Nelani Dinn

"Jedi girl, you're not strong enough to save lives. You're not strong enough to sacrifice one to save many."

- Darth Vectivus

Nelani Dinn was a female Human Jedi Knight during the time of the Second Galactic Civil War. In 40 ABY, Nelani was stationed on Lorrd when she met up with two other Jedi&mdash;Jacen Solo, a former teacher of hers, and his apprentice, Ben Skywalker. Solo and Skywalker were there to investigate a strange artifact found on Toryaz Station, and the three soon found the person behind the artifact, a woman named Brisha Syo. Syo took them to her home, and revealed her true identity, Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith. Nelani got separated from the group though, and encountered the ghost of a Sith Lord, named Darth Vectivus. When Vectivus could not goad Nelani into killing him, Vectivus sent Nelani up to a higher floor, right as Lumiya attempt to turn Jacen to the dark side. When Nelani attempted to intervene, Jacen, now under the sway of Lumiya, chased down and killed Nelani.

Early life
Nelani was born on the Outer Rim world of Lorrd, and at some point, she was discovered by the Jedi and taken for training.

Training and Jedi Knighthood
"Glad to realize that you'd passed your trials and were fully vested as a Jedi Knight. Congratulations."

- Jacen Solo

In 33 ABY, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo taught Nelani in lightsaber technique. Nelani was shy, and when she became enamored with Jacen, she was too self-conscious to tell him. The training, which involved slicing live gundarks in half, went a long way towards overcoming her shyness problem. By 40 ABY, Nelani had passed the Jedi Trials, and had become a full-fledged Jedi Knight.

In 40 ABY, Nelani was stationed on her home planet of Lorrd, when she was contacted by Solo, who had recently found an artifact on Toryaz Station. Nelani found a contact who would examine the artifact, Dr. Heilan Rotham, and met Jacen, and his apprentice Ben Skywalker, on Lorrd. The three traveled to Dr. Rotham's office in Lorrd City, and Dr. Rotham found that the artifact contained strange messages that Nelani considered ominous. However, their meeting was cut short, as Nelani received a message&mdash;a man in a Y-wing was threatening to fire missiles into a populous area of Lorrd City unless he was allowed to speak to a Jedi. Seeing that Dr. Rotham would need some time to decipher the artifact, Jacen and Ben decided to accompany her.

Strange disturbances
This man in a Y-wing's name was Ordith Huarr, a former fighter pilot (although a not very decorated one) for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Huarr claimed that he had been seeing the Force ghost of his late wife, but before Nelani was able to garner any more information from Huarr, Jacen Solo used the Force to pull the airborne Y-wing to the ground. Huarr then detonated the missiles, killing himself. Afterwards, the group returned to Dr. Rotham, who had translated more messages on the artifact, save one.

Strange occurrences similar to the plight of Ordith Huarr soon began too happen frequently on Lorrd. One man, Dr. Movac Arisster, a professor at the University of Pangalactic Cultural Studies, had taken hostages inside an aquarium, and strapped himself to one of the hostages,with a bomb strapped to his back. Arisster claimed to have spoken to dead Jedi Master Aayla Secura, and said that Secura told him to bring the Jedi in to talk. Arisster wanted one thing&mdash;to become famous. Arisster was dying of cancer, and wanted to be able to defeat a Jedi, to give some trace of immortality to himself. Arisster decided to defeat the Jedi by denying them a happy ending, meaning that he would prevent the Jedi to do their duty and save the hostages. Jacen, realizing that Arisster had won, allowed Arisster to detonate the bomb, killing him and his captive, Serom Haxan. Nelani became furious that Jacen had just left Arisster to kill himself and Haxan, and had not explored any other options.

After several more of these Force ghost-related incidents, a mysterious woman named Brisha Syo arrived on Lorrd. Syo was arrested immediately after she landed in the Lorrd City Spaceport, and Jacen suspected her of causing the incidents involving Huarr and Arisster. Syo admitted that she caused the events, and revealed that she was a Force-sensitive. Syo also admitted to leaving the artifact on Toryaz Station, and offered to take Nelani, Jacen, and Ben to her true home, a planetoid in a star system close to Bimmiel. Against the advice of Nelani and Ben, Jacen accepted the offer to travel to Syo's home.

The Home & Death
"Nelani, I'm sorry. You're...a deflector that would send the future spinning into tragedy. And you're too young, too weak to understand it, to correct it."

- Jacen Solo, shortly before killing Nelani Dinn

Nelani, Syo, Jacen, and Ben subsequently arrived at Syo's home, a former mining outpost in the MZX32905 system, near vicinity of Bimmiel. Syo revealed that the final administrator of the outpost had left the place behind, and was a Sith, named Darth Vectivus. Nelani felt a dark side permeation in the asteroid, which Syo attributed to the original inhabitants of the outpost&mdash;a sentient species akin to mynocks. For a while, the mynock-like species was led by a caste of Force-users, who eventually became dark side users. Syo soon revealed the reason for her bringing the Jedi to The Home, as the mynock-species called it&mdash;a Sith Lord was down in the caverns, where the dark side corruption was greatest, and Syo did not think that she should face him alone.

Nelani, Ben, Jacen, and Syo took a mine car into the depths of The Home, but on their way down, Syo shoved Ben and Nelani out of the car. Nelani and Ben soon found themselves being ambushed by a large group of the indigenous mynock-creatures, but they soon discovered that they were nothing but illusions, projections of the Force. Nelani was suddenly grabbed and pulled away from Ben by an unseen force, and was whisked in front of the ghost of Darth Vectivus. Vectivus challenged Nelani to kill him, revealing that he, as well as all the illusions in the Home, were connected to a live being somewhere in the galaxy. Nelani refused, even after Vectivus tried to goad her into killing him by taking the form of Palpatine. Vectivus told Nelani to climb up to safety, and wait for the others to join her.

Up above, Syo had revealed her true name and identity to Jacen&mdash;Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith. Lumiya was trying to turn Jacen to the dark side, to take up the ways of the Sith. Lumiya believed that since Jacen had not been twisted by the light side, he could resist the temptations of the dark, but just as Lumiya revealed this, Nelani appeared, and intervened in the discussion. Nelani was concerned that Lumiya's words were having an effect on Jacen, and after Lumiya suggested that Jacen's former master, Vergere, had been a Sith, Nelani attacked Lumiya. With Lumiya still trying to talk Jacen onto the dark path, the two dueled, with neither gaining the other hand. Jacen implored the two to stop the duel, and after they did, Nelani arrested Lumiya in the name of the Galactic Alliance. Lumiya consented, but Jacen suddenly attacked and chased after Nelani, with dark intent. After a chase through the Home, Jacen finally caught up to Nelani, and cut her down, killing her.

Personality and traits
"Learning how to, and having the ability to, cut gundarks in half went a long way toward overcoming my shyness problem."

- Nelani Dinn

Nelani was a very shy girl when she began training with Jacen Solo, and when she developed feelings for the Jedi Knight, she was too self-conscious to tell him. However, when the two met again in 40 ABY, Nelani, having gained better self-confidence from her Jedi training, openly expressed her feelings for Jacen. She was very idealistic, and opposed to the methods used by Jacen Solo in the cases of Ordith Huarr and Movac Arisster. She believed that Solo could have explored other, more peaceful, alternatives in those situations, which ended in the deaths of both Huarr and Arisster. She was firmly committed to the light, going so far as to attack Lumiya when she tried to turn Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force, and trying to bring Jacen back to the light, even until her death.

Behind the scenes
The character of Nelani Dinn was created by author Aaron Allston for his novel, Betrayal.

Nelani says that Jacen taught her lightsaber technique "seven years ago" before the events of Betrayal, set in 40 ABY. That would place their first meeting, and the time in which she was his pupil, during the five years which Jacen spent away from the Jedi Order between The Unifying Force and Dark Nest I: The Joiner King.

However, the date of "seven years ago" may have originated as a holdover from earlier drafts: as Aaron Allston has revealed in his blog, the novel was originally set in 37 ABY, and later revised. At least one other trace of the revision of the dating survives in the published novel, when Zekk, who should be 32, is said at one point to be 29.

Appearances

 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice

Notes and references
Nelani Dinn