Voara Culee

Voara Culee was a female. The Padawan of Ador Hentral, she became a successful in her own right, but when the  began, she followed her former master in departing the Jedi Order in search of peace in the. Trapped in waking paralysis, she and her comrades fell to the dark side, and Voara became Hentral's foremost agent in the Nightmare War.

Youth
Voara was born on in 2,027 BBY. Like many Miraluka, she had strength in the Force beyond the species-evolved, but unlike many, her parents offered her to the Jedi Order. She was initially trained at the on her homeworld, but when she reached the age of seven, she was transferred to the  on Coruscant. Her instructors found her a bright and inquisitive child and adept at blaster bolt deflection. She placed highly in the at the age of ten, despite her youth.

Shortly after the tournament, Voara was approached by the  Ador Hentral, who invited her to become his Padawan. The two journeyed and trained together for thirteen years, and Hentral provided her opportunities to undertake many Jedi missions, from peacekeeping and escort duty to negotiations and research missions. Exposed to all types of Jedi work, Voara found herself drawn to peacekeeping, desiring to actively protect the innocent with lightsaber in hand.

Though they preferred different approaches to Jedi life, Ador and Voara developed a close bond. Voara adored her master, who pushed her hard but did everything in his power to make her the best Jedi he could. In return, Hentral considered the young Miraluka almost like a daughter. When he was appointed to the, he continued to train Voara diligently and recommended his Padawan for the Trials shortly after, but abstained from judging them himself.

Knighthood
Voara passed her Trials without difficulty and began work on the front lines for the Jedi. She partnered regularly with other Jedi, including the Wuluro and the  Kasavo Shei. She remained closely in touch with her former master during her years of service, and he encouraged her to consider taking a Padawan of her own, though she elected to wait until she had a few years of experience.

In the year before the rise of, Hentral approached Voara and asked for her assessment of conditions in the field for the average Jedi. He and Master Merita Ot'kyn were concerned about their portents of the rising dark side. Voara remained alert, but could find nothing to trouble her.

Wherever you will go
When Darth Ruin emerged at the head of a group of fifty defecting Jedi Knights, the Jedi Council made plans for war with the new Sith. Unafraid, Voara readied herself for the challenge, increasing her sparring and combat training to prepare. Shortly before she expected to be deployed, however, Ador Hentral called her aside to tell her that he and Master Ot'kyn, unable to persuade the Council to pursue peace, planned to leave the Jedi Order.

Voara was devastated; while she had not expected Hentral to actually be on the front lines fighting at her side, she felt the Jedi Order would be a stranger to her in the absence of the man who had taught her to be a Jedi. She discussed her dilemma with her friend Kasavo, and found to her surprise that the Twi'lek was interested in the idea of leaving the Order, now that it had been proposed to her. Voara also presented the idea to her fellow Jedi Guardian Charg. From those two Jedi, the notion spread, and Voara had half a dozen Jedi with her when she went to her Master and asked to accompany him.

Hentral and Ot'kyn were initially surprised; they had some notion of making a statement to the Council with their resignations, but had not intended to be at the head of a dissenting faction. Hentral was particularly concerned for Voara herself, fearing that attachment was leading her away from her destiny, but Voara was adamant. She trusted her former mentor implicitly, and if he felt that war with the Sith was wrong, that was enough for her. Privately, she also feared what her master and his companions might encounter in the Unknown Regions, and wished to add one more talented blade to their numbers.

Blind in the dark
Ultimately, it was a group of twelve Jedi Knights and Masters who presented their resignations to the Jedi Council and left the Order. Tirj, a Jedi historian among their number, had procured a which the Jedi used to depart Coruscant. Programming it to wake them when they had arrived at a habitable planet, they carefully set its course out and froze themselves in stasis.

It was not long before the ancient technology malfunctioned. While the bodies of the Jedi remained immobilized, their minds woke up. Trapped in stasis but able to commune with one another, they initially tried to comfort one another. Eventually, however, the horror of their seemingly endless plight became too much, and one by one fear and rage overtook them, driving them insane and into the arms of the dark side.

Agent of evil
The Jedi were not released from their plight until 148 ABY, when their ship landed at Kizav. Voara joined her comrades in unleashing her centuries of pent-up rage and anguish on the native Skavik, killing without hesitation or pity. When Ador Hentral and Desha Marad brought the massacre to a halt, however, Voara was the first to obey his command. The Adarian and the envisioned the Skavik not as targets, but as soldiers, a potentially massive army they could unleash on any target of their choosing.

After the Skavik queen had allied herself with the Dark Jedi, they became aware of the existence of the Veracht, the Skavik native predators. Voara accompanied her master and Sacco Vyrak to court the allegiance of the Veracht, and she and Vyrak demonstrated their skill by slaying a handful of the elite predators. Impressed, the Veracht pledged themselves to the Dark Jedi and their promises of innumerable victims and plentiful Skavik.

Voara fought side-by-side with the other Dark Jedi in the slaughter of Awpierh's native population and the initial devastation of worlds in the Golden Empire. However, the lives of her companions were as meaningless to her as those of her victims. She cared only for Hentral, bound to him by the Force. When Vyrak was slain during the Defense of Daispin, Hentral, who had assumed leadership of the group, set Culee in the Anzat's place as foremost field commander.

Right hand
Voara commanded the battles of Harth Gool and Keliso, standing at the head of enormous invasion forces of Skavik and clones of Vyrak himself. Her forces were defeated in both engagements, but caused serious casualties among the enemy. She was infuriated by the presence of the Anzat hounds at Keliso, and nearly took the field herself to fight with the Golden Empire's Centurions until Hentral ordered her to retreat.

When Hentral and Marad desired to obtain a sample of the Sickness from Quadia, Culee led the invasion of that planet, personally fighting through the Royal Army cohort stationed there. She, Charg, Vev Nar, and Tirj broke into a Ministry of Health facility, slaughtered the guards and scientists, and located the disease. Sensing the arrival of the Empire's reinforcements and her master's call to retreat, she abandoned Tirj to die at the hands of the approaching Centurions and escaped back to the flagship.

On Kizav, Desha Marad warped the Sickness into a bioweapon, and the Dark Jedi succeeded in infecting Te`net Organi, who in turn infected Rayne Turgachia, Queen Rin Sakaros's niece. But Rin herself was not infected, and in her wrath she tore apart Kizav's sun, leading to a chain reaction that wiped out the entire system.

Peace
"We…we…were…g…good…once…K…Kill…m…me…"

- Voara Culee, seconds before her death

Tariun Sakaros appeared on the Royal HoloNet to declare the Dark Jedi defeated and the war over, and an enraged Ador Hentral ordered the fleet to Dolomir. Voara volunteered to lead a direct attack on the enemy flagship, the Sith Star, and finish what Marad could not by killing Rin Sakaros and her Centurions. Hentral agreed, giving her thousands of Skavik, backed by hundreds of Vyrak clones and Veracht, as well as Charg and Vev Nar.

During the Battle of Dolomir, Voara led what later became known as the Battle of the Sith Star, infiltrating the Empire's command ship and waging deck-by-deck war against the Massassi, marines, and Royal Navy personnel. But she soon developed a plan of her own, and took Charg and a group of clones to attack the Citadel. She could sense the Novices hiding inside, and resolved to pay back the Empire for its killing of her comrades by murdering its youngest and weakest members.

The strike force was met at the door by a pair of Massassi, a group of battle droids, and the Centurions Eskol Kaartinen and Vos'elk'eetash, as well as a convalescent Te`net Organi. While Charg engaged Selkee and the two forces met in a storm of blasterfire and lightsaber blades, Voara herself dueled Eskol Kaartinen. Their duel proceeded at a stalemate; though Kaartinen's mastery of prevented Voara from penetrating his defense, nor could he find an opening in her relentless attack. Selkee decapitated Charg, but with the droids and Massassi dead, she and Organi would not be able to hold off the Anzati until reinforcements arrived.

Intuiting this, Kaartinen traded a lunge for a lunge. Voara stabbed him through the shoulder, but he stabbed her through one lung. As she recoiled in shock from the pain, she was intimately aware of Hentral's death across the battle, assassinated by the Centurion Zahyr. The trauma of her own injury and the death of the focal point of her Dark Jedi existence shocked her mind enough that, in her last seconds, she remembered herself. She could remember the Jedi she had been and contrast that person against the monster she had become. Crushed by the knowledge of having lost everything, she begged Kaartinen to kill her, and he took her life with a second stab through the heart.

Powers and abilities
Voara Culee had quick reflexes and sharp lightsaber skills. While she was not the equal of Sacco Vyrak and Vev Nar among the Reawakened, she was the next most talented fighter in the group. She was able to duel Eskol Kaartinen for several moments before he finally overcame her, and could defeat several Veracht without effort.

Given her broad experience as a Padawan, Voara could often come up with creative solutions to problems. The Jedi High Council valued her ingenuity and resourcefulness.

Appearance and personality
Like all Miraluka, Voara was born with hollow eye sockets, pale skin, and white hair. She was 1.73 meters (5'8") tall. Unlike many Miralukan Jedi, she preferred to wear traditional Jedi garb rather than pale clothing to complement her natural appearance.  She usually wore a simple white cloth band over her eye sockets.  As a Jedi she wielded a blue-bladed lightsaber; when she reawoke at Kizav, she traded her blue crystal for a red one.

While she was still a Jedi, Voara was dedicated, creative, and quick-witted. She was able to adapt to changing circumstances, and could remain calm in the face of pressure or danger. She got along well with all of her fellow Jedi, but had a particularly close friendship with her onetime master, Ador Hentral. Having served beside him for thirteen years, she trusted him completely and had great faith in his wisdom.

As a Dark Jedi, Voara was pitiless and cold, and had no more affection for her comrades and soldiers than she did for the enemies they massacred. Her only bond was to Hentral, and she followed his commands without question. His death was such a shock to her that it awakened her dormant, original personality, however briefly. In the last seconds of her life, she genuinely regretted the atrocities she had committed, and begged for death both as a release and to prevent her from harming anyone else.