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 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 close friends, possibly romantically, with then-member 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, Rogue Squadron was detailed to covertly attack an Imperial fleet and destroy a captured teezl. As part of the mission, Brie and Skywalker were both chosen to pilot disguised TIE fighters and infiltrate the armada. During the battle, Skywalker's targeting equipment malfunctioned, and he was unable to determine which of the TIE fighters were Imperial and which were Rebel, forcing him to rely on sensing through the Force&mdash;which led to the unexpected result of shooting down Brie. While under a cloud during an investigation of how he shot down a fellow Rogue, Luke discovered that Brie's putative homeworld Shalyvane was in fact background cover for her, and that her true mission had been to discredit Luke with the Rebellion so that he would join Vader.

Dark Lady of the Sith


It was thought that Brie had perished in her fighter's crash; but she had survived due to her biological modifications and unbeknownst to most, Vader had her damaged body nursed back to life and enhanced with cybernetic parts. 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 mystical 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.

Shortly before the Battle of Endor, she had travelled 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 had 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 out to consolidate 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 plant Kinooine.

After posing as a cyborg and being assigned as the head of planetery security on Herdessa, she then attempted to kidnap Leia Organa and allowed Luke Skywalker to track her to Kinooine. Upon arriving on Kinooine, Skywalker then 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. He confronted Lumiya again, defeated her, and tore off her cyborg armor, revealing the scarred face of Shira Brie. After being abandoned by Flint and the Nagai, she lent her support instead to the Tofs, age-old enemies of the Nagai; but the Nagai, the Alliance of Free Planets, the Empire, and Fenn Shysa's Mandalorians joined forces to rout the Tof invasion of Zeltros, and Lumiya was left for dead.



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, as Jade certainly survived to join Talon Karrde's organization a few months later. Around this time, Lumiya had also began 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 sure of Lumiya's activities. 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. 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 also 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 it remains unknown who had trained the Force-strong Yuuzhan Vong: it can only be assumed that it was 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 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 Palpatine and Vader had not been true Sith either.

Using the assumed the name "Brisha Syo", Lumiya took Jacen Solo, Ben Skywalker, and Nelani Dinn to Vectivus' dark-side-infused residence 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. Accepting his role, Jacen killed Nelani when she tried to arrest Lumiya, allowing Lumiya to go free. He agreed to Lumiya's suggestion that he needed an apprentice who, unlike Ben, could be molded to Sith teachings.

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 59: Bazarre
 * Marvel Star Wars 60: Shira's Story
 * Marvel Star Wars 61: Screams in the Void
 * Marvel Star Wars 62: Pariah
 * Marvel Star Wars 63: The Mind Spider
 * Marvel Star Wars 88: Figurehead
 * Lumiya: Dark Star of the Empire
 * Marvel Star Wars 96: Duel With a Dark Lady
 * Marvel Star Wars 100: First Strike
 * Marvel Star Wars 107: All Together Now
 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest