The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Ana Vondar Kraen

Ana Vondar Kraen was born in 17 BBY as the daughter of Corellian Jos Vondar and his Lorrdian wife Tolk le Trene. Her parents were evacuated to Yanibar when Ana was a little girl, arriving in 9 BBY after her father wrote a paper critical of the Imperial health care system. An offer to flee to Yanibar for safety was extended to the Vondar family and they accepted, leaving Corellia for the refuge on Yanibar.

Ana grew up on Yanibar and planned to become a nurse, following in the foot steps of her father, who was an accomplished surgeon. Between Jos's help and her own natural talents, she was an accomplished student, while she was praised during her internship for her ability to relate to her patients thanks to her Lorrdian heritage.

While she was in medical school, she also trained as a long-distance runner, spending countless hours out roaming the trails around the Yanibar refuge as an escape from the constant grind of her studies. One day, while running, she encountered a young man lying in pain by the side of the road, clutching his ankle after a running injury. Ana treated the sprain as best as she could and helped him limp five kilometers back to town. His name was Nate Kraen, a soldier in the Yanibar Guard, and as thanks for her help, he asked her out. She turned him down the first three times he asked, preferring to focus on her studies, but on the fourth time, she relented. Nate had driven over sixty kilometers in an open-topped speeder through a torrential downpour and arrived utterly soaked. His persistence impressed Ana and they dated for several months before Nate proposed to her. Ana accepted and they were married in 3 ABY.

As Nate was a member of an elite commando unit, he was often offworld on classified missions, which worried Ana, particularly after she became pregnant in 4 ABY. She did her best to keep busy with work and furnishing their apartment home and made friends with the other military wives as best as she could in the tight-knit commando circles. Nate was deployed for the final phases of her pregnancy but returned just in time for the birth of their son Zeyn. To add to their joy, Zeyn was also found to be Force-sensitive.

However, only a few short days after Ana and Zeyn returned to their home, Nate was called back to duty on an emergency deployment. When she inquired further, Nate revealed that the colony was in danger of invasion. While he went to war, his mother Sheeka Tull Kraen came to stay with Ana and Zeyn. Nate fought bravely against the invasion of Yanibar by the Zann Consortium and participated in the final act of the battle, boarding the Zannist flagship to free Sarth and Cassi Kraen and sabotage the mammoth warship. However, while the mission succeeded, both Nate and his stepfather Spectre Kraen perished in the attempt. It fell to Selusda Kraen, the commander of the Yanibar Guard, to tell Ana and Sheeka that their husbands had both died. Ana was devastated emotionally by the loss and only the constant support of her parents and Sarth and Cassi Kraen helped pull her from the depressive state she plunged into.

It was encouragement from Sarth and Cassi that caused Ana to accompany the rest of the Kraen family on a vacation to R'alla a year later. While on R'alla, they discovered a sinister Imperial plot unfolding on R'alla and Ana helped Sarth and Cassi persuade a local official, who was also Lorrdian, to assist in defeating the Empire.

Over the next decade and a half, Ana focused on supporting and raising Zeyn. It was hard for her, being a single mother of a Force-sensitive son, and she often sacrificed heavily in time and money for her son. She was extremely proud of Zeyn when he excelled in his academic and Force-related studies, but was dismayed when he too chose to enter the Yanibar Guard. Ana had not fully recovered from the loss of Nate and tried to discourage him, but Zeyn was nonplussed and stuck to his decision, which caused a rift between them. He moved as soon as he legally could, sending some of his paycheck to help support her, but she always sent the money back. She did not go see him when he went to Coruscant to compete in the Galactic Games in 22 ABY, but she did watch the holocasts he brought back. After learning that his competition was part of a Yanibar Guard mission, she did not even attend the award reception on Yanibar held in the team's honor.

Now living alone, Ana found it difficult to avoid slipping back into a depressive state. Her parents finally persuaded her to move back in with them and she did so, finding a measure of peace. Still, having such a sharp disagreement with Zeyn re-opened the emotional wounds that she had suffered when Nate died and so Ana largely remained without solace in 27 ABY.

Behind the scenes
Ana Vondar Kraen was created to both serve as a love interest for Nate Kraen in Force Exile IV: Guardian and expound on the fate of the canonical characters Jos Vondar and Tolk le Trene from the Medstar series. Ana's role was minor in Guardian, acting as an emotional touchstone for Nate. Her involvement was significant primarily in creating emotional sympathy for Nate, particularly after his death at the end of the novel. She was later included in Deception on R'alla after Force Exile author Atarumaster88 decided that the rest of the Kraens would not exclude her. Her Lorrdian heritage was brought to the forefront with the interaction with canonical character Fiolla of Lorrd in that novella.

In writing Ana's story, Atarumaster88 wanted to delve into the personality of a single mother and also establish some conflict between her and Zeyn due to her resentment of the Yanibar Guard. Ana's lack of closure over Nate's death were central in writing out her backstory, and she ultimately withdrew to her parents as a form of solace.

Appearances

 * Force Exile IV: Guardian
 * Deception on R'alla