Yogar Lyste

"You misunderstand. We are no longer interested in buying."

- Lyste to Morad Sumar

Lieutenant Yogar Lyste, operating number: LSM-03, was an officer of the Galactic Empire several years prior to the Battle of Yavin. He was stationed on the planet Lothal, where he served as Imperial Supply Master of Capital City; keeping track of all weapons and gear shipped in, as well as any produced locally. In 3 BBY, Lyste was placed in charge of a military depot and hosted a relief mission led by Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. The theft of three Hammerhead corvettes by the Spectres caused him considerable embarrassment.

Eventually, Lyste was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and made acting captain of an Imperial light cruiser. With his new position, he was responsible for monitoring who and what entered the star system, specifically aimed at defending the planets from rebels. In 2 BBY, Lieutenant Lyste came under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who took an interest in the rebel insurgency in the Lothal sector. During the course of Thrawn's investigation into the identity of the rebel agent Fulcrum, Lyste was framed by his colleague, the Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus.

Background
Born on Garel, Yogar Lyste would eventually join the Imperial Military, where at least five years before the Battle of Yavin he would hold the title of Supply Master on the Outer Rim agricultural backwater of Lothal. An ambitious young Imperial officer, Lyste would be charged with overseeing the planet's imports and exports, as well as regulating, maintaining, and distributing products from local Imperial-controlled industries. This also included the transport of prisoners.

The Lothal insurgency
Throughout his career, Lyste would be harassed by a group of rebels known by the locals as the Spectres, with each attack infuriating him to further his efforts. Shortly before the orphan Ezra Bridger joined the rebel cell, Lyste was overseeing the transference of several crates of food and blasters to the Imperial Complex on Lothal when the shipment was hijacked by the crew of the Ghost. Lyste and the stormtroopers under his command attempted to stop the theft of the cargo, but were powerless to prevent the rebels from fleeing on speeder bikes with the crates.

Some time later, Lyste was in the town of Kothal, where he attempted to pressure local farmer Morad Sumar into selling his farmland to the Empire. After Sumar expressed disinterest in the prospect, Lyste took his troops to the farm later that day, where he forcibly evicted Sumar, his wife and their Aqualish farmhand, destroying their home with his troop transport's cannons. The farmer, his wife and the farmhand were later freed while in transit by Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios, who had seen the smoking ruins of the farm from the TIE/ln space superiority starfighter they had recently stolen.

Much later, Lyste would investigate a report by the Imperial cadet Nazhros Oleg that a warehouse in Lothal's Capital City was taking in barrels of ebla beer without the proper tax stamps. His agents verified that the barrels were being stockpiled in a warehouse for distribution, resulting in Captain Piers Roddance ordering a raid, headed by Oleg, with Zare Leonis and a squad of stormtroopers providing backup.

Hosting Princess Leia
In the aftermath of the Lothal insurgency following the brutal Siege of Lothal, a large number of Imperial troops withdrew from Lothal, resulting in Lyste receiving more responsibility. Becoming a lieutenant and acting captain aboard a light cruiser, he became responsible for monitoring ships going to and from the planet, along with ensuring that no dissident forces returned to disrupt Imperial rule. Unknown to Lyste, the same group of rebels that ignited the insurgency on Lothal had secretly returned, slipping past his notice and landing on the planet, in order to rendezvous with the Alderaanian dignitary Princess Leia Organa, of whom Lyste was skeptical of due to rebel activity and a history of Alderaanian vessels being "stolen" by rebels. Hoping to avoid such an incident, he implemented as much security as possible by dispatching a stormtrooper detachment and using gravity locks to secure Organa's three Hammerhead cruisers.

As an added security measure, Lyste also brought in two All Terrain Armored Transports to patrol the area. After Organa insisted that Lyste temporarily hand over his own transport for a relief mission, she, along with Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, both disguised as Imperial soldiers, staged a kidnapping of the sixteen-year-old princess. After falling for the ruse, Lyste immediately ordered a scan of the nearby area to find the rebels that Leia was secretly working with. Hoping to seize Organa's vessels for the rebellion, the rebels launched a raid on Lyste's garrison the following evening, in which they managed to "steal" the Hammerheads. Going along with the rebels' plan, Leia threatened to blackmail Lyste for his inept command of the helpless Imperial presence on Lothal unless she was compensated, and he quickly agreed to do so without any hesitation. After securing a transport for her, he discovered that his own private transport was missing.

Thrawn's crackdown
Lieutenant Lyste was present at the Imperial Armory Complex when Governor Arihnda Pryce and Agent Kallus summoned the workers for a general assembly. The Lothal Imperial factory was producing a high rate of faulty vehicles that affected the Imperial Military's operations. In response, Imperial High Command dispatched Grand Admiral Thrawn to restore order to the factory and to hunt down subversives. In fact, a small rebel cell led by Ryder Azadi had been sabotaging the vehicles.

Lyste watched as Thrawn chastised the workers for their poor workmanship and forced the worker Morad Sumar, an undercover rebel operative, to demonstrate a faulty 614-AvA speeder bike. The simulation caused an explosion, which claimed Morad's life. Thrawn then ordered Lyste and his fellow Imperials to detain the workers for questioning and lock down the factory. Under Thrawn's orders, Lyste ordered the factory workers to line up in pairs and submit themselves for questioning. However, the rebel infiltrators Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus managed to escape when their astromech droid Chopper blew up another speeder bike. This ruse worked, and Lyste ordered a disguised Chopper to report for maintenance.

Kanan, Ezra and Chopper managed to evade the Imperial security forces and steal Thrawn's secret plans from Section A2. Meanwhile, Thrawn summoned Lyste and Agent Kallus to his office for an update on the lockdown. Lyste and Kallus found that the Grand Admiral's office was decorated with holograms of the Spectres, Sabine's graffiti, and the helmet of a Jedi Temple Guard. When Thrawn asked his subordinates about one of Sabine's graffiti artworks, Lyste responded that it was a section of the retaining wall. The more perceptive Kallus recognized it as the starbird, the marking of Phoenix Squadron. After Lyste informed Thrawn that two of the workers had disappeared, Thrawn realized that the rebels were after his plans and sent Lyste and Kallus to secure Section A2.

However, the rebels' droid Chopper had already downloaded the plans by the time Lyste and Kallus arrived to order a lockdown. The rebels managed to escape with the help of Kallus, who had become part of a secret rebel network of informants known as Fulcrum. When Ryder's rebel cell launched a diversionary attack on the factory's east gate, Lyste dispatched two AT-AT walkers to deal with the intruders. He reported the incident to Thrawn and requested permission to deploy more reinforcements. Knowing that the rebels would take advantage of the diversion to escape, Thrawn allowed Lyste to send an AT-DP walker that had been stolen by Ezra's team.

Following the rebels' escape, Lyste reported his account of the skirmish to Thrawn. The Grand Admiral was satisfied with Lyste's report and dismissed him before turning to deal with Kallus and Governor Pryce.

Betrayal and frame-up
While commanding his Imperial light cruiser, Lieutenant Lyste led a successful operation to capture a stolen shuttle that had fled Lothal's spaceport. When Agent Kallus awoke, Lyste informed him that his ship was responding to a shuttle heist. After the light cruiser's bridge crew had trapped the stolen shuttle with the ship's tractor beam, Lyste remained aboard the bridge while stormtroopers boarded the shuttle. Unbeknownst to Lyste, Kallus discovered that the captured shuttle thief was his rebel contact Ezra Bridger, who had come to rescue him.

When Lyste entered the light cruiser's detention block, Kallus claimed that Ezra was a bounty hunter whom he had succeeded in extracting a confession from. Lyste then informed the ISB agent that Thrawn's Seventh Fleet had arrived in the Lothal system and had invited both of them aboard his flagship Chimaera. Lyste was eager to be summoned for a meeting with a high-ranking Imperial commander, since he wanted to showcase his successful capture of an alleged rebel operative. He also wanted to make up for the embarrassing incident involving Princess Leia.

Lyste gave orders for his men to bring the rebel prisoner aboard a Sentinel-class landing craft for his meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Lyste was also accompanied by the undercover rebel droids AP-5 and Chopper, who claimed to be unwilling passengers aboard Ezra's shuttle and that they had evidence to submit against Ezra. Once aboard the Chimaera, Lieutenant Lyste and Agent Kallus witnessed several Imperial officers of the Sector Command staff, including Captain Brunson and Commander Brom Titus, exiting a meeting with Thrawn.

Upon reaching Thrawn's office, a stormtrooper sentry demanded that Lyste and Kallus submit their code cylinders. Lyste reluctantly submitted his after a brief protest, and the two met with Thrawn and the ISB Colonel Wullf Yularen. During the meeting, Thrawn revealed that there was a traitor in the Imperial ranks who was helping the growing Rebellion, codenamed Fulcrum. When Lyste expressed his enthusiasm in hunting down the Rebel spy, Thrawn told him that nobody was above suspicion and informed them that Colonel Yularen would be interrogating them personally.

While chatting alone with Kallus, Lyste remarked that nobody escaped the eye of Yularen for long. After Governor Pryce complimented Lyste for capturing the shuttle thief, Kallus manipulated Lyste into believing that the ISB was investigating Governor Pryce as a potential Fulcrum suspect. While Lyste was distracted, Kallus switched their code cylinders. He then convinced Lyste to spy on Governor Pryce. Later, Kallus contacted Lyste by comlink, and was warned by Lyste that Governor Pryce, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Colonel Yularen were entering the detention block. He told Lyste to trail Pryce, but to remain unseen.

Agent Kallus had already used Lyste's code cylinder to free Ezra from the Chimaera detention block, thus framing him as the rebel agent Fulcrum. Kallus then obtained an Imperial military uniform for Ezra. Pretending to be Lyste, Ezra used a Jedi mind trick to convince one of Thrawn's guards to let him into his office. Inside the office, Ezra transmitted clearance codes to his rebel comrades Kanan and Rex. Kallus then had Chopper delete data on the planet Atollon, which housed the rebel base. He also reprogrammed Thrawn's Imperial sentry droids into assassin droids. After Thrawn narrowly escaped an attack by the sentinel droids and witnessed a disguised Ezra escaping, he believed that Lyste was the traitor.

Playing into Agent Kallus' hands, Lyste continued to spy on Pryce. When he saw her fight two stormtroopers (who were Rex and Kanan in disguise), he believed that she was actually Fulcrum and stunned her, which Yularen witnessed. When the disguised Rebels fled onto the ship, Lyste recognized Ezra and realized that he had been deceived before being tackled by Kallus, who took the opportunity to switch their code cylinders back. Shortly after, Colonel Yularen arrived with stormtrooper reinforcements. Kallus publicly accused Lyste of being Fulcrum. Despite his protests, Lyste was dragged away by stormtroopers. While Thrawn and Yularen publicly accepted Kallus' explanation that Lyste was Fulcrum, the two privately doubted that Lyste was the traitor, as he was too inexperienced and naïve to be capable of masterminding the events that had transpired. Upon seeing Sabine Wren's art on Ezra's helmet, Thrawn deduced that Ezra was in fact the mysterious "shuttle thief" and that because Kallus tried to conceal this, he had to be the real Fulcrum. However, he decided not to apprehend Kallus since he wanted Kallus to lead him to the rebels.

Personality and traits
Young and ambitious, Lyste exuded confidence in the performance of his duties, exhibiting a great amount of pride. He took his position as Supply Master, and later lieutenant and acting captain of his own Imperial light cruiser, seriously, and cared little for anyone standing in his way. Charged with securing land on Lothal, he attempted to negotiate before resorting to force, as he was not keen on unnecessary violence, unlike many of his peers. However, when forced to use drastic measures, he did not hesitate to use force. One such example was when he was ordered to clear farmers from their land. Despite his confidence, he proved unable to stop rebels Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios from freeing his prisoners, and later failed at ensuring that Princess Leia Organa's vessels were not "stolen" by the same group of dissidents.

Sabine Wren had some respect for him, noting that he had started beefing up security and describing him in her personal journal as "not a complete dummy." . Unlike many other officers, he was quite understanding of the failures of his subordinates. He also showed concern for the people of Lothal during the presence of the Imperial blockade, telling Princess Leia Organa that he wanted to make sure that her supplies got to the impoverished citizens. Despite his preparations to secure the Hammerhead corvettes with gravity locks, he was outmatched by the bold cunning and ingenuity of his rebel opponents. Lyste felt humiliated by this incident and sought to curry favor with the Imperial military leadership.

Lyste was briefly shocked by Grand Admiral Thrawn's killing of the factory worker Morad Sumar during a test demonstration, but nevertheless complied with the Admiral's orders to detain and question the workers. He was outfoxed by the Spectres' escape tactics, including staging diversions. Unlike Thrawn and Agent Kallus, he lacked an appreciation for art and once, when asked for his opinion of one of Sabine's graffiti pieces, described it solely as a piece of the retaining wall.

Lyste took pride in his successful efforts to apprehend the rebel Ezra Bridger, who was posing as a bounty hunter. However, he was unaware that Bridger had staged the capture in order to rescue Agent Kallus, who was the secret rebel informant Fulcrum. Lyste viewed the capture of Ezra as an opportunity to regain favor with the Imperial High Command following the incident with Princess Leia. He was enthusiastic about helping Grand Admiral Thrawn capture the Rebel agent. Agent Kallus took advantage of Lyste's woeful lack of experience and naivety to manipulate him into believing that Governor Pryce was Fulcrum in order to frame the lieutenant. Lyste's trust in Kallus and inexperience proved to be his undoing.

Behind the scenes
Yogar Lyste first appeared as a secondary character in the television movie Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion, which premiered on September 26, 2014. He was voiced by Liam O'Brien, who had also voiced several other characters, including fellow Star Wars Rebels character Morad Sumar and Commodore Dael Margok in the Legends computer game Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan. O'Brien voiced Lyste in several Star Wars Rebels episodes throughout seasons one, two, and three. He also appeared as a tertiary character in Jason Fry's 2014–2015 junior novel series Servants of the Empire.

In his first appearance, in the scene in Spark of Rebellion where Ezra watches from a rooftop as Lyste is berated by Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint for supposedly reporting a nonexistent emergency, Lyste's hair is white instead of dark brown.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Force Arena
 * Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy
 * Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion
 * The Rebellion Begins
 * Droids in Distress
 * TIE Fighter Trouble
 * Ezra's Duel with Danger
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice
 * Ezra's Duel with Danger
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice