- "Everyone treats the Jedi like they're gods, but they're not invincible. They can do fancy tricks, but they're just people. People who can be beat."
- ―Zilastra
Zilastra, also known as Zil, was a Nautolan female pirate who led the Riftwalkers gang.
Biography[]
Early life[]
As a child, Zilastra lived in a colony that was abandoned by the Republic. Her mother desperately tried to earn enough money to leave the colony, however she perished in a mine collapse which left Zilastra completely on her own with just a deck of sabacc cards to remember her by. Zilastra ended up in an orphanage run by a single nanny droid, who cared for Zilastra and two other children. She and the other two kids would become great friends. However, one day, Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas visited the orphanage and determined that the other two children had the potential to become Jedi. Sifo-Dyas, who was known to disregard recruiting protocols, took the other two children away hurriedly without making sure that Zilastra was cared for like he was supposed to. As a result of the Jedi's actions, Zilastra was left behind and soon had to fend for herself. She thus developed a hatred for the Jedi, feeling as though they had abandoned her and caused her to be alone and uncared for.[1]
Pirate gang leader[]
Zilastra grew to become a pirate, leading her own criminal outfit known as the Riftwalkers in the Ootmian Pabol hyperlane. The name referenced Riftwalker sabacc, a variant of the game that Zilastra specialized in from a young age. In 33 BBY, Zilastra recruited a young human girl named Kylah Lohmata to steal from the Regal Voyager company, specifically Regal Voyager cases from their hub facility on the planet Keldooine. She used these cases, which were protected against electronic scans, to plot an assassination of the other for influential pirate gangs active in The Slice. She sent fake protocol droids which looked like official Regal Voyager droids to the leaders of all the influential pirate gangs active in The Slice with a proposal not to attack any of the Regal Voyager shipments or passenger lines in exchange for big payoffs delivered at the same time each month. These payoffs would be equal in value for every gang, however every gang could request if they wanted the payoff to be delivered in credits, gems, metals or similar. The deal would be called off if any of the gangs decided to attack one of Regal Voyager's ships. To ensure cooperation between the rivaling gangs the leaders of every gang would have to meet on holocam to open the cases. Each of their fake Regal Voyager protocol droids only knew one word of the five word code phrase required to open the voice controlled cases.[1]
In the first few months of the scheme the the bosses of rivaling gangs refused to open the cases on their own, however over time they grew complacent which Zilastra exploited to place Baradium-357 in each of the cases of the rivaling bosses, killing them all at once when they were opened on holocam. She used the ensuing chaos to unify all the rivaling pirate gangs under her leadership to kill all the members of the Jedi High Council on the planet Kwenn during the bicentennial celebration of the Kwenn Jedi outpost and take over the planet founding their own pirate nation.[1]
Appearances[]
- The Living Force (and audiobook) (First appearance)