Morrigan Corde

Nyna Calixte (Pronounced Nine-uh Kalix-tay) was a Human female who was a Moff on the Moff High Council of the new Galactic Empire around 137 ABY. Prior to the Sith-Imperial War, Calixte was using the persona of Morrigan Corde, an Imperial Intelligence agent. While out in the field, she had a chance meeting with Kol Skywalker, a member of the Jedi Council. The pair fell in love, married and had a son, Cade. However, claiming that the Empire recalled her back into service, Calixte left her new family when Cade was still a toddler. Shortly afterward, she abandoned her Corde persona for approximately two decades.

Back in Imperial service under her own name, Calixte became the Director of Imperial Intelligence, and was later appointed a Moff. She entered into a marriage with fellow Moff Rulf Yage, and they had a daughter, Gunn. However, the marriage would prove to be short lived, and Calixte entered into an affair with another Moff, the more powerful Morlish Veed. When the Sith approached the Empire in 128 ABY offering to help in the Empire's war against the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, they did so through Calixte. She manipulated the other Moffs into accepting the Sith's offer, then plotted with Veed to place him on the Imperial throne. However, her plan was foiled when Darth Krayt claimed the throne for himself. In 137 ABY, she "reactivated" her Morrigan Corde persona to help keep Cade Skywalker from being turned to the dark side of the Force by the Sith.

Early life
Prior to the Sith-Imperial War, Calixte used the name Morrigan Corde and was employed as an Imperial Intelligence agent. While out in the field, she met and fell in love with Kol Skywalker, a member of the Jedi Council. After being paired together on a mission, the pair secretly married, with Kol's brother Nat being one of the very few people that knew about the marriage. Kol and Calixte had a son, Cade, and Calixte spent around two years away from her Imperial Intelligence job to raise him. During this time, Imperial Intelligence had considered Calixte as missing in action, and she eventually felt trapped in her new role as the non-Force sensitive mother to a Skywalker child. Calixte believed that she had a different path to follow than that of Kol and the Jedi, and she felt that by her continuing her military career, she was doing the right thing. In the face of objections from Kol, Calixte decided that leaving her husband and young son was what was required of her. Shortly after returning to Imperial Intelligence in 117 ABY, "Morrigan" retired from the field, and Calixte did not use the persona again until 137 ABY.

As Nyna Calixte, she rose rapidly through the ranks of Imperial Intelligence, eventually becoming the head of the department. At some point she was also appointed to the position of Moff, although some of her colleagues on the Council of Moffs insinuated that she had not earned the honor through merit alone. Also around this time, she married and later divorced her fellow Moff Rulf Yage, and together they had a daughter, Gunn. Nyna had very little to do with Gunn's upbringing, and Gunn despised her mother for leaving her and her father and entering into an affair with Morlish Veed, an affair that Calixte hoped would benefit her politically. Her ex-husband, Kol, was aware of her identity switch, and the two remained on friendly terms with each other.

The Sith-Imperial War
"Your plots, your betrayals, your desire for control&mdash;had you Force ability, you might have made a good Sith&mdash;under Darth Sidious."

- Darth Maladi to Nyna Calixte



When the One Sith first approached the Empire in an effort to aid them in their war against the Galactic Alliance, they did so through her. The Sith had engineered the war in an attempt to destabilize the galaxy, after sabotaging the Ossus Project and using the lingering hatred many still felt against the Yuuzhan Vong for their invasion over one hundred years ago to shift the blame. The Empire declared war against both the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi, and when the Sith approached the Empire with their help, Calixte manipulated the other Moffs into allying with the Sith behind Emperor Roan Fel's back. Appealing to the Moffs' greed for power, she then secured their cooperation and received the approval of the Moffs to join the war on their side. In 130 ABY, Fel discovered the extent of the Sith conspiracy, and realized that Calixte was behind it. After angrily confronting her and almost killing her with his lightsaber, he backed down only when he received a communication from Morlish Veed that the Galactic Alliance had surrendered. Shortly after accepting the surrender of the Galactic Alliance, Roan Fel stated that he wanted to send a diplomatic mission to the Jedi on Ossus, with the intent of persuading them to join the Empire. When Rulf Yage and Darth Nihl instead led an attack on the Jedi, Calixte expressed her disapproval to Darth Maladi, stating that the attack had gone off without the approval or knowledge of both the Emperor and the other Moffs.

Confident that the Jedi massacre would provide a cause to depose Fel as Emperor, Calixte and Veed celebrated what they thought was Veed's imminent promotion at his apartment. However, Calixte was suspicious of the Sith's motives, although she did not share these suspicions with Veed. Calixte then took it upon herself to sneak over to Roan Fel's quarters and informed him that it would be in his best interest to flee. When Fel questioned why she was helping him, she informed him that she knew that Darth Krayt was going to install himself as Emperor, and that Fel's survival was in the interests of both her and Fel. Fel reluctantly agreed and sent a double in his place, secretly making his escape with Imperial Knight Antares Draco at his side.

Once Darth Krayt had installed himself on the throne after killing Roan Fel's double, he sent Maladi to Calixte's quarters to get the Moff to explain herself, since she had advised the Sith that Fel would be present. Calixte said that the Sith underestimated Fel, and that they needed both her and Veed to keep the other Moffs united. Maladi relented, but stated that although Calixte could keep Imperial Intelligence largely unchanged, she now had to report to Maladi.

The search for her son
"I'm Morrigan Corde. Imperial agent. Like you, I've been assigned to find Skywalker. If you hadn't tried to kill me before, I could have told you that and saved us both the time and trouble."

- Morrigan Corde, to Jor Torlin



In 137 ABY, she attended the interrogation of the captured Jedi Hosk Trey'lis in Darth Maladi's laboratory. After witnessing Maladi torturing the Jedi in order to get information on a bounty hunter named Cade, Calixte received orders from Maladi to locate the bounty hunter. Calixte queried Maladi on the Sith's interests in locating and capturing Cade. However, Maladi, unaware that Calixte was also Morrigan Corde, offered no answers other than it was Darth Krayt's order and should not be questioned. After Calixte pointed out that she needed all available info to do her job properly, Maladi offered up the fact that Cade was a Skywalker.

Armed with this piece of information, Calixte returned to her quarters and had a discussion with Veed regarding Cade's importance. They decided that they would try and get to him first, in order to use him as a pawn against the Sith. For this purpose, she "hired" Morrigan Corde, as she did not trust any of Maladi's agents. After viewing one of Calixte's security cam feeds from a gambling haven called the Wheel, they discovered that the Wheel was Cade's last known location.

In her guise as Morrigan Corde, she traveled to the Wheel and encountered Jor Torlin, an agent of Maladi's sent by Sith Intelligence. Calixte set up a brawl to test his mettle and helped him defeat his assailants. In repayment, Torlin turned on her, but not before she sprayed him with a knockout gas, rendering him unconscious. Calixte then proceeded to carry Torlin back to his ship, the Raider.

Reaching the ship, Calixte told the Wheel's security that Torlin was over served. Apparently satisfied with the explanation, they let the pair on board. Calixte then proceeded to tie the still-unconscious Torlin to a chair and familiarize herself with the ship and its weapons. When Torlin woke up, she berated him for trying to kill her, and then proceeded to threaten to kill him. After Torlin called her bluff, the pair reluctantly formed a partnership. They discussed possible locations that Skywalker might have gone, and since he was no longer on the Wheel, Calixte suggested they take care of some other business while they were there.



When Torlin expressed surprise that there was other business to take care of, Calixte again berated him for not seeing the bigger picture. She explained that there were two shuttles parked at the Wheel: one belonged to Admiral Gar Stazi of the Galactic Alliance, and the other was a ship that had defected to Roan Fel's faction of the Empire. After pointing out that Stazi and Mingo Bovark, Fel's emissary, were discussing an alliance, she suggested breaking up the negotiations, but to do it in a way that made it seem like both parties were going to blame the other. Torlin then proposed using several Command Override Limpet Droids on the Imperial vessel, and once they were attached, the pair overrode the commands of the Imperial shuttle from Torlin's ship and shot at the Galactic Alliance shuttle. The incident was a success: Stazi blamed Bovark for the incident, and the Imperials loyal to Fel were banned from ever setting foot on the Wheel. Once they had ended the potential alliance, Calixte and Torlin resumed their mission to find Cade Skywalker.

The pair traveled to Ossus, with Calixte saying it was more likely he was there instead of their other potential destination, Hapes. Upon reaching Ossus, Torlin decided that it was time to end their collaboration. When he tried to shoot Calixte, she released a nerve toxin from an ampule she had implanted in his body while he was under the effect of the gas on the Wheel, killing him. After watching a hologram of her and Kol, she decided to leave Cade alone, unable to bear the thought of seeing him again.

Rescuing Cade
"Everything I've gotten from my sources&hellip;from the other Moffs&hellip;suggests that Skywalker is on Coruscant. If the Sith have called off the chase, they must have him."

- Nyna Calixte, to Morlish Veed

Back in her Calixte persona, she contacted the Feeorin pirate Rav and arranged to capture Cade's friends Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn, in order to interrogate them regarding Cade's whereabouts. After Rav had turned the pair over to her, she used an interrogator droid on Blue and Syn when they refused to divulge anything about Cade. Realizing that she could not gain anything more from the duo, Calixte turned the pair over to the Sith.

Following this, Calixte was present at a gathering of the Moff Council where she was instructed by Maladi to call off the search for Cade Skywalker. Upon inquiring why, Maladi simply advised Calixte that it was not her concern anymore. After the meeting, Calixte eventually learned from Rulf Yage that Gunn was among those who spotted Cade's ship on Coruscant. Believing that her daughter might hold some key information about Skywalker, Calixte interrupted a private dinner between Gunn and Rulf. After receiving a cold welcome from both her daughter and former lover, Calixte questioned Gunn on what she had seen during the pursuit of Skywalker's ship&mdash;combining Gunn's testimony with what she already knew, Calixte was able to deduce that Cade was on Coruscant and had been captured by the Sith.

Realizing the importance of the information she had learned, Calixte shared this information with her current lover, Morlish Veed. Believing that he could use Skywalker as a pawn against the Sith, Veed promptly hired Morrigan Corde to remove Cade from the Sith Temple and bring him into Veed's custody. Preserving her alternate identity, Calixte, as Corde, snuck into Veed's room later that night and demanded two things: that he turn over to her the three dozen Yuuzhan Vong thud bugs that the Imperials recently confiscated from the criminal organization known as Black Sun, and to pull his Predator-class fighter off the Temple on her signal. After Veed made some unwanted sexual advances toward her, he agreed to her demands, thus giving Corde room to leave.



Following her encounter at Veed's apartment, Corde managed to locate Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn at Rik's Cantina, located in the undercity of Coruscant. Syn and Blue were freed from the Sith Temple by Cade, who promised to pledge himself to the Sith and their teachings in exchange for their freedom. At the moment Corde walked in, Blue and Syn were locked in an argument with rival smugglers Kee and Chak over the fate of Cade's ship, the Mynock, and its possible use in rescuing Cade from the Sith. Upon overhearing Blue exclaim to the other three smugglers that she wasn't leaving Coruscant until they rescued Cade, Corde interrupted the group of smugglers and insisted that she had a plan to rescue him from the Sith.

Managing to bribe the cantina's owner into silence, Corde presented her plan to the four smugglers present. During the course of the conversation, Corde advised them that Cade was her son&mdash;Syn, however, refused to believe her. Nevertheless, Chak was able to confirm that the holo she presented to the group, which displayed herself with Kol Skywalker and a young Cade, was in fact real. Upon this discovery, Corde received the grudging support from the four smugglers. With her plan to rescue Cade starting to take shape, Corde advised the group to fly to the coordinates she had specified and wait.

Back in her Calixte persona, she found out that Veed was going to deliver the thud bugs to Corde personally. However, Calixte accused Veed of being attracted to Corde, and she stated that she was going to make the delivery to Corde herself.

Later on, as Corde, she delivered the thud bugs to the Mynock and tasked Syn and Kee with modifying them, requesting that some be made to act as spy cameras. The rest were to act as "boom bugs", which were bugs with explosives attached to them. Once the pair had completed their task, Calixte disguised herself as a Sith, and managed to infiltrate the Sith Temple in order to plant the bugs in an effort to track Cade. Three weeks after the bugs were planted, one of the spy bugs located Corde's query.

Calixte tasked Syn with three specific jobs: first, he was to key a specific spy bug to follow Cade; second, Syn was to place another spy bug outside Krayt's chambers; lastly, he was to move all of the boom bugs near a hangar at the Sith Temple. The plan was to proceed once Cade was near a window or some other accessible spot; at that point, they would then attempt their rescue. When Cade was spotted to be on the move by one of Syn's spy bugs, Calixte ordered the rescue team to get into position. The spy bug in question had recorded Cade being captured and brought to Darth Krayt's chambers by Darth Talon, who suspected he was just pretending to follow the Sith teachings. After being confronted about his lack of loyalty to the Sith by Krayt, Cade then engaged Darth Talon, Darth Nihl, and eventually Darth Krayt himself, in lightsaber combat.

After Calixte ordered the Mynock to position itself near the window of Krayt's room at the Sith Temple, she ordered Syn to use the boom bugs to blow up the Sith hangar in order to create a diversion. Using a rocket pack to fly up to the window near Krayt's chambers, Calixte shot Darth Krayt in the back as he was dueling Cade Skywalker. Cade took this opportunity to escape, with Jariah Syn catching him as he jumped out the window. With Cade on board the Mynock, Calixte had a short conversation with him via a comlink, in which she told him that she was his mother and that she would not answer any questions he may have. She did, however, make one request of him: to run as far away as possible. Calixte proceeded to state that she had an alternate escape route, and used her rocket pack to fly away.



Aftermath
"Run."

- Nyna Calixte, viewing the old holo of herself with Kol and Cade Skywalker

Back at Calixte's apartment, Veed discussed with her the reports of Cade's escape from the Sith Temple and the Sith's anger because of it. During the conversation, Veed noticed the choker that Calixte wore in her Corde guise lying on a table and asked Calixte about it. Calixte replied that it was a "family heirloom," and took it from him. The pair then made plans to order in some food, but she insisted they do so later, and at his place. Veed then took his leave, and after Calixte got prepared, she activated the choker and viewed the Skywalker family holo that had emerged.

A turning tide
Krayt and several other Sith Lords later departed for Had Abbadon. After arriving, they were ambushed by a group of Jedi and Imperial Knights led by Cade Skywalker. The fight resulted in Krayt's death, but at the hands of Darth Wyyrlok, not the Jedi. When the Sith returned to Coruscant, Lord Wyyrlok announced Krayt had been placed in stasis on Korriban after suffering severe injuries and that Wyyrlok would rule the Empire as Regent. Calixte discussed the situation with Veed, and the two Moffs decided to uncover the truth concerning Krayt. While Veed was summoned to a meeting with Lord Wyyrlok, Calixte told him that she would be absent while trying to find a way to infiltrate Korriban, which had been declared off limits to all non-Sith.

In a plan to put her daughter's black ops training to the test, Calixte ordered Gunn Yage to travel to Tatooine to meet with Nieve Gromia, Moff of the Arkanis sector, in an effort to assist the Moff in dealing with the increased Black Sun activity in the area. Black Sun pirates had been stealing Imperial shipments in the sector for months, but lately Cade Skywalker and his crew began to interfere and take the cargo for themselves, upsetting a deal that was secretly struck between Lun Rask, Black Sun's Vigo in the Arkanis sector, and Gromia. Calixte informed her daughter that she would have Morrigan Corde as backup, and that Corde would meet up with her on Tatooine. However, when Gunn met with Moff Gromia, the latter was surprised to learn that Corde had reappeared after so many years. Upon viewing recent intelligence provided to her by Gromia, Yage identified the ship that had been preying on the shipments and named its captain. Gromia ordered Yage to infiltrate Mos Eisley and capture Cade, but in secret Gromia contacted Rask, whom she had been in league from the beginning, prompting him to send three assassins to hunt down both Yage and Cade Skywalker, with the intent that both would be dead by the time Calixte (as Corde) arrived on Tatooine.

Yage succeeded in capturing Cade. However, when Calixte arrived under the guise of Morrigan Corde, Yage informed her that she reported to Gromia first, per regulations. Calixte pointed out that the regulations did not apply to covert ops. She warned her daughter that there may be a leak on the Moff Council, who would kill Yage, but the younger woman replied that she had the situation under control.

Later that night, Calixte found Syn, who had been chased off by an angry Twi'lek for flirting with his wife for pretending to be a Jedi. She enlisted his help to track Cade and Gunn. However, their search was delayed by a sandstorm, forcing them to take cover in a cave. While Syn was willing to wait it out, Calixte pointed out the possibility that Cade might have been killed. Syn assured her that he and Cade had been through worse; he then asked if Gunn is as skilled as Corde; Calixte replied no and asked if Syn was implying that he wanted to join the Empire.

When the storm cleared, pair located Cade and Gunn at an abandoned moisture farm, where they were attacked by Black Sun assassins. Calixte engaged the Blood Carver Ku Vrat but he struck her to the ground. Before Vrat could kill Calixte, she fired a poison dart into his neck. Deciding that his foe should die along with himself, Vrat once again knocked Calixte to the ground. Before he could deliver the finishing blow, he was struck by Syn's Vong bugs, which killed him. Cade and Gunn then came with an unconscious Anzati named Nakia Yoru. Calixte chastises Gunn for not waiting; Gunn snaped that she took action to apprehend the fugitive. Calixte slapped her daughter across the face, stating that all evidence points to Gromia being the informer. She urged Gunn to search for further evidence of Gromia's guilt. Meanwhile, she, Cade and Syn took the Yorus' ship to find Rask. Calixte kept an eye on Nakia to make sure that she didn't escape. She also had time to talk with the son she left behind years ago. Cade expressed his dislike of Calixte's abandonment of Kol and himself. Calixte admitted that she had known of the Sith manipulation behind the war but didn't anticipate that they would attack Ossus during negotiations. She also admitted that she loved both Kol and Cade.

When the group arrived at Rask's base, they forced Nakia to dock the ship; Calixte told the Anzat that she had been injected with poison while in stasis and that Calixte would give her the antidote if she cooperated. When meeting with Rask, Cade force-choked him until he agreed to a deal that would ripe off the Vigos. However, Calixte shot Rask, causing Cade to become enraged. Skywalker held Calixte in a Force choke as she sputtered that Rask wouldn't have kept his end of the bargain and wouldn't have let Cade get off the station. Cade unleashed Force lightning and shouted that if Rask did, then he'd come back to get revenge. Cade then confessed that his anger is directed at Calixte's decision to let Kol die. Syn managed to calm Cade, who then told Calixte to find her own way back to the Empire while he took the Yorus' ship back to Tatooine. Afterward Nakia begged for Calixte for the antidote to the poison in her veins; Calixte complied, but the "antidote" was revealed to be the true poison.

Operation: Thunderstroke
"You're now a Sith tool, Morlish"

- Moff Calixte to Regent Veed



Nyna later learned that Veed had accepted Wyyrlok's offer to be made Regent of the Empire, though still under the authority of the Chagrian Sith Lord, which made him the public face of the Empire and the one to answer for any potential atrocity commited by the Sith.

At a meeting with the Moff Council, Nyna learned of the the implementation of Operation: Thunderstroke and that Veed's sources - Sith, not Calixte - had informed him of a spy loyal to the deposed Emperor Fel. At his office Calixte approached Veed and criticized him for accepting the title of Regent without consulting her. Veed then lashed out at a surprized Calixte, telling her that they were never equals, and that he was only using her until her usefulness ran out.

Though Veed ordered Nyna to remain on Coruscant, she nonetheless infiltrated the Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer War Hammer, disguised as an Imperial Navy officer. As the vessel prepared to make its way to Agamar to capture Roan Fel at a meeting with representatives of the Jedi Order, Nyna left the ship alongside a cargo drop on the Wayland, where she hadn't been to since before the Sith-Imperial War.

Personality and traits
"Listen to your father, child. It's always a mistake to get too close to people."

- Nyna Calixte, to her daughter, Gunn Yage



Nyna Calixte exhibited astute political acumen, and was seen by many as manipulative. Calixte was cold and calculating, with a ruthlessness that was matched only by her ambition. She was the one who manipulated the Moff Council into allying with the Sith, and was seen as the person behind Morlish Veed's political ambitions to become Emperor. However, knowing that Darth Krayt was going to assume the throne, she was also the person who warned Emperor Roan Fel about the coup in 130 ABY, thus betraying the Sith. She also displayed a lack of trust towards both the Sith, especially Darth Maladi, and her own lover, Morlish Veed. Calixte's former brother-in-law, Nat Skywalker, noted that she was very secretive about herself.

Calixte also refused to let anyone get close to her emotionally, and that extended to her relationship with her children. She had little to no part in her daughter Gunn's upbringing, with Gunn's father, Rulf, being her primary caregiver. For her part, Gunn despised her mother, even going so far as to call her a "nasty old rancor." Her relationship with her son Cade was practically non-existent, having left him and his father, Kol, when Cade was around two years old. However, when she found out that Cade had survived the Massacre at Ossus and was being sought after by the Sith, she reactivated her Morrigan Corde persona for the sole purpose of rescuing him. Because the sight of him would threaten to overtake her emotions, she refused to be near him both times she had located him. Cade, for his part, assumed his mother was long dead, and was shocked to discover otherwise.

By her own admission, Calixte had some success in shielding her thoughts from Force users. In her guise as Corde, she exhibited knowledge of hand-to-hand combat when she helped Jor Torlin defeat the thugs on the Wheel. Working as an intelligence agent, Calixte was multilingual, capable of understanding Bocce, Huttese, High Galactic, Gran, and Twi'leki, in addition to Basic.

Equipment
As Morrigan Corde, she had two distinguishing pieces of equipment; the first being her communication devices, and the second being her choker containing the holo of her family. Her comm devices were small, flat, circular white patches located on her face, and there were two of them: one under her left eye, and the other on her chin. The patch on her left cheek had a line attached to her left ear, and the one on her chin had a line attached to her bottom lip.

Morrigan wore the choker around her neck, and she often displayed the contents when she was alone. However, she did show the holo to Cade's associates when they doubted her claim as to being Cade's mother. Although the holo was dismissed as fake by Jariah Syn, Chak confirmed the holo was real, having worked around the Jedi Temple on Ossus around the time period the holo was taken.

Behind the scenes
Nyna Calixte was created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, and was first mentioned in Star Wars Legacy 0. She made her first in-universe appearance in the first issue of Stars Wars: Legacy. Morrigan Corde was also created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, but did not make her first appearance until Star Wars Legacy 9: Trust Issues, Part 1. Jan Duursema has said Calixte's full name is pronounced Nine-uh Kalix-tay, and that Morrigan Corde's last name is pronounced "Cord". Corde was thought to be a totally separate character from Nyna Calixte until the release of Star Wars Legacy 19: Claws of the Dragon, Part 6. Jan Duursema commented that they had deliberately not left any clues or hints as to their common identity. The final scene of the issue, in which both characters are revealed to be the same person at Calixte's apartment, was written in a way so that the reader is the only person privy to the secret. Author John Ostrander later confirmed in a forum post that Nyna and Morrigan are the same person, but it remains unclear at this point which persona is the "real" one.

During Corde's first appearance in the Trust Issues arc, her eyes were colored blue, but in all later appearances they were colored green. Jan Duursema has stated that the blue eye color was a coloring mistake. Nyna in Hindi means "Eyes of Mother Durga", but it is spelled Naina or Nyna.

Duursema has unofficially estimated the character's age as "about forty," giving a birth date of c. 97 ABY.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Legacy 8: Allies
 * Star Wars Legacy 1: Broken, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy: Trust Issues
 * Star Wars Legacy 11: Ghosts, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy: Claws of the Dragon
 * Star Wars Legacy 24: Loyalties, Part 2
 * Star Wars Legacy 35: Storms, Part 2
 * Star Wars Legacy: Tatooine
 * Star Wars Legacy 42: Divided Loyalties
 * ''Star Wars Legacy 43: Monster, Part 1
 * Star Wars Legacy 44: Monster, Part 2