Tsavong Lah

Tsavong Lah's origins trace back to a prominent Yuuzhan Vong domain, born to the esteemed Czulkang Lah, a warmaster of legendary status. As a warrior hailing from Domain Lah, Tsavong received instruction in warfare and strategy, alongside unwavering indoctrination into the Yuuzhan Vong gods and the tenets of the True Way. Exhibiting sharp intellect, Lah also demonstrated tactical acumen along with remarkable martial skills. During his training, the warrior formed a bond with Harrar, a Yuuzhan Vong priest from the deception sect. The two became devoted friends, maintaining a strong mutual affection into adulthood. Within his domain, the future warmaster had several relatives who also ascended to leadership positions, including Qurang Lah and Maal Lah. He also fathered a son, Khalee Lah, a zealous young warrior who lacked his father's strategic mind but remained fiercely loyal to Tsavong, proving useful as a henchman among the Yuuzhan Vong warriors in later years. However, Tsavong Lah's most significant relationship was with his father, Warmaster Czulkang Lah. Czulkang Lah, a renowned military strategist revered by the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste, served as warmaster during the final stages of the species' millennia-long journey between galaxies, traversing the Intergalactic Void. The promised galaxy that the Yuuzhan Vong fleet had been heading towards for thousands of years was within reach of advance agents and scouts just over half a century before 25 ABY. However, one of the advance fleets operating in the Unknown Regions encountered a living planet, known as Zonama Sekot, and laid siege to the world before ultimately retreating.

Zho Krazhmir, the Supreme Commander who led the expedition, reported the battle to Quoreal, the Supreme Overlord at the time. Quoreal expressed reservations about the planned invasion, citing legends that warned living planets would bring about the species' downfall. Consequently, he decided to bypass the targeted galaxy and seek a new home. Shimrra of Domain Jamaane, a rival to Quoreal, launched a coup against Quoreal with the backing of several powerful factions, including Domain Shai and the Praetorite Vong, overthrowing the Supreme Overlord and killing him. As the new Supreme Overlord, Shimrra Jamaane declared that the promised galaxy was within reach, dismissing reports of Zonama Sekot as false and asserting that the Yuuzhan Vong gods had endorsed the invasion. Tsavong Lah's father spoke out against the Supreme Overlord, questioning Jamaane's claims and expressing doubts about the invasion. Since the Supreme Overlord was believed to be the conduit to the gods, challenging him was considered heresy. Tsavong Lah did not support his father, instead believing Jamaane's claims and trusting in the Yuuzhan Vong gods' judgment. Father and son soon found themselves in opposition. Czulkang Lah was ultimately defeated by his son; Tsavong Lah stripped him of his rank as warmaster and assumed his position, rising to prominence as Shimrra Jamaane's elite protector and the new leader of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Tsavong Lah ensured that Czulkang avoided Quoreal's fate, thanks to his father's legacy as a renowned warmaster and the protection he could provide. Lah's father was relegated to teaching warriors, instructing new generations aboard the worldships that constituted the Yuuzhan Vong fleet; a force that Tsavong Lah now prepared to direct against the New Republic, the ruling government of the galaxy they intended to invade. During his escalation to the rank of warmaster, larval armor scales were implanted into Lah's already scarred and self-mutilated body. These scales attached themselves to his bones and grew over a period of six months, straining his tendons. Eventually, Lah's entire body transformed into an armored behemoth, and the priests declared his transformation to warmaster complete.

As warmaster, Lah's responsibilities included coordinating campaigns and distributing spoils, such as conquered planets and species. Known for his fanaticism, Lah fervently worshipped Yun-Yammka, the Yuuzhan Vong god of war, while holding the bureaucrats of the intendant caste in contempt. By the time the Yuuzhan Vong War was set to commence in 25 ABY, his primary subordinate was Nas Choka, the Supreme Commander who led the fleet aboard its flagship, a Yuuzhan Vong worldship. However, neither Lah nor Choka were tasked with initiating the invasion. This task fell to the Praetorite Vong, led by Prefect Da'Gara and his cohorts, whose forces served as the vanguard of the invasion fleet. Instructed to secure a foothold in the galaxy and begin acquiring resources for the main fleet's arrival, the Praetorite Vong instead acted independently once the invasion began. Da'Gara attempted to command the direction of the invasion by accumulating great power for the Praetorite Vong, securing a yammosk—a Yuuzhan Vong organism capable of war coordination through telepathy—from Nom Anor, a Yuuzhan Vong advance agent. Research conducted by the Yuuzhan Vong advance agents suggested that the New Republic was weak and could be best assaulted via the Outer Rim Territories. The New Jedi Order, led by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, were few in number and were deemed to pose only a minor threat despite their command of the Force. Tsavong Lah's prejudices toward the intendant caste were confirmed when the Praetorite Vong bungled what he assumed was a simple task. Da'Gara's forces revealed their intentions too early and were annihilated by a New Republic task force at the Battle of Helska IV. The destruction of the planet Sernpidal was one of the few benefits of their campaign. A Yuuzhan Vong shipwomb, the equivalent of a shipyard, was constructed in the remains of Sernpidal, allowing for the growth of new worldships to house the next generation of Yuuzhan Vong warriors.

Despite the progress at Sernpidal, the Yuuzhan Vong forces remaining after Da'Gara and his cohorts' defeat at Helska 4 were destroyed. A new warrior was chosen to lead the invasion fleet and prepare for Tsavong Lah's eventual arrival. Shedao Shai, a notable Yuuzhan Vong commander from the powerful Domain Shai, was placed in charge and tasked with retaking the planets lost by the Praetorite Vong. Shai was renowned for his military prowess and his fascination with the Embrace of Pain, a Yuuzhan Vong self-flagellation device. Tsavong Lah saw Commander Shai as a threat to Domain Lah's dominance. Lah did not want to be constrained by his absence from the invasion front to prevent Shai from consolidating power and challenging the warmaster's hegemony, similar to Da'Gara. To remedy the situation and bring about the downfall of the powerful domain, Lah utilized Deign Lian, a warrior he had elevated to prominence as his political patron. Lian was placed under Shai's command as his subordinate, keeping Tsavong Lah informed of Shai's movements and actions. Lah recognized that Deign Lian had his own motives for undermining his commander, but the warmaster remained confident that an opportunity to disgrace Domain Shai and maintain Domain Lah's dominance would soon arise. Over the following weeks, Lah learned of Shedao Shai's fascination with Elegos A'Kla, a Caamasi senator who had approached the Yuuzhan Vong commander with an offer of amnesty.

Shedao Shai's forces reconquered Dubrillion and established their headquarters there. The commander then advanced toward the Core, capturing worlds like Dantooine and Garqi. Following a pitched battle over Garqi, Tsavong Lah was contacted by Lian. The warrior informed him that he and Shai had discovered a potentially fatal obstacle to the Yuuzhan Vong War. On Garqi, warriors had suffocated when their living armor reacted negatively to Bafforr tree pollen. Vast quantities of this pollen were present on the planet Ithor, where the trees were native, waiting for the inhabitants of the galaxy to harvest and use as bioweapons against the Yuuzhan Vong. Recognizing the threat posed by the planet, the warmaster realized he had found a way to disgrace Shedao Shai. He instructed Deign Lian to suggest to Shai that Ithor should be destroyed from afar with a biological agent, hoping the commander would refuse and instead attack the world, leading to his defeat. Lian contacted Lah again shortly after, informing him that he had followed his instructions. As the warmaster expected, Shai had rejected the destruction of Ithor and planned a conventional attack on the world to shatter the morale of the New Republic defenders. Lah scorned this approach and ordered Lian to create a battle plan to assault Ithor with an excessive number of ships, believing this would prompt Shai to reduce Lian's estimates and appear foolish after suffering a defeat. The Battle of Ithor occurred one month after Lah's conversation with his agent. Commander Shai descended to the surface and led a ground assault against the enemy, leaving Lian in command of the fleet as it battled the forces of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant. Lah was aware that Shai had entered a feud with Corran Horn, a Jedi Knight whom the commander believed had disgraced the remains of his ancestor Mongei Shai.

The Yuuzhan Vong commander and his Jedi opponent agreed to end hostilities and instead duel for the fate of Ithor; if Horn won, Shai's forces would retreat. Tsavong Lah deemed Shai's personal feuding and the potential survival of Ithor as a biological laboratory for the New Republic unacceptable. Assuming Shai would fall to Horn's lightsaber, the warmaster instructed Lian to destroy Ithor anyway with a potent toxic agent, eliminating the threat of the Bafforr tree pollen. Several days later, Shai was killed in the duel. Lian contacted the warmaster from orbit aboard the Legacy of Torment, Shai's flagship, informing him of the commander's death and that he had seeded the planet with the bioweapon. Ithor was quickly rendered lifeless. A grateful Lah rewarded Deign Lian with command of the Legacy of Torment and ordered the warrior to return to Dubrillion to receive new orders. However, the transmission was abruptly interrupted on Lian's end. Confused, Lah shouted down the villip at his subordinate, who had already left to investigate. As the warmaster later learned, the Legacy of Torment was destroyed under a concentrated assault, and Lian was killed. Nevertheless, Lah had achieved two of his objectives: the threat of Ithor and Shedao Shai had been neutralized. News of the warmaster's role in Shai's downfall spread among other domains, such as the Carr and Choka, who understood the lesson: challenging Domain Lah and its warmaster was futile. Domain Shai was disgraced, its warriors relegated to tending to the dying worldships of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet.

Despite his success in unseating the Shai, Tsavong Lah remained far from the front lines of the invasion. Fortunately for the warmaster, his direct subordinate, Nas Choka, was able to direct events without succumbing to personal motives. Supreme Commander Choka's subordinates, commanders Tla and Malik Carr, made progress against the New Republic. Commander Tla captured the library world of Obroa-skai and its vast information repositories. A scheme orchestrated by Harrar, Tsavong Lah's childhood friend, to assassinate the Jedi using a fake defector named Elan failed. However, the warmaster learned that a high-ranking figure in the New Republic had attempted to return Elan to the Yuuzhan Vong in good faith, unaware that Elan was not a genuine Yuuzhan Vong dissident. Unfortunately for Tsavong Lah's friend, Harrar was recalled to the Outer Rim territories for his involvement in the failed scheme, though Lah's patronage prevented Harrar from being completely disgraced. As the invasion continued after this setback, Lah sent his greetings and encouragement to the forces operating in the galaxy through Choka. Commander Malik Carr and Executor Nom Anor partnered to prosecute the next phase of the invasion, under Nas Choka's supervision. The Hutts, crimelords who controlled vast territories on the southern edge of the galaxy, were manipulated into agreeing to a truce with the Yuuzhan Vong, exchanging amnesty for Yuuzhan Vong passage through Hutt Space.

Seven months into the invasion, Supreme Commander Choka and his staff contacted Lah. He requested an update on the invasion's progress and learned about the recent conquest of Tynna. Lah, doubting Tynna's strategic value, demanded an explanation. Choka dutifully explained his elaborate scheme to mislead the New Republic into anticipating an attack on either Bothawui or Corellia—both significant systems—while secretly planning a strike on the shipyards at Fondor. This involved using the Hutts to disseminate false intelligence to the New Republic, a plan that Tsavong Lah deemed overly complicated. When informed that a New Republic senator had warned the Yuuzhan Vong that the Corellian system was a trap for Choka's forces and should be avoided, Lah dismissed it as a ruse, skeptical of the senator's genuine disloyalty. Upon confirmation of the senator's treachery, particularly her attempt to return Elan to Yuuzhan Vong custody, Lah's interest piqued, considering its implications for the invasion. He then prohibited further contact with the senator—Viqi Shesh of Kuat—until Yuuzhan Vong fleets approached the Core.

After approving the Fondor assault, Lah was disturbed by news of the battle's outcome. As Choka's fleet attacked the shipyards, a massive energy beam fired through hyperspace decimated the supreme commander's forces. It was discovered that Centerpoint Station, an ancient structure in the Corellian system that Senator Shesh had tried to warn Choka about, possessed such destructive power. Shortly after the Battle of Fondor, prompting Lah to become more involved in the invasion, the warmaster arrived and assumed command. Aboard his flagship, the ancient interdictor cruiser Sunulok, Lah gathered a fleet to create a path from Yuuzhan Vong territory toward the Core Worlds and the galactic capital, Coruscant, his primary objective. Concerned by Centerpoint Station's capabilities, Lah heeded his subordinates' advice to avoid further operations near the Corellian system, suggesting a Coreward staging point far from the ancient weapon. As a first step, Warmaster Lah decided to sever the Corellian Run, a vital hyperspace trade route, advancing along it and capturing the worlds along its path.

Upon assuming command, Lah's devotion to Yun-Yammka led to a heavy emphasis on capturing and sacrificing refugees, hoping for divine blessing on his advance toward the Core. The priestess Vaecta, advising him, ensured that his devotion to the war god didn't overshadow other Yuuzhan Vong deities like Yun-Yuuzhan or Yun-Harla. As Vaecta answered only to Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, Lah had limited power to prevent her interference, leading to a subtle power struggle between the warmaster and his warriors, and the priestess and her followers. Consequently, the warmaster planned to harvest captives from the worlds of the Corellian Run during their conquests. The most valuable prize was Duro, a planet polluted by industrial waste, which would serve as Lah's staging point for the Core. Through Executor Nom Anor, operating undercover on Duro, the warmaster learned that Viqi Shesh, the administrative senator for SELCORE—the Senate Select Committee for Refugees—was relocating thousands of displaced persons to Duro, knowing the warmaster would capture them. Intrigued by the Kuati woman's deception, Lah ordered a villip delivered to her for personal communication.

Nom Anor, under Lah's orders, kept the warmaster informed of the situation on Duro, where refugees were trading safety for labor in restoring the damaged ecosystem. Disgusted by the Duros' floating cities orbiting the polluted planet, Lah intended to completely terraform Duro, eliminating all technology and transforming it into a natural paradise. He had Anor promise CorDuro Shipping and other prominent figures that surrendering Duros and their cities would be spared, intending to create discord among his enemies. Until Duro's conquest, Lah deployed his fleets against the Mid Rim planets along the Corellian Run. At Kalarba, a shipbuilding center, one of the warmaster's fleets engaged a New Republic task force. The local Kalarban defense force and the powerful Pitareeze family also fiercely resisted. Lah's forces employed the Yo'gand's Core tactic, implanting a dovin basal capable of manipulating gravity on Kalarba, pulling its moon, Hosk Station, down upon the planet, destroying both. Only a few thousand of the Kalarba system's five billion inhabitants survived the conquest. The Yuuzhan Vong devastated the star system, rendering it uninhabitable and radioactive for centuries.

Next to fall were Druckenwell, a former major Imperial manufacturing world, and Falleen, home to the reptilian Falleen species. At Druckenwell, the population offered little resistance and was forced into labor for the Yuuzhan Vong, dismantling their cities and producing food for the invaders. Falleen also surrendered, its population relocated to reeducation camps. Sriluur, homeworld of the Weequay race, was easily captured and its people enslaved. In Hutt Space, Lah received updates on Supreme Commander Choka's retaliatory campaign against the Hutts for their betrayal at Fondor. Choka's forces crushed Hutt resistance on Nal Hutta and began terraforming the planet and its moon Nar Shaddaa. Choka sent Lah a constant stream of images of the conquest of Hutt Space, allowing the warmaster to monitor his subordinate's progress. Lah also received updates from Nom Anor on Duro. Shortly after the Battle of Kalarba, the executor informed Tsavong Lah of the increasing number of refugees arriving on Duro. The warrior instructed Anor, seeking to regain favor after his involvement with the Praetorite Vong and the Elan defection, to watch for "worthy" sacrifices, such as Jedi.

Lah's forces then advanced on Kubindi, home to the insectoid Kubaz. To Lah's annoyance, the lieutenant in charge of the attack on Kubindi, Mujmai Iinan, proposed taking the world with half the usual number of yorik-et starfighters. As a result, every spaceworthy ship evacuated the world, leaving only a fraction of the population when it was conquered. Like Druckenwell, Kubindi was terraformed into a food production world. Mujmai Iinan was sacrificed to the gods for his failure. While reviewing Nas Choka's images from the Hutt Space campaign, Lah was contacted by Nom Anor on Duro, disguised as Duros scientist Doctor Dassid Cree'Ar. The executor informed Tsavong Lah that he had located three Jedi on the planet, knowing the warmaster's particular interest in Force-wielding warriors. Despite some priests viewing Jedi as abominations, Lah considered them worthy sacrifices and ordered Anor to facilitate the capture of either Leia Organa Solo or her daughter Jaina Solo. The third Jedi was deemed weak and unworthy of mention by the warmaster due to his pacifistic tendencies, so the warmaster never learned the third Jedi's name.

On Duro, Anor began sabotaging the domed cities housing refugees and infiltrating agents into the planetary shield generators in preparation for Tsavong Lah's arrival. Simultaneously, the warmaster dispatched forces to Rodia, a jungle planet in the Tyrius system. He then contacted Senator Viqi Shesh of Kuat via the villip delivered to her, requesting a report. She informed him that New Republic forces would not oppose the Yuuzhan Vong on Rodia and, after his false assurances that the invasion would stop at Duro and she would be rewarded for her aid, implied she could deliver Jacen Solo to the warmaster. Shesh wasn't the only one offering deals. The Hutt Borga Besadii Diori, who had represented the Hutts during negotiations with Supreme Commander Choka and Commander Malik Carr, contacted the warmaster, attempting to bargain for her race's survival and for her son Randa Besadii Diori, a refugee on Duro. In exchange, her son would capture one of the Jedi on the polluted planet. A villip was delivered to Randa the Hutt on Duro.

The Hutt contacted Lah quickly, promising to deliver Jacen Solo personally in exchange for amnesty. The warmaster was skeptical and demanded the young Jedi's delivery before considering a deal. Shortly after, Tsavong Lah was contacted by Viqi Shesh. Randa the Hutt, unaware of her role as a Yuuzhan Vong spy, had contacted Shesh, informing her of a Yuuzhan Vong agent on Duro who had delivered him a villip, indicating the planet was in danger. Shesh reported the Hutt's duplicity to Tsavong Lah, who scornfully remarked that he had expected as much. The warmaster delegated the capture plans for Jacen Solo to Nom Anor before moving the Sunulok to Rodia, where the conquest of the planet was underway. The Rodians waged a fierce guerrilla war against the Yuuzhan Vong from the jungles after their cities were destroyed, proving to be formidable opponents. Master Shaper Taug Molou was sent to the planet to create the Vagh Rodiek, mindless creatures bred from Rodians and Yuuzhan Vong. As Rodians from across the galaxy rallied to defend their homeworld, it became clear that the world's subjugation would be a long and difficult process.

As the warmaster's fleet prepared to depart Rodia, Anor contacted Lah from Duro. The executor claimed to have eliminated two Jedi—Jaina Solo and her aunt Mara Jade Skywalker—and sabotaged many refugee settlements, forcing their inhabitants to flee. Furthermore, Anor had incited riots and prepared his agents to disable the planetary shields. Annoyed that two Jedi had already been killed, the warmaster moved his fleet to Duro. His priests believed that each Jedi he personally sacrificed increased his chances of success. Upon Tsavong Lah's armada entering the Duro system, Nom Anor's efforts to weaken the world became evident. The planetary shields were down over a large area, allowing Lah's landing forces entry, and the Duro Defense Force, infiltrated and intimidated by Peace Brigade agents, offered only token resistance. Lah launched a flight of yorik-et starfighters against one of the orbital cities, Bburru Station, while broadcasting on New Republic frequencies using an oggzil, a new Yuuzhan Vong technology created specifically for the warmaster.

The warmaster informed the fleeing evacuation ships that they would be spared if they returned to the surface, while his starfighters destroyed Bburru as a display of power. An ychna, a massive bioengineered beast, also attacked the orbital city, easily ramming through Bburru. Soon, evacuation vessels returned to the surface, and the Duro Defense Force stood down. As the warmaster descended to the surface with ten yorik-trema landing craft and their escorts, he broadcast again, demanding the world's surrender, claiming no interest in the orbital cities. He ordered the starfighters to conduct a punitive raid on the ground settlements before landing on Duro. As the warmaster's troops began rounding up refugees for sacrifice, Lah and his entourage, including the priestess Vaecta, went to meet Nom Anor. To the warmaster's satisfaction, the Duros orbital cities remained full of refugees who had believed his promise and stayed on board to surrender. Tu-Scart and Sgauru, two bioengineered beasts created fifty years earlier, were also offloaded to demolish the artificial structures on the surface. Anor's orchestrated chaos in space continued, with the Duro Defense Force standing down to allow the Yuuzhan Vong to take the world, while the executor met Tsavong Lah on the surface. The warmaster followed Anor into Gateway, the main refugee settlement, where the executor had prepared the scientists and researchers he had worked with as Doctor Dassid Cree'Ar for sacrifice.

Impressed by the executor's cunning, Lah ordered Vaecta to begin a sacrificial ceremony as the researchers were brought before him to be strangled with tkun, recently bioengineered Yuuzhan Vong creatures that constricted when provoked. After Lah personally sacrificed all the researchers to the gods, Yuuzhan Vong warriors hauled away the corpses, and the warmaster went to the main administrative offices. Outside, Yuuzhan Vong warriors dug a sacrificial pit for hundreds of surrendered refugees. The Hutt Randa Besadii Diori was also captured and imprisoned, to be prepared as a feast after the conquest. Shortly after, Leia Organa Solo was captured by warriors; once she regained consciousness, Tsavong Lah sent Anor to bring her before him. Vaecta offered Lah a tizowyrm to understand and speak Galactic Basic Standard. As Organa Solo was brought before him, he ignored her protests that his attack on Duro was illegal and explained that he and his forces had come to cleanse the planet and the galaxy of machines and technology, sacrificing its contaminated inhabitants in the process. As the Jedi tried to reason with him, Lah silenced her, branding her a blasphemer for arguing that death was not the ultimate force. Before the Human woman was taken away, the warmaster revealed the fate of Duro, its orbital cities, and its inhabitants. However, while things went smoothly on the surface, Anor's plans unraveled in space. The Duro Defense Force mobilized, realizing the Yuuzhan Vong would spare none of them, and an X-wing starfighter pilot destroyed the ychna with a proton torpedo. Nevertheless, the warmaster ordered Organa Solo and the Hutt brought before him again to witness the sacrifice of the refugees.

Lah ignored Organa Solo's pleas as he forced her to watch refugees being pushed into the pit and incinerated by Fire Breathers on top of piles of captured technology. With an order to Vaecta, Organa Solo was prepared for sacrifice. Tsavong Lah's guards then alerted the warmaster that a Jedi was approaching the building; the warmaster ordered Vaecta to torture Organa Solo to lure the unknown Jedi to him as another sacrifice. At that moment, Randa Besadii Diori's tail struck out, knocking the warmaster against the wall and disarming his guards. A brief struggle ensued as Organa Solo tried to grab her lightsaber from Nom Anor and escape, but Vaecta strangled the raging Hutt with a tkun while the warriors subdued the Jedi. Warmaster Lah ordered his warriors to drag the Hutt's corpse to the kitchen while Vaecta began cutting Organa Solo across the legs to lure the unknown Jedi to the office. Moments later, a young male Jedi burst through the doors with a lightsaber, staring at Organa Solo's bleeding limbs. Disgusted by what he saw as cowardice, Lah took a tkun from Vaecta and prepared to kill Organa Solo to prove that death should be met with courage, not fear. His assessment of the unknown Jedi was wrong, however, when the young man charged at the warmaster and his warriors. The Jedi's lightsaber sliced the warmaster's arm before he could kill Organa Solo, forcing Lah to drop the creature and draw his tsaisi, a modified amphistaff serving as his baton of rank. As he dueled with the young Jedi, Lah criticized him for his cowardice. When his opponent used the Force to levitate objects and create a whirling maelstrom, the warmaster couldn't defend against it. Hit by Organa Solo's large desk, his foot was crushed, and he fell out of the office's high window.

In the office above, the Jedi made their escape. Below, Lah struggled to his knees as three Yuuzhan Vong warriors drew near. One, seeing him in a moment of weakness, offered his own life to the warmaster; Tsavong Lah accepted it with a brutal strike of his tsaisi. After ordering the tunnels under the building flooded, and unleashing Tu-Scart and Sgauru to completely destroy Gateway, the warmaster stormed back to the Sunulok in a fit of rage. Lah issued another demand for surrender, but the Duro Defense Force continued their evacuation, managing to move one floating city, Urrdorf, to a safe location. The rest of the warmaster's armada then materialized from hyperspace to launch a final assault on the orbital cities. The remaining evacuation ships, along with Lah's prized Jedi, fled the system. Among the departing starships was a light freighter identified by his forces as carrying Leia Organa Solo. Returning to the planet's surface, the enraged warmaster prepared to begin his revenge against the Jedi. He instructed Anor to prepare a series of villips, while Senator Shesh suggested setting up a deepspace transceiver to broadcast his upcoming address across the galaxy. In great pain, Tsavong Lah approached the members of CorDuro Shipping who had collaborated with Anor in exchange for amnesty.

For a time, Lah listened to the leader of the protesting Duros, Durgard Brarun, learning the name of the previously unmentionable Jedi who had taken his foot—Jacen Solo. Feeling only contempt for Brarun and his associates, he then had the CorDuro officials consumed by Tu-Scart. Before addressing the New Republic, Lah first announced to his assembled forces that Nom Anor had redeemed himself for his failures with the Praetorite Vong and Elan. However, Lah did not promote the executor, intending to keep him as his personal agent. Taking Leia Organa Solo's captured lightsaber from the bewildered executor, he brandished it and addressed the New Republic. The warmaster declared that the Yuuzhan Vong were in the process of transforming Duro into a natural paradise, emphasizing the destruction inflicted on the planet by industrial machinery. He then stated that the Yuuzhan Vong armada would only halt its invasion at Duro if the galaxy's inhabitants surrendered every Jedi to his forces, regardless of their age or training level. Before ending the transmission in anger, Lah highlighted the importance of his new enemy, Jacen Solo, and promised a special reward to anyone who brought him Solo alive. After the address, Tsavong Lah's face became known throughout the New Republic, and, along with Nom Anor, he became notorious as the embodiment of Yuuzhan Vong aggression.

The fragile truce that followed the warmaster's address at Duro was simply a tactic for the Yuuzhan Vong to recover, replenishing their losses with new ships from the shipwomb at Sernpidal, and for Tsavong Lah to wage war against the Jedi. The warmaster watched as the divisions caused by his ultimatum became apparent. His offer of bounties for captured Jedi inspired thousands to become Jedi hunters. Over the following months, citizens of the New Republic, along with fringe groups and the Peace Brigade, responded to Lah's ultimatum and began handing over Jedi to the Yuuzhan Vong. Devaron and Ando, both threatened by the Yuuzhan Vong, carried out the warmaster's orders. The warmaster held no respect for those who surrendered the Jedi; they were often executed after the transfer. He remained focused on Jacen Solo, eager to repay him for the loss of his leg on Duro. On one occasion, a captured Jedi was brought directly before him. The Twi'lek Swilja Fenn, ambushed on Cujicor and transferred to a Yuuzhan Vong base on a moon by the Peace Brigade, was held until Lah arrived. Yuuzhan Vong warriors held the Twi'lek before him; Lah ignored her spitting and cursing and asked her to help him locate Jacen Solo. As expected, Fenn refused angrily. Promising her torture, Lah walked away, ignoring the Twi'lek's ominous declaration that the Force was stronger than him and that the Jedi would be his downfall. The Peace Brigade operatives who had delivered Fenn were executed, and the Twi'lek died in torture some time later.

As the Jedi purge intensified, Viqi Shesh revealed the location of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 to the Yuuzhan Vong. A large number of Peace Brigade vessels headed to the Yavin system, but the jungle moon was concealed by the Force. A fleet under Commander Tsaak Vootuh went to the Yavin 4 system. Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya of the New Republic was informed that the Yuuzhan Vong were mining on Stroiketcy, an asteroid in the system. Since the Jedi Praxeum was not officially affiliated with the New Republic, it received no protection. Vootuh's forces attacked and destroyed the Jedi Praxeum, but they had arrived too late. Peace Brigade vessels had jumped the gun and attacked early, allowing many Jedi to escape aboard the starships of smuggler Talon Karrde. When Vootuh's forces arrived, they wiped out the Peace Brigade and seized the moon. Several Yuuzhan Vong shapers established operations on the moon, and one, Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad, experimented on a captured Jedi girl to uncover the origins of the Force.

Meanwhile, information obtained from the Peace Brigade operatives before their execution suggested a new way to eliminate the Jedi. Vornskr, creatures native to the conquered planet Myrkr, could detect Force-sensitives. Tsaak Vootuh passed this information to the shaper caste, and Master Shaper Yal Phaath took note. Phaath was put in charge of a new project; through Viqi Shesh's contacts, vornskrs were obtained and experimented on aboard Baanu Rass, an ancient worldship over Myrkr. By crossbreeding the vornskr with the fero xyn, a Yuuzhan Vong organism, the voxyn queen was created, from whose tissue thousands of Jedi-hunting creatures could be cloned and deployed throughout the galaxy. On Yavin 4, however, things did not go as planned. Jacen Solo's younger brother Anakin and a disgraced Yuuzhan Vong warrior, Vua Rapuung, formed an unlikely alliance to rescue Tahiri Veila. In the resulting conflict, Commander Vootuh was killed along with Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad, who was revealed to have been deeply involved in heresy. Veila and Solo escaped due to Rapuung's actions—the Yuuzhan Vong warrior fought his own people to give the young Jedi time to escape. Meanwhile, the Yuuzhan Vong forces were defeated over Yavin 4, and the shaper base was destroyed.

Upon hearing reports from Yal Phaath about Kwaad's heresy, as well as rumors that Jedi were being idolized by the Shamed Ones—the lowest of the Yuuzhan Vong—Tsavong Lah personally went to the jungle moon to investigate. He questioned the Shaper Adept Nen Yim, who had been the apprentice of the late Mezhan Kwaad. Yim revealed the orbital bombardment of the shaper base, the liberation of the slaves, and the mixed success of her master's project to study the Jedi. Reminding the adept that she deserved execution for her failures, Lah allowed her to live for the knowledge she possessed. Yim was then relocated to the worldships, where she worked among the disgraced Domain Shai to save the ailing vessels. Before Yim left, Lah questioned her about the possibility of a heretical cult among the Shamed Ones who worshipped the Jedi. Yim confirmed that she had heard rumors, and Lah had all who espoused the heresy killed. In fact, every Shamed One and worker who had been present on the moon was eliminated. Somehow, however, the rumor persisted. Furthermore, to the warmaster's frustration, Jacen Solo remained elusive despite all attempts to find him.

The truce remained, but Lah did not intend to refrain from hostilities forever. Deciding on a new target, he listened to Nom Anor's advice, who suggested that the strategically located world of Yag'Dhul, at a hyperspace junction, would be perfect for a new conquest. Close to Thyferra, which produced the galaxy's healing agent bacta, and ideal as a staging area for the Core, Lah knew Yag'Dhul's advantages. He ordered his crèche-brother Commander Qurang Lah to appear before him with Nom Anor. Before proceeding with the war, however, the warmaster needed to address the issue of his damaged leg. Recalling the legend of the first warmaster, the vua'sa creature, and that the warrior who defeated it in single combat had taken its place, Tsavong Lah decided to repeat history. He ordered the shaper caste to create a vua'sa, long extinct, from the Yuuzhan Vong memory-banks, and challenged it. A powerful warrior, Lah defeated the creature and had his leg amputated, replacing his lost foot with the creature's own. While testing his new limb aboard the Sunulok, Lah's aide, Selong Lian, informed him that Ngaaluh, a deception sect priestess, had arrived with a message. Ngaaluh was a subordinate of the warmaster's friend Harrar, who was still in the Outer Rim Territories, and Lah granted her an audience. The priestess told Lah that the familiar of the deceased priestess Elan, the daughter of High Priest Jakan who had been the false defector of Harrar's scheme, had returned to the Yuuzhan Vong. The warmaster had assumed that the familiar, a Fosh named Vergere who had lived with the Yuuzhan Vong for years, had died at Bilbringi during the battle that had claimed Elan's life. Ngaaluh explained that Vergere had asked to speak with the warmaster personally, as she knew much about the New Republic and its inhabitants.

Intrigued but suspicious, Lah ordered Ngaaluh to interrogate Vergere and learn her motives before bringing her aboard the Sunulok. He then dismissed the priestess, ushering his crèche-brother Commander Qurang Lah and executor Nom Anor, who had arrived to discuss the strike on Yag'Dhul, into his presence. Tsavong Lah was skeptical of Nom Anor's report of success in weakening Yag'Dhul's defenses, aware of Anor's frequent past failures. Qurang Lah advised against further attacks, citing the overextension of the fleet and the worldship growing in the shipwomb at Sernpidal as reasons to hold back. Anor convinced the warmaster, eager to avenge the events on Yavin 4 and find Jacen Solo, that capturing Yag'Dhul would be simple and an effective way to force the New Republic to surrender the elusive Jedi Order, which had gone underground after losing its academy in the Yavin system. With Yal Phaath's voxyn still weeks away, Lah took Anor's advice and assigned Qurang Lah to the conquest of Yag'Dhul. Meanwhile, Vua'spar interdictors were assigned to patrol the conquered Corellian Run, while the Peace Brigade helped the Yuuzhan Vong run supplies for Lah's forces. However, it soon became clear that the Peace Brigade shipments were being targeted. A mysterious matte-black ship was attacking the convoys, stealing their cargo, and evading Yuuzhan Vong pursuit. Before long, the ship's piracy began to affect shipping efficiency, and several Yuuzhan Vong vessels were destroyed. During her interrogations, some conducted by Lah's friend Harrar, Vergere revealed that she knew about this ship but would only speak of it to Tsavong Lah. Skeptical, Lah waited before ordering Vergere to be brought before him on the Sunulok.

Once the Fosh explained that the ship, known as Princess of Blood, was actually the Millennium Falcon, captained by Han Solo and likely crewed by Jacen Solo, Tsavong Lah believed he would soon capture the young Jedi. The grateful warmaster allowed Vergere to stay by his side as an advisor, ordering Peace Brigade ships to use all means to locate and capture the crew of the Millennium Falcon. An ambush by a Peace Brigade operative, Shalo, failed on Tatooine; Tsavong Lah decided to personally involve his forces in the pursuit. A Peace Brigade convoy was sent to Tatooine as bait, where the Millennium Falcon and ships owned by Talon Karrde prepared to engage and capture the cargo. The Sunulok and a Yuuzhan Vong frigate waited until Solo's ships revealed themselves before emerging in the Tatoo system and engaging the smuggling vessels. The frigate and the Sunulok deployed their yorik-et starfighters, and while the frigate engaged Karrde's ships, the warmaster watched as the Millennium Falcon destroyed starfighter after starfighter in an attempt to escape. Eventually, Lah called off his forces and hailed the Millennium Falcon with a modified villip, demanding Solo's surrender. Solo contacted him and shouted at the warmaster when Lah called him a coward, reminding him that he had tortured his wife. When Lah demanded Jacen Solo's surrender, the Jedi's father sarcastically replied that he would send Jacen over in an escape pod. The warmaster took the Human at his word and waited for the escape pods. The Millennium Falcon fired two pods at the Sunulok, then rammed a cargo pod attached to a Peace Brigade freighter, sending it toward Lah's flagship.

Realizing something was wrong, Lah scrambled his starfighters to attack the Millennium Falcon before capturing it in the gravitic field of one of its dovin basals. The cargo pod, spilling its liquid hydrogen into space, was caught in the gravitic field and drifted toward the dovin basals. When Solo fired two concussion missiles at the Sunulok, the dovin basals drew the missiles into their singularities along with the hydrogen. As the hydrogen was compressed by the black holes generated by the dovin basals, it underwent fusion and turned into plasma, overloading the dovin basals and collapsing the Sunulok's interdiction field. The Millennium Falcon and Karrde's ships escaped to hyperspace. Jacen Solo had eluded him again. It was not the only bad news Warmaster Lah received. Word arrived from the shipwomb at Sernpidal that a New Republic force had emerged from hyperspace and demolished the nearly completed worldship. As the operation had occurred without Senate approval, Viqi Shesh had been unaware of the impending strike. With the shipwomb's usual guard fighting at Yag'Dhul, it was poorly defended and destroyed. During the Battle of Yag'Dhul, Commander Qurang Lah received word that the shipwomb was under attack and retreated his forces to the Julevian system to protect the worldship. By the time Lah's kinsman reached Sernpidal, the enemy had fled. The truce was broken, the Jedi had escaped, the fleet was diminished, and Nom Anor had failed again. Despite these setbacks, the Yuuzhan Vong warmaster was not ready to abandon his vendetta against the Jedi, nor was he willing to postpone the advance upon the Core Worlds.

Even with their academy destroyed, their numbers reduced by anti-Jedi sentiment and a bounty on their heads, Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order still posed a threat to the Yuuzhan Vong. Operating through a hidden network and from a secret base in the Deep Core, the Jedi Order avoided total destruction. The warmaster launched a two-pronged attack on the Order as his fleets prepared for the conquest of Coruscant. First, Master Shaper Yal Phaath's voxyn, finally ready for deployment, were distributed across the galaxy. The second part of Lah's strike against the Jedi focused on the plight of the New Republic's millions of refugees. Planets were constantly being conquered and falling to the Yuuzhan Vong. The occupied world of New Plympto, where a strong resistance movement operated, resisted subjugation and was wiped clean of life by a Yuuzhan Vong bioweapon. The world of Talfaglio was captured; as its population evacuated, the entire refugee convoy was captured and held in place over the world by a Yuuzhan Vong cordon. At the same time, the fleeing population of New Plympto, many of whom escaped aboard the Corellian cruiser Nebula Chaser, were held in an unnamed star system by a Yuuzhan Vong frigate, the Gift of Anguish. Warmaster Lah was ready for his master plan to divide the New Republic government and destroy the Jedi Order. He continued to be advised by Vergere, whose advice soon led to the destruction of several New Republic fleets. The Fosh warned the warmaster that the Jedi, however, would be worthy foes. Lah dispatched Nom Anor to Bilbringi, where New Republic shipyards desperately built new warships to fight the Yuuzhan Vong.

Although Lah believed the executor would be killed upon arrival, Vergere assured him that Leia Organa Solo and her husband, with whom Anor was meeting, would hear the executor's terms. Traveling to Bilbringi with a chilab observation creature hidden in his nose, Anor informed Organa Solo that unless the Jedi surrendered, the Talfaglion refugees would be massacred. To prove his point, as instructed by Lah, Anor showed them the image of the Nebula Chaser being destroyed by the Gift of Anguish. Jedi had been aboard the Corellian cruiser, and Anor made the warmaster's ultimatum clear. Tsavong Lah waited at the Museum of Applied Photonics on Obroa-skai, captured in the first year of the war, for Anor's return. When the executor returned to Tsavong Lah, the warmaster received the images taken by the chilab of Bilbringi's defenses. Anor told him that the meeting with Organa Solo had gone well and that the Jedi had refused to surrender in exchange for the lives of the Talfaglion refugees. This was according to Lah's plan; he believed the New Republic would bargain with the invaders, giving up the Jedi to save Talfaglio's captured populace. As Lah relocated to the Sunulok and prepared to position his fleets at strategic locations around the Core, he was kept informed of the New Republic Defense Force's operations by Senator Viqi Shesh. Shesh had been rotated off SELCORE to a position on the New Republic Military Oversight Committee, a senatorial body that monitored all military movements. The warmaster moved much of his warfleet to the Jumus system, between Corellia and Talfaglio, where it waited in case the New Republic or the Jedi tried to liberate the refugees.

Lah awaited the response to his ultimatum and was soon contacted by Senator Shesh. In his time working with the woman since Duro, Lah had gained no more respect for Shesh, mockingly calling her "Viqi" rather than by her full name, as was customary among Yuuzhan Vong. The senator told Lah that Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya had consulted with Leia Organa Solo and NRMOC about the Talfaglion situation. Shesh claimed she had manipulated events and caused Fey'lya to delay a decision by calling for a Yuuzhan Vong envoy to be sent to the New Republic Senate to discuss terms. Intrigued, Lah summoned Nom Anor to his private chamber while he spoke with Shesh. The executor arrived just as Shesh told Lah that four Jedi had already fallen prey to the voxyn; the warmaster told the senator to recount the events of the NRMOC meeting to Anor before dismissing Shesh with his usual promises of the great rewards she would receive once Coruscant was conquered. Recognizing that by sending Nom Anor to the New Republic as the envoy he could sow further dissent in the senate and undermine Fey'lya's power, as Anor was a known war criminal, Tsavong Lah dispatched the executor to Coruscant. Anor was received with outrage in the New Republic Senate, as planned. Instead of eroding Fey'lya's support, however, the visit had an unwanted effect. The Bothan Chief of State railed at the Yuuzhan Vong executor and refused to negotiate, uniting the fractured New Republic Senate behind him by throwing his support to the Jedi. Lah's scheme had strengthened the New Republic; although Anor returned to the warmaster and claimed success, Lah was soon contacted by Viqi Shesh, who claimed that the only option now was to assassinate Fey'lya.

Intrigued by this idea, Shesh was ordered by Lah to personally execute the assassination. When the shocked senator demurred, the warmaster brought pressure by threatening to expose her identity as a Yuuzhan Vong operative to New Republic Intelligence. The Kuati woman then reminded the warmaster, beating him at his own game, that he would thereby forfeit his NRMOC source. Instead, Lah directed Shesh to await contact from Bjork Umi, a Yuuzhan Vong operative, and to orchestrate the assassination through him. But Fey'lya thwarted the attempt on his life a few days later, thus ending the plot. Lah's focus, in any event, was increasingly centered on Talfaglio and the Jedi issue, as well as the impending assault on the Core. Ignoring Shesh's attempts to curry favor through the assassination of the Solos, Lah prepared a small fleet for a surprise attack on Arkania, a planet in the Colonies region, which would allow for the severing of both the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route. Arkania would serve as another staging area for the warmaster’s forces. However, a Jedi squadron routed the Arkania flotilla, thereby foiling the warmaster's strategy. Soon after, a New Republic force gathered over Arkania to defend it. Lah consulted with Vergere, while Vaecta, Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane's priestess, sacrificed captives to ascertain Yun-Yammka's will on the matter. Vergere suggested that he eliminate the Talfaglion refugees to lure out the Jedi; instead, the warmaster chose to feint at Arkania and conserve his forces for the Coruscant strike. Vaecta expressed displeasure with the feint, asserting that it constituted "teasing" Yun-Yammka. Lah, annoyed by the priestess's persistent interference in his war efforts, promised her the 20,000 captives she requested, even though it would strain his resources.

While the fleet was being prepared for the feint at Arkania, Tsavong Lah received information regarding the Jedi that gave him great satisfaction. Seventeen Jedi, among them Jacen and Jaina Solo, along with their younger brother Anakin, who had caused the chaos on Yavin 4, had been handed over to Yuuzhan Vong commander Duman Yaght, who was in the process of transporting the Force-sensitive captives to the warmaster. Pleased with the outcome of his ultimatum, Lah dispatched Executor Nom Anor back to the New Republic Senate with the demand that an equivalent number of Jedi be delivered every ten standard days. Meanwhile, Yaght began interrogating the Jedi to discover the location of their secret base. When Anor revealed the news in the New Republic Senate, General Garm Bel Iblis, in shock, asked the executor whether it was Anakin Solo or the twins who had been captured. In Yuuzhan Vong society, twins were a rare occurrence and were considered sacred to the Yuuzhan Vong gods. Tsavong Lah discussed the news with Vergere in the Sunulok's Glory Room as his feint at Arkania played out. He instructed Anor to come to the Glory Room as soon as he arrived on the Sunulok, convinced that Bel Iblis' remark about Jacen and Jaina Solo being twins was a ruse to damage the morale of Yuuzhan Vong warriors. If the Solos were twins, it would mean they were sacred to the gods. Disturbed, Lah dismissed the idea of consulting Shesh for confirmation, deeming the senator untrustworthy as either a double agent or a traitor to her people. Kol Yabu, a priest of the Undying Flame sect, which was sacred to the Yuuzhan Vong twin gods, Yun-Txiin and Yun-Q'aah, informed the warmaster that Jacen Solo could not be sacrificed unless his twin sister was captured and sacrificed as well. As Warmaster Lah had only concentrated on capturing Jacen Solo for sacrifice, this disrupted his plans. Accepting Nom Anor's suggestion that both Jacen and Jaina Solo could be captured, broken through torture, and forced to fight each other, Lah incorporated the new plan into his prosecution of the war. Commander Duman Yaght, who frequently reported to a supreme commander who in turn reported to Lah, was ordered to keep the Solo twins alive for the great battle the warmaster planned for them to fight against each other.

In the following days, Lah concluded that the seventeen captured Jedi had not been captured, but were instead executing their own strategy. While aboard the Sunulok, the warmaster played a game of dejarik with Vergere, who had introduced him to the ancient strategy, informing him that Jedi Knights had played it long ago. Lah, pondering, summoned Nom Anor and explained the Jedi plan to the executor. The warmaster was unimpressed when Vergere decisively defeated him at dejarik with the kintan strider death gambit, a move that involved sacrificing a valuable piece to eliminate a greater number of the opponent's pieces. After consulting Vergere, Tsavong Lah determined that the Jedi target was undoubtedly the Baanu Rass, the worldship over Myrkr where Master Shaper Yal Phaath oversaw the voxyn project. He ordered Nom Anor to travel to the Myrkr system aboard the frigate Ksstarr and capture the Solo twins. When Vergere questioned the wisdom of assigning her rival to the task, Lah listened to the executor's counter-argument that the Fosh could not be trusted due to her unknown motives for returning to the Yuuzhan Vong. The warmaster became angry, both at Anor's questioning of his judgment and at the rivalry between the executor and the Fosh. He dispatched Vergere as Nom Anor's advisor to Myrkr and, to his dismay, learned that the Jedi had destroyed several warships and infiltrated the surface of the Baanu Rass. Meanwhile, a Jedi task force struck at Talfaglio—as Tsavong Lah had anticipated. However, the warmaster had not accounted for the presence of two New Republic Star Destroyers, having become certain that the divide between the New Republic military and the Jedi was too great for cooperation.

The Talfaglion refugees were freed, and the Yuuzhan Vong fleet guarding them was routed. Warmaster Lah was in the Sunulok's mess hall, known as the High Chew, when his communications officer, Seef, brought him the news. She also reported that the Lowca, a warship carrying a yammosk, had been seized by the Jedi for study. The warmaster dismissed the defeat, as it had demonstrated that the New Republic would risk everything to save the lives of refugees. In any case, the time had come for the attack on Coruscant. Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane had demanded results, and Lah intended to deliver them. Surprising both his own tacticians and those of the New Republic, he bypassed the Bilbringi Shipyards and called for the gods to be petitioned for support of two attacks: one on Borleias and the other on Reecee, the final two planets to be captured as staging points for Coruscant itself. Battle Plan Coruscant, as Lah named it, involved a two-pronged assault on the planet from Borleias and Reecee. Lah planned, once the attack began, to implant dovin basals on one of Coruscant's four moons and use the creatures' gravitic fields to clear away the capital's extensive orbital defenses, which consisted of minefields and defense platforms. Lah's fleet at Vortex advanced on Reecee, while the warmaster remained with the other half of the armada to take Borleias. In preparation for the attack on Borleias, Lah decided to sacrifice his left hand to Yun-Yammka. He summoned Harrar from the Outer Rim Territories to his side for advice. The assault on Borleias was entrusted to his kinsman, Supreme Commander Maal Lah.

While observing the conquest of the strategically important world from the Sunulok, Lah prepared for the sacrifice of his left hand on a cutting block. In its place, a radank would be grafted, during a ceremony presided over by Vaecta and a master shaper, Ghithra Dal, with Harrar in attendance as the warmaster's friend. As Maal Lah's warships engaged Borleias' formidable orbital defenses, the warmaster was disconcerted to see several Yuuzhan Vong vessels destroyed in their haste. The supreme commander requested to contact Lah, and the warmaster had his kinsman's villip brought before him. A dovin basal had been placed on Borleias' single moon in order to use its gravitic fields to drag down Borleias' orbital mines onto its defense stations, mirroring the tactic the warmaster intended to use at Coruscant. However, Lah was informed by his kinsman that the New Republic was observing the assault on Borleias. The Jade Shadow, a ship affiliated with the Jedi, was secretly monitoring the battle. Halting the ceremony in a near-blasphemous display, the warmaster ordered all his supreme commanders to destroy their yammosks if the beasts were in danger of capture. Lah correctly deduced that the Jedi were attempting to monitor the gravitic frequencies used by the telepathic creatures and interpret their signals. Not wanting to reveal his strategy too early, Lah ordered his kinsman to abandon the use of the moon in clearing Borleias' orbital defenses and proceed with a direct assault. Aware that this would require more sacrifice, Lah offered his entire forearm to Yun-Yammka. The limb was severed and replaced with the radank claw. Borleias fell shortly thereafter and was given to Domain Kraal as their holdings.

The warmaster's second fleet, numbering over a thousand vessels, moved in on Reecee. With the New Republic anticipating a strike on Bilbringi, the Battle of Reecee came as a surprise, and the small fleet defending Lah's second staging point was routed. The Yuuzhan Vong fleet jammed the New Republic communications as they approached, allowing Reecee to fall in silence. Having seized the world, Lah ordered the fleet to rearm and prepare itself in a nearby hyperspace in the Deep Core, where a protostar known as the Black Bantha concealed its presence. Yuuzhan Vong warships from across the galaxy joined the growing armada as it prepared to strike Coruscant in conjunction with the fleet Tsavong Lah commanded. However, the slow process of reprovisioning the fleet was interrupted by a wave of New Republic warships. The unprepared fleet began to engage, but as nine hundred New Republic ships emerged and attacked the Yuuzhan Vong forces, it became clear that a loss was imminent. The warmaster's "right pincer" was routed and destroyed in a total defeat. The Battle of the Black Bantha also resulted in the capture of a live yammosk and the loss of many Yuuzhan Vong supplies. It was not the only bad news Lah received. His new implant was overbonding with the flesh on his arm, causing the area around where it had been attached to rot. Shapers seeded the area with diptera maggots to eat away the dying flesh. The warmaster was well aware that if the infection spread to his chest, he would be stripped of his rank and Shamed. In his piety, the warrior assumed that the infection was the gods' angry response to the loss of Reecee and the failure to secure the Solo twins for sacrifice. Taking a break from warfare to purify his body with steam in his personal cleansing chamber, Lah contacted Anor and demanded a progress report. The executor explained that he was leading a pursuit and that he knew his orders—the Solo twins were not to be harmed. Lah was then interrupted by Seef, bearing the villip of Tsavong Lah's superior, Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane. Custom dictated that Seef's interruption and the fact that she had seen his naked body demanded death. Instead, Lah decided to mate with his communications attendant, sparing her life. He moved into his personal chamber and prepared to consult the villip and his master.

Jamaane, who had already received news of the loss of the Reecee fleet at the Black Bantha, was less interested in the progress of the advance on Coruscant than in what he hoped was the imminent capture of the Solo twins. To the warmaster's surprise, the Supreme Overlord also knew of the rotting implant. Jamaane's assessment was that the implant would continue to rot until the elusive Solo twins could be captured. In a final display of his seeming omniscience, Lah's superior gently chastised him for sparing Seef's life, telling the warmaster to enjoy his use of the communications attendant and that all was forgiven—in victory. Following his discussion with the Supreme Overlord, which uncharacteristically left him trembling with nervousness, Warmaster Lah changed tactics. He moved his forces on Ralltiir and Rhinnal, where vast numbers of refugees were located. The Yuuzhan Vong captured hundreds of vessels and crewed them with warriors, who guarded the refugees aboard in case a struggle broke out. Ordering the remaining half of his armada to prepare for the final assault, Lah arrayed the hundreds of refugee ships, containing around three million beings, in front of his fleet in a protective screen. During his time in the galaxy, the warmaster had witnessed the New Republic's tendency to save innocent lives despite the cost. After the loss of the Reecee fleet, Coruscant's powerful orbital defenses and droves of orbital mines could no longer be swept aside with dovin basals or simply pummeled by warships. Instead, the warmaster decided to have the New Republic do his work for him, in a move that was later taught to warrior recruits as a master strategy. Contacting Viqi Shesh, whose identity as a spy was revealed on the HoloNet when she attacked the Solos' apartment, the warmaster instructed the former senator to prove her worth. Tsavong Lah then moved his armada from Borleias to the outskirts of the Coruscant system. Scout vessels were already observing the capital from the safety of the OboRin Comet Cluster. It was from this region of the Coruscant system that the warmaster's armada descended upon the capital of the New Republic.

Half the New Republic Defense Fleet was positioned over Coruscant to defend the capital against Tsavong Lah's assault. The warmaster's armada maintained a loose formation as it moved insystem. A wing of Jedi starfighters approached the fleet and raced into its center, where the warships bearing yammosks, including the Sunulok, were located. Several warships were lost to the Jedi attack, and the Sunulok itself soon came under fire. Despite its rapid speed and the heavy defense afforded to Lah's flagship by two frigates, the Jedi pursued doggedly in the face of their mounting losses. Eventually, the Jedi wing struck, destroying the Sunulok's stern and crippling the cruiser. It became apparent that the New Republic was better prepared than expected. Springing an ambush, New Republic warships fired volleys of turbolaser strikes against the incoming Yuuzhan Vong. The blasts hit the refugee screen acting as the fleet's defense, and Lah ordered the defenseless vessels to activate their communications systems and beg the New Republic Defense Fleet for mercy. Meanwhile, the Jedi continued their attack on the Sunulok, wiping out its complement of yorik-et starfighters and delivering another volley of proton torpedoes. The yammosk aboard the Sunulok died along with Lah's flagship. The warmaster evacuated to the Kratak to continue the battle, confident that the gods had not wished him to die. His refugee screen tactic was already reaping dividends. The Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey maneuvered his warships away to prevent friendly fire from destroying the refugees. General Garm Bel Iblis continued firing on Lah's fleet despite orders from Admiral Sien Sovv to stand down. Despite the loss of his flagship, Warmaster Lah had succeeded in fracturing the New Republic defense and bore down upon Coruscant to continue the battle. Behind the armada, Fleet Group Three under the command of Wedge Antilles emerged from hyperspace and launched a strike on the rear of Lah's armada. By this time, the fleet had crossed the orbit of Nabatu, the Coruscant system's tenth planet, and was well on its way to the Ulabos ice bands. Elements of Kre'fey's fleet group joined Bel Iblis in his attempt to forestall the Yuuzhan Vong advance, but the warmaster continued to lead his forces to the capital. Other good news reached the warmaster: the yammosk captured by the Jedi at the Battle of Talfaglio successfully broadcast its location from the secret Jedi base, which was assaulted by a Yuuzhan Vong frigate and destroyed.

By the time Tsavong Lah's fleet neared Bel Iblis and his force, the warmaster's forces had been halved in number. The refugee screen still remained intact, however, and kept much of the New Republic Defense Force at bay. Bel Iblis' force clashed with Lah's armada head-on, and damage was dealt heavily on both sides. As the refugee screen neared Coruscant's orbital mine network, the remote mines began eliminating the starships in quick succession. Lah's own warships herded the refugee vessels toward the mines, waiting for the moment at which the New Republic defense crumbled. Sure enough, sections of the minefield began being deactivated as elements of the New Republic refused to eliminate its own citizens on the refugee vessels. Suddenly, all the sectors were deactivated, and the orbital defenses opened up on Lah's fleet. In scores, the refugee ships were driven into Coruscant's planetary shields, where they began to deal tremendous damage to the defenses. Bel Iblis' Fleet Group, left in tatters following Lah's assault, was out of the battle; Antilles and Kre'fey chased the Yuuzhan Vong toward the planet and made progress in eliminating many more of the warmaster's forces, but the bulk of his fleet remained intact. The Jedi continued harrying the armada, destroying three yammosk-bearing warships; Lah was forced to divert extra attention to protecting his final war-coordinator. On Coruscant, the shield finally fell in a wide area, and a dozen Yuuzhan Vong warships followed the surviving refugee ships into the breach before a replacement generator was brought online. The refugee screen tactic had run its course. It had, however, brought Lah's fleet directly over Coruscant. The New Republic counterattacked by suddenly reactivating the mine network, immolating or crippling thousands of Lah's warships. The crippled vessels, under the warmaster's orders, drove themselves into the shields in a fresh attack, while the intact warships traded fire with the orbital defenses and the forces of Antilles and Kre'fey. The shields failed totally under the renewed onslaught, and a new wave of warships attacked the surface. The conquest of the galactic capital was well underway. News from Myrkr came in; the youngest Solo, Anakin, had perished in an attack upon the voxyn cloning center. The survival of the project hinged upon the voxyn queen, who was the target of the still elusive Jacen and Jaina Solo. Lah dispatched Harrar to the Myrkr system with his son, Commander Khalee Lah, as an escort, to correct Anor's mistakes and capture the Solo twins.

As the evacuation began, Coruscant underwent orbital bombardment. Burning spacecraft and wrecked Yuuzhan Vong warships plummeted from the heavens onto the city-covered planet. Yuuzhan Vong operatives on the ground, using ooglith masquers for disguise, infiltrated key administrative and strategic locations across Coruscant. The New Republic government started its retreat, utilizing significant portions of the New Republic Defense Fleet as escorts to ensure their safety. The defense of the capital crumbled. However, the Jedi continued their pursuit of the warmaster's final yammosk, which Tsavong Lah defended with a substantial force of yorik-et starfighters, frigates, and corvettes. Viqi Shesh then contacted him from her ship, the Wicked Pleasure, requesting that he redirect forces to intercept the starferry Byrt, which carried the young son of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, successfully separated from the Solos by Shesh. The warmaster dispatched a frigate to board the Byrt while his assault teams descended towards the beleaguered surface of the galactic capital. The armada's success was solely due to overwhelming numbers; each passing hour made Lah's victory increasingly costly. Orbital Defense Headquarters, which was coordinating the weakening defense of Coruscant, was destroyed and crashed to the surface in flames, along with numerous defense platforms. The warmaster's forces also focused on the communications network, rapidly destroying its satellites. Under the command of Romm Zqar, the initial wave of yorik-trema dropships prepared for their attack run as the Coruscant Planetary Defense Force launched airborne fighters in an attempt to repel them. Despite Lah's defense of the Byrt, the retrieval of Ben Skywalker by New Republic forces, and Yal Phaath's report that the voxyn project had been destroyed by the Jedi strike team, diminished the success of Lah's invasion. Yuuzhan Vong agents captured Viqi Shesh and took her into custody. Conversely, Vergere's successful capture of Jacen Solo pleased the warmaster. The first wave of dropships began their descent over Coruscant, engaging the planet's static defenses. Yorik-et starfighters located and eliminated the ground-based turbolaser batteries, silencing them, but not before they inflicted heavy casualties on the initial wave. In the end, Tsavong Lah's entire first wave was destroyed as it approached Coruscant, but not before it destroyed two-thirds of the turbolaser defense batteries. Masked Yuuzhan Vong agents penetrated the Imperial Palace and tried to assassinate Chief of State Fey'lya, who remained on the planet, but their attempt failed.

Zqar sent the second wave, accompanying it to the surface. Instead of continuing to attack the remaining turbolaser batteries, the second wave of dropships retreated and released Yuuzhan Vong warriors in individual fliers. A large contingent targeted the Imperial Palace. After the warriors eliminated the last of Coruscant's static defenses, the drop ships landed, releasing warriors and Chazrach warrior-slaves to continue the conquest. From the Kratak, Tsavong Lah learned that Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya, captured and held in his office, demanded to speak with him. Harrar from Myrkr, his trusted advisor, cautioned the warmaster against going to Fey'lya's office and accepting the surrender. Lah understood that the Bothan Chief of State was trying to use the same dejarik tactic that Vergere had employed to defeat him in their earlier game; Fey'lya intended to sacrifice himself to eliminate Lah. The warmaster sent Romm Zqar to Fey'lya's office instead, instructing his drop commander to deliver a message to the Chief of State, who had already been poisoned with amphistaff venom. Zqar relayed Lah's message, acknowledging the kintan stride death gambit as a worthy move but stating it would not deceive him. Lah observed the outcome from the Kratak. Fey'lya's suicide bomb exploded with a flash visible from orbit, instantly killing twenty-five thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors and destroying the records and data the Yuuzhan Vong hoped to retrieve from the now-destroyed Imperial Palace. Fey'lya's tactic added to the already significant casualties. Moreover, Lah's corrupted implant was not healing, convincing the warmaster that the gods demanded the Solo twins. Lah gave Harrar his blessing, hoping that Jaina Solo could be captured between Anor and the priest, and remained over Coruscant to witness the final stages of the conquest. Evacuating vessels launched just below the Kratak, and yorik-et were sent to destroy them. Despite the crew of the Kratak's best efforts, Lah's forces unexpectedly fell into disarray, allowing the fleeing starships—the Millennium Falcon and the Jade Shadow—to escape. It became clear that, amidst Coruscant's downfall, the enemy had learned how to jam a yammosk.

Following the battle, dropships continued to unload warriors. Coruscant's massive power grids began to fail, plunging the city-planet into darkness for the first time in millennia. Yorik-et and other craft targeted any remaining evacuation ships. Simultaneously, Harrar and Khalee Lah pursued Jaina Solo. The warmaster was unaware that Jaina Solo had actually seized the Ksstarr and escaped the Myrkr system. When contacted by Anor's villip from the frigate, Lah assumed the executor had good news. When Jaina Solo revealed herself at the other end of the communication, claiming she would surrender and fight her twin brother, Lah pretended to be pleased and instructed the Jedi woman to remain where she was with the Ksstarr while he sent warships to find her. Knowing Jaina Solo was feigning, the warmaster contacted Khalee Lah aboard Harrar's personal ship, ordering his son to locate and capture the Jedi and their stolen frigate. Nom Anor departed from the Baanu Rass with Vergere, heading into deep space, where Jacen Solo's corruption was set in motion. To break Jacen Solo and encourage the young Jedi to fight and kill his twin sister, Tsavong Lah ordered Vergere to torture the Human until he embraced the True Way of the Yuuzhan Vong religion. However, the twin sacrifice could not happen until Jaina Solo was captured. Tsavong Lah's son was eager to fulfill his mission to capture Jaina Solo, but Lah noticed his hesitation when he ordered him to defer to Harrar's command. Dissatisfied with Harrar's failure to control Khalee's forceful and overzealous nature, Tsavong Lah ended the transmission and pondered the deteriorating state of his radank implant. Rumors began to spread that he was out of favor with the gods, and the warmaster became increasingly aware that powerful and influential figures were monitoring his health.

Tsavong Lah remained in the Coruscant system aboard his newest flagship, the worldship Domain Dal, orbiting the conquered planet. Former senator Shesh, captured by the Yuuzhan Vong after her failed attempt to kidnap Ben Skywalker, was brought before the warmaster. Tsavong Lah awaited the Kuati woman in one of the worldship's organic waste-disposal chambers. Believing Shesh was no longer useful, Lah was surprised when the former senator claimed to know a crucial secret about him. Intrigued despite his contempt for the woman, Lah listened. Shesh argued that the warmaster's decaying radank claw was not a sign of the gods' displeasure but part of a complex plot by shapers and priests to control him. The rot would subside when he followed their advice but worsen when he acted independently. This theory made the warmaster thoughtful, and he spared the former senator's life. Denua Ku, a warrior, was assigned to watch her, and she was tasked with monitoring another spy. Over the following days, he remained informed about the pursuit of Jaina Solo. She escaped Harrar and Khalee Lah's trap and fled to the Hapes Cluster. The warmaster's friend and son tracked Solo across the Hapes Cluster but failed to capture her. Moreover, Solo responded to Harrar's attempts with what the Yuuzhan Vong considered blasphemy, claiming to be the embodiment of Yun-Harla, the Yuuzhan Vong goddess of deceit, and using technology that tricked yammosks into believing Yuuzhan Vong warships were enemies. Meanwhile, the transformation of Coruscant into an image of the ancient Yuuzhan Vong homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar, began. Terraforming agents were released on the planet to start consuming its buildings. Warriors were sent into the underlevels to drive out refugees, and orbital defense platforms, skyhooks, and satellites were knocked out of orbit to crash onto the planet's surface, destroying vast areas of the city with each impact.

The warmaster learned that elements of a New Republic fleet had driven Domain Kraal from their holdings on Borleias, but Lah dismissed it as a retaliatory strike for Coruscant's fall. However, several days later, while attending to wartime and administrative matters, Lah was informed by Supreme Commander Maal Lah that New Republic forces remained on Borleias and were fortifying the planet. Puzzled, Lah dispatched Commander Wyrpuuk Cha to the Pyria system, where Borleias was located, to eliminate the enemy presence. After Maal Lah left, the warmaster was visited by Takhaff Uul, a young priest of Yun-Yuuzhan, who suggested that he might be neglecting his worship of the Creator, as Yun-Yuuzhan was known. Uul implied that this neglect was the reason for Lah's failing implant and that Yun-Yuuzhan might be appeased if those who worshiped him—Takhaff Uul and his fellow priests—were given their own world. Suspicious, the warmaster had Uul followed. He discovered that the young priest had visited Ghithra Dal, the master shaper who had attached his radank claw. The warmaster arranged a meeting with Ghithra Dal to review his implant's progress, waiting to see if Shesh's claims were true. Meanwhile, he learned of Wyrpuuk Cha's fleet's failure over Borleias. The New Republic commander, Wedge Antilles, fielding an Executor-class Star Dreadnought, the Lusankya, and ambushing Cha's forces with a host of warships, had decimated Cha's forces. The survivors returned to Coruscant. Lah visited Ghithra Dal shortly after and summoned Maal Lah to the chamber as his advisor. Discussing their next move, the warmaster concluded that retaking Borleias would be difficult, requiring the skills of a master strategist. With Lah tied down at Coruscant, the warmaster thought of his father. Czulkang Lah had been training new generations of Yuuzhan Vong warriors for years since Tsavong had usurped his position. Tsavong Lah now realized that he needed his predecessor's unique talents in the Pyria system. He ordered Maal Lah to prepare a ship to take him to the Domain Lah worldship. After Maal Lah left, Tsavong Lah spoke with Ghithra Dal, quietly pleased when the master shaper suggested that the warmaster consult with the priests of Yun-Yuuzhan to understand why his implant was failing. Lah dismissed the master shaper, assuring him that he would, before pondering the matter. Convinced that Shesh had been right, he decided to enlist the services of a shaper without allegiance to the caste. The warmaster ordered his agents to bring Nen Yim, the young heretical shaper who had been at Yavin 4, to Domain Dal. News arrived from Harrar and Khalee Lah in the Hapes Cluster. The warmaster's son, along with Lah's friend Harrar, had engaged Jaina Solo and a Hapan warfleet over Hapes, suffering a decisive defeat. Harrar reported to Tsavong Lah that his son Khalee had died in battle, outmaneuvered by Jaina Solo's trickery.

Tsavong Lah arrived at the Domain Lah worldship, orbiting Myrkr, to visit his father. Cloaked, the warmaster entered Czulkang Lah's teaching chamber, where the aged warrior was discussing strategy with a group of warriors. Czulkang Lah dismissed the warriors upon his son's quiet entry and approached Tsavong. Tsavong faced his father, claiming to be both officer and son, asking his predecessor to assume command and attack the New Republic garrison on Borleias. Lah's father initially refused, arguing that a temporary command would only increase his regret for losing the right to lead forces in battle. The warmaster hesitated, wondering if his aged father planned to usurp him and reclaim his position as the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors. When Tsavong Lah was assured by his father that Czulkang had no such intentions, as their disagreements were irrelevant now that the galaxy had been invaded, he assigned a large warfleet, including the healthy worldship of Domain Hul, to the venerable warrior, whom Lah promoted to the rank of supreme commander and sent to the Pyria system. The warmaster promised his father that Czulkang could retain command after the Borleias campaign. Tsavong Lah returned to Domain Dal over Coruscant, where Nen Yim was ready to examine his implant. The young female shaper immediately informed Tsavong Lah that the implant was being rejected in a unique way, suggesting that its failure was being engineered. She asked if Ghithra Dal had frequent access to the implant, which Lah reluctantly confirmed. Yim offered to determine whether Dal was actively sabotaging the implant, requesting permission to examine the limb after Dal's next routine check. Lah assigned Yim to personal quarters, provided her with a cover story, and awaited results.

It soon became clear that Jaina Solo had arrived in the Pyria system from the Hapes Cluster. Tsavong Lah directed both his father and Viqi Shesh, through her spy Tam Elgrin, to capture the young Jedi woman. The warmaster also approved Nom Anor and Vergere's plans for Jacen Solo. After Nen Yim discovered that the shapers and priests were sabotaging the implant, Lah lured the conspirators to a frigate and fed them to several rancors, creatures native to the galaxy. He also encouraged his father to attack the Borleias garrison head-on, believing that the New Republic was developing a superweapon there. After Czulkang Lah failed, the warmaster dispatched Harrar to assist his father in capturing Jaina Solo. Some time later, Czulkang Lah contacted his son from Borleias and informed him that the New Republic garrison had fallen. Overjoyed, Lah was shocked when his father then told him that the Domain Hul worldship was about to be destroyed with him aboard. Demanding an explanation, Lah was cut off by his father, who gave him his blessing before doing so. When Tsavong Lah learned that his father had, in fact, been killed over Borleias when the Lusankya rammed the Domain Hul worldship, the warmaster was stunned. Alone in his command chamber, Tsavong Lah wondered if the gods loved or hated him; they had given him Borleias and his health but had taken his father and an entire fleet in return. Tsavong Lah's hopes now rested on Jacen Solo's conversion to the True Way. The Jedi defected and was converted. However, this later proved false when Solo suborned the World Brain—the Yuuzhan Vong organism in charge of Coruscant's terraforming. Nom Anor tried to stop the Jedi but, after a massive confrontation in the Well of the World Brain, Jacen Solo escaped with the Fosh Vergere, who was seemingly revealed as a traitor all along. Nom Anor and Ch'Gang Hool failed to prevent the young Jedi's flight from Yuuzhan'tar, and the terraforming began to fail shortly after Solo's departure. There was some technological progress; Lah's forces learned to counter Jaina Solo's trickery that had caused Yuuzhan Vong vessels to fire on each other. On the other hand, the yammosk jamming technology deployed by the New Republic remained a frustrating problem for the warmaster's forces.

As the third year of the invasion began, Yuuzhan'tar prepared for the arrival of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, whose long journey through the Intergalactic Void had ended. The new capital of the Yuuzhan Vong empire was ready for its emperor, despite an itching plague caused by problems with the World Brain. However, shortly before Jamaane's arrival, Warmaster Lah received more unwelcome news. Supreme Commander Komm Karsh, who commanded the Yuuzhan Vong fleet's strategic reserve, had been ambushed over Obroa-skai and killed, his forces completely routed. The loss of such a large task force was a blow to Lah's already stretched fleet. Not long after Komm Karsh's defeat, Warmaster Tsavong Lah gathered with thousands of other Yuuzhan Vong to witness Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane's arrival on Yuuzhan'tar. The leader of the Yuuzhan Vong descended to the planet's surface aboard his massive worldship-citadel and greeted them. The warmaster, along with the other high-ranking Yuuzhan Vong who made up the Great Council, entered the Hall of Confluence, where Jamaane would deliver his opening address on Yuuzhan'tar. Jamaane told them to sit, and then his familiar, Onimi, came forward to entertain those present. Silencing his jester, the Supreme Overlord ordered Tsavong Lah to report on the invasion's progress. The warmaster immediately and enthusiastically reported the conquest of Yuuzhan'tar, the capture of Borleias, Nas Choka's operations in Hutt Space, and the overall victory achieved by his forces, only briefly mentioning Komm Karsh's demise.

Jamaane responded by criticizing the warmaster for the heavy losses at Coruscant, Czulkang Lah's defeat at Borleias, and the costly death of Karsh, whose fleet, Jamaane emphasized, had been the only strategic reserve. As the warmaster protested that he would deliver more victories, Jamaane became angry and informed Lah that no more campaigns would occur until the depleted ranks of the warrior caste—a full third of whom had died during the war—were replenished. Jamaane looked to High Master Shaper Ch'Gang Hool to create new warriors through surge-coral implants and lowered the breeding age for warriors. Tsavong Lah then reported on the New Republic's new tactics and technologies. Again facing criticism for failing to counter the new threats, Lah was ordered to implement new reforms and research countermeasures. Jamaane moved on to the intendant caste as Executor Nom Anor soon blamed Lah for the Jacen Solo fiasco. Seething with hatred for Anor, the warmaster watched as the executor suffered under Jamaane's scrutiny. Anor went on to blame Vergere for the failure. Eventually, Harrar intervened, saving the warmaster and the executor from further humiliation by emphasizing Vergere's role and unknown loyalties. Jamaane ignored Anor and questioned Lah and his friend on the subject, concluding that the Fosh had her own motives. The last two members of the Elite questioned by Jamaane were High Priest Jakan, regarding the growing heretical movement, and Ch'Gang Hool, who was questioned about the apparent failure of Yuuzhan'tar's terraforming. As the High Master Shaper's incompetence became clear, Jamaane worked the assembled Yuuzhan Vong into a frenzy and ordered Hool's execution. The shaper was dragged from the Hall of Confluence and killed. The meeting demonstrated Jamaane's determination to create cohesive strategies to use against the New Republic and to bring the invasion under his strict control.

True to his orders, Warmaster Lah refrained from starting new hostilities, although some retribution for Komm Karsh's death was achieved when a Yuuzhan Vong task force ambushed and destroyed the Republic-class cruiser Far Thunder, a capital ship that had been present at the Second Battle of Obroa-skai. Apart from this small victory, Lah kept his warriors from overt offensives. On Mon Calamari, the New Republic recovered and elected Cal Omas, an Alderaanian senator, as its new Chief of State. On Yuuzhan'tar, problems with the terraforming continued. During a ceremony at the Square of Sacrifice, where hundreds of high-ranking officers from the capture of the capital were to be executed, the Yuuzhan Vong sewage-processing organisms released noxious fumes and ruined the ceremony. Angrily, Jamaane dismissed the onlookers and summoned Lah, Nom Anor, and others into the temple of the god Yun-Yuuzhan, to whom the captives had been dedicated. Lah requested the opportunity to press his recent victory against the New Republic, but Jamaane refused. When the warmaster made the mistake of asking again, he was shouted into silence and prostrated himself, expecting immediate execution. To his surprise, Nom Anor spoke in his favor. The executor echoed Lah's belief that a decisive battle was needed and added that he could use his intelligence network to gather the information needed to ensure the New Republic's final defeat. Jamaane initially ridiculed both warmaster and executor but eventually relented, ordering Lah to mobilize the fleet only when Anor had information that could lead to the New Republic's total defeat. The Supreme Overlord ordered both Yuuzhan Vong to leave, reminding them that if one failed, the other would die as well. Tsavong Lah eagerly began planning his decisive offensive. Meanwhile, the New Republic Defense Force began a training campaign, preparing its troops through a series of minor victories against Yuuzhan Vong worlds. The warmaster mated with a subaltern in accordance with Jamaane's orders that all warriors should do so; he also ensured that the fleet's auxiliaries were trained to guard Yuuzhan Vong holdings while his planned offensive took place.

Over the course of several weeks, Warmaster Tsavong Lah meticulously crafted his strategy to invade the Corellian system, the location of Centerpoint Station, the strength of which was still an enigma. The warmaster was confident that his plan was infallible, as he believed that the enemy forces would be too dispersed to effectively defend all of the Five Worlds. With his fleets primed for action, he sought an audience with the Supreme Overlord to present his proposal. However, upon his arrival, he found Executor Nom Anor and Onimi already present. Dismissing the executor's pleasantries regarding his recent mating, Lah proceeded to outline his strategy to Jamaane. Instead of acknowledging it, Jamaane instructed Anor to reveal his evidence. Anor's extensive network of informants on Mon Calamari had uncovered substantial evidence from numerous sources indicating that the New Republic government had relocated to the Final Redoubt, a heavily fortified location deep within the Core, stocked with ample supplies and a significant number of high-ranking officials. Despite his initial skepticism, Lah was swayed by Anor's assertion that both Jacen and Jaina Solo were present at the 'Final Redoubt', along with the executor's assurance that the information was corroborated by multiple spies. The Supreme Overlord had already accepted Anor's evidence as valid. Lah conceded that an assault on the 'Final Redoubt', situated within the Treskov system amidst a complex web of Deep Core hyperspace routes, represented the optimal course of action to decisively conclude the war, a battle he had long anticipated. With the plan finalized, Tsavong Lah commenced preparations for his fleet. A formidable armada, rivaling the size of the force he had deployed for the Coruscant invasion, was assembled. This armada was divided into five Battle Groups, each named in honor of a Yuuzhan Vong deity, and the warmaster commanded the fleet from the cruiser Blood Sacrifice, the flagship of the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan. Accompanied by the last six surviving voxyn and tens of thousands of warriors intended for the invasion of the New Republic's stronghold, the warmaster embarked on his journey to the Deep Core.

Upon reaching the Treskov system, where the moon Ebaq 9, the purported 'Final Redoubt', was situated, Lah was immediately invigorated by the howls of the voxyn aboard Blood Sacrifice, which sensed the presence of Jedi in the vicinity. A solitary fleet was guarding the base on Ebaq 9. The warmaster, connected to the cruiser's yammosk via a cognition throne, quickly discerned that the war-coordinator's signals were being disrupted. Confident in the overwhelming strength of his warships, Lah issued his commands verbally, instructing the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka to engage the lone New Republic fleet, while the Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah and the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin moved to outflank the enemy. Lah maintained his own force and the Battle Group of Yun-Harla in reserve, observing the unfolding Battle of Ebaq. The warmaster was unsettled when the enemy fleet coalesced into a tight formation and breached the extended line formation of the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka, inflicting significant damage despite their numerical disadvantage. However, he remained confident that their superior numbers would ultimately prevail. Indeed, the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka began to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy fleet. When a second New Republic force arrived, the warmaster experienced a moment of uncertainty before several cargo freighters within the center of the new fleet jumped back into hyperspace, leading Lah to believe that a convoy had inadvertently stumbled upon the battle. Nevertheless, the new arrivals disrupted the flanking maneuver that he had ordered the Battle Groups of Yun-Txiin and Yun-Q'aah to execute. Recognizing the risk of continuing the tactic, Lah rescinded the order, instead instructing the Battle Group of Yun Q'aah to reinforce the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka, while the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin engaged the new arrivals, with the Battle Group of Yun-Harla providing support if necessary. The arrival of additional Jedi with the new fleet somewhat encouraged the warmaster—Lah remained convinced that it was merely a coincidence and that his overwhelming force would secure victory.

It soon appeared that the warmaster's assessment was accurate; General Keyan Farlander, leading the fleet that had initially been present in the Treskov system, seemed to be withdrawing his forces from the combined might of the Battle Groups of Yun-Yammka and Yun-Q'aah. However, a surprise awaited the seasoned warrior. Farlander's forces executed a slingshot maneuver around an interdictor missile and plunged into the ongoing battle between the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin and the second New Republic fleet, reinforcing their allies and leaving Lah's other two battle groups far behind. As the warmaster was in the process of redeploying his forces, another fleet entered the system behind the Battle Group of Yun Q'aah, which had been pursuing Farlander's force during its slingshot maneuver. With the new arrivals, a motley assortment of starships, threatening the Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah's rear, Tsavong Lah ordered the force to abandon its pursuit of Farlander's fleet and confront the new threat. His subaltern relayed the order before informing him that the Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah's commander, Droog'an, had inquired whether the Battle of Ebaq 9 was an ambush. The warmaster was prepared to acknowledge that the appearance of two enemy fleets was suspicious, but as one appeared to be a convoy and the other a haphazard collection of starships, he dismissed the notion and ordered Droog'an to engage the new fleet immediately. As Droog'an's forces engaged the enemy, they launched a hit-and-run attack and retreated, before regrouping for another strike. Meanwhile, Farlander's squadron trapped the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin, which Lah had rerouted to intercept the convoy fleet, and inflicted severe damage. The battle was fully underway, although Lah was beginning to observe the disarray and fragmentation among the four battle groups he had thus far deployed. The enemy had successfully engaged his armada in several smaller skirmishes, challenging Lah's numerical advantage with their superior tactics.

When a surge of New Republic forces materialized in the Treskov system, leaving no room for doubt that Tsavong Lah had been lured into a meticulously planned trap, Lah's tactical displays struggled to process the immense volume of data that suddenly flooded them. Now, it was the warmaster who was outnumbered. The warrior was consumed by fury, but he reorganized his forces to prepare for the new arrivals. He instructed the Battle Groups of Yun-Harla and Yun-Txiin, engaged with Farlander's fleet and the convoy force, to intensify their efforts before the enemy received reinforcements in that area. Lah ordered the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka, the first force to enter the battle, which had only just regrouped after Farlander's slingshot escape, to engage the newly arrived New Republic forces in a sacrificial delaying action. As for Commander Droog'an and his Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah, Lah instructed him to break off his pursuit of the motley fleet and deploy his battle group against a large contingent of the new arrivals in an attempt to tie down as many opponents as possible. Lah's primary concern was to prevent the reinforcement of the original New Republic squadrons; to enhance his chances of success, he led his own battle group, the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan, into the fray, attempting to reinforce the Battle Groups of Yun-Harla and Yun-Txiin in their battle with Farlander and the convoy fleet. However, as Lah's series of orders were relayed and executed, the warmaster was angered to see that they were proving ineffective. Against the new arrivals, the Battle Groups of Yun-Yammka and Yun-Q'aah were rapidly collapsing; against their original foes, now reinforced, the Battle Groups of Yun-Harla and Yun-Txiin were faring poorly. Having initially intended to provide support to the latter of these two conflicts, Lah realized with despair that it would be a futile gesture. The warmaster resolved that he would not return to the Supreme Overlord and face humiliation, but rather that he would perish in battle. It was then that he recalled the howl of the voxyn when his armada had first arrived in the Treskov system; Jedi were present on Ebaq 9, and the warmaster's vendetta had not diminished since his duel with Jacen Solo on Duro two years prior. Ordering his own battle group and Droog'an's Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah to hasten to Ebaq 9 without delay, the warmaster prepared his ground troops for a surface assault.

Alarmed by the warmaster's unexpected maneuver, the New Republic forces dispatched several task forces to pursue the Battle Groups of Yun-Yuuzhan and Yun-Q'aah as Lah and Droog'an advanced swiftly on Ebaq 9. Under relentless assault from the motley fleet, Droog'an's force was eventually compelled to divert its course away from the moon. However, Tsavong Lah's personal battle group arrived unhindered and well ahead of any pursuit. Confronted with the shields protecting the New Republic base on the moon, the construction of which had been merely a symbolic gesture to enhance the 'Final Redoubt''s credibility, Lah ordered a section of his battle group to sacrifice itself against the shield. As the assault on the moon base commenced, the warmaster issued a final command to the remnants of his armada. He instructed the surviving commanders to lead their battle groups into hyperspace and return to Yuuzhan'tar once his troops had landed on Ebaq 9. He then addressed the New Republic forces over an oggzil, just as he had done at Duro, and declared that only Jedi were permitted to land upon Ebaq 9—all other enemies would be annihilated. Once a section of the shields had failed, Warmaster Lah deployed ten thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors onto the moon, along with voxyn and rock-chewing grutchyna creatures. The retreat order was issued to the battle groups, with Lah ordering all but a third of the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan to remain to hold off New Republic reinforcements. Moments later, the warmaster received word that the departing battle groups had been dragged out of hyperspace into extensive minefields. The Battle Groups of Yun-Harla and Yun-Txiin were decimated by the mines; Droog'an's battle group fared better, and the remnants of the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan fared best of all, despite losing ten thousand warriors in their lightly armed troop transports. The Battle Group of Yun-Yammka was completely destroyed, bringing the warmaster's total losses to over a third of his armada.

Still aboard Blood Sacrifice, Lah directed the ten thousand warriors into the New Republic base via villip. Heavy defenses eliminated well over a thousand of the warriors, but the warmaster ordered the doomed troops to continue. Once they had destroyed the power source for the moon base's shields, Lah had Blood Sacrifice brought to the surface, whereupon he disembarked his flagship. As he did so, the warmaster broadcast on the oggzil, demanding to know whether Jedi were coming to the moon to protect their fellows. To his surprise, Jacen Solo responded, asserting that he was soon to arrive. Lah promised to allow the young Jedi to land safely, eager to engage his Duro nemesis in personal combat. Meanwhile, the six dying voxyn located the tunnel in which the Jedi were hiding, and the grutchyna burrowed through the rock past blast doors erected for the base's defense. The warmaster directed the hunt eagerly, dispatching a thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors and two voxyn to go after Jacen Solo alone, who landed in another part of the base. To his delight, the warmaster realized that Jacen Solo would have only come to certain death on Ebaq 9 to save one person—his twin sister. Tsavong Lah knew that if he could eliminate the Solo twins, he could die satisfied, knowing that he had at last fulfilled his mandate. Mines delayed the progress of his warriors, but Tsavong Lah could once again rely on overwhelming numbers to destroy his enemies. Jacen Solo and his sister continued to evade his warriors; time was running out for the twins, however, and the warmaster pressed the advance eagerly. In space, Blood Sacrifice and the remaining warships fended off the New Republic while Tsavong Lah directed voxyn and grutchyna against Jaina Solo's last hiding place; a vertical rocky shaft that gave the Jedi woman a small tactical advantage. Another surprise was to come; one of the warmaster's subalterns handed him the oggzil, from which none other than Vergere communicated her intentions to come to the moon. Lah dismissed her claim that she was a Jedi, but the Fosh sent the warmaster into a rage when she mocked his failure to recognize her as a Force-sensitive from the start. He ordered the fleet to let Vergere approach.

While Lah's grutchyna burrowed their way into Jaina Solo's hiding place and his warriors cornered Jacen Solo, he heard the desperate cry of his subaltern as the junior officer realized that Vergere was approaching the moon base in an A-wing starfighter at maximum speed. With a tremendous explosion of plasma, Vergere's starfighter impacted the central mine shaft and sent a fireball sweeping through the moon base's main tunnel. A wave of heat and radiation instantly eliminated many warriors before the fireball sucked all of the oxygen out of the base's tunnels in a matter of seconds. Any Yuuzhan Vong who didn't perish from explosive decompression experienced syncope, dying while unconscious, or embolisms due to lack of air. Lah's entire ground assault force died within minutes of Vergere's suicidal strike. The warmaster passed out, surviving due to the loyalty of his attenders, who placed a gnullith over his face that allowed him to breathe in the absence of oxygen and an ooglith cloaker to mask him against the cold vacuum. In space, Blood Sacrifice detonated in a massive explosion, and the remnants of Lah's armada were destroyed to the last warship. The warmaster awoke beneath the corpses of his warriors. Lah reflected on the magnitude of his failure at Ebaq 9 and contemplated removing his gnullith to suffocate with his dead warriors. However, as he remembered that Jaina Solo and her comrades were nearby, he abandoned the idea of suicide and prepared an arsenal of weapons, before concealing himself beneath the corpses and waiting for his foe to approach. As expected, a medical droid arrived to treat Solo's wounds.

Tsavong Lah sprang from his hiding place and decapitated the droid, revealing himself to Jaina Solo, the Wookiee Jedi Lowbacca, and the Barabel Tesar Sebatyne. Lah threw immobilizing blorash jelly at their feet, rooting his opponents in place, before hurling his tsaisi like a spear through the Wookiee's shoulder. With the Barabel forced to attend to the injured Wookiee, Tsavong Lah was free to engage Jaina Solo. Gripping his weapon with both hands, the warmaster hammered at Solo's lightsaber blade in an attempt to break through the Jedi's defenses. Sebatyne fired at Lah with a blaster, but the warrior evaded and returned to the attack. Disarming his opponent, Lah lunged in for the kill, but Solo seized her Wookiee friend's lightsaber and sliced off the front of Lah's radank claw before the warrior could react. The Warmaster erupted in fury and unleashed a powerful barrage of attacks that Solo barely managed to parry, before his frenzied assault, along with his life, was abruptly ended. Having levitated her own lightsaber with the Force out of Lah's sight, Solo sent the blade streaking in like a spear and plunged it through the Warmaster's throat. Swilja Fenn's prophetic words from two years prior proved true; the Jedi, whom Tsavong Lah had relentlessly pursued since the Battle of Duro, had ultimately brought about the warrior's demise.

The death of Tsavong Lah at Ebaq 9 and the complete defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong forces at the battle triggered significant changes throughout the galaxy. Lah's subordinate, Supreme Commander Nas Choka, having distinguished himself in Hutt Space, was promoted to the rank of warmaster. Choka continued Lah's persecution of the Jeedai heresy on Yuuzhan'tar but ended the vendetta against the Jedi, considering Tsavong Lah's fixation with the Jedi Order pathetic and a waste of resources, a view later echoed by Supreme Overlord Shimraa Jamaane. Instead, Choka attempted to steer the Yuuzhan Vong away from the traditional qualities of the warrior caste—pride and a tendency to fight to the death against impossible odds—as it was these traits that Ackbar had exploited to defeat Lah at Ebaq 9. The new warmaster rewarded warriors who demonstrated initiative and retreated against overwhelming odds. Choka also directed his forces against other threats in order to acquire more resources and consolidate the Yuuzhan Vong's hold on the galaxy. Subsidiary threats such as the Imperial Remnant and the Yevetha were targeted. Dissent was also sown among divided systems and planets in a "divide and conquer" strategy previously proposed by Nom Anor.

Through these actions, the Yuuzhan Vong were able to consolidate their holdings and prevent the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, reorganized from the New Republic, from gaining the upper hand. Nevertheless, Tsavong Lah's overextension of the fleets had proven costly. The Galactic Alliance military regained several key worlds around Yuuzhan'tar; Choka organized a strike on the HoloNet communications network, which had enabled the Yuuzhan Vong to conquer vast numbers of worlds in a short amount of time and drive the Galactic Alliance back. Ultimately, it was not Lah's overextension of the fleet but his vendetta against the Jedi that led to the downfall of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire. The Jeedai heresy Lah had been unable to suppress on Yavin 4 gained momentum under the leadership of none other than Nom Anor, who fled the aftermath of the Battle of Ebaq 9 and rebranded himself as the Prophet Yu'shaa, leader of the Shamed Ones. By the time the Galactic Alliance, the Imperial Remnant, and the Hutts, in a massive mixed faction task force, converged upon Shimrra Jamaane and Yuuzhan'tar, the Jeedai heresy was powerful enough to directly challenge the Yuuzhan Vong and proved crucial in toppling the supreme overlord from his throne. The beliefs of the Yuuzhan Vong were disproved—and Tsavong Lah's patron god Yun-Yammka exposed as a fabrication—when the species discovered that Zonama Sekot, a seed of their long-lost homeworld, was present in the galaxy, awaiting their return to pacificity and symbiosis with nature after their millennia spent as warmongers.

Tsavong Lah's impact on the galaxy extended beyond the Yuuzhan Vong War. The warmaster's obsession with the Solo twins coincided with a clandestine Sith plot to find a new champion for the ancient Order of the Sith Lords. Following his defeat of Warmaster Lah at the Battle of Duro and other demonstrations of power and character, Jacen Solo was selected by Vergere and Lumiya, a Dark Lady of the Sith, as a viable candidate. Vergere's return to the Yuuzhan Vong in 26 ABY was, in fact, a deliberate ploy by which the Fosh could position herself as Jacen Solo's captor, whereupon the Sith began shaping the young Jedi into the man he would eventually become—Darth Caedus. In 40 ABY, Lumiya completed Vergere's work and approached Solo, leading him down the path to the dark side of the Force and reanointing him as a Sith. Solo seized control of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and initiated his conquest of the galaxy, determined to restore order following the chaos of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Like Tsavong Lah before him, Caedus attempted to eliminate the Jedi Order as a threat, prompting their retaliation. Fourteen years after Tsavong Lah had begun his long and unsuccessful campaign to bring the Solo twins together in mortal combat, Jaina Solo struck down and killed her brother at the Battle of Uroro Station.

Tsavong Lah possessed a shrewd and cunning mind; he understood his enemies' willingness to surrender even their most valiant warriors in exchange for their own survival and exploited this trait with his ultimatums concerning the Jedi. Conversely, he studied the propensity of the New Republic's and the Jedi's greatest warriors to risk their lives to protect the innocent. It was with this understanding that Lah orchestrated the refugee screen for his advance on the galactic capital, a tactic that secured his greatest victory. The warmaster was adept at leveraging both fear and bravery to his advantage and demonstrated a talent for discerning his opponents' intentions at Borleias, Myrkr, and Coruscant. This allowed Tsavong Lah to frequently surprise his enemies, as he did when he bypassed the Bilbringi Shipyards to advance on Coruscant. The warmaster exhibited a knack for deceiving his enemies into believing he was pursuing one strategy when he had entirely different objectives in mind. However, Lah relied on a significant number of advisors during his tenure as warmaster, ranging from the standard battle tacticians and readers employed by all warmasters to the priest Harrar, the executor Nom Anor, and the Fosh Vergere. On at least one occasion, advice saved Tsavong Lah's life when Harrar cautioned him against personally accepting Borsk Fey'lya's surrender. At Ebaq 9, the warmaster lacked such advisors.

By heeding the counsel of individuals such as Anor, Vergere, and Viqi Shesh, all of whom possessed extensive knowledge of the galaxy Lah was conquering, the warmaster was able to broaden his understanding of his enemies' customs and habits to some extent. This was a necessary approach, as the Yuuzhan Vong often misunderstood their opponents' culture. Lah demonstrated this tendency to misinterpret on several occasions, such as when he took Han Solo's sarcastic surrender of his son at face value, ordered Shesh to assassinate Fey'lya personally, and believed that Jacen and Jaina Solo would fight each other to the death. Learning dejarik and seeking counsel was the warmaster's method of overcoming these gaps in his knowledge. Being able to understand and anticipate his enemy was crucial to Lah as a strategist, as the warmaster ultimately favored large-scale, decisive engagements in which he crushed his enemy, disliking surprises or when the battle deviated from his expectations. Despite these desires and efforts to know and predict his enemy, Tsavong Lah was often misled not by his opponents but by his fanaticism and eagerness to fulfill the will of the gods.

Standing nearly two meters tall, Tsavong Lah was taller than most other Yuuzhan Vong. His appearance was shocking to other species, marked by a deep gash carved into his skull from ear to ear, as was customary among members of Domain Lah, frayed and tattered lips that had been slit in devotion to Yun-Yammka, and extensive scarring and tattoos across his face and skull. Originally, Lah's features had been rugged, but by the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, they had been altered through ritual breakings and heavily scarred. The warmaster had black eyes and a black mane of hair. Upon his promotion to the rank of warmaster, a living cape was attached to his shoulders by its needle claws. Priests then seeded his bones with larval armor scales, which grew out of his skeleton and stretched his tendons, contorting his joints into new angles and protecting his entire body, except for his lower legs, neck, and head, from attack. After losing his foot to Jacen Solo, the warmaster replaced the shattered limb with a vua'sa claw. During the First Battle of Borleias, Lah sacrificed his left forearm to Yun-Yammka, the god of war, and replaced it with a radank claw.

Tsavong Lah, a key Yuuzhan Vong antagonist in The New Jedi Order series, was first introduced in the series' third installment, Michael A. Stackpole's The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide II: Ruin. As in James Luceno's The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, Lah was portrayed solely through Yuuzhan Vong communication devices, emphasizing the true extent of the Yuuzhan Vong hierarchy as it became clear that the officers operating in the galaxy in the earlier books were far from the species' leaders. Tsavong Lah made his first physical appearance in Kathy Tyers's The New Jedi Order: Balance Point, the sixth book in The New Jedi Order. Rising to prominence in Troy Denning's The New Jedi Order: Star by Star as the architect of the capture of Coruscant, a pivotal event in the history of the Expanded Universe, Lah was depicted as a master strategist and tactician.

In his subsequent appearances, Lah dealt with the sabotage of his warrior implant, an event first mentioned in Star by Star. In Walter Jon Williams's The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way, Lah's final novel, the warmaster's character arc reached its conclusion. Destiny's Way served as a counterpoint to the events of Star by Star, ending with a significant New Republic victory rather than a crushing defeat. Removing Lah from the forefront as a Yuuzhan Vong villain allowed for greater focus on Shimrra Jamaane, whose introduction in Destiny's Way mirrored Lah's departure. Jacen Solo's victory over Lah at Duro was later referenced numerous times in post-New Jedi Order material as evidence of his formidable abilities.

Tsavong Lah's character was developed in detail by six different authors: Kathy Tyers, Greg Keyes, Troy Denning, Matthew Stover, Aaron Allston, and Walter Jon Williams. In an interview, author Troy Denning, whose novel Star by Star featured Tsavong Lah prominently, stated that he enjoyed the warmaster's character due to Lah's heroic qualities of cunning and bravery in the face of the traditionally villainous plot of destroying the Jedi. Indeed, in Star by Star, Denning's exploration of Lah's relationships with his crew, his advisors, with the communications officer Seef, and with Shimrra Jamaane reveals a more nuanced side to the warrior than mere villainy. In The New Jedi Order: Traitor, Stover portrayed Lah through Nom Anor's eyes as a dangerous fanatic, an aspect of the character that Walter Jon Williams explored in Destiny's Way and one that ultimately leads to the warmaster's downfall at Ebaq 9.

In 2002, Del Rey published The New Essential Guide to Characters, which featured an entry for the warmaster, complete with an illustration by Michael Sutfin. Although many images of the warmaster originated from Japanese cover illustrations, The New Jedi Order Sourcebook, issue 109 of The Official Star Wars Fact File, and The New Essential Chronology also included illustrations. As of now, Warmaster Tsavong Lah is one of only three Yuuzhan Vong characters with named figurines in the Star Wars Miniatures Roleplaying game; the others are Yomin Carr and Nom Anor. Lah's distinctive figure was part of the 2005 Star Wars Miniatures: Universe collection.

Following the release of Destiny's Way in October of 2002, Walter Jon Williams, the author, actively participated in discussions on TheForce.net's Jedi Council Forums, addressing questions and feedback from fans. The brevity and anti-climactic nature of Tsavong Lah's death scene became a significant topic of debate, prompting Williams to defend his creative choices. He argued that close-quarters combat is often swift and disorganized, rather than extended and dramatic, and that he aimed to depict a more "gritty" and realistic portrayal.

Williams further contended, within the context of the Star Wars universe, that Tsavong Lah faced an opponent with superior skills and experience, significantly diminishing his chances of victory. He cited Jacen Solo's earlier victory over Lah on Duro as evidence of the warmaster's limited martial abilities. Indeed, aside from the encounter with Jacen Solo on Duro and an "off-screen" battle with a vua'sa in Edge of Victory II: Rebirth, the warmaster is not depicted engaging in direct combat until the events of Destiny's Way. Addressing concerns about Lah's lack of final words and Solo's apparent indifference to the warmaster's demise, Williams reminded fans that the vacuum environment of the duel and Solo's urgent concerns for Lowbacca made such dramatic exchanges impractical.

Several minor inconsistencies exist regarding the timeline and extent of Lah's personal involvement in leading the invasion. While the novels suggest that Lah directed operations from behind the scenes in Dark Tide II: Ruin and Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, assuming direct command in Balance Point, both The New Essential Guide to Characters and Tsavong Lah's Databank entry state that Lah took command after the Second Battle of Helska, leading his forces to triumphs on Dantooine and Dubrillion. However, other sources, including the novels, identify Commander Shedao Shai as the primary military leader during this phase of the war. Conversely, The New Essential Chronology incorrectly places Lah's arrival after the battles of Kalarba, Druckenwell, Falleen, and Rodia. The initial contradiction can be interpreted as marking the shift in control over the invasion from the Praetorite Vong to the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste. Given that The New Essential Chronology is presented as an in-universe document authored by historian Voren Na'al, Lah's seemingly delayed assumption of command can be attributed to Na'al's inaccuracies rather than errors on the part of the real-world authors.