Erling Tredway

Around 24 BBY, Erling Tredway was born on his family's property on 24 Tredway, an asteroid located in the Sil'Lume asteroid belt. He was the son of Axton Tredway and a businesswoman from the asteroid belt. His father, Axton, was a Jedi Knight who was friends with Anakin Skywalker, a fellow Jedi. Axton held Skywalker in high regard and introduced him to his family. As a young boy, Erling and his sister, Dena, became acquainted with Skywalker. However, Skywalker and Erling's father were eventually summoned to fight in the Clone Wars. Axton returned to 24 Tredway after the war, deeply affected and depressed by the fighting. Erling, being young, couldn't understand the change in his father's behavior. Shortly after, the Galactic Empire attacked 24 Tredway while hunting for Axton. To protect his family, Erling's father left their asteroid home, but the Imperials continued to harass the Tredways. As the Empire relentlessly searched for Axton, Erling began to resent his father for not protecting them and driving the Imperials away.

When Axton briefly returned to 24 Tredway, Erling confronted him, expressing his hatred for his father's failure to protect their family. Axton was moved by his son's words and decided to stop running. When the Imperials returned to his asteroid home, Axton fought and defeated them. However, shortly after, Darth Vader, the Empire's greatest warrior, arrived and killed Axton, leaving Erling without a father. Despite his father being a Jedi, Erling lost faith in the power of the Force because it failed to defeat the Imperials and prevent his father's death. Erling had also hoped that Skywalker would rescue them, but when he didn't, his resentment towards the Jedi grew even more. Erling and Dena were raised by their mother after their father's death. The death of her husband caused Erling's mother to withdraw from galactic affairs. Seeing what happened to those who opposed the Empire, she aligned the mining business on 24 Tredway with the Empire. Under his mother's guidance, 24 Tredway became the most profitable operation in the Sil'Lume asteroid belt.

Despite his disillusionment with the Force, Erling still harbored hatred for the Galactic Empire and tried to join the Rebel Alliance when he came of age. However, Mon Mothma herself rejected his commission. Erling was disheartened by this, unaware that Mothma had a greater purpose in mind for him. Mothma learned from Dena that the Tredway siblings had inherited Force-sensitivity and the ability of instinctive astrogation from their father. This ability allowed them to discern hyperspace coordinates through the Force, which would help the Alliance find new bases easily. To test her brother's abilities and demonstrate his usefulness to the Alliance, Dena convinced Erling to find worlds outside the Empire's influence under the pretense of expanding their mining business. Around the same time, the Tredways befriended Ire Eleazari, an Ithorian Doctor who was on the run from the Empire after being framed by a fellow Ithorian, Oosea.

Despite agreeing to work with his sister, Erling had other priorities. Determined to prove that he could fight the Empire on his own terms, he started a local rebel movement within the Sil'Lume asteroid belt. Using his charisma and charm, Erling advocated for passive resistance to the Empire. He taught his followers that violence against the Empire was inherently evil and encouraged them to resist without fighting back. While some derided his teachings as cowardly, many people, particularly the pacifist Pada species, were drawn to his message. The rebel movement gained enough popularity to attract the attention of Governor-General Sebastian Parnell. This attention from the Empire led Erling's mother to threaten to disown him if he didn't stop his rebel activities, but Erling refused. Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Erling's rebel movement grew too large to ignore, and Governor-General Parnell decided to take action. To punish the Tredways, Parnell decided to capture Erling and ordered the complete destruction of 24 Tredway as a warning to future rebels.

While Erling was in a cantina, Governor Parnell, accompanied by six stormtroopers, arrived to take him into custody. Erling didn't resist and willingly went with the Imperials, urging his followers to continue peacefully resisting the Empire's evil. Erling was taken to the Imperial prison world of Tol Ado and placed in the Deathblock, a prison and torture center on the planet. There, Erling was forced to listen to the screams of other Imperial prisoners as a warning of what he would soon experience. Before his torture could begin, Luke Skywalker, disguised as an Imperial officer, broke into Erling's cell to rescue him. Skywalker urged Erling to escape Tol Ado with him, but Erling refused, having decided to become a martyr for his cause. Skywalker was furious at Erling for giving up so easily but didn't force him to come. As Skywalker prepared to leave, Erling offered to use his astrogation abilities to help Skywalker locate his ship upon his escape.

When Skywalker mentioned that he had left his ship at Ire Eleazari's asteroid, Erling realized that Skywalker must have contacted his family. When he asked about his family's status, Skywalker reluctantly told him that he had been to 24 Tredway and that the entire facility had been destroyed and all personnel killed, including Tredway's mother. However, Skywalker had rescued Erling's sister, who was badly injured in the attack, and brought her to Eleazari for healing. Upon hearing of his family's death, Erling was filled with a desire for revenge and agreed to escape with Skywalker to get revenge on the Empire. As they escaped the Deathblock, Erling met the other rebels who had come to rescue him: Gideon Smith and Sidney Shortfang, the latter a member of Erling's pacifist rebel group.

Using Skywalker's disguise as an Imperial officer, the group boarded a repulsorcart and slowly left the base. During their departure, Erling noticed Governor Parnell and ten Imperial stormtroopers heading towards his cell. Seeking revenge, Erling fired on the Imperials with a blaster rifle, compromising their escape. As Skywalker took evasive maneuvers, Gideon Smith pushed Erling out of the way of incoming blaster fire. However, Smith was hit and fell from the cart, immediately killed by stormtroopers. Skywalker managed to pilot their craft into a tunnel leading to the sub-facility, an area below the Deathblock, and the group escaped the pursuing Imperials.

After escaping into the sub-facility, Skywalker was furious with Erling for compromising the escape and causing Gideon Smith's death, but Erling was unrepentant, knowing he couldn't bring the man back. Additionally, his follower, Sidney Shortfang, confronted him, distressed by Erling's eager use of violence against the Empire. Shortfang had been forced to use violence against the Imperials when he went to 24 Tredway with Skywalker and was struggling to cope with what he had done. Erling told Shortfang that killing was justifiable in certain situations, but Shortfang rejected his judgment, criticizing his hypocrisy and use of violence when it suited him. The argument was interrupted when a pack of Gorums, who lived in the sub-facility, revealed themselves to the rebel group. Believing that Erling and the others were Imperial spies, they took them to their base for their leader, the Wookiee Warburton, to judge them.

Not entirely convinced that Erling and his group weren't spies, Warburton ordered them to participate in an ambush of Imperial troops planning to invade the sub-facility. Under the command of Warburton's lieutenant, Tormey, the group took up positions at the outer perimeter and waited for the Imperials. As an Imperial scout advanced ahead of the Imperial force, Erling nearly sabotaged the ambush by attacking the scout, but Skywalker stopped him. However, the warning alerted the Imperial scout, who fired on Erling's position. Shortfang pushed Erling out of the way but was hit by blaster fire. Although Shortfang was badly wounded, the ambush succeeded in defeating the Imperial troops. As Shortfang was taken away by a Quarren for treatment, Tormey threatened to execute Erling for almost spoiling the ambush. Skywalker couldn't let Erling be killed, and after giving Tormey information about a spy he had previously discovered in their ranks, the sub-facility rebels allowed them to leave.

As the two Rebels made their way through the corridors of the Imperial installation, Erling tried to make up for the trouble he had caused by using his instinctive directional skills to help them escape, but Skywalker was still angry about the loss of his two companions and refused to listen. As they continued, Skywalker's temper softened, and he followed Erling's lead. The two rebels eventually came upon a room filled with confiscated equipment. Among the blasters and other weapons was a suit of armor resembling Darth Vader's armor. The two bonded over their shared heritage, believing that both their fathers had been killed by Vader. However, when Erling revealed that he had no faith in the Force's existence, Skywalker's resentment increased. When the rebels made their way toward the hangar to escape, Skywalker, determined to show Erling how wrong he was about the Force, tried to use a Jedi mind trick to convince the Imperials there to let them pass. However, still angry at Erling, his concentration was affected, and Skywalker was captured by the Imperials as Erling escaped with Skywalker's droid, R2-D2.

Determined to make up for his failings, Erling backtracked to the confiscated equipment room. After R2-D2 hacked into the Imperial system, he revealed to Erling that Darth Vader was coming to the base to take Skywalker as his personal prisoner. Knowing they had a short window to rescue Skywalker, Erling donned the armor in the room to make himself look like Darth Vader. Disguised as Vader, Erling walked through the Deathblock and convinced the Imperials to turn Skywalker over to him. As they made their way back to the hangar, Skywalker sensed Vader's presence at the Deathblock. The two ducked out of sight to avoid Vader, but when they circled back around to commandeer a ship, they came face to face with Governor-General Parnell. Parnell, sensing a deception, tricked the rebels into choosing a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle that wasn't Vader's craft. Erling's disguise revealed, the rebels were forced into a shootout to reach a shuttle. As they boarded a craft and took off, they watched Parnell being |choked to death by Vader for his failure.

As their shuttle prepared to leave Tol Ado, a squad of thirty TIE fighters appeared to stop their escape. Erling urged Skywalker to trust him to input the hyperspace coordinates and bypass their navigation computer so they could escape, but Skywalker still had trouble trusting Erling after his previous mistakes. However, Skywalker took a leap of faith, and as they absorbed fire from the attacking TIEs, Erling input the coordinates. The shuttle jumped to hyperspace and arrived at Ire Eleazari's asteroid. Skywalker immediately realized that Erling had used the Force to plan their jump and revealed this to Erling. Realizing that the Force was real and that he had the ability to use it, Erling apologized to Skywalker and revealed that he had only denied the Force because of his father's death. Skywalker forgave Erling, and the two reunited with Erling's sister and Ire Eleazari. Dena had been healed by the Ithorian doctor, and she revealed to her brother his importance and the reason Mon Mothma had refused his commission. Skywalker told both siblings that they would have a place in Alliance Intelligence if they wanted it, based on his recommendation.

Erling joined the Rebellion and used his abilities to aid a mission to D'rinba IV. Alongside rebel agents Shira Brie, Corwin Shelvay, and Kyle Katarn, Erling participated in a SpecForce operation to sabotage the superlaser of the second Death Star.

Erling, like his family members, possessed a connection to the Force inherited from his father. He could use it to discern hyperspace coordinates by focusing intently on his destination. Tredway's abilities surpassed those of his family, including his sister Dena. Although he initially believed it was simply an instinctive skill, he accepted that his abilities were due to his Force-sensitivity after meeting Luke Skywalker.

Erling was also naturally charismatic, drawing people to him and his message. He used this ability to build a resistance movement in the Sil'Lume asteroid belt, and his natural command presence was amplified by the Force. He could use this ability to convince the Imperials on Tol Ado that he was truly Darth Vader.

Erling Tredway was a handsome man with striking red-brown eyes. He had prominent features, a strong chin, and carried himself with confidence. His followers knew him for trying to get to know each of them, fostering loyalty among them. However, despite appearances, Erling's connections with his followers were superficial, and he often struggled to remember their names. Some, like Gideon Smith, disparaged Erling's support of passive resistance, considering him a coward, but Luke Skywalker grudgingly respected Erling's bravery and willingness to die for his beliefs. However, the death of his mother and the destruction of his home challenged Erling's convictions. He abandoned his pacifist ways and eagerly attacked the Imperials. During their escape, Erling's use of violence shocked his followers, like Sidney Shortfang, who were surprised by how quickly he abandoned his peaceful beliefs. However, Erling was a poor combatant and was nearly executed by the sub-facility rebels for his poor performance in battle. Erling believed this was the reason his commission into the Rebel Alliance was initially rejected.

As a young man, Erling developed a hatred for the Galactic Empire for harassing and threatening his family. However, his hatred also extended to his father for failing to protect them, and his father's death caused him to lose faith in the Force, despite his ability to access it. This lack of faith brought him into conflict with Luke Skywalker during their escape, but Skywalker's abilities eventually convinced Erling to let go of his hatred for his father and embrace his own Force-sensitivity, which he used to help the Rebellion.

Troy Denning created Erling Tredway, and he appeared in one of the role-playing strands of the 1990 West End Games role-playing supplement Jedi's Honor. He was later mentioned in The Dark Forces Saga article on Wizards.com, the website of the role-playing company Wizards of the Coast. Written by Abel G. Peña and Jason Fry, the article confirmed that Erling joined the Rebel Alliance and participated in a mission to D'rinba IV. This information retconned Erling as a character in Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game, as the board game focused on the mission to D'rinba IV. Erling's survival confirms that Skywalker must have rescued Erling from Tol Ado in Jedi's Honor, as other scenarios result in Erling being tortured and executed by the Empire for treason.

The outcome of the Jedi's Honor adventure depends on the reader's choices. While the scenario always begins with Erling's capture by Imperials and the attack on 24 Tredway, the reader decides how to proceed. Skywalker can attempt to rescue Erling at the beginning, but attacking the Imperials still results in Erling's capture. From there, Skywalker can go directly to Tol Ado to rescue Erling or to Erling's home at 24 Tredway to warn his family. However, if Skywalker goes to Tol Ado before going to 24 Tredway and rescuing Erling's sister, Dena, the storyline will prevent him from rescuing Erling. Upon meeting Erling in the Deathblock, Erling will refuse to go with Skywalker, determined to die as a martyr. If Skywalker has rescued Dena from 24 Tredway, Erling will be motivated by revenge and attempt to escape.

During the escape, Skywalker's choices can lead to Erling's recapture if he doesn't act appropriately. Upon meeting the sub-facility rebels and being assigned to help ambush the Imperials, Skywalker can allow Erling to ruin the attack or prevent him from sabotaging it. If Skywalker allows Erling to ruin the ambush, Sidney Shortfang will sacrifice his life for Erling, and Erling will be brought back to the sub-facility rebels for judgment. Skywalker can then allow the rebels to execute Erling, but this results in a mission failure. After the sub-facility attack and escape from the base, Skywalker can choose to trust Erling to make the blind jump to hyperspace or return to Tol Ado to avoid the attacking TIE fighters. However, if Skywalker doesn't trust Erling, they are shot down, and both are recaptured, but Parnell is still killed by Darth Vader.