Tenel Ka Djo

"You will give birth to a daughter first, and she will be strong and virtuous, like you."

- Luke Skywalker to Teneniel Djo, 8 ABY

Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo was a Jedi Knight and the daughter of Prince Isolder, Chume'da of the Hapes Consortium, and the Dathomiri witch Teneniel Djo. Although she was the heir of the Hapes Consortium, she preferred the traditions and customs of her mother's people over those of her father's, which angered some Hapans. After the poisoning death of her mother during the Yuuzhan Vong War, she became Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium over her own personal wishes. In 36 ABY, she gave birth to Jacen Solo's daughter Allana and resigned from the New Jedi Order. Around 40 ABY, Tenel Ka and Allana were marked for death by their own people.

Jedi student (up to 28 ABY)
Tenel Ka was raised in the traditions of both of her parents, learning the ways of politics on Hapes and physical training and the ways of the Force on Dathomir. When she was old enough, Tenel Ka went to Yavin 4 to train at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum. She became fast friends with Jacen and Jaina Solo, and later the Wookiee Jedi, Lowbacca. She did not tell them of her position as the Hapan heir, as she wanted them to accept her for who she was, not for her title.

While the group of friends was repairing a crashed TIE fighter, the pilot, Qorl, abducted Jaina and Jacen, but Tenel Ka made it back to the Praxeum to summon help, although by the time help arrived, Qorl had taken off in the newly repaired craft. Jacen and Jaina later escaped, but so did Qorl.



While her friends were on GemDiver Station, Tenel Ka had to stay behind to welcome one of her grandmother's ambassadors that was assigned to check in on her. When her friends were kidnapped by the Shadow Academy, she then helped Luke Skywalker find them by accompanying him to Borgo Prime and Dathomir for clues. It was here that Luke and Tenel Ka discovered that the Nightsisters had been revived under the aegis of the Great Canyon Clan and the existence of the Shadow Academy.

Passing themselves off as powerful, potential new recruits for the Shadow Academy, Tenel Ka and Luke were transported off of Dathomir in the Shadow Chaser a ship flown by Garowyn. After she had set a course for the Shadow Academy, Tenel Ka and Luke threw Garowyn into an escape pod, jettisoned her, and then let the autopilot do the flying for them.



By the time that Tenel Ka and Luke arrived at the Shadow Academy, the twins and Lowbacca were already making an escape attempt, but their escape was delayed by a docking bay door that was unwilling to open for them. It was during this time that Tenel Ka first encountered Tamith Kai. At this time, things were said and done that would lead to much enmity between the Jedi trainee and Nightsister.

After the twins and Lowbacca were rescued from the Shadow Academy, they went on a vacation to Coruscant, where she met Jacen and Jaina's old friend Zekk. Tenel Ka and Lowbacca quickly became friends with the street kid. After the Shadow Academy had abducted Zekk, Luke Skywalker decided that Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca were ready to build their lightsabers. Tenel Ka's lightsaber was a rush job and proper attention was not paid to its construction, because she felt the warrior was more important than the weapon. That line of thinking was a factor in what had happened to her next.

After the kidnapping of Zekk, Tenel Ka and Jacen began to grow close. The two spent so much time together. None really realized that the two spent this much time together.

During a lightsaber training exercise with Jacen Solo, Tenel Ka's newly constructed lightsaber (made from a rancor tooth) shorted out due to a flaw in its focusing crystal. Jacen's blade slipped through the space it had previously occupied and cut off Tenel Ka's left arm. Tenel Ka bore Jacen no ill will, but Jacen felt seriously guilty. The accident had drastically changed their relationship, especially in light of the fact that, prior to the accident, Jacen had hoped they would become more than friends.



Whisked back to Hapes by her grandmother Ta'a Chume, Tenel Ka briefly considered whether she should continue to train as a Jedi, but in a display of personal strength and confidence, Tenel Ka refused to have the prosthetic replacement her grandmother arranged for her to have attached, and sought to enhance her physical abilities along with her Jedi talents to make up. Then Jacen and the others arrived and sought to comfort Tenel Ka, and asked her why she hadn't told them she was a princess. In response, Tenel said that she did not think they would accept her on her own merits, even though they had. Jacen and Tenel Ka apologized to each other and spent time together. Then after foiling a plot by one of Ta'a Chume's ambassadors to kill her and her grandmother, she decided that her path was definitely one of a Jedi.

On Kashyyyk, she learned that Zekk had indeed been brainwashed and trained as a Dark Jedi. They stopped an attack by the Shadow Academy on Kashyyyk and prepared for an attack on the Jedi Praxeum. When the attack did come, Tenel Ka then faced down Tamith Kai and helped to foil the plot by the Shadow Academy to invade the Jedi Praxeum. Zekk later redeemed himself by telling the Jedi not to enter the doomed Jedi academy. After his warning, the academy blew up from the inside. The Shadow Academy had planned to blow up the academy, and due to Zekk, failed. Tenel Ka then helped in the reconstruction of the Jedi Praxeum.



Shortly after, her parents and grandmother sent her an old unmarked Hapan ship which she named the Rock Dragon. Tenel Ka chose Jaina and Lowbacca as pilot and co-pilot, and the friends went to the graveyard of Alderaan for their maiden voyage. While there, they were confronted by Boba Fett (who, in fact, was Boba's daughter Ailyn Vel), but they managed to escape with help from Zekk in the Lightning Rod.

Afterward, Tenel Ka helped stop an attempt to abduct Raynar and Aryn Dro Thul, and after Lowbacca had seemingly joined the Diversity Alliance, she and her friends went to rescue him. However, they were caught by Diversity Alliance personnel and sentenced by Nolaa Tarkona to work in the ryll mines. Lowbacca found out about their presence and arranged an escape plan. In the confusion, however, Tenel Ka and Jacen were separated from Jaina and Raynar and were stuck on the dark and frozen side of Ryloth, where they found the exiled Twi'lek leader Kur. Help came in the form of the Rock Dragon piloted by Lowbacca.



After Zekk rescued Bornan Thul from bounty hunters, Tenel Ka and the rest of her friends went with them to destroy the asteroid containing the Emperor's Plague. During the battle Bornan Thul died with Nolaa Tarkona when the Emperor's Plaque was released. But Tenel Ka and her allies did win the day. In a celebration, the normally stoic Tenel Ka kissed Jacen Solo for the first time.

After the defeat of the Emperor's plague, an old enemy - Black Sun - resurfaced. On of their agents, a woman named Anja Gallandro, caught Jacen's attention, which made Tenel Ka jealous of the older woman. Later, Tenel Ka, Jacen, Jaina, Zekk, and Lowbacca helped Anja with her drug addiction and destroyed Black Sun once and for all. After the defeat of Black Sun, Tenel Ka, Jacen, Jaina, Zekk, Raynar, Anakin Solo, and Lowbacca graduated from the Jedi academy.

Jedi Knight (up to 36 ABY)
During the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Tenel Ka stayed at Hapes. She was present on Hapes when Isolder won the honor duel that sent the Hapan Navy to the doomed Battle of Fondor. After that, she and the Rodian Jedi Jovan Drark went on a mission to Bilbringi.

In 27 ABY, Tenel Ka was one of the members of the Myrkr strike team, a team that was assembled to find and kill the voxyn queen. She helped Jacen patch things up with his brother Anakin. Tenel Ka witnessed the deaths of many Jedi on that mission, including that of Anakin Solo. When Jacen was being blamed for Anakin's death, Tenel Ka stuck up for him and almost got into a fight with Jaina. When Jacen went to kill the voxyn Queen, Tenel Ka went to kiss him, but was cut off from him by Vergere. Later, Jacen Solo was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong after he had killed the voxyn queen. Tenel Ka was the last person to see him. With the success of the mission, they retreated to Hapes in a stolen Yuuzhan Vong ship. Tenel Ka was sent ahead in an escape pod to inform her parents and grandmother of their arrival. While in the escape pod, she felt what was apparently Jacen's death through the Force, and after breaking down, she realized she had loved Jacen.



Queen Mother (27 ABY to 35 ABY)
Her escape pod was intercepted by pirates. They opened fire on her once she was on board. She used her Force abilities to beat them. She had the chance to kill them, but decided murder wasn't the way of the Jedi.

She landed later and was greeted by Isolder, her father. She told him that Jacen is dead and what had happened on Myrkr. She was later attacked by her cousin. She easily beat the jealous family member.



On Hapes, Tenel Ka watched Jaina fall to the dark side. Tenel Ka was also marked for a warrior's sacrifice by Khalee Lah and Harrar. When Han, Leia, Luke, and Mara arrived on Hapes, they held a funeral for Anakin Solo. Tenel Ka attended it. Later, she realized that Ta'a Chume wanted Jaina as Isolder's new bride, as did Han and Leia Solo. She then found her mother poisoned by Ta'a Chumes assassin's. Then she placed Ta'a Chume under house arrest. Even though she hated everything the position stood for, and was still mourning for Jacen and her mother, Tenel Ka was crowned Queen Mother of Hapes by her father, very much to Ta'a Chume's disappointment. Tenel Ka pledged the support of the Hapan government and military to the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong and began working to change the corruption in the Hapan government and her family from the inside. She appointed Jagged Fel as her army's leader. They fought off the Yuuzhan Vong and were considered by them a dangerous foe.

During Jaina Solo's daring assault on the Supreme Overlord's fleet, Queen Mother Tenel Ka led a squadron of Hapan ships to aid her. They succeeded–only to learn that the ship didn't hold the Supreme Overlord at all. Soon after, she learned that Jacen Solo had survived his capture with the Yuuzhan Vong. She was later one of the Jedi that was knighted in a ceremony on Mon Calamari. She then took part in the battle above Ebaq Nine.

Later, Tenel Ka grew more into the politics that came with being Queen Mother. She became a high ranking official in the Galactic Alliance. She was one of the people in Cal Omas's inner circle that opposed the use of Alpha Red.

Close to the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war, Tenel Ka joined forces with Lando Calrissian and others to defend Zonama Sekot. Lando, Tenel Ka, and the others succeeded. Tenel Ka was one of the Jedi that went to Zonama Sekot for Luke Skywalker's meeting. She told him that she must return to Hapes.

Mother (35 ABY and beyond)
In 35 ABY, Jacen Solo approached Tenel Ka about sending a fleet to guard the Killiks while the Jedi tried to find a way to deal with the Chiss. She agreed, providing he spend some time with her. The end result was that the Killiks got their fleet&mdash;and Tenel Ka became pregnant. In 36 ABY, she gave birth to Jacen's daughter, Allana (though she delayed the child's birth through the Force by a few months). To protect Allana from the wrath of the Hapan nobles, she refused to reveal the identity of Allana's father and led the nobles to believe that one of them possibly fathered her. Tenel Ka also refused to release any holos of the child to the public.

Shortly after Allana's birth, Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Allana were attacked by agents of the Dark Nest acting on Ta'a Chume's behalf. During the attack, Tenel Ka was thrown against a wall by Ben Skywalker in an impressive display of Force power on the untrained Force user's part. Because Ben accidentally found out about Allana's paternity, Jacen erased Ben's memory of the incident rather forcefully, which disturbed Tenel Ka. Jacen then focused most of his energy to protecting her and their baby from the Killiks, going so far as to render Ta'a Chume comatose and lead a preemptive strike against the Chiss.

Later that year, when Luke Skywalker ordered a Jedi convocation on Ossus, she resigned from the New Jedi Order. Following the ancient Jedi tradition, Tenel Ka tried to give back her lightsaber, but Luke Skywalker urged her to keep it, saying that there would always be a place for Tenel Ka if she changed her mind. Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, who were in the room at the time, wished to visit Hapes to meet Allana. Tenel Ka tensed up at the mention of her daughter, which Han and Leia found suspicious. Tenel Ka then returned to Hapes.

Betrayed
During the struggles between the Galactic Alliance and planets like Corellia, Tenel Ka and Allana were marked for death by the Corellian leadership as part of a plan to draw the Hapes Consortium into the war on the side of Corellia.

Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, despite being allied to the Corellians, did not approve of the assassination plan and sought to rescue to the two. Her final fate is so far unknown.

Behind the scenes

 * Though her full name is Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo, she does not use her full name on an everyday basis and it is unclear what name she is most commonly called. Many fans and some sources call her Tenel Ka. The only mention of her simply being called "Tenel" is in Walter Jon Williams's Destiny's Way.
 * There was a good deal of fan controversy between Tenel Ka and Danni Quee during the New Jedi Order series. Both were considered Jacen Solo's love interests. Though Tenel Ka won his heart, some fans think that Danni Quee would have been a better match.

Appearances

 * Young Jedi Knights: Heirs of the Force
 * Young Jedi Knights: Shadow Academy
 * Young Jedi Knights: The Lost Ones
 * Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers
 * Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege
 * Young Jedi Knights: Shards of Alderaan
 * Young Jedi Knights: Diversity Alliance
 * Young Jedi Knights: Delusions of Grandeur
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Bounty
 * Young Jedi Knights: The Emperor's Plague
 * Young Jedi Knights: Return to Ord Mantell
 * Young Jedi Knights: Trouble on Cloud City
 * Young Jedi Knights: Crisis at Crystal Reef
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Traitor
 * Destiny's Way
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * The Unifying Force
 * The Joiner King
 * The Unseen Queen
 * The Swarm War
 * Tempest