Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 48, 2012/1

Shira Elan Colla Brie was a Force-sensitive Human female born on Imperial Center during the height of Galactic Emperor Palpatine's reign over the majority of the galaxy. Brie's dedication to the tenets of the Imperial New Order doctrine garnered the interest of Palpatine's chief enforcer, the Sith Lord Darth Vader, who sped the young woman's advancement in various Imperial-sponsored programs, including her enrollment into the Intelligence Academy of Carida. After she graduated with top honors and was promoted to the rank of major by Vader himself, Brie was given a highly classified mission to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance and either cause the death or ostracism of Rebel hero and Jedi Luke Skywalker amongst his peers. Brie achieved the latter, but the events that ended in Skywalker's disgrace also left her horribly disfigured and near death. She was recovered by Darth Vader, who rehabilitated her with cybernetic replacements much like his own. Brie then began to train in the dark side of the Force at the feet of Vader under the assumed identity of Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith.

While Lumiya studied in secret as Lord Vader's Shadow Hand, she also served as one of the Emperor's Hands&mdash;Force-trained assassins who answered to Palpatine himself. Lumiya embarked on a pilgrimage to the world of Ziost, during which she crafted her lightwhip. While on that sojourn, however, both Palpatine and Darth Vader perished in battle at Endor, and as the foremost of their pupils despite her incomplete training, Lumiya defaulted to Mistress of the Sith. Purpose-driven toward vengeance against Luke Skywalker and the Alliance for the deaths of her Sith Masters, Lumiya apprenticed an ex-stormtrooper named Flint and lent support to the extra-galactic Nagai species' war against their mortal Tof enemies. The Sith Lady suffered a critical defeat early in her campaign, the damage from which required replacement of her armor, and saw the debut of a triangular headdress that, along with her lightwhip, was thenceforth regarded as her trademark. She continued to aid the Nagai, during which time she confronted and was ultimately beaten by her sworn enemy, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. As the Nagai–Tof War commenced, however, the Dark Lady escaped Skywalker's custody, with promises of mayhem for him when next they met. Lumiya subsequently ended her partnership with the Nagai in favor of the Tof opposition, but their swift defeat by the unified forces of the Alliance, Empire, and Nagai signified the end of the war. Thought by the majority of the galaxy to be dead, Lumiya retreated to the Outer Rim with retribution ever on her mind.

While in hiding, the Dark Lady consolidated resources in preparation for a strike against the New Republic, the successor government to the Rebel Alliance. She again worked closely with Imperial Intelligence and took the second of her apprentices, former Imperial Royal Guardsman Carnor Jax, after the mysterious death of her first. Together Lumiya and Jax eliminated the last vestiges of the Prophets of the Dark Side cult. She then charged him with the infiltration of the Imperial stratosphere in anticipation of a threat to her Sith Order, while she herself brokered for additional assets with Imperial stewardess Ysanne Isard. However, Jax's own nascent ambitions led him into an ill-conceived attempt at betrayal against Lumiya, and he was murdered by another former Royal Guardsman, leaving the Dark Lady once again apprentice-less. She returned to the planet Korriban to plot strategy and, in possession of the ancient Sith oracle stone artifact, continued to monitor galactic events from afar. By 25 ABY, though, Lumiya had abandoned the Outer Rim in favor of the former asteroid dwelling of the ancient Sith Lord Vectivus, where she mastered the creation of his dark side–empowered Force phantoms. That same year, she considered an invitation by a new order of Sith on Korriban, who sought to bring the Dark Lady into their fold, but was delayed en route by advance scouts of the Yuuzhan Vong race on the eve of their galactic invasion. She eluded capture and attempted to undermine the Yuuzhan Vong offensive in her own way from the shadows.

As the galaxy descended further into chaos, Lumiya came to believe that order and stability could only be imposed through the supreme will of a Dark Lord of the Sith. It was during cultivation of such beliefs that she met ex-Jedi–turned–Sith Vergere, and through the latter's superior knowledge, Lumiya's training was completed. Together they conspired to restore peace to the galaxy through the creation and ascension of the next Sith Lord. A second overture on behalf of those on Korriban to ally was once again ignored, as Lumiya and Vergere contrived to bring the Skywalker family's Sith legacy full circle through Jacen Solo, the grandson of Darth Vader. She and Vergere facilitated Solo's capture by the Yuuzhan Vong, to whom Vergere had ingratiated herself, and the Fosh began the training that Lumiya would eventually finish. Vergere died three years into the Yuuzhan Vong War with her role in the affair complete, but another twelve passed before Lumiya was prepared to uphold her end of the bargain. In 40 ABY, she enacted her plan to beguile Solo against the backdrop of a new war, one consequent of her clandestine instigation, by aggravating the already tepid relationship between the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and Corellia's Five Worlds government. An orchestrated series of events led to a meeting between Lumiya and Solo at her home, which resulted in his agreement to take up the way of the Sith. For months she trained him, while continuing her secret manipulations of the Corellian separatist movement and enlisting the services of the Twi'lek darksider Alema Rar in the process. Lumiya then revealed herself to the Jedi and maneuvered their determination to eliminate her into a distraction from Jacen Solo's utter embrace of the dark side. Satisfied that vengeance had been cemented against her enemies, Lumiya surrendered herself to death in combat against her long-time nemesis, Luke Skywalker.