Ailyn Vel

Ailyn Vel was the daughter of Boba Fett and Sintas Vel.

By the age of sixteen she had lost both her parents&mdash;her father left the family, and her mother later died. She became a very successful bounty hunter, and devoted many years to hunting her father down, to avenge her mother's death. She eventually assumed the role of Boba Fett himself, keeping her real identity unknown.

Biography
The time and place of Ailyn's birth was unknown, though it was believed that she was born on Concord Dawn somewhere between 18 BBY and 12 BBY. Her mother, Sintas Vel, was a Kiffar bounty hunter, while her father, Boba Fett, was believed to be a Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn at the time.

For unknown reasons, Ailyn's father walked out on the family while she was still very young. As a result, Ailyn grew to hate her father. She lived with her mother for her child and teenage years.

Tragedy struck Ailyn again on her sixteenth birthday, when her mother was killed in pursuit of a bounty. Sintas had taken the bounty mission for the sole purpose of getting credits to buy a special birthday gift for her daughter. Ailyn was devastated by the loss.

The death of Ailyn's mother fueled the strong hatred she had towards her father, and her ambition in life became to kill Boba, blaming him for the death of her mother.

Tracking Fett was a difficult task for young Ailyn, so she resorted to becoming a hunt-saboteur in hope of finding Fett in her travels. Unfortunately, her efforts went unrewarded for a long time.

It was not until some years after the reported death of Fett at the Pit of Carkoon that Ailyn felt she could finally move on in life. It was from that point that she began her career as a bounty hunter.

Years later, Ailyn discovered that her father still lived, and so the biggest hunt of her lifetime had resumed. She eventually hunted Fett down in the Extrictarium Nebula. However, on confronting her target, she found a man that was not her father, but was in fact an old clone of Jango Fett known as Alpha-Ø2. Ailyn killed the old ARC clone trooper and took his Mandalorian armor with her, and so her hunt continued.

Ailyn returned to hunting bounties, and on occasion would equip the Mandalorian armor and act as Boba Fett, in order to receive bounties of much larger payouts. She began to truly believe that she was his equal or better. It wasn't until 15 ABY that Ailyn finally believed her father to be dead (again). She eventually tracked Fett down at Shogun and found evidence of a dead Mandalorian supercommando. She also found Fett's Slave IV and took it as her own, assuming the corpse was that of her father.

From then on she took his identity, taking jobs from Bwahl the Hutt and for Nolaa Tarkona of the Diversity Alliance to find shipping merchant Bornan Thul. She eventually found Thul, discovering what he'd been hiding-the coordinates of a plague storehouse-and then transmitting that data to Tarkona. The Diversity Alliance crumbled in battle with the New Republic.

Shortly after the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Ailyn was never reported to be seen again.

Behind the scenes

 * "Sweet Sith, I think I'm in love with my own creation."
 * &mdash;Abel G. Peña, Abel G. Peña's Blog

Ailyn Vel's character was developed by Abel G. Peña, fleshed out exclusively for his article in Star Wars Insider 80 entitled The History of the Mandalorians. Ailyn was designed as the typical "gorgeous butt-kicker", based on characters such as Joan of Arc, TV's Xena the Warrior Princess, Kill Bill's samurai bride, and the hookers of Frank Miller's Sin City.

The artwork depicting Ailyn that appeared in the article was by Joe Corroney, inspired by a photograph of model Anastasia Heonis. The photo was taken by Jason Perlman.

Ailyn assuming her father's identity was based on the concept of Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.

Ailyn first appeared as a baby in the arms of Sintas with Boba Fett in Star Wars Tales 7, though her name and character was likely not established at that time. While this story, like all other stories in the early Star Wars Tales issues, was not meant to be necessarily canon, the references in The History of the Mandalorians have made her existence canonical.

Appearances

 * Outbid But Never Outgunned - Star Wars Tales 7
 * Young Jedi Knights series (as Boba Fett)