Eirtaé Lasara

"So close...I came so close..."

- On being defeated in the royal election for the second time

Eirtaé Lasara was a member of the Lasara family of Naboo, third handmaiden to Queen Amidala, twice a candidate in Naboo's royal elections, and once one of the two finalists. She was also wife and mother respectively to Rebel Alliance members Kitpat Arthi and Morenjj Lasara.

Training Years(52 BBY to 33 BBY)
Eirtaé was born in a remote river village not too far from the Lasara family's political stronghold of Parrlay, the third of four children and the only girl. She displayed remarkable intelligence from a young age, and was soon earmarked by her father and his two siblings as their best hope of landing a member of the family on the throne of Naboo, as was their ambition. They paid to send her to the best schools and taught her that the throne was to be her life's achievement, until she wanted it as badly as they wanted it for her.

In 33 BBY, they had what they thought was the perfect opportunity. The incumbent King was very unpopular with the populace, leaving the election free for the taking by whoever could become the second finalist in the election. Eirtaé and her family ran a hard campaign, and she worked harder than she ever had in her life, but to their surprise they ultimately lost to then-Princess Amidala, who would go on to win the election.

Handmaiden Years(33 BBY to 24 BBY)
Reminding the disappointed Eirtaé that she was young yet, her father advised her to become a handmaiden, advice which Eirtaé took, and was selected to become third handmaiden, and advised that the Queen would need her expertise on protocol, as she did not come from a political family. During much of her initial training Eirtaé was resentful and scornful of her mistress-to-be, and had trouble getting along with her lower-ranking fellow handmaidens, clashing the hardest with Rabé Excenil, to the point that she seriously considered dropping out. However, she eventually developed a deep respect for Amidala, and found herself growing humbler. She and Rabé also grew to discover that they had much in common, and became fast friends.

During the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo, Eirtaé and Rabé both traveled off Naboo with the Queen, who was posing as one of her own handmaidens, and head handmaiden Sabé Andierre, who was posing as the Queen. Eirtaé spent almost all the time reviewing protocol with Sabé, who had little patience for it, but accepted that she needed to seem respectful of it because Amidala was. She also participated in the retaking of Theed. It was only after the battle was done that she learned that many of her relatives had been killed in the taking of Parrlay at the very beginning of the invasion.

This gave her much to mourn, but it generated a great deal of sympathy for her, and less than a year into Amidala's term, people began predicting Eirtaé as her successor in eight years' time. During the following years, Eirtaé continued to study, and played an administrative role in the developing of Naboo's new military forces, and took something of an interest in shipbuilding. She also became romantically involved with Kitpat Arthi, a man also involved in the project.

Second Electoral Run
Although there was some movement on Naboo to amend the constitution and keep Amidala in office, she herself insisted on stepping down, and endorsed Eirtaé as her successor. At the beginning of 25 BBY, many people thought the upcoming election a done deal.

However, early in the year her primary opponent emerged in the form of Klisté Sensari, who built her support up from the grassroots and became wildly popular in many areas of Naboo, especially the planet's far side. She took advantage of Eirtaé's social aloofness to paint her opponent as cold and uncaring about the common people, in contrast to herself. She was also aided by a (false) belief amoung her supporters that she was borderline Force-sensitive, which made many Naboo believe she had some sort of magic touch. Eirtaé's relation with Kitpat may also have cost her dearly; there was a prevalent belief amoung the Naboo that a politician had to be married to their office. The relationship was in fact strained during this time.

By the end of the year Sensari had pulled even with her opponent. In contrast to the previous two elections, both of which had been decided within five minutes, the 25 BBY election looked uncertain all throughout the 20-hour voting period, and was not called until nearly five hours after the polls closed, at which time Klisté Sensari was declared the winner by a few hundred votes. She was crowned the following year at Queen Jamillia.

Shipbuilding Business(24 BBY to 19 BBY)
The pain of such a defeat was so strong that Eirtaé decided when the election was called that she would not run again. She abadoned her dream for Kitpat's, and the two of them went into a shipbuilding business together. They were married a week after Amidala left office, and she gave birth to their son, Morenjj Lasara, only a few months later.

Eirtaé would sit on three panels during the subsequent five years to choose the handmaidens who would serve Amidala as Senator. During both of the second two times, she would disapprove of her fellow handmaidens' ultimate choice; the first time it was in fact Jamillia's sister Motée Sensari. The two of them would eventually learn to get along for the sake of common causes, but would never be friends.

Business was good during the Clone Wars, but times were also more dangerous; there was an assasination attempt on the family early in the war, and they found themselves in the thick of battle both times the Confederacy attacked Naboo. As Queen Jamillia became unpopular, Eirtaé remained just inside the public spotlight, and in 21 BBY she was urged to run for Queen again. She refused, instead throwing her support, time, and money behind Princess Apailana, who sucessfully defeated Jamillia and was crowned.

Rebel Smuggler(19 BBY to 14 BBY)
Just after the end of the war, Eirtaé found herself attending funerals for first her former mistress then one of her former fellow handmaidens. At the latter she listened through Motée's claim that Amidala had been murdered by the Emperor's agents and Sabé's subsequent diatribe and oath agains the Emperor, and her dislike of Motée did not blind her to the probability of her being right, leaving her no hesitation in joining in on Sabé's oath. She was horrified, however, when Sabé shortly afterwards murdered Rabé for betraying the group, causing something of a wedge between her and them. She would cooperate with their efforts in future years, but avoided being with them otherwise.

She would find herself working the most with Yané, as the two of them together smuggled ships and weapons to the growing resistance against the Empire. She would keep the knowledge of both her oath and her actions a secret from even her family. In 14 BBY, however, Motée's arrest would give her cause for concern, and she would contrive to send her family away from her for a few months.

Arrest and Death
Eirtaé's sending off her family no doubt saved their lives, as she was caught and arrested later that year. The arrest would in fact prompt all the former handmaidens to flee Naboo, and they would later decide to try to rescue her, though ultimately they would reach Coruscant too late.

Removed to Coruscant, Eirtaé was thrown into a jail cell with actress Valey Res'cuni. The two women provided by consolation they could to each other, as neither expected to get out alive. Shortly after Eirtaé's arrival, Darth Vader came in to torture both women. He tortured Res'cuni first, which raised Eirtaé's indignation, as unlike Eirtaé herself, the actress had nothing to tell him. She spat at him, and wondered out loud if he had been the one who had murdered her late mistress. She then named her, asking if the name rang a chime. On hearing the name of his late wife, Vader flew into a rage and throttled Eirtaé, killing her within a minute's time. When Res'cuni related this to the handmaidens after they ended up rescuing her instead, it was pointed out that this had arguably been a triumph, as it meant she died without telling him anything.