Quarra Thayn

Quarra Thayn was a Force-sensitive Keshiri female from Uhrar on the continent of Alanciar on the planet Kesh. She was a wardmaster in the Alanciar military and the Chief military administrator of the city of Uhrar. She was married to Brue Thayn, and they produced three children including one daughter. As with all Keshiri living in Alanciar, Thayn was raised on the teachings of Adari Vaal, who had managed to escape from the continent of Keshtah Minor, which was ruled by the Lost Tribe of Sith. Thus, Quarra and her compatriots were indoctrinated from youth to defend their homeland from any invasion by the Tribe.

In 2975 BBY, Thayn began an affair with Jogan Halder, a sentinel posted at Point Defiance, the southernmost of Alanciar's western watchtowers. During her visit to Point Defiance, the Lost Tribe sent a reconnaisance mission to scout Alanciar. The Alanciari defenders downed the enemy airships with their ballistae. In an attempt to hide her affair, Quarra attempted to return to Uhrar during the fighting. However, they were captured by the High Lord Edell Vrai, the leader of the Sith reconnaissance mission, and his marooned scouting party. In exchange for sparing the life of the wounded Halder, Thayn agreed to guide Vrai on a reconnaissance mission to Alanciar's military capital of Sus'mintri, which was located near the centre of the continent. While Quarra appeared to collaborate with the invaders, she secretly intended to scare the Sith back to where they came from.

Despite their political and philosophical differences, Quarra developed a reluctant friendship with Edell. During her travels with Vrai, Quarra experienced a Force vision where she encountered the former Sith woman Orielle Kitai and her Jedi husband Jelph Marrian who gave her encouragement. Orielle compared her former life as a high-ranking member of the Sith tribe to Quarra's station in the Alanciar military. She also warned Quarra of the dangers of "living within a dream." Convinced of the inevitable Sith take-over and intrigued by Orielle's peaceful life in the jungle, Quarra decided to remain loyal to her family rather than becoming the consort of Edell Vrai after the Sith have occupied Alanciar.

Towards the end of their travels, the Lost Tribe launched a full-scale military invasion of Alanciar. Vrai's rival High Lord Korsin Bentado's Ebon Fleet invaded Alanciar but were shot down by the Alanciari military. However, Bentado and several of his followers survived the crash. These Sith regrouped and succeeded in infiltrating the Alanciari military capital of Sus'mintri where they slew the entire Alanciari War Cabinet; effectively decapitating the Alanciari government. After checking that her family was safe at Uhrar, Thayn and Vrai finished their journey to Sus'mintri.

While Thayn had intended to hand Vrai over to the Alanciari War Cabinet, the two quickly discovered that Bentado and his followers had already arrived and seized control of Vaal Hall, the headquarters of the War Cabinet. Bentado then revealed his plans to take control of Alanciar for himself and to create a "Second Tribe." He also planned to kill Grand Lord Varner Hilts by shooting down his airship. When Edell and Quarra refused to support his plans, Bentado ordered his men to imprison them. However, they managed to escape and hid for two weeks within the secret library of Adari Vaal, the Rock of Kesh and the founder of Alanciari civilization. During this period, Quarra discovered Adari's personal memoirs which revealed that she had succumbed to weakness during an encounter with Yaru Korsin, the founder of the Tribe.

Vrai also revealed that he had secretly sent Thayn's lover Jogan to Keshtah Minor, the domain of the Tribe. Despite their differences, Quarra and Edell made an agreement to stop Bentado's plans. They succeeded in entering Bentado's base in the building's "world watch" where they fought him and his bodyguards. While Bentado managed to overpower Thayn and Vrai with his dark side powers, he was killed by his own Keshiri assistant Squab, who revealed that he had countermanded Korsin's orders to destroy Hilts' ship. As a result, Hilts' airship managed to land in Alanciar's capital Sus'mintri with minimal resistance.

Quarra and Edell quickly learnt that Jogan had become the Tribe's new ambassador to the Alanciari. Jogan was able to convince the Alanciari to submit to the Lost Tribe by claiming that they did not pose a threat to Alanciar. Instead, he claimed that the Tribe were the legendary Protectors, deities in Keshiri religion. Jogan also told them that Bentado and the Ebon Fleet were the malevolent Destructors, who had been expelled from Keshtah. He also explained that Edell Vrai was a "trusted friend" of the Protectors whose airships were pursuing the Destructors. The Grand Lord Hilts also disguised himself as the Kesh-born minion of the Bright Tuash, an avian Keshiri deity. Hilts supported Jogan's account and expressed remorse that the "evil ones" had murdered the Alanciari War Cabinet before the "Protectors" could arrive to stop them. He also claimed that Adari Vaal had been a well-meaning albeit misguided servant of the Tuash.

According to the Bright Tuash, Quarra was praised as a well-trained Alanciari who was working in concert with Vrai, a secret agent of the Protectors, to defeat Bentado. Quarra and Vrai were also praised for their role in stopping Bentado, who was dubbed a "servant of the Destructors." However, Quarra remained suspicious and distrustful of the Sith. While Quarra managed to make contact with her lover Jogan, he was too preoccupied with his new job of being the new "Herald." Ultimately, Jogan decide not to contact Quarra due to his newly-found position and to hide their illicit affair. While many of her people were convinced by the Tribe's demonstration, she alone remained skeptical but found little support from her compatriots. Instead she resolved to accept her destiny and guide her compatriots through the process of "Unification." She also returned to her family home where she reconciled with husband Brue Thayn and their three children.

The Frustrated Bureaucrat and Lover
Quarra Thayn grew up and lived on the planet Kesh's southern hemispheric continent of Alanciar, which had remained independent of the Lost Tribe of Sith until 2975 BBY. Quarra was born around 3019 BBY and was a resident of the city of Uhrar in the northern part of the continent, which was where she met a husband Brue Thayn, a glassblower who taught the art of glassblowing to elderly veterans of the Alanciari military. She and Brue produced three children with their eldest being a daughter who was almost twelve years old, making her eligible for military conscription as a trainee by the following year. As with all Keshiri living in Alanciar, Quarra was raised from her childhood to fear and hate the Lost Tribe of Sith, a group of Human Sith offworlders who had settled on Kesh during the Great Hyperspace War and dominated Keshtah, Alanciar's neighbor in the southern hemisphere. In 4975 BBY, the Keshiri resistance leader Adari Vaal had escaped to Alanciar following a failed attempt to expel and destroy the Sith occupiers. She warned the Alanciari about the threat of the Tribe and the Alanciari subsequently developed into a highly advanced and militaristic society.

All Alanciari, who had reached adolescence, were required to contribute in some way to the Great Cause which entailed resisting any Sith invasion of Alanciar. Quarra was no exception and served in several occupations including supply clerk, thoughtcrier, materials supervisor and finally wardmaster, a senior administrative position. By 2975 BBY, Quarra also served as the chief military administrator of her hometown of Uhrar. Despite her respectable position, Quarra was unhappy and dissatisfied with her monotonous and boring work. She disliked having to attend frequent distribution meetings which she regarded as pointless and boring. Quarra was also dissatisfied with her relationship to her husband Brue, whom she came to resent as dull and boring. In contrast to the competitive Quarra, Brue did not strive to be any better than a glassblower instructor to the elderly even though he hated his job. His unwillingness to upskill to a better paying job became a source of contention with Quarra.

Quarra's unhappiness with her job and dissatisfaction with Brue led her to initiate an affair with another Alanciari man named Jogan Halder, who was a signal officer that was posted at Point Defiance, a seaside frontier outpost in the Six Claws of Alanciar's southern region, known as the Shank. This affair began in 2978 BBY while Quarra was making a routine visit to Kerebba, an upstream military supply center on one of the canals that emptied into one of the bays defined by the Six Claws. Her cousin was a signal officer who operated the Kerebba signal station's semaphore system. Her cousin had read Halder's tales and had shared it with Thayn, who enjoyed his writings and fell in love with the author. When her cousin was reassigned, she had managed to transmit signals to Halder through the signal station at Uhrar introducing herself.

This began a secret three year secret relationship in which thousands of messages were exchanged via semaphore machine between Halder and Thayn. Most of these dispatches arrived overnight at Thayn's office in Uhrar and she read them in the morning. For Thayn, Halder's letters came to provide a form of solace from the drudgery of her work as an administrator and mother. She soon began carrying these letters with her throughout her rounds, reading them during her free time. Frequent distribution meetings became opportunities for Quarra to brainstorm the responses she sent him before returning home. Quarra came to find Jogan to be an understanding reader who took long nights to craft thoughtful and eloquent responses to his lover. Partly due to the fact that Quarra only corresponded with Jogan by semaphore machine, she was able to hide her affair from her husband Brue and their three children.

Appearances

 * Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pandemonium