The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Daara Sherum

Daara'sherum, or Daara Sherum as she was known in Basic, was a Lethan Twi'lek born on Yanibar to a pair of farmers. She, like her parents, was Force-sensitive and a part of the Force-using group known as the Zeison Sha, who had lived on Yanibar for millennia. She grew up in relative poverty, as her parents tried to eke out a living on the inhospitable ground of Yanibar. Like other Zeison Sha, she grew up learning how to use the Force, particularly for telekinesis and in the use of the signature Zeison Sha discblade and also developed a special dislike for both the Empire, who had occupied Yanibar, and the Jedi Order, whom the Zeison Sha blamed for many grievances years earlier.

When she was fifteen, Imperial troops began raiding Zeison Sha villages. In one of the raids, both of her parents were slain by Imperial blasters. The orphaned and embittered Twi'lek was taken in by an elder who had helped train her, a Zabrak named Olno Mada. She lived with Mada and his wife Krynan for the next several years, and Mada helped her hone her natural abilities as a warrior and a scout. Still angry from the loss of her parents, Daara would often ambush Imperial scouts during their patrols of the Yanibar wilderness. She was skilled, deadly, familiar with the terrain, and absolutely remorseless&mdash;however, she was known to be a bit reckless, much to the consternation of her foster parents.

On one of her ambushes in 16 BBY, she underestimated the number of Imperial scouts she was engaging and ended up in a running fight with eight biker scouts. The Twi'lek would have been doomed, except for the unexpected interference of two travelers-Selusda Kraen and the ex-ARC Spectre. The two were both trained in the Jedi arts and defeated the rest of her attackers. Daara had no love for the Jedi, but out of gratitude for them saving her life, agreed to take the two back to her village, as they requested.

The two Jedi, upon meeting Olno Mada, declared that they had come to try and reconcile the Jedi and the Zeison Sha, to unite them against the common threat of the Empire. However, though most of the other Zeison Sha were skeptical, Daara had already begun to soften towards the Jedi, due to their saving of her life and their straightforward honesty, as well as their willingness to help with menial chores around the village. By the time that the elders of the Zeison Sha assembled to hear out the two Jedi, Daara had come to believe in them and their message.

The elders were not as easily convinced, though, and told the two that they first had to rid Yanibar of the Empire before they would even consider any sort of alliance with the Jedi. Daara and Olno Mada, who had been swayed by talk of a prophecy that involved the heir of Revan, whose spirit Selu and Spectre had seen, agreed to help them. She supplied knowledge of the area around the Imperial base. However, not long afterward, a disturbance in the Force led Selu and Spectre to take their ship and journey to the distant world of Darlyn Boda, where one of their comrades was under attack. Daara accompanied them and assisted in rescuing the remnants of another Force-using tradition, the Matukai, and Selu's friend Milya Tayrce from an Imperial attack.

Daara remained with them as they made an indirect trip to Yanibar that entangled them in a space battle between pirates and the Imperial Navy. Along with the other Matukai and Jedi, Daara helped capture an Imperial ship, the Griffin, after Selu's ship was damaged. They then returned to Yanibar, where Selu used the Griffin to blast the Imperial base from orbit. The Zeison Sha were free, and a new colony where the Jedi, Matukai, Zeison Sha, and another group known as the Jal Shey, who Selu's friends had also negotiated into joining them, could live safe from the Empire.

However, Selu and his friends still had unfinished business on Commenor, where another of their friends had been endangered after helping them. Daara loyally followed Selu and assisted him in fending off Imperial troops while they evacuated his friends. After returning to Yanibar, she found a place in the new defense force that Selu and Spectre were putting together. For her part, she eventually joined a highly-trained group of Force-sensitive warriors known as the Elite Guardians, a specialized and very capable group of the Yanibar Guard that operated outside the normal command structure. She was one of its first members and soon rose to high rank in the organization. However, her commitment to the Yanibar Guard did not stop her from meeting and developing a relationship with a Matukai Twi'lek named Kacheen, whom she married in 7 BBY. Daara continued to serve in the Yanibar Guard for some years afterward as one of the foremost members of the Elite Guard, and fiercely loyal to both Yanibar and Selu Kraen.

Behind the scenes
Daara was first inspired by a canonical picture of a Zeison Sha warrior fending off two Imperial scouts on the cover of Hero's Guide. After seeing that picture, Force Exile creator Atarumaster88 decided to include the character as a supporting character in Force Exile III: Liberator. Daara serves to introduce the two Jedi, Spectre and Selu, to the Zeison Sha. She also is the most sympathetic of all the Zeison Sha to their cause. Her line of "kiss for luck" to Selu Kraen is homage to the same line spoken by Leia Organa in A New Hope. She later had a cameo role in the Yanibar Tale Hand in Hand when she appeared at Selu Kraen's and Milya Tayrce's wedding.

Appearances

 * Force Exile III: Liberator
 * Hand in Hand