Sariss

"Out of all the Dark Jedi I have met, Sariss is the one I can say... I fear. Powerful, strong in both the physical and mental arenas of the Force, she is a master, a perfectionist, quiet and reserved. This makes her a very dangerous foe."

- Qu Rahn as a Force ghost, to Kyle Katarn

Sariss, alias "Prophetess", was a Force-sensitive female Human who was one of seven Dark Jedi, attempting to reclaim the Valley of the Jedi some time after the Galactic Empire's defeat at the Battle of Endor.

Born the daughter of Imperial Warlord Cronal, Sariss was trained in the ways of the Force by the Prophets of the Dark Side on Dromund Kaas. As she grew up, she became an apprentice to Inquisitor Jerec, who completed her training as a Dark Jedi. She was one of Jerec's most loyal followers.

Biography
Sariss did not know that she was the daughter of Lord Cronal, one of the Prophets of the Dark Side who raised her in the ways of the dark side on Dromund Kaas. There, Sariss first met her later master, Jerec of the Inquisitorius in the Galactic Empire. Because Cronal held to a creed of dark nihilism, the mere existence of his daughter constituted a shocking offence, as it was tribute to creation instead of destruction. Consequently, Sariss was disavowed by her father in a most horrid way possible. Cronal not only allowed his fellow Prophets to freely engage her in carnal relations, but he also partook in the repeated rape himself. "Prophetess" was the alter ego assumed by Sariss on Tatooine, where, working in cooperation with local governor Tour Aryon, she posed as a local fortune teller as cover for her true job as a spy for the Secret Order of the Empire. As a fortune teller, she claimed that Wuher was the reincarnated soul of Cedo Partu. Wuher never allowed the Prophetess to enter Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina.

Right before the Battle of Yavin, as part of her espionage, she trailed Jabba Desilijic Tiure and his bodyguards to Docking Bay 94 in Mos Eisley. Shortly thereafter, Sariss had to quickly make room for a group of stormtroopers rushing to the docking bay in a vain attempt to prevent the escape of the droid R2-D2, holder of datatapes containing the stolen plans of the first Death Star.

During the rebellion on Tatooine that followed the Battle of Endor, Sariss abandoned her post to become a Dark Jedi apprenticed to Jerec, although outwardly she claimed devotion to the Empire's Church of the Dark Side. In her role as a disciple of the quasi-religion, she seduced a wealthy Epicanthix mineral baron on Panatha, to whom she became engaged. She then seduced his son, Yun, whom she taught her "faith." She convinced Yun to kill his own father. She then gave the baron's wealth to Jerec and also gave Yun to Jerec as an apprentice.



With the death of Emperor Palpatine in 4 ABY, Sariss assisted Jerec to rebuild the collapsing Empire and search for the Valley of the Jedi, a Force nexus formed in the final battle of the New Sith Wars more than a thousand years ago. After learning that Jedi Master Qu Rahn might have known the location of the valley, Sariss, Yun, and Maw led the landing party, which consisted of two skimmers. They were able to capture Rahn and his rebel companions and took them over to Jerec's Super Star Destroyer, the Vengeance. The rebels were already executed, and Jerec was able to probe Rahn's mind and discovered that although Qu Rahn did not know the location of the valley, his friend Morgan Katarn, killed by Jerec several years ago, did and had kept the map leading to it in his home on the planet Sulon. Eventually, Qu Rahn broke free and fought against the Seven Dark Jedi. Sariss, Boc, and Yun engaged him, but they were no match until Jerec intervened and killed Rahn.

After killing Rahn, Sariss, Boc, and Yun traveled to Sulon to gather the pieces of the map and use 8t88 to decode the map. She ordered her apprentice to travel to the city of Barons Hed while she returned to the Vengeance to inform the success on searching the map. They were able to find the location where the Valley of the Jedi was hidden, and the planet was known to be Ruusan.

A short time later, Sariss spoke with Yun, who told him that Jerec acknowledged that Yun did well with the rock. She gave him his next assignment—to find out what happened to Patrol Zulu, Able, Mary 341, which was long overdue. Sariss later accompanied Jerec when the Dark Jedi Master confronted Katarn, who was furious after killing Maw on a landing pad near Jerec's personal cargo ship, the Sulon Star. Jerec tried to turn Katarn to the dark side by persuading him to kill his partner and love, Jan Ors, whom Jerec's men had captured earlier. Katarn managed to hold off his anger and stay with the light, and Yun watched as his Master pushed the Jedi into the Sulon Star and then sent the doomed ship towards the surface.

Katarn managed to escape from the Sulon Star in his own ship, the Moldy Crow, though he crashed the vessel in the process. He was later found unconscious by Sariss, Boc, and Yun and took him over to the caves where he would be executed. Sariss then attempted to execute Katarn with her lightsaber, but Yun, whose body seemed to act on its own, blocked Sariss's blow, which accidentally deflected against him, inflicting a mortal wound. With a few tears coming down her eyes, she didn't know why Yun would turn against her. Yun eventually told her that Kyle was a true Jedi, and that he shouldn't die, and he deserved a better battle. Watching her apprentice die, Sariss chose to spare Kyle and engage him in a duel.

Enraged with the loss of Yun, she was determined to destroy the self-trained Jedi. Sariss fought against Katarn and initially had the upper hand while trying to killing him, but she underestimated Kyle who used a countering technique known as the Flowing Water Cut. Sariss quickly found she couldn't defeat him and that she underestimated his power in the light side of the Force. She came to realize the point of what Yun said to her before his death; that Kyle was a true Jedi of the light side. Sariss was ultimately killed in the confrontation, and Kyle went on to rescue Jan and defeat Boc and Jerec once and for all.

Powers and abilities
Sariss was quiet and reserved, but a formidable opponent in combat and deemed the most skilled lightsaber fighter of the seven Dark Jedi, relying almost exclusively on her fencing skills instead of using additional Force powers.

She was also the only known practitioner of Deadly Sight, allowing her a measure of ranged attack as well.

Behind the scenes
Sariss was played by Valerie Wildman in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

In the non-canonical ending of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, where Kyle chooses the dark side, he kills Yun instead of Sariss, and she later appears as Emperor Katarn's aide.

William C. Dietz and Dave Dorman, in their novella Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, add a further dimension to the relationship between Sariss and Yun. They reveal that she considered Yun a very good and talented student, and also that he was the closest thing to a friend she ever had. In the novella, Yun's block superficially injures her in the arm.

In the audio version of Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, Sariss deliberately kills Yun when he tries to stop her. She shows no remorse in Yun's death which enrages Kyle leading him to kill her.

The figure of the 'Prophetess' was initially only an uncredited extra appearing for a second in A New Hope. Afterwards, that figure's backstory as the "Prophetess" was created for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Abel G. Peña, in his The Dark Forces Saga articles, retconned the Prophetess and Sariss into the same character. An unidentified illustration for a Dark Side Adept in Threats of the Galaxy matched the appearance of a lightsaber-wielding Prophetess.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent / audio drama
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight / audio drama
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith