Lumiya

"The Sith who were famous for being bad, Jacen, were the way they were because they were badly damaged men or women to start with. Not because they were Sith. Usually, they were weak, or deluded, or greedy to begin with. Like your grandfather."

- Lumiya

Lumiya, formerly known as Shira Elan Colla Brie, was a Human dark side adept trained by Darth Vader, and, later, a Dark Lady of the Sith.

Brie was a member of Imperial Intelligence, and on Vader's orders she went undercover to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance and discredit Luke Skywalker. After Brie had suffered serious injuries due to being shot down by Skywalker, Vader rescued her and had her enhanced with cybernetic parts.

Now calling herself Lumiya, she was secretly instructed in some Sith lore by Vader and was offered to Palpatine as an Emperor's Hand. After the deaths of Palpatine and Vader at the Battle of Endor, Lumiya proclaimed herself Dark Lady of the Sith.

Shira Brie
Born on Coruscant as Shira Elan Colla Brie and raised on one of Palpatine's estates, she began her service to the Empire as a pilot trainee at the Coruscanti Pilot Institute. During her final year, she transferred to the Academy of Carida to complete her training. In addition to her field and pilot training, Brie came under the Force tutelage of Darth Vader. There she got her first taste of destruction and was given free reign to test her budding powers.

After graduating from Carida, Brie was trained as an Imperial Intelligence agent and underwent numerous biological alterations to her body's defenses, giving her accelerated healing and a high pain threshold. After the Battle of Yavin, she was dispatched by Vader to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance. Imperial forces razed the planet Shalyvane to provide a background cover story for her, and she used as her alias the shortened version of her name: Shira Brie. Posing as a Shalyvane refugee, she accomplished her infiltration with ease, working her way into Rogue Squadron. Her vivacious beauty and intelligence made her a popular member of the Alliance, and lover of Luke Skywalker. While serving with the Rebels, Brie would work alongside Kyle Katarn, Corwin Shelvay, and Erling Tredway on a mission to D'rinba IV to disable the superlaser of Death Star II.

While based on the planet Arbra, Shira requested leave to return to Shalyvane, ostensibly to honor her family who, she alleged, had been killed in the Imperial attack on her home. As the precise coordinates of Arbra were known only to a few in the Rebellion, she required an escort from Skywalker as well as two other members of Rogue Squadron, Hanc Thorben and Wald. While on Shalyvane in the capital city of Chinshassa, Brie privately approached the Circle of Kavaan to perform what she claimed was a blood-ritual in honor of her fallen family, but her blood was actually a trigger for a hidden communication device; she was secretly contacting Darth Vader. But during the ceremony she and the rest of Rogue Squadron were attacked by a horde of Em'liy, the native species of Shalyvane. Using her knowledge of the underground drainage system, Brie made her way past the Em'liy to her X-wing fighter and piloted it back to the scene of the battle, strafing the attackers from above, and saving her fellow squad members from certain death.



In recognition of her heroic actions Princess Leia Organa presented Brie with the Burdine Cluster and promoted her to the rank of Captain.

Members of Rogue Squadron were assigned to covertly attack an Imperial fleet and destroy a captured teezl, a luminous being whose special abilities would have given the Empire an advantage in galactic-wide communication. As part of the mission, Brie, Skywalker, Thorben, and Alph were chosen to pilot modified TIE fighters and infiltrate the armada. During the battle, the Imperials used the teezl to prevent the Rebels from signalling each other, thus they were unable to determine friend from foe. As Skywalker approached the primary target, another TIE moved into his line of fire. Unable to use his signalling device to determine if the TIE was a Rebel, he relied on sensing through the Force&mdash;which led to the unexpected result of shooting down Brie. When he returned to base after completing his mission, Leia revealed to Luke that Thorben's fighter camera recorded visual proof that Skywalker had fired on Brie, presumably killing her. Due to the undeniable evidence against him, as well as Brie's tremendous popularity among her comrades, Luke was stripped of his commission until an investigation and trial could be held.

However, Skywalker enlisted the help of Chewbacca and together they secretly went to Shalyvane to determine the truth behind Shira's past. He returned to the Circle of Kavaan to enact the same blood-ritual he saw Shira perform earlier, but when his blood contacted the altar, the communication device displayed a hologram of Darth Vader, who revealed that Brie's true purpose was to kill Luke, or failing that, to discredit him with the Rebellion so that he would join Vader. But, undaunted, Skywalker went to Krake's Planet, home of an Imperial data vault where he was able to infiltrate the vault and obtain proof of Brie's true mission, clearing himself of the charges against him.

Dark Lady of the Sith
"Don't put it past Lumiya to engineer events to serve her purposes."

- Luke Skywalker

It was thought that Brie had perished in her fighter's crash; but she had survived due to her biological modifications and unknown to most, Vader had had her damaged body nursed back to life and enhanced with cybernetic parts, giving her the ability to fire energy blasts from her hands. Now, taking the name Lumiya, she was taken further under Vader's tutelage and was instructed by him in the more advanced methods of the dark side and even some of the ways of the Sith. Knowing his master would not approve of him taking an apprentice, he presented her to the Emperor as an Emperor's Hand.

Prior to the Battle of Endor, Lumiya had traveled to the planet Ziost to train further in the dark side. When she had learned both her masters had perished in the Battle of Endor, she vowed revenge and claimed for herself the title of Dark Lady of the Sith. While on Ziost, she had constructed her signature weapon: the lightwhip. Crafted from Mandalorian iron and a shard of the Kaiburr crystal, it resembled a lightsaber, but with the ability to flex and move like a leather whip. Lumiya then set out to take revenge upon the Alliance.

Shortly after, Lumiya begun training a young stormtrooper from Belderone named Flint as her Sith Apprentice. She then sent Flint, now calling himself the Dark Lord of Belderone, to oversee the subjugation of the planet Naldar. When Luke Skywalker later managed to turn Flint back to the light, Lumiya was furious enough to order the execution of her former apprentice. When the attempted execution failed, she then decided to cut her losses and set about consolidating her forces.

Lumiya controlled some Imperial forces (including a contingent of stormtroopers), but initially much of the danger she posed came from alliances she had forged with slavers and alien invaders. She had forged an alliance with the Near-Human Nagai race and set up their mutual headquarters on the planet Kinooine.

After posing as a cyborg and being assigned as the head of planetery security on Herdessa, she encountered Princess Leia and Mon Mothma and was narrowly prevented from capturing them. She then ordered a kidnapping attempt of a Rebel Alliance diplomatic gathering on Kabray and allowed Luke Skywalker to track her to Kinooine. Upon arriving on Kinooine, Skywalker discovered that Lumiya had allied her forces with the Nagai invaders. Initially, Lumiya triumphed over Skywalker and his companions Dani and Kiro, and she revealed that the reason for her success was that Skywalker's Jedi training prepared him for energy weapons or solid weapons, but not both.



After being rescued by Kiro, Skywalker constructed a shorter lightsaber with a synthetic red blade—a lightdagger. He confronted Lumiya again and defeated her, shredding her cyborg armor and revealing the scarred face of Shira Brie. The arrival of the entire Nagai fleet on Kinooine forced Luke to abandon Lumiya, recover Dani and flee the planet. Lumiya continued to harry the Rebel Alliance, launching a two pronged assault on their capital world of Endor. Using an inside agent—the half Nagai, half Corellian Bey—they gained the Alliance battle plans and engaged the Alliance with a number of fighter squadrons. Lumiya led these forces personally, revelling in her return as a fighter pilot. A ground force composed of Nagai and Maccabree attempted to kidnap the grounded leadership. This ground maneouver failed, and as the Rebels abandoned their flight patterns, the space battle also began to turn. Lumiya ordered a retreat, although their efforts still caused the Alliance to abandon the planet.

After other engagements on Mandalore and Iskalon, Lumiya and her Nagai allies launched an invasion of Zeltros. Unforseen by Lumiya, and ultimately fatal to her plans, another invasion force of Tofs—mortal enemies of the Nagai—was also launched. The return of their old enemy caused the Nagai to abandon their alliance with Lumiya and instead join with the Alliance, Zeltrons, and Hiromi Empire to repel the Tofs.

Abandoned by Flint and the Nagai on Zeltros, and with her plans of destroying the Alliance crumbling, Lumiya lent her support instead to the Tofs, convincing Prince Sereno to ally with her using flattery. Pursued by this new coalition however, Lumiya and the Tofs were attacked on their base planet of Saijo. As this battle too, turned against Lumiya, she tried to exert some personal revenge by shooting Princess Leia. Only an unexpected blast from a Tof—Lumiya's former Nagai agent Bey in disguise—prevented this, and it was Lumiya instead who was left for dead. With the Tofs surrender, Lumiya's second invasion force had failed. Though she managed to escape and survive, the many betrayals she received only hardened her desire for power.



Following the failure of the Tof invasion, Lumiya withdrew into the shadows and set about rebuilding her forces. Within a few months, she had a modest fleet under her command, and Ysanne Isard had assigned her a detachment of the Imperial Royal Guard. In return, Lumiya agreed to investigate Rebel infiltration of Imperial Intelligence facilities in the Cron Drift, and to track down Mara Jade. Lumiya discovered Mara Jade on Caprioril and engaged her in a duel; she was apparently defeated, and both the Empire and the Alliance believed Lumiya to be finally dead. Jade survived to join Talon Karrde's organization a few months later. Around this time, Lumiya had also begun training another apprentice in the ways of the dark side&mdash;one of her Royal Guard detachment, Carnor Jax.

Later activities


After the incident on Caprioril, little is known for certain of Lumiya's activities. She and Jax slew the Prophets of the Dark Side on Bosthirda that had not been killed by Azrakel. In 10 ABY, she may have been the driving force behind the successful coup which briefly saw Lord Jax and the Interim Ruling Council take control of the Empire; but an unlikely alliance of Kir Kanos and the New Republic saw this plan defeated. In 14 ABY, exacting the revenge she promised years earlier, she killed her former apprentice Flint on the planet Belderone. During the Yuuzhan Vong War, she apparently attempted to steal bafforr pollen samples from Yaga Minor to use against the invaders, and used her fleet to battle the attacking Yuuzhan Vong to a standstill.

It is known that, around the same time, a Force-sensitive female Yuuzhan Vong captured Jedi Master Daye Azur-Jamin on Nal Hutta, and temporarily turned him to the dark side. Azur-Jamin was rescued by Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade soon after the end of the war, and though it remains unknown who had trained the Force-strong Yuuzhan Vong, it is possible she encountered and gained knowledge from Lumiya.

Second Corellian Insurrection
"Don't judge me so soon, Jacen. My history is much like your Aunt Mara's...except she received some lucky breaks I didn't. I took longer to straighten out my life."

- Lumiya



Sometime before the Battle of Ebaq 9 (or possibly before the Yuuzhan Vong War itself), Lumiya had somehow entered into contact with Vergere, a former Jedi Knight and Sith apprentice who had been captured by the Yuuzhan Vong prior to the Clone Wars. After this contact was established, Vergere passed on her view of Sith teachings (influenced by Darth Vectivus, Darth Sidious, and the Potentium) to Lumiya. From these lessons, Lumiya accepted that she was incapable of realizing her full Sith abilities due to her cybernetic additions, but also felt that though powerful in the dark side, Palpatine and Vader had not been true Sith either.

Lumiya's skills at Force projections allowed her to manipulate many Galactic Alliance and various security personnel at the Toryaz Station near Kuat. Through Force ghost projections she sent to her prey, Lumiya unleashed her plan to not only bring about a civil war between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia, but to also seduce the versatile and powerful Jedi Jacen Solo.

Using the name "Brisha Syo," Lumiya took Jacen Solo, Ben Skywalker, and Nelani Dinn to Vectivus' dark-side-infused residence near Bimmiel in 40 ABY. Acting under the orders of what was apparently an apparition of a future Sith Lord Jacen Solo, she separated current-Jacen from Ben and Nelani and revealed to him her true identity. She also told Jacen that Vergere had sacrificed herself in an attempt to pass the Sith philosophies through him, should he choose to accept that fact. Denying at first what his instincts told him to be true, Lumiya questioned Jacen's purpose, forcing him to acknowledge his disillusionment with his life as a Jedi. Accepting his destiny, Jacen killed Nelani when she tried to arrest Lumiya—receiving a premonition that her survival would inevitably lead to a fatal confrontation with his former master Luke Skywalker—allowing the Dark Lady to go free. He agreed to Lumiya's suggestion that he needed an apprentice who, unlike Ben, could be molded to Sith teachings.

Exactly how much of Lumiya's story about Vergere, Vectivus, and her own limitations as a Sith are true is currently unknown.

After their original encounter, Jacen summoned Lumiya to Coruscant to answer him and to test her for her true intentions, bringing her into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in proximity of her enemy Luke Skywalker. Though disguised, Lumiya proved to him her intentions, passing on an easy attempt to attack and kill Skywalker. Little did Lumiya know that Luke felt her prescence and was intent on rooting her out, around the same time Lumiya suggested to Jacen one part of his training required him to become a Jedi Master, albeit to his surprise. In the end she told him he had to commit the ultimate sacrifice that would put him on the path of a Sith, a sacrifice to her new apprentice's shock and realization, he needed to kill his love Tenel Ka and their daughter Allana.

She later saved Jacen from Alema Rar's attempt to assassinate him, and confronted Luke Skywalker in combat again. As the war continued, Lumiya would encounter her former lover, Luke Skywalker, in a duel.

Behind the scenes
In the early stages of planning for the Legacy of the Force series, Lumiya was not included. However, after early drafts had a character similar to her, Lucasfilm Ltd. decided to make her into Lumiya.

The name Brisha is an anagram of Shira B. When the Dramatis Personae was revealed, this led to some fans correctly predicting that Brisha Syo was Lumiya, who was known to feature in the series but did not appear on the Dramatis Personae.

Appearances

 * Carida: Heavy Duty
 * Marvel Star Wars 56: Coffin in the Clouds
 * Marvel Star Wars 57: Hello, Bespin, Goodbye
 * Marvel Star Wars 58: Sundown
 * Marvel Star Wars 60: Shira's Story
 * Marvel Star Wars 61: Screams in the Void
 * Marvel Star Wars 63: The Mind Spider
 * Marvel Star Wars 88: Figurehead
 * Marvel Star Wars 95: No Zeltrons
 * Marvel Star Wars 96: Duel With a Dark Lady
 * Marvel Star Wars 97: Escape
 * Marvel Star Wars 100: First Strike
 * Marvel Star Wars 107: All Together Now
 * Lumiya: Dark Star of the Empire
 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest