Seneka Yari

Seneka Yari was a female of the  on. Her twisted experiments with the Force led to her exile from the clan, after which she became a. She led the reborn sect on Dathomir for many years until her encounter with the Sith Rin Sakaros led to the downfall of both the Frenzied River Clan and the Nightsisters themselves.

Early life
Born into the Frenzied River Clan, Seneka Yari was trained as a warrior witch from birth. She exhibited early skill at "" involving and could commune well with clan s.  However, she was also aggressive and combative, and was less concerned with the clan's concepts of honor than with achieving victory.

Nightsister
By 45 ABY, Seneka's depravity had become too much for the clan elders to tolerate. When she killed a fellow witch in a dispute, the clan drove her out, and Seneka fled into the wilds of Dathomir to escape their wrath. She found her way to the Nightsisters, who were still rebuilding from their defeat at the hands of in 43 ABY. Seneka, though not the most powerful warrior with melee weapons, was nonetheless stronger in the use of the Force than many of her new sisters, and was given a favored position in the clan.

The Nightsisters rebuild slowly, and for a few years their activities were confined to training and increasing their own power, as well as picking off the stray witch who wandered too far into their territory. By the early 50s ABY, the Nightsisters were strong enough to conduct raids against some of the weaker clans; these were usually directed at capturing resources, rancors, or slaves rather than outright conquests. Male slaves were put to work building and fortifying the Nightsister complex, while female children were twisted into becoming Nightsisters themselves.

In command
In 63 ABY, Seneka poisoned the clan mother of the Nightsisters, usurping her position the next day and having her opponents put to death. She ruled the Nightsisters with an iron fist, rewarding strength and punishing weakness. Those who did not perform satisfactorily in battle were crippled and fed to rancors, while the best and most inventively cruel were given command over others. In assembling a group of lieutenants loyal to her and competitive with one another, Seneka insulated herself from possible rebellion by lower underlings and created a system which she felt would ultimately produce the best and most powerful Nightsisters.

In 75 ABY, Rin Sakaros was exiled from the Frenzied River Clan as well, and was briefly apprehended by two of Seneka's Nightsister scouts before slaughtering them both. Seneka herself sensed that Rin's Force potential vastly dwarfed her own and that of anyone she had ever met, and when she heard the young woman's story, eagerly invited her into the Nightsister fold. Rin taught some technique to both Seneka and her disciples, as well as teaching Seneka  techniques. In return, Seneka helped Rin develop skill at precision torture through the manipulation of enemies' bodies. Rin refused to teach Seneka how to build a lightsaber of her own, to the Nightsister's frustration, but did employ her abilities to help plan a retaliatory strike on the Frenzied River Clan.

A year of blood
After six months of Rin's aid, Seneka felt her Nightsisters were ready to attack the Frenzied River Clan. While Rin employed her s to project the image of a greater and more powerful army than the Nightsisters really had, Seneka led the attack on the witches themselves. She took pleasure in killing off the children of the elders who had exiled her decades before, now grown witches themselves, and instructed her Nightsisters to kill every living being in the village. The massacre of men, women, and children was nearly complete when Rin Sakaros emerged back onto the scene.

Since Rin had just executed the clan elders and her former friend Voriya Zae, Seneka expected the younger woman to help plot their next move. However, upon seeing the dying Shessa Vel and realizing exactly what Seneka had done, Rin became furious. Picking up Rin's discarded lightsaber for her own, Seneka threatened to eliminate Rin as well, as a threat to their progress. Using the Force, Rin hurled Seneka into the Frenzied River and escaped with the three survivors of the massacre.

Though livid at Rin's defiance and escape, Seneka carried on without her. Even in Rin's absence, the Nightsister army still had the benefit of her Sith training, and laid siege to several other clans over the following year. Smaller and weaker clans were conquered, although the Nightsisters continued to take captives from some of these to supplement their army. They were unable to destroy the larger clans, such as the and, but inflicted serious casualties and damage nonetheless. A unified assault on the Nightsister stronghold by three clans was decisively repulsed.

Seneka's cruelty increased with her conquests, as did her appetite. She grew infamous for her use of her stolen lightsaber to maim enemies without killing them, as well as torturing prisoners with the blade and through other means. Fear of her seized both the other clans and her own minions, and her system of isolating herself from possible dissidents in her ranks became less necessary as Nightsisters grew increasingly afraid to challenge her.

Downfall
Toward the end of 76 ABY, Seneka set her sights on the. With her ever-growing army of Nightsisters and rancors, she led the attack just as the frost began to settle on Dathomir. However, she was startled to see her disciplined army beginning to fall apart in an inexplicable panic; despite genuinely having the weight of numbers this time, they were exhibiting the same collapse of morale the witches of the Frenzied River had shown a year before.

Deducing that only one being could be responsible for this reversal of fortune, Seneka followed a to the top of the Misty Falls, where Rin Sakaros sat, guarded only by Keltrayu and a handful of other male slaves. Seneka easily cleaved through the staff-wielding men with her stolen lightsaber, but Rin had entrusted her new lightsaber to Keltrayu, and he used it to duel Seneka. Both had been trained by Rin, and even though Keltrayu was young and much less trained in his powers than Seneka, the Nightsister leader grew so frustrated that she simply blasted him aside with.

Finally entering the battle herself, Rin snatched up her fallen weapon and dueled Seneka. She Seneka's lightning as easily with her hands as she repelled the older woman's attacks with her blade. Frustrated, Seneka tried to crush Rin beneath a hurricane conjured from the falls, but Rin overpowered Seneka's abilities and drenched them both. The deluge of water burned out both their lightsabers.

Seneka continued to attack Rin with Force lightning, but now Rin advanced on her, slowly closing the distance. In desperation, Seneka turned her powers on Keltrayu, but Rin seized her with the Force, levitating her out over the falls and her in midair. Shrieking curses even as fear of defeat consumed her, she screamed for Rin to release her; the Sith witch complied, loosing her Force grip and allowing Seneka to plummet down the Misty Falls. Seneka's screams echoed over the battlefield until her head splattered against a rock two hundred feet below.

Powers and abilities
As a Nightsister, Seneka Yari was trained in the of the Force, though she still used "magic words" and the other trappings of Dathomiri witches. This tendency relaxed somewhat after her training with Rin Sakaros, though she sometimes fell back on it on instinct. She was known to use, , and , and could use the latter without harm to herself. Though she did not share Rin's power of weaving illusions, toward the end of her life, Seneka had sunk so deeply into the dark side that her very presence could inspire fear in others through the Force.

Though taught the warrior skills of a Dathomiri witch, Seneka was always more proficient with the Force than with physical weapons. Despite training with Rin Sakaros for close to six months in the use of a lightsaber, Keltrayu was able to hold his own against her with a blade after only a few weeks of practice. She was content that her blade could shear through anything in its path, and seemed genuinely surprised to find herself facing another lightsaber after Rin crafted a third for herself.

Appearance and personality
Seneka was never heavily muscled, but her form became progressively scrawnier during her time with the Nightsisters, in direct proportion to the growth of her abilities. She had stringy brown hair, which started to gray in the last years of her life, and pale skin. Though she did not paint her skin, which was pale naturally, she had tattoos on her hands and neck. Her use of the dark side caused ruptures in the blood vessels of her face during much of her time with the Nightsisters, though Rin's training in Sith technique eliminated this concern in her final months.

Since her earliest days, Seneka believed in power for its own sake, and felt the best individual was one who could exact compliance to her will from others or punish them for disobedience. This philosophy shaped her leadership of the Nightsisters and led to her many battles of conquest and destruction. She also had a great fear of death, and usually preferred to attack her enemies only in overwhelming numbers.