Rulf Yage

"As a starfighter pilot, you anticipated your enemy's moves. You never applied that to politics. Nor would you let me help you. That's why Morlish Veed is the High Moff and you aren't."

- Nyna Calixte to Rulf Yage

Rulf Yage was a hardliner Human male Moff and a decorated Grand Admiral during the time of the Fel Empire in 130 ABY. As a member of the Imperial Navy, Yage originally served as the commander of Skull Squadron, an elite unit of Predator-class starfighters assigned to defend the Imperial capital world of Bastion, before being assigned as the coordinator of starfighter tactics on the Star Destroyer Ephin Sarreti, attached to the Second Outer Rim Fleet. As his career continued, Yage became a member of the Council of Moffs, representing the interests of the Navy. He married fellow Moff Nyna Calixte at one point in his life. Calixte eventually left Yage for High Moff Morlish Veed, but not before the marriage produced a daughter, Gunn, whom Rulf treated as the son he always wanted.

During the waning years of the Galactic Alliance, the Moff Council allied themselves with Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Krayt's One Sith Order, a move carried out behind the back of the incumbent Emperor Roan Fel. With the Sith's backing, the Moff Council invoked the Treaty of Anaxes and declared war on the Alliance, which culminated in a decisive Imperial victory above the Core World of Caamas that saw the Alliance surrender to Grand Admiral Morlish Veed. Yage was tasked by the Sith with leading an Imperial attack on the Jedi Academy on Ossus, where his stormtroopers wiped out nearly every Jedi present. For his part in the victory, Yage was named the "Hero of Ossus" and made a Moff. He returned to Coruscant, the new capital of the Empire, where he witnessed Darth Krayt usurp control of the Empire, killing a decoy of Roan Fel. Krayt forced the Moff Council into subservience, and Yage and the others complied. During the hunt for Jedi-turned-bounty hunter Cade Skywalker in 137 ABY, Yage and the other Moffs plotted to use Skywalker to assassinate Emperor Krayt. However, Skywalker had already been captured by the Sith, and was being held within their temple on Coruscant. He ultimately escaped captivity and fled Coruscant aboard his ship, the Mynock, after Yage was forced to recall the pursuing Skull Squadron so as not to violate the Sith airspace around the temple. At a later meeting of the Moff Council, Yage was assigned by Regent Veed to lead Sith-Imperial forces in Operation: Thunderstroke, an attempt to break up a meeting between Fel's Empire and the New Jedi Order and capture the Emperor-in-exile.

Naval career
"Spast, Gunner, how did you survive your childhood?''" "Cut him some slack, Storm. He was expecting a boy and instead he got me! And then my mother''&hellip;"

- Jae "Storm" Akura and Gunn "Gunner" Yage, on Moff Yage

Rulf Yage, a Human male, was born into the famed Yage family. He attended the Imperial Academy before starting off his career in the military of the Fel Empire as a starfighter pilot in the Imperial Navy. Yage became a member of Skull Squadron, an elite Predator-class starfighter squadron which was assigned to the defense of the Imperial capital Bastion, and he soon rose to the position of squadron commander. He married Nyna Calixte, the eventual Director of Imperial Intelligence, and the relationship resulted in a daughter, Gunn, whom Rulf raised as the son he always wanted. After serving in Skull Squadron, Yage was assigned to the Star Destroyer Ephin Sarreti, part of the Imperial Second Outer Rim Fleet. While aboard, he was responsible for coordinating the fleet's starfighter tactics. Yage was eventually promoted to the rank of admiral, but around the same time, Calixte left him for High Moff Morlish Veed, also a member of the Navy. In an effort to overcome the growing amount of bitterness in his life, Yage embedded himself in his duties. As a hardliner Imperial, Yage was among those who objected to Emperor Roan Fel's announcement that his daughter, Princess Marasiah Fel, would succeed him as leader of the Empire.

Seat on the Council of Moffs
When the Galactic Alliance's Ossus Project, an effort by the Shaper caste of the Yuuzhan Vong to restore life to planets destroyed in their invasion of the galaxy from 25 ABY to 29 ABY, began to harm the inhabitants of the devastated worlds, the Council of Moffs decided to invoke the Treaty of Anaxes and declare war on the Alliance in 127 ABY. A year later, the Moffs&mdash;without the knowledge of Emperor Fel&mdash;allied with Dark Lord Darth Krayt's Sith Order&mdash;the very group of Sith who had sabotaged the Ossus Project. The Sith-Imperial War reached its final stage by 130 ABY, when above the Core World Caamas, Grand Admiral Veed's forces brought about a decisive Imperial victory when he forced the Alliance commanders into surrendering. Coruscant fell to the Empire around the same time. The members of the Alliance governing Triumvirate became nothing more than puppets to ensure the peaceful transition from Galactic Alliance to Galactic Empire; Emperor Fel then made them viceroys over what was left of Alliance Space.

Massacre at Ossus
The final act of the war, however, had yet to come. Yage, now a Grand Admiral, led an attack on the Jedi Academy on Ossus alongside Sith Lord Darth Nihl. Stormtroopers and Sith alike eradicated the majority of Jedi present, including High Council member and champion of the Ossus Project, Jedi Master Kol Skywalker. For his part in the massacre, Yage&mdash;who was praised as the "Hero of Ossus" &mdash;was appointed Moff and given a seat on the Moff Council, where he represented the interests of the Imperial Navy. The Council met on conquered Coruscant at a point following the massacre, and while Moff Veed was concluding his report to the Council and Emperor Fel on the events on Ossus, Darth Krayt and three of his minions&mdash;Darths Wyyrlok, Maladi, and Nihl&mdash;entered Fel's throne room and proceeded to take control of the Empire. The Dark Lord slayed the four Imperial Knight bodyguards present before assassinating the man who sat on the throne. Though Krayt had only killed a decoy, the Moffs were quick to pledge their loyalty to their new Emperor, Krayt.

The search for Skywalker
"For example, this report states that Skull Squadron&mdash;once your command, and now your daughter's&mdash;spotted and lost Skywalker in the Undercity. Should we assume something from that?''" "Read the rest of the report. The identification of that ship was never satisfactorily'' confirmed."

- Moffs Fehlaaur and Yage

Seven years into his reign as Emperor, Krayt began to realize that his body was failing him. He had become aware of the healing power that Jedi-turned-bounty hunter Cade Skywalker possessed through Moff Konrad Rus's contacts on Bastion, where Skywalker had returned Imperial heir Princess Marasiah Fel after she had been injured during an encounter with the Sith on Vendaxa. The Dark Lord of the Sith hoped to capture the former Jedi and convert him to the dark side of the Force with the hope that his abilities could be used to increase the Emperor's own longevity. Skywalker soon arrived on Coruscant in his Helot-class transport, the Mynock, and there he was pursued by Skull Squadron under the command of Moff Yage's daughter, Gunn "Gunner" Yage. On orders from the Moff to take Skywalker alive, Gunn and her pilots ultimately lost the Mynock when Skywalker hid it in the Coruscant Undercity.

Rulf awaited his daughter in the Skull Squadron Hangar when Gunn and her squad mates Jae Akura, Brodie Coburn, and Tev Rimon returned. Wasting no time in scolding his daughter, he announced that the loss of the Mynock had been unacceptable. Gunn replied that the ship's identification had not been confirmed, and that their failure was inevitable, as they would not have been able to take out the ship without risking Skywalker's death and therefore disobeying Rulf's own edict. The Moff began berating his daughter&mdash;he had issued an order, and had no desire to listen to their excuses for failing. Gunn proposed that, should her father be dissatisfied with her handling of the squadron, he could dismiss her whenever he wished. Rather than do so, he ordered his daughter to attend dinner with him the following evening&mdash;and not to be late. Akura was astonished that Gunn had been able to survive her childhood, but she stood up for her father, noting that he had wanted a son.

Skywalker ultimately fell into Krayt's hands when he was captured by Hands Talon and Nihl after infiltrating the Temple of the Sith and attempting to free the Bothan Jedi Hosk Trey'lis. At a meeting of the Moff Council the following day, Darth Maladi informed the Moffs that the search for Skywalker had been called off, but she refused to divulge any information despite Moff Calixte's assumption that Skywalker had been captured. As the discussions continued after Maladi cut her transmission, Yage, speaking to the Chiss Moff Fehlaaur, accused the Chiss Ascendancy of harboring the deposed Emperor Fel and his forces. Fehlaaur and Yage bickered over the reported sighting of the Mynock in the Coruscant Undercity until Moff Geist of the Imperial Army intervened, announcing that Skywalker's whereabouts were no longer relevant now that the search for the former Jedi had ended. Geist realized that the Council commanded less power than they had had under Fel, and Yage responded that their current predicament had been the result of Calixte's machinations with the Sith to bring them in on the Empire's side during the Sith-Imperial War. Calixte tried to defend her actions by reporting that the war&mdash;which the Council had wanted in the first place&mdash;had been going poorly for the Empire. Fehlaaur and Geist offered further opinions on the matter, but Morlish Veed put a halt to the debate and called for unity before revealing his intentions to capture Skywalker for the Council's own purposes against Krayt's Order. When Geist and Fehlaaur departed, Yage left for dinner with his daughter, leaving Veed and Calixte to discuss their own plans.

Yage met his daughter at the Naboo Queen restaurant, formerly the senatorial apartment of one-time Naboo queen and senator Padmé Amidala during the final days of the Old Republic. There, the two discussed the loyalty of Gunn's Skull Squadron before they were interrupted by Moff Calixte, Rulf's one-time wife and Gunn's mother. Calixte had come to question her daughter on Skull Squadron's chase of the Mynock, but the meeting quickly dissolved into arguing and name-calling. Rulf calmly ate his soup as Calixte and Gunn's debate continued, interjecting only when necessary&mdash;at one point, he reminded his daughter that Calixte was still a superior officer and deserved some respect. As Calixte departed, she commented on how nice their civil discussions could be; Rulf replied that they were more like civil wars, to the amusement of his daughter.

As Skywalker's imprisonment continued, the former Jedi managed to convince the Sith that he was willing to join them. But eventually, in Darth Krayt's throne room in the Temple of the Sith on Coruscant, he dueled Darth Nihl, the Nagai Sith Lord who had killed his father, and defeated him. Krayt urged Skywalker to kill Nihl, but Skywalker refused and instead attacked Krayt. In the atmosphere around the Temple, the Mynock&mdash;crewed by Skywalker's cohorts Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn, the Wookiee Chak, and the Devaronian Kee of the smuggling ship Grinning Liar&mdash;engaged Skull Squadron in an attempt to rescue Skywalker from the Temple. As Gunn locked on to the Mynock, Moff Yage was ordered by an Imperial admiral via hologram to call off the squadron, in compliance with a standing order that no Imperial vessels were to violate the Temple's airspace. Yage reluctantly complied, ordering his aide Captain Skolitz to recall the Skulls. Skywalker and his allies ultimately fled Coruscant, on the order of Cade's mother Morrigan Corde&mdash;an Imperial Intelligence alias of Moff Calixte.

Operation: Thunderstroke
Some time following Skywalker's escape from Coruscant, newly-appointed Regent Veed received intelligence of a planned meeting between members of the New Jedi Order and representatives of the Empire-in-exile&mdash;led by the exiled Emperor Fel himself&mdash;on the Outer Rim world of Agamar. Veed revealed this information to his comrades at a meeting of the Moff Council. Determined to break up the rendezvous, he launched Operation: Thunderstroke, with the primary objective of capturing Fel so that he could stand trial and be subsequently executed. The regent assigned Yage as commander of the Sith-Imperial forces participating in the operation.

Personality and traits
"When I issue an order, Captain, I do not look for excuses as to why my pilots failed to carry it out! Excuses are for weaklings!"

- Rulf Yage, to his daughter Gunn

Moff Yage, a loyal Imperial, came from a notable family. Yage was not as cunning and devious as the other members of the Moff Council, something that his former wife Nyna Calixte would often point out to him. It was because of those traits, she claimed, that Morlish Veed was the High Moff rather than her former husband. Following his separation from Calixte, Yage led a bitter life, and he tried to hide that by throwing himself into his duties in the Navy. He was a skilled starfighter pilot and tactician, as shown by his command of the elite Skull Squadron and his coordination of fighter tactics for the Second Outer Rim Fleet. His skills eventually earned him the rank of Grand Admiral and, after his successful attack on the Jedi Temple on Ossus, a seat on the Council of Moffs. He was known to be one of the hardliner Moffs, objecting to Emperor Fel's decision to have his daughter, Princess Marasiah Fel, succeed him as ruler of the Empire. Additionally, the Moff expected all his directives to be carried out to the letter, and he had no time for excuses when those under his command were unable to follow those orders. In his opinion, only weak beings incapable of following instructions would attempt to justify their failure.

In addition to speaking Basic, Yage was fluent in Durese, the language of the Duros.

When Gunn Yage and Cade Skywalker were stranded on Tatooine, Gunn made an offhand remark to Skywalker about her father missing a few Jedi on Ossus. Skywalker was shocked to learn that Gunn was the daughter of the "Butcher of Ossus," but Gunn was quick to defend her father's&mdash;and the Empire's&mdash;actions. She said that the Moff had never even seen himself the "Hero of Ossus;" he had just been following the Sith's orders. According to her, following the conclusion of the massacre and Krayt's takeover of the Imperial government, Rulf was drunk for a week. Gunn noticed that he was never the same as he was before the attack, as he had become more of a recluse.

Behind the scenes
Moff Rulf Yage was first mentioned in 2006's Star Wars Legacy 0, the preview issue of the Star Wars: Legacy series of comics. Yage would go on to appear as a background character in Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1 and Legacy 8: Allies. He would not be given any dialogue until the Claws of the Dragon story arc; specifically, parts one, two, and six. Additionally, he appeared in Star Wars Legacy 0½, an expanded version of Legacy 0. In all his appearances, save Legacy 8: Allies, Yage was illustrated by artist Jan Duursema. In Allies, Adam DeKraker took on the task of drawing Yage and the other Moffs.

In Legacy 19: Claws of the Dragon, Part 6, there are a few panels depicting Yage conversing with a holographic admiral. In the first of these, their text bubbles are switched&mdash;as a result, Yage is shown saying the admiral's line, and vice-versa. The error was not repeated in subsequent panels showing the rest of their conversation. This error was later corrected in the Claws of the Dragon trade paperback. In Star Wars Legacy 37: Tatooine, Part 1, Yage is incorrectly referred to as "Ranulf" by Moff Calixte.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Legacy 8: Allies
 * Star Wars Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 14: Claws of the Dragon, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 15: Claws of the Dragon, Part 2
 * Star Wars Legacy 19: Claws of the Dragon, Part 6
 * Star Wars Legacy 37: Tatooine, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 39: Tatooine, Part 3
 * Star Wars Legacy 43: Monster, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 44: Monster, Part 2