Eleni Syndulla was a Twi'lek woman hailing from the world of Ryloth. As the spouse of freedom fighter Cham Syndulla, she became the mother of Hera Syndulla. During the [Clone Wars](/article/clone_wars] conflict, Eleni sought refuge with Hera in underground locations to avoid the dangers of the Battle of Ryloth waged between the forces of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Separatist Droid Army; however, she also participated in her husband's resistance and the fighting. Later, she met her demise during Cham's new resistance against the Galactic Empire. This loss deeply affected Cham, fueling his obsession with Ryloth's protection and causing a divide between him and Hera.
In 2 BBY, Grand Admiral Thrawn's forces occupied the Syndulla residence as their headquarters during the Imperial occupation of Tann Province. In response, Hera attempted to retrieve her mother's Kalikori, a treasured Twi'lek family relic, from their home. Despite her failure and Thrawn's acquisition of the Kalikori, Hera realized that her mother's memory lived on through her father and the members of her crew who had become like her own family, making the object less important.
Eleni Syndulla, a female Twi'lek, was born on the planet of Ryloth and later married the freedom fighter Cham Syndulla. Their union resulted in a daughter, Hera, who came into the world via birth in 29 BBY. Their family also knew the loss of a son who died at a young age. During the Battle of Ryloth, Hera, at the age of eight, and her mother sought shelter underground while the Grand Army of the Republic fought against the Separatist Droid Army. Despite her mother's efforts to shield her, young Hera would secretly watch as Republic ships flew overhead to liberate Ryloth. These sights ignited Hera's aspiration to become a pilot. Eleni actively participated in the Twi'lek Resistance, fighting alongside her husband against the Separatists, all to ensure their planet's freedom.
After the conclusion of the Clone Wars, Eleni and Cham initially collaborated with the newly formed Galactic Empire, driven by Cham's weariness of war and his desire to shield his daughter from a similar life. However, Eleni quickly grew wary of the Empire's intentions, realizing that they were gradually seizing control of Ryloth from the Twi'leks and placing it in the hands of their own people. Shortly after the formation of the Empire in 19 BBY, Eleni, Cham, and Senator Orn Free Taa were present in the capital city of Lessu, where a restless crowd awaited the unpopular senator's address. Vice Admiral Rampart remarked that the Empire was concerned by the Twi'leks' unease with the Imperial presence, as their new refinery was intended to provide jobs for the citizens. Taa asserted that the people welcomed the partnership, seeking Eleni's agreement. Eleni responded that she would endorse anything that benefited Ryloth.
The crowd booed Taa's remarks about cooperation with the Empire, demanding to hear from Cham. The General stepped forward to speak, with Eleni and Clone Captain Howzer nearby. Cham expressed his trust in the clone army and urged his people to lay down their weapons to focus on Ryloth's future, eliciting cheers from most of the crowd, much to Senator Taa's dismay. As the crowd began to disperse, Admiral Rampart commented to Eleni that it was a pity her eleven-year-old daughter was not present to witness the event. Unnerved, Eleni stated that Hera had other interests, appearing uncomfortable as the Imperial officer departed.
Later, at the Syndulla residence, Eleni and Gobi Glie observed as Cham oversaw Twi'leks surrendering their weapons. Glie, a long-time lieutenant of Cham's, expressed his concern that Cham was comfortable with clones protecting Ryloth. Eleni countered that her husband understood the people's weariness of fighting and that they could not continue as before. Disagreeing, Glie argued that disarmament had left them vulnerable and that he had already contacted his contact to acquire more weapons. Just then, Howzer arrived with his squad of clones, escorting Hera and her astromech droid Chopper. Howzer informed Cham that the two had been caught trespassing in a restricted area and that he would not report them but that such an incident could not happen again. Glie admitted to Cham that he had sent Hera, and as the two men argued, Eleni escorted Hera and Chopper inside the house. Eleni revealed to her daughter that she knew she had been at the Imperial refinery, surprising the girl by explaining that she had her ways and instructing her to report everything without omission.
Subsequently, Eleni and Cham were given a tour of the refinery by Rampart, who insisted that the doonium mine would only benefit their planet. Noticing the facility's [turbolasers](/article/turbolaser], Eleni pointed out that, contrary to the Empire's claims, it appeared to be a military facility, as there were also soldiers stationed there. Rampart countered that Ryloth had been vulnerable under the Republic, but it would not be under the Empire. After the Admiral excused himself, Eleni argued with Cham about whether they were truly achieving the peace they desired. After she and Cham discovered that Hera, along with Gobi Glie and Serin, had been captured by the Empire, they launched a rescue mission. While they succeeded in freeing the prisoners, Eleni, along with the other rebels except Hera, were captured by the Empire.
Eleni and the other rebels were taken back to Lessu and imprisoned. After Hera escaped the Empire, she began spying on Lessu. She then overheard that the Empire was dispatching an Elite Squad to hunt her down. Realizing this, she contacted Clone Force 99 and requested their assistance. Although hesitant, Omega persuaded them to help. After creating a diversion at the refinery, Hunter and Echo managed to infiltrate the prison and rescue the Syndullas and their supporters, escaping the planet with Howzer's help. Once back on their ship, Eleni offered the Batch credits, but they declined, stating that they would need them to continue their fight against the Empire.
Eleni joined her husband in resisting the Empire's entrenchment on Ryloth after the fall of the Galactic Republic. She was killed by Imperial forces during this resistance movement.
Following Eleni's death, Cham became entirely devoted to his struggle against the Empire, which strained his relationship with Hera. This distance between father and daughter contributed to Hera's departure from Ryloth with Chopper in 12 BBY at the age of seventeen years, eventually leading her to become a key figure in the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire. Hera drew inspiration from her mother's actions against both the Confederacy and the Empire. When Cham reunited with Hera during a mission for the rebellion to steal a Quasar-class cruiser stationed over Ryloth, his bitterness over Eleni's death at the hands of the Empire and his obsession with protecting Ryloth led him to want to destroy the ship instead. Ultimately, Hera and Cham reconciled and completed the original mission.
In 2 BBY, during the Imperial Military's occupation of Ryloth's Tann Province by forces under the command of the Chiss Grand Admiral Thrawn, a portrait of Eleni with her husband and daughter remained on display in Cham Syndulla's office in the family home, along with the Syndulla Kalikori, a priceless family heirloom that once belonged to her. After learning from her father that Thrawn had made the Syndulla home his headquarters and that he had failed to escape with the Kalikori, Hera vowed to retrieve it. She embarked with Ezra Bridger to the Syndulla residence and successfully located the Kalikori. However, they were captured before they could escape. Using his extensive knowledge of art, Thrawn deduced that the captured Twi'lek woman was Hera Syndulla because of her interest in the family heirloom. While she ultimately managed to escape, Thrawn took Eleni's Kalikori, which he kept in his collection of art on Lothal along with two holoimages of the portrait of Eleni herself. Despite the painful loss, Hera accepted that she did not need the Kalikori to keep her mother's memory alive, and as long as she held onto her father, Kanan Jarrus, and the rest of her chosen family, Eleni would live on. The Kalikori was later returned to Hera's possession when she was rescued from the Lothal Imperial Complex by her fellow Spectres.
In 1 BBY, Eleni posthumously became a grandmother with the birth of Hera's son Jacen.
As a Twi'lek woman, Eleni possessed green skin and green eyes. Eleni was a dreamer and shared a similar personality with her daughter. When the Empire arrived on Ryloth, Eleni initially cooperated but quickly grew suspicious of their motives, realizing that they were seizing control of the planet from its residents and that her husband was willfully blind due to his desire for peace. She was generally curious.
Eleni was a selfless parent, fighting to liberate Ryloth during the Clone Wars in the hope that her daughter Hera would benefit from the liberation. During the Imperial Era, she tried to balance keeping Hera safe while also preventing the new regime from taking away what they had fought for.
In a mosaic illustration of her family kept in Cham Syndulla's office in their home on Ryloth, she wore a light green head covering and an auburn colored shirt.
Eleni Syndulla was first mentioned in the 2015 Star Wars Rebels episode "Wings of the Master." She first appeared in the 2016 episode "Hera's Heroes" in an illustration of the family in the Syndulla residence. A StarWars.com blog post recapping the episode initially erroneously identified the character as "Tislera," but this name was later removed. Her actual name was revealed in her first proper appearance in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode "Devil's Deal," where she was voiced by Ferelith Young. According to Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo, they made the Kalikori storyline in "Hera's Heroes" connected to Hera's mother because the show had already emphasized Hera's relationship with her father Cham.
Although other sources established that Eleni was killed by Imperial forces, Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy mistakenly stated that she died during the Separatist invasion of Ryloth.