Vergere

"Everything I tell you is a lie. Every question I ask you is a trick. You will find no truth in me."

- Vergere to Jacen Solo

Vergere was a Fosh Jedi Knight in the waning years of the Galactic Republic. She was the former Padawan of Jedi Master Thracia Cho-Leem and was instrumental in helping the New Jedi Order defeat the Yuuzhan Vong. By 40 ABY, the Sith revealed that she had also, secretly, been one of them.

Jedi career
"Is it what the teacher teaches or what the student learns?"

- Vergere to Jacen Solo

Almost immediately after she hatched, Vergere was taken under the wing of Jedi Master Thracia Cho-Leem, who later instructed her in the ways of the Jedi. Not much is known of her early life except for an adventure in 33 BBY, when Vergere was part of a Jedi task force sent to Asmeru by Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum to capture the leaders of the Nebula Front, a year before Valorum was voted out of office and Senator Palpatine took his place as the new Supreme Chancellor.

According to an account given by Lumiya to Jacen Solo in 40 ABY, Vergere was a rogue student, secretly studying sources outside of approved Jedi doctrine. Lumiya claimed that Vergere's studies of other rogue Jedi, including Count Dooku, had led her to Darth Sidious, and at some point between 32 BBY and 29 BBY, Vergere became a student of the Sith Lord. According to Lumiya, Vergere subsequently attempted to kill Sidious when she discovered the extent of his megalomania, but her murder attempt failed, and she was forced to flee from his assassins, accepting a mission from the Jedi Council to Zonama Sekot, where she was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong. It is noteworthy that scholars of the New Jedi Order independently also concluded that Vergere could have been a Sith agent and failed apprentice to Palpatine.

In 30 BBY, the Jedi Council received reports of an attack on beautiful and mysterious Zonama Sekot, which was known for making incredibly fast spaceships. Vergere was sent to investigate by the Council, and when she arrived, she discovered that the alien invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong, who were intent on gaining the secrets of the planet's organic technology, were far stranger than she had expected. The Yuuzhan Vong could not be felt through the Force and like the Ferroan colonists on Zonama Sekot, they used biological technology for ships. On top of that Vergere learned that they were actually from another galaxy.

Vergere learned that the Yuuzhan Vong desired to rule more than just Zonama Sekot: they hoped to control the galaxy. When the Ferroans did not comply with their wishes, the Yuuzhan Vong opened fire on the planet. Realizing that the Galactic Republic and the Jedi were not prepared to fight such powerful creatures, Vergere agreed to leave with them if they would break off their attack. Amazed by her Jedi talents, which she told them came from Zonama Sekot, the Yuuzhan Vong eagerly agreed.

A year later, the Jedi Council dispatched Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to Zonama Sekot in an attempt to discover what had happened to her, to no avail. Two years after that, the prospect of discovering her whereabouts was part of the impetus that led to the launching of Outbound Flight.

Life with the Yuuzhan Vong
Over the next fifty years, Vergere lived with the Yuuzhan Vong, teaching them about the Republic and the Jedi while secretly building up a collection of information about the extragalactic aliens themselves. Vergere was able to avoid having her Jedi powers detected by the Force-sensing Yuuzhan Vong war coordinators, the yammosks, by learning to "make herself small". Vergere would shrink her presence in the Force to a microscopic size, where she was almost undetectable. In this state she could also modify tiny things like molecules. Vergere became a familiar of Yuuzhan Vong Priestess Falung, and later of the Priestess Elan. She also destroyed her lightsaber, hiding her affiliation with the Jedi Order.

The Invasion
"I am Vergere. What are you?"

- Vergere to Jacen Solo

When the Yuuzhan Vong decided to begin their invasion of the galaxy, Vergere traveled with Elan on several missions and continued to aid the Yuuzhan Vong. During this time, she also encountered the captured A'Sharad Hett, whom she had known briefly as a Jedi. With Hett captured in the Yuuzhan Vong Embrace of Pain, Vergere pushed him towards the Dark Side and also discussed with him the future of the Sith Order. However, Vergere abandoned Hett as he refused to follow Darth Bane's Rule of Two and sought to recreate the Sith once again under the Rule of One. Afterwards, Vergere would only focus in reshaping Jacen Solo as a Sith Lord.

Vergere was accompanying her mistress on a covert operation wherein Elan allowed herself to be captured by the Republic, claiming that she was defecting from the Yuuzhan Vong ranks, but in reality was preparing to spring a trap on the Jedi. Elan's fellow Yuuzhan Vong were not informed of her plan and attempted to rescue the priestess.

With her options running out Elan sprang her trap, unleashing a cloud of bo'tous spores, and adding insult to injury was killed by them. Vergere was able to escape, leaving behind a vial of her tears in the process, which turned out to be successful in slowing the deadly coomb spore disease that was affecting Mara Jade Skywalker. One of Vergere's gifts was the ability to control the molecular structure of her tears, giving her the ability to produce poisons as well as antidotes from her tear ducts.

Alliance with Lumiya
After this, Vergere apparently made contact with Lumiya, the self-proclaimed Dark Lady of the Sith since the death of Sidious. The events of this period are unclear, with two accounts being provided, one from Lumiya and the other from her rivals, the followers of the One Sith doctrine.

According to Lumiya, she and Vergere discussed possibilities for creating a new Sith Lord, dismissing Luke Skywalker as being too dogmatic, Leia Organa Solo as being too afraid of Darth Vader, Jaina Solo too emotional, Mara Jade Skywalker too attached, and Kyp Durron as too unpredictable and stubborn. They finally settled on Jacen Solo.

One Sith agreed that Lumiya and Vergere decided to make Jacen into a Sith Lord at this point, but they claim that this was a deliberate rejection of the One Sith plan, a plan which both of them were aware of. According to the One Sith version, the initiative in this came from Lumiya, who argued to Vergere that One Sith's long-term plan would be undermined by the rising power of Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order.

Lumiya had been invited to join One Sith on Korriban, and had apparently been en route when she was cut off by the rapid Yuuzhan Vong advance, but her emphasis on the Rule of Two may suggest that her opposition to the rival group also had an ideological aspect. She did not follow up on their subsequent invitation to join them, and she did not mention the existence of the One Sith organization to Jacen. Although she intimated to Alema Rar in 40 ABY that her plan for Jacen could survive without her, she seems to have privately considered herself very much alone in her project.

In all this, Vergere's true intentions are hidden behind the agendas of the other participants. All that is known with any probability is that she made contact with Lumiya, who seems to have been ideologically opposed to the new Sith Order on Korriban, and she subsequently chose to re-train Jacen in opposition to their plans.

Jacen Solo
"Vergere sacrificed herself so you could assume the Sith mantle she wanted for you."

- Lumiya to Jacen Solo

After returning to the Yuuzhan Vong, Vergere rose through their ranks, becoming an advisor to Warmaster Tsavong Lah and an important rival to Nom Anor, whom she was partnered with on a mission to Myrkr with orders to capture the Solo twins. From the Yuuzhan Vong point of view, the mission turned out to be only a partial success, as only one of the twins, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo, was captured. Vergere took a great interest in the young Jedi, torturing Jacen using the methods of pain that the Yuuzhan Vong had perfected. Through this torture Jacen came to understand the ways and motives of the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen became Vergere's apprentice, and she passed on to him her unique philosophies and theories about the Force that could return true order and stability to the galaxy. Vergere stressed to Jacen the concept that there was no dark side and that the Force itself is neutral. All bad and dark motives comes through the Force user himself who uses his abilities with wrong and selfish desires.

"You're a Jedi" ...Vergere laughed... "There are no Jedi here."

- Jacen Solo to Vergere

The unlikely pair hatched a plan to sabotage the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming of Coruscant. The city-covered world had been captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and was slowly being transformed into a jungle planet reminiscent of Yuuzhan'tar, the extra-galactic world that the Yuuzhan Vong had originated from. Jacen had established a psychic connection with the World Brain, the controller of the terraforming process, when it had been a seedling. Using this connection the two were able to wreak havoc on the Yuuzhan Vong-held planet and eventually escape Coruscant.

Vergere and Jacen returned to what was left of the New Republic. Suspicious of her motives, the New Republic authorities imprisoned her for a time while they determined whether she was a defector or a spy. During her internment Vergere had several discussions with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker about the nature of the Force and the Yuuzhan Vong. Skywalker wondered why they were seemingly outside of the Force, and whether they deserved the same rights as others. She convinced him that they did, changing some of his opinions concerning the Jedi Order's part in the war. Soon after Vergere was released, she learned of the deadly Alpha Red bio-weapon and destroyed it using the chemical properties of her tears, which led the New Republic to label her as an enemy and force her into hiding.

But Vergere was drawn to Ebaq 9, where Jacen was participating in a hazardous mission against the Yuuzhan Vong. During the Battle of Ebaq 9, Vergere tricked the Yuuzhan Vong into allowing her to get close to their base. Sensing Jacen was in mortal danger, she acquired an A-wing starfighter and crashed it on the surface of the asteroid, in the heart of the Yuuzhan Vong's forces. The crash killed her along with all of the Yuuzhan Vong, except Warmaster Tsavong Lah, who was defeated in close combat soon after by Jedi Knight Jaina Solo. Vergere appeared to Jacen Solo after her death to comfort him. Vergere and Luke Skywalker believed that he had a special destiny, and that she must aid him in finding it.

Legacy
"The dark side corrupts, the Sith are inevitably drawn to evil." "I can prove one who isn't."

- Jacen Solo and Lumiya

In 40 ABY, Lumiya lured Jacen Solo, his cousin Ben Skywalker, and Jedi Nelani Dinn to the alleged ancient home of Darth Vectivus. She convinced Jacen of Vergere's association with the Sith. Following this, Jacen agreed to learn about the Sith philosophy from Lumiya and, murdering Dinn to prevent Lumiya's arrest and wiping Ben's memory to assure no knowledge of the events would spread, left to make time for his instruction and to search for a Sith apprentice. Lumiya later told Jacen that she and Vergere had looked at all the members of the Skywalker family and Kyp Durron as potential apprentices until he was chosen.

A few months later, Alema Rar, claiming to be Lumiya's apprentice, encountered One Sith on Korriban. They spoke casually of Vergere's alliance with Lumiya, leading the shocked Twi'lek to ask if the Fosh Jedi had been a Sith. They responded to this as if it was something they would have expected her to know, but their account carefully avoided focusing attention on Lumiya's decision to go against their plans&mdash;and if they knew of Lumiya's support for the Rule of Two, they must have known that she would not have made Alema her apprentice alongside Jacen.

Character origins
Vergere was created by James Luceno for the New Jedi Order series, but first appeared in Rogue Planet by Greg Bear. Several aspects of the character also reflect elements of classical myth and literature: Vergere's control over her tears gives her a similarity to the phoenix, a bird which, according to myth, had tears that could heal and Vergere's name bears a strong similarity to the name of Virgil who, in Dante's Inferno, serves as Dante's guide through hell, or the land of the dead, as Jacen Solo calls it. Subtle hints throughout Traitor lend themselves to the idea that the book and Vergere borrow from Dante's Inferno. Furthermore, verger is the title given to a church official who serves as an usher and sacristan.

Controversy
Vergere has become a serious source of criticism over the NJO. Many fans were appalled that a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic would willfully torture anyone, including a fellow Jedi; it has been pointed out, however, that torture of captives was a Yuuzhan Vong tradition, and that she may very well have saved Jacen's life or sanity by moderating the Vong's treatment of him. She has also been criticized over her [supposed--see below] denial of the dark side, despite what many fans believe is "ample" evidence during the Original and Prequel trilogies. However, Vergere was intentionally created as an unorthodox teacher. Also, many fans point out that she never really encountered an enemy who was truly dark, and that the Yuuzhan Vong, while barbaric, were, at the core, not evil. Vergere herself did regret torturing Jacen Solo, but felt that it was the only way to "teach" Jacen the truth about the Force. Some reasons for her harshness are discussed in the Legacy of the Force series. It is possible either that her cruelty was due to the NJO planners' knowledge of her Sith allegiance or that fan outrage inspired a retcon that reinvented her as a Sith.

Vergere the Sith?
There have been several clues pointing towards Vergere's corruption and connection with the Sith throughout the NJO series, as well as information from certain out of universe sources.
 * 1) An important source that shows Vergere has been corrupting Jacen with her teachings is none other than the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas himself. While many fans argue that the mentioning of the "dark side of the Force" in the movies could be taken as purely the belief of Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. George Lucas has explicitly stated numerous times, in various interviews as well as commentaries for the movies, that the Force indeed has a light and a dark side. Lucas's statements, along with the movies, are regarded as G-level canon by Lucasfilm Ltd. However, one might wonder how this has any bearing on Vergere being a Sith, and if it is not just her point of view.
 * 2) During the events of Traitor, Vergere deliberately lies to Jacen about the Jedi, claiming that the Jedi knew about the Force having no dark side, and pointed out to Jacen the Force well buried underneath the Jedi Temple, which at the time was filled with dark side energy, and told him that the Jedi would not have built a temple there if it was really dark side energy. The nexus was actually full of dark side energy because of Lord Nyax's death there during the events of Enemy Lines II. This may be seen as conjecture on the reader's part as it is not explicitly stated that Nyax left a dark presence, nor that it lingered. Master Skywalker did imply that Nyax left a part of him there when the stream of rubble pounding the mataloks continued after Nyax died.
 * 3) In Traitor, some claim that Vergere explains to Jacen that the Force has no dark side, and that what the Jedi call the dark side is actually the true, unleashed nature of the Force. This is in fact the most important Sith teaching, and Darth Vader hinted to Luke the same thing when he was trying to convert Luke to the dark side. He said "The Emperor will show you the true nature of the Force." Also, this belief of the Sith is shown in more detail in Darth Sidious's own thoughts, in the novelization of Episode I: The Phantom Menace. -It is worth noting there is a distinct difference between Sith teachings and Vergere's.  Sith teachings do not rely on exhibiting guidance over one's emotions while still using them, while Vergere's do. Various aspects of Dark Rendezvous and the Episode 3 novel support this differentiation.
 * 4) Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, an out of universe Star Wars Expanded Universe source, which was released right after the book Traitor, explains that the belief that the Force has no dark side, which is also called the Potentium Heresy, is in fact a corrupted teaching that leads to the dark side, with the followers believing they are right and the others are wrong, and rarely perceiving their mistake, without help from the Jedi who tried to guide them back to the light. However, one might wonder how it is that no more followers of the "Potentium Heresy" went dark compared to the Jedi, possibly even fewer.  The Jensaarai are a case in point.
 * 5) In her RPG statistics, Vergere is shown to have the ability to speak Sith. This is a feat that applies to Sith Lords and Sith apprentices alone, and the only person ever to have the same feat other than the Sith, is the ancient Jedi Master Odan-Urr, who studied Sith holocrons, and is also the person who wrote the Jedi Code. This in itself was one hint that showed that Vergere had some connection to the Sith, however said connection may be similar to Odan-Urr's, or an entirely new ability she discovered.
 * 6) At the Celebration III Legacy of the Force panel, Sue Rostoni had stated that the "mystery of Vergere will be revealed" in the series.
 * 7) Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force states that members of the New Jedi Order, who had had no contact with Lumiya or her story, also believed Vergere to be a Sith.

All these clues offer support for the speculation that the Lucasfilm Ltd. authorities had planned at least some of these factors beforehand. Even then, it remains to be seen whether Vergere was fully corrupted during her failed attempt to be a Sith apprentice, or her stay with the Yuuzhan Vong made her unstable, and venture into corruption as a result. It is significant to note that after her death, she appeared as a Force Ghost to Jacen Solo; the transition into which is supposed to be impossible without a state of perfect selflessness. Taking into account that Lumiya had the ability to project illusions and Force phantoms over great distance, then it is also possible that what appeared to be a Force Ghost was, in fact, an illusion. The fact that Lumiya and Vergere were conspiring together to turn Jacen to the dark side and would know what Jacen would respond to, supports this argument.

It is also quite possible that Vergere was neither Jedi nor Sith, following the teachings of neither group. She likely had ulterior motives, which required Jacen to develop a more unique connection to and appreciation for the Force. An example of a very similar character in the Star Wars universe is Kreia, who also had ambiguous alignment and deceived the central character before finally being revealed as a Sith, although she never actually lied to the Jedi Exile about herself or her nature. Another example would be Jolee Bindo, a KOTOR-period character with ambiguous alignment who leaned more towards a Jedi mentality.

Arguments made by Vergere to support her claims
To convince Jacen that there was no dark side, Vergere showed him a species of Yuuzhan'tar predator that had just successfully brought down its prey. She told him that the predator's adopted home was filled with what Jacen would call "the dark side." Jacen responded by telling her that what the animal did was not "the dark side," since it was merely following its nature, killing to get food to keep itself alive. Vergere then said to him "I thought the danger of the dark side was that it is natural; that's why it's easier than the light, yes?"

Jacen told her that the "real" dark side would be if the predator killed not just one animal, but an entire herd, and did so not out of hunger but just for fun, for the joy of killing. This prompted Vergere to ask Jacen if he believed the predator took no joy in its accomplishment of successfully killing its prey. Looking closer at the animal, it seemed to Jacen that the animal was pleased with itself.

As Jacen considered this and became more uncertain, Vergere asked more questions. "Kill one, it's nature, kill them all, it's the dark side? Is the line between nature and dark side only one of degree? Is it the dark side if that predator kills only half the herd? A quarter?" Becoming frustrated, Jacen asserted that it was a matter of "need." That if the predator killed more animals than it needed to for its survival, those actions would be of the dark side. Vergere then launched a new series of questions, asking how "need" was defined. Was "need" the line of starvation or simple malnutrition? Would it be wrong of the animal to kill its prey and eat only half the carcass, wasting the other half? Would the animal's hunting be of the dark side if it and its family were a few pounds overweight and could survive without food for a time? Jacen's protests that it wasn't about that made Vergere ask what it was about. She asked if intention always trumped action. What if, she asked, the predator slaughtered an entire herd thinking it needed them for food, then realized that it didn't need them after all and left them to rot? Would its intentions matter?

In an earlier conversation, Vergere had asked Jacen if he believed what he (and other Jedi) did was irrelevant, if he believed that the only relevant thing was why they did it.

Appearances

 * Cloak of Deception
 * Rogue Planet
 * Outbound Flight
 * Boba Fett: A Practical Man
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Balance Point
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Star by Star
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Traitor
 * Destiny's Way
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion
 * The Unifying Force
 * Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
 * Betrayal
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Fury
 * Revelation
 * Star Wars Legacy 18: Claws of the Dragon, Part 5

Notes and references
Vergere Vergere