Callista Ming

"It's something even the Masters don't reveal about the inner nature of the secret heart of the universe. The deepest and darkest secret of all that the Force lets you see. The universe has a sense of humor."

- Callista Ming

Callista Ming, originally known as Callista Masana, was a Human Jedi Knight from Chad during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. She was a member of a rogue sect of Jedi, led by Master Djinn Altis, who were accepted back by the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars, to take command of clone troopers and fight for the Republic. On one occasion, she followed Altis into battle on the planet of JanFathal alongside a contingent of clones and two orthodox Jedi, Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano in order to rescue a Republic Intelligence agent, Hallena Devis. Masana survived the initial stages of the Great Jedi Purge and made contact with other survivors on Belsavis. When the automated dreadnaught Eye of Palpatine came to demolish the settlement, Masana and her lover Geith Eris launched a desperate mission to sabotage the ship. They were successful, but in the process, Masana shed her physical body, remaining embedded in the ship's computer as a spirit.

Many years later, Luke Skywalker and several other Jedi were brought onto the ship as it resumed its mission. Masana, in spirit form, communicated and began to fall in love with Skywalker. She later took the body of one of the other Jedi, Cray Mingla, after Cray gave it up to stop the superweapon once and for all. However, in the process, Masana, now using the surname ‘‘Ming’’ lost her ability to touch the Force. Despite this loss, Ming helped thwart Admiral Daala and the Death Seed plague conspiracy, though she and Skywalker parted ways forever.

On her journey to rediscover the Force, she encountered the malevolent Force entity Abeloth, which absorbed Callista's life essence and Force energy, killing her.

Early life and Jedi training
Born on the water-world of Chad, Masana lived on an ark in a deep-water ranch with her father, unhappy stepmother, and Uncle Claine. She also had an Uncle Dro. The ranch followed the planet's Algic current, ranging from the equator to the arctic circle. Masana's family was not wealthy, but they had a happy life, living mostly on the deep oceans as herders and farmers. From her youth, Masana helped out on the ranch, herding tsaelke and wander-kelp. When the ranch was in wystoh territory and they needed to leave their floating home, the family would send out a foo-twitter to distract the marine hunters, a trick which would help save Luke Skywalker thirty years later. Masana also was known to ride cy'een. The first time Masana used the Force was to move some ice that had trapped her with several sea cows. Afterwards, she knew she had to join the Jedi, but could never make her confused father understand why.

Rather than going through the normal process of separation from her parents and training in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, she was recruited into the Jedi Order by the maverick Jedi Master Djinn Altis in 25 BBY and trained under Altis for five years on his praxeum ship, the second Chu'unthor. Once she constructed one, Masana's lightsaber bore a ring of stylized tsaelke sea-creatures around the hilt in token of her heritage. During a layover on Bespin, she sensed Geith Eris's potential in the Force and asked him to come along with her. He did, though mostly to be with her, and the two fell in love.

The Clone Wars
"You're not what I expected.''" "What, a Sith?" "You're mocking me now." "''You're looking at me as if I've got two heads. I know I shouldn't let it offend me, but it does."

- Callista Masana and Ahsoka Tano on JanFathal

During the Clone Wars, Masana and Eris journeyed with Master Djinn Altis and several other Jedi of their community. They traveled across the galaxy in a freighter, Wookiee Gunner, rendering humanitarian aid to various planets affected by the war. On one such mission, they were headed to Yarille on another relief mission. En route, Masana advocated more directly aiding the Galactic Republic, stating the presence of Altis's Jedi could make a difference, but Altis was reluctant to agree with her and Eris was opposed to the idea altogether. Before they reached Yarille, though, Wookiee Gunner picked up a distress signal from an undercover Republic agent on JanFathal, Hallena Devis. Altis contacted a local Republic commander, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, whose ship, Leveler, was the nearest Republic warship, and offered the services of his Jedi in extracting Devis. Pellaeon, who was romantically linked with Devis, agreed to the Jedi offer.

In short order, Altis, Masana, Eris, and their other Jedi companions were aboard Leveler. While on the Republic ship, Masana marveled at the complexity of the machinery and electrical systems it contained. She met an impertinent Togruta Jedi Padawan named Ahsoka Tano, and Masana made Eris, who fostered a keen dislike of the rules of the orthodox Jedi Order, promise not to antagonize the Padawan. Masana also met Captain Pellaeon, who freely admitted his own interest in rescuing Devis, but asked his officers and the Jedi to keep him accountable to his duty; she admired him for his admission and his hands-on approach to leadership.

As Leveler approached JanFathal, Masana was uneasy with the idea of sending Captain CC-7567, nicknamed "Rex," down to the surface of the planet, feeling that they were likely to be killed. Rex was persistent, though, saying it was their mission, so he and a group of clone troopers accompanied Altis's Jedi and Tano to the planet, with Masana resolving to do her best to keep all of them alive. It was a small force, as Leveler was not carrying a large contingent of clone troopers for surface action. Just before they embarked, Masana asked Pellaeon for an item Devis had handled to help the Jedi track her. They soon were able to trace the Republic agent in the Force, confirming she was still alive, and departed shortly thereafter. For the trip down to the surface, Masana kept Tano close by her, wanting to keep the Padawan away from Eris.

Landing on JanFathal in the city of Athar in a shuttle, the Jedi and clone troopers began their search. To pass the time, Masana briefly explained the differences between Altis's Jedi and the orthodoxy to Rex. Using her skill with computers, she was able to bypass Separatist communication encryption, but in doing so, she opened up all the audio channels at once. She then attempted to filter out communications of interest by ear in the midst of hundreds of simultaneous transmissions. Shortly thereafter, Tano questioned Masana's relationship with Eris&mdash;by this time, the two were engaged. The Padawan also attempted to persuade Masana to abandon what she saw as Altis's heretical teachings. Masana, bemused, did not argue with the Padawan, but pointed out that even within the Jedi Order, a high-ranking Jedi Master, Ki-Adi-Mundi, had no problems with falling to the dark side despite having several wives. She also asked Tano to consider that it was possible to serve the light side of the Force without being part of the orthodox Jedi Order.

The clones and Jedi soon located Devis, but the agent was being held in a district saturated with battle droids. Masana and Tano fended off the droids while Altis and the clone troopers took down Devis's captors and extracted the Republic agent. Once Devis was rescued, he joined Tano and Masana in battling the droids. The droids encroached upon the Republic party, though, killing one clone trooper and injuring another. The Jedi eventually covered their retreat by collapsing a building down on the droids and then racing back to their shuttle. They took off, intending to link up with Leveler, but the Republic warship had been detected by Separatist warships and had jumped to hyperspace to avoid destruction. As such, the shuttle returned to JanFathal, accompanied by a newly arrived Jedi starfighter flown by Tano's master, Anakin Skywalker.

As their spacecraft was not hyperspace capable, Skywalker suggested seizing a Separatist CR-20 troop carrier, which could jump to lightspeed. With Altis and Tano providing a diversion for the droids, the clones, Devis, and other Jedi seized a grounded CR-20 and took off. As they took off, she and Eris applied first aid to an injured clone, Ince, trying to slow his bleeding. The CR-20 departed JanFathal, pursued by the Separatists, but was able to rendezvous with the newly returned Leveler. Once back aboard the Republic warship, Masana learned that the warship's advanced concussion missile launchers were inoperable&mdash;the weapons worked, but the targeting computers were offline. Masana, after obtaining Pellaeon's permission, was taken to the main targeting array where she melded with the computer in order to control the missile launchers. While in a mental state of being inside the machine, she was able to aim and fire enough missiles to destroy seven Separatist warships, allowing Leveler to escape the system.

The Leveler returned to the orbital yards at Kemla to meet up with Wookiee Gunner again. Masana parted on good terms with Tano and Rex, and Altis's Jedi soon departed, heading for Yarille to carry out their original humanitarian mission. For her part, though, Masana had been intrigued by the experience of having her mind joined with a machine, but resolved to not explore it too much further, as she felt it might be dangerous for her to do so.

Later in the Clone Wars, Masana, along with Eris and some other members of Altis's community, decided to aid the Republic in their war effort and rendezvous with the Republic Fleet Auxiliary Support Vessel Redeemer over Thyferra. Eris and Masana openly kissed while in the hangar bay of the ship, something which surprised Null ARC trooper Captain Ordo, as this conflicted with the orthodox Order's views on relationships. She met with Ordo and General Etain Tur-Mukan, who gave Masana and her friends command of some clone troopers. About two months later, Tur-Mukan asked Masana to meet her again, this time on Nerrif, a large Republic supply station in the Mid Rim. Before they spoke, Masana used the Force to try and raise the spirits of some of the wounded clones. While there, Tur-Mukan confessed to Masana that she had secretly taken a lover and had a child, which went against standard Jedi doctrine, so was wondering if she could join with Master Altis and his renegade Jedi at some point. Masana said that she could not see Master Altis turning them away and that she was sad that Tur-Mukan was being made so miserable, just because she was not a normal Jedi. At some point during the conflict, she encountered Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Eye of Palpatine and the children of the Jedi
Djinn Altis, Masana, and Eris survived the Great Jedi Purge, and remained in contact with other survivors such as Master Plett, who was sheltering a group of Jedi children on the remote world of Belsavis. For a time, Masana, Altis and some of the other Altisian Jedi lived in a hiding place on the planet Meserian. They were discovered there by the Mandalorians Bardan Jusik and Fi Skirata, who introduced themselves to the Jedi and explained that they wanted to arrange for three fugitive Jedi to come and live with the sect. Masana asked Jusik if one of the Jedi was Etain Tur-Mukan, so he informed her that Tur-Mukan was dead. Although she was upset by this news, Masana quickly composed herself.

The refuge on Belsavis was soon threatened when the Jedi discovered that the newly-formed Galactic Empire had built the massive dreadnaught Eye of Palpatine to attack Belsavis&mdash;a sort of proto-Death Star armed with powerful experimental turbolasers. Masana and Eris attempted to sabotage or destroy the massive ship, but had a disagreement about their course of action. Eris, a pilot, wanted to flee the ship to warn the others, claiming to have predicted the guns' firing pattern. Masana wanted to disable the ship's main computer by using the Force to make the enclision grid protecting the center misfire and then disabling the ship's computer. However, Eris stubbornly went off without her and subsequently was killed when the guns blew up his ship. Masana, heartbroken, continued with her plan. She knew that the grid would eventually hit her as she proceeded towards the ship's core and that each successive hit would increase her chances of being hit again. Her surmise was correct and her physical body was slain, charred by the lightning of the grid. Masana, however, used her talents in the Force to essentially 'haunt' the battlemoon's gunnery computer.

Reawakening and a new life
"Luke, I died thirty years ago. I'm just&hellip;I'm glad we had this time. I'm glad I stayed to&hellip;to know you."

- Masana, in what she thought would be her final address to Skywalker on the Eye of Palpatine

She remained there for thirty years, until Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and several other New Republic Jedi were captured by the Eye automatic systems, brainwashed, and taken aboard. Other crew taken by the ship included Sand People, Jawas, and Gamorreans, which created a large number of problems for the Jedi. One of the Jawas gave Masana's lightsaber to Skywalker during his initial investigations into the ship. Masana first revealed herself to Skywalker after he was on the run from Sand People, helping him by opening doors and giving him a safe place to hide in a quartermaster's office, sealing the door behind him. While he was inside the office, she revealed herself to him by appearing on a monitor screen while he looked at himself in it. She had been observing him for some time and after he resolved to destroy the weapon, she aided him against the ship's controlling central computer. Since the entire ship was wired, Skywalker could communicate with her spirit via the Force and she with him using the ship's computers and screens and the Force.

However, Skywalker had concerns of his own. One of his students, Cray Mingla, had been brought onboard the Eye of Palpatine at the same time as Skywalker, but Mingla had since been captured by a group of Gamorreans. The ruling ship's computer had determined that Mingla was to be executed, and so Masana aided Skywalker in his efforts to free his student. She helped him rig up a foo-twitter to scare off the Gamorreans, and while he worked, they exchanged life stories, partially through words, and partially by sharing Force visions of their pasts with one another. After being attacked by several of the ship's droids, Skywalker even saw a vision of her final heroics in heading towards the gun room. When he awoke, Masana helped distract the Gamorreans by impersonating the ship's computer to compel the Gamorreans, who were indoctrinated to follow the computer's orders, to attack a rival Gamorrean tribe so Skywalker could free Cray. She also helped him get the eclectic members of the ship's brainwashed crew&mdash;even the Gamorreans&mdash;to landers to get them off the dreadnaught.

During Skywalker's time on the Eye of Palpatine, the two fell in love. Skywalker wanted to have Cray, who was also a noted artificial intelligence programmer, create a human replica droid for her in an attempt to preserve Masana's spirit, as had been done for Cray's lover, Nichos Marr, who was present on the Eye of Palpatine as well. However, Masana insisted that they destroy the automated craft, though, even at the cost of her own life. As Mingla and Masana feared that Skywalker would not be able to put an end to the Eye of Palpatine, Cray stunned Skywalker and transferred him to one of the landers. Instead, with guidance from Masana, Mingla used the Force to misfire the enclision grid while Marr journeyed to the control room and detonated the station. Just prior to the station's destruction, Masana transferred her spirit into the body of Cray Mingla, who wished to die and be reunited with her dead lover.

Search for the Force
"This is beautiful, Luke. All the water. I love the water."

- Ming marveling at the Mulako Water Quarry to Skywalker

Unfortunately for Ming and Skywalker, the process of transferring bodies severed her connection to the Force. While she was able to explain some things about the Jedi Order, including the toys and other artifacts on Belsavis, and also inform Skywalker of the history of the Order, which later was useful in rediscovering the Iron Knights, she herself was unable to use the Force. Skywalker remained loyal to Ming despite this and took upon himself to aid her in reconnecting with the Force after they returned to Yavin 4.

After journeying together to Coruscant to deliver a message warning of Hutt intrigue to Skywalker's sister, Leia Organa Solo, Skywalker and Ming took a trip together in search of reconnecting her to the Force. To this end, he took her to a number of places to try and spark her connection to the Force back while they also tried to deepen their relationship. First, they went to the Mulako Corporation Primordial Water Quarry, which reminded her of her watery homeworld. Although Ming thought it was a romantic, personal place, it did not help her connect with the Force. Instead, she had Skywalker take her to Dagobah, where Skywalker had trained to become a Jedi. They arrived on the planet without incident, but not long after landing, they were attacked by nightbats. In combat, Ming unleashed her anger on them, revealing that she could still touch the dark side of the Force. Skywalker was tempted to think of that as progress, but Ming firmly stated that if she could only touch the dark side, she would prefer never to use the Force again.

Leaving Dagobah, they journeyed to Hoth, where the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi had once appeared to Skywalker, but while heading towards the ruins of Echo Base, they were attacked by two automated turrets. Skywalker and Ming handily defeated them and two entered the base to find a group of hunters. The hunters had been trapped there by a sizable herd of ferocious wampas and tried to get Skywalker and Ming to take them off-planet, but the ice creatures crippled their ship. Although they fell back to Echo Base, the party was attacked en route and after their withdrawal, leading the eventual death of the hunters by the wampas. Ming joined Skywalker in fighting their way back to the ship, managing to resist the temptation to use the dark side and unleash her anger. They took off despite the damage to their ship, but with no hyperdrive and failing life support, Ming was placed in the one life support suit while Skywalker entered hibernation trance and used the Force to call for his sister. The two nearly froze to death until Leia, responding to Skywalker's call, arrived in the Millennium Falcon to save them.

Leaving Skywalker
"I have to go on my own odyssey. I'm confident that someday I will rediscover my powers. That way I can come back to you on my own terms."

- Ming in her last message to Skywalker

Then, the Falcon conveyed Ming and Skywalker back to the Jedi Praxeum to recover, only to find that it was under attack by Admiral Daala's flagship Knight Hammer. Ming joined the defense with the other Jedi, but realized that she would not be as effective as the others, who were using the Force to battle Daala's ground troops. Ming wanted to stand equally strong as the other trainees, not be left behind in their wake. Seizing a damaged Imperial TIE Bomber after killing the pilot, who had been trying to repair the grounded ship, Ming infiltrated the Knight Hammer. She landed in a hangar bay after giving a false radiation alarm and found the deserted hangar to be full of loaded TIE bombers. She then set a large number of the bombers to explode on a timer inside the hangar, severely damaging the engines of the ship, dooming it to crash into the planet Yavin. Ming went on to confront Admiral Daala, preparing to sacrifice herself to stop the renegade admiral. Resigned to her fate, Ming used the Force to direct her lightsaber, regardless of the dangers of the dark side, deflecting blaster bolts fired by the admiral. Daala eventually fired on stun to incapacitate Ming and left her to die on the doomed ship. Ming was presumed dead, but revealed her survival to Skywalker. However, she left him nonetheless, realizing she needed to strike out on her own to rediscover her Force connection. She felt that remaining with Skywalker put too much pressure on her, and was too painful, though she did hope to return to him one day. Ming hoped to return to Skywalker, but only if she was able to regain her Force powers without using the dark side.

In 13 ABY, she was working on the Gamorrean trading-ship Zicreex. Bogged down on Gamorr during slush-time, she became caught-up in the murder of the Gamorrean warlord Vrokk, who had supposedly been slain by Guth, one of the crew on the Zicreex. Vrokk's wife, Kufbrug, had sealed off the room where Vrokk had been murdered, and Guth had been a one-time romantic interest of hers. Ming was able to convince Kufbrug to let her investigate the murder, although the Gamorrean held the other crew of the Zicreex as prisoners. Ming contacted Sebastin Onyx, a poet, and obtained an enzymer from a local Bith. Constructing a reflective panel in the room where Vrokk had been slain, she and Kufbrug waited until evening, when the murderer revealed itself to be a Kheilwar from Af'El. Ming and Kufbrug fought off the creature until, cornered, it changed its shape to resemble those it had seen. This particular kheilwar changed into images of Rog and Gundruk&mdash;Vrokk's brother and Kufbrug's daughter, who had been trying to murder Vrokk, Guth, and eventually Kufbrug in order to take over their sizable holdings. Ming, refusing to succumb to the temptation to use the dark side, and Kufbrug fought off the kheilwar until morning, when it was destroyed by the sunlight. Having solved the murder, Ming and the others were finally cleared of all charges and released.

Planet of Twilight
Ming resurfaced later in 13 ABY, on Nam Chorios, the "Planet of Twilight", where she had gone in hopes of finding her connection to the Force as it was a Force nexus. Ming briefly fell in with two local Force-sensitives, Taselda and Beldorion, but later left them after seeing their pettiness&mdash;Taselda was an old crone who plotted against Beldorion and Beldorion was content to do little but eat and sit in his palace, nearly enslaved to the exiled Seti Ashgad. However, she quickly learned that the planet was infested with droch insects that carried the Death Seed plague, which had once killed billions across the galaxy in years past. Journeying into the arid wasteland, she joined up with the Theran cultists and meditated in search of the Force. Additionally, she helped operate the gun stations that kept ships from landing and possibly becoming infected with the Death Seed plague.

Ming later delivered a warning to Leia Organa Solo not to meet Seti Ashgad because of the danger of the Death Seed, after Ashgad had requested a meeting with the Chief of State. Organa Solo chose to ignore the advice. In the meeting, Organa Solo was drugged and captured by Ashgad, while Skywalker tried to fly in to Nam Chorios to find Ming. Little did he, or Ming, know that Organa Solo had been captured by Seti Ashgad and was being held in his estate. Eventually, Organa Solo managed to escape into the desert, where Ming, who had been keeping Ashgad's people from attacking the gun stations that kept large ships from escaping, met her. There she aided Organa Solo in defeating the Hutt Dark Jedi Beldorion, providing instruction in lightsaber combat and the Force to Organa Solo. Skywalker, meanwhile, was drawn into the plot to unleash the Death Seed after his own encounters with Taselda and the Newcomers, even spotting Ming from a distance during an attack on a gun station. After being tricked into entering Ashgad's estate, he was able to defeat the plague's sentient manifestation, Dzym, and stop Ashgad by recruiting the native Force-strong crystalline Tsils. The Tsils, who were aware of the Death Seed plague, helped Skywalker stop Ashgad and cure the Death Seed spreading through the sector in exchange for the return of all the Tsils that had been stolen by Loronar Corporation as part of Ashgad's plan. After the conflict was resolved, Skywalker and Ming met. Although painful, their brief meeting&mdash;consisting of one look&mdash;brought resolution to their relationship and they realized that going their separate ways was for the best. Luke Skywalker eventually went on to marry Mara Jade. There was a rumor among the students at the Jedi Praxeum that Jade had arranged for Ming's permanent disappearance.

The Maw
"Luke... Join with me. Save me."

- I Will. I will save you.

At some point on Ming's journey, she ventured into the Maw and discovered a dangerous planet. There, Ming encountered the dark side entity known as Abeloth, who stole her life energy and absorbed her, resulting in her death. This allowed Abeloth to take on both Ming's original appearance and that of Cray.

When Skywalker, his son Ben, and their tenuous Sith allies arrived on the planet to confront Abeloth in 44 ABY, Skywalker was shocked to discover Ming's Force presence in Abeloth. Abeloth had previously used Skywalker's feelings for Ming to reach out to both him and his son aboard their ship, the Jade Shadow, making the two think that the presence was Mara Jade Skywalker's. Although Abeloth at first tricked Skywalker into believing that she was actually Callista Ming, the Jedi soon realized that it was a lie, and that Abeloth had killed Ming. Skywalker was able to resist Abeloth’s influence, and despite a betrayal by his Sith allies, he was able to defeat her. Soon after, the Skywalkers and the Sith confronted Abeloth once again on the moon Pydyr, during which Abeloth once again used Ming's appearance after Skywalker killed her previous body, that of Akanah Norand Goss Pell, another former love of his. As Skywalker had already been injured in the engagement, he was unable to pursue the Callista-incarnation of Abeloth, which escaped.

Abeloth next went to Nam Chorios, the very site where Callista and Luke had last seen one another. There, after distracting the Skywalkers and Khai while she healed and gained control of the Theran Listeners, Abeloth again appeared to them in the form of Callista. It was revealed that Callista could influence Abeloth, though not control her. It was Callista's love for the Jedi that had compelled Abeloth to reach out to them at Shelter, and Callista's love for Luke that caused them both to want him to join them. Luke allowed Callista to engage him with her mind and with the Force, expanding both of their Force presences as they relived her memories of the past, felt her love for him and - underneath that love - the pain and loneliness she felt after being consumed by Abeloth. He then used the Mnemotherapy technique he had learned from the Listeners to tear Callista's presence away from Abeloth, ripping her from the bonds that anchored her to the physical world. It was a brutal act, and it hurt Abeloth greatly. But Luke had successfully pulled Callista's spirit free from the monster, and she was able to give him one last look of gratitude before disappearing into the Light Side of the Force with a smile.

Legacy
Ming was a witness of both the Jedi Order in the last years of the Galactic Republic and the survival of the Order's fragments after the Purge, passing on valuable information from the old Jedi Order down to the New Jedi Order in the form of knowledge, techniques, and abilities she had learned from Master Altis. Some of the children from Plett's refuge on Belsavis, which she had saved from destruction by her sacrifice on the Eye of Palpatine, became Imperial agents or trainees at Luke Skywalker's Praxeum. However, the final fates of Masters Plett and Djinn Altis remained unknown to New Republic historians as of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

Personality and traits
"We don't have to sit out this war. Is there nothing we can do?"

- Callista Masana on the Clone Wars

As a Jedi under Djinn Altis, Masana believed, like her Master, that there was nothing wrong with attachment and relationships. Though she and her fiance Geith Eris occasionally disagreed on matters, the love they shared was a source of joy for Masana, and she was adamant in stating that her relationship would not lead her to the dark side. Gilad Pellaeon found her sincere and sensible. Masana also felt she needed to be more tolerant than the mainstream Jedi Order and refused to argue with Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano over philosophy, or even to tell Tano of the failings Masana saw in the orthodox tenets. One guiding principle of Masana's was to not interfere with others unless they were actively doing harm; this influenced her reasoning to not promote a schism with the mainline Jedi Order. Her Master, Djinn Altis, also later chided her for being too self-sacrificial.

Even in spirit form, Masana had a wry sense of humor and easy-going nature. Even in seemingly hopeless circumstances, she could make jokes and do impressions of others, such as Pekkie Blu and the Starboys. She was pragmatic, determined, headstrong, and impulsive, deciding on a plan and carrying it out with little need or desire for consultation. She was also very dedicated to the Jedi way, albeit the unorthodox brand practiced by Djinn Altis, and was willing to sacrifice her life to save others of the Order, which she did on the Eye of Palpatine. She also had great commitment to causes she believed were right, keeping her spirit inside the battlemoon's computer for thirty years to keep it from completing its mission. She could also be stubborn, utterly implacable once her mind had been made up.

Masana, owing to her upbringing on Chad, also had an affinity for water and watery places. Masana was a follower of the orthodox Jedi beliefs in the light and dark sides of the Force and, once she realized that she could only touch the dark side of the Force, said that she would rather never use the Force again if she would have to turn to the dark side. Showing an independent streak, she left Skywalker forever in her own search to regain her connection to the Force, as she realized that she did not want to drag him down or have his power smother her efforts to regain her connection to the Force. Undaunted by the trials she faced in her original body, in corporeal form, and in Cray's body, Ming remained true to the Jedi way, despite a lack of connection to the Force.

Powers and abilities
Masana knew a number of powers unfamiliar to most of the Jedi Order of the Old Republic. Jedi Master Djinn Altis was a maverick, allowing Jedi trainees to become romantically attached, and he taught techniques&mdash;such as the ability to preserve one's consciousness after death by transferring it to an inanimate object&mdash;which were lost to, or condemned by, the mainstream Jedi Order. She was skilled in the use of a lightsaber, and was able to wield the Jedi weapon in combat even without the aid of the Force. She also was capable of using mind influence to help ease the psychological pain of injured clone soldiers during the Clone Wars, which she did if given permission to do so. Another Force technique she knew was applying the Force to constrict blood flow in order to prevent bleeding; she used this technique on JanFathal to try and stem the bleeding from a ruptured femoral artery of an injured clone trooper. Working with other Jedi who had received similar training, Masana was able to use a form of psychometry to track a person's location after touching an object handled by the person. Out of all of Djinn Altis's Jedi, Masana was considered the best with computers and machines. She easily bypassed Separatist communications encryption and was able to successfully meld her mind with a computer temporarily in order to manipulate the weapons systems aboard a Republic warship. Masana later developed this skill to the point where she was able to transfer her consciousness to and from a machine at will.

Masana was also a skilled gunner, as she operated emplacements on both the Eye of Palpatine and Nam Chorios to good effect. Even after losing her connection to the Force, she could still understand and explain training aids and techniques employed by earlier Jedi, but longed to explore the Force for her own. In her previous life, she had been able to employ a number of Force powers, but once she assumed Cray Mingla's body, though she was still physically fit, was unable to use the Force. When she did manage to tap into the Force, on Dagobah and on the Knight Hammer, it was in the form of the dark side, but she was able to use that power to both employ a Force Whirlwind to hurl away predatory nightbats and guide her lightsaber to deflect blaster bolts.

Geith Eris
"Don't leave me, Geith. I can't do it alone."

- Masana's final words to Eris on the Eye of Palpatine

Despite the traditional Jedi ordinance against romantic relationships and marriage, Djinn Altis allowed his students to develop serious relationships. Masana had a serious relationship with Geith Eris, a fellow trainee who was a skilled pilot. The two entered the automated Eye of Palpatine dreadnaught and attempted to disable it. Masana wanted to access the gunnery room and disable it from within by causing the enclision grid to misfire, but Eris disagreed and left in a Skipray to seek help, over Masana's protests. The dreadnaught's gunnery systems killed Eris, and Masana later shed her body to stop the war machine.

Luke Skywalker
"I love you, Callista&hellip;''" "''And I love you. Thank you for bringing me back this far."

- Skywalker and Masana

In spirit form, Masana met Luke Skywalker when he was brought onto the dreadnaught years later. The two quickly grew attracted to each other, and another Jedi, Cray Mingla, gave up her body also to stop the dreadnaught, allowing Masana to enter it. Skywalker and Ming's relationship deepened and grew more intimate, but hit a snag when she discovered she could no longer touch the Force. Despite Skywalker's best efforts, she realized that she would not be content unless she could touch the Force and that Skywalker's power was overshadowing and interfering with her progress. After learning she could only touch the dark side, Ming left Skywalker on her own journey to find the Force, though she readily admitted that she loved him. She stated at one point that she had hoped to return to him once she recovered her powers, but that never came to pass. A single look between them on Nam Chorios told both of them that their time together was over. After Abeloth killed Callista and took her appearance, she used her form to reach out to Luke Skywalker. While he discovered that Callista'a appearance was an illusion created by Abeloth, Skywalker was shocked and pained that three decades after their last encounter, he still loved Callista.

Behind the scenes
Callista Ming was first created by Barbara Hambly for the 1995 novel Children of the Jedi, as a love interest for Luke Skywalker. In many ways, Ming's personality is similar to Skywalker's except that for much of the series, she is frustrated by her inability to use the Force, making her a dramatic foil to Skywalker's command of the Force. Ming later appeared in Kevin J. Anderson's Darksaber and Hambly's Planet of Twilight, as well as various other reference materials discussing those events, and a short story by Hambly called Murder in Slushtime. Interestingly, Callista Ming's surname was not revealed until Murder in Slushtime, written after the trilogy of novels. Her name is similar to that of the person whose body she occupied, Cray Mingla. The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia refers to Callista as Callista "Ming," with the surname in quotes. Most recently, she made a minor appearance in the 2008 novel Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel, where her original name was identified as Callista Masana. The same author who wrote Order 66, Karen Traviss, later included Callista in another novel of hers, The Clone Wars: No Prisoners, which gave the character a larger role in a battle during the Clone Wars.

According to Kevin J. Anderson, Ming was originally intended to be "the great love of Luke Skywalker's life," as part of an assignment from Lucasfilm to author Barbara Hambly, who created Ming. However, by the time Anderson started writing Darksaber, fan reaction over character Mara Jade from the Thrawn Trilogy had become such that Lucasfilm decided that Skywalker and Jade would ultimately end up together. As such, Anderson worked with Hambly to find a way to slowly exeunt Ming over the course of Darksaber, but without killing off the character. Anderson and Hambly also worked closely together in plotting what became known as the Callista trilogy&mdash;the three novels Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and  Planet of Twilight.

The name "Callista" could be rooted in several different real-world topics. It could be from the Greek translation of the name, which means "most beautiful" (derived from kallistos) or the moon that shares a similar name. Callisto is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter. However, Callista is also both the name of an 1855 novel and a genus of clams. The novel Callista also features a female main character who is attractive, but unhappy with her life and is forced to make a difficult choice over religion which leads to her eventual death.

It was revealed at Celebration V by Fate of the Jedi authors Christie Golden, Aaron Allston, and Troy Denning that the idea to use Callista in Allies was around from the very beginning of the story-arc planning process. Golden confirmed that Callista was in Abeloth, but was too severely corrupted as a result to turn back. More details are to emerge throughout the series, and the authors also said that the opening excerpt to the series, in Outcast, might possibly be attributed to Callista, but that fans would have to wait until the final book in the series, Apocalypse, to know for sure.

Appearances

 * The Clone Wars: No Prisoners
 * Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
 * Imperial Commando: 501st
 * Children of the Jedi
 * Darksaber
 * Planet of Twilight
 * The New Rebellion
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Survivor's Quest
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Allies
 * Vortex
 * Conviction
 * Conviction

Notes and references
Callista Ming Callista Callista Ming Callista Callista Ming