Lumiya

"You’re afraid that my words might be true. That the dark side doesn’t corrupt in and of itself. That you’re destined to become the next Sith Lord… Because if it is true, you have to make a decision, choosing between your life as it is—comfortable, but almost purposeless—and life as you know it should be."

- Lumiya

Lumiya, born Shira Elan Colla Brie, is a major antagonist in the Star Wars Legends continuity, serving as the main antagonist of the first five installments of the Legacy of the Force novel series. She is a former Imperial assassin and spy who later declares herself Dark Lady of the Sith, and later succeeds in turning Jacen Solo to the Dark Side of the Force.

Early years and Imperial spy
Born on Coruscant during the height of the Galactic Empire, she was chosen by COMPNOR to be apart of the Empire's youth indoctrination program. She would become an Imperial Intelligence operative as well as a pilot in the Imperial Navy. Being Force-sensitive, Brie would catch the attention of Darth Vader, who would train her in the ways of the Dark Side. She would go on to become one of the Empire's top spies and would even infiltrate the Rebel Alliance.

As a spy, Lumiya would become a member of Rogue Squadron and became a trusted agent of the Alliance; secretly, she would sabotage several Rebel missions. Her standing in the Alliance continued to grow after she saved the life of her fellow members of Rogue Squadron from an ambush on Arbra, earning her a promotion to the rank of Captain.

During a mission to destroy a secret Imperial armada and destroy a captive teezl (a creature that had a natural ability to bolster or disrupt hyperspace communications) Rogue Squadron piloted modified TIE Fighters to infiltrate the fleet. Brie would manipulate the teezl to disrupt the rest of Rogue Squadron's fighter-to-fighter communications; this would lead to Luke being unable to tell his squadmates apart and destroying Brie's TIE Fighter. For this action, Luke would be stripped of his military commission in the Alliance and would also face trial.

Later, Luke would investigate Brie's past and would learn that she was, in fact, a double agent. Luke would obtain data recordings from an Imperial fortress and used this to clear his name.

Emperor's Hand
Despite appearing to have died when her fighter was destroyed, due to biological modifications she received during her Intelligence training, Brie survived, despite suffering severe injuries. Darth Vader learned of her survival and had her brought to his flagship, the Super Star Destroyer Executor. After undergoing numerous cybernetical modifications in order to save her life, Brie would train further under Vader and took the name Lumiya.

Because the Rule of Two forbade Vader from taking Lumiya as a full apprentice, she would serve as one of the Emperor's Hands, secret assassins who answered directly to Emperor Palpatine, while continuing to serve as an enforcer for Vader. Vader sent Lumiya to Ziost, the ancient homeworld of the Sith species, to further train in the ways of the Sith. While on Ziost, she created her signature weapon: the lightwhip, a version of a lightsaber that functioned more like a bullwhip.

Lumiya was still training on Ziost when both Vader and Palpatine were killed during the Battle of Endor. When she learned of this, she declared herself Dark Lady of the Sith and continued her quest for Dark Side wisdom on her own, and vowed revenge against the Rebels.

Early campaigns
Following the fracturing of the Empire after the deaths of Vader and Palpatine, Lumiya became one of the many warlords vying to restore the Empire. She would build up her own fleet of starships and forged an alliance with the Nagai. She would also take on an apprentice, a former stormtrooper named Flint, who had also been a former pupil of Darth Vader. She tasked him with conquering the Phelleem sector as well as killing Luke Skywalker. This endeavor failed when Luke convinced Flint to turn back to the light side.

Making use of her Nagai allies, Lumiya attempted to kidnap Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, and several other Rebel leaders. After killing an Alliance scouting party, she learned that neither Leia or Mon Mothma had anything to do with that particular mission; rather, Luke Skywalker himself ordered it. Luke tracked Lumiya to the planet Kinooine, where she had set up her base of operations, and the two dueled. Lumiya was initially successful against Luke, as Luke was not prepared to fight against her lightwhip.

Luke would confront Lumiya a second time, this time wielding a shorter lightsaber with a synthetic red blade, known as a shoto. This time, wielding both his regular lightsaber and the shoto, Luke was victorious. Though rather than finishing Lumiya off, Luke tried to convince her to turn back to the light side, much like Darth Vader had. Lumiya refused and spitefully declared that she would only be satisfied when Luke was killed.

Continuing her campaign against the Alliance, Lumiya would obtain Alliance battle plans from a deep cover spy of hers embedded within Alliance ranks and launched an attack on Endor, personally leading the attack from her own personal starfighter. Though the attack was successful at first, eventually the Rebel leaders changed their battle plans, which caused the tide to turn in their favor and eventually forced Lumiya to retreat.

Lumiya and her Nagai allies would also launch an invasion of Zeltros, a Rebel-allied world. However, Zeltros would also be invaded by the Tofs, who were ancient enemies of the Nagai. Nagai would side with the Alliance, who were also enemies of the Tofs, causing Lumiya to renounce her alliance with them and align herself with the Tofs instead. She attempted to use her newfound allies to help her kill Princess Leia, but was betrayed by one of her former Nagai allies and robbed of this chance. She was though to have been killed, but survived and quietly slipped away from the battle.

The Yuuzhan Vong and Vergere
Following her defeat at Zeltros, Lumiya retreated to the shadows to try and rebuild her power base. She was able to gain a powerful ally in Ysanne Isard, who provided her several TIE Fighter squadrons as well as several platoons of stormtropers, including a detachment of the Imperial Royal Guards. One of these guards was Carnor Jax, whom Lumiya took on as her second apprentice. In exchange for Isard's support, Lumiya agreed to undertake several important tasks for her, including investigating Rebel infiltration of Imperial Intelligence facilities in the Cron Drift, and tracking down Mara Jade, another former Emperor's Hand, to try and convince her to rejoin the Empire. She tracked down Jade and dueled her, but was unable to convince her to return to the Empire or kill her, and Jade escaped.

During the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong, Lumiya encountered Vergere, a Jedi-turned-Sith who had been held captive by the Vong. Vergere completed Lumiya's Sith training. Both of them desired to restore the Sith Order to promimence, but neither of them could do it on their own; despite both of them being very strong with the Dark Side, Lumiya's abilities were hampered by her cybernetic augmentations, and Vergere had been tainted by her association with the Yuuzhan Vong. They decided to turn Jacen Solo, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, to the Dark Side to help them restore the Sith. Vergere would re-ally herself with the Yuuzhan Vong and arranged for Jacen to be abducted. While in Yuuzhan Vong captivity, Vergere would begin training Jacen. However, after the two escaped, Vergere was killed protecting Jacen and his twin sister, Jaina. Because of this, it would be some time before Jacen's training could resume.

The seduction of Jacen Solo
10 years after the defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong, Lumiya had taken up residence on an asteroid near the planet Bimmiel that had once been the stronghold of the Sith Lord Darth Vectivus, and was therefore strong in the Dark Side of the Force. Encountering the spirit of Vectivus, Lumiya learned how to create Force Phantoms: malevolent manifestations that could interact with and influence the physical realm. She also began actively pursuing her goal of turning Jacen Solo to the Dark Side.

Lumiya reached out to Thrackan Sal-Solo to organize several terrorist attacks on Corellia. Jacen, alongside his cousin Ben Skywalker and fellow Jedi Nelani Dinn, were sent to investigate, which eventually lead them to the planet Lorrd.

Lumiya revealed herself to Jacen on Lordd and told him that she sensed that Jacen was beginning to feel disillusioned by his life as a Jedi. She told him that the Jedi Order cared more about self-preservation than achieving peace in the galaxy, and, despite their role in the defeat of the Empire and the Yuuzhan Vong, the galaxy was more chaotic than ever, and that the only way Jacen could achieve a unifying peace in the galaxy was by becoming a Sith. When Nelani Dinn tried to arrest Lumiya, Jacen killed her. He then agreed to be trained in the ways of the Sith.

By the time of the outbreak of the Second Galactic Civil War, Jacen had been given command of the Galactic Alliance Guard. The GAG followed Jacen and Lumiya's agenda in painting the Jedi Council's control of the Galactic Alliance as being dictators. Eventually, Luke Skywalker and his wife, Mara Jade Skywalker, were able to figure out that Lumiya was manipulating the GAG, but were unaware that Jacen was involved too. Eventually, Jacen and the GAG were able to overthrow Galactic Alliance Chief of State Cal Omas, and declared himself Chief of State. Mara would eventually figure out that Jacen was in league with Lumiya and confronted her nephew, which ultimately resulted at Mara's death by her nephew's hand. Ultimately, this completed Jacen's transition into becoming Dark Lord of the Sith.

Luke Skywalker (who was tracking Lumiya independent from Mara's confrontation with Jacen) contronted Lumiya for one final time on the planet Terephon, ultimately falling to the Jedi Master. As she was dying, Lumiya revealed that she had successfully converted Jacen to the Dark Side that Luke's wife was dead. Her mission complete, she allowed herself to die.