Zaella Sabir, born Zael'lasabir, was a female Twi'lek Force-sensitive. Born on Ryloth during the reign of Tarni Hadan, the self-styled Dark Lord of the Sith, Zaella was taken from her parents for training as a Sith. Apprenticed to Izkara Raltadus, Zaella chafed under her master's rule, eventually forsaking Hadan's cause after her life was spared following a duel with Jedi Padawan Narasi Rican. Forced to confront her beliefs about the Force, Zaella unintentionally grew close to Narasi and Tirien Kal-Di over the following months, ultimately forsaking the dark side and becoming a Jedi herself.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
A rare Lethan Twi'lek, Zaella was born in 1,403 BBY, in one of Ryloth's outlying villages. Due to the distance from major cities such as Kala'unn and Lessu, Zaella was only discovered after she was a few years old. She was taken to Lessu for training by Tarni Hadan's Sith disciples, though she had little interaction with Hadan herself. Eventually Zaella became the apprentice of the Sith Knight Izkara Raltadus. She joined Izkara on more than one mission to Nar Shaddaa to deliver Twi'lek slaves to buyers.
Zaella suffered greatly under Izkara's tutelage, which was often indistinguishable from torture. Izkara firmly believed that suffering created power, and she set her apprentice difficult or impossible tasks and punished her brutally for mistakes or failure. Punishments Zaella endured included being forced to work in brothels (where her rare red skin made her highly desirable to both Twi'leks and offworlders), being left outside to endure Ryloth's ferocious climate, and being directly tortured by Guldroq. Zaella despised Izkara, but was unable to overpower or kill her master, and often internalized her anger or took it out on others.
Zaella took to using ryll spice to cope, as well as to dampen the pain of physical torture. In her free time, she enjoyed sketching; a slave who had been an artist helped her expand her skills until he was killed in a mining accident. Zaella had an on-again, off-again relationship with fellow Sith apprentice Nykan Racor.
Circumtore[]
Zaella faces off against Narasi and Ghrond
In 1,386 BBY, Hadan dispatched Zaella and Izkara to Circumtore to participate in an auction run by Runganna the Hutt for a weapon of mass destruction. Zaella clashed with Narasi Rican, the Padawan of Jedi Knight Tirien Kal-Di, who was present bidding for the Republic, and when Runganna declared a Koboskya no Jankpa, Zaella was set to duel Narasi to the death. The two were surprised when Ghrond Farshyk, Runganna's Dashade champion, confronted them, and after several unsuccessful sallies they joined forces to bring Farshyk down.
Zaella defeated by Narasi
Zaella attempted to continue the fight against Narasi, but was disarmed and knocked down. As Narasi prepared a killing blow, she begged for mercy; to her surprise, Narasi spared her life, and Tirien subsequently defended her against Izkara, whom he killed moments later. When the Jedi prepared to leave the world with the nuclear bomb, they took Zaella with them as a prisoner, though Tirien informed her he was judging whether she could reform.
Conflict of Interest[]
Zaella quarreled with Narasi often on the way to Guudria, though she was too afraid of Tirien to confront him much. She was defensive about the injury to her left lek, realizing it would impair her ability to communicate, and obstinate in her opposition to learning Jedi healing techniques even as they helped Narasi recover from her own wounds. On Guudria, she accompanied Tirien and Narasi but declined to actually assist them whenever possible. As her maimed lek became infected, Zaella resisted help, but finally it became so bad that she was forced to ask Narasi to amputate the tip for her. Before she could, Tirien took the job, cutting so precisely that he left as much lek as possible.
As she recovered, Zaella grudgingly opened up a little to Narasi. After Narasi taught her to swim, the two began sparring daily, and Zaella taught Narasi some Juyo techniques. Realizing she could not return to Hadan, she considered defecting to the New Sith Empire, and tried to pry stories about Darth Alecto out of Narasi. Narasi floated the idea of Zaella becoming a Jedi, which Zaella dismissed out of hand, though it gnawed at her privately.
Eventually, the "Jedi" who had been ruling Guudria—Maia Kyss, Bras Kozondo, and Jirdo Yushari—came to confront the Jedi party; Zaella held up against their Force powers and pegged Bras as a dark sider. She wanted a chance to fight Jirdo, though Tirien restrained her. In subsequent encounters, Zaella found herself fighting alongside the Jedi to protect Marekka. When Maia attacked the village with a host of new dark side powers, Zaella confronted her, only to fall screaming in the face of Maia's Mind Shard twice. The third time, after unsuccessfully trying to summon Force lightning, Zaella charged only to have Narasi stun her by grabbing her lekku. After the fight, Tirien deduced that Hadan had carved holes in Zaella's natural mental shields; swallowing her pride, Zaella asked Tirien to help her repair the damage, to which he agreed.
Jirdo surrendered to the Jedi and confessed that none of them were actual Jedi Knights, but had come to Guudria following Bras's directions and Maia's confidence in her own destiny. Bras returned to the village, unleashing such ferocity that Tirien, Narasi, and Zaella together barely held him off in a duel. When they deduced that Bras had been possessed by a Sith spirit, all four of them entered the Tomb of the Brokkodds and confronted Chelshgodrû Brokkodd. While Brokkodd possessed Narasi and Tirien dueled her, Zaella and Jirdo deduced that Brokkodd's sarcophagus tied him to life and destroyed it. Zaella consoled a horrified Narasi in the wake of the fight.
As they returned to the Crescentia, both Tirien and Narasi pledged to stand up for Zaella with the Jedi, and they allowed her to keep her lightsaber as a sign of good faith and trust. When they arrived at Vondarc, however, the Jedi received the news that the Crescentia and its entire battle group had been destroyed.
Chiaroscuro[]
Despite Raven Kaivalt's entreaties, Tirien and Narasi chose to pass through Eriadu in search of survivors, and despite her lack of concern for the survivors, Zaella agreed to accompany them. They managed to rescue Yan Razam and flee to Pelagon, where the Kaivalts offered them sanctuary on Inimă Eserzennae. Zaella chafed under Raina and Miklato Kaivalt's obvious distaste for her Sith past, and began bullying Raina's Padawan, Renata Cul'Caritas.
Tirien, Yan, Raven, and Narasi decided to lead an assassination mission against Gasald, and many Tapani Jedi elected to join them. Zaella was initially uncommitted, though she finally volunteered after taking Gaebrean Kaivalt as a lover. Though she trained with the strike team, she caused tensions throughout, as many Tapani Jedi believed she remained a Sith or, at best, would default to using the dark side when faced with life-threatening danger, and thereby endanger the Jedi. Despite hostility or indifference from many of the Tapani, Tirien worked with Zaella every day to patch the "holes" Tarni Hadan had left in her mental shields.
As the launch time for the mission neared, Jirdo confided his fear that the Jedi were leaning on the dark side. Though initially dismissive, Zaella reconsidered her position after Raina took her to the Kaivalts' hidden Jedi shrine and told her the story of Donarius Kaivalt and Kansa Rocca, emphasizing how the dark side could poison beings if not actively resisted. When Zaella shared her concerns with Narasi, however, the two nearly came to blows, and Zaella felt angry and unappreciated.
Tirien, Raven, Bernius, and Zaella infiltrated the Allanteen Six shipyards, where they discovered Gasald was aware of their mission, though Jarkun'eir'saikal had killed the assassins lying in wait for them. The Second Chance successfully boarded the Kiss of Death, and as the Jedi made their way to Gasald's throne room, Zaella distracted Twi'lek Sith Kydo Telsan until Jarkun mortally wounded him; she killed him rather than leave him alive and potentially able to summon help, though it left her feeling wrong.
When the Jedi confronted Gasald, she used her ability to bend the mind of others to increase Zaella's feelings of rejection and isolation, as well as aggravating Narasi's jealousy into rage, and Narasi attacked Zaella. Zaella managed to hold her off until Gaebrean came to her aid, but she and Narasi had barely joined forces against a White Guard when Sir Kobold Baliss killed Gaebrean. Only Raven's intervention prevented Zaella from joining that duel, though she cut down more Sith in vindictive fury. When she came upon Tirien dueling Gasald, however, the intensity of the darkness between them terrified her. She convinced Narasi to see what was happening, and Narasi talked Tirien down just as he was about to murder Gasald in cold blood.
The survivors escaped to Pelagon, where Zaella mourned Gaebrean while also processing how deeply the dark side had frightened her when she had seen its true face. When Tirien swore a Barash vow to go into exile and meditate on his destiny, Zaella joined Narasi and Jirdo in accompanying him, hoping the group might help her find her way.
A New Path[]
After a terrifying, Force-astrogated trip through hyperspace, the Second Chance arrived at Tython. Zaella enjoyed the amplification of her powers, though she disliked the Keeper, Tython's mysterious guardian. Zaella was intrigued by the Lost Jedi, particularly Visas Marr, a former Sith apprentice who became a Jedi. After weeks of mixed guidance and needling from Narasi and Jirdo, Zaella finally gained the courage to confess her murder of Kydo Telsan and her resultant guilt. Narasi and Tirien urged Zaella to become a Jedi as a means of moving past her pain and clearing her conscience, and, for the first time, Zaella began to consider it.
The group discovered the ruins of Kaleth and excavated the Tho Yor hidden there. Understanding both that Narasi was not helping Tirien, and that a vision Narasi had received in Kaleth was psychologically damaging her by the hour, Zaella invited her on a Great Journey, mimicking the ancient tradition of the long-vanished Je'daii Order. Narasi accepted, and the two women took Gizmo and the Second Chance for their voyage. They trekked up the mountains to Stav Kesh, the Temple of Martial Arts, where Narasi taught Zaella the Jedi approach to fighting. However, Narasi's own concentration suffered, and Zaella deduced she had shied away from the Force after her vision. Zaella stole and consulted Kwhuel's holocron for advice, then confronted Narasi, who eventually conceded the truth of it and agreed to work with Zaella on restoring her own balance. Zaella took a Force-imbued sword as a souvenir, but also out of a growing discomfort with wielding her Sith lightsaber, which she had made without real care and which she had used for evil.
After two months at Stav Kesh, Zaella and Narasi took the Second Chance to Qigong Kesh, where they honed their Force skills. During focused meditation, Zaella received visions not only of her past evils, but also a possible future if she continued in her violent, vengeful ways. Frightened by the possibility and desperate to avoid becoming the Zaella she saw, she at last agreed to become a Jedi. Narasi's joy was short-lived, however, because Zaella, who trusted only Narasi and Tirien, wanted to become Tirien's second Padawan. Though they remained cordial and supportive, the issue drove a small wedge between them.
The rest of the Great Journey was brief—Bodhi was in ruins, and most of the other temples were lost. At Vur Tepe, they found Jirdo, who had hiked overland to build his own lightsaber, only to find himself short a focusing crystal. As a first exercise in both generosity and shedding attachments, Zaella sacrificed the crystal from her sword for the project. Once Jirdo built his lightsaber, the group retrieved Tirien at the Temple, then voyaged to Akar Kesh, where Tirien received a vision that concluded his Barash vow.
Jirdo left the group when they stopped for supplies at Borleias. Tirien declined to become Zaella's master, but took her to Elata Cazars to persuade the Twi'lek Warrior Master to take Zaella on as a student. Zaella committed to the Jedi path, but Narasi also interrupted to say that it was so important Zaella become a Jedi that, if Cazars did not take Zaella as a Padawan, she would accept Zaella as her co-Padawan. Zaella was moved almost to tears, and Cazars's awe that Tirien and Narasi stood for Zaella as they did compelled her to give Zaella a chance and take her as a Padawan.
Master and Apprentice[]
Zaella and Elata confront First Isk
Zaella worked hard in her first year of apprenticeship, building herself a new lightsaber and often accompanying her master into high-level strategic discussions. When the Republic attacked the Supreme Modality stronghold at Ord Trasi, Zaella fought beside her master against First Isk.
Zaella kept in touch with Narasi via Jedi beacon transceiver, and occasionally by holo. She shared Narasi's excitement when Aldayr Nikodon finally returned, and did her best to comfort Narasi when it emerged that Aldayr had defected to the Modality (though she could not entirely shake her former habits, and "comfort" included offering to send Narasi Aldayr's testicles in a jar).
Borderline[]
After Ord Trasi, Zaella accompanied Elata to Muunilinst, where the Jedi Master successfully courted the support of the Muuns against the Modality. Agreeing with Mali Darakhan's assessment that Aresh had something in the works, Elata followed the Force in pursuit of Aresh, taking Zaella with her. After roaming the Void of Chopani, they decanted at the derelict Redeemer and successfully infiltrated the ship, but were detected. Ordering Zaella to flee, Elata held off Aresh and his Vanguardians, dying in the process.
A grief-stricken Zaella escaped the Redeemer to hyperspace, but her ship was caught and disabled in a comet storm. She sent an Emergency Code Nine Thirteen and sank into a hibernation trance; Tirien and Narasi came to her aid and rescued her, taking her back to Mali's Eighth Republic Expeditionary Fleet. Zaella was despondent over having both lost and left her master, though Tirien and Narasi tried to comfort her; Tirien took temporary charge of her rather than sending her back to Coruscant. When Zaella sketched the Redeemer, Narasi contacted Master Dil-Faan Ravaydi, who identified it as a cathedral ship. The Jedi were horrified to realize that Aresh intended to retrieve a virus which had all but annihilated the Pius Dea fleet at the Battle of Uquine, and which had the potential to cripple the entire galaxy's spacefaring fleet.
When Mali ultimately opted for a small-unit attack against the Redeemer, including using the baradium-core nuclear bomb Tirien, Narasi, and Zaella had recovered from Runganna, Zaella insisted on going with the team. Aboard the Valor, Zaella and Kenza retrieved Elata's kalikori; Zaella was heartbroken anew to discover Elata had added both Zaella and her former Padawan, Dogr Quam, to the kalikori, effectively adopting them as family. Kenza talked her down from her rage, though, encouraging her to remember the good times rather than dwell on the loss.
With Zaella, Mali, Narasi, and Kenza in hibernation trances, Tirien and W1-J8 got the Second Chance aboard the Redeemer. While Tirien and Mali went to confront Aresh, Kenza and the Padawans went to the hangar bay in search of Aldayr. Narasi confronted Aldayr and Kenza fought Second Esk, leaving Zaella to cripple the hangar's outbound craft while fending off a Fourth Rank Vanguardian. Narasi was forced to kill Aldayr, and was so distraught she barely defended herself from a followup attack by Purifiers. Zaella came to her rescue, but Kenza had to lead them both out of the collapsing hangar bay. As Narasi and Kenza worked to save a mortally wounded Tirien, Zaella flew the Second Chance past the Modality ships and astrogated the way back to the Eighth Fleet.
As Tirien convalesced, Zaella declined Narasi's invitation to become his co-Padawan, though she was deeply grateful; the two remained beside Tirien's bacta tank until his survival was assured. After he recovered, the five Jedi were summoned back to Coruscant, where they were all awarded the Chancellor's Service Medal. After a memorial service for Elata, Zaella spoke with Dogr Quam, who declined her offer of the kalikori; he appreciated the gesture, but believed it belonged with a Twi'lek. Only moments later, Kenza offered to take Zaella as her Padawan; though surprised by the offer, Zaella ultimately accepted.
The Playground[]
As Kenza's apprentice, Zaella spent considerable time on Alpheridies and became known to Kenza's Alpheridies Rangers. One of them, Traid Cargan, became her casual lover, though she was conscious of the risks of attachment and their attraction remained primarily surface-level. Zaella also acquired a starfighter patterned along the make of Kenza's Angel Wing, which she named the Elata in honor of her former master, as well as an astromech dubbed W1-D6. At Tirien's request, Kenza and Zaella visited the Crusader, where Kenza taught the blinded Lune Gemazz to use Force sight and Zaella met many of the Crusader Knights and Padawans, including Trizane Caprioana.
Nearly a year after the cathedral ship, Tirien and Narasi summoned Kenza and Zaella to Kashyyyk, where Tirien shared their discovery of a cortosis mine run by Black Sun. The Jedi involved agreed to send a four-Padawan task force to Nar Shaddaa to investigate, led by Narasi; Zilq Riega and Trizane joined Zaella to fill out the group. Zaella was eager to work alongside Narasi again, though less sanguine about Zilq, who struck her as highly naive. Their early experiences on Nar Shaddaa did nothing to dispel Zaella's concerns. Zaella intuited Trizane's attraction to Narasi and encouraged Narasi to pursue it, suggesting it might help her complete getting over Aldayr. Zilq and Zaella clashed again when a Trandoshan dock owner tried to steal their belongings, threatening to kill Gizmo, and Zaella dismembered him.
After a week of fruitlessly pursuing leads, the Padawans located the Brokerage, but their plan to search it for clues about Black Sun was derailed when a shipment of Twi'lek slaves was delivered from Ryloth. Sickened and incensed, Zaella persuaded Narasi to lead an attack; their hasty attempt at subtlety instead fell apart when Mizhette Kanau, a former colleague from Hadan's Sith, discovered them. Zaella won a duel against Mizhette and nearly beat her to death before Narasi stopped her. Narasi briefly considered executing the slavers who had survived the initial attack, but Zaella persuaded her not to, having learned from her own experiences with cold-blooded killing.
Once they sent the freed Twi'leks on their way, the Padawans fled, but Narasi collided with a spice thief and accidentally overdosed. Zaella's fear for her friend nearly pushed her over the line into the dark side, but she reined herself in at the last second. When Doctor Chenf Ori'quasalniod offered to treat Narasi in exchange for sex with Zilq, Zaella again faced the test, but recognized she would likely not return from the dark side a second time; Zilq was willing to take the blow for Narasi, and though Trizane "persuaded" Chenf to forego the arrangement and treat Narasi for free, Zaella and Zilq came to a new bond over their mutual love for Narasi.
As Narasi convalesced, Zaella gambled the group's credits in a sabacc game, winning enough to finance their undercover infiltration of Singularity and repairs to the Second Chance besides. Narasi successfully harvested Black Sun data, but the group was discovered; they prevailed in an initial hand-to-hand fight, but when former Jedi Jheno Jaray joined the fray, Narasi ordered Zaella to lead the others out. Zaella did, but when they realized Narasi had been captured, she was crushed by the realization that she had left someone she loved behind again. After discovering the data included nothing on the cortosis, Zaella led the Padawans in infiltrating Black Sun's headquarters to rescue Narasi, allying with Gank of Ganks along the way. While Narasi and Zilq pursued Mar'sebbin, Zaella and Trizane dueled Jheno, barely holding him off until Mar'sebbin died and Jheno called off the duel.
The four Padawans returned to Kashyyyk to post-mortem with their masters and plan next steps.
Powers and Abilities[]
Zaella, like all Sith under Tarni Hadan, was trained for an aggressive style of lightsaber combat. She chose a form similar to pure Juyo, but lacked the control to channel her emotions for the form's maximum potential. Despite not reaching her full potential, Tirien Kal-Di still considered Zaella a cut above the average and more than a match for many Jedi Padawans her own age. She managed to outmaneuver and disarm a Fourth Rank Vanguardian at age nineteen. Training under Elata Cazars and Kenza Rowkwani, she learned to incorporate various Ataru gymnastics and greater agility into her Juyo.
Zaella was capable of using dark side Force powers such as Force choke, but could not use Force lightning, apart from a single instance aboard the Kiss of Death. She had "holes" in her mental shields, though she did not realize it until Tirien discovered them; months of focused meditation and Jedi training repaired her mental defenses.
Zaella was a canny and merciless sabacc player, and a talented sketch artist.
Appearance and Personality[]
Zaella possessed the rarest Twi'lek skin color, red. She had black tattoos on the bases of her lekku, which she intended to supplement over time before her capture by the Jedi. She had amber eyes and stood 1.71 meters tall, and had an athletic, busty physique. After her stint on Guudria, her left lek was a few centimeters shorter than the right, though usually only other Twi'leks took special note of it. She initially carried a lightsaber with a Sith red blade, though she lost the weapon for a few weeks after surrendering to Narasi during their duel and ultimately threw it away after converting to the light; when she built a new, Jedi lightsaber, it had a teal blade.
As a Sith, Zaella internalized much of her hatred, anger, and bitterness, which made her liable to snap at inopportune times and often resulted in punishment from Izkara. She had the ability to take her mind away from mentally unpleasant situations, though she could only endure so much physical torture before breaking and she used spice to cope when her emotions started to get the better of her. Her love of sketching hinted at a more creative side she refused to show anyone else until Narasi pried it out of her.
Narasi and Tirien's influence very slowly drew Zaella out of the dark side and helped her confront her sins without losing herself in guilt. When she ultimately decided to join the Jedi Order, she retained her sharp edges and snarky personality, but had shed most of the vicious defensiveness of her Sith days. Narasi remained her best friend, and she and Tirien held special, permanent places in Zaella's heart. Zaella grew close to Elata and was devastated by her death, but managed to overcome her grief and rage rather than falling back on the dark side. She considered Visas Marr one of her personal heroes, inspired by the former Sith's ability to become a Jedi without being forever consumed by grief and self-loathing.
Behind the Scenes[]
Sakaros did not initially intend Zaella's prominence within both the UNSWS in general and Narasi's storyline in particular; her character evolved rapidly during her initial appearance in Sins of the Father, and Sakaros ultimately came to consider her, as J. K. Rowling described Severus Snape, "a gift of a character".
Appearances[]
- Sins of the Father
- Moments of Truth
- Revenge of the Jedi
- The Will of the Force
- The Way of the Krayt Dragon (Appears in hologram)
- Countdown to Destruction (Indirect mention only)
- The First Cut (Appears in hologram)
- Lightning and Fire (Mentioned only)
- The Hundredth Day
- Vendetta III: The Void (Mentioned only)
- Fault Lines (Mentioned only)
- Vulnerabilities (Mentioned only)
- The Adventure of the Mysterious Mine (Mentioned only)
- Underworld