Tsavong Lah

"Give me a decisive battle, Supreme One! Let the infidels' blood fill the spaces between the stars!"

- Tsavong Lah

Tsavong Lah was Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong during the Yuuzhan Vong War. A consummate warrior, he was the ideal of the Warrior caste, emerging as the architect of the Fall of Duro and subsequently engineering the capture of Coruscant. He was involved in many schemes throughout the war, including the supposed defection of Jacen Solo. However, his adherence to the codes of the Warrior caste probably ensured the eventual defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong; Lah was a fanatic, and as he grew increasingly obsessed by the New Jedi Order and the Solo twins, he doomed himself and the invasion with a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Ebaq 9.

Early life
Little is known of Tsavong Lah's life prior to the Yuuzhan Vong War. He was born to Czulkang Lah, one of the greatest of all Warmasters, into Domain Lah, one of the most powerful of the Warrior caste. What is known is that, while being instructed, Tsavong Lah met the Priest Harrar, who was attached to his training division. While Lah had utter contempt for all non-warriors, Harrar made some sort of impact on Lah, and the two would consider each other friends. He also had a son, Khalee Lah, who was also a skilled commander. In the months prior to the invasion, his father expressed concerns over whether the invasion was a good idea. Supreme Overlord Shimrra, however, refused to tolerate insubordination, and replaced him with Tsavong Lah. Realizing that the old Warmaster still had value, but also that leaving his father in a position of command would threaten his own status, Tsavong Lah had his father made a teacher of warriors. No grievances were born by Czulkang Lah, however.

The Shadow at Ithor
The initial invasion of the Galaxy was to be threatened when the Yuuzhan Vong's vanguard, the Praetorite Vong, moved ahead of the Yuuzhan Vong Fleet. The ambition of Da'Gara cost the Praetorite Vong their lives at the Battle of Helska. The invasion was almost doomed from the start, but the New Republic were not the Empire the scout Nom Anor had warned Lah about. However, unwilling to let Intendants dishonor the Yuuzhan Vong, Shimrra and Lah were forced to order the invasion ahead of schedule. Lah and his immediate subordinate, Supreme Commander Nas Choka, had yet to arrive in the Outer Rim Territories, so Commander Shedao Shai took control instead, with the task of establishing a forward base in the Outer Rim.

Aware that Shai had ulterior motives&mdash;such as recovering his grandfather's corpse&mdash;Lah ordered the ambitious Deign Lian to keep an eye on Shai. Indeed Lah was proved correct as Shai entered a personal feud with the famed Jedi Corran Horn. With Shai's fleet at a stalemate the forces of Traest Kre'fey and Gilad Pellaeon, the two warriors dueled for the fate of Ithor. Horn defeated Shai, and all assumed Ithor would be spared.

"It is done, Warmaster Tsavong Lah. Shedao Shai is dead. The threat of Ithor is no more. I have the fleet moving out."

- Deign Lian

Under Lah's orders, Ithor was destroyed with a biological weapon. In retaliation, the combined New Republic and Remnant forces wiped out Lian and the remainder of Shai's fleet. Both the Praetorite Vong and Shedao Shai had failed, and Domain Shai's reputation was forever tarnished. Lah still did not reveal himself, directing Choka in some of the earlier Yuuzhan Vong victories of the war, including at Tynna.



Enter the Warmaster
"But be proud, Jedi, for you have pleased me greatly. In fact, you will be my gift to Warmaster Tsavong Lah, who will one day arrive to govern Coruscant"

- Chine-kal Lah to Wurth Skidder

Appraised of the events at the Battle of Fondor and Choka's capture of the shipyards there, Lah came forward to take a more active role in the invasion, two months after Fondor. The push for the Core Worlds, and thus the staging areas for the assault on Coruscant, was vital for the success of the invasion. Bypassing the dangerous Corellia, the Yuuzhan Vong Fleet made for Duro. Lah commanded the Sunulok throughout the Coreward push. He was still surrounded by those he thought fools however; the Yuuzhan Vong had seen continual setbacks. Only days before Duro, Mujmai Iinan had attempted to take Kubindi with half the number of coralskippers. Failures such as these were not tolerated. Yet the increasing abundance of news concerning the Jedi began to fester in Lah's mind.

Lah entered into a business relationship with Viqi Shesh, the traitorous senator from Kuat. Shesh's treachery was vital at Duro and indeed throughout much of the Coreward push. What Shesh failed to realize was that the Yuuzhan Vong would never be sated with the worlds she was aiding Lah to capture. During the Duro campaign, Lah also worked with Nom Anor. Their partnership would later take a turn for the worse, however. ref name="t">Traitor The Warmaster was drawn by the prospect of a captured Jacen Solo, offered by the duplicitous Randa Besadii Diori, and made plans to come to Duro personally. Lah had been informed by his priests that his chance for success would increase with every scarificed Jedi.

Lah personally took command of the Battle of Duro, and was nearly able to sacrifice Leia Organa Solo to Yun-Yammka. Jacen Solo saved his mother, knocking Lah out a window and tearing off his leg. The wounded Warmaster had had his first encounter with the Jedi, and thus begun a burning hatred for their kind. Addressing the New Republic and indeed the entire galaxy over captured technology, he delivered his chilling ultimatum.

"We will content ourselves with Duro, if you will help us make one final sacrifice. Give us your Jeedai. All of them without exception. Any species, any age, any stage of training. Hold them back, hide them, and you will see how your worlds will be treated. But I will reward - with special gifts! - the person who brings me the Jeedai with whom I especially want to speak. Give me Jacen Solo, alive. So that I may give him to the gods."

- Tsavong Lah

A Distracted Warmaster
"Tsavong Lah would have directed the entire armada against a handful of upstarts with magic swords. It would be frankly laughable if it were not so tragic."

- Nas Choka

The ignorants of the galaxy quickly began turning in Jedi to the Yuuzhan Vong. In the first few months after the ultimatum, Jedi such as Dorsk 82 and Swilja Fenn were captured an turned over to the Warmaster. Still Jacen Solo eluded him, however. The New Republic was desperate to keep the Yuuzhan Vong in check, and it is probable that Chief of State borsk Fey'lya knew full well of their designs on the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. The Warmaster, however, had no plans to stop once the Jedi were handed over to him; he had seen with Durgard Brarun and CorDuro that he could manipulate their desire for safety in order to neutralize the hated Order.

When Lah learned that Jacen and Jaina Solo were twins, he demanded that both be brought to him. Twins held a special significance in the Yuuzhan Vong religion. However it was the youngest Solo who was causing the most problems for Lah. On Yavin 4, Anakin fought alongside the Shamed Vua Rapuung. Their valiant battle against Mezhan Kwaad and the warriors of Tsaak Vootuh had a profound effect on the Shamed Ones present on Yavin 4.

The Warmaster saw the dangers of the heresy, and ordered all Shamed Ones on the moon killed. But these measures were not enough; somehow the word survived, and the Jeedai heresy would fester and grow until, long after Lah's death, it would become a deciding factor in the downfall of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Personal Vendetta
Tsavong Lah replaced the foot he had lost to Jacen Solo with a vua'sa forleg, an animal which he had grown specifically so that he could fight and kill it. At this point, in the stages between the fall of Yavin 4 and the final Coreward push, Vergere returned to the Yuuzhan Vong. She was to enter into a partnership of sorts with Tsavong Lah, and the two would work together over the apprehension and breaking of Solo. Lah also gave his blessing to the plans of Nom Anor and Qurang Lah, his creche brother, to seize Yag'Dhul. Vergere informed him of the ship which had been harrassing his personal forces; the Millennium Falcon; the news that the Solos were the owners developed in Lah a vendetta against the light freighter, much like Darth Vader so many years before.

In a skirmish with the Falcon, the Sunulok in fact came off worse as Lah waited for Han Solo to send his son across to be sacrificed. It was testimony to his fanaticism that he took Solo's sarcastic joke at face value. Solo ignited a hydrogen cloud which he dumped near the Sunulok, and the freighter was able to escape, much to Lah's fury. He then received word that the operation to take Yag'Dhul had also failed. Refusing to delegate any further, Lah hastened his designs for Coruscant. The stage was set for the Warmaster's greatest victory.

Battle Plan Coruscant
He spearheaded many other campaigns, including the successful capture of Coruscant. After the battle, Lah replaced his left arm with a radank claw, but it came close to rejection, something which would end his term as Warmaster. Tsavong Lah also was responsible for sending Nom Anor and Vergere to Myrkr to deal with the Myrkr strike team. Realizing that he was in no condition to lead, he asked Czulkang Lah to deal with the New Republic forces on Borleias, and sent Khalee to deal with Hapes. Nen Yim discovered that the arm had been sabotaged by the Priests and the Shapers in an attempt to control the Warmaster. Lah killed them by feeding them to a pack of rancors. However, the victory was hollowed by the subsequent deaths of his father and son.

Ebaq 9


"Do not assume I am a fool! You have earned your victories by sending your troops over a rampart of our own dead!"

- Supreme Overlord Shimrra

When Supreme Overlord Shimrra arrived on Yuuzhan'tar, he informed Lah that his tactics had killed a third of the Warriors. Shimrra told him to halt the offensive, but the Warmaster needed open battle. Nom Anor, a political enemy of Lah, revealed information that the Jedi had fled to Ebaq, and Lah begged Shimrra for a fleet. Lah rushed to the world, but the Battle of Ebaq 9 was actually a trap, and there was no way he could win. Despairing, Tsavong Lah tried to take Ebaq 9 itself, in an attempt to sacrifice Jacen and Jaina Solo. Vergere, however, crashed an A-wing into the installation where the Warriors had the Jedi held up, decompressing the atmosphere. Lah alone survived, since his subalterns managed to get his gnullith and ooglith cloaker on in time. Attempting to kill Jaina at least, he managed to pierce Lowbacca's shoulder with his tsaisi, and bind Jaina and Tesar Sebatyne with blorash jelly. After sparring with a bound Jaina Solo, however, Tsavong Lah was killed by Jaina when she thrust her lightsaber into his throat. The warmaster collapsed lifelessly, and Jaina did not spare him a passing glance.

Personality and traits
Lah was known for being demanding and cruel, casually ordering subordinates to the death and fond of pitting his subordinates against each other, as evidenced by his participation in the bickering between Vergere and Nom Anor as Lah felt that rivalry encouraged better discipline and motivation for future success in war. Lah was arrogant, believing that the Yuuzhan Vong were destined to rule the Galaxy and this belief motivated him to attempt to conquer the galaxy by brute force, threats, manipulation, and deception. Unfortunately, Lah's obssessive idealism and fanaticism in his methods became his ultimate undoing.

Appearances

 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
 * Balance Point
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest
 * Recovery
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Emissary of the Void
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
 * Traitor
 * Destiny's Way
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee
 * The Final Prophecy
 * The Unifying Force
 * Tempest

Notes and references
Tsavong Lah