Harrar

"Yun-Harla is said to reserve her most cunning tricks for those most devoted to her."

- Harrar

Harrar was a Yuuzhan Vong of the Priest caste, often referred to as Eminence Harrar in accordance with his respected position. Worshiping the deception goddess Yun-Harla, Harrar was also a close advisor to Warmaster Tsavong Lah. In the early stages of the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of their promised galaxy, he orchestrated and oversaw the phony defection of the assassin Elan to the New Republic, although following the failure of this scheme he was recalled to the Outer Rim Territories. However, Harrar's close ties to the Warmaster enabled him to return to favor and he was tasked with the capture of Jaina Solo at Hapes in order to facilitate the sacrifice of the twins.

Harrar's faith in his race and their aggressive invasion began to wane as the conquest of the galaxy saw continual setbacks. He soon began to admire the Jedi whom he had first sought to assassinate, and developed a fascination for Jedi Knight Jaina Solo, who eluded him both at Hapes and at Borleias. In the final year of the war, Harrar undertook a clandestine journey to the living planet Zonama Sekot, deeply intrigued by the secrets it supposedly held for his species. After an epiphany on the world, he professed to understand the true path for his wayward race, and worked alongside the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances to secure the future of the Yuuzhan Vong. He went on to become instrumental in ending the conflict, not only leading a task force into the Well of the World Brain on Coruscant but also acting as a mediator during the peace talks which followed. Eventually, Harrar accompanied his species on Zonama Sekot in their self-imposed exile to the Unknown Regions.

Early years
At some point, Harrar was attached to the training division of Tsavong Lah, the future Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong. The two gained a measure of respect for each other, and Tsavong Lah counted on the priest as a loyal friend and companion. However, unlike the Warmaster, Harrar was not wholly supportive of the invasion of the galaxy; following the coup which installed Shimrra Jamaane as Supreme Overlord and toppled Quoreal from the throne, Harrar may well have become a secret follower of the deposed Supreme Overlord. However the deception priest continued to serve the government of Shimrra Jamaane for many years, viewing the Supreme Overlord as the sole conduit to the gods.

The Elan debacle
After the Battle of Ithor, Harrar was one of many priests given control of military forces, and was to lead his during the First Battle of Obroa-skai alongside the reticent Commander Tla, coordinating the battle from a highly advanced vessel known to the Yuuzhan Vong as a priestship. Overseeing the spoils and sacrifices attained from the library world, Harrar learned of the Force from a Gotal H'kig priest and became convinced that the invasion was a holy war between the "false god" of the Force and the "true gods" of the Yuuzhan Vong. The deception priest quickly devised a plan to remove the Jedi as a threat. He contacted Elan, daughter of his peer the Most High Priest Jakan, and armed her with bo'tous spores, which when specially exhaled from the carrier's lungs would kill all present. Harrar worked alongside the Executor Nom Anor, organizing Elan's fake defection to the New Republic. However, the operation soon became a drain on resources as Harrar attempted to ensure the success of the plan by allowing his forces to be defeated in their attempts to "reclaim" the defector. Thus the New Republic won several victories, most notably in the Meridian Sector and at Ord Mantell, attracting the displeasure of the Yuuzhan Vong military command. Eventually, much to Nom Anor and Harrar's dismay, the Peace Brigade, a collaborationist organization newly formed by Anor, decided to aid the Yuuzhan Vong by returning Elan to them, believing her to be an actual defector from her species.

During Peace Brigader Reck Desh's ignorant attempts to return Elan to the Yuuzhan Vong in the middle of a pitched battle, Han Solo discovered the true nature of Harrar's plot. Onboard the Millennium Falcon, Elan triggered the bo'tous spores and died, failing to eliminate even a single Jedi. The failure of the plan resulted in Supreme Commander Nas Choka's chastisement of the priest for committing so large a portion of the fleet to an ultimately pointless venture. Harrar was recalled along with Commander Tla to the Outer Rim Territories, whereas Nom Anor was able to dodge the blame and continue his operations in the galaxy. Fortunately for Harrar his banishment was short-lived; his old friend Tsavong Lah, now controlling the invasion personally, took him on as a spiritual and tactical advisor. Prior to the assault on Yag'Dhul, Harrar sent his peer Ngaaluh to the Warmaster, with the news that Elan's familiar, the Fosh Vergere, had escaped the custody of the infidels and returned to the Yuuzhan Vong.

Resurgence
"It is my task to oversee the sacrifice of the twin Jeedai."

- Harrar

During his push towards the Core in the latter months of 27 ABY, Tsavong Lah brought Harrar to the Sunulok, his flagship, in order to have the priest watch over the grafting of a radank claw onto the Warmaster's arm. Although Lah had wished Harrar to preside over the grafting himself, the task fell to Vaecta, the priestess of Yun-Yammka attached to him by Shimrra himself. Harrar remained in his advisory capacity, although the priest was dispatched by the Warmaster to Myrkr in order to aid his old ally Nom Anor in capturing the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina Solo&mdash;for it had been said that in return for giving the Warmaster Coruscant, the gods wished a sacrifice of the Jedi twins. As the galactic capital fell to the Warmaster's forces, Harrar remained in contact via villip with his friend from Myrkr, warning Tsavong Lah not to descend to the planet's surface to meet with Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya, who planned to commit suicide at the Imperial Palace and eliminate the Warmaster with a proton bomb. Although Coruscant had now been secured, Tsavong Lah's radank implant rapidly began to fail, and Harrar pursued Jaina Solo from Myrkr to Hapes, in an attempt to aid his friend in securing the pleasure of the gods. In fact, unbeknownst to Harrar, the failing implant was due to the machinations of a group of shapers and priests who wished to control the Warmaster; now working alongside Khalee Lah, the Warmaster's fanatical son, the deception priest continued to track Jaina Solo. Shackled to Khalee Lah, accompanied by his bodyguard Neeka Sot and forced to deal with pirates and Peace Brigaders, Harrar pursued Jaina throughout the Hapes cluster, continually awed by the Jedi's abilities at deception and trickery. Harrar began to entertain the notion that Jaina was indeed a physical manifestation of Yun-Harla, the goddess he worshiped. However, Harrar kept his heresy secret from Khalee. The priest had often found it hard to trust in a goddess who excelled in deception, and the actions of the Solo female evoked a sense of belief in him which he had not experienced for some time. Following the successes of the Jedi in foiling their attempts at capture, even the crew began to whisper that she was chosen of Yun-Harla. Harrar grew tired of Khalee's constant and narrow-minded fanaticism, and in the culmination of the Solo campaign, during the Battle of Hapes, he agreed with the young warrior's suggestion that Khalee's suicide was the only recompense for the warrior's failure.

The death of Tsavong Lah's son did not end the scheme; Harrar remained in charge of the effort to apprehend Jaina Solo, and joined Czulkang Lah, the Warmaster's father, at Borleias, where Solo had joined the command of General Wedge Antilles, who was leading the rearguard action at the planet in order to buy the New Republic enough time to recover from the loss of Coruscant. During the campaign, Harrar joined with the veteran Yuuzhan Vong pilot Charat Kraal and his elite squadron; together they planned to capture the elusive Jedi, who was now openly referring to herself as the 'Goddess'. However, Kraal was duped repeatedly by Solo, finally dying during the last battle in the system (during which Czulkang Lah himself was killed as the Lusankya rammed his command ship). With an entire worldship destroyed, Czulkang Lah dead and Jaina Solo beyond his capabilities to capture, Harrar ordered the retreat of his personal vessel.

Some time later, Harrar was present at the arrival of Supreme Overlord Shimrra on the newly re-christened Yuuzhan'tar. During Shimrra's interrogation of Nom Anor regarding the failed defection of Jacen Solo, Harrar surprised the Executor by stepping forward from Most High Priest Jakan's delegation and speaking in Anor's favor. Nom Anor's project with Jacen Solo had occurred concurrently with Harrar's own attempts to capture Jaina; Anor assumed that this was why the priest defended the Executor who had betrayed him years before over the Elan disaster. Whatever the case, Harrar retained a high position in Shimrra's court. He was often present at the meetings of the Great Council, holding the rank of High Priest, and once allowed his old peer Ngaaluh, now unbeknownst to him a secret member of the Jeedai heresy, to be present with him at a meeting concerning the progress of the heretical movement.

Zonama Sekot
"This planet has driven you mad, Harrar. You side with the Jedi against me?''" "''I side with Zonama Sekot."

- Nom Anor and Harrar confront each other

As the invasion wore on, Harrar's concerns over the failure of Shimrra and the fact that the Supreme Overlord may not have had the support of the gods deepened. He met secretly with the heretic shaper Nen Yim, and revealed himself as a Quorealist, those who supported Shimrra's deposed and now deceased rival. However, moments later he claimed that it had been a pretense; stating that although he did practice heresy, he remained loyal to Shimrra, invoking the wrath of the gods if he lied. Nen Yim left, uncertain of Harrar's motives, but secure in the knowledge that he would aid her as best he could. Harrar agreed to contact Yu'shaa, the so-called Prophet of the Shamed Ones and help Yim escape Yuuzhan'tar in order to study Zonama Sekot. At first, Harrar claimed he would not accompany her; his departure would be noticed. However, by the time Jedi Knights Corran Horn and Tahiri Veila arrived to extract Nen Yim and Yu'shaa (in fact a disguised Nom Anor), Harrar had lied about his whereabouts to the court and decided to travel with the unlikely group on a journey to Sekot.

The deception priest's motives in visiting the planet were by then threefold. He wished both to terminate the threat of Yu'Shaa, the Prophet, and also to study and perhaps neutralize Zonama Sekot itself. Finally, Harrar had concluded that Shimrra's association with the heretic Nen Yim marked the Supreme Overlord as a heretic himself. The priest now saw Shimrra as a threat to the Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;one who perhaps had to be removed. Though on arrival, Harrar was struck profoundly by the beauty and harmony of the living planet. He entered into long discussions with Corran Horn on the Yuuzhan Vong's reverence of pain, on the Jedi, Ithor and the Force. The two found themselves strange allies, and as Harrar's fascination for the planet grew, so did his ease of working alongside the infidels.

Harrar admitted to Corran his belief that the destruction of Ithor was wrong, and lamented over the fact that peace could seemingly never exist between the Yuuzhan Vong and the inhabitants of the galaxy. Not only this, but he grew to respect the heretic Nen Yim and the work she was doing for their species, often asking of her discoveries on the planet. The priest agreed with her that Zonama Sekot could teach the Yuuzhan Vong that competition and aggression were not the only way forward, and came to understand that his people had lost the grace of the gods. However these revelations were betrayed by Yu'shaa, who murdered Nen Yim and was discovered to be Nom Anor. The Executor had revealed Harrar's treachery to Shimrra and went on to sabotage the hyperspace engines attached to the planet in an attempt to tear it apart. Harrar, Horn and Tahiri teamed up to apprehend the disgraced Executor before he could escape. In a skirmish with Anor, during which at several points he very much had the traitorous intendant at his mercy, Harrar made a brash lunge at the Executor and fell over a rain-drenched cliff. He was presumed dead by both the Jedi and Anor.

The duty of the priest
"From here, then, we must at least attempt to mark a new beginning."

- Harrar

However, Harrar survived and was discovered by the native Ferroans. During a conversation with Luke Skywalker, Harrar stated that learning of the possible connection between the ancient Yuuzhan Vong homeworld and Zonama Sekot had shattered his faith. He spoke much of Yuuzhan Vong culture, their gods, and Shimrra's ascension. Believing that the Yuuzhan Vong had strayed and become blasphemers for their wanton destruction, he decided that he was chosen to bring his people back on the right path, alongside the Jedi.

As he spent more and more time on Zonama Sekot with the Jedi and Master Skywalker, Harrar grew increasingly sure of his mission. He now saw it as his duty to lead his people back onto the right path. Zonama Sekot, Harrar believed, was their home. When Skywalker and Sekot revealed to Harrar that his people had been stripped of the Force, the priest collapsed, shocked. He journeyed with the Jedi to Contruum, where the Galactic Alliance fleet was assembling for the re-capture of Coruscant. There, he told them that he would aid their entrance to Shimrra's citadel. He saw that Shimrra had to die or be toppled for the war to end. For these purposes, Harrar allied himself with the task force.

The priest traveled with Han Solo, another member of the Solo clan whom he grew to admire, leading him and his party in the Millennium Falcon to the Well of the World Brain in order to put a stop to Shimrra's deliberate destruction of the planet, an action which he found abhorrent. Guiding the party through the lethal thorn maze surrounding the Well of the World Brain, Harrar came face to face with his former compatriots. Most High Priest Jakan assumed Harrar had led the captives to the Well in order to sacrifice them, graciously informing his old friend that he could preside over the ceremony himself. Harrar startled Jakan by telling him that he had come to neutralize the World Brain; however the Most High Priest moved ahead with the preparations for the sacrifice, relegating Harrar to a position on the sidelines.

As the captives were readied for the ceremony, a massive crowd of Shamed Ones, led by the ever deceitful Nom Anor, entered the atrium and were ordered by High Prefect Drathul to stand down. When reinforcements came in the form of warriors, it seemed that for Harrar and his new allies all hope was lost. But the new arrivals had joined to fight against Shimrra, and attacked Drathul's forces. At this crucial juncture, with events at their most chaotic, Harrar and the Solos saw Master Shaper Qelah Kwaad dashing to the Well of the World Brain, and set off after her. Jakan attempted to stop Harrar from entering the Well, but was struck down easily by his former comrade. As Nom Anor strangled Drathul, Harrar caught up with Kwaad and apprehended the Master Shaper before she could influence the World Brain. The priest then led the surviving members of the Elite outside to the square in front of Shimrra's citadel.

Departure into the unknown
"What I did, Warmaster, I did for all of us."

- Harrar to a defeated Nas Choka

With the death of Shimrra, Harrar believed that the battle would end. However, Warmaster Nas Choka ignored Harrar when the priest broadcast the news of the Supreme Overlord's death to the Yuuzhan Vong armada. Once Choka saw with his own eyes the destruction of the Supreme Overlord's vessel&mdash;unbeknownst to Choka it was Onimi, the true Supreme Overlord, who had been slain&mdash;the Warmaster issued the orders which brought the battle to a close. Harrar was led to Zonama Sekot again, where he had a deep conversation with the planet's intelligence. His discussions, during which he learned that Zonama was a seed of his ancestral homeworld, led him to reason with Warmaster Nas Choka following the liberation of Coruscant. Seated with the Jedi in the vast hold of the Ralroost, Harrar persuaded the Warmaster that there had never been a Yun-Yammka, their deity of war, and their species had failed themselves when they turned to conflict. Grudgingly, Choka accepted the terms of the peace.

Harrar left for Zonama Sekot one last time. As the planet prepared to leave the Coruscant system, he spoke with Master Skywalker again, professing his thanks for the discoveries he had made. He saw the tasks that lay before the Yuuzhan Vong but accepted them with gratitude; he understood them as the only means by which he could save his people. The former priest of deception remained on the living planet to help lead his species to their new future.

Personality and traits
Harrar's shrewd mind and cunning befitted his role as a deception priest. His innate intelligence and mental flexibility enabled him to analyze different perspectives, although this did not mean that he was dispassionate. In his conversations with Corran Horn on Zonama Sekot he professed that he felt the destruction of Ithor was wrong, and thus he displayed an inherent capacity for what the overwhelming majority of his race lacked: compassion.

However, this contrasts with his behavior in other theaters of the invasion; Harrar demonstrated no qualms in sacrificing hundreds of captives to his gods. This perhaps shows that Harrar needed to believe in something; so long as he did he would act without question, unfailingly and indeed selflessly, and always for the good of his people.

Much like his contemporary, Ngaaluh, Harrar acted upon his feelings to explore other possible futures for the Yuuzhan Vong. When he was unable to do so in accordance with the customs of his species, Harrar was forced to turn away from his violent fellows. Due to his oft-tested loyalty, Harrar found himself making decisions which would presently harm his people, but later bring them peace. It was this loyalty to the Yuuzhan Vong which gave Harrar the strength seemingly to betray them.

Behind the scenes
Harrar was created by James Luceno and debuted in Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial. His character arc evolves over the course of the series, and alongside Nen Yim, Tsavong Lah and Nom Anor, Harrar is one of the chief means by which the reader comes to understand the Yuuzhan Vong as a race. The priest again emerges fully in Dark Journey, as a foil to the blunt brutality of Khalee Lah and perhaps a near-sympathetic Yuuzhan Vong character; Nen Yim shares much the same role as the series develops and the invaders move from the villainous shades of black and white to a race with its own ambiguities. Greg Keyes portrays Harrar's dilemma and clash of loyalties in The Final Prophecy, and Luceno, in The Unifying Force, brought the priest's arc to its conclusion.

The image of Harrar used in this article comes from Star Wars Gamer 8, but is only identified as Harrar in the filename of the image on the old version of Jeff Carlisle's website (now cached at archive.org). The cover to the Japanese edition of The Final Prophecy depicts Harrar differently, based on an image of an un-named Yuuzhan Vong in the Hero's Guide. This image conflicts with his description in the novels. He is given five digits on each hand, while he should only have three on each.

Appearances

 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
 * Traitor
 * Destiny's Way
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force