Magna Tolvan

Magna Tolvan was a female human who served as a captain in the Galactic Empire's military during the Galactic Civil War. Following the Battle of Yavin and the Rebel Alliance's subsequent evacuation of their base on Yavin 4, Tolvan was in command of Imperial forces as they investigated the now-deserted base. She was later demoted to Lieutenant and briefly stationed on an Imperial base on Someilk, before being re-assigned to the Inspectorate, as Lieutenant-Inspector on Coruscant. After her success at crippling the criminal organization Son-tuul Pride, however, Tolvan regained the rank of captain.

Early Imperial career
"Nothing happens without a good cause."

- Tolvan recounts what Thanoth once told her

Magna Tolvan joined the Galactic Empire sometime before 0 BBY. In the Imperial Academy, her classmates thought she was the most likely to succeed. At one point, Admiral Kendal Ozzel considered her "a candidate for greatness" and she eventually reached the rank of captain. Under the command of General Cassio Tagge, she was responsible for the security on Eadu, a planet that hosted a research and development facility of the Tarkin Initiative. In 0 BBY, however, a band of Rebels sent to assassinate the scientist Galen Erso wreaked havoc at the facility, which Tolvan could not prevent. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, Tolvan was under the apprenticeship of Inspector Thanoth. He once told her that nothing happened without a good cause. Thanoth, however, died during his final assignment.

First encounter with Aphra
"Loop around the north side and move in."

- Tolvan gives orders

Although Tagge proved to be a rather forgiving superior toward Tolvan, she was still assigned to a punishment duty on the uninhabited moon Yavin 4. There, the captain was to comb the Great Temple, which had been the Rebels' main base until they were forced to evacuate. On Yavin 4, a lieutenant informed Tolvan of readings they had picked up, theorizing the possible presence of rebels. The infiltrators at hand were not rebels but Chelli Aphra, her father, Black Krrsantan, and the droids BT-1 and 0-0-0, who were there to take readings from the temple. Tolvan sent out speeders but Krrsantan shot them down. She saw this from afar and ordered her forces to move out and respond to this threat.

As they reached the temple, Krrsantan opened-fire on Tolvan's forces with a heavy blaster cannon he obtained from a walker. Inside the temple, Aphra and the rest of her team collected the readings they wanted and began to leave, engaging Imperial troops along the way. Tolvan then managed to trap them between her and her stormtroopers, and an AT-AT. She ordered them to drop their weapons and her troopers prepared to fire. However, Aphra's ship, the Ark Angel II, then intervened and picked them up while destroying the AT-AT.

Pursuit of redemption
Wanting to redeem herself, Tolvan and her remaining troops, now equipped as snowtroopers, followed Aphra to the Citadel of Rur, marching through the entrance past the hidden 0-0-0 and BT-1. Aphra, her father and Krrsantan were walking along the edge of the citadel when Tolvan's forces arrived. Krrsantan covered his comrades as ran for cover along a Force bridge. Aphra then shot the device controlling the bridge and three pursuing snowtroopers fell to their doom.

Tolvan and her troops were unable to cross the void and pursue Aphra, but had bigger concerns when a large number of droids attacked them, gradually massacring the snowtroopers. Aphra then appeared again and told them to follow her. Tolvan did so and Aphra had the Force-bridge generate again and deactivate when Tolvan was across. They then retreated back to Tolvan's ship to find the pilots had been slaughtered by 0-0-0 and BT-1. In addition, an Imperial droid was being possessed by the conscience of a dead ancient Jedi and attacked Tolvan. Nevertheless, the group escaped the citadel before it exploded and the droid was freed from the technopathy.

Tolvan got up and threatened to shoot Aphra with her blaster. However, Aphra's father stabbed her in the shoulder with Rur's lightsaber, effectively subduing her. Tolvan was then left stranded on a planet in the Outer Rim; Aphra acknowledged that she should kill Tolvan, but decided not to, due to her attraction to Tolvan.

Demotion to Someilk
"Hey, you tried&hellip;and on any other day, it could have worked. Don't be so hard on yourself.''" "''I will not need to be hard on myself. I have my superior officers to do that."

- Aphra and Tolvan discuss her failure

Following her run-in with Aphra, Tolvan was once again demoted. As a Lieutenant, she was assigned to an Imperial base on the planet Someilk in the Outer Rim. Tolvan's new superior, Captain Punfor, taunted her about her demotion, recalling her "high flying days" at the academy. After she reflected on her failures and wondered what advice her old mentor, Thanoth would give her.

To her surprise, an Orbital Insertion pod landed on the base, deploying a number of armed criminals. Tolvan warned Punfor of the attack told him to lock down the base and not deploy stormtroopers. Stormtroopers, however, responded to the attack anyway and were mowed down by the mercenary Rexa Go. Tolvan tried to flank them when she spotted Aphra. Shocked by her reappearance, of Tolvan and shot at her, but Go fired at her, pinning her down. After consulting a new plan with Punfor, Tolvan attempted to take control of the base's LAAT/le gunship, but was apprehended by Aphra and held at gunpoint.

As Aphra's team infiltrated the base, Aphra kept Tolvan captive on the ship and conversed with her. Tolvan pressed for Aphra's identity, but Aphra only referred to herself by the pseudonym of "Joystick Chevron". When Aphra once again flirted with her, Tolvan expressed her feelings of self-consciousness regarding her cybernetics. During their conversation, Aphra apologized for her actions that led to Tolvan's demotion. Aphra insisted her attraction to Tolvan was genuine, and instead of killing her, merely stunned her before escaping with the rest of the criminals. Tolvan appeared to be the only surviving member of the base after the rest of it was destroyed by the Orbital Insertion pods detonation.

Appointment to the Inspectorate
"Seems one Inspector Thanoth named you his legatee. You've been reassigned to the Inspectorate"

- A sergeant major learns of Tolvan's reassignment

Due to the destruction of the base, Tolvan was issued a third demerit and was imprisoned in the Imperial Internal Affairs Outpost, awaiting execution. While in her cell, Tolvan had a dream that Aphra broke in and rescued her. Tolvan also appeared to be attracted to Aphra, as she dreamed of them kissing; Tolvan was subsequently awakened by her cell guard. Tolvan was taken to be executed by a firing squad. However, it was interrupted when a messenger arrived with a note from headquarters; Tolvan had been named Thanoth's legatee, and, due to his death, Tolvan was reassigned to the Inspectorate. The reassignment had been delayed due to the destruction of Scarif and the confusion of Tolvan being previously demoted to Lieutenant.

Due to her new position, Tolvan's execution was cancelled, as investigative branches of the Empire operated on a four-demerit system, unlike the three-demerit system of the field corps. Tolvan reprimanded the Sergeant major in charge of her execution and issued him a demerit (which would result in his own execution). At the Imperial Inspectorate HQ on Coruscant, Tolvan searched the access database in order to discover the real identity of "Joystick Chevron". Although her search returned a result, it was listed under "Directive 081-Omega", whose contents had been deleted. Tolvan ran a search of Thanoth's personal files in order to find the Directive 081-Omega, where it was revealed that a 081-Omega Rating was the Empire's highest authority to access and alter records. Through his I.D. file, Tolvan discovered that at the time of Thanoth's death, he had been serving as an adjutant to Darth Vader.

Trip to Skako Minor
"This is completely your fault.''" "My fault? Thanks to you I've lost my rank, faced a firing squad and been blown up by a purple hairball''!"

- Aphra and Tolvan argue briefly

Aphra's arrival on Skako Minor tripped Tolvan's active search filters, which alerted Tolvan to Aphra's whereabouts. Tolvan took a shuttle and a small crew of Imperial troops with her to Skako Minor, where they accidentally crash-landed in the Hellhulk station that housed Wat Tambor's workshop. The crash damaged an ancient techno-totem inside the workshop that controlled a Chthonic worm god. Tolvan ordered her stormtroopers to fire on Aphra's crew, but they were interrupted by the attacks of the now-awakened worm god. While seeking shelter from the assault, Tolvan and Aphra briefly held each other at gunpoint before the worm god disarmed them. Tolvan and Aphra were able to take shelter in a mechanical shaft after they used one of Aphra's Tooka clones to create an explosive diversion. However, the worm god continued to pursue them.

Tolvan and Aphra argued while they were trapped inside the mechanical shaft. Aphra blamed Tolvan for accidentally awakening the worm god, while Tolvan retorted that it was Aphra's fault that Tolvan had lost her rank, faced a firing squad, and been nearly blown up by Aphra's Tooka. Tolvan stated that Aphra was "the worst thing alive" and that she would see Aphra incarcerated. After realizing the ancient techno-totem had ended up in the shaft with them, the two shared a laugh. With the worm god nearly upon them, and believing it to be their last moments, Aphra and Tolvan shared a passionate kiss.

However, Aphra's droideka, Dek-Nil, intentionally caused a stormtrooper to misfire; the misfire struck the workshop's ceiling and the worm god was crushed under the falling debris, thus saving Aphra and Tolvan. Tolvan asked Aphra to tell her her name. Tolvan explained to Aphra that Aphra's file was marked in the Imperial records and Tolvan was afraid someone higher up would eventually step in. Aphra replied that Tolvan should stay away from her, for her own safety. She advised Tolvan to leave, but the two were spotted by Rexa. Aphra then shot Rexa and allowed Tolvan to escape unnoticed. After leaving the workshop, though, she found the Defel mercenary Glahst Ombra, who had deserted Aphra during the fighting. Tolvan killed and skilled her and, as Aphra and the other mercenaries returned to their ship, she joined them, wearing Ombra's pelt as a disguise.

Infiltrating the flight school
"Commander of Hivebase-1, this is Lieutenant Tolvan of the Inspectorate. I have taken command of the rebel academy's control hub."

- Tolvan commandeers the flight school's control hub

Aphra took the mercenaries to the Lucrehulk Prime, a Lucrehulk-class LH-3210 cargo freighter used by the rebels as a flight school to train pilots. As they landed there, Tolvan used Ombra's skin to blend into the shadows, sneaking away into the air ducts. Aphra's crew were welcomed as recruits but, after Tam Posla revealed otherwise, General Hera Syndulla had then imprisoned in the brig. Tolvan found the cell holding Aphra and Dek-Nil. After entering, she revealed herself to Aphra, who despised the idea of skinning Ombra. Aphra a short discussion over Imperial rules, Tolvan then demanded Aphra's name, mission, and why her records had been deleted by Darth Vader. Dek-Nil then stunned her and she accidentally shot the generator powering the cells shields, freeing the mercenaries. Aphra had them help her stuff Tolvan back into the air duct, leaving a communicator with her so the two could talk.

By the time Tolvan woke up again, Aphra and her mercenaries had left the flight school with Syndulla as their captive. However, the flight school pursued them to Hivebase-1, in which she was infiltrating. The lucrehulk found itself under attack by a scaraphyte swarm. While the rebel officer Bini tried to deal with their situation in the control hub, Tolvan attacked four of his personnel before knocking him unconscious. She then contacted Hivebase-1 to report her success. Commander Yewl responded, congratulating her for her actions and ordering her to destroy the flight school with her on it. Aphra had been listening in to Tolvan's conversation from Hivebase-1. When Tolvan agreed to Yewl's orders, Aphra contacted her, trying to convince her she was not worth losing.

Tolvan realized she could not let herself die and told Yewl that capturing the flight school was a piority objective, referencing a certain article from the Imperial officers' doctrine. To Aphra's shock, she then revealed to him that Aphra was inside Hivebase-1. Yewl decided to defrost a room of rejected prototypes to deal with them, but Posla possessed weaponry that proved a match for them. Aphra made it to Hivebase-1's datacore, where she used a bug she had planted in the flight school to control it. Under her control, the flight school latched onto the complex and ripped the datacore out, with Aphra and her team on. At the same time, Tolvan returned to the air ducts as more rebels reached the control hub. As the flight school withdrew, Hivebase-1 was detonated from explosive Tookas Aphra had let loose there.

Catching up with Aphra
"Say, uh&mdash;where are you taking me, oh needlessly cold Imperial tyrant?.''" "Straight to hell, criminal. You're going to Accresker Jail''."

- Aphra and Tolvan

Now back on the flight school, Syndulla let Aphra leave peacefully for stealing the datacore. While they talked, Aphra had sent Posla to find Tolvan in the air ducts. Tolvan tranquilized him and took his armor, using it as a disguise to get off the flight school with Aphra. With the last of Aphra's mercenaries now part of the rebellion, it left Aphra and Tolvan alone on the ship. After a romantic two days together, they parted on a snowy planet, with Aphra finally revealing her name to her.

After returning to the Inspectorate, Tolvan began investigating matters regarding the infiltration and destruction of Hivebase-1. From the wreckage of the complex, both Commander Yewl and Dek-Nil were recovered. Yewl was taken to the Imperial Internal Affairs Outpost to be executed for his failures while other survivors were disciplined appropriately. Although the rebellion now possessed Hivebase-1's datacore, Tolvan doubted they had the courage to weaponize some of the data inside it. Furthermore, she had placed a tracker on Aphra as she left her. Tolvan tracked her to the her superiors, the Son-tuul Pride. There, her forces attacked and put an end to the syndicate. When Aphra was brought to her, Tolvan put her on Shuttle Six, with Dek-Nil, to be imprisoned in mobile wreckage-prison Accresker Jail. Following the destruction of the Son-tuul Pride, Tolvan was promoted to Captain-Inspector, and she had her investigation put into a case log.

Rescue plan
"Why are you telling me this?''" "''Because once they're through with questions about what I know, the next thing they ask will be very simple. "Who else have you told"."

- Tolvan and Aphra

Sometime later, Tolvan was on Coruscant investigating the site of a ship crash. That was when Aphra, who had obtained a transmitter at Accresker Jail, contacted her. Shortly after greeting Tolvan, she told her about a conspiracy involving Darth Vader trying to overthrow the Emperor himself using a Force-sensitive boy. At that time, Aphra had been under an unsuccessful interrogation and she feared this conspiracy would be discovered during the process. Now that Tolvan new of it, she was under threat if the interrogations became successful. She realized this and, with no time to spare, she travelled to Accresker Jail to find Aphra.

Tolvan met with Accresker's warden on their prison-tug to take Aphra away for her own interrogations. The warden, though, struggled to see what she could do that they could not. His assets were defrosting a bor of the Mairan to interrogate Aphra. Tolvan corrected the warden and he led her to a cell on the prison-tug containing Aphra. She entered it, telling the other Imperials to leave. A lieutenant said it was regulations for her to stay so Tolvan had her facing the wall, humming audibly. No relatively alone, she and Aphra plotted an escape plan.

Stranded in Accresker
"That didn't come from Accresker Command! Who the hell is&mdash;''" "That prisoner down there is mine'', buckethead."

- Tolvan and Sana Starros

While Accresker Jail engaged a pirate station, Tolvan flew a TIE fighter around the flip side of the wreckage-prison, where she found Aphra, Dek-Nil, and the shape-shifting alien Lopset Yas waiting for her. Tolvan had sensor disruptors keeping her ship from being detected by Accresker command. However, a Force spirit then attacked them, destroying the disruptors. Aphra followed it despite Tolvan's objections and Tolvan was then contacted by Accresker Command, asking her to identify herself.

To make matters worse, the rebel agent Sana Starros, who was also looking for Aphra, attacked Tolvan in her ship, the Volt Cobra. As Tolvan's TIE became crippled, she jumped out with a missile launcher and shot the Cobra down. Both now without a ship, Tolvan and Starros shot at each other. As this happened, they both realized the other was trying to save Aphra and stopped fighting. As this happened, the engagement with the pirate station had ended. Aphra and Yas returned to Tolvan carrying Dek-Nil's head. Aphra was surprised by Starros' appearance and the loss of their getaway ship. A hubdroid then arrived and took their weapons from them. The droid Aphra for her interrogation while Tolvan and Starros followed Yas.

Yas gave the Tolvan and Starros prison clothing to blend in as well as some advice for them now that they were trapped in Accresker Jail. Meanwhile, Aphra was being interrogated by the Mairan Bor Ifriem. To hide the conspiracy involving Vader and the Emperor, she revealed the presence of a highly contagious fungus known as gundravian hookspores in Accresker Jail, which had been generating the mysterious Force-spirit from the decayed corpse of an ancient Jedi. As a result, Accresker Command announced the decommission of the prison to the prisoners, including Tolvan. As well as this, Accresker Jail was now scheduled to collide with the rebellious planet Tiferep Major. As the announcement finished, Aphra was taken back to the other prisoners.

Finding an exit
"Imperial informant system. Autoroute a secure message. Recipient's ears only."

- Tolvan sends a message to Darth Vader

Desperate to leave Accresker Jail, Aphra hatched a new escape plan. She contacted Tam Posla, asking for him to deliver her an escape shuttle. Knowing Posla would decline, she had Yas shape-shift into his arch-nemesis, Doctor Cornelius Evazan. Posla saw "Evazan" and agreed to Aphra's trade. As this happened Tolvan and Starros watched as Accresker Command abandoned the prison-tug, leaving it to crash into Accresker Jail. As the they evaded the crash, they found the other prisoners rioting. One of them identified Aphra as the reason for Accrecker's decommission. The prisoners surrounded them as a result. The Force-spirit, though, attacked the prisoners in a rampage.

Tolvan, Yas and Starros lugged a large gun dropped from one of the dead prisoners and blew a hole in the side of the prison-tug to enter it. They found a control room and Aphra looked on a terminal to found that there was an escape pod remaining. However, it was sealed behind bulkheads and the prisons gravity would never let it out. Tolvan saw a hologram of Tiferep Major and worried for the millions of compliant citizens that still remained there. As this happened Aphra decided to slice the terminal with Dek-Nil's head and lower the gravity strength and open the bulkheads. Tolvan was not listening and contacted Imperial Sector Control, trying to use her codes to abort Accresker Jail's collision with Tiferep Major. The Imperial on the other side assumed she was a rebel and denied the request.

Fearing there was no other option, Tolvan went onto the Imperial Informant System to make an anonymous message to Darth Vader. She revealed her knowledge of his conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor and her location in this message in the hopes of him coming to find her. Aphra successfully sliced the terminal and lowered the gravity strength of Accresker Jail. After opening the bulkheads, she led Tolvan and the others towards the escape pod. Blocking their way was the gundravian hookspores, which Aphra had moved when altering the gravity strength. The hookspores possessed the four of them, but rejected them, preferring a more heroic host. Aphra began searching for the ancient Jedi is was housed around for his lightsaber. The fungus did not move and Starros had Aphra keep going for the escape pod.

Vader's pursuit
"&hellip;Tell me you didn't.''" "''My rank&mdash;my command codes&mdash;they weren't enough! I needed someone who could cancel the planetfall! Someone with a reason to come, who&mdash;who wouldn't be scared off by the hookspores!"

- Aphra and Tolvan

After reaching the escape pod, Tolvan and Starros entered it. Aphra then attempted to launch it without her and Yas. Tolvan realized this, refusing to leave without Aphra, she jumped out at the last second, leaving Starros inside the escape pod as it launched. Forced to take Tolvan with her, Aphra led her and Yas to the hanger of the prison-tug. There Posla's ship landed. Aphra made Yas shape-shift into Evazan, much to his protest of being used, and froze him with the coolant grille. As Posla got out, he confirmed "Evazan" to be alive and began transporting the chunk of ice containing him. The gundravian hookspores detected Posla, thinking him to be a perfect host, and traveled towards him. As the fungus approached to merge with him, Tolvan activated the coolant grille, freezing them.

After Posla left, Aphra and Tolvan returned to the Jedi corpse where the hookspores had lived. Aphra retrieved his lightsaber and took Tolvan back to the hanger, where Posla had left behind a shuttle as he had promised. They flew it out of the hanger when they were shot down. Pursuing them were the assassin droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, who had followed Posla in search of Aphra. As she and Tolvan ran away from them, they realized Accresker Jail was about to collide with Tiferep Major. To their surprise, the prison then decelerated. It was Vader. He had arrived in his flagship, the Executor, and used its tractor beam to hold Accresker Jail in place. Aphra watched him arrive and realized what Tolvan had done.

With no other choice, Aphra led Tolvan back to Bor Ifriem and told her to erase her brain. Tolvan, however, offered to have her own memories erased instead — in hopes of saving them both, as well as allowing her to forget the pain Aphra had caused her. Aphra complied and used the Mairan to alter Tolvan's memory — but made a crucial change, altering Tolvan's memories so that the Imperial thought she had murdered Aphra out of jealousy. When Vader arrived, he interrogated Tolvan, pinning her to the ceiling with the Force, asking her of what she knew about Aphra. Tolvan explained her encounters, before finally, tearfully confessing to murdering Aphra. This convinced Vader that Tolvan had only called him over to save herself. He brought Tolvan back to his shuttle, telling his officers to put her in his chambers. Vader then sensed the hookspores and walked in their direction.

Tolvan had a metal clamp over her mouth, but still used combat stealth signals to tell off the officers for their poor following of regulations. As that happened, Starros returned from Tiferep Major with a rebel squadron. They destroyed the shuttle, killing Tolvan's captors. Vader picked off Tan Leader, but decided to leave Accresker Jail on another shuttle after defeating the hookspores. He ordered the prison to continue its course for the planet to assure Tolvan's death. However, Starros landed her ship and found Tolvan under the rubble of Vader's first shuttle. With Accrekser Jail on a collision course, she was forced to abandon her search for Aphra and take Tolvan away instead.

Changing Allegiance
Following the events at Accresker Jail, Tolvan joined the Rebel Alliance.

Personality and traits
"There's this guy who might rescue us, a-and I don't know exactly how long it'll take, but&mdash;''" "Aphra, I'm your&mdash;well, whatever I am to you&mdash;and you still had to blackmail'' me."

- Aphra and Tolvan

Magna Tolvan was a human female with blue eyes, white hair and light skin. She was dedicated to Imperial protocol, believing that people either craved orders to follow them, or for the chance to break them. For this, Tolvan was never absent in correcting Imperial regulations. She was also known to take certain things to her advantage, like when she skinned the Defel Glahst Ombra to use as a disguise. Tolvan's relationship with Aphra was very conflicted, with her wanting to pursue her arrest, while Aphra was falling in love with her. Time to time Tolvan tried to resist this and bring justice to Aphra but was also distracted from this with Aphra making moves on her.

Behind the scenes
"When I invented Tolvan, I was explicitly thinking&hellip;This hard-bitten, kind of very serious person chasing down this more whimsical person and the sexual tension."

- Kieron Gillen discusses inventing Tolvan

Magna Tolvan first appeared in the canon comic Doctor Aphra 3: Aphra, Part III, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Kev Walker, on January 18 2017. Her first name, Magna, was not identified until Doctor Aphra 14: Remastered, Part I, also written by Gillen and illustrated by Walker. During an interview, Gillen claimed he invented Tolvan to be a serious individual chasing a more "whimsical" Aphra. He also presented his idea of Aphra pursuing her emotionally at the same time, creating what he wanted to be sexual tension between the two.

In Alexander Freed's novelization of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, released on December 16 2016, it is mentioned that a female garrison commander stepped forward to offer Krennic a welcome, but was waved off. On Twitter, Freed commented that, while the commander in question could be Tolvan, he was not aware of her existence when he wrote the novel, Tolvan having not even existed yet, and cannot make that call himself.

Appearances

 * Doctor Aphra 3: Aphra, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 4: Aphra, Part IV
 * Doctor Aphra 5: Aphra, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 6: Aphra, Part VI
 * Doctor Aphra 14: Remastered, Part I
 * Doctor Aphra 15: Remastered, Part II
 * Doctor Aphra 16: Remastered, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 17: Remastered, Part IV
 * Doctor Aphra 18: Remastered, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 19: Remastered, Part VI
 * Doctor Aphra 21: The Catastrophe Con, Part II
 * Doctor Aphra 22: The Catastrophe Con, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 23: The Catastrophe Con, Part IV
 * Doctor Aphra 24: The Catastrophe Con, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 25: The Catastrophe Con, Part VI
 * Doctor Aphra 26: Worst Among Equals, Part I
 * Doctor Aphra 27: Worst Among Equals, Part II
 * Doctor Aphra 28: Worst Among Equals, Part III
 * Doctor Aphra 30: Worst Among Equals, Part V
 * Doctor Aphra 32: Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon, Part I