Ysanne Isard

"The fact that she could not learn about me immediately made me an enemy."

- Mara Jade

Ysanne Isard was an agent and later Director of Imperial Intelligence; a ruthless and cunning woman who earned herself the nickname "Iceheart", which is also a pun on "Isard". Though she was beautiful, she had a red and blue eye. Oddly, she bore the insignia of a Moff.

Later, she became the "Stewardess of the Galactic Empire" in opposition to Trioculus and Kadann. However, it was under her rule that the Empire began its long, slow decline. She is described more than once as being "Emperor in all but name" and is referred to at least once as Empress Ysanne Isard.

Early life and career


Isard was the daughter of the Director of the Senate Bureau of Intelligence, Armand Isard. As a youth, she grew up in the Emperor's court. When her father's department became the Imperial Intelligence Agency, Ysanne began her career as a field agent. After the formation of the New Order, the Emperor made many enemies who he needed killed or imprisoned. Due to this, the Isards gained more power than ever before.

Ysanne became a great field agent and did not take advantage of her father's position. She was ambitious and formed alliances within Imperial Intelligence and began plotting behind her father's back.

Rise to power
Just before the Battle of Yavin, Rebel spies captured a datapack containing the coordinates and secrets of the new Death Star. Armand sent his daughter to recapture the datapack. She encountered Hal Horn and forced him to help her, but even with the help, she was not able to recapture the valuable information. Upon return to Coruscant, Armand guaranteed his daughter that she would not be executed, but instead of gratitude, Armand's rare gesture of kindness was met by Ysanne's trap. Two Royal Guards flanked Armand. Ysanne accused her father for treason for allowing the datapack to fall into Rebel hands in front of the Emperor. In addition, Ysanne testified that her father had sent her on a suicide mission. Without taking a second opinion, Palpatine saw to it that Armand was executed within the hour. Ysanne herself pulled the trigger in her father's execution.

Ysanne Isard was then promoted to the position of Director of Imperial Intelligence. To demonstrate her usefullness, she made sure that she remembered that the only person that mattered was the Emperor. She suggested to the Emperor that he build a combination of interment center and a brainwashing facility. Impressed by her suggestion, Palpatine gave her a twin to Darth Vader's Executor-class Star Dreadnought, which she named Lusankya. Using the amazing powers of the Empire, she buried her Super Star Destroyer under Coruscant.

Under the cityscape of Coruscant, Isard used the Lusankya as her private prison where she kept captured Rebels so that they could be brainwashed to be made into sleeper agents. Even Rebel General, Jan Dodonna, was held captive in the massive battle station.

During this time, she was also a lover of the Emperor.

After the death of Palpatine and the defeat of the Empire during the Battle of Endor, she massacred hundreds of citizens who had celebrated the news. In a false alliance, she allied herself with Grand Vizier Sate Pestage who assumed command of the Imperial Center.



In the Imperial Palace, Ysanne found a suite of Spaarti cloning cylinders and transferred one to Lusankya. There, she grew a clone of herself, which was kept in suspended animation. Meanwhile, she acted as an advisor to Sate Pestage, who had declared himself Galactic Emperor. Despite this, Isard was actually making a false alliance with the Imperial Ruling Circle and began plotting against the new Emperor. In addition, as Pestage's top advisor, Isard was able to make him look incompetent in front of the Imperial Ruling Circle.

Later, Isard gave Pestage poor advice resulting in his defeat by the New Republic at Brentaal. Due to this show of incompetence, Pestage knew that his rivals were planning a coup. He planned to make secret peace talks with Leia Organa on Axxila, but the Imperial Ruling Circle became aware of this and ordered his arrest.

Pestage fled and the Imperial Ruling Circle assumed command. However, Ysanne Isard had them all murdered within a single day. Isard then assumed command of Coruscant herself. She tried to recruit Admiral Delak Krennel, but he snapped the neck of Sate Pestage, killing him, and fled to become the Warlord of the Ciutric Hegemony, creating yet another threat to Isard's power.

Isard's Empire
Isard had the loyalty of much of the Imperial Military and had control of the Imperial Center. During her tenure as ruler, she weilded the power and prestige equal to or surpassing that of the Imperial Grand Admirals. But Warlord secession and the New Republic threatened her Empire. Only eight months after Endor, she lost the Black Fleet after she recalled her forces in order to defend the Core Worlds against Admiral Ackbar. A year after Endor, her Empire almost crumbled when a coup organized by the Imperial Central Committee of Grand Moffs and the False Prophets of the Dark Side attempted to usurp her power. Barely, Isard was able to survive by manipulating the downfall of the two factions and executed many of them for high treason. Even Jerec, a High Inquisitor, was not able to topple her regime.

While in power, she took to wearing the unadorned uniform of an admiral.

The fall of Isard's Empire
Isard, still in control of the Imperial Center and most of the Imperial Military, kept her Lusankya filled with Rebel Alliance inmates and constantly updated the memory of her sleeping clone. Several Months after Jerec's death, she captured a former Imperial and, at the time, a member of Rogue Squadron, Tycho Celchu, and gave him the worst tortures her prison/brainwashing facility had to offer. She also kept in touch with Grand Admiral Thrawn, a constant threat whom she hoped would not turn against her, in the Unknown Regions. Thrawn demanded Baron Fel, a former Imperial Fighter Pilot turned traitor, for his Imperial/Chiss army. Looking to keep her formidable potential rival appeased, Isard set up the capture of Fel, planned by Thrawn, and gave him Fel as a prisoner.

Three years after Endor, before the New Republic took Coruscant, she had her scientist, Evir Derricote, create the Krytos virus, which only targeted non-human races. Realizing that a New Republic invasion was imminent, Isard left the infected non-human citizens on Coruscant for the New Republic to deal with the problem. When the Republic fleet arrived at the Imperial Center, Isard took Rogue pilot, Corran Horn, captive, making it look as if he had died and took him to the still buried Lusankya. Horn resisted her tortures and blew her cover. She then fled Coruscant onboard Lusankya, which in the process tore off a large part of Coruscant's cityscape, killing millions.

Fleeing the Imperial Center, Isard headed to the bacta-rich world of Thyferra, taking it and its bacta assets. For a while, her position as the duly elected leader to soveriegn world ensured her safety from the Republic, but this was merely a temporary reprieve. She later fought Rogue Squadron in a conflict known as the Bacta War. During the battle, Lusankya was captured; however, Isard managed to escape and scatter the prisoners, even though it seemed as though she had perished.



Isard escaped, but her now fully grown and functioning clone did as well. Her clone allied with "Prince Admiral" Krennel. The real Isard was busy putting herself back together mentally, nevermind rebuilding her Empire. Eventually, she overthrew a weak warlord named General Arnothian and took control of his TIE Defender facility while Grand Admiral Thrawn waged war on the New Republic. Isard was shocked when the Emperor Palpatine was reborn in a new clone body. For the loss of the Imperial Center and Lusankya, she feared execution and promised to reclaim her Super Star Destroyer.

After Thrawn lost the war, Isard's forces rescued Rogue Squadron from an ambush by Prince-Admiral Krennel's starfighters at the moon Distna. The seemingly altruistic Isard explained to the Rogues that she wanted help in bringing down Price Admiral Krennel of the Ciutric Hegemony. Though skeptical, the Rogues had little choice and agreed in exchange for the opportunity to free the ex-Lusankya prisoners. Ackbar organized a fleet and pounded the Ciutric defenses while the Rogues, posing as TIE defender pilots, infiltrated the base and freed the prisoners. As Isard no doubt desired, Krennel and the Isard clone died in the fighting.

Despite her help in freeing Lusankya prisoners, Isard was not to be trusted. She later tried to recapture her beloved Lusankya, but upon entering her quarters, Isard was slain by her long-time foe and New Republic counterpart, Iella Wessiri, in the effort that finally brought down "Iceheart".

Behind the Scenes
Whilst she was officially (in an in-universe sense) killed by Iella, it was theorised and possibly implied in X-wing: Isard's Revenge that she actually survived, and was imprisoned for life in the bow of Lusankya. This is not verified by any canon source.

Appearances

 * Evasive Action: Prey
 * Coruscant: Center of the Empire
 * Interlude at Darkknell
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron 25: The Making of Baron Fel
 * Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand
 * Mara Jade: A Night on the Town
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: In the Empire's Service
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Masquerade
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Mandatory Retirement
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-wing: The Krytos Trap
 * X-wing: The Bacta War
 * X-wing: Isard's Revenge
 * Star Wars: Union
 * Betrayal
 * I, Jedi