The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Kinman Doriana

Kinman Doriana was a high-ranking Imperial advisor from Naboo. He was known to be in Palpatine's inner circle during the latter stages of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire and was trusted to the point that he was personally dispatched to assist the Trade Federation in eliminating the Outbound Flight project. With his years of loyal and efficient service, Doriana proved to be a valuable agent for the Emperor. One of his rare failures came when he enlisted the aid of the Car'das Syndicate to set up a subtle surveillance net to track a fugitive Kiffar Jedi named Quinlan Vos on New Holstice a year after the rise of the Empire. His last major assignment was when a high-ranking officer was called in to deal with a potentially sensitive situation on the former Separatist holdout of Cato Neimoidia, where isolated pockets of resistance had continued to flare up against the Empire even three years after the world's initial subjugation.

At the time, Doriana had been in charge of transporting an experimental prototype&mdash;the concept of which led to the World Devastators&mdash;along with a collection of Jedi relics to the Emperor's private storehouse on Wayland, up until he was diverted to Cato Neiomoidia. On Cato Neimoidia, Doriana was greeted by a clone trooper commander, CC-3433, or Trip, who had made the initial report. Trip led the advisor to a recently seized luxury estate, where the Imperial troops had recovered over three thousand highly experienced and skilled Xi Charrian technicians and engineers, along with a complete set of Separatist data cores. Doriana immediately took charge of them, and ordered that both the Xi Charrians and data cores be loaded onto his ship, the Griffin. His intentions were to make a detour past Despayre, in the Outer Rim, and add the Xi Charrians to the work force laboring on the Death Star, which would have greatly assisted the project and brought Doriana considerable prestige. He also ordered Trip and his detail to accompany him, as Doriana intended to leave the trooper and his men at the Death Star with a strong recommendation for promotion as a reward for his service to the Empire.

However, things did not go as planned. While the Griffin was large enough to accommodate the additional personnel and cargo, the ship was undercrewed, even with Trip's troops added to its numbers. This was due to the fact that Wayland's location was incredibly secret-the Griffin ' s crew were all to be left on the planet, in fact. As such, the Griffin was hard-pressed to defend itself from attack when a tiny group of pirates attacked the ship. Though the Imperials repelled the pirates with the aid of ground-based fighter squadrons, the Griffin sustained serious damage to its hyperdrive, delaying its journey. Due to the political sensitivity, as well as secrecy of the cargo, Doriana was unable to call in another ship to provide transport. The knowledge Trip gave him, which revealed that the pirates were the remnants of an organization called the Blood Neks, led by a Devaronian named Sulan'bask, did little to comfort him.

Even when they finally departed after lengthy and time-consuming, their speed was reduced, increasingly his travel time to distant Wayland, though he was relieved to see that the Griffin had been given a Carrack-class cruiser as escort. Doriana reported his vexation and delays to Darth Vader, and the Dark Lord of the Sith responded by killing the captain of the Griffin for his incompetence. However, little did Doriana know that the Griffin was being stalked by Sulan'bask, who had replenished his forces with heavier warships. During a navigational layover in the remote Hoth system, Sulan'bask sprung his trap, quickly destroying the escorting cruiser and launching boarding craft to seize Griffin. Thankfully for Doriana, Imperial reinforcements were called for, and the Victory-class Star Destroyer Corrupter responded. However, although Trip was able to defeat the boarders, his few remaining troopers were unable to resist the sudden arrival of a group of Force exiles, who had wandered into the battle by accident. The Force exiles, with one of their ships damaged, decided to try appropriating the Griffin. They were able to defeat the Imperial crewer, and their leader, a Jedi Knight named Selusda Kraen, captured Doriana. Doriana, a gifted orator, attempted to persuade Selu to join the Emperor's service and once again serve the galaxy, and those his words had some effect, Selu ultimately rejected the offer.

Instead, along with the other captured crewmembers, Doriana was loaded into escape pods and fired off towards the damaged Corrupter before the Force exiles absconded with the Griffin, escaping into hyperspace. He was recovered by the Corrupter and gave the Imperials there, including an Inquisitor named Ajaur as much information as he could. Together, they were able to determine the identity of the Jedi, as well as his homeworld, thanks to a transmission from Commenor from an Imperial Intelligence officer named Amavel Norres who suspected that certain Commenorian citizens had ties to the same group of Force exiles. When Ajaur resolved to go to Commenor in pursuit, Doriana agreed to accompany the testy Inquisitor in an attempt to redeem himself for losing the Xi Charrians, the Jedi relics, and the Separatist data cores.

Arriving on Commenor, Doriana, Ajaur, and Norres set an elaborate trap for the Force exiles, trying to seize one of the key suspects at her wedding. Little did they know that the Force exiles were there, and though they had prepared for that eventuality, they did not anticipate the considerable local support shown to the Force exiles. Both Norres and Ajaur fell, and while Doriana tried to rally the Imperials present and signal for reinforcements, he was unable to stop a light freighter, the Hawk-bat from arriving to exfiltrate the last few Force exiles. Unfortunately for Doriana, he was in an exposed position when it arrived, and caught most of a blast from its nose laser-cannons. The wound was fatal and he died having failed his master completely, as the Force exiles escaped shortly thereafter.

Behind the scenes
Kinman Doriana was selected as one of the key antagonists of Force Exile III: Liberator early in the writing process, though he also had a minor, indirect appearance in Force Exile II: Smuggler. He was chosen because he was a canonical character with an unspecified death during the Imperial period, whom the author was both familiar with and could serve as an intelligent, civilized non-military antagonist. As one of the three antagonists of Liberator, Doriana was symbolic of one of the three opponents of a Christian. Ajaur represents the desires of the flesh, Nebulax is Lucifer, the cunning trickster, and Doriana is the world, the path of reason and material rewards. The scene where he attempted to win over Selu Kraen with promises of service and rewards was specifically written to exemplify that comparison.

Doriana's mention of Vader's ruthlessness in comparison to the Emperor is a reference to a similar comparison made by Vader during Return of the Jedi. The incident Doriana recalls to regarding the execution of the design team and the failure of their creation to destroy its target is a reference to the events mentioned in Children of the Jedi. These events were meant to be discussed in more detail in Force Exile III, but were cut for canonical timeline reasons. The fate of the design team was inspired from Palpatine’s similar actions described by Bevel Lemelisk in the novel Darksaber. Doriana also mentions a single time that he held military command and that it had an unpleasant ending; this is a reference to the events of Outbound Flight, which the author used heavily as source material for writing his character.

Appearances

 * Force Exile II: Smuggler
 * Force Exile III: Liberator