Arihnda Pryce

"They fight so hard to gain so little."

- Governor Pryce's muse about the desperate rebellion

Arihnda Pryce was a human female who served as Governor of the Lothal sector fourteen years after the rise of the Galactic Empire. Prior to her rise to governorship, she was the manager of Pryce Mining, aide to Lothal Senator Domus Renking, manager of the Bartanish Four Sector citizen's assistance office, an employee at the Proam Avenue Citizen Assistance, and a member of the Higher Skies Advocacy Group. Pryce managed to secure the governorship of Lothal by trading information about Higher Skies' espionage activities to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.

During her rise to power, Pryce forge an alliance with the Chiss Imperial Navy officer Thrawn, who later became a Grand Admiral. Once in office, Pryce outmaneuvered and engineer the downfall of her political rivals Governor Ryder Azadi and Senator Domus Renking. As Governor of Lothal, Pryce presided over the expansion of the Imperial military presence on Lothal, which became a major Imperial base in the Outer Rim Territories. Pryce was often absent and delegated the governing of her planet to several local ministers including Maketh Tua. The Imperial presence on Lothal attracted resistance from the Phoenix Squadron, which was part of the growing rebellion.

While rescuing her parents, Pryce played an important role in neutralizing the Batonn insurgency, leading to high civilian casualties. In 2 BBY, Governor Pryce solicited Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Seventh Fleet's services in ferreting out the Phoenix Squadron in the Lothal sector. She joined Thrawn and the Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus in combating the rebel presence in the Lothal sector. Unknown to Pryce, Kallus was an undercover rebel informant known as Fulcrum. During the course of the insurgency, Pryce fought rebel insurgents, took part in an unsuccessful hunt for the rebel leader Mon Mothma, and took part in the Battle of Atollon.

Early Life
Arihnda Pryce was a human female from the Outer Rim planet Lothal. Arihnda was the daughter of Elainye Pryce and Talmoor Pryce. The family owned a mine on Lothal that was located on land shared by the former Governor Ryder Azadi. She grew up a quiet life, which she enjoyed as a child, watching the sunset and the laughter of children from all species and backgrounds playing.

But as Arihnda grew older, she begun to resent the quietness and dullness of the open spaces for lacking culture and excitement. Regarding Lothal as boring, Arihnda sought to escape to more cosmopolitan worlds, where excitement and bright lights existed alongside what she regarded as "sophisticated people." Her father Talmoor eventually discovered a source of doonium, a precious metal used in the manufacture of starship hulls and something valued by the expanding Imperial Navy. When Arihnda came of age, she inherited her father's mining company Pryce Mining.

The Imperial takeover
Seeking access to Pryce Mining's doonium mines, Governor Azadi sent one of his staffers Arik Uvis to buy another 21 percent stake in the company, giving him a controlling interest, but Arihnda rejected the offer. In retaliation, Governor Azadi's office framed Arihnda's mother Elainye for embezzlement. After learning the news from her father Talmoor, Arihnda visited the police station only to learn that her mother's bail request had been denied and that she had not been allowed to receive visitors. She later conferred with Talmoor and realized that Uvis was behind her mother's trumped up charges. In desperation, Pryce sought the help of Lothal's Senator Domus Renking.

Senator Renking agreed to to help Pryce's mother by shifting the blame onto the Lutrillian heavy equipment inventory operations manager Pomi Harchmark. To prevent Azadi from taking over the company, Renking persuaded Arihnda to sign over the rights of her company to the Empire. As compensation, he found Arihnda's parents new jobs as the assistant manager and foreman of a mine on the planet Batonn. Renking also secured Pryce a new job as a staff member at one his citizen assistance offices on Coruscant. With little choice, Pryce accepted Renking's terms and sold Pryce Mining to the Empire.

Serving Senator Renking
On Coruscant, Arihnda Pryce developed a reputation as a tough and effective civilian assistance officer who lobbied for the interests of Lothalian expatriates on the galactic capital. On one occasion, Pryce confronted the landlady Chesna Braker for neglecting to repair a leaking pipe in one of her tenant Daisie's apartment blocks. Following a tense argument, Braker reluctantly agreed to fix Daisie's leaking pope after Pryce reminded her to comply with Coruscant laws and regulations. In return for her services, Senator Renking took advantage of a new program encouraging senators to fund supplementary citizen assistance offices to provide Pryce with a managerial job at his fifth new office in the Bartanish Four Sector. This new job came with an apartment two blocks and six levels away from her workplace. Unlike her previous positing, this new office was open to all Coruscanti citizens. Pryce regarded the Bartanish Four Sector job as a modest step up the social ladder to the all-powerful Federal District.

As time passed, Arihnda befriended the waitress Juahir Madras and her friend Driller MarDapp, who worked with the Higher Skies Advocacy Group. She helped the former to find an apartment in her own building and to move her things in. During the Ascension Week celebrations leading up to Empire Day, Pryce used her position as a senatorial employee to secure Juahir and Driller places at an exclusive Imperial ball at the upmarket Alisandre Hotel. The ball was attended by several senators and Imperial Military officers including the Imperial Security Bureau Colonel Wullf Yularen, Ensign Eli Vanto, and the Chiss Senior Lieutenant Thrawn.

While conversing with the group, Arihnda learned that Thrawn was a rising star in the Imperial Navy, who had successfully neutralized a group of pirates in the Mid Rim. Pryce also became acquainted with Ensign Vanto and learned that Colonel Yularen had brought Thrawn and Vanto to Coruscant for the purpose of social networking. Senator Renking then dispatched Pryce on an assignment to deliver a datacard to Moff Ghadi. He instructed her to tell Ghadi to load the card onto a secure datapad, download the files, and then return the card to his office. Not suspecting that anything afoot, Pryce told Juahir and Driller to enjoy themselves and that she would be back.

At Moff Ghadi's office, Pryce learned that Senator Renking had planted false data in the card. Moff Ghadi handed a different card and then sprayed her with polstine spice, a highly illegal drug that could earn one life imprisonment. With Pryce in legal trouble, Moff Ghadi blackmailed her into returning the datacard to Senator Renking's office. Senator Pryce slipped out of the ballroom and caught an air taxi to Renking's office. Per Ghadi's instructions, she slotted Ghadi's data car into the slot in the desk safe. Pryce then spent the night at Driller's borrowed apartment, brushing off Juahir's questions by claiming to be sick.

The following day, Pryce arrive at Senator Renking's office to learn that his office was facing allegations of financial and corporate discrepancies. Due to a cut in funding, Senator Renking closed down seven of his citizen assistance offices including Pryce's office in Bartanish Four Sector. After Senator Renking had dismissed the other employees, he confronted Pryce, who replied that she had no choice because Moff Ghadi had threatened to have her arrested. Senator Renking dismissed her for her naivety and demanded the return of her airspeeder key. He also evicted her from her apartment and sent several Ugnaughts to clear out her personal effects.

Trial by ordeal
After being dismissed from her job, Arihnda Pryce found comfort in her friends Juahir and Driller. When Juahir asked if her dismissal had anything to do with why she had bailed on them the previous night, Pryce confirmed that this was the case but declined to talk about it. Taking pity on Pryce, Juahir offered her a place at her apartment. She also offered Pryce a job at the restaurant Topple's. Arihnda agreed to stay with Driller and Juahir for the rest of Ascension Week but made it clear that she would look for her own place.

Unwilling to depend on others for her survival, Pryce found work at the Proam Avenue Citizen Assistance. Despite her hostile reception from the reception staff member Nariba, Pryce managed to convinced the manager Alistar Sinclar to hire her by citing her experience dealing with tenancy, employment, and legal disputes. Since Sinclar had a shortage of employees, she convinced him to let her work the rest of Ascension Week for free. Admiring Pryce's brashness, Sinclar assigned her to desk eight.

Joining Higher Skies
A year after the events at Alisandre Hotel, Juahir and Driller invited Pryce for dinner at The Pinnacle, a fancy restaurant in the Federal District. During the dinner, Driller invited Arihnda to join his Higher Skies advocacy group, seeking to utilize her expertise in mines, mining, and refining. Pryce also learned that Juahir had become a martial arts instructor at the Yinchom Dojo, which trained bodyguards for Imperial senators. While the new position did not come with many perks, Pryce accepted Driller's job offer because she wanted to move back into the centers of political power. She also took up Juahir's offer to share her apartment and provide dinner for her friend.

As a member of a licensed advocacy group, Arihnda found that Imperial politicians and bureaucrats took notice of her group's advocacy work. While her new job did not pay as much as her previous job with Senator Renking, Pryce found Driller a reliable employer who paid her on time. He also had enough spare credits to keep her in outfits suitable for interacting with elites. One evening, Driller informed her that there had been an unusual number of Imperial takeovers of mining facilities and entire planets. He tasked her with pulling up the list and evaluating the importance of the mines in question, the circumstances of the Imperial takeover, and any patterns.

Examining the data, Pryce discovered that the Empire had nationalized 28 mines dating back to a year before Renking had bought Pryce Mining. She found that 21 of these takeovers had occurred during the past year. While studying the recent Umbara takeover, Pryce discovered that the now-Captain Thrawn, the Chiss whom she had encountered at Alisandre Hotel the previous year. While on her way to Juahir's home, her turbolift malfunctioned and landed in the seedy Level 4120. Using her comm, Pryce managed to maintain contact with Juahir who told her to head to another turbolift six blocks to the west.

Before she could reach another turbolift, Pryce was accosted by six young thugs, who demanded that she treat them to a drink. Before the thugs could harm her, Juahir arrived with one of her bodyguard students, Ottlis Dos. Using her martial art skills, Juahir defeated the thugs in physical combat and sent them retreating. After Juahir introduced Pryce to Ottlis, Pryce accepted martial arts lessons from Ottlis, who worked for an Imperial official. Out of gratitude, Pryce treated Juahir and Ottlis for dinner that night.

When Captain Thrawn along with Ensign Vanto and Colonel Yularen visited the Yimchom Dojo, Pryce greeted Thrawn and his companions. When Colonel Yularen asked who was the woman overseeing a sparring session nearby, Pryce pointed out that the woman was her friend Juahir, who was an instructor. Pryce explained that she was visiting the dojo to establish a few contacts with some of the bodyguards who were training there. Pryce and the others then watched as Thrawn undertook a sparring session with the Togorian master H'sishi. Thrawn and his companions had visited the Yinchom Dojo to investigate the Dojo's links with Higher Skies, which was spying on senior Imperial officials.

Imperial entanglements
Later, Ottlis invited Pryce to his employer's office under the pretext of a martial arts training session. Pryce soon discovered that Ottlis' employer Moff Ghadi had summoned her for a meeting. After exchanging pleasantries, Ghadi questioned Pryce about her involvement with the Higher Skies Advocacy Group. Ghadi believed that Higher Skies was seeking to destroy him; citing that a meeting with a Higher Sky employee preceded the recovery of some his confidential financial information from a smuggling gang and a raid on one of his mines a week later. When Pryce asked what was stolen, Ghadi reiterated that nobody would get away with robbing a Moff. He then demanded that Pryce reveal who had hired Higher Skies to destroy him; suspecting Senator Renking or his rival Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.

Arihnda confided that she did not know who had sent Higher Skies to disrupt Ghadi's operations. At Ghadi's suggestion, she decided to contact her boss Driller. She told Driller that she was having a special evening training session with Ottlis at Moff Ghadi's office. Pryce also told Driller about her plan to take up an office assistant position with Grand Moff Tarkin. Despite his reservations, Driller encouraged her to apply for the job. Following her comm conversation with Driller, Pryce explained that Ghadi was not "anyone's" target because he had not instructed her to search Ghadi's office. Ghadi accepted Pryce's explanation but ordered her to copy all of Higher Skies' files, report on all their conversations, and to make a list of their contacts. Ghadi secured Pryce's cooperation by threatening to alert the Imperial Security Bureau. Ghadi also revealed that Ottlis was his double agent.

After returning to the apartment that she shared with Juahir, Pryce reflected on her predicament. She decided to take up Ghadi's offer and spent the next hour digging up Higher Skies' files and records from their computer. After arranging the data into a neat package, she arranged a meeting with the-now Commander Thrawn. Arihnda met with Pryce at a corner booth in the Gilroy Plaza Diner and told him about her predicament with Moff Ghadi and Higher Skies. Thrawn advised her to follow two possible attack vectors: turning the threat into an ally and then using him against the enemy; or using the threat as a lever against the enemy in order to make him an ally. Thrawn also counseled her to be ready to turn on her friends Driller and Juahir in order to receive Colonel Yularen's protection. Putting her plan into action, Arihnda contacted Moff Ghadi and offered to send her all the information that Higher Skies had on Grand Moff Tarkin. Ghadi instructed her to download the data onto a datacard and to pass it to Ottlis at a Whitehawk Tower address.

Gaining the Governorship
Later, Pryce managed to gain access to the Phindians Lady Teeyr Hem and her husband Senator Hem by buying them an expensive bottle of wine. Under the pretext of lobbying Grand Moff Tarkin, Pryce convinced Driller to secure an audience with the senior Imperial official. During the meeting, Pryce revealed that Higher Skies was using bodyguards to spy on high-ranking Imperial officials and senators. She also told Tarkin that Commander Thrawn had advised her to embark on a "double-layer thief program" to expose Higher Skies' activities. In return for her services, Pryce convinced the Grand Moff to make long overdue repairs on Thrawn's ship Thunder Wasp and to give Eli Vanto a long overdue promotion.

Seeking revenge on Ghadi for blackmailing her in the first place, Pryce also supplied a voice recording proving that the Moff ordered her to collect Higher Skies' information about Tarkin and to send it to him. Grand Moff Tarkin was pleased because this provided ample evidence of a high official conspiring to use illegally obtained data to topple another high official. In return for providing information on Lothal's economic and society, Pryce convinced the Grand Moff to appoint her Governor of Lothal as a means of exacting her revenge on Governor Azadi and Senator Renking for taking her parents' mining company from them. Pryce reasoned that being made Governor would humiliate the former and make it easier to take down the latter. Tarkin accepted her offer in return for receiving the rest of the data.

Using Pryce's information, Colonel Yularen's Imperial Security Bureau arrested Driller and the other members of Higher Skies. Accompanied by Colonel Yularen, Arihnda visited her friend Juahir at Yimchom Dojo and arrested her for using her training position to recruit and indoctrinate high-level bodyguards as spies. Yularen informed Juahir that one of her students Kaniki had made an assassination attempt on his employer Senator Evidorn. Juahir protested that her group did not order their bodyguards to kill anyone. With Higher Skies' activities exposed, Pryce then demanded that Juahir tell her whether she was her friend or just a tool.

Juahir pleaded with Pryce that her friendship was genuine and that her disillusionment with the Empire had begun after Senator Renking had dismissed Pryce. When Yularen asked about Pryce's knowledge of the elusive Nightswan, Juahir responded that Driller had mentioned that name before but that they were only interested in making the Empire better for everyone. When Pryce accused Juahir of using her as a patsy, Juahir denied that was the case. When Juahir pleaded for Pryce to help her, Pryce told her former friend to cooperate with Colonel Yularen in return for escaping execution. Arihnda promised to use her position as Governor to get Juahir out of prison in a few years time.

When Colonel Yularen asked about Master H'sishi, Pryce argued that there was insufficient evidence to charge the dojo with conspiracy; citing Thrawn's evaluation of the Togorian and the lack of documentary evidence pointing to her guilt. Showing mercy to H'sishi, Pryce advised the dojo to leave Coruscant as soon as possible. She warned that Juahir could try to shift some of the blame onto her back. H'sisi accepted Pryce's advice. Keeping his promise to Pryce, Grand Moff Tarkin arranged for Vanto to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and Thrawn to the rank of Commodore. Thrawn was also given command of the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera.

Consolidation
Arihnda Pryce was appointed acting governor of the Lothal sector after Azadi, was charged with treason by the Galactic Empire and imprisoned. Following her deal with Grand Moff Tarkin and the Imperial crackdown on Higher Skies, Pryce a few years on Coruscant training to be a Governor. While Pryce learned the details of her new job, she delegated the governing of Lothal to several ministers including Maketh Tua, the Minister of Industrial Production. Though most governorship appointments had to run through the Imperial Palace, Tarkin used his high-level connections to cut through bureaucratic red tape.

Upon returning to Lothal, Pryce was greeted by Minister Tua, who informed about a twenty percent decline in refinery output. After learning that Pryce Mining's doonium vein had been exhausted, she ordered that the company be shut down. Pryce also made sure that employees who had worked for her family were given priority in securing the best positions. She then arranged a meeting with her old foe, Senator Renking. When Senator Renking objected to the closure of Pryce Mining, Governor Pryce responded that the mine was running at a loss and that its employees would be transferred elsewhere. She also reasserted her authority over the Senator and warned him that she had powerful friends and patrons.

In secret, Pryce contacted the Anx mining boss Eccos and confronted her about withholding information on a secret vein of doonium. Since Pryce had shut down Pryce Mining, Pryce allowed Eccos to continue extracting the remaining doonium in secret. For the next several months, Pryce spent her time in Lothal's Capital City entrenching the Empire's presence on Lothal. The Empire expanded industry on Lothal, expanded the mines, and increased their military presence on the planet. Despite protests from local farmers who had their lands expropriated for building new [factory|factories, military facilities, and mines, Pryce was unmoved and believed that the Imperial presence would bring prosperity and employment opportunities. Under Pryce's rule, Lothal became the main hub for the Imperial presence in the Lothal sector.

Settling old scores
Several months later, an opportunity came for Pryce to settle scores with her old enemy, Senator Renking. When Minister Tua informed her that Governor Sanz of Kintoni was planning to expand her planet's military-grade landing and maintenance facilities, Pryce regarded Kintoni's activities as a threat to her ambitions to establish Lothal as the main Imperial naval base and center in this part of the Outer Rim Territories. Pryce chastised Tua for not sharing her ambition of modernizing Lothal. Pryce departed for Coruscant to lobby on Lothal's behalf and left Minister Tua in charge.

After arriving in Coruscant, Governor Pryce sent research materials and maps to Commodore Thrawn supporting Lothal's bid to expand the Imperial Navy's presence on that planet. Thrawn looked over the material and voiced support for Pryce's plans. Governor Pryce planning to give a presentation before the Imperial High Command supporting Lothal's bid. Pryce then visited Senator Renking and convinced him to persuade Governor Sanz to withdraw Kinonti's bid. Two days later, the corrupt senator managed to bribe Governor Sanz into sabotaging her presentation in return for a monetary bribe.

Six days later, the select Committee of the Imperial High Command ruled in favor of Lothal, granting the planet a contract to expand Imperial naval facilities. Following the meeting, Pryce thanked Renking for his help. Shortly later, the Imperial Security Bureau Major Hartell arrested Senator Renking for bribing Governor Sanz. When Renking protested his innocence and claimed that Pryce had told him to do it, Pryce responded that she had told him to talk to Sanz and emphasized that her version of events was supported by the recording.

Following the arrest of Senator Renking, Pryce returned to her office and received news from her receptions that her former friend Juahir had sent her a message about two hours ago. Juahir was imprisoned at the Oovo IV detention center and had been sending Pryce twenty messages for the past year. However, Pryce had instructed her Lothal office to turn them back. Still bitter towards her former friend, Pryce instructed the receptionist to keep the documents here on the ground that she was not read to ready to read them yet.

Imperialization
At one point, Arihnda Pryce visited Coruscant to discuss Lothal's industrial and mining sectors, and was received by Grand Vizier Mas Amedda. Following the awarding of the Imperial contract to Lothal, Pryce was invited by Grand Moff Tarkin to visit his homeworld of Eriadu. Pryce indicated that she would return to Coruscant for the Ascension Week celebrations that year. Pryce's rule also saw the rise of a rebellion, particularly in Capital City.

In 3272 LY, Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan lent Pryce two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, to help negotiate an Imperial arms deal. While on loan to Minister Maketh Tua the droids were captured by the rebels of the Ghost, who fought against the Empire. C-3PO attempted to contact Governor Pryce for help, but the call was intercepted by Imperial Security Bureau agent Kallus.

During the Empire Day festivities marking the fifteenth anniversary of the rise of the Empire, Pryce was invited to Coruscant to celebrate alongside Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine. She remained absent at times, and the government was overseen by Minister Tua. In Pryce's absence, the rebels continued to attack Imperial targets, drawing the attention of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and, soon thereafter, Darth Vader.

Crisis on Batonn
Later, Governor Pryce along with the-now Admiral Thrawn, Colonel Yularen, Lieutenant Commander Vanto attended a high level security meeting chaired by Fleet Admiral Donassius to discuss the growing rebel insurgency in their region of the galaxy. When Governor Restos asked about Pryce's presence, Fleet Admiral Donassius responded that Pryce had requested to be at the meeting as an observer since the Lothal system was close to the area of concern and experiencing much trouble. He reassured the other delegates that the Lothal insurgents were being dealt with by Admiral Kassius Konstantine.

Colonel Yularen then informed the delegates that a group of insurgents had seized control of Scrim Island, an offshore island on the planet Batonn. He reported that the insurgents had taken a hundred hostages including Imperial Navy troopers, technicians, and some civilian workers. The insurgents also controlled the island's energy shield, its shoreline defenses, and three ion cannons. While Thrawn was given command of the mission, he insisted on studying the island first. Donassius disagreed and appointed Admiral Durril command of the mission.

Ultimately, Thrawn was proven right and Admiral Durril's forces sustained considerable casualties. As a result, Thrawn was tasked with dealing with the insurgents. Studying the local geography and rebel fortifications, Thrawn's forces managed to use his ships' firepower to generate tsunamis to disable the four ion cannons. With the cannons disabled, Thrawn managed to arrange a meeting with the insurgents' leader Nightswan but was unable to convince him to surrender his forces.

Thrawn's efforts to deal with the Batonn insurgents was complicated by the presence of Governor Pryce. Since Pryce's parents were among the 30,000 civilians living in the Creekpath Mining and Refining complex outside Paeragosto City, Pryce wanted to rescue her parents Talmoor and Elainye, who worked as a foreman and administrator respectively. The insurgents had taken over a mine near the comx. Pryce and Colonel Yularen traveled from the planet Dennogra. Despite Pryce's insistence that she would be alright, Thrawn and Colonel Yularen assigned the ISB Agent Gudry to accompany her inside the Creekpath complex. Pryce and Gudry managed to enter the mining complex using fake identification; with Pryce wearing a false blonde wig and eye lenses.

Pryce and Gudry managed to find her parents at their Batonn home. Pryce's undercover mission was complicated when Gudry revealed that he wanted to rescue a friend, who worked as a weapons electronic expert at the mine complex. In secret, Gudry planned to attach bombs to the Creekpath base's shield generator and an explosive cache. Pryce also discovered that her parents were sympathetic to the Batonn insurgents due to the corruption of the local planetary governor and his friends. Pryce reluctantly agreed to help her father and Gudry rescue Gudry's friend. However, she secretly stole her mother's comm and swapped it for her own. Pryce was only concerned about her parents' well-being and did not care about Gudry and his friend.

Blood and fire
Pryce, Talmoor, and Gudry managed to enter the mine with her father's help. During the journey, Pryce learned more about the local governor's corruption from her father. Inside the mine, Pryce feigned sickness and slipped inside a parked speeder truck. Mimicking her mom's voice, Pryce managed to call Gudry and Talmoor back on the pretext that Talmoor was sick. Arihnda managed to take her father home and left Gudry to search for his friend alone. Upon returning to her parents' home, Pryce managed to convince them to leave by claiming that an Imperial taskforce was planning to bomb Creekpath in order to neutralize the insurgents.

Before Pryce could leave with her parents, Agent Gudry returned and chastised her for not helping his mission. Gudry also revealed that his mission was not a rescue mission but a search and destroy mission to plant bombs near the explosives cache and the shield generator. When Pryce pleaded for him to take her parents with them, Gudry replied that he could not let them draw attention to him. Following a fight, Pryce managed to shoot him dead. Before leaving with her parents, Pryce found Gudry's comm, which contained the two triggers for the shield and explosives bomb. Unaware about what was going on, Admiral Thrawn ordered his forces to engage the Creekpath insurgents and Colonel Yularen sent a retrieval squad to rescue Pryce.

Reaching the checkpoint, Pryce blew up a bulldozer with one of Gudry's explosive caps and took advantage of the commotion to kill a guard. When Elainye asked what was going on, Pryce claimed that the man had been hit by shrapnel. They soon encountered a pair of Imperial Navy troopers who informed Pryce that Colonel Yularen had sent a retrieval team to search for her. Pryce headed to the Imperial ground headquarters with her parents. After arriving there, she triggered both of Gudry's explosives in order to prevent Yularen's special guard from finding Gudry's body. The resulting explosion killed all of the insurgents within the mine, Yularen's retrieval squad, and many civilians living near the complex.

When her mother expressed horror at what she thought was an Imperial attack, Arihnda blamed the insurgents for provoking the situation. Pryce then sent her parents on the transport Duggenhei to the governor's mansion on Lothal. Governor Pryce and Colonel Yularen then attended a debriefing with Admiral Thrawn. Colonel Yularen expressed outrage at the high civilian casualties. Covering up her role in Gudry's death, Pryce claimed that Gudry had detonated the explosives when he was captured by the insurgents. When Pryce expressed her condolences for Gudry, a skeptical Yularen confronted her about the deaths of the soldiers he had sent to retrieve her. Despite the high loss of lives, Pryce was pleased that the insurgent leader Nightswan had been killed.

Following the debriefing, Governor Pryce chatted with Admiral Thrawn in private. Knowing that the military strategist lacked political savvy, she offered her services as his political adviser. Despite Thrawn's unease about the high civilian casualties, Pryce convinced him to take credit for the neutralization of the Batonn insurgents. She also solicited Thrawn's help in dealing with the growing rebel insurgency in the Lothal sector. Pryce managed to entice Thrawn by arranging for his appointment to the Seventh Fleet. Thrawn accepted her offer to serve as a political adviser before departing for an audience with the Emperor on Coruscant. During the subsequent meeting, Thrawn was promoted to Grand Admiral and given command of the Seventh Fleet.

Heist at Reklam Station
During her tenure as governor, the impact of the growing rebellion continued to destabilize parts of the Empire, Lothal being no exception. In the second year before the Battle of Yavin Pryce met with Grand Moff Tarkin to discuss the growing threat posed by the rebel insurgency. During the meeting, Pryce informed Tarkin that things were quiet on Lothal but that there had been a prison breakout on nearby Naraka. Dissatisfied with the performance of Admiral Kassius Konstantine whom she regarded as more of a politician than a soldier, she believed that the only way to effectively wipe out the rebellion was to enlist the help of someone who could "see the bigger picture." Tarkin understood her concerns and granted her request of the Seventh Fleet.

Later, Pryce and Tarkin met with Admiral Konstantine and the ISB Agent Kallus on the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Konstantine disagreed with Pryce's assessment that the Phoenix Squadron posed a serious threat and dismissed them as a localized insurgency. At that point, they were joined by the decorated Imperial officer, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who had recently been promoted for his role in suppressing the rebel presence in the Batonn sector. When Kallus expressed concerns about the high civilian casualties, Pryce justified Thrawn's actions on the grounds that the rebel presence there had been eradicated, showing her disregard for innocent lives.

When Tarkin asked Thrawn about his thoughts on Pryce's theory that the rebels were linked to a wider rebellion, Thrawn discussed the recent rescue of the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka from Naraka prison. Since Phoenix Squadron had destroyed Mining Guild vessels a mere hour after Ohnaka's rescue and Ohnaka's cellmate Terba had been a laborer at the nearby Imperial junkyard Reklam Station, Thrawn believed that the rebels planned to raid the junkyard and steal several decommissioned Y-wing starfighters for their fleet. Thrawn vowed to destroy the rebels before they could pose a threat to the Emperor's plans and the Galactic Empire.

Following Thrawn's instructions, Governor Pryce, Admiral Konstantine, and Agent Kallus traveled on their Star Destroyer to the planet Yarma, which hosted Reklam Station. Upon receiving news from Commander Brom Titus that the Spectres had attacked Reklam Station, Pryce ordered him to wait for reinforcements. However, the rebels managed to steal the Y-wings, free the Ugnaught laborers, and destroy the station. Pryce's Star Destroyer arrived in time to intercept the rebel Y-wings, which lacked hyperdrives. Before the Imperials could wipe out the stolen fighters, other rebel ships including the Ghost and a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier arrived and managed to ferry the Y-wings to safety. After consulting Thrawn, Pryce ordered her forces to allow the rebels to escape since Thrawn believed that sparing the rebel cell would allow them to hunt down and destroy the wider movement.

Hunting rebellious cadets
Following that incident, Pryce and Agent Kallus then traveled to Skystrike Academy. There they met with Instructor Goran and told him that several of his cadets were planning to defect to the rebellion. When Goran protested that his cadets were thoroughly well-trained and loyal, Pryce warned him to cooperate with their investigation and told Kallus that she had something to teach him.

Under Pryce's direction, Agent Kallus proceeded to ground the cadets and question them. His investigation yielded no results but Pryce was still unsatisfied and decided that it was time to take a more direct approach. When Goran reiterated his unhappiness with the investigation, Pryce then suggested that they could reach a mutual agreement by getting the cadets into space though a mock simulated exercise. Pryce planned to use this exercise to lure the dissident cadets out of hiding. As expected, the undercover rebel agent Sabine Wren and the cadets Wedge Antilles, Hobbie and Rake Gahree made an attempt to escape.

Sabine contacted her fellow rebels aboard a CR90 corvette and attempted to rendezvous with them. Pryce ordered Sabine and her wingmates to return but Sabine taunted her. In response, Pryce activated a button which disabled the TIE fighters' solar collectors; leaving them floating in space. Under her orders, Captain Vult Skerris destroyed Rake's fighter as a warning to the "traitors." Skerris and his TIE interceptors inflicted damage on the rebel cruiser and drove them away.

After capturing the rebellious cadets, Governor Pryce confronted the three youths. She was about to torture Wedge with an electronic torture device when Sabine identified herself as the rebel agent. While Agent Kallus took the other prisoners to a holding cell, Pryce proceeded to question Sabine. When Sabine refused to talk, Pryce brought up a glyph of her file and "welcomed" the former cadet back to the Imperial Academy. Before she could place Sabine in the torture device, the rebel agent broke free of her stormtrooper captors and fought with Pryce, who demonstrated surprisingly astute combat abilities. Pryce smirked, remarking that the Empire had taught her well, Sabine retorted that her clan had taught her better and sent the governor reeling with a powerful right hook. Stumbling backwards, Pryce accidentally triggered the torture device and was zapped with a powerful surge that knocked her out cold. Sabine, Wedge, and Hobbie then took the opportunity to escape with the help of Kallus, who had grown sympathetic to the Spectres following his encounter with Garazeb Orrelios.

Continuing the hunt
While traveling aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer, Governor Pryce was praised by Agent Kallus for her plan to lure the Spectres into a trap at a fuel depot. However, Pryce responded that her plan was only a success if they could catch the rebels. Admiral Konstantine then reported that they had received an encrypted distress signal from the planet Agamar. While thinking that it was strange for the rebels to encounter trouble, Pryce nonetheless ordered the nearest Imperial outpost to send troops to Agamar immediately; resulting in a skirmish in which the Spectres and the Separatist garrison under the super tactical droid Kalani joined forces to escape the Imperials.

Hunting down saboteurs
The former Governor Ryder Azadi's rebel cell undertook a campaign of sabotaging military vehicles produced by the Imperial Armory Complex. This led to a high rate of accidents among Imperial Military personnel. In response Imperial High Command dispatched Grand Admiral Thrawn to investigate the Lothal Imperial factory. Governor Pryce along with Agent Kallus and Lieutenant Yogar Lyste were present when Thrawn gave a speech berating the workers for their poor craftsmanship. Pryce smirked after a test demonstration with a sabotaged 614-AvA speeder bike claimed the life of factory worker and undercover rebel operative Morad Sumar.

She and her subordinates then complied with Thrawn's orders to lock down the factory and detain the factory workers for questioning. Despite their best efforts, the undercover rebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, and their astromech droid Chopper escaped the lockdown and infiltrated the factory's Section A2, which held Thrawn's top secret new weapon. Later, Pryce discussed her fears about the rebels infiltrating Section A2 and stealing its secrets. Thrawn responded that he had ordered for anyone entering the area without his personal code to be terminated on sight. When the Admiral chided Pryce for hiring locals, she responded that she had to fulfill certain Imperial quotas.

When Kallus requested more information on Thrawn's new weapon, Pryce responded that Thrawn had a new starfighter initiative. After Kallus questioned the effectiveness of a single fighter in improving Imperial fortunes, Thrawn responded that victory and defeat were determined by he smallest details. Pryce was present when Thrawn ordered another factory worker to demonstrate an AT-DP walker. When the walker broke down, Thrawn ordered the stormtroopers present to arrest the man.

Despite Thrawn's security precautions, Ezra's team managed to steal the starfighter plans and escaped with the help of Kallus, who had secretly alerted the Phoenix Squadron to the project. Pryce and Kallus later visited Thrawn's Office to discuss the recent rebel incursion. When Thrawn voiced his suspicions that the Empire had a traitor among their ranks, an alarmed Pryce advocated interrogating all Imperial personnel on Lothal. However, Thrawn counseled Pryce that emotion would not work and announced that he would uncover the traitor and co-opt them.

Spy games
After Grand Admiral Thrawn solicited the help of the ISB Colonel Wullf Yularen in hunting for the rebel spy known as Fulcrum, Governor Pryce and other sector command staff attended meetings and interviews with Thrawn and Colonel Yularen aboard Thrawn's flagship Chimaera. While aboard the ship, Pryce met up with Agent Kallus and Lieutenant Lyste and thanked the latter for capturing a Lothalian bounty hunter, who had stolen a Star Commuter 2000 shuttle. Unknown to Pryce, Kallus was Fulcrum and the "bounty hunter" was the rebel operative Ezra Bridger.

In order to obstruct the investigation, Kallus misled Lieutenant Lyste into believing that the ISB was investigating Pryce on suspicion that she was the rebel informant Fulcrum. While Kallus secretly switched their code cylinders, he instructed Lyste to spy on Pryce. Later, Pryce met privately with Thrawn and Yularen in Thrawn's Office. When she inquired about progress, Thrawn opined that the spy had been present during their interviews and added that he planned to use the spy to sift out the rebels. At that point, Yularen briefed them that a coded transmission had been beamed off the Chimaera after Lyste and Kallus had boarded the ship with the bounty hunter.

Pryce then accompanied Thrawn and Lyste to visit the Chimaera detention block. Upon arriving, Pryce and her comrades discovered that the prisoner had escaped. After checking the register, Yularen reported that Lyste had been the last to enter the brig based on his code cylinder. Under Thrawn's instructions, Governor Pryce and a pair of stormtroopers encountered the two undercover rebels Kanan Jarrus and Rex, who were disguised as stormtroopers. These "stormtroopers" had arrived aboard Shuttle TY992 to pick up Kallus and the rebel operatives Ezra, Chopper, and the RA-7 protocol droid AP-5.

Governor Pryce, who knew they were rebels, ordered them to remove their helmets and submit to arrest. When Kanan protested, attempting to use a mind trick on her, she resisted and ordered her stormtrooper escort to stun him. Pryce then engaged in hand to hand combat with Rex. She managed to gain the upper hand over the former Clone Captain but was stunned by Lyste, who mistakenly believed that she was Fulcrum. Kallus then tackled Lyste and helped his rebel friends to escape. He then stayed behind to continue his work as an informant. Kallus then framed Lyste as Fulcrum.

Governor Pryce accepted Kallus' account that Lyste was a spy. Colonel Yularen publicly corroborated Lyste's account by linking Lyste's code cylinder to the rebel infiltration. After Pryce and Kallus left, Thrawn privately told Yularen that Lyste was innocent and that Kallus was the true Fulcrum. Despite realizing that Kallus had framed Lyste to conceal his identity as Fulcrum, the two decided not to arrest Kallus so that they could use him to lead them to the rebels.

Hunt for Mon Mothma
Later, Arihnda Pryce and Admiral Konstantine attended a meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn to discuss plans to capture the former Imperial Senator Mon Mothma, who was being ferried by members of the Spectres rebel cell through the Archeon Nebula. Both Pryce and Konstantine expressed disbelief that Phoenix Leader Hera Syndulla would risk traveling through the dangerous Archeon pass. Seeking to silence Mon Mothma, Pryce volunteered for the mission. Thrawn then dispatched her and Admiral Konstantine to position two Star Destroyers outside the Archeon Nebula. Thrawn then dispatched the elite TIE fighter pilot Commander Vult Skerris in a prototype TIE Defender to flush the rebels out of the Nebula.

Hera's ship Ghost managed to exit the Archeon pass only to be intercepted by Pryce and Konstantine's two Star Destroyers. When Governor Pryce demanded Mothma's surrender, the rogue Senator issued a list of demands which she promptly rejected. Pryce then ordered Konstantine to use their Star Destroyer's tractor beam projector to draw the Ghost into its hangar bay. Shortly later, the rebel pilots Gold Leader Jon Vander and Ezra Bridger managed to exit the nebula with their two remaining Y-wing fighters after escaping Skerris' TIE Defender. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory for Governor Pryce when the rebel pilots at Hera's command fired their proton torpedoes into the Archeon Nebula. This created a firestorm which damaged both Star Destroyers. The Ghost and its Y-wing escorts then fled to Dantooine where Mothma delivered a stirring speech on HoloNet urging rebellion against the Empire.

Battle of Atollon
Governor Pryce and Admiral Konstantine attended an urgent meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Tarkin to discuss new information that the Phoenix Squadron and General Jan Dodonna's Massassi group were planning to attack the TIE Defender factories on Lothal. During the meeting, Pryce opined that a coordinate rebel attack was unprecedented. This meeting was a ruse by Thrawn to lure the rebel spy Agent Kallus out of hiding and discover the location of the hidden Chopper Base. Governor Pryce later accompanied Thrawn and the captive Kallus aboard the Star Destroyer Chimaera during the Battle of Atollon.

Thrawn blockaded the Atollon system and managed to trap the two rebel forces. The Empire inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels, destroying numerous starships and starfighters. However, Admiral Konstantine's interdictor cruiser was destroyed when he disobeyed Thrawn's orders and tried to intercept Commander Jun Sato's command ship Phoenix Home. This allowed the rebels Ezra Bridger and Chopper to flee into hyperspace aboard the Nightbrother and seek help.

After the rebel ships retreated back to Chopper Base, Governor Pryce watched as the Imperial fleet bombarded the base. However, Chopper Base was protected by a deflector shield generator. While Thrawn led the ground assault, Governor Pryce commanded the Imperial fleet. When Ezra returned with Mandalorian reinforcements led by Sabine Wren and Fenn Rau, Pryce recognized Sabine's forces and ordered the TIE fighters and capital ships to intercept them. A Mandalorian strike team then attacked the second interdictor cruiser.

In response, Governor Pryce dispatched several Jumptroopers to protect the interdictor cruiser. However, the rebels managed to blow up the ship's gravity well projectors, destroying the interdictor. When the captive Kallus taunted her about displeasing Thrawn, Pryce ordered her stormtroopers to fling him out the airlock. However, Kallus managed to escape aboard an escape pod and flee into hyperspace with the retreating rebels. Pryce was visibly displeased with the rebels' escape.

Personality and traits
Arihnda Pryce was an ambitious individual who looked down upon her Lothalian roots. She was the daughter of Talmoor and Elainye Pryce, who ran a small family mining company called Pryce Mining. Arihnda helped her parents managed the company until they were forced out by the machinations of Governor Ryder Azadi and Senator Domus Renking. Pryce bore a grudge against those two men for stealing her family's company and vowed revenge. While Pryce befriended the martial arts instructor Juahir Madras and the advocate Driller MarDapp, she turned against them after learning that their advocacy group Higher Skies was spying on high-ranking Imperial officials and working with the rebel insurgent known as Nightswan.

Pryce cultivated powerful allies in the form of the Chiss strategist and Imperial Navy officer Thrawn and the Imperial Security Bureau Colonel Wulff Yularen. Pryce secured the Governorship of Lothal by trading information about Higher Skies to Grand Moff Tarkin. As an incentive, she also revealed that Moff Ghadi was planning to use Higher Skies' information to conspire against Tarkin. As Governor, Pryce settled scores with Azadi and Renking by engineering their political downfall. Pryce had ambitions of making Lothal a center of Imperial power in the Outer Rim and was willing to expropriate farmland for factories, bases, and mines. Pryce could also be vindictive and refused to help her former friend Juahir.

Pryce was not known to have any romantic relationships. While she had met several men who had tried to befriend or romance her, these contacts did not develop into relationships. Most of the people that she interacted with considered her to be a helper, champion or even a mother figure. Pryce thought that these perceptions would not be a good basis for a balanced emotional connection. While she was from Lothal, she had no interest in remaining there and coveted the glamour of Coruscant. She sold out her homeworld to the Emperor and allowed the Galactic Empire to make Lothal their local headquarters in the Lothal sector. She placed her own ambitions and career aspirations over the interests of the Lothalian people; this stood in contrast to her deputy ruler, Maketh Tua, who genuinely cared for the people. She rarely visited Lothal and only returned to her homeworld because the planet had become a haven for rebels about two years before the Battle of Yavin. Pryce saw the master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn as a valuable asset in her fight against the rebel presence in the Lothal sector.

Pryce loved and cared for both her parents Talmoor and Elaiyne. When Agent Gudri wanted to abandon them, she killed him. In order to cover her tracks, she detonated his explosives, destroying the mine where the Batonn insurgents were holed up and killing numerous civilians and several Imperial soldiers sent to rescue her. Her actions earned her the contempt of her former ally Yularen. Pryce later justified the high civilian casualties by claiming that her actions eliminated the rebels in the Batonn sector. Pryce also curried favor with Thrawn by encouraging him to take credit for the events at Batonn and using her political connections to secure him command of the Seventh Fleet.

She was also willing to torture the rebel spy Sabine Wren in order to obtain intelligence on the rebellion. Pryce smirked in a sadistic manner after witnessing the deliberate death of Morad Sumar in a speeder explosion. Despite her confident demeanor, Pryce reacted with alarm when Thrawn suspected that the Empire had a traitor among their ranks. When she suggested interrogating all Imperial personnel, Thrawn cautioned that this would only alert the traitor and advocated luring the culprit into a trap.

Due to her trust for Agent Kallus, Pryce accepted his account that Lieutenant Yogar Lyste was the rebel spy known as Fulcrum. She believed that the fact that Lyste mistakenly stunned her along with the use of his code cylinder to free the rebel operative Ezra were evidence of his guilt. While Pryce believed that Lyste was guilty, Thrawn and Yularen realized that Kallus was the real Fulcrum and had framed Lyste. As a staunch Imperial loyalist, Pryce sought to boost her standing by capturing the rogue Senator Mon Mothma. She thought that it was too risky to travel through the Archeon Nebula. Mothma regarded Pryce as untrustworthy. Pryce wanted to capture Mon Mothma alive so that Thrawn could question her about the rebellion. Pryce's belief in superiority of arms and numbers proved folly when the rebels outmaneuvered her by igniting the Archeon Nebula.

During a meeting with Thrawn, Admiral Konstantine, and Tarkin, Governor Pryce regarded a coordinated rebel assault as an unprecedented development. Lacking Thrawn's tactical and naval skills, she failed to prevent Mandalorian rebels from destroying a second Imperial interdictor cruiser. She was also easily goaded when Kallus taunted her about her failure to safeguard Thrawn's fleet. Pryce ordered her men to throw him out the airlock but Kallus escaped and reunited with his rebel allies. Pryce was visibly displeased when the rebels escaped into hyperspace.

Skills and abilities
Unlike some other high ranking Imperial officials, Arihnda Pryce distinguished herself as a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, having received martial training and she was not afraid to get her hands dirty if necessary. Following an encounter with thugs on Coruscant, Pryce honed her combat skills under the tutelage of her friend Juahir and the bodyguard Ottlis Dos. During the Batonn insurgency, Pryce managed to fight off the ISB Agent Gudri and kill him when he threatened her parents. She was also tech savvy and knew how to operative comms and explosives. Pryce also killed a Batonn insurgent guard and covered up his death by detonating a nearby bulldozer.

On another occasion, she actively engaged the Mandalorian weapons expert Sabine Wren in a fistfight rather than summon reinforcements or flee as most other officers would have done. Though Pryce managed to get in a few blows, her prowess was under-matched against a Mandalorian. Wren claimed victory in the fight by knocking Pryce into an interrogation table and electrocuting her. Governor Pryce later managed to hold herself against the former Clone Captain Rex in unarmed combat. However, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory when Lieutenant Lyste mistakenly stunned her.

Pryce was also extremely adept at covertly gathering information. While she worked for the High Skies Advocacy group, she secretly gathered information on many high-level Imperial politicians, for use in her own and other's schemes. Additionally, she was indirectly and directly responsible for smoothing over different 'bumps' in Thrawn's rise in rank as Thrawn, while undoubtedly a brilliant tactician, was almost completely inept at the game of politics.

Behind the scenes
Arihnda Pryce was first mentioned in HoloNet News Special Report: Lothal Jobless Rates Hit All-time Low, the third in a series of in-universe HoloNet News report videos posted at holonetnews.com tying in to the Star Wars Rebels television series prior to its first season in 2014. Pryce made her first appearance in the junior novel Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy, the first entry in a series written by Jason Fry which featured Zare Leonis, a character from Rebels. Throughout Rebels's first season and the remaining Servants of the Empire books, Pryce was mentioned several times, however she had yet to be visualized in any form. It was not until the second day of 2016's Celebration Europe, during which the first trailer for Rebels's third season was shown, that Pryce was revealed to be making her physical debut in the series. Voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Pryce appeared in the first episode of Rebels's third season, Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow.

Pryce has a major role in Timothy Zahn's 2017 novel Thrawn, which explored her backstory and personality prior to becoming Governor of Lothal.