Lonna Vash

"We take responsibility, Atris, not cast blame."

- Lonna Vash

Lonna Vash was a female Human Jedi Master serving the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic as a member of the Jedi High Council during the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. She was one of the Masters who banished Meetra Surik from the Order.

Jedi Master
A Force-sensitive Human, Lonna Vash was trained in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order, attaining the rank of Jedi Master in the years prior to the Mandalorian Wars. Earning a seat on the Jedi High Council and stationed at the new Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Vash was present when the Council reassigned Jedi Masters Xamar, Raana Tey, Q'Anilia, Feln and Lucien Draay following their failed stewardship of the Order's academy on Taris and their inability to foresee the massacre of their Padawans by the rogue apprentice, Zayne Carrick.

Following the war with the Mandalorians and the Jedi Civil War, led by Darth Malak and Darth Revan, Master Vash retained her seat on the Council and presided over the trial of Master Meetra Surik and decreed the former Revanchist was part of the Order no longer. Despite outright condemning Surik for her actions during the war, she felt Surik had changed since the end of the conflict, and spoke against Master Atris' assertion that the wound Surik carried was a sign of dark side corruption. After the trial and Surik's exile from the Order, Vash regretted not revealing the truth of the woman's banishment; the Council feared the sway she held over people's hearts and her ability to form strong connections with many.

Exile
Following the disbanding of the Order during the Jedi Purge commenced by a group known as the Sith Triumvirate, Vash went to ground and managed to escape Coruscant. Not long after, Master Atris called a conclave on the world of Katarr aimed at finding the threat that stalked the Jedi. Neither Vash or Atris went to the meeting, but after the devastation by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Nihilus that swept the planet, Vash and the surviving Masters went into self-imposed exile. Like her fellow Council members Kavar and Zez-Kai Ell, she believed that Atris had died on Katarr; she was in truth responsible for what had happened, as it was she who leaked knowledge of the conclave to draw out the Sith. On Kavar's suggestion, they traveled to different planets and hid their presence in the Force in hopes that the Sith would think themselves victorious and step from the shadows. They sought out places touched by war so as to be more difficult to detect, and because they thought there was a chance Surik would return to such places, if only to try and make peace with what happened there during the war. In her exile, Lonna Vash went to Korriban and took up residence in the halls of the abandoned Sith Academy there.

During her exile the Sith Lord Darth Sion arrived on the planet and captured Vash, torturing her within the academy's dungeons in an effort to draw out Surik. Upon Surik's arrival on Korriban her companion, Visas Marr, sensed Sion execute Master Vash. Entering the Valley of the Dark Lords, Surik and her companions ventured into the academy and were surprised when its door slammed shut behind them. Continuing on into the building's depths, Surik discovered Vash's body lying in a pool of blood; the droid HK-47's diagnostics confirmed that Vash had been dead for no more than an hour.

Searching Vash's body, Surik discovered that the Jedi Master had created a user account under her name in the academy's security system. This account would make it possible for her to open the front door and escape in case of danger. Using this account, Surik fled from the academy after a short battle with Sion, whom she proved to be unable to kill.

Behind the scenes
Lonna Vash's role was bigger in the original vision of the developers, Obsidian Entertainment, but like many other incomplete things it had to be cut because of the forced premature release of the game.

She was planned to be found by the player on M4-78, a planet populated by droids, where she came searching for Meetra Surik with her Padawan, Kaah Ohtok. The corresponding conversation Surik has with Vash was even recorded and put in the game file, but, like the incomplete planet, was never used in the actual game. However, as Vash was a Council member shown in an important cut scene, the developers placed her dead body on also-incomplete Korriban to explain what happened to her.

Although it is never stated what kind of lightsaber Lonna Vash wielded, a lightsaber (the color and type of lightsaber are random) is found in the interrogation chamber. She is shown in cut content wielding a lightsaber with a silver blade, but as cut content is not officially canon, this has not been confirmed.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 9: Flashpoint Interlude: Homecoming
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords