Binding Ceremony of Oron Kira and Galia

Binding Ceremony of Oron Kira and Galia
Conflict	Beast Wars of Onderon
Date	4000 BBY
Place	Fortress Kira, in the wilderness of Onderon
Outcome	Oron Kira and Galia are wed
Participants	Oron Kira Galia Tott Doneeta Drokko Kira Modon Kira Cay Qel-Droma Ulic Qel-Droma Hundreds of Beast Riders

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"Eat! Drink! Everyone must celebrate the marriage of Oron Kira!"

―Oron Kira

The Binding Ceremony of Oron Kira and Galia was an Onderonian Binding Ceremony that took place in 4000 BBY at Fortress Kira, the forest citadel of Beast-Lord Modon Kira. In the wilderness of Onderon, Galia, Princess of Iziz, and Oron Kira of the House of Kira were joined as husband and wife. The wedding was actually the second prong of a plot by Kira and Galia that began with the prearranged abduction of Galia. The abduction itself occurred shortly after the arrival of three Jedi Knights who had been called by Queen Amanoa of Onderon, to assist with ending the civil unrest between the civilians of the lone city of Iziz, and the Beast Riders from the planet's wilderness. Those same Beast Riders, led by Oron Kira, staged an ambush on the Royal Palace of Iziz, where they absconded with the Princess and returned to their forest stronghold. Amanoa, who at this time was at war with the Beast Riders, was also fooled by the charade, and thus ordered the newly-arrived Jedi diplomats to bring her daughter back unharmed. What they did not know was that the Princess had willingly left with the young Beast Rider, so that the two could consecrate their love for each other.

Intent on fulfilling their obligation to the Queen, Tott Doneeta, Cay and Ulic Qel-Droma went into the wilderness of Onderon, where, after being shot down in the Nebulon Ranger by the Beast Riders' perimeter defenses, they crashed in the wildlands. After crashing, they encountered and tamed wild boma beasts, and learned from them that a wedding between Oron Kira and Galia was just beginning. The bomas brought the Jedi to the forest citadel, where they found the wedding already in progress between the Beast-Lord and the Princess. After abruptly halting the ceremony and attempting to rescue Galia, the Jedi were surprised to learn from her that the wedding, like the abduction, had been secretly arranged years prior. They were then invited by Oron Kira's father, Modon Kira, to stay and join in the festivities. After the ceremony, Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma suggested that the newly weds present their marriage to the Queen, in hopes that their union would sway the Amanoa into finally accepting a peaceful settlement between the warring factions. Kira agreed, and traveled with the Jedi and his new wife to the great walled city requesting an audience with the Queen.

However, the peace mission suggested by the Jedi was a failure. Amanoa rejected their offer, and as a result, Oron Kira led his Beast Riders into battle against Amanoa's forces. She was subsequently defeated by the combined might of the Jedi and Beast Riders, and the aftermath saw the achievement of peace, with Galia and Oron Kira being officially recognized as King and Queen of Onderon.

Prelude

Raid on the Royal Palace

"Very well, here is your chance to prove the power of your promises, Jedi…will you help us now, to defend our city?"

―Queen Amanoa, as the Beast Riders storm the Royal Palace

Commander Gobee shoots down the Nebulon Ranger with seeker-torpedoes.

In 4000 BBY, the Jedi Order, sworn upholders of peace and justice throughout the galaxy, were called to assist the planet Onderon, which had been suffering from a centuries-long civil conflict known as the Beast Wars. Arca Jeth, the Jedi watchman of the Onderon star system, had answered the namesake planet's call for aid by sending his three apprentices in his stead on a diplomatic mission to Iziz, the capital city of that world. As a test of their Knighthood, Ulic Qel-Droma, Cay Qel-Droma, and Tott Doneeta traveled to the distant world and met with its leader, Queen Amanoa. Before the Jedi could begin their mission of peace, however, warriors from the planet's wilderness known as Beast Riders ambushed the city's royal palace, and managed to kidnap Amanoa's daughter, Princess Galia. Bewildered by the abduction of her daughter, the Queen demanded that the Jedi leave the city, retrieve her daughter from her captors, and return her unscathed. Ulic Qel-Droma and his companions then departed straightaway for the wilds of Onderon, in search of Galia and her Beast Rider kidnappers.

Ceremony

Binding ceremony ambush

Beast Rider Priest: "We gather beneath the four moons of Onderon, to perform a ceremony of Binding. Who among you bears witness to this great event?"

Beast Riders: "We do! The warriors of Oron Kira!"

Beast Rider Priest: "Then you are witnesses to the life-vows of these two…"

―The wedding of Oron Kira and Galia

Jedi ambush the Binding Ceremony of Oron Kira and Galia.

Meanwhile, Oron Kira was preparing himself to be wed—or "bound", in Beast Rider culture— to Galia, after having recently arrived with her back at the Beast Rider's jungle stronghold, Fortress Kira. Knowing that the Queen would send reconnaissance teams in pursuit of her daughter, Kira ordered his second-in-command, a Beast Rider named Gobee, to maintain the fortress's perimeter seeker-torpedo defenses, in anticipation of an attack. His proud father Modon had also gathered nearly 400 Beast Riders in a great hall within the citadel, as guests of the wedding ceremony that was about to begin. Standing before an elder clansmen who was to preside over the ceremony, Kira took the hand of Galia, and the binding ceremony was underway. The couple had just begun to recite their vows when they were interrupted, by three boma-riding Jedi who had arrived at the entrance of Fortress Kira, brandishing lightsabers and demanding that Galia be released. The three Knights immediately charged forth into the hall and halted the ceremony, catching everyone off guard. One of the Knights, Ulic Qel-Droma, quickly raced forward upon his boma mount and snatched the Princess, determined to return her to Queen Amanoa. Much to his surprise, however, Galia refused his unsolicited assistance; she then revealed to everyone present that she was marrying Oron Kira of her own volition. The confused Jedi were then stopped by Modon Kira's men, while Modon himself addressed the intruders, inviting them to join him and the Beast Riders in the ceremony and the following celebration. The Jedi relented, and the wedding commenced, concluding shortly thereafter. Afterward, the entire congregation convened in a great hall for food, drink, and festivities.

The wedding banquet

"I am ready to talk about peace…but I'm also ready to make WAR!"

―Modon Kira

While sitting at the banquet table, Modon Kira explained to them that Galia and Oron Kira's marriage, as well as the preceding abduction, had been secretly orchestrated all along. Next, Oron told of how the Kiras had been secretly entering Iziz for some time, trading information with the city's political underground with hopes of one day garnering enough strength and support to overthrow Amanoa. Unwilling to remain under the sway of the dark side that held both her parents and Iziz any longer, Galia revealed to the Jedi that her parents were practitioners of Sith magic, a power that had been brought to Onderon by an ancient, fallen Jedi Knight-turned-Dark Lord of the Sith named Freedon Nadd. Declaring himself King of Onderon, Nadd decreed that anyone who opposed his rule was to be banished to the planet's wilderness, subject to mercy of the beasts who resided there.

File:BindingCeremony.JPG

The binding ceremony banquet of Oron Kira and Galia.

After Nadd's death, his sorcerer practices were passed down through the generations, and implemented by Iziz's aristocracy as a means to subjugate the native people. Galia's father, Ommin, was a direct descendant of Nadd, and maintained the Dark Lord's legacy through his and Amanoa's rule of the planet. Modon Kira's father, Drokko Kira, who was also present at the banquet table, recounted his personal experience with the rulers of Iziz, having been cast out fifty years earlier for refusing to accept the dark side. Though alarmed by the idea of a fallen Jedi causing such unrest on the planet, Ulic Qel-Droma remembered that he had been sent on a mission of peace, not one of war. He suggested to Modon Kira that Oron and Galia go before the Queen, and present their marriage as a symbol of peace. Galia immediately became skeptical of Qel-Droma's ability to persuade her mother into accepting a peace treaty with the Beast Riders, and was even more doubtful about the young Jedi's knowledge of the machinations of the dark side. Modon, too, was wary of the Jedi's peaceful alternative, but was convinced by Qel-Droma to at least attempt a resolution. He advised the Jedi that all of the Beast-Lords had gathered their armies together under Modon's banner for one final battle against Iziz, in case the peace mission failed. Nevertheless, Qel-Droma was confident in his diplomatic talents, and, accompanied by Galia and her new husband, left Fortress Kira for Iziz, intent on ending the centuries-long civil unrest once and for all.

Legacy

The marriage of Oron Kira and Galia would serve to fully incite Amanoa's rage, causing the Queen to reveal her allegiance with Freedon Nadd, while unleashing her forces against the Beast Riders in a final attempt to destroy them. Instead, she was defeated when the Jedi intervened and drove the dark side from Iziz. The battle ended with the Queen's death, and the formal institution of Oron Kira and Galia as rulers of Onderon. Peace then reigned in the city, but was short-lived, enduring for only two years.

In 3998 BBY, peace was disrupted when Amanoa's husband, King Ommin, emerged from underground Iziz, and tried to reclaim the planet in the name of Freedon Nadd. With military assistance from the Galactic Republic, the Jedi triumphed over Ommin and his dark side army, and this time banished Nadd's influence from the entire planet. His remains, along with those of Ommin and Amanoa, were interred in a tomb on the jungle moon Dxun, and, finally, Oron Kira and Galia were able to rule Onderon with civil harmony.

The subsequent peace that followed would last until the Mandalorians conquered the planet during the Mandalorian Wars. During the occupation, General Vaklu, cousin to the reigning Queen Talia, who was the descendant of Oron Kira and Galia, led a resistance movement against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. This ultimately made it easier for military forces of the Republic, led by Revan and Malak, to liberate the world before assaulting the stronghold of Dxun. During the Jedi Civil War that followed, Onderon and its jungle moon were left in peace. Five years after the end of the war, the Jedi Exile visited Iziz in search of the Jedi Master Kavar. During her exploration of the city, she met a Beast Rider at the Iziz Starport, and later an Onderon military officer, Captain Riiken, whose post was in the Merchant Quarter. Both men gave her a brief history of the Beast Wars and the marriage that brought about their resolution.

Behind the scenes

Oron Kira and Galia's binding ceremony first appeared in 1993's Tales of the Jedi story arc, Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon. The wedding was written and conceived by authors Tom Veitch and Christian Gossett. They used this event as the catalyst for Amanoa's decision to engage in war with the Beast Riders. The Binding Ceremony also appeared in the Tales of the Jedi audio drama, though the events unfold differently between the two canonical sources.

In the comic version, the Jedi Knights are shot down in the wilderness of Onderon while searching for the Beast Riders and tamed bomas, who led them to Fortress Kira. They ride the bomas into the citadel, and interrupt the ceremony by grabbing Galia and attempting to flee.

In the audio drama, however, the Jedi are still shot down, but instead of encountering bomas, Cay Qel-Droma stays behind to repair the Nebulon Ranger while Ulic and Tott Doneeta go off in search of the fortress. They encounter Commander Gobee and another Beast Rider in the wilderness, and Ulic uses a Jedi mind trick to persuade Gobee and his partner to lead them to Fortress Kira. Ulic and Doneeta sneak in (without bomas), and disrupt the ceremony just as vows are being said.

Also in the comic version, Modon Kira presides over both the ceremony and the events thereafter, while in the audio drama, he makes no appearance at all. The ceremony is instead presided over by an elder Beast Rider clansmen, with the reception being hosted by Oron Kira and Galia themselves.

The wedding was briefly mentioned in the computer and video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The consequences of the marriage would be given, stating that it ushered in an era of peace for Onderon.

Appearances

• Tales of the Jedi 2: Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon, Part 2 (First appearance)
• Tales of the Jedi audio drama
• Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — The Freedon Nadd Uprising (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Mentioned only)

Sources

• "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: A Guide to the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Universe, Part 2" — Star Wars Insider 27
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Tales of the Jedi Companion
• The Essential Chronology
• The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
• The Dark Side Sourcebook
• The New Essential Chronology
• Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force

Notes and references

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