Raskta Lsu

"Go find Masters Raskta and Worror. They also served with Hoth on Ruusan. They will join us in our cause."

- Valenthyne Farfalla

Raskta Lsu was an Echani female Jedi Master, and soldier in General Hoth's Army of Light. She was named after the legendary Echani Raskta Fenni, who was also regarded as the greatest warrior of her time. Because of this, Lsu aspired to equal and then surpass the renown of her namesake. Thus, her entire Jedi career was spent honing her martial skills exclusively, and with time her mastery of the lightsaber was such that many considered her peerless in its application. Lsu was so renowned for her battle skills that she was granted the vaunted title of Weapons Master of the Jedi Order. Lsu displayed her talents during the New Sith Wars, fighting in many battles against the Sith's Brotherhood of Darkness.

Ten years after the final campaign which ended the war on the planet Ruusan, Raskta Lsu was part of a team of Jedi selected by Lord Valenthyne Farfalla to embark on a mission to the fabled Jedi birth world of Tython, in attempt to eliminate the last two remaining Sith Lords in the galaxy, Darths Bane and Zannah. Upon arriving and landing on the Deep Core world, Farfalla's Jedi team engaged the Sith, and Lsu once again displayed her skill with the lightsaber. She fought valiantly, and was the only one of the five Jedi to match Bane's own power with the blade. However, she was undone by the wiles of Darth Zannah, who sneaked up behind Lsu and impaled her, thus ending the Jedi Master's life.

Life as a Jedi
Named for the legendary Echani warrior Raskta Fenni, Raskta Lsu was also an Echani, a race of beings whose culture was centered on perfection of oneself through physical combat. As a youth, Lsu aspired to become like Fenni, who was heralded by many as the greatest warrior of her time. Thus, she followed the traditions of her people, and devoted her entire life to martial skills. Being Force-sensitive, Lsu was also accepted into the Jedi Order and eventually achieved the rank of Master. During that time she spent little time strengthening her Force abilities; however, she had instead mastered the use of a lightsaber. It was said that Lsu's skill was such that no other living duelist was her equal. Her fellow Jedi recognized the Echani woman's abilities, and bestowed upon her the coveted title of Weapon Master of the Order. In the Temple, Lsu was tasked with training all Padawans in lightsaber combat. One in particular, a young human male named Sarro Xaj, sought to follow in Lsu's path to mastery of the Jedi weapon. She recognized the fervor in her student, and decided to personally train Xaj exclusively in the use of the double-bladed lightsaber.

The Sith War
"But there will be those who doubt the totality of the Sith extinction. There will always be whispers that the Sith survive, hints and rumors that somewhere in the galaxy a Dark Lord lives. And if the Jedi ever find proof of our existence, they will be relentless in hunting us down."

- Darth Bane

When Lsu's fighting skills were called upon to serve in Lord Hoth's Army of Light during the final campaign of the New Sith Wars, her Padawan, Xaj, accompanied her. She wielded two blue-bladed lightsabers in battle alongside Hoth against Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness. She was considered the bane of many Sith, and by the war's end, it was believed that as many of their Lords had fallen victim to her blades as had perished from the thought bomb.

Three years after the end of the war, Lsu completed Xaj's training, and deemed him worthy of becoming a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic. She continued to fulfill her training duties as Weapons Master of the Temple, while maintaining her own combat skills. She would be called upon seven years later, when rumors began to surface of surviving Sith Lords from Kaan's Brotherhood still being active in the galaxy. A Jedi Knight named Johun Othone had encountered a young man named Darovit, who claimed to have proof of at least two living Dark Lords. Othone immediately reported this to his former Master, Valenthyne Farfalla, and the latter was determined to investigate. Farfalla sent for Master Lsu and also the Ithorian Master Worror, both of whom Farfalla had served with on Ruusan, to aid him in his mission. Accompanied by Xaj, Othone, Worror, Farfalla, Lsu and her companions made haste for the planet Tython on board her personal attack cruiser, the Justice Crusader, with intentions of destroying the Sith once and for all.

Mission to Tython
"Let's see where this takes us. Sarro, keep your trigger finger ready."

- Raskta Lsu, upon entering Tython's atmosphere

Despite her expressed reservations about traveling the potentially dangerous hyperspace route to Tython, Lsu was appeased by the Ithorian Master Worror, who was serving as the Crusader navigator. With the coordinates he provided, Lsu piloted the vessel, with Xaj acting as the ship's gunner, and Farfalla providing operational support for all three. Upon entry into Tython's atmosphere, the Jedi noticed two other starships parked near a massive fortress as they scanned the building for life-forms, of which they found three. The Crusader landed via autopilot, and Lsu and her companions entered the fortress straightaway. Seeing two doorways, Knights Othone and Xaj were ordered through one, while Lsu and Farfalla went through the other, the plan being to eliminate the possibility of escape on the part of the Sith. Worror remained in the doorway behind his fellow Masters, and was to provide support for the whole team through his talent with Jedi battle meditation. The two Sith, Darths Bane and Zannah, were ready and waiting, and immediately engaged their foes in combat.

Lsu was first to confront Darth Bane, only to find that he was covered in impenetrable orbalisk armor. In spite of Bane's advantage, Lsu continued her attack, while being supported by Farfalla with defensive shield-walls. Several times she had to save her fellow Jedi from Bane, from both the Sith Lord's powerful Force abilities and his superior skill with the lightsaber. Lsu also noticed that Bane dueled with a curved-hilt weapon, one which gave him a critical advantage over his opponents, since use of curved-hilt lightsabers was rare and most Jedi had never encountered one.

When it seemed as though Bane was retreating, he suddenly disengaged Lsu to attack the source of her team's Force-empowerment: Master Worror. The Ithorian was saved by a Force push from Othone, a maneuver that disrupted Worror's concentration and interrupted his battle meditation. Othone leaped over to where Masters Lsu and Farfalla were, and the three of them engaged Bane from all sides, with Lsu in the middle, blending her style and attacks with those of her comrades. However, within the brief disruption in Worror's meditation, Lsu's former Padawan Xaj was overcome by the Sith mind tricks of Darth Zannah, and cut down. Unaware of and unprotected from the danger approaching from behind, Lsu was impaled by Darth Zannah. She was the second of the Jedi to die on Tython, with Farfalla, Worror, and Othone falling soon thereafter.

Legacy
Following her death on Tython, the Jedi High Council, alerted to the existence of Darth Bane by Caleb of Ambria sent a team of Jedi, including Masters Tho'natu and Obba to destroy him. On Ambria, in Caleb's camp, the Jedi discovered the lightsaber hilts of the slain Jedi, including Master Lsu's. Upon the team's arrival they were assaulted by a deranged Darovit, whom they assumed to be Bane suffering from overexposure to the orbalisk armor. Slaying him, they deemed that the Sith were extinct, and returned the lightsaber hilts to the Temple.

Once returned to the Temple, the Jedi created a memorial to those Jedi who were responsible for the destruction of the Sith. All five Jedi's lightsaber hilts were set into a large white stone block in the gardens around the base of the Tower of First Knowledge. Under each hilt was a depiction of its wielder, along with their name.

Personality and traits
"Stay back! You'll just get in the way."

- Lsu, to Farfalla

Raskta Lsu was a tall, well-muscled, fair-skinned woman, with pure-white hair and silver eyes that were prevalent among the Echani race. She was an ambitious youth who sought complete perfection of her skills and worked tirelessly to achieve that goal. A responsible Jedi Master, Lsu readily accepted and fulfilled her duties as Weapons Master by training all the Order's younglings in lightsaber combat. She was also confident in her own dueling aptitude, and readily accepted the call for action as a soldier in the Jedi's Army of Light. Her determination to defeat the Sith was realized as she battled during the Ruusan campaign from the front lines. Lsu's recognition of her own skills also afforded her an air of confidence; when she realized that her colleague Farfalla would only be a hindrance to her against Darth Bane, she spared no hesitation to tell him so. Farfalla also recognized her superior skill, and allowed Lsu the space she required to directly face the Dark Lord, something he himself was incapable of.

Powers and abilities
"The handle!"

- Raskta Lsu, recognizing Darth Bane's unique lightsaber hilt

As the esteemed Weapon Master of the Jedi Order, Raskta Lsu's greatest talents were in lightsaber combat. Her Echani ideals of perfection through mastery of one's physical self were incorporated into her Jedi training, and she was eventually recognized by her peers as the greatest duelist of her time. A master of all forms of lightsaber combat, Lsu's preferred style was Jar'Kai, one she implemented with two blue blades. Lsu was so proficient in battle that she was able to switch between dueling styles seamlessly; a tactic that often confused her opponents. She was able to duel a single adversary with several partners, playing off of their unique styles to maximize the effectiveness of her own. Lsu was also adept with the double-bladed variant as well, which she trained her Padawan, Sarro Xaj, in the use of. She was even familiar with the hooked-handle lightsaber, to the point of being able to immediately recognize it while in the thick of combat. In battle against a user of said weapon, Lsu was able to modify her own technique to compensate for the slight variance that resulted from the curved-hilt's usage. Jedi Knight Johun Othone regarded her as a terrifying figure to behold on the battlefield. She eschewed the use of armor, a trait common among Echani, her only protection being the blue bladed lightsabers held in each hand.

However, Raskta Lsu displayed considerably less talent in applications of the Force. She had exchanged all study in the ways of the Force for exclusive devotion to training with lightsabers. Because of this, her melee skills mostly compensated for her Force-talent impotence. In battle, Lsu had to be shielded by others while she cut down her foes. The presence of a Jedi proficient with battle meditation magnified Lsu's fighting excellence exponentially, though she was still a formidable combatant without such support. With all her fighting experience, however, Lsu still failed to sense the approach of Darth Zannah, nor did she protect herself from the fatal attack that followed.

Behind the scenes
Author Drew Karpyshyn created the character of Raskta Lsu for the second of his Darth Bane novels, titled Rule of Two. A portion of her backstory was explored by Karpyshyn, though this remains as Lsu's first and only appearance to date. In the novel, she is only given four speaking lines.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Rule of Two
 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil