Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/August 24, 2009

Mezhan Kwaad, known for her role in conducting experiments upon the captured Jedi apprentice Tahiri Veila in 26 ABY, was a Yuuzhan Vong shaper and the master of Nen Yim. A heretic among her species, Kwaad would often violate, albeit in secret, the laws that governed the shaper caste. By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War, her skill had enabled her to attain the prestigious rank of a master shaper. Heresy, however, was not Kwaad's only transgression against the laws of her species; the shaper fell in love with a commander, Vua Rapuung, and started a forbidden affair with the warrior. When Rapuung ended the relationship due to religious reasons, an enraged Kwaad proclaimed her heresy to him, and openly denounced the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong gods. Paranoid that her secrets would be revealed, Kwaad used her talents to cause Rapuung's body to reject his warrior implants, bestowing upon him the greatest curse for the Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;the appearance of a Shamed One. With Rapuung's claims perceived as delusions, Kwaad was able to commit heresy without fear of discovery. She was soon tasked with a project to experiment upon a captured Jedi, Tahiri Veila, in order to discern the cause and source of the Force. As her assistant in the endeavor, Kwaad selected an adept, Nen Yim.

On the moon of Yavin 4, Kwaad and Yim began the process of converting the young Jedi apprentice's memories and personality to those of a Yuuzhan Vong, in tandem with their investigation into the Force. Suspicion, however, hounded Kwaad, and the commander of the base on Yavin 4, Tsaak Vootuh, soon entered into a plot with Yal Phaath, a senior shaper, in order to ascertain whether Yim and her master were committing heresy in their experiments on Veila. Indeed, Kwaad had been clandestinely defying the sacred shaping protocols throughout the project, and was subsequently discovered and arrested. Kwaad's journey into custody was interrupted by the reappearance of Vua Rapuung and his ally Anakin Solo, who pressured the master shaper into revealing her earlier actions against Rapuung. The master shaper attempted to escape, but was decapitated by Veila before she could flee. Among the various castes of the Yuuzhan Vong, Kwaad was remembered as an arch-heretic, and her domain was disgraced. Among the Shamed Ones, on the other hand, Kwaad entered into the epic cycle of the legend of Vua Rapuung, one of the central tenets of the heretical movement that arose following the events on Yavin 4.