Meetra Surik

"&hellip;and where they look at you and see the death of the Force, I look at you and see hope for all life."

- Mical

Meetra Surik, also known as the Jedi Exile after the Mandalorian Wars, was a Human female Jedi who chose to disobey the orders of the Jedi High Council and aid the Galactic Republic in its war against the invading Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. Rising to the rank of Jedi Knight during the war, she served with distinction under the command of her fellow crusaders Revan and Malak, and was eventually commissioned as a General in the Republic Military.

Surik played a vital role in defeating the Mandalorians during the latter stages of the conflict, but as a direct result of her controversial actions during the cataclysmic final battle, she effectively cut her connection to the Force. Afterwards, out of all those who went to war, she was the only Jedi to avoid the call of the dark side and return to the Jedi Council to be judged for her crimes. After she was exiled from the Jedi Order, she wandered the periphery of known space for nearly a decade before returning to the Republic during the Dark Wars, at the height of the First Jedi Purge.

Caught up in the schemes of various mysterious factions, she was swiftly drawn into the ongoing conflict and became instrumental in engineering the defeat of the Sith Triumvirate ruled by Darths Sion, Traya, and Nihilus. Able to sense the Force once more, Surik emerged victorious from her campaign against the Sith Lords and immediately began a search for the long absent Jedi Revan.

Eventually, she succeeded and found Revan who was imprisoned on Dromund Kaas in the very heart of the Sith Empire she believed to have been destroyed over a thousand years before. Surik helped Revan in his mission to kill the Sith Emperor Vitiate who was planning an invasion to the Republic. She, Revan and Lord Scourge joined forces in their common cause and attacked the Emperor. Scourge's betrayal on his Jedi allies resulted in him stabbing Surik from behind, killing her instantly&mdash;the sacrifice however helped Revan to delay the Emperor and his plans. Surik did not become one with the Force; instead, her spirit stayed with Revan and helped him to endure the horrors of his stasis imprisonment for the next 300 years.

In the following years after her death, the Jedi that she trained during her travels would prove essential to the process of rebuilding the Jedi Order in the wake of its near annihilation at the hands of the Sith.

Early life and Jedi training
As a child, Meetra Surik, was initially found and separated from her parents by the Jedi Order. Like many pre-Jedi younglings of her day, Surik started her training as a Padawan at the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. She was taken as an informal Padawan by the Jedi Knight Kavar. After Kavar left to fight the Mandalorians in the early skirmishes, she trained under many Masters, including Vima Sunrider, daughter of the famed Nomi Sunrider. Master Sunrider would often caution the young Surik to be mindful of her powers, especially her aptitude for severing one's connection to the Force.

The Mandalorian Wars
"When you returned to us, we saw what had happened. You carry all those deaths at Malachor within you, and it has left a hole, a hunger that cannot be filled."

- Vrook Lamar

When the Mandalorian Neo Crusaders launched an invasion of the Galactic Republic, Surik had overwhelming compassion for the lives lost in the Outer Rim. Inspired by her former Master Kavar, who had fought in the early skirmishes, she soon joined the ongoing battle, and became part of the Jedi Knight Revan's faction of Jedi after being personally recruited by Malak himself. She left a prospective Padawan, Mical, without a Master.

Surik served as Revan's most trusted general, second only to Malak, during the Mandalorian Wars. She would prove her skills in battle and her knowledge of warfare in many of the war's bloodiest battles and campaigns, including the second battle of Onderon's jungle moon Dxun. She also attained the rank of Jedi Knight during the war, but no knowledge is known as to how this happened.

Overseeing the final battle at the Sith planet Malachor V, she gave the order to activate the Mass Shadow Generator when it was clear that the bulk of the Republic's forces, led by Revan, would not arrive in time to engage the Mandalorian armada. She watched silently from the bridge of her command ship as the generator crushed both the Republic and Mandalorian forces caught in its destructive wake. The ensuing death and destruction, particularly that of the comrades she had led and befriended during the war caused such a substantial wound in the Force that the shock would have killed Surik had she not unconsciously, and instinctively, severed her own connection. Thereafter she was deafened to the Force's call; incapable of sensing it through the interference caused by the Force echoes of the suffering that she had inflicted and been forced to witness. The only Jedi under Revan able to turn away from the dark side after Malachor V, she was also the only Jedi to willingly return to the Jedi Temple on the Galactic Capital Coruscant and face trial for her actions&mdash;and also to defend them. Malak originally wanted Revan to use his assassin droid HK-47 to eliminate Surik, but Revan, who referred to her as a Jedi "who was already dead," wanted her to face the Council and show them the hypocrisy of their teachings, and so let her leave.

Despite an impassioned plea, the Jedi High Council decreed that because she had followed Revan to war, she was to be cast out of the Jedi Order. In defiance when they asked for the surrender of her lightsaber, she stabbed it into the center stone. After she left, the Council discussed the true nature of her exile; they feared the "wound" in the Force that surrounded her. Some on the Council, most notably Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell, felt that they were punishing her not because of what she did, but because she was symbolic of the many Jedi that had fallen to the dark side over the course of history. These Council members felt that she was the perfect opportunity to examine why and how so many Jedi fall to the dark side. But more conservative Council members, such as Master Atris, felt that the Council was too lenient on Surik, fearing that she may join Revan. The Council, however, felt that the wound in the Force already left Surik dead.

The Dark Wars
"And now you run in search of the Jedi. They are all dead, save one. And one broken Jedi cannot stop the darkness that is to come."

- Darth Sion, to Kreia

Full details of Meetra Surik's adventures in the Outer Rim are unknown, but it is known that Atris had orchestrated the Exile's return to known space. In order to trick the Sith into revealing themselves, Atris leaked her return to the galaxy and, predictably, attracted the attention of the Sith Triumvirate. Surik's return from exile into Republic space occurred in 3,951 BBY, in a time where Revan had vanquished Darth Malak and the last of the Jedi were being hunted down and exterminated. The Harbinger, a Republic cruiser bound for Onderon, had been ordered by the Republic admiral Carth Onasi&mdash;a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War&mdash;to abort the planned trip and head to the Outer Rim in order to pick up Surik. It was requested she be given status as a diplomatic passenger and escorted to Telos IV, though it was made clear that she was to be given no special treatment nor to make any indications of her identity.

During the trip to Telos, the ship received a distress call from a low-stock freighter, claiming to be engaged in a firefight with a Sith warship. When the Harbinger arrived, they found the ship derelict; after the crew boarded the vessel they found it to be empty, save for the battered body of Sith Lord Darth Sion. The Ebon Hawk, a small freighter that once had played a major role in the Jedi Civil War, also seemingly deserted, was picked up as well. In the next few days, crew aboard the ship began to disappear; when Darth Sion finally awoke, saying that he had come for the Jedi, cloaked Sith assassins revealed themselves and slaughtered the ship's crew "en masse." In the ensuing chaos, it went unnoticed that an HK-50 series assassin droid unit had drugged Surik and sealed her away. As the ship died around them, the Sith Lord Darth Traya&mdash;operating under the guise of her former identity of Jedi Master Kreia&mdash; found Surik, brought her back to the Ebon Hawk and attempted to flee. Unfortunately, they attracted the attention of the now fully-operational warship, which fired on the freighter, damaging it severely and nearly killing both Surik and Kreia. With the help of the utility droid T3-M4, Surik was taken care of and the Ebon Hawk was guided to the nearby Peragus Mining Facility.

When Surik awoke from her torpor in the mining facility's medlab, she found Kreia unconscious. After Kreia awoke and told Surik that they had to find a way off the station, she found the facility to be completely abandoned except for malfunctioning mining droids, which attacked Surik on sight. To add to the mystery, Surik's severed Force connection slowly began to return; while searching for a way off the station she found a male scoundrel named Atton Rand, who was imprisoned within a force cage in the station's brig. After Darth Sion and a group of Sith Assassins arrived on the Harbinger intending to kill Surik, believing she was the last of the Jedi, the three escaped with T3-M4 aboard the Ebon Hawk, but not before Sion sliced off Kreia's left hand. They then traveled to Telos, since it was the only available destination in the Peragus facility's navigational charts. While being pursued by the Sith in the asteroid field around Peragus, laser fire from the hijacked warship ignited the volatile fuel within the asteroids. The resulting explosion destroyed both the facility and the planet itself, though the Ebon Hawk and the Sith on board the Harbinger were able to escape.

When Surik and her crew arrived at the massive Citadel Station in orbit around Telos IV, the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4 were stolen and brought to the Telosian surface where they were held for questioning about the Peragus explosion. After a Telosian investigation proved their innocence, they were asked by Lieutenant Dol Grenn to stay on-station until the Republic's inquiry was complete. Instead, Surik allied herself with the Ithorian Force Adept Chodo Habat, eventually gathering enough evidence to expose Jana Lorso, the executive of the Czerka outpost on the Citadel Station. After gathering the necessary evidence to bring Lorso down, and after Surik saved Habat from mercenaries hired by Czerka to kill him and his herd, he allowed Surik and her companions to use one of their shuttles to reach Telos' surface, where they were shot down by a Czerka air defense tower. An Iridonian Zabrak engineer named Bao-Dur, who had designed the Mass Shadow Generator and served under Surik at Malachor V, saw the crash and pulled the three unharmed from the wreckage.

While on the surface, they learned that the Ebon Hawk had been taken to the old planetary aqueducts in the polar region of the planet. Commandeering a shuttle from an abandoned military compound, Surik and her companions traveled to the aqueducts and found Jedi Master Atris there, a former member of the Council that sentenced Surik into exile. Atris was attempting to recover lost Jedi teachings and had surrounded herself with several Echani sisters. These sisters, known as Handmaidens, had vowed not to learn the ways of the Jedi. After a heated debate over what the Jedi should have done during the Mandalorian Wars, Surik and her party left with the Ebon Hawk and T3-M4. When they left, T3-M4 revealed that he had managed to download Atris's database while being held, including a recording of Surik's trial and records of where the last five remaining Jedi Masters were hiding: Atris on Telos, Kavar on Onderon, Vrook Lamar on Dantooine, Zez-Kai Ell on Nar Shaddaa, and Lonna Vash on the Sith tombworld Korriban. Coincidentally, although Kreia believed otherwise, these were the same five Jedi on the Council that cast Surik out of the Order to become the Exile. However, Brianna was ordered by Atris to sneak aboard the Ebon Hawk and aid Surik in her mission in order to monitor her activities and in order to confirm that Surik still served the Light side of the Force. The crew, together with its newest member, went off to these worlds in search of the Jedi in an attempt to unite them against the Sith and to find the answers as to why Surik was sentenced to exile.

During her adventures, Surik met many beings who became her companions. She found many of them to be Force-sensitive, and thus she trained them in the Jedi ways. During this time the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Nihilus had sent his Shadow Hand, the Miraluka Visas Marr, to assassinate Surik. However, after a brief lightsaber duel she was able to redeem Marr, accepting her into the ship's crew and retraining her in the ways of a Jedi Sentinel. With Marr gained as an ally, Surik knew she could not hide her presence for long, however she also knew that she had an inroad into finding at least one of the Sith Lords who hunted her. Surik also helped Bao-Dur overcome his guilt over the lives lost at the Battle of Malachor V, and trained him in the ways of a Jedi Guardian. When two Twi'leks on Nar Shaddaa warned Surik about Atton Rand&mdash;saying he was a killer and not just a soldier&mdash;she approach Rand about this. Initially upset about being asked about his past, Rand however revealed his past as a soldier under the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars, and as a Sith trooper during the Jedi Civil War. He told her that he decided to leave the Sith after he killed a female Jedi, with whom he fell in love with, after she showed him the Force. After Surik forgave him for killing that Jedi and welcomed his honesty, Rand asked her if she would train him to be a Jedi. Surik agreed, and began training him as a Jedi Sentinel.

In search of the Lost Jedi
"But she may never discover the truth, and never know why we cast her out.''" "''Then that is the future we must accept."

- Lonna Vash and Vrook Lamar

Surik endeavored to stabilize the political conditions on several planets: on Nar Shaddaa she helped the refugees who were being exploited by the Exchange criminal organization, destabilizing its operations on the moon by killing the Quarren crime lords Saquesh and Visquis. She also destroyed the crime lord G0-T0's flagship, the Visionary. G0-T0 himself went along with Surik in hopes of stabilizing the galaxy. He later admitted to her that he was the droid intended for the Telos Citadel Station. She then met with Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell and convinced him to go to the ruins of the Dantooine Jedi Enclave. After Surik's exploits on Nar Shaddaa, she discovered that the bounty hunter Mira, who joined her party on Nar Shaddaa, was Force-sensitive, and she showed Mira how to harness the Force.

When Surik and her crew traveled to Onderon, the Ebon Hawk was attacked by one of General Vaklu's commanders, Colonel Tobin. After destroying the Onderonian starfighters sent to intercept the Ebon Hawk, they were forced to land on Dxun, the moon of Onderon where she fought during the Mandalorian Wars. After completing various tasks, the Mandalorian leader on Dxun, Mandalore the Preserver, allowed Surik to take one of their shuttles to Iziz, the capital of Onderon. After gaining contact with Jedi Master Kavar in the Iziz Cantina, Tobin interrupted the meeting, forcing Kavar to flee, but not without promising to contact her when he was able. Surik and Mandalore killed Tobin's forces that attacked them in the cantina and the western square, and proceeded to leave the city. After they returned to Dxun, Mandalore joined Surik not only because he felt she need an ally against the Sith, but because he intended to look for Mandalorian clans on other worlds so that he could reunite them under "his" leadership. She then helped Mandalore in finding scattered clans on Nar Shaddaa and Dantooine.

When she traveled to Dantooine, she met with Terena Adare, who was the Khoonda outpost's administrator. Adare granted Surik permission to search for Vrook Lamar in the Jedi Enclave's ruins. Surik met a scientist and historian named Mical, who was Surik's prospective Padawan before she left to fight in the Mandalorian Wars; he joined her crew and she eventually re-trained him as a Jedi Consular. After rescuing Lamar from being shipped to Nar Shaddaa by a band of mercenaries in the Crystal Cave, she was confronted by the mercenary leader Azkul, a veteran of the Jedi Civil War who was trained at Darth Malak's academy. Azkul asked Surik to join him and take over Khoonda; however, she refused, and he left, ordering the mercenaries accompanying him to kill her. After defeating them, she returned to Khoonda, bolstered its defenses and finalized the battle plans with the local militia leader, Zherron. She and Lamar fought in the ensuing battle, killing Azkul and his mercenaries. Having successfully defending Khoonda, she spoke with Lamar, and convinced him to meet with the other Jedi Masters she would find at the Academy.

Surik eventually received a message from the Mandalorian Kelborn, telling her that he had received a message from Kavar. She traveled to Dxun, where Kelborn told her that Vaklu met with the Council of Lords, and had them declare Queen Talia, who was his cousin, guilty of treason. Kreia sensed something stirring on Dxun, and asked Kelborn whether or not they picked up anything on their sensors. Kelborn confirmed that they had, and Surik sent three members of her crew to deal with the Sith forces at the tomb of the ancient Sith Lord Freedon Nadd. She then traveled with Kreia and one other crew member in a Basilisk war droid provided by Mandalore.

After Surik and her companions landed in Iziz, they made their way to the Royal Palace, assisting Captain Bostuco in defeating Vaklu's exterior forces. When she made her way into the palace, Tobin locked the door that led to the Queen's throne room; after overriding the security codes, she killed the drexl larva that Tobin and the Sith forces used to breach the throne room. She then assisted Talia's forces in fighting Vaklu's soldiers, killing all but four. After Vaklu ordered the four remaining troops to kill Talia, Kavar and Surik intervened, killing them and defeating Vaklu. Kreia then tried to convince her to have Talia execute Vaklu, who was unarmed at the time, claiming he was too dangerous to be left alive. Surik, while respecting her counsel, said that the decision was the queen's to make, not hers. Talia then ordered her troops to execute Vaklu, ending the Onderon Civil War. After the battle, Surik spoke with Kavar, who said he would meet with her and the Council on Dantooine.

Surik went in search of the Jedi Master Lonna Vash on the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban. After Kreia telepathically guided her through the Valley of the Dark Lords, she entered the abandoned Sith Academy and found that Darth Sion had killed Vash no more than an hour after they landed. Before Surik and her companions escaped the Academy, they were confronted by Sion, who told her that he studied and "immersed" himself in her, and that he knew of the paths she walked in exile. He said that he knew her teacher, Kreia, and of the fires that raged on Dxun while the Republic died around her. Sion further stated that she knew of war and battle, and said that he knew of Malachor. Sion said that Surik knew what it meant to be broken, and warned her that Kreia would destroy her as she had destroyed him and said that he could end her suffering at Kreia's hands before it began. With these words, Surik and her companions fought the Lord of Pain, striking him down multiple times. However, the Dark Lord would recover from the fatal injuries and keep fighting. Through the Force, Kreia informed Surik that Sion was not a beast of flesh and blood, and that it was not a battle that could be won. She told her that while there would be another opportunity, now was not the right time&mdash;not while Korriban ran through Sion. Surik thanked Kreia for the information, and she and her companions fled the Sith Academy.

While exploring the shyrack cave near the Sith Academy, she found the hidden tomb of the Sith Lord Ludo Kressh. When she went inside, Surik was forced to confront many of her own personality traits as well as many of her past choices and regrets. This took the form of a series of visions, during which she witnessed a twisted version of when she was recruited by Malak, a recollection of her actions during the second battle of Dxun, an illusionary confrontation between Kreia and various members of her party, and finally a silent apparition of Darth Revan, with whom she did battle. During these sequences much of her character was revealed, determined by her choices.

After locating and conversing with all of the remaining Jedi Masters, Surik returned to Dantooine to find the rebuilt Jedi Enclave. There, Masters Lamar, Kavar, and Ell had formed a Council in which they would decide her fate. The Masters concluded that, through her actions at Malachor V, she had become a wound in the Force. They stated that she carried the deaths of all who died in the battle within her, and that she regained her connection to the Force by feeding on death and leeching the life energy of her companions. According to the Masters, the Sith had learned their ability to feed on the Force from her, and thus she was a threat to all living beings, and possibly the Force itself, and in time she might possess the same magnitude of power like Darth Nihilus and ultimately consume the galaxy. They deemed it necessary that she be stripped of the Force with or without her consent; she submitted to their sentence. Having re-established her previous sentence of exile, they attempted to strip her of the Force, but before they could finish, Kreia stormed into the meeting to save Surik at the last moment. Surik, still under her stasis established by the reconvened Jedi Council, was left helpless and could not defend them as Kreia, who revealed her true identity as Sith Lord Darth Traya, used the Force to drain the Jedi Masters of their powers, putting them through the same suffering Surik had felt on Malachor V. This left them not only dead, but void of the Force.

Against the Sith Triumvirate
"It is said that the Force has a will, it has a destiny for us all. I wield it, but it uses us all, and that is abhorrent to me. Because I hate the Force. I hate that it seems to have a will, that it would control us to achieve some measure of balance, when countless lives are lost. But in you&hellip; I see the potential to see the Force die, to turn away from its will. And that is what pleases me. You are beautiful to me, exile. A dead spot in the Force, an emptiness in which its will might be denied."

- Darth Traya, to Meetra Surik

After Traya left, Surik finally regained her strength and departed for Telos IV to find and confront her. There, she found Brianna defeated at the hands of a corrupted Atris. In order to save Brianna, Surik was thus forced to confront Atris, who had fallen to the dark side. After she defeated her, Surik persuaded Atris to forgive her and helped Atris see the folly of her beliefs. Atris then told Surik that Traya had fled to Malachor V to wait for her there for a final confrontation, and confirmed her identity as one of the Lords of the Sith, one of those that had murdered the Jedi. After the duel, Brianna pledged her allegiance to Surik, renouncing her title of Last of the Handmaidens, and embracing her true name. Surik then left Atris in the Academy until her role in nearly destroying the Jedi could be judged by Surik's apprentice Mical and the new Jedi Council. Shortly thereafter, Surik participated in the Battle of Telos IV. and faced Darth Nihilus aboard his flagship Ravager to keep him from destroying Telos, which he was doing to fuel his hunger for the Force. With the assistance of Nihilus' former Sith apprentice, Visas Marr, and Mandalore the Preserver, Surik vanquished the Sith Lord.

After crashing on the surface of Malachor V, Surik proceeded to the Trayus Academy, where she demonstrated her strength with the Force and her skill in lightsaber combat against hordes of Sith Assassins, Lords, and Marauders before confronting Darth Sion himself. After persuading Sion to let go of his hatred, which caused him to finally succumb to his numerous injuries and die, she confronted and tried to redeem Traya. But Traya would not have it; though she was warmed by the thought that her former pupil would still care enough to try and "save" her from the dark side. She vowed that this confrontation could only end in death, and that if Surik would not fight her, she would break her as she did Sion. After a fierce but short battle, Surik severed Traya's remaining hand, as well as their Force bond in a single stroke. Traya hissed at Surik to finish her, but even after all the evil things Traya had done to her, the Jedi Order, and the galaxy, she chose the path of the Jedi and spared the wounded Sith Lord.

Rather than accept mercy, Traya became enraged and continued to battle by animating three lightsabers to do battle for her with the Force, until Surik had no choice but to strike her down and finish her once and for all. Before she died, Traya told Surik that she was greater than any she had ever trained. In her final moments, Traya gave Surik information about Revan's location in the Unknown Regions and about the future fates of Surik's allies, the planets they had visited, and the future of the Republic. Shortly after Traya's death, Bao-Dur's remote reactivated the Mass Shadow Generator in order to completely destroy the planet. The crew of the badly damaged Ebon Hawk retrieved Surik and escaped the planet. Surik returned to Dantooine to complete her training as a Jedi, then she ventured into the Unknown Regions in search of Revan, and was never seen again. She left her apprentices behind to resurrect the fallen Jedi Order.

Personality and traits
Throughout her life, Surik formed bonds with her comrades, even those who were supposedly her superiors or lesser in rank. It was said that during her training, many fellow Padawans were quick to do whatever she did, and that others disliked her intensely. She was regarded as a natural leader and a quick learner as well as generous and kind, though beyond this the personality of her early life is largely unknown. In the wake of the Mandalorian Wars, Surik returned to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to answer for her actions. She was fully aware of what she had done, and tried one last time to convince the Jedi Council of the rightness of her&mdash;and by extension Revan and Malak's&mdash;actions. Despite her conviction and understanding of the consequences, she was exiled; in defiance, she stabbed her lightsaber into the center stone of the Council chambers when asked to surrender it. After her departure, her former Master Kavar mentioned that there was much defiance in her.

Following the exile's path, she forsook the company of others, preferring to wander about the Outer Rim in solitude. The wars had left many scars on her, both physical and mental, and she was left with a feeling of regret for what she had done and what she had been asked to do. During her exile, when she heard of the war started by Revan, she wondered if she could have been so blind or if the galaxy was so truly incomprehensible. She then retreated further into herself, forsaking all Jedi principles excluding one: no attachments. She disliked having to speak about the war, even after returning to the Republic and traveling amongst friends. She was even uncomfortable discussing the war and its end with Bao-Dur, her old friend from the war. Her wanderings served to maintain the discipline she had built up during her years of training and suffering the hardships of war.

Starting with her meeting of Kreia in the Peragus facility, Surik began once more to form bonds with people she met during her travels, people with whom she had an interest in helping to keep alive so that they, in turn, could protect her. Eventually she began to realize the leadership role she was destined for, embracing it in order to teach those Force-sensitives in her company to become the foundation of the new Jedi Order. Also during this Surik saw it as her duty to help stabilize the Republic in any way possible, reflecting her old sense of compassion and generosity that had initially driven her to war. Because of her experiences in the Mandalorian Wars, she also understood the nature of war and battle and the hard choices that had to be made when conflict was inevitable.

Equipment
Surik dressed in simple Jedi robes, and possessed a blaster pistol, an armband, and a self-built lightsaber containing a cyan crystal, like the one she used during the Mandalorian Wars. Since exiles were not allowed to keep their lightsabers, Surik's was taken by Atris after the trial, but even with all the Jedi enclaves destroyed, she was able to find the necessary parts to build a new one. Bao-Dur, the Zabrak tech specialist who served under Surik during the Mandalorian Wars, aided in its construction, having learned the subtleties in the time he spent around Jedi. The blade found an excellent focusing crystal when Surik visited the Crystal Cave on Dantooine, where she harvested a crystal with very rare properties. The crystal responded to her, drawing on Force energy which radiated from her body and strengthening her in turn, in the way of a Force bond. The bond was such that the crystal matured as Meetra's strength in the Force grew, and it would respond to her alone, making the blade unusable by anyone else. Kreia would help Surik tune the crystal periodically so that it would best reflect her current self.

Powers and abilities
"You are a cipher, forming bonds, leeching the life of others, siphoning their will and dominating them. [&hellip;] You are a breach that must be closed. You transmit your pain, your suffering through the Force. Within you we see something worse than the teachings of the Sith. What you carry may mean the death of the Force&hellip; and the death of the Jedi."

- Vrook Lamar

Meetra Surik, at first, was a Force user of average ability, yet she was a natural leader. At a young age she demonstrated an unusual ability to influence others, and the Jedi Masters believed that she could form bonds through the Force easily to those around her, an ability she was not consciously aware of. After reconnecting with the Force, this ability became stronger. Simply by observing another in action, Surik could instantly learn Force techniques and lightsaber forms that would take a Jedi Master years to perfect. It was believed by Masters Zez-Kai Ell, Kavar, and Vrook Lamar that this was because of the wound in the Force that surrounded her, which allowed her&mdash;like Darth Nihilus&mdash;to feed on the death of other life forms to sustain her Force powers. This wound was caused by the Battle of Malachor V, and was what originally blocked her connection to the Force. It was also because of the nature of such wounds to feed on death that Surik began to regain her Force connection on Peragus II, after all the personnel were killed by HK-50's machinations. When Surik traveled the galaxy, killing hundreds in her search for the Masters, she unconsciously fed on all that death, fuelling her powers. It was this that caused the Masters such fear&mdash;both at her trial and after she had united them on Dantooine&mdash;as they thought her condition to be not only a threat to the Jedi and the Force, but a threat to life itself.

Through her informal apprenticeship to Kreia, Surik was able to learn a number of rare and advanced Jedi techniques, including Breath control and Beast trick. Kreia also taught Surik a powerful form of mind reading, where one could read the innermost thoughts of another. Kreia was very impressed with the speed in which she learned this power. She said that most Jedi Masters studied many years to learn the technique. Surik was also proficient in other Force powers, including Force valor, Force resistance, Force whirlwind, and Mind trick. She also learned many techniques from her companions: Atton Rand taught her to shield her thoughts, Brianna taught her Battle Precognition, Mical taught her an advanced form of meditation, and Visas Marr taught her how to see through the Force. She also learned Moving Meditation while trying to improve the functionality of her utility droid T3-M4. She learned the light-sided Force technique known as Force Enlightenment, after nearly being severed from the Force by the reconvened Jedi Council, and after Kreia, who had revealed herself as Darth Traya, betrayed Surik by murdering the Masters.

Surik defeated a number of high-profile adversaries, including Azkul, Vaklu, Atris, and the Sith Lords Darth Sion, Darth Traya, and Darth Nihilus. She was skilled in the art of lightsaber combat, utilizing the lightsaber forms Shii-Cho, Makashi, and Soresu, and was known to have used at least one advanced Force technique, known as Force Channel. She was also proficient in many forms of hand-to-hand and melee combat. At the Telosian Jedi Academy, Surik defeated five of the six Handmaiden sisters in hand-to-hand combat. On Dxun, Surik defeated the two champions of the Mandalorians' battle circle, Kelborn and Bralor, becoming the champion of the battle circle and earning the champions' rights to criticize or praise any Mandalorian who sparred in the battle circle. Mandalore the Preserver told Surik, with respect, that even with all their martial training, battles and ethics, even the greatest of his Mandalorian warriors were no match for her. She also became one of the few Jedi capable of using Dun Möch, especially in a duel against Darth Sion who could not be defeated by normal means. Surik eventually convinced Sion to let go of the Force and to finally allow himself to leave his life of pain and die. Surik remains the only known light-sided Jedi that used the technique to its greatest extent (most Jedi that used the technique employed an inverse variant, or in limited applications only).

Surik was also a very skilled tactician. She served during the Mandalorian Wars and had, by war's end, risen to become Revan's most trusted general besides Malak himself, and commanded about a third of the Republic fleet during the Mandalorian Wars. She is known to have taken part in both the second battle of Dxun and of Malachor V, both of which were victorious. She also proved her tactical brilliance, as well as her natural talents of leadership, after her return from exile, during the battle of Khoonda. On Dantooine a war had broken out between Khoonda and the forces of the mercenary Azkul. Both Khoonda and Azkul wanted Surik on their side, but she decided to help Khoonda. Before the arrival of Azkul's men to the battlefield, Surik bolstered Khoonda's defenses by persuading several civilians to join the Khoonda militia, healing those of the militia who were injured, planting more mines in the surrounding fields, and repairing damaged gun turrets and medical and combat droids. Within a matter of mere hours, she had turned a disorganized mess into a powerful army, able to defeat the larger forces of Azkul.

Surik was fluent in droidspeak, having worked alongside many utility droids during the Mandalorian Wars. She could also speak and comprehend Basic, Huttese, Mando'a, and Tchuukthese without the aid of a translator. She was also an accomplished swoop racer, winning sector championships on the Telos Citadel Station, Nar Shaddaa, and Onderon, and was also proficient at playing pazaak, a popular card game in which the goal was to reach 20 without going over.

The ramifications of Surik's actions were still being felt throughout the galaxy nearly 4,000 years after the defeat of Darth Traya and the Sith Triumvirate. The Jedi she trained would go on to resurrect the all-but-decimated Jedi Order. Furthermore, the actions she took on Dantooine, Onderon, and Telos would ensure the solidification of a Republic that, because of the Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War, had been teetering on the edge of collapse, prolonging its existence for several thousand more years.

Revan
Surik joined Revan's faction of Jedi that went to fight the Mandalorians during the Mandalorian wars. During the wars, Surik became one of Revan's most trusted generals, second only to Malak himself. On her part, Surik came to see Revan as her mentor and was completely loyal to him, and even loved him like a father (never romantically). Surik would later credit Revan's training of her that allowed her to become the great Jedi she was.

After defeating the Sith Triumvirate, Surik departed known space with T3 in order to find Revan, eventually managing to free him from captivity with the help of Lord Scourge. She then joined him in an attempt to assassinate the Sith Emperor, who planned to consume all life in the galaxy to keep himself alive. During the battle, Surik chose to save Revan's life when she had a chance to strike the Emperor down. Although Surik died during the battle by Scourge's hand (he'd seen a vision that showed him another Jedi was destined to defeat the Emperor), she refused to completely become one with the force. Instead, she allowed her spirit to stay with Revan, who had been imprisoned, and help him resist the emperor's powers for 300 years.

Atton Rand
"Did he love me?''" "''He is a fool, and that should answer all your questions. He has nothing to offer one such as you&mdash;and even a fool such as Atton is not so ignorant of that fact."

- Meetra Surik and Darth Traya

Atton Rand met Surik when she first walked into his holding cell area in nothing but her undergarments, he was instantly attracted to her. After she helped him escape and communicated with the utility droid, T3-M4, Rand commented that it must have been tough considering how she could not have a family or husband. After being blackmailed by Kreia at the Telosian Jedi Academy, Rand stuck around Surik during her mission to find the lost Jedi Masters. He even went so far as to ask one of Surik's other companions, Bao-Dur, if he had any chance with Surik. Bao-Dur didn't make a comment at the request and continued his mechanical work on the ship.

Things got more complicated for Rand when the crew landed on Dantooine. Surik found her prospective Padawan from years before, Mical. Their relationship, though completely friendly, enraged Rand with jealousy, causing him to lash out at Mical whenever he simply offered to help. When the bounty hunter and scout Mira joined the crew of the Ebon Hawk, she first noticed Rand's close attention of Surik and Mical, and came close to figuring out his secret. After Surik met a pair of Twi'leks on Nar Shaddaa who claimed that Rand was not really who he said he was, he eventually confessed to Surik that he was shown the Force by a Jedi with whom he fell in love, but then he killed her for crawling inside his head. With that, Surik trained Rand as a Jedi.

Mical
"He cannot help but love you, in his way. It is a pure, ideal love he holds, yet somehow, it never dulls in your presence or through your actions."

- Darth Traya

Mical knew Surik when she was first part of the Jedi Order, before the Mandalorian Wars. As a student in the Jedi Order who needed a Master, Mical wanted Surik to be his Master above all else. However, when Surik left to aid the Republic by fighting the Mandalorians, Mical was left without a mentor and thus left the order to work with the Republic as historian and scientist. While investigating the ruins on Dantooine, ten years after the Mandalorian War, he met Surik again. Though at first he denied knowing her, he confessed that Surik did know him from long ago. Surik regretted causing such a rift in Mical's future and so trained him as Jedi.

While traveling with Surik, Mical found himself at odds with the pilot Atton Rand. Both seemingly desired Surik, although Mical's love was more of admiration of her strength and leadership, which was heightened by her beauty. When Surik attempted to isolate herself after meeting with the three Masters on Dantooine and learning the truth about her powers, Mical sought her out and reassured her, saying that he did not agree with the Council, and that he and the others were there by their own choice.

Darth Sion
"I hate you because you crawl within my head as she does, but your presence holds no thoughts, no teachings, you are just&hellip; there, unspoken. I hate you because you are beautiful to me. And in that weakness lies death."

- Darth Sion

After stalking Surik for so long, the Lord of Pain grew attached to her, practically falling in love, although he knew that this just weakened him. When Surik came to Korriban in search of Master Lonna Vash, Sion had his deadly assassins stalk her through the Korriban Academy. However, after Sion confronted her himself, he called off his assassins and allowed her to escape.

Later, while in the Trayus Academy on Malachor V, Sion confronted Surik again and told her of his love for her, though he could not describe it exactly, knowing that she must fall if he was to remain strong. Sion gave Surik two choices; to either return to the surface of Malachor and let the planet take her life, or he would kill her himself, as either death would be far more merciful than what Traya had in store for her should she fail. However, neither Sion nor Surik were willing to back down, and they battled. After being struck down several times Surik finally convinced him that his struggle was futile, and he surrendered his life. His last words were to tell her that she was Traya's ultimate weakness, just as she had been his.

Behind the scenes
Meetra Surik was created by Obsidian Entertainment as the primary protagonist in the 2005 personal computer and Xbox video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. When the game was released at that time, the character was only known as the Jedi Exile and was given no name, because the player is prompted to create one, or select a randomly generated identity at the start of the game. Because of this, in game characters only refer to her as "the exile." Although the character's canon allegiance has not been stated precisely, she is called a "heroine" in The New Essential Guide to Droids. This is backed up by the fact that, as of the release of The Sith Lords, every canon game ending has been the light side version. The Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide has confirmed that the light-side ending is indeed the canonical one.

Surik's Jedi class is as of yet unknown. However, after she helped Queen Talia and the Onderon Royalists defeat General Vaklu and his traitorous forces, Kavar told Surik that he tried to convince her to become a Jedi Guardian like he was, saying that they could have used someone like her. Surik can learn both the Ataru and Shien lightsaber forms regardless of whether or not she was a Jedi Guardian or Jedi Sentinel, or their corresponding classes, the Jedi Weapon Master and Jedi Watchman, respectively. However, if she was a Jedi Sentinel or Watchman, she would learn the Niman discipline from one of the Masters. If she was a Jedi Guardian or Weapon Master, she would learn the Juyo discipline instead.

According to the official strategy guide for The Sith Lords, should Surik have trained Bao-Dur in the ways of a Jedi Guardian, she would have been able to train him in the use of advanced lightsaber forms and techniques. This is cut content, and never made it in the final pressing of the game.

Before Surik fights Vaklu in the Royal Palace on Onderon, she has the option of telling him, "You'll find that I'm full of surprises". This mirrors what Luke Skywalker said to Darth Vader during their duel in The Empire Strikes Back.

Gender
"I was just wondering if you've been called upon to enter a canon ending to Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords into the holocron.''" "''No. We've avoided anything concrete about the canon ending. The only reason why we decided on a canon gender for the Revan and the exile was out of editorial necessity."

- Poster Son Of Skywalker15 and Leland Chee



At the beginning of the game, the player may customize Surik's Jedi class, appearance, and name. The player may also choose to play a male or female character. The character's gender affects the makeup of his or her party, with the Echani Handmaiden Brianna joining the party rather than Mical the Disciple if the player chooses the male gender. It also affects the optional romantic subplots, with the male player character able to pursue a relationship with Brianna or Visas Marr. Hints of a prior relationship between a male Exile and Atris also appear in the dialogue. The rest of the storyline is unchanged.

While players are free to choose to be male or female, the description of Surik as a "heroine" in The New Essential Guide to Droids has established Surik as female in the paragraphs quoted below:

"G0-T0 soon became mixed up with an exiled Jedi Knight and her mission to destroy the Sith Lords."

- From the entry on the G0-T0 droid, p. 25

"Five standard years later, T3-M4 appeared aboard the abandoned freighter Ebon Hawk, where he fell into the company of the heroine known only as the Jedi Exile."

- From the entry on the T3 droid, p. 37

"Five years after the Star Forge incident, HK-47 teamed up with the heroine known as the Jedi Exile to battle a trio of Sith Lords."

- From the entry on the HK assassin droid, p. 107

This means all further canonical printed references to the character will describe the Exile as female.

As of the release of the novel Revan, her name was determined as Meetra Surik.

Alternative storyline
Following the tradition of the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the aforementioned light side story is canonical. According to Leland Chee as of February 21, 2006, an official decision on this had not yet been reached. However, The New Essential Guide to Droids clearly defines Surik as a "heroine" in the entries on HK-47, G0-T0, and T3-M4. The book also says that Malachor V was destroyed, which only happens in the light side story.

The alternate dark-side storyline differs in the fates of the planets that Surik visits; Onderon is usurped by Vaklu, Dantooine is captured by Azkul and his mercenaries, Telos becomes a world of machines due to its Czerka takeover, and Malachor V remains intact. The dark-sided Wookiee scout Hanharr joins the player's party instead of Mira. Additionally, Surik kills the Jedi Masters herself upon visiting each planet, rather than having them converge on Dantooine. She instead speaks with Kreia alone at the rebuilt Dantooine Jedi Academy, before Kreia strikes her down and goes to Malachor V. When Surik confronts Atris after being betrayed by Darth Traya, she kills the fallen Jedi Master upon defeating her. After defeating Darth Traya at the Trayus Core on Malachor V, Traya's prediction of Surik's companions also change, due to her falling to the dark side.

Visas Marr
"The blinded one shall return to her homeworld, and as she looked upon you, she shall look upon the surface of that world, and perhaps at last see what she was meant to see&hellip; I do know that you must leave her behind. Where you are destined, you must not take anyone you love."

- Darth Traya

While Visas Marr and Surik became close as friends and allies during their journey, Marr developed feelings for, and fell in love with Surik if the player was male. From the moment Marr sensed Surik across space, she recognized that there was someone in the universe who felt the same spiritual emptiness that she felt, someone who had suffered and lost everything they had ever loved, just as she had. But it wasn't until she had challenged Surik, and was spared, that she came into his service.

After being shown mercy, she pledged her life to serve him without hesitation, so that she might come to understand how he could go on when he carried so much pain within him. She made it her personal mission to help him and protect him until he would be ready to fight her master, Darth Nihilus. This fervent loyalty came at much to the disapproval of Kreia, and Brianna the Handmaiden. A rivalry for Surik's affections boiled over at one point, when Brianna confronted Marr in her quarters on the Ebon Hawk. Brianna was suspicious of her Sith nature, and perhaps even a little jealous that Surik had welcomed her into their group without hesitation, and was spending time with her as well. Marr quelled her outrage by confessing that she wished only to serve and protect him, just as Brianna did, and that she could "see" from her movements that she was growing to care for him. Marr then hinted at her own feelings when, before Brianna left, she asked her to describe what Surik looked like. With her species lacking eyes and her Force vision somewhat damaged in unexplained ways, she wanted to know more about him.

For the most part Marr kept these feelings to herself, but when Brianna left the group to take Kreia before Atris, she realized that soon they would be forced to confront her old Master, and she suddenly began to fear losing him. She came to Surik and opened her heart to him, begging him to stay with her and not fight. Surik told her that he couldn't turn away from this battle, but before they arrived at Telos they shared an intimate moment, using their shared Force Vision to "see" each other. Eventually Marr was left behind by Surik, as he traveled into the Unknown Regions he could not take anyone he cared for with him. However the love she had felt finally helped her to heal her spirit, and make peace with her past. She vowed that she would always wait for him to return, and that if he would not, she would continue loving him for the rest of her life.

Brianna
"I have heard that Jedi sometimes renounce the code by loving another, and fall from the Order. And there are others who keep such unions secret.''" "''I think the term is, 'pulling a Bindo.'"

- Brianna and the Jedi Exile

In the canon storyline for The Sith Lords, the only time Surik would meet Brianna was at the Telosian Jedi Academy after speaking to Atris. However, in the non-canon male storyline in which Surik is a male, Brianna the Handmaiden would join Surik's party after departing the Jedi Academy. Before the Ebon Hawk departed from the hidden Jedi enclave on Telos, Jedi Master Atris privately ordered Brianna to sneak aboard the ship, supposedly to assist Surik in finding and uniting the lost Jedi against the hidden Sith threat. When her sisters discover her missing, Atris lied and told them that Brianna had voluntarily left with Surik for reasons that weren't known to her, causing the Handmaidens to believe she had broken her oath. After revealing she had stowed away onboard the ship, Surik accepted her onboard for the journey, much to the annoyance of Kreia and Rand.

Through talking, sparring, and witnessing many acts of his good nature, Brianna began to question if Atris had been wrong in her judgment of Surik. She sought to understand him, in hopes that she might understand the choices her mother and father had made, and why she had started having doubts about the path she had chosen. After three duels with Surik, Brianna declined to continue their training, explaining that repeated duels had a very significant meaning in Echani culture, and she did not want to break her vow to Atris by allowing their friendship from becoming anything more. This changed however, when Surik told her that because her mother had been the Jedi Master Arren Kae, that she too had the potential to become a Jedi. Faced with this new information, Brianna made the difficult choice of forsaking her oaths like her parents had done before her, and pledged herself to Surik's teachings, becoming a Jedi Guardian. There was no question that this bond made them grow closer, and at times Brianna found herself jealous of Visas Marr, who was also falling for him.

Her feelings towards Surik and her strong passions worked against her in the end; when tricked into believing that Surik had been killed by Kreia, she was tricked into bringing her before Atris to be punished. However Atris had already been corrupted by the dark side, and now seething with jealousy she attacked Brianna, nearly killing her with several attacks of Force Lightning, until Surrik arrived and saved her. With her oaths to Atris and her sisters no longer valid, she re-pledged herself to Surik instead, vowing to stay by his side for as long as he would need her. Their alliance would be short lived; when Surik left for the unknown regions he had to leave everyone he cared about behind him, as Revan had done before him. Though it would seem they were destined never to meet again, she would eventually take up the role of Jedi Chronicler and would teach many Padawans about the Jedi who had given up the Force, and became better for it.

Atris
"She loved you, you know, as one loves a champion. You were all that she could not be."

- Darth Traya

If Surik was male, it was strongly implied that Atris held feelings for him prior to his departure for the Mandalorian Wars&mdash;and even after his exile. It seemed that having someone she cared about turn away from the path of the Jedi shook her deeply, and contributed to her fall to the dark side. After Brianna defeated her sisters, Atris confronted and tortured her with Force lightning, out of jealousy.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords