Thracia Cho Leem was a female Human Jedi Master serving the Jedi Order as a member of the Jedi Grand Council during the Jedi Renaissance. The Temple Master of the Bodhi, Temple of the Arts on Tython following the end of the Clone Wars, Leem taught Jedi Journeyers the arts and the way the Force manifested itself through music, writing, and sculpture. While viewed as a Gray Jedi by some before the war, Master Leem maintained a good relationship with the High Council and was highly recommended to her position as Temple Master.
Biography[]
A Force-sensitive Human, Thracia Cho Leem was discovered on the planet Affa through standard testing by the Galactic Republic before being delivered to Coruscant in order to be educated in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order. Arriving at the Jedi Temple, Leem was sorted into a clan where she preferred to work alone on projects and did not take to working with others. After being selected as Padawan to the Dashade Jedi Master Orrrt Zevin, Leem and her master set out on a two year-long journey mission which tried all of the young girl's training and knowledge of the Force. Working on the planet of Dagelin Minor in 76 BBY as the government of the world attempted to control the dhuru fly population, Leem and Zevin warned the President that importing brown nafen bats from Bogan was a misstep due to their highly venomous bites. Disregarding the Jedi's warning, the government imported the bats as a type of pest control and unintentionally exposed the planet to the Hardan plague. While Leem and Zevin attempted to control the spread of the plague, their efforts proved futile and vast swathes of the population were dead within a fortnight of the initial batch of nafen's arrival on the world. By the end of the infestation, 98% of all Dagelinians were dead and the survivors were forced to live in shanties outside the ruins of their former cities. Their mission a failure, the Jedi returned to the Temple to await reassignment.
Having traveled to the crystal caves of Ilum to construct her blue-bladed lightsaber, Leem wielded the weapon with ease and grace, though preferred to spend her time practicing the healing arts. Dedicating much of her time to assisting in the Halls of Healing, the memories of the events on Dagelin Minor pushed her to learn all that she could and fine-tune her skills to properly provide for the afflicted citizens of the galaxy. When Leem was a senior Padawan she encountered the young Padawan Mace Windu during a mission with her master. Pairing with Windu and his master on the planet Dweem, the team of Jedi assisted in the evacuation of the planet and the investigation of the Terrible Glare, an event which led to the devastation of the planet and its populace. During the investigation afterwards into the nature of the Terrible Glare and its relationship with the Jedi schismatics from the distant past who organized under the same name, Leem and Windu formed a lasting friendship which could survive the distance which fell between them most of their early careers.
Knighthood[]
In 63 BBY, Leem reported to the Temple on Coruscant to undergo her Jedi Trials. Passing with an air of confidence and a mind for unorthodox maneuvering through her challenges, Leem was elevated to the rank of Jedi Knight and deemed eligible to begin independent study and take solo missions in the greater galaxy. As she began her studies as a Consular, Leem split her time between the Order's chapter house on Rhinnal and the praxeum on H'ratth where she grew in the healing arts and garnered the respect of her instructors and peers. During her time away from Coruscant, Leem began to get her first taste of the hypocrisy which plagued the Republic. Traveling between worlds either ignored or forgotten by the Republic, she began to question why the Jedi High Council or the Council of Reconciliation had not stepped in to help the worlds in need that had been abandoned by politicians and the bureaucracy.
Taking on a young Ji-Ad Sarain as her first Padawan two years after her own knighting, Leem and the young Human boy worked closely to understand the healing nature of the Force and create healing crystals. Together on a mission to Xo, Leem and her student were tested against the highly-religious Zanibar and their practice of ritual sacrifice of sentients. Faced with such a people, Leem questioned whether such practices should be allowed to continue and if not, who was going to force the Zanibar to forsake their religious beliefs? When the High Council decided that inaction was the best action, Leem began to seriously question the collective wisdom of the High Councilors for the first of many times. Opting to distance herself from Coruscant to avoid the corruption she believed was festering in the Senate and even within the polished halls of the Temple itself, Leem and Sarain took up residence on Ord Janon where Leem and her student took to healing the sick and attempting to raise awareness regarding the ill-effects of pollution on the world. While lobbying against the large corporations who controlled the government and enforced a lax environmental safety agenda, Leem met a young political activist named Marcius Helk and the two married in secret and conceived a child. While Padawan Sarain found this violation of the Jedi Code amoral at first, Leem explained that her attachments had not led her to the dark side and the birth of her first child quickly warmed Sarain to the idea that Leem's actions had not begotten evil but brought about a wonderful birth.
In 57 BBY Leem decided it was time to move on from their life on Ord Janon and left her husband and child with a comfortable life in politics and traveled with her student to the world of Aquilaris Minor, transported by Leem's friend and a Jedi ally, Charza Kwinn, where they studied the rich history of the world and its former rule by the Sith. Leem taught Sarain how to disguise his identity, both visually and within the Force, and encouraged him to enter into private establishments disguised as other people and interact with their colleagues and family to train himself for undercover missions. In 53 BBY, Leem decided that Sarain was ready to face his Trials of Knighthood and the pair returned to Coruscant Temple to submit to the High Council for judgement. Pleased with Sarain's progress but not with their extended absence, the High Council permitted Sarain to take the Trials much to Leem's delight and the Council praised her when the man emerged a Jedi Knight. As she parted from her former student, happenstance or the Force led Leem down to watch the Apprentice Tournament which happened to be ongoing during her brief return to the Temple. There she was thoroughly impressed by the skills of the young Human girl Seenlu Kir and quickly approached her with an invitation to study as her Padawan. Kir eagerly accepted Leem's offer and they departed the Temple the following week.
Obsession on Affa[]
Early on in Kir's apprenticeship, the pair was assigned as part of a task force led by Jedi Knight Mace Windu and Master Aqinos and his Iron Knights to travel to Arkania at the behest of the besieged Arkanian Dominion. As the Dominion was beset by renegades protesting the practice of bioengineering on sentients, the Jedi were compelled by Republic law to assist the lawfully installed government and put down the rebellion. Leem, while participating, heavily criticized the High Council for assigning the mission, as well as condemning the Dominion's practices. While still great friends with Windu, Leem stated her regret that she had become involved and claimed that ignoring her feelings and simply following orders would not be a mistake she made twice. Taking Kir with her to her planet of origin, Affa, Leem met a woman named B.D. Hahvad who claimed to be a medium and capable of farsight. Hahvad predicted the coming of a Forceful child born of flesh and death who would cause the ruination of worlds if not trained by Leem herself. To prove her trustworthiness, Hahvad presented Leem with an egg which she predicted would hatch into a strong Jedi Knight. Excepting the egg, Leem began to seek out this child to prevent the prophecy from taking the darker path. Together with Kirs, Leem was able to find a dark echo in the Force emanating from an old estate in the suburban townships of Affa. Using clues from the Force, Leem was able to determine that the house would play a role in the coming of the prophecy and she would need to stand as a steward to the nexus of dark side energy.
The Force Demon Shachath comforts her friend, Master Leem.
In order to remain close to the house, she found a new husband and gave birth to four of his children, all but one of whom shared a birth defect that made them ill-suited to society on Affa. Keeping them in the house, Leem studied the odd occurrences within while training her apprentice on the neighboring property. Kir, who predominantly took missions alone, was tasked with caring for the hatchling Vergere in the small house next to the bizarre Force-nexus. As Kir grew in the Force, Leem instructed her to travel to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and take her Trials of Knighthood in 43 BBY and upon completing them strive to be the best Jedi she could be. After Kir departed, Leem struggled to find anything of consequence within the house and began to doubt her initial decision to remain. A week after her Padawan had left, Leem's misgivings were erased when a Force demon appeared on her doorstep robed in black. The demon, called Shachath, took the form of an elderly woman with large black-feathered wings sprouting from her back. While Leem was initially wary of the demon, she soon discovered it could do her no harm unless she summoned it to take her life. With the knowledge that the demon was effectively harmless, Leem questioned her about the house and quickly discovered that some peculiarly effect of the Force-nexus within the house trapped the souls of the deceased within its walls and would not allow them to become one with the Force; a barrier which not even Shachath could break.
Convincing Shachath that she could choose to reside in a single place, she gave her dominion over the neighboring house and tasked her with caring for Vergere. As her husband and children were under the influence of the Force, they noticed none of Leem's comings and goings and were content to believe that she worked as a sales associate at a local shopping complex. Vergere grew exceedingly fast, taking up much of Leem's time. As she taught the Fosh child the ways of the Force, so too did she instruct Shachath in the ways of the Jedi. Years passed and Vergere quickly proved to be a fine talent, and took to dueling Leem and Shachath simultaneously. Hiring a young girl to attend to the house while Leem worked with Vergere, Leem began to sense a disturbance emanating from inside the house. Taking time to spend at her family's home, Leem soon came to suspect that her husband was sleeping with the maid. Despite her husband's income it soon became necessary to work and Leem began to run a kennel for pets out of the basement. Spending more time in the house then ever before, Leem did not sense her perception of things changing. Visiting Shachath and Vergere less frequently then before, Leem sank into a state of constant suspicion and paranoia the longer she stayed within the house. She frequently lashed out at her husband and children, whipping them boys and cursing the girl for her appearance. Turning to alcohol to take away the edge, Leem slowly began to draw away from the Force and rely on the house for support instead. Leem's fall from grace came to light in 39 BBY when she discovered her husband attempting to rape their maid. Out of her mind with paranoia and pent up rage, Leem drew a pistol from her closet, stormed the bedroom and executed her husband before shooting the innocent maid in the eye. The shock which rippled through the Force brought her back to her senses briefly, but those emotions were soon clouded by the dark side of the Force. Burying the maid in the backyard, Leem ground her husband's body into food for her neighbors' pets she housed in the kennels beneath the house. Checking in with Vergere, Leem took some time away from the house, much to Shachath's pleasure; though Shachath could not sense the deaths inside the house, she was well aware of the blood that marked her friend's hands. Avoiding the house for a time, Leem failed to properly care for her children as she poured her will into perfecting Vergere. Her neglect was evident when her second son died of a pox within the house, a death which Leem mourned for several years. Avoiding her other children, Leem holed herself in her room, drinking her sorrows away while at the same time putting on the face of wellness when interacting with Shachath and Vergere.
As Vergere grew into a powerful young Jedi, Leem directed the young Fosh to take a shuttle to the nearby Las Lagon system where she would be able to contact the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Recording a holomessage for the Council, she requested that they send her a new student of Vergere's picking if they approved of the Fosh girl's training. Leem waited patiently for a reply and received one within a month, the High Council sent the young Niebur Boton for training in the Jedi ways. Pleased with the Zeltron girl, as she would blend in easier in the Human-dominated world then Vergere's avian figure, Leem allowed the girl to leave the house during the day so long as she disguised herself and was never followed. All seemed normal over the next several years; Leem recovered from her loses and her children seemed to function well in school and around the house. Leem even began to dating again, seducing a local businessman to be her new lover and assist in paying for the house. As the two spent more and more time in the house, Leem decided it was time to dismiss her new lover's wife as she was beginning to interfere in her plans for keeping an eye on the house. Suggesting that her new future husband dismiss his wife, she did not expect him to lure his wife and two children into the house and burn them alive in the house. Reconciling this tragedy, Leem's descent into darkness as she maintained her relationship with her new husband. When the government of Affa demanded that her youngest son be turned over to the state on concerns for his health, Leem ordered her husband to kill her youngest male child; the boy did not put up a fight as he was highly disabled and mentally handicapped from birth. Despite the cruelty of this act, Leem knew a secret about the house that none of her children ever knew: those who died within returned. Leem was constantly haunted by the shade of her old maid, while her dead children continued on, seemingly unaware of their own deaths. For this reason, Leem desired nothing more then to see the house preserved and fought tooth and nail to keep possession of the building.
Master Leem returns to Coruscant to petition the High Council to search for Vergere.
As the house's malevolent energies continued to sap her of her own sanity, Leem suffered another tragedy. In 29 BBY, Leem received a vision from the Force which drove compelled her to return to Coruscant immediately. Departing for the Jedi Temple, Leem arrived to find the Council interrogating the young Padawan Anakin Skywalker. Encouraging the boy to be an adventurous child, Leem shared a good discussion with her old friend Master Windu and was told of Vergere's last mission. Having gone missing on an assignment to the planet Zonama Sekot, the Council planned to send Skywalker and his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi in search of her. Giving the pair her blessings, Leem remained at the Temple for several months to receive updates on the state of the Order. Hearing reports of her former student, Seenlu Kir, she was pleased that she was working with children at the academy in the Cularin system. When Kenobi and Skywalker returned without Vergere, Leem counseled Skywalker on the hardship of loss, something he suffered greatly from on his assignment, and wished him well on his future adventures. At that, Leem left the Temple and returned to Affa to tend to Boton and her three children.
Upon her arrival, Leem was welcomed home by her husband and daughter, while her son sulked and blamed her for killing off the family one by one. Not a week after her return, Leem prepared to leave the hose to visit her apprentice next door when a security force stormed the house and killed her son while she stood by, unwilling to expose herself as a Jedi and far outnumbered to take them all out without her lightsaber. As her son died, the security team explained he had viciously slaughtered other pupils at his primary education facility and was responsible for at least nineteen deaths. Locking herself away from anyone, Leem suffered a minor breakdown which sent her spiraling into darkness. Her husband, too, did not avoid suffering. Before killing the students at school, Leem's child set his step-father on fire, scarring over half of his body. Disgusted by his appearance, Leem sent him away and quickly lost possession of the house. Taking her daughter with her, the two moved into the neighboring house with Boton and Shachath. As the mysterious house next door was sold off, Leem kept an eye on the residents and began to regain her own mental clarity and draw on the Force for healing. All seemed find in the household of four women until mid-28 BBY when Shachath mysteriously vanished. Saddened by her friend's departure yet sure she would return, Leem took to training Boton once more, sending her off in 25 BBY when she believed her training to be complete. Despite her instability, Boton advised the Council that Leem wished to take on another apprentice and a beleaguered Council sent the young Rivi-Anu to receive training, as the Order was desperate for Jedi Knights. Reaching a new low in her life, Leem trained the girl to the best of her abilities, devoting all of her time and pretending to be an ideal Jedi while heavy drinking consumed her nights. By 20 BBY however, Leem sickened of Rivi-Anu and dismissed the girl as her Padawan. The girl left Affa and lied to the Council, stating that she was ready to face the Trials. Passing her despite her young age, Rivi-Anu perished in her first assignment towards the conclusion of the Clone Wars.
Prophecy fulfilled?[]
Leem in her alter-ego of loving wife and drunken mother.
In 19 BBY, following the deaths of the most recent new neighbors, a series of events led to her youngest son's shade to impregnate the wife of the newest owner of the mysterious house she once inhabited. Shocked by the revelation, which came from the phantom of her old maid, Leem assaulted her son for his violation of another man's wife and rushed to make contact with B.D. Hahvad. When the medium arrived on Affa, Leem allowed her to stay with her as they discussed the prophecy that she had once given Leem. When the Jedi informed Hahvad that her dead son had impregnated a living being, the medium was shocked and claimed that she believed the prophecy had been about Vergere. Confused, Leem ensured that she was on call the moment the baby was to be born so that she might take the child and train it. With the help of several of the spirits within the house, Leem saw the baby born, while the mother died in labor. While the father was insistent on keeping the child, he was soon murdered by the spirits of the house and Leem was free to take the child. Tending to the baby with the assistance of Hahvad, the pair was frightened upon the return of Shachath. The Force Demon sensed the evil in the child the moment she appeared, claiming that it was like a hole in the Force and quite definitely a demon. When asked where she had been, Shachath claimed to have heard the call of a Jedi, the first Jedi to beg for death in all her long existence. When she appeared to the Jedi aboard a strange, alien vessel on the fringes of the known galaxy, Shachath claimed that the Jedi had refused the Kiss of Death in the last instant and sent her away.
The three women continued to care for the child for several months, moving back into the mysterious house after it became quite apparent it would not sell for a high price again after so many gruesome deaths. Within the last month of the year, Leem was surprised by the arrival of another Jedi at her doorstep, the newly appointed Grand Master, Tomac Moorcé. The Purpilian Jedi claimed to have a position open for Leem should she accept, and his desire to have her on board with the project was great. Leem thanked Moorcé for the offer but declined in favor of remaining to tend to the child and watch over the Force-nexus and the spirits contained within it. Moorcé, not ready to be dissuaded, offered to show the Human Jedi just what power the Jedi Order had uncovered in just a short period after ending the Clone Wars. Leem, curious as to what the man might have to show, agreed to see a demonstration. To ensure no harm came to anyone of a good nature, Moorcé asked Shachath to leave area so she would come to no harm. Once away, Moorcé sat down with Leem and Hahvad to discuss the child and the house. Impressed at the house's uncanny ability to bottle up spirits and curious as to the child's power, Moorcé agreed to spend a week with both to evaluate the situation. Meeting face to face with many of the spirits who resided in the house, Moorcé was more concerned with the child and Shachath's proclamation that it was a demon. Probing the boy with the Force, Moorcé found the same void he found in Shachath, the absence of life and death and the Force. Disturbed yet resolved, Moorcé declared he was ready to make his demonstration but warned that its effects could not be undone. Before revealing his promise of newly discovered power in the Force, the Grand Master called on the spirits of the house to reveal themselves. Dozens of Human men and women appeared in the room, spanning generations. Moorcé beckoned Leem to make peace with those she had lost to the house and was pleased when Leem broke down and sobbed at the loss of each of her children. As Leem regained her composure, Moorcé turned on the child. Moorcé revealed his staff and placed the polished stone at its summit to the head of the small boy and exerted himself through the Force. In a flash, the babe appeared to turn to stone before quickly falling away to dust. Before the two women could react, Moorcé raised his staff over his head and thrust it down into the polished wood floors of the house in a brilliant flash of light. The house trembled and quaked and the spirits of the dead lost their shapes, each hovering in the air like a glowing ball of light for a brief moment before collectively dashing in every which way towards an exit. As the spirits left the house, the structural integrity of the building gave way. Hastily running towards the exit, Moorcé, Leem and Hahvad just barely made it to the street in time, looking back to see the entire property collapse in on itself and vanish into the earth.
Reeling from the experience Leem, Hahvad and Shachath agreed to accompany Moorcé where every he might lead them. Beckoning them to return to Coruscant and speak with the Council of Judgment, the three women accompanied their Grand Master back to the Temple to accept the pronouncement of the Council. Appearing before the Council first, Leem revealed to the Council her involvement with the house with out apology. Reminding the Council that she was not an orthodox Jedi and certainly not a conformist, she earned the approval of Master Djinn Altis and was offered the position of Temple Master of Bodhi on Tython. Bodhi was to serve as Temple of the Arts on the continent of Masara and would be one of nine temples visited by all Jedi Journeyers during the final stages of their apprenticeship. Agreeing to stay put, Leem stressed that her style would not change but that she was an avid painter and singer and hoped to find salvation at Bodhi. She also requested that Shachath be allowed to stay at Bodhi if she so chose, and continue to study the ways of the Jedi alongside Hahvad. Agreeing to consider the request but insisting on seeing the women, Shachath would travel with Leem to Tython but Hahvad was to train on Ossus as an Acolyte at the Grand Academy where she would expand her precognitive skills alongside her other latent abilities in the Force.
Arts by the sea[]
Stern and strict with her students, Leem's tenure as Temple Master would be remembered for generations.