Sa'Madhi Tatthya

"True leadership is servitude."

- Sa'Madhi Tatthya

Sa'Madhi Tatthya (pronounced "Saw-MAHD-hee TAUGHT-hee-ah") was a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars who survived Order 66 under special conditions, and later joined the 1337 N00B5. She was the second most experienced Jedi to serve the 1337 N00B5 during their years of operation, under Thracia Cho-Leem.

During the Clone Wars, she and her apprentice, Jin Alfirun, focused on forming close bonds with individual Clone Troopers as they executed their missions. Her belief that leadership is servitude was shown through her actions, as she worked hard to become trustworthy to her subordinates, whether they be Clone Troopers or cadets in the 1337 N00B5.

Early life
Raised since infancy in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Sa'Madhi Tatthya was not the most powerful Jedi younglings, though she was looked up to by her peers. She was about four years older than Anakin Skywalker, and since Anakin's training was often accelerated up to four years ahead of normal Padawans, she attended some of the same classes as him. Anakin mostly ignored her attempts to help him during group exercises, resolving to do things himself.

Training
Sa'Madhi Tatthya and her Master were assigned for much of the duration of her Padawan training on Ennth providing humanitarian aid the repeatedly disaster-struck colonists. The mission, in total, lasted eight years, a full cycle of Ennth's self-destruction period, during which Sa'Madhi learned how to comfort those in need and earn the trust of strangers. In addition, shortly after the "Disaster" subsided, she helped her Master foil a Black Sun plot to exploit the needy inhabitants of the planet.

Shortly after completing the mission, her Master allowed Sa'Madhi to proceed with the Trials at the age of twenty. Two years later, she took on an apprentice, Jin Alfirun.

Clone Wars
In the aftermath of the many Jedi deaths on Geonosis, Sa'Madhi and her apprentice were assigned command of a small unit of Clone Troopers. Most of the time, Sa'Madhi had Jin covertly land on a CIS-occupied world and create a resistance force among the indigenous peoples, so that Sa'Madhi and her division could land on the planet with ready reinforcements. This meant that their campaigns usually took longer than those of the 501st Legion, but also meant that the Clone Trooper unit had one of the lowest casualty rates in the entire Grand Army.

During the years of the Clone Wars, Sa'Madhi treated the Clone Troopers as she treated her apprentice: with a mixture of friendship, trust, high expectations, and teaching. She spent most of her time teaching the Clone Troopers various lessons, both in military arts and conventional civilian subjects, such as languages and history. Yoda became aware of these lectures and questioned her about them. Sa'Madhi told Yoda that she was trying to give the Clone Troopers a taste of life as citizens, instead of weapons, so that they would care about what they were fighting for.

Order 66
In 19 BBY, Sa'Madhi and her apprentice joined their forces with another Jedi duo, including the Padawan Ian Dermac and were assigned a critical mission on a Separatist planet. Ian Dermac's Master, as gentle as Sa'Madhi, was inspired by her bonding with her soldiers and quickly mimicked the idea. The battle on the Separatist planet lasted for several weeks, as both sides had limited resources and played defensively. As Sa'Madhi's force was drawing closer to the enemy capital, Ian Dermac's Master was killed in battle, sacrificing himself to save a single Clone Trooper. Though the death of the Jedi greatly hurt Ian, the Clone Troopers were genuinely moved.

"Why does it have to be now?"

- A Clone Commander being ordered to execute Order 66

Several days later, during a critical battle to gain a foothold in order to take the enemy capital, Palpatine ordered the Clones to execute Order 66. However, the plan to take the enemy outpost depended greatly on Sa'Madhi and her apprentice, whose combined talents were the only force keeping the entire Clone division from being wiped out by the Corporate Alliance droids. The Commander protested, asking for a bit of time before they had to execute the Jedi, but Palpatine shut him up and assured him that the war would soon be over, and that whatever setback they'd face from the loss of the Jedi would be very temporary. Reluctantly, the Clone Commander ordered his finest men to join him to catch up with Sa'Madhi and her apprentice and kill them.

Sa'Madhi was using Battle Meditation to strengthen the will of her soldiers while Jin and Ian were with her, fighting off enemy Battle Droids. She sensed a detachment from her Clones as they abandoned the plan and headed to destroy her. Seconds afterward, the Clones started pouring into the already crowded hall, blasting at the Jedi Knight and the two Padawans. Sa'Madhi ordered Jin and Ian to continue fighting the droids as she defended them from the fire of the Clone Troopers, careful not to allow any of her former soldiers to fall. She could only take so much, however, and was saved only by a cocky Ian Dermac, who used the Force to collapse the building on top of them. The Clone Troopers took cover, distracted by the falling building, but Sa'Madhi, still fearing for the lives of the soldiers she had bonded with for years, used the Force to protect the Clones from the falling debris, making her escape as the Clones were still calculating what had happened.

Sa'Madhi called on the help of the resistance force Jin had organized, which escorted them as they fled from the Clones. She, Jin, Ian, and the militia unit drew the pursuing Clone Troopers to an abandoned cliff dwelling, where they set up a trap to disarm the Clone Troopers. The Jedi went through a small tunnel that required a human-sized being to crawl through on all fours, in single file, which connected to an underground cistern where they could hold out. Meanwhile, the militia split up and waited to cover the exits of the cistern in case something happened. They planned to disarm the Clone Troopers one by one as they crawled through the tunnel single file and trap them in an enclosed space. Several hours later, the Battle Droids stopped functioning, shut down by an external command. The Clones, now relieved of their burden of dodging the pursuing Battle Droids, initially planned to follow the Jedi into the cistern, but the Commander, who knew of Sa'Madhi's typical strategy, instead decided to go in alone with a bomb strapped to himself, which would blow up the entire chamber and kill the Jedi.

When the Clone Commander emerged from the tunnel at the cistern, Sa'Madhi Force-Pulled his rifle free from his grasp in accordance with the plan, but the Commander laughed and showed her the bomb, promising her that the bomb would destroy them all no matter what she did. Horrified, Sa'Madhi surrendered her weapon and had the Padawans do the same. However, the Clone Commander said he wasn't interested in their surrender; he was under explicit orders to kill them at all costs. He would sacrifice himself to carry out his orders.

"So after a Jedi sacrifices himself to save you, you'll sacrifice yourself to kill the Jedi?"

- Sa'Madhi Tatthya, to the Clone Commander about to use a suicide bomb to kill her

Sa'Madhi got the Clone Trooper to hesitate for a moment, long enough for her to ask why the Jedi were to be killed. The Clone Commander, still sure that he would eventually kill the Jedi and obligated by his training under Sa'Madhi to tell the truth, explained that the Jedi had tried to overthrow the Republic and they must be stopped. After a short logical debate, the Clone Commander finally deactivated his bomb. He crawled back out of the tunnel and told his troopers that the Jedi had blocked the entrance. The Clones decided that to make sure the Jedi died, they should put high-powered detonators on structural weak points in the cliff, but the Commander became increasingly defiant as his resolve to help the Jedi increased. Finally, the Commander outright ordered that until they could investigate the matter of the Jedi's treachery, they were not to kill the Jedi. The Clones, torn between an order from a confused Commander and a purported order from the Chancellor himself, took separate sides, and pointed their guns at one another. At this moment, the resistance militia Sa'Madhi had recruited emerged from the sides of the cliff, surrounding the divided Clone unit, as Sa'Madhi crawled out of the tunnel. The Clones, now completely unsure of what to do, turned to the only authority figure they could trust at the moment, their Clone Commander, who insisted to spare the Jedi. After hearing news of the Declaration of a New Order, Sa'Madhi convinced her troopers that they should ignore the orders to kill her and help her learn more about what was going on on Coruscant.

Investigating the Empire
Not a person to sit around and wait, Sa'Madhi and her party returned to Coruscant under cover, looking for clues about what happened to the Jedi. They learned that several Jedi had recently tried to assassinate Palpatine, who in response declared all Jedi traitors to the Republic, and then proceeded to transform the Republic into a New Order. The confusing link in the story was the repeated mention of a man named "Darth Vader," which sounded like a Sith name. Sa'Madhi decided to learn more about this Darth Vader, and proceeded to Mustafar, where the man was said to have destroyed the CIS leaders.

When they arrived on Mustafar, they found that an Imperial task force, stationed temporarily to escort Palpatine and an unknown patient back to Coruscant, as well as to start securing the post-CIS world. It was eventually deduced by the Imperial commander that they were Jedi and traitors, and they found themselves cornered by the Imperial blockade. Soon, however, the 1337 N00B5 arrived with the full force of their fleet, with the intent of finding Anakin Skywalker, whom Padme Amidala's bodyguard had told them was likely to be found on Mustafar. Seeing the chase that had broken out on the surface of Mustafar, Ilmar Grmek ordered the 1337 N00B5 to distract the Imperial forces so they could make contact with whoever was fleeing. Sa'Madhi responded to the hailing signal, and they quickly negotiated a rescue mission. After the 1337 N00B5 fought their way past the Imperial blockade, they joined forces with Sa'Madhi's militia to defeat the Imperial Invictus-class Star Destroyer.

1337 N00B5
Sa'Madhi Tatthya and her party formally joined the 1337 N00B5 after learning of their mission to destroy the Sith. With the three new Jedi fighting for the 1337 N00B5 and Thracia Cho-Leem sometimes vacating the N00B5 to search for her children (besides Rosala and Jayo), Sa'Madhi took the responsibility of training the young Force-sensitives.

Sa'Madhi would use her Battle Meditation ability with her squadron in the 1337 N00B5 to produce an effective fighting unit. Hers was one of the most reputable squadrons in the entire faction. When there wasn't any fight going on, Sa'Madhi spent her time bonding and training with her troops and teaching the two aspiring Cho-Leem children. Occasionally, she would also go on recruiting missions, as her identity as a Jedi and her persuasive abilities were inspiring to potential recruits.

Personality and traits
Sa'Madhi was a very empathetic person, who cared for others and devoted her life to protecting the innocent. Her time serving the people of Ennth taught her how to earn the trust of strangers and provide care for the needy without alienating them. She spent nearly all her time bonding with the victims of the Ennth Disaster during her years as an apprentice, with her Clone Troopers as a Jedi in the Clone Wars, and with the cadets of the 1337 N00B5 during her life as a pirate. She had a similar view of the responsibilities of command to Ilmar Grmek's, believing that the value of an individual life was priceless, and that a commander should make act as though she were sending her own family into combat. However, Sa'Madhi's approach to this view led her to spend time bonding with the troops, whereas Grmek tended to assert benevolent authority.

Powers and abilities
Sa'Madhi was one of the few Jedi of her era to master the Battle Meditation, as it was generally scorned by the Council. She had several skirmishes with the High Council as to her application of this ability, but she always managed to get her way, due her natural ability to persuade.

She was combat-savvy, being well-versed in Form III: Soresu and could maintain a strong connection with the Force for a long period of time. Sa'Madhi was known best in combat for her telekinetic skills, which were well-developed for a Knight that had not yet achieved the rank of Master. This was shown when she used the Force to divert the path of falling debris from her Clones, saving them even when they were trying to kill her.

She did not excel in starfighter combat, which took her a while to master when she joined the 1337 N00B5.

Behind the scenes
Sa'Madhi Tatthya's name is derived from the Sanskrit words for "truth" and "reconciliation." The character was created by C3PO the Dragon Slayer as a self-imposed challenge to make a believable Jedi that could not only survive Order 66, but actually turn her Clones against the Empire. Originally, Thracia Cho-Leem was intended to be this Jedi, but this was changed when C3PO the Dragon Slayer learned that she had left the Jedi Order.

Appearances

 * Avian Hunt