Ta'a Chume

"Hapes can only be as strong as those who lead her."

- Ta'a Chume

The Ta'a Chume was the former Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, mother of Isolder, and the grandmother of current Queen Mother Tenel Ka. As the ruler of the Hapes Consortium, she was responsible for opening up the borders of the Hapes Cluster to the rest of the galaxy in 8 ABY.

As a woman concerned only with her position, Ta'a Chume had no qualms about killing people to protect herself and/or the monarchy, including going so far as to arrange the assassinations of her first born son, her younger son's fiancée, and her daughter-in-law. Despite being placed under house arrest for the murder of the latter, she had arranged an assassination attempt on her newborn great-granddaughter Allana in 36 ABY. In retaliation, Jacen Solo used the Force to give her a brain hemorrhage that sent her into a coma.

Early life
Ta'a Chume was the daughter of Ni'Korish, and had the company of several sisters while growing up. Details of her early life are scarce, but it was known that Ni'Korish's hatred of the Jedi was a large influence on her.

Upon the death of her mother, Ta'a Chume became the Queen Mother, the absolute monarch of the Hapes Consortium. She took a consort, and they had two sons, Kalen and Isolder. Her consort died a short while later, while their children were still young.

During her reign as the ruler of the Hapes Consortium, Ta'a Chume ruled with an iron fist and advocated a large military presence, mainly due to the fact that the Galactic Empire had made several attempts to invade the Hapes Cluster. Due to the large navy she had assembled to counter these intrusions, most of the attacks were repelled.

In 2 ABY, Ta'a Chume had decided that her older son Kalen lacked the neccessary skills to be a leader to his people, so she had arranged for his kidnapping and murder by pirates near the Terephon system. This event prompted her younger son Isolder to go undercover as a privateer for two years to search for those responsible.

Impressed by Isolder's resolve, Ta'a Chume named him the new Chume'da. When Isolder became engaged to a Hapan noble named Elliar shortly afterward, Ta'a Chume was less than thrilled. Feeling that Elliar's pacifism would be the ruin of the Hapes Consortium, she arranged for Elliar's drowning death in one of Hapes' reflecting pools. It would not be until years later that Isolder would discover that his mother was behind both deaths.

The Hapes/Dathomir incident
"You would rather murder someone than risk losing my allegiance?"

- Isolder to Ta'a Chume

In 8 ABY, Leia Organa visited Ta'a Chume on Hapes in a bid to forge a Hapan/New Republic alliance. While Organa was discussing details with Ta'a Chume, Isolder spotted Organa from afar and fell in love with her. He went to Ta'a Chume to discuss permission for him to marry Organa, which she only granted to ensure his loyalty to her. In truth, she despised Organa's ideals and maintained the illusion of an alliance for Isolder's benefit.



When the Hapan fleet arrived at Coruscant to confirm the alliance proposal, each of the Hapan worlds presented a gift to Organa, with the gift from Hapes itself being Isolder's marriage proposal. While mulling over the proposal, Organa was targeted by Hapan assassins working on Ta'a Chume's orders. The plot was foiled by Isolder, but before Ta'a Chume could arrange another attempt, Han Solo kidnapped Organa and took her to Dathomir in an effort to win her love. Because a Hapan honor tradition dictated that the Queen Mother do anything possible to protect her successor, Ta'a Chume put her network of spies to use to find Solo and have him executed.

When a lead was located, Ta'a Chume sent her spies to question Omogg, a Drackmarian warlord who was one of last people Solo had associated with. Determined to get the information one way or another, she had some of her other spies run a check on Omogg's navicomp before questioning her. Due to the huge bounty posted on Solo's head that she wanted to claim for herself, Omogg refused to give Ta'a Chume's spies any details, so in frustration they assaulted her. To gain the Drackmarian's trust, Ta'a Chume asked Omogg what punishment she should dole out to her errant underlings, and was told by Omogg to make them breathe methane. Ta'a Chume agreed, hoping to get information on Solo in return, but the Drackmarian refused, only agreeing to give the information to Luke Skywalker. Although slightly put off, she still had the information from the navicomp sweep she had her spies perform earlier, and used it to dispatch the Hapan fleet to Dathomir.



Intriuged by Skywalker, she invited him to dine with her and Isolder aboard Star Home. While dining, she tried her best to seduce him and told him a lie about a small Jedi academy that was set up on Reboam during the Great Jedi Purge. Skywalker sensed that she did not have his best interests at heart when divulging that detail, however, and he and Isolder departed Star Home for Dathomir.

Ta'a Chume and the Hapan fleet arrived at Dathomir during the Battle of Dathomir, and helped New Republic forces defeat Warlord Zsinj. Afterward, while on Dathomir for a victory celebration, Isolder announced his intention to make one of the local Witches of Dathomir, Teneniel Djo, his bride. Ta'a Chume was horrified that a Force-sensitive commoner from a backwater planet would succeed her, and objected to the union. However, Djo used the Force on her, assuring her that she was no pacifist and had no qualms about executing the Queen Mother if the situation warranted it. Ta'a Chume backed down and allowed the union, although there was no love lost between her and her new daughter-in-law.

Apart from demanding permission to marry Teneniel Djo, Isolder had also demanded that the Hapes Consortium join the New Republic. Ta'a Chume had agreed to this demand, but members of the Hapan Royal Court objected. Using the pretense that it would erode internal stability to join the New Republic, Ta'a Chume backed out of the Hapes/New Republic political alliance. However, the borders of the Hapes Cluster were now open to the rest of the galaxy.

Abdication
Around the time of the birth of her granddaughter Tenel Ka in 10 ABY, Ta'a Chume had abdicated the throne under unknown circumstances, with Teneniel Djo replacing her as Queen Mother. Djo's refusal to take advice from the former Queen Mother and the fact that Tenel Ka preferred her Dathomiri heritage over her Hapan one was a constant source of irritation to Ta'a Chume. Nevertheless, she tried numerous times to groom Tenel Ka as the future ruler of Hapes, despite her granddaughter's lack of interest.

In 22 ABY, Tenel Ka was sent to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 to learn the ways of the Force. Although both of Tenel Ka's parents had encouraged her to go, Ta'a Chume was horrified that her heir was training to be a Jedi. Later that year, when Tenel Ka had returned to Hapes after a freak lightsaber accident had cost her part of her left arm, Ta'a Chume tried her best to dissuade her granddaughter from Jedi training and to stay on Hapes full time. However, when Tenel Ka and her fellow Jedi trainees foiled an attempt on Ta'a Chume's life by her underling Yfra, she temporarily reconsidered her position on Tenel Ka's Jedi training.

Although she was no longer the reigning monarch, Ta'a Chume still had spies and underworld contacts loyal to her, and she put them to use quite often. When Tenel Ka called Hapes in 23 ABY to inform her parents about the Diversity Alliance, Ta'a Chume used this spy network to learn that the apparently peaceful aliens-first movement was not as it seemed. She later also made use of an anti-Jedi faction named after her mother.

The Yuuzhan Vong War
"I know my grandmother. She will never fully relinquish the throne. Perhaps she envisions ruling a second time, through someone younger and more tractible than either my mother or Princess Leia."

- Tenel Ka to Jagged Fel, on Ta'a Chume

In 25 ABY, Ta'a Chume was among those who welcomed Leia Organa Solo to Hapes, and confided to the younger woman that she had been wrong about her all those years ago. During the same conversation, Ta'a Chume also expressed her disgust for her granddaughter Tenel Ka's refusal to take the throne, and revealed that her son Isolder's marriage to Teneniel Djo was strained. Both women then watched as Isolder won an honor duel that sent the Hapan fleet to Fondor.



In the aftermath of the disasterous Battle of Fondor, Ta'a Chume's already low opinion of her daughter-in-law went even lower when Teneniel Djo miscarried the Hapan heir, went into a semi-catatonic state and neglected her duties as Queen Mother. Quietly, Ta'a Chume plotted to get rid of the "witch queen", either by finding a new wife for Isolder or by reclaiming the throne herself.

When the survivors of the Mission to Myrkr (among whom was her granddaughter Tenel Ka) piloted a stolen Yuuzhan Vong ship to Hapes, Ta'a Chume set in motion a plan to replace Teneniel Djo with the grieving Jaina Solo. In Jaina she saw a younger version of herself, but with the potential to be even more powerful due to Jaina's ability to use the Force.

To acheive her goal, she started slowly grooming Jaina for Hapan political events by inviting her to political balls and introducing her to influential people. When Ta'a Chume discovered Jaina had an interest in Jagged Fel, she arranged for Fel to have an "accident" to preserve her plan. The sabatoge plot never came to fruition, however, and Fel was warned to keep his distance from Jaina by his wingmate.

Citing that he owed it to his people to provide them with a strong leader, Ta'a Chume also pressured Isolder to divorce the near-catatonic Teneniel Djo. She stated that with Djo incapacitated and Tenel Ka's refusal to take the throne, she would reassume the throne if he did not marry Jaina Solo. Since seeing his mother back on the throne was the last thing Isolder wanted, he promised to consider it.

Not wanting to wait for Isolder's decision on the matter, Ta'a Chume sent some of her Ni'Korish assassins to poison Teneniel Djo. In the aftermath of Djo's death, Ta'a Chume turned on the Ni'Korish and had them all arrested and executed. Shortly afterward, Jaina and Tenel Ka entered the room as Ta'a Chume had placed the crown on her head. Isolder took the crown from her, and Ta'a Chume knew that if he crowned Jaina, the younger woman would be Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, whether she wanted it or not. However, Tenel Ka unexpectedly stepped forward to claim her birthright. Isolder then proudly placed the crown on his daughter's head, and Ta'a Chume fumed. Tenel Ka and Isolder then placed Ta'a Chume under arrest for arranging the murder of Djo.

Endgame
"If you want your daughter to grow up with a mother, Jacen, you must spare me. That is the only way."

- Ta'a Chume's last words.

Instead of being tried and imprisoned, Ta'a Chume was placed under house arrest, and there she remained for the next 9 years. Time and imprisonment had not lessened her resolve, however, as in 36 ABY she was contacted by the Gorog nest of Killiks. Upset with the Hapan interference at Qoribu, they proposed a trade: in exchange for Ta'a Chume supplying them with navicomputer technology, they would assassinate Ta'a Chume's newborn great-granddaughter Allana.

After the attempted assassination on Allana was foiled by her parents Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka, Ta'a Chume was confronted by Jacen, who demanded to know why she would arrange the murder of her great-granddaughter. After a brief Force-induced torture, she informed Jacen that she did not want the child of two Jedi to eventually rule Hapes, and that she did not want Hapes to become a Jedi kingdom. She also stated that if she were killed, arrested, or disgraced in anyway, the Gorog would target Tenel Ka. To prevent any further attempts on the lives of Tenel Ka and his daughter by Ta'a Chume, Jacen used the Force on her to give her a brain hemorrhage, rendering her comatose.

Personality
"My grandmother will not brook defiance, not even from nature itself."

- Tenel Ka, on Ta'a Chume

As a person, Ta'a Chume was manipulative, ruthless, arrogant, and would not tolerate the defiance of those who crossed her. Since details of her upbringing are practically non-existent, it is speculated that these traits were most likely instilled into her personality due to growing up surrounded by the intrigues of the Hapan Royal Court.

Being the Queen Mother of a matriarchial society, Ta'a Chume was disappointed when her consort fathered sons. Having no daughter by blood to rule in her stead, Ta'a Chume took it upon herself to manipulate events to choose her successor. Due to this, her firstborn son Kalen, her younger son's fiancée Elliar and daughter-in-law Teneniel Djo would all meet their ends due to Ta'a Chume's manipulations to choose a "proper" successor (read: herself or one like her). An attempt on the life of Leia Organa was enacted because, again, she felt Organa to be an unworthy successor, while her attempt on her great-granddaughter Allana was enacted because she felt that as the child of two Jedi, the child would eventually turn the Hapes Consortium into a Jedi dynasty.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Ta'a Chume had hatched a scheme to replace the current Queen Mother Teneniel Djo with the Jedi Knight Jaina Solo. Although Ta'a Chume despised Jedi and other Force-users, she apparently saw no problem in replacing a Dathomiri Witch with a Jedi (albeit one that was sliding into dark side Force usage at the time). This was most likely due to the fact that she felt Jedi Solo was young, easy to manipulate, and would eventually be the path to Ta'a Chume's own return to power. The failure of the plot was her downfall, as she was placed under house arrest for the murder of Teneniel Djo and no closer to the throne she so coveted.

Even shortly before she was rendered comatose, Ta'a Chume displayed no remorse for the deaths she had arranged, and even believed that as long as she was alive, there would be no attempts on the life of Tenel Ka. Her concern for Tenel Ka wasn't due to grandmotherly love, however, but a desire to reclaim the throne from her granddaughter when she was in a good position to do so. In a move some would call poetic justice, Jacen Solo used the Force to incapacitate her with a brain hemorrhage, putting an end to her lust for power.

Behind the scenes

 * The character of Ta'a Chume was created by Dave Wolverton and first appeared in the novel The Courtship of Princess Leia.
 * The name Ta'a Chume is certainly a royal style, incorporating the element Chume, also found in the titles Chume'da and Chume ta'. However, there is some debate as to whether Ta'a is the character's given name, or a part of her full title as Queen Mother. Courtship of Princess Leia is not explicit on the matter, but seems to favour the latter interpretation, and Cracken's Threat Dossier states explicitly that "Ta'a Chume" is the full hereditary title, but later sources have continued to refer to the character as though "Ta'a Chume" was her name rather than simply a royal style, and depicted earlier and later Hapan rulers reigning under their given names.
 * In the Young Jedi Knights series, Ta'a Chume was re-introduced as the former Queen Mother of Hapes, with no explanation given as to why she had abdicated. Sources she had appeared in following the YJK series did not resolve the issue, so the circumstances of her abdication remain unknown.
 * The date listed on this article as her abdication date is based on conjecture from the novel Dark Journey and from the New Essential Chronology, which has documented her as occupying the post as late as 8.5 ABY. As with the circumstances of her abdication, the official date has not been given in any canonical source.

Appearances

 * The Courtship of Princess Leia
 * Shadow Academy
 * Lightsabers
 * Shards of Alderaan
 * Delusions of Grandeur
 * Jedi Bounty
 * Crisis at Crystal Reef
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Dark Journey
 * The Apprentice
 * The Unseen Queen