by attempting to reason with his former mentor and revealing that the Empire had kidnapped his sister Dhara. Despite being confronted with evidence of the Empire's wrongdoing, Chiron remained loyal to the Imperial cause but pledged to investigate the matter. Before anyone could react, Dhara used the Force to summon chunks of rock and metal down on Chiron and his stormtroopers, killing them. This exertion weakened her, and Zare had to guide her into the elevator. Upon reaching the roof, they were picked up by the Spectres' modified freighter, the Ghost.
After the Ghost entered hyperspace, Zare and Merei led Dhara to a bunk aboard the ship. She lay down silently and stared at the bunk above her. While alone with Zare, she told him that, in a dream, she had foreseen through the Force that he, Merei, and Beck would come to rescue her. She also recalled seeing Chiron and his stormtroopers but could not remember what had transpired next. Knowing that she had killed Chiron and his men, Zare calmly reassured her that everything was alright and told her to rest. He also promised her that their parents would be waiting for them when she woke up. Upon arriving on Garel, Dhara embraced both her parents and begged them not to let her go.
Dhara Leonis was a bright young woman who excelled in her training at the Lothal Imperial Academy. Her leadership abilities led to her recruitment into the Academy's officer training program. Having grown up under the Empire, Dhara believed that the Empire was a positive force in the galaxy. While she acknowledged that the Empire made mistakes, she still believed that the Empire had the best interests of its people at heart. Despite being more talented than her younger brother Zare, they maintained a strong familial bond and supported each other.
Before her abduction, Dhara was both ambitious and genuine in her desire to serve the Empire and was considered Commandant Aresko's top cadet.
As a Force-sensitive individual, Dhara Leonis possessed the ability to sense the presence of others. She could also read the thoughts of others. While her Force powers gave her an advantage over the other cadets, this attracted the attention of the Academy's authorities, who informed the Grand Inquisitor. Despite having no formal training in the Force, Dhara was still able to summon chunks of rocks and metal on a group of Imperials who had cornered her and her rescuers on Arkanis. While doing so, she shrieked in rage and pain, her eyes appearing "burning like fire," indicating potential use of the dark side of the Force. She could also experience Force visions.
Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire series author Jason Fry described Dhara Leonis's use of the Force in Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy as a "dark-side tantrum," stating that he deliberately excluded the character of Kanan Jarrus from her rescue, as he would have sensed her use of the dark side and started asking questions.