Pernicar

Pernicar, a male Human, possessed sensitivity to the Force from birth, and was one of four siblings. His father worked as a scribe in a small town, composing letters for those unable to write. As a young boy, Pernicar's greatest desire was to follow in his father's footsteps as a scribe. However, upon discovering Pernicar's aptitude for the Force, his father sent him to the Jedi Order. This decision caused Pernicar pain, leading him to harbor resentment towards both his father for sending him away and himself for his connection to the Force, which he felt made him deserving of his father's disdain. It took many years for Pernicar to understand his father's reasoning for sending him to the Jedi: there would never be enough work as a scribe to support him and his brothers. Tragically, his father died before Pernicar could express his understanding.

Pernicar progressed through the Jedi Order, eventually attaining the rank of Jedi Master. He once successfully persuaded the father of the future Jedi Master Valenthyne Farfalla to align with the Galactic Republic, an act that Farfalla would remember years later. At one point, Pernicar accepted Wud Mortull as his Padawan. Pernicar witnessed Mortull constructing his first lightsaber, a green-bladed weapon to which Mortull expressed a strong connection. However, Mortull disappeared sometime afterward. During his time as a Jedi, Pernicar developed a close friendship with the impetuous Jedi Master Hoth. In 1010 BBY, the former Jedi Master Lord Skere Kaan reformed the Sith into the Brotherhood of Darkness, a formidable army exceeding 20,000 warriors. The Brotherhood of Darkness initiated a renewed campaign against the Republic, achieving numerous victories.

In 1010 BBY, Pernicar participated in a battle against the Sith. During the conflict, Pernicar encountered his former Padawan, Wud Mortull, among the Sith ranks. Mortull, recognizing his former Master, charged towards Pernicar, laughing and smiling as he approached. As Mortull drew closer, he ignited a red-bladed lightsaber, having abandoned his original green one. Mortull attacked Pernicar, but Pernicar managed to defeat him. Briefly disregarding the surrounding chaos, Pernicar examined Mortull's lightsaber, suspecting that it might have influenced his turn to the dark side of the Force, as he struggled to believe that his Padawan would betray him willingly. Following the battle, he presented the weapon to the Jedi armorer, who directed Pernicar to a holobook on lightsaber crystals. Pernicar later authored an essay detailing his experience fighting his former Padawan and his theories on how lightsaber crystals could affect the user's behavior.

For a decade, the New Sith Wars raged, and in 1002 BBY, the conflict reached the strategically important planet of Ruusan. The Sith were victorious in the First Battle of Ruusan and thwarted a Republic effort to reclaim the planet. Following the Republic's failure, Pernicar's friend, Jedi Master Hoth, assembled a large Jedi army known as the Army of Light to combat the Brotherhood. Pernicar served in this army as Hoth's second-in-command. The Army of Light was deployed to Ruusan to confront the Sith, who were rapidly advancing towards the Core Worlds. In response, the Brotherhood dispatched their entire force, including apprentices still undergoing training in Sith academies, to participate in a series of decisive battles. The Army of Light surprised the Sith in the Third Battle of Ruusan and successfully retook the planet.

During the Ruusan campaign, the Army of Light's numbers began to dwindle significantly. Pernicar proposed to Hoth that they recruit Force-sensitive children to fight for them, arguing that if they didn't, the Brotherhood of Darkness would. Hoth initially rejected this idea but eventually conceded, allowing children to join their ranks. After the third battle on Ruusan, Pernicar was tasked with mediating a dispute between Hoth and Valenthyne Farfalla, another high-ranking member of the Army of Light. Hoth expressed his dismay at the lack of available fighters, while Farfalla criticized his lack of diplomacy in recruiting new members. Farfalla offered to leave and recruit one hundred new members for the Army of Light, claiming that Hoth lacked the necessary diplomatic skills. Hoth accepted the offer, and Farfalla departed. Once Farfalla was out of earshot, Pernicar questioned the wisdom of allowing Farfalla to leave, given the Army of Light's already depleted numbers. Hoth proposed a change in strategy: the capable Jedi would employ guerrilla tactics, denying the Sith the opportunity to engage the full Jedi force until Farfalla's reinforcements arrived.

In 1000 BBY, the Fourth Battle of Ruusan took place, resulting in a Jedi victory where Lord Gale and Jedi General Kiel Charny disabled the gun turrets guarding the Sith encampment, at the cost of Gale's life. This set the stage for the fifth battle on the planet the following morning, which led to another Jedi victory. Pernicar remained at Hoth's side at the main Jedi encampment during the battle and did not participate. After the battle concluded, Pernicar and Hoth received a messenger who recounted the details of the confrontation. Hoth was particularly disheartened by the Jedi losses, fearing that defeating the Sith might mean the destruction of the Army of Light. Pernicar attempted to comfort Hoth by reminding him that Valenthyne Farfalla was bringing reinforcements, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Some time later, Pernicar shared the story of his joining the Jedi with Hoth. Hoth responded in kind by sharing his own tale—that he dreamed of being a hero and vanquishing the forces of the dark side. After telling his story, Hoth asked Pernicar if he thought less of him for his dreams. Pernicar said no, telling Hoth that he was the greatest Jedi he had ever met and that they would fight together when the time came.

Pernicar eventually perished in a Sith assault on a supply convoy on Ruusan. Following his death, Valenthyne Farfalla arrived with Jedi reinforcements and assisted the besieged Jedi forces in securing victory in the battle. After the battle, Hoth informed Farfalla of Pernicar's demise. The loss of the Jedi Master deeply affected Farfalla, who delivered a brief eulogy for his fallen comrade, promising to fast in his memory. Hoth and Farfalla engaged in a heated exchange when the former informed the latter of Pernicar's death, with Hoth blaming Farfalla for Pernicar's demise. Later, Pernicar appeared to Hoth in a dream. Hoth confided in Pernicar that he feared he had driven Farfalla away from the Army of Light, but Pernicar revealed that Farfalla's ships were still in orbit around Ruusan. Pernicar then urged his old friend to reconcile with Farfalla.

The Seventh Battle of Ruusan, the concluding battle of the New Sith Wars, occurred soon after. Lord Kaan deployed the devastating thought bomb weapon, which annihilated both the Army of Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness. Pernicar's friend Hoth was killed by the bomb, along with ninety-nine volunteers who chose to accompany him in facing the Sith in the final battle. Farfalla survived, having been ordered to withdraw his forces from the bomb's blast radius. Thanks to his actions, many Jedi survived the thought bomb explosion, while almost all Sith forces were eliminated. Only one Sith member survived: a man named Darth Bane, who would preserve the Sith Order with his apprentice, Darth Zannah.

One of the planets in the Hoth's Brand system—formerly the Ruusan system—was named Pernicar in honor of the deceased Jedi Master. This planet was one of several in the system named after Jedi who had died in combat during the Ruusan campaign. In the year 40 ABY, more than a millennium after Pernicar's death, his essay on lightsaber crystals, written after his duel with Wud Mortull, was included in Jedi Master Tionne Solusar's tome about the Force.

Pernicar consistently maintained a calm and composed demeanor, in contrast to his hot-headed friend, Lord Hoth. Pernicar frequently acted as a mediator in disputes between Hoth and Valenthyne Farfalla, and Hoth often confided in Pernicar. The two shared a strong friendship, and Pernicar held Hoth in high regard, considering him the greatest Jedi he had ever known. Pernicar resented his father for sending him to the Jedi Order when he desired to become a scribe and harbored self-hatred for his Force sensitivity, which he believed made him deserving of being sent away. However, he eventually realized that his father had acted in his best interests by sending him to the Jedi, but by that time, his father was dead. When Pernicar's former Padawan, Wud Mortull, attacked him on the battlefield, the Jedi Master showed no hesitation in cutting him down, but still refused to believe that he had turned to the dark side of his own volition.

Pernicar debuted in the Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith comic series, released in 2001. Pernicar is introduced in the first issue and killed in the fourth issue. He reappeared in Drew Karpyshyn's 2006 novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, which covers the same period as the Jedi vs. Sith comics. One of the essays in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force is attributed to Pernicar, and in 2008, he received an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. Pernicar's death was initially hinted at in the fourth issue and later depicted in Path of Destruction. The novel contradicts the comics on several points, such as the manner of Farfalla's arrival and the conversation between Hoth and Farfalla as they discuss the fallen Pernicar, but Pernicar himself is not involved in any of the contradictory elements.

Pernicar was featured in the artwork by Wayne Lo titled "Unused Jedi Temple mosaic" for the second season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It was included in the production journal of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Complete Season Two. The concept art also depicted Valenthyne Farfalla leading the Army of Light and Lord Hoth.