Zare Leonis

"I will enter the Academy, say the right things, and succeed. I will learn how the Empire works. I will find Dhara. And I will wait for the resistance to develop, for someone to rebel. And then I will help those rebels bring the Empire down."

- Zare Leonis

Zare Leonis was a male Human cadet at the Imperial Academy on Lothal who, despite joining the Galactic Empire, worked as a spy for the rebels on the planet. Leonis joined the Imperial Academy to discover the truth about what happened to his sister, Dhara, who vanished from the Academy. The Empire claimed that Dhara ran away, but Leonis did not believe their claims.

Early life
Zare Leonis was born on the planet Uquine in 3258 LY, around the inception of the Galactic Empire, to agricultural scientists Leo and Tepha Leonis. He was raised along with his elder sister Dhara by his parents and the family nanny droid Auntie Nags. The Leonises moved around a lot due to the nature of their parent's occupation, and Zare spent most of his childhood living aboard space stations, such as Hosk Station. The family were sympathetic to the Empire, seeing it as a great improvement over the slow bureaucracy of the Republic and the corruption of the Trade Federation.

A New Home
At the age of fourteen years, Zare and his family immigrated to Lothal, a backwater planet in the Outer Rim Territories. His parents found work at the Ministry of Agriculture's Lothal branch and settled down into an apartment in Lothal's Capital City. His sister Dhara, who was a year older than him, enrolled at the Imperial Academy on Lothal. A month after his family's relocation to Lothal, Zare attended a function organized by his parents to celebrate his sister's acceptance into the Imperial Academy. During the function, Zare socialized with a few Imperial officials including Lieutenant Piers Roddance, Ames Bunkle, and Governor Arihnda Pryce, who extolled the purported progress of the Galactic Empire. Near the end of the function, Zare and Dhara promised to keep in touch while she training at the Academy.

Since Zare was too young to enroll at the Imperial Academy, he became a student at the Junior Academy of Applied Sciences during Lothal's autumn season. He also joined the school's grav-ball team, the AppSci SaberCats, and became the team's centre striker. Zare and his team were coached by the Duros Coach Ramset, who was known for his conservative methods. During his time with the SaberCats, Zare also befriended the team's kicker Merei Spanjaf, a teenage Corulag girl who became his girlfriend and the team's fullback Beck Ollet, a Lothal Human boy who was the son of jogan fruit farmers. While Zare excelled in grav-ball, he found agricultural science boring and loathed his Current Events class. His Current Events teacher Tralls used the class as a platform to disseminate Imperial propaganda. When Leonis questioned the official Imperial account of the Trade Federation's crop engineering program on Chrona, which contradicted his parent's recollections, Mister Tralls chided the youth for stepping out of the Imperial party line.

During a successful grav-ball match in Lothal's Fall season, Zare led the SaberCats to victory over the rival West Cap City Carvers by a margin of 38–36 despite ignoring Coach Ramset's strategy. Following the match, Leonis learnt from his fellow team-mate Beck that AppSci's athletic director Janus Fhurek was using his school to identify prospective recruits for the Imperial Academy. Beck's jogan fruit-growing family had recently moved from the Westhills to Capital City after the Imperial Agricultural Collective had purchased his family's orchards and farms for a substantial sum. Unlike Zare, Beck was suspicious of Imperial intentions towards Lothal. Despite their differences, Zare and Beck remained close friends.

An Education in Life
Following the match, Zare conversed with his sister Dhara via datapad and updated her about his activities at school and his new friendship with Beck and Merei. During the conversation, Zare learnt that his sister was taking officer-training classes at the Academy and planning to pursue an internship at Imperial headquarters. Dhara quickly worked out that Zare had a crush on Merei. The following day, Zare met up with his friends Merei and Beck after his Crop Management class. Merei used her computer hacking skills to locate Beck's old farmstead only to discover that the Imperial authorities had classified the area for some unspecified excavation project. Beck was upset since this land had traditionally been used for jogan-fruit harvesting but Merei believed that there was a glitch on the Agricultural Ministry's database.

After a match between the SaberCats and the Green Dragons, Zare and his two friends traveled to Beck's former family orchards. While visiting Beck's old homestead, the three friends were startled by a group of neks, fearsome yellow-furred creatures with sharp teeth. However, they were saved by a Human guard, who had been sent by the Imperial authorities to guard the land from trespassers. After Beck revealed that this farm had once been his home, the man relented and revealed that he too had to leave his land in Kinpany Gap after the Imperials had requisitioned it for mining. The man also revealed that droid pickers were now being used to pick jogan fruit; something which distressed Beck because the droids were incompetent at their work.

During a home game between the SaberCats and the East City Brawlers, Zare and his team had to contend with the opposing team's two burly fullbacks and their unpredictable coach, who utilized unpredictable strategies to frustrate the SaberCats. Zare's coach Ramset tried to reason with the opposing coach, who insisted that the game was played rougher on Lothal. During the game, Zare's fullback Beck lost his temper and assaulted one of the Brawlers, leading to his ejection from the game. Zare advised his friend not to lose his temper but Beck protested that he could not tolerate a rigged game.

Later, Zare and his family visited his sister Dhara during the Imperial Academy's Visiting Day. As an Imperial Cadet, Dhara was required to reside at the Academy. At the insistence of his mother and Auntie Nags, Zare donned his formal Imperial tunic. During a private moment with Dhara and his parents, Zare related his friend Beck's predicament with the Agricultural Ministry reclassifying his family land for mineral extraction. When Zare expressed concerns about the effect of the Empire's industrialization policies on ordinary people, his parents conceded that some things had to be sacrificed for the well-being of the galaxy. On a more lighter note, the four family members joked about Lothal's obsession with grav-ball; which the family's droid Auntie Naggs regarded as a "dangerous and dirty" sports.

Due to Zare's athletic and leadership skills, he eventually attracted the attention of the school's athletic director Janus Fhurek, who attempted to court the young man's favor by offering to speed up his admission to the Imperial Academy. However, Zare came to distrusted Fhurek after the latter derided the team's Aqualish member Hench Sina as nothing more than a "brute-force" fullback. When Zare defended Hench, Fhurek lectured the youth that a leader could not allow his affection for his players to blind him to their shortcomings. Despite his disagreement, Zare did not argue with the athletic director. Later, the SabreCats defeated another rival team called the Thrashers by 44 to 18 points.

Growing Disillusionment
Later, Zare's relations with Janus Fhurek further deteriorated after the athletic director ordered the removal of the SaberCat's two Alien members prior to an important grav-ball tournament&mdash;the Rodian Frid Kelio and the Aqualish Hench Sina due to their non-Human physiognomies. Leonis refused to comply with Fhurek's wishes and kept the two non-Humans on his team. During the tournament, Zane led the SaberCats to victory over the rival Mavericks; which qualified his team to compete in the league championship. Zare's actions angered Fhurek who retaliated by transferring Sina and Kelio to the Technical Institute for Agricultural Research.

The Imperial Academy
During his time at the Imperial Academy, Leonis was pitted against fellow cadet Dev Morgan—who was really young Padawan Ezra Bridger working undercover for the Lothal rebels—in an obstacle course that required the two cadets to navigate floating platforms to reach a blaster pistol, the winner being the first to claim the pistol and use it to stun their opponent. Morgan seemed to possess incredible skill at predicting the location of the floating platforms and beat Leonis in the exercise. Leonis conceded the match with good sportsmanship, but vowed to himself to keep an eye on Morgan.

Leonis aided Bridger, one of the rebels, when Bridger arrived to rescue fellow cadet, Jai Kell, from the Inquisitor, who intended to take Kell prisoner. Bridger, Leonis, and Kell hijacked an All Terrain Defense Pod and fought their way out of the Academy, though Leonis stayed behind to find out what happened to his sister. While at the Academy, he became a spy for Bridger and the rebels by providing them with inside information about Imperial Command.

Bridger later summoned Leonis to a rendezvous outside the academy. Leonis informed Ezra that he had gained access with his new privileges, stating that Agent Kallus was preparing for a massive operation at the old Lothal Senate building, though he assumed it was a drill. Bridger insisted it wasn't and turned to leave, but not before Leonis informed him that he was about to be transferred to the Officers Academy on Arkanis. Bridger then attempted to tell Leonis his real name, only to be interrupted by a squad of stormtroopers. Bridger was forced to bolt and Leonis played innocent. He followed the squad until Bridger managed to evade the Imperials.

Appearances

 * Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy
 * Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice
 * Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice