An'ya Kuro

"A Jedi should have no possessions. Not even an identity. I gave mine up to show humility before the Force." "Instead you allowed them to call you "The Dark Woman." Such an improvement!"

- An'ya Kuro and Tholme

An'ya Kuro, who renamed herself the Dark Woman, was a controversial Jedi Master who served the Jedi Order in the final years of the Galactic Republic.

A secretive and mysterious Jedi, Kuro abandoned her name as a sign of selflessness. Her Padawan training methods were considered unorthodox, and the end results were a mixed bag. After the loss of her Padawan Aurra Sing, she went into a self-imposed exile, but later rejoined the Jedi.

During the Clone Wars, Kuro chose to serve the Republic as a spy, and because of this her activities during the Clone Wars were mostly unrecorded. During the onset of the Great Jedi Purge, Kuro went into hiding until she was discovered and struck down by Darth Vader.

Early life


After attaining the rank of Jedi Knight, Kuro began to travel the galaxy to find Force sensitive children that the Republic's screening process might have missed. One early success she met with on these travels was the discovery of Ki-Adi-Mundi on Cerea.

On Coruscant, Kuro convinced the Jedi Council to allow Ki-Adi-Mundi to begin training despite being older than most accepted younglings. When he was old enough, the Jedi Council chose to assign Ki-Adi-Mundi to Master Yoda for his Jedi training, lest an emotional relationship develop between Kuro and the young Cerean.



Kuro utilized unconventionally harsh training methods which were nonetheless effective, and the Jedi Council often assigned difficult trainees to her. These methods often produced strong Jedi that inherited a hint of Kuro's darkness, as visible in her former Padawan Jon Antilles. However, the harsh training conditions she imposed on her students sometimes led to failure.

Circa 53 BBY, Kuro discovered a Force-sensitive baby in the slums of Nar Shaddaa. Kuro brought the child to Coruscant to receive training. There, the child took the name Aurra Sing. Sing showed aggressive tendencies that led the Council to assign her to Kuro as a "problem case." Their efforts were in vain, however, and by age nine, Sing had still not attained the level of Padawan.

While at Kuro's training ground on Ord Namurt in 44 BBY, Sing was kidnapped by space pirates who convinced the young Jedi that she was sold off by her master. Sing, who had never been close to Kuro, believed the lie. Thus began a lifelong grudge against the Jedi.

Exile and return


"What a bizarre woman. I'd heard she was dead."

- Mace Windu

Demoralized by the loss of Sing, Kuro retreated to Cophrigin 5 to meditate on her role as a Jedi, her training techniques and the future. In 32 BBY, after twelve years of solitude, Kuro returned to Coruscant just as Ki-Adi-Mundi, now a famed Jedi Knight, was preparing for a mission to Tatooine. Before his departure, Kuro warned her former Padawan to take considerable care on Tatooine, as she had foreseen a great darkness approaching in her dreams.

Shortly thereafter, the assassination of two Jedi verified the rumors of Sing's return as a Jedi-hunting assassin and bounty hunter. Kuro requested that the Jedi Council place her in charge of the hunt for her former Padawan, but she was denied on the grounds of her connection to Sing. Instead, Ki-Adi-Mundi, his new Padawan A'Sharad Hett, and Adi Gallia were dispatched to track Sing and bring her to justice.

Kuro returned to Cophrigin 5, unaware that Sing had been hired to assassinate her. The Jedi task force converged on Kuro's retreat just as Sing prepared to strike. Hett engaged Sing in battle and subdued the bounty hunter, but was forced to tap into his anger to ensure victory. Discouraged by the darkness he had seen in himself, Hett wished to give up on his Jedi training until Kuro offered to train him to control his anger. As the Jedi prepared to depart with Sing in tow, a meteor shower struck their landing site, forcing a hasty departure leaving the Anzati-trained assassin behind.

Clone Wars


Kuro accompanied Master Windu to Geonosis where she aided in the starfighter battle. During the Clone Wars, Kuro chose to aid the Republic as a spy rather than a general. Together with Tholme and Aayla Secura, Kuro infiltrated Devaron to verify rumors of a Separatist base.

During their mission, Kuro was observed by Sing, who was on the planet to assassinate the Devaronian senator. Sing sprung a trap that pinned Tholme and Kuro under cavern rocks, but the young Secura was able to subdue Sing. The injured Jedi Masters recovered with bacta treatments and returned to Coruscant. Kuro's participation during the remainder of the Clone Wars is unknown.

Great Jedi Purge
"Your power is at an end, Dark Woman."

- Darth Vader



With the onset of the Great Jedi Purge and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Kuro sought safety on Cophrigin 5, where she built a great garden and lived as a hermit. When Kuro's hiding place was discovered by Mara Jade, an Emperor's Hand and one of Palpatine's personal assassins, Darth Vader arrived to personally kill the maverick Jedi Master. After a brief discussion concerning extinction and evolution, Kuro told Vader that she already accepted her fate, but nonetheless put up a fight.

Eventually during ther duel Vader brought down a huge tree on top of Kuro, trapping her. With a slash of his lightsaber, he ended her life. She merged with the Force and told him he still had the power left in him to become Anakin. Enraged, Vader tried to strike her Force ghost with his blade, but Kuro's presence simply disappeared into the light of the Force.

Abilities


"The ways of her teaching are brutal&mdash;and disturbing!"

- Even Piell

Kuro was a powerful Jedi and was known to possess many Force powers uncommon among the Jedi, such as the ability to control plant matter, and bend light around her to render herself invisible. She even appeared able to pass through solid objects.

Her lightsaber was particularly ornate, with an organic style to it, modified or perhaps built with artificial plant vines wrapping around it.

Behind the scenes
The Dark Woman was created by Jan Strnad as an indicidental character for Vow of Justice.

Kuro is one pronunciation of a Japanese character meaning "black." (It would normally appear as kuroi in adjectival form.) Similarly, onna (which arguably sounds rather similar to An'ya) means "woman." Thus, even before she gave up her name, she was "Dark Woman."

Also, anya means "mother" in Hungarian.

Given the Japanese origins of An'ya Kuro's name, it is possible that the apostrophe stands for the Japanese syllabic N, signaling a difference in writing and pronunciation (アンヤ an'ya, as opposed to アニャ anya, when rendered in katakana).

Due to her difficult teachings and maverick ways of using the Force, she has many parallels to the Jedi Kreia with a few of her powers, attitude, appearance, and exile.

Appearances



 * Star Wars Republic: Vow of Justice
 * Star Wars Republic: Outlander
 * Star Wars Republic: Emissaries to Malastare
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hunt for Aurra Sing
 * Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
 * Star Wars Republic 53: Blast Radius
 * Jedi: Aayla Secura
 * Star Wars Republic 59: Enemy Lines
 * Extinction
 * Star Wars Empire: "General" Skywalker