Tyrnia Masak was a gladiator of the Human species.
Born a female Human who was also Force-sensitive, Tyrnia Masak spent her formative years in the impoverished areas of Nar Shaddaa, the moon orbiting the planet Nal Hutta. Her mother was employed as a servant by a low-ranking criminal, so Tyrnia utilized her considerable strength and size to fight in the streets, earning extra income for her family. Despite her efforts, her mother incurred a significant debt to a Quarren crime lord named Durrsk. Recognizing Tyrnia Masak's fighting abilities, Durrsk claimed her as payment for the debt. Convinced that Masak had the potential to become a formidable fighter, Durrsk entrusted her to his fighting master for combat training, with the intention of her participating in illicit gladiatorial contests. The fighting master, who was a Force Adept, detected Masak's Force potential and trained her in both unarmed combat and the use of the Force.
Durrsk, recognizing the potential in the "muscular, ferocious Human girl," placed Tyrnia under the tutelage of an unidentified fighting master. This trainer, a Force Adept, instructed Tyrnia in various combat and Force techniques. This instruction proved valuable in the arenas and gladiator pits, where Tyrnia employed her physical power, tenacity, and apparent invulnerability to exhaust and defeat all challengers. Unlike some reluctant gladiators, Tyrnia genuinely enjoyed her life as a fighting slave, finding pleasure in the chaos of combat and the cheers of the audience. However, Tyrnia's prosperous career in the arena was cut short.
After Durrsk, in a fit of anger, murdered Tyrnia's now-elderly mother, Tyrnia swore vengeance. She eventually killed the Quarren and a Hutt bystander as they watched the conclusion of one of her fights. Consequently, the Hutt's relatives and Durrsk's associates placed a bounty on her head, forcing Tyrnia to go into hiding.
Lacking many marketable skills, Tyrnia was soon compelled to return to the arena, participating in matches on remote planets throughout the galaxy. To evade bounty hunters, she has attempted to maintain a low profile, but even these measures have not prevented another group from pursuing her. Tyrnia's dormant Force abilities have drawn the attention of several "unsavory" Dark Side practitioners, most of whom hope to influence the fighter to embrace the Dark Side and/or enlist her as a follower.
Having been raised in the slums of Nar Shaddaa, Tyrnia Masak displayed aggressive tendencies from a young age, often resorting to fighting to earn money for her family. Shortly after Durrsk removed her from her family to become a pit fighter, Masak developed a fondness for and excitement from causing bloodshed and hearing the roar of the crowd during her matches. As a stubborn fighter, she eventually derived pleasure from both enduring and inflicting blows to demonstrate her resilience. Following Durrsk's murder of her mother, Masak was consumed by rage and seized the first opportunity for revenge, killing both the crime lord and a nearby Hutt. Due to her limited skills beyond fighting, she struggled to remain inconspicuous and became well-known among those who followed gladiatorial combat. Her inclination to assert her strength also created problems and attracted unwanted attention. Given her Force-sensitivity and violent nature, Masak became a person of interest for many Force-users seeking to further corrupt her to the dark side of the Force. However, Masak harbored a secret dislike for the person she had become.
Because of her Force potential, bitterness, and anger, Masak was approached by an individual who used the dark side of the Force. While she did not completely turn to the dark side, after learning from this individual, she was much more inclined to use the dark side.
She possessed blue eyes, brown hair, and light skin. Standing at over 1.6 meters in height, Masak was a muscular and resilient individual with large hands, though she lacked exceptional speed or intelligence. In the Imperial Security Bureau picture of her, her hair reached approximately halfway down her neck, her face was bruised, and she had a bandage covering her nose. She considered herself physically unattractive and strived to compensate for this by possessing greater strength and durability than those around her.
During her youth, Tyrnia Masak exploited her size and strength to earn money through fighting for her family. Upon commencing her training with Durrsk's fighting master, she discovered her Force-sensitivity and began to enhance both her unarmed fighting skills and her Force abilities. Within a short period, Masak significantly improved her skills, thereby increasing her chances of success as a pit fighter. Nevertheless, her fighting style continued to rely heavily on her durability, enabling her to outlast her opponents and overwhelm them when they were exhausted. She also demonstrated the ability to jump considerable distances, as evidenced by her leap out of the fighting pit to kill Durrsk. By that time, she had only begun to tap into her Force potential. While her primary skill lay in unarmed combat, she also possessed marginal proficiency with blaster pistols and blaster rifles. Masak lacked any significant skills besides her fighting abilities. She could use the Force to withstand more damage and inflict greater harm on her opponents. She was also skilled in tapping the dark side of the Force to go into a rage.
Following the killing of Durrsk and her subsequent escape, Tyrnia Masak was equipped with a pair of combat gloves and a blaster pistol.
Tyrnia Masak's first appearance was in "Tyrnia Masak: Pit Fighter," an article authored by Eric Cagle for Wizards of the Coast's Saga Edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The article, which was published on Wizards.com on June 11, 2008, served as the third installment in the "Bounty Postings" series. This series provided gamemasters with bounties for use in adventures featuring bounty hunter player characters. The article included an image of her, which was created by Talon Dunning. While the article presented an Imperial Security Bureau picture of Masak, it did not specify the era in which the events described in the article took place. However, she must have lived during a period when the Imperial Security Bureau was active, placing her mature life during the Rise of the Empire era or later.
The article also provided three example situations where the players could encounter Masak without the heroes being bounty hunters. They could encounter her at an illegal fighting match, being a bodyguard for a Rodian crime lord and being chased by bounty hunters, or she could be under the influence of a dark side force-user. This article has presented the events mentioned in these adventure seeds as if they occurred in the order listed after the events described in the article's history section. However, the seeds could occur in any order and may not necessarily happen at all.