Tessala Corvae Tessala Corvae was a Major General , and one of the handful of high - ranking female officers in the Imperial Army . Her father had served with distinction as a general in the Clone Wars , and while she was a highly motivated and effective officer in her own right , she would not have overcome the Imperial military ' s inherent sexism as well as she did if she had not been a general ' s daughter . Biography . Early life and career . Tessala Corvae was born into a family with a long pedigree of military officers . She was the daughter of a general who had earned fame during the Clone Wars , and through her father ' s distinction , she was admitted to the Imperial Academy on the Colonies planet of Carida . There , Corvae worked harder than most and graduated with honors in spite of the discrimination and other setbacks that beset her . Tessala Corvae distinguished herself in her Academy days at Carida and her subsequent service as an AT - ST commander , and on her promotion to Major General , she hoped for an independent Corps HQ command in an Outer Rim trouble spot — and another chance to prove herself in combat . Her experiences had left her with a belief that female soldiers were automatically undervalued by Army high command , and in response , she founded the Firebird Society , an all - female organization of loyalist initiates , whose ultimate aim was to prove the worth of women as warriors to the Imperial authorities . Highly - trained and highly - motivated , Corvae and her associates carried out vigilante actions against enemies of the New Order , to test and hone their combat skills , and to illustrate by direct action just how deadly and effective female warriors could be . In the Tapani sector . Instead of seeing combat , Corvae found herself appointed instead to command the 1st Tapani Assault Battlegroup based on well - defended stronghold of Tallaan . Here , she effective and efficient as she stamped authority on her soldiers , but Corvae chafed at the diplomatic duties and the tasks associated with maintaining the garrison . She longed for unrest to break out in Tapani sector so that she would have an opportunity to demonstrate her mettle in battle . Although she was careful to avoid any too - overt actions that might lead the authorities to discover her role as the Matron of the Firebird Society , she found willing recruits among the Tapani noblewomen , swelling the group ' s membership to around a hundred , and she used her position as Army commander at Tallaan to secretly arm the sorority with Imperial equipment , including two " Lambda " - class shuttles , twenty sets of Stormtrooper armor , and an arsenal of infantry weapons . Personality and traits . Physically , Corvae was tall and athletic , with ivory skin offset by ebony hair and bright red lips ; in her character , she combined a willful strength with the well - trained professionalism of an Imperial officer . She could be both fair and vicious — and sometimes both at once , as seen in the harsh treatment she meted out to troops who failed to come up to the standard that the Army expected . Her professional expertise was centered on armor and artillery operations , but she had honed her hand - to - hand abilities in Firebird Society training camps , and she typically carried two concealed vibroblades as well as her service pistol . Behind the scenes . Creation : Initially created in RPG supplement LotE with brief mention in individual article segment and as part of the Firebird Society ; background expanded in GoI in segments on Firebird Society . Continuity : LotE says she created the Firebird Society , GoI says she joined it and created a faction within it .