Mezhan Kwaad Mezhan Kwaad , known for her role in conducting experiments upon the captured Jedi apprentice Tahiri Veila in 26 ABY , was a Yuuzhan Vong shaper and the master of Nen Yim . A heretic among her species , Kwaad would often violate , albeit in secret , the laws that governed the shaper caste . By the time of the Yuuzhan Vong War , her skill had enabled her to attain the prestigious rank of a master shaper . Heresy , however , was not Kwaad ' s only transgression against the laws of her species ; the shaper fell in love with a commander , Vua Rapuung , and started a forbidden affair with the warrior . When Rapuung ended the relationship due to religious reasons , an enraged Kwaad proclaimed her heresy to him , and openly denounced the existence of the Yuuzhan Vong gods . Paranoid that her secrets would be revealed , Kwaad used her talents to cause Rapuung ' s body to reject his warrior implants , bestowing upon him the greatest curse for the Yuuzhan Vong — the appearance of a Shamed One . With Rapuung ' s claims perceived as delusions , Kwaad was able to commit heresy without fear of discovery . She was soon tasked with a project to experiment upon a captured Jedi , Tahiri Veila , in order to discern the cause and source of the Force . As her assistant in the endeavor , Kwaad selected an adept , Nen Yim . On the moon of Yavin 4 , Kwaad and Yim began the process of converting the young Jedi apprentice ' s memories and personality to those of a Yuuzhan Vong , in tandem with their investigation into the Force . Suspicion , however , hounded Kwaad , and the commander of the base on Yavin 4 , Tsaak Vootuh , soon entered into a plot with Yal Phaath , a senior shaper , in order to ascertain whether Yim and her master were committing heresy in their experiments on Veila . Indeed , Kwaad had been clandestinely defying the sacred shaping protocol s throughout the project , and was subsequently discovered and arrested . Kwaad ' s journey into custody was interrupted by the reappearance of Vua Rapuung and his ally Anakin Solo , who pressured the master shaper into revealing her earlier actions against Rapuung . The master shaper attempted to escape , but was decapitated by Veila before she could flee . Among the various castes of the Yuuzhan Vong , Kwaad was remembered as an arch - heretic , and her domain was disgraced . Among the Shamed Ones , on the other hand , Kwaad entered into the epic cycle of the legend of Vua Rapuung , one of the central tenets of the heretical movement that arose following the events on Yavin 4 . Biography . Early life and affair . Born into Domain Kwaad , a leading shaper domain , Mezhan Kwaad possessed prodigious talent for the art of shaping , a form of biological science that enabled the Yuuzhan Vong to bio - engineer and create organisms that could serve the species . Unknown to her superiors , however , Kwaad was a practitioner of heresy ; she had no patience for the strict laws that governed her caste . Orthodox shaping practice stated that all knowledge was possessed by Yun ' o , the collective name for the Yuuzhan Vong gods , and that the deities were able to pass down this knowledge , when they saw fit , to the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong . This view — the only one tolerated — thus implied that if Yuuzhan Vong technology ever failed the species , the shapers had to petition the Supreme Overlord to ask the gods for new insights and methods . As seven of eight Yuuzhan Vong cortices were already full repositories of shaper lore , it was assumed that all the bio - technology remaining to be granted to the Yuuzhan Vong lay in the eighth cortex . At some point in her life , Kwaad came to believe that there were no gods distributing information and techniques to the Supreme Overlord , and that to survive , the Yuuzhan Vong would need to adapt the strict shaping protocol s to suit their needs . As this viewpoint doubted the gods , it was considered heresy of the first order , punishable by death . Shapers of Domain Kwaad had often been known for their flirtations with heresy , and at least one , Yakun Kwaad , was discovered and executed in the final decades of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet ' s long approach to the promised galaxy , where Supreme Overlord Shimrra had declared that the wandering Yuuzhan Vong would find their rightful home . Around the time of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy , when Mezhan Kwaad was nearing the end of her youth , she fell in love with a commander of the warrior caste , Vua Rapuung . Unions between different castes were forbidden to the Yuuzhan Vong , perceived as insults to the gods , but while Kwaad dismissed this law due to her heretical beliefs , the guilt of defying Yun - Yuuzhan , the chief deity of the Yuuzhan Vong , disturbed Rapuung . Although the two were deeply in love , Rapuung gave up praying to Yun - Txiin and Yun - Q ' aah , the lover gods , and realized that the affair would destroy them both , and thus broke it off . Kwaad revealed her heresy to her lover and proclaimed that belief in the gods was a superstition , telling Rapuung that so long as they were strong , they could do whatever they wished . The commander was not taken in by such words , and although he urged Kwaad to believe that he would never spread word of her heresy , the shaper grew fearful that her secret would become common knowledge . To neutralize Rapuung as a threat to her continued survival , Kwaad manipulated the commander ' s warrior implants and caused them to fail . A rejection of an implant was the mark of a Shamed One , the lowliest members of Yuuzhan Vong society , who were put to use carrying out menial chores for the superior castes , shunned by all others . Rapuung lost his rank , reputation and domain status , but suspected what had happened . For the rest of his life , Vua Rapuung would pursue his redemption , seeking to prove that Kwaad had artificially made him a Shamed One . At some point , Mezhan Kwaad conspired with the Fosh familiar Vergere and the deception sect priestess Ngaaluh to form a secret society that plotted to overthrow the Yuuzhan Vong religion and caste system . Kwaad , who at some point had been escalated to the rank of Master Shaper , was one of several masters who , one year into the Yuuzhan Vong War , was selected to conduct experiments on captured Jedi . The Jedi Order , whose Praxeum was located on Yavin 4 , one of the moons of Yavin Prime , was of particular interest to Supreme Overlord Shimrra and other high - ranking Yuuzhan Vong , and thus the shapers were tasked with determining the source of the Force , an enigmatic energy field the Jedi claimed to be able to influence . To aid her in her endeavor , Kwaad chose a shaper initiate from the worldship " Baanu Kor " , called Nen Yim , who had made an inspired choice of protocol to preserve a section of the ancient vessel ' s nervous system . Kwaad knew that the young shaper had carried out heresy during her work . Yim , now a shaper adept , accompanied her new master to Yavin 4 , although Kwaad did not yet approach the young shaper on the subject of heresy . Also present aboard the fleet heading toward the moon was Vua Rapuung , as well as Master Shaper Yal Phaath , from a rival domain . In space over Yavin 4 , the fleet commander , Tsaak Vootuh , discovered that members of the Peace Brigade , an organization collaborating with the Yuuzhan Vong , had already attacked the Praxeum . Most of the Jedi had escaped the moon , safe aboard the starships of Jedi - aligned smuggler Talon Karrde , whose forces remained in the Yavin system . Only one , a fourteen - year - old Jedi girl named Tahiri Veila , had been captured by the Brigade . Kwaad was the master entrusted with experimenting on the young Jedi , ostensibly to research the Force . However , the shaper had other plans . She would indeed discover the source of the Force , but in the process would also mold Veila into an extension of her will , granting her a loyal and obedient protector and bringing her unparalleled glory . Jedi Veila . Once Commander Vootuh ' s forces had entered into a standoff with those of Karrde , the landing was prosecuted and the shapers were allowed to set foot on Yavin 4 ' s jungle surface . Damutek s , Yuuzhan Vong compounds , were to be installed on the moon , over the site of the Great Temple . As the organic buildings unfolded themselves , Kwaad disembarked her transport and approached Nen Yim . Kwaad informed her adept why she had selected the young shaper to be her protégé . She encouraged Yim concerning their mission to shape the galaxy , and reminded the adept that not only did the Yuuzhan Vong need shapers who were willing to test the limits of convention , but also that Supreme Overlord Shimrra was observing events on Yavin 4 closely . The master then took her new protégé off to have her shaper hand attached ; a painful process the master herself had once endured . Kwaad waited for her adept in the grotto of Yun - Ne ' Shel , the goddess worshiped by the shaper caste , while Nen Yim had her wrist severed . When the shaper hand had been attached , Kwaad remained with her adept to give advice and reassurance . The master shaper also spoke of the joy they would find together in experimenting on Veila and bringing glory to their caste , the Yuuzhan Vong , and themselves . Mezhan Kwaad and Yim conducted an interrogation of Veila and learned , as expected , that when the Jedi used her powers , she believed she was drawing on an energy field produced by all living things — the Force . Master and adept set to work on mapping their captive ' s nervous system , in order to discover the biological source of Veila ' s ability to manipulate this energy field . As Humans were largely an unknown species to the Yuuzhan Vong , Veila ' s nervous system was a new frontier , and to explore it Kwaad used the protocol of Tsong and a provoker spineray . The spineray would invoke a painful reaction from a cluster of nerves in the Jedi ' s body , and with Veila incarcerated in a membrane bound section of a vivarium , Kwaad and Yim were safe to conduct their scientific investigation . Ordering the provoker spineray to target nerves selectively , they soon discovered that the Human ' s nervous system was composed of structures that had no physical counterpart in the Yuuzhan Vong . In manipulating the protocol of Tsong in this manner , Kwaad was once again flirting with heresy and , indeed , as she conferred with Nen Yim , Master Shaper Yal Phaath entered the chamber with his aide and confronted the two shapers . Phaath , a strict adherent to the protocols , failed to see how Kwaad believed that Humans existed outside the eight cortices of shaper lore , as Yun - Yuuzhan had theoretically created all life . He reminded Yim and , indirectly , her master , that to seek new knowledge , instead of petitioning the Supreme Overlord for it , was the stuff of heresy . The verbal sparring between the two masters continued , but as Phaath threatened his peer that he was watching her very closely , the four Yuuzhan Vong were suddenly assaulted by Veila through the Force . The Jedi manipulated the molecules in the vivarium ' s air , seeking to crush her captors , and Kwaad soon collapsed under the intensity of the high pressure . She was saved , along with the others , by Nen Yim , who used the device that controlled the provoker spineray to trigger a massive wave of pain in the Jedi , which caused Veila to faint . Kwaad took control , saving her specimen before the Jedi died from the pain , and explained the Jedi ' s theory of the Force to a skeptical Yal Phaath . The ancient master took his leave for the planet of Myrkr , where he was to oversee the shaping of vornskr s into creatures that could hunt Jedi . The news disturbed Mezhan Kwaad , as such a creature would pose a threat to Veila , once Kwaad had bent the young Jedi girl to her will . She was , however , eager to see the interfering master leave the system . During Kwaad ' s experiments on Veila , the shaper was visited by her co - conspirators Ngaaluh and Vergere , who oversaw some of Kwaad ' s work on the young Jedi . The project to map Tahiri Veila ' s neural pathways continued , and in the meanwhile Kwaad was pained by the approaching removal of her Vaa - tumor , a shaper implant that was grafted onto the brain matter to grant greater knowledge , but which eventually required excision . Until removed , the Vaa - tumor caused Kwaad constant pain , and thus Nen Yim carried out the experiments on Veila in the interim . When the adept informed Kwaad of the completion of the mapping of the nervous system , the master shaper decided it was time to broach the subject of the full - blown heresy they were about to embark upon . Kwaad knew that , having mapped the Human ' s nervous system , Yim had discovered that the physiology of Veila ' s species differed significantly from that of the Yuuzhan Vong , and that the protocol of Tsong could no longer aid their investigation into the Force . Such a revelation required the two shapers to move beyond the confines of the orthodox protocol and adapt the provoker spineray to suit their requirements . To her relief and satisfaction , Yim responded to Kwaad ' s careful probing and revealed that she was willing to circumvent the strictures of shaper law . The heretical master , however , warned Yim that she would not be betrayed by her adept ; when the younger shaper vowed to place herself utterly in Kwaad ' s hands , the master took her protégé to visit Veila once again . Partners in heresy . Veila ' s entire personality was to be recreated with the end result that she would view herself as a Yuuzhan Vong warrior . The knowledge of the Yuuzhan Vong was transplanted directly into the Jedi ' s brain ; having completed this task , Kwaad spoke to the Jedi , warning her captive not to attempt any further harmful actions with the Force , under pain of torture . The master shaper continued in her scheme , retelling the story of Veila ' s life in a way that depicted the Sand People and Jedi who had raised her to be kidnappers . The real truth of Veila ' s past , Kwaad revealed , was that she was the Yuuzhan Vong warrior Riina Kwaad , brainwashed by the Jedi into believing their tales about her early life . The Jedi girl resisted the assertion , but Kwaad merely told Yim to begin further modifications . It was eventually planned that Veila would be molded both mentally and superficially into a Yuuzhan Vong , whom Kwaad could present to her peers and superiors , and subsequently keep as her own . Veila ' s forehead was later scarred with the ritual markings of Domain Kwaad , but the Human ' s memories remained a consistent problem . If investigating the Jedi ' s ability to touch the Force had not been the chief purpose of the project , Kwaad would have wiped Veila ' s memory completely , but with it would have destroyed her captive ' s grasp of the Force . Thus , new memories had to be transplanted — memories that the Human ' s brain continually rejected . To formulate the sections of Veila ' s new personality , Kwaad and her adept manipulated the protocol of Qah , usually used when implanting memories into a Yuuzhan Vong brain . In a deeply heretical fashion , the protocol was adapted ; if discovered , Kwaad and her adept would face execution . The process of creating new memories was not only risky , but also painstaking , as the Human brain differed enough that it was unclear which memories would graft and which would be rejected . At some point , unknown to Nen Yim , Kwaad used her adept as a donor ; real Yuuzhan Vong memories of childhood were required , and thus Yim ' s memories were implanted into Veila ' s brain . In order to speed up the project , the provoker spineray was ordered to stimulate pain whenever Veila attempted to access her long - term memories , thus forcing the Jedi ' s true persona back into the recesses of her mind with the ultimate goal of eliminating it entirely . Kwaad ' s Vaa - tumor , however , continued to pain her . One night , as the master shaper went to the shaper damutek ' s succession pool to ponder her agony , she unknowingly encountered the young Jedi Anakin Solo , who had infiltrated the compound as a slave , guided by his ally , none other than Kwaad ' s former lover Vua Rapuung . In the darkness , and with Solo masquerading as a Shamed One , Kwaad forgave the unseen " Shamed One " his trespass , as the pain of her Vaa - tumor was so intense . Kwaad ' s suffering was so great , in fact , that her rival , Yal Phaath , used it in his scheme to investigate and expose the heresy he suspected in her . A shaper initiate , Tsun Q ' el , was dispatched to the vivarium where Veila was kept and informed Nen Yim that he had been sent by Mezhan Kwaad , and that he too was a heretic . Q ' el claimed that Kwaad was finally having her Vaa - tumor excised , and Yim was convinced by the initiate , revealing to Phaath ' s spy the heresy that was enabling herself and her master to experiment on Veila . For several days , Kwaad was kept away from Yim , Veila and the vivarium , while the deception took place . Called to a superfluous convocation by Yal Phaath , ostensibly in order to discuss procedure on the new worldship undergoing construction at the Yuuzhan Vong shipwomb at Sernpidal , Kwaad was forced to enter ritual seclusion , thus isolating her while Phaath ' s investigation took place . Kwaad ' s time away from the project made her irritable , and she demanded to see the results of Yim ' s work , questioning Veila on her past . To Kwaad ' s satisfaction , there was far less hesitation on the specimen ' s part as she referred to herself as Riina Kwaad and recounted her capture at the hands of the Jedi . Kwaad wished to see more ; she ordered Yim to quiet the provoker spineray , allowing Veila to access her memory of the Force and utilize telekinesis to lift a stone from the ground , while Kwaad and her adept ensured that Veila ' s buried personality did not resurface . The experiment proved a success , and Kwaad and Yim set to work mapping the areas of the Human ' s brain that showed most activity during her use of the Force . As the two shapers discussed the puzzling results — which suggested that the Force did not have a specific biological source in the Jedi — Kwaad ' s Vaa - tumor pained her once again . Yim , who had thought the tumor already removed , voiced her confusion , and Kwaad soon realized that Tsun Q ' el had been Yal Phaath ' s spy . Defeated and exhausted , she was then interrupted by Commander Tsaak Vootuh himself , with his personal guards . Kwaad and Yim were arrested on charges of heresy , and were escorted by Vootuh and his warriors , along with Veila , to the commander ' s personal shuttle . Revelation and death . The master shaper , her adept , and Veila were already on the ramp of the shuttle , nearing departure , when a disturbance halted Vootuh and his guards . Vua Rapuung and Anakin Solo had launched the final stage of their rescue attempt , and charged the shuttle , attacking and killing several of the commander ' s bodyguards before being dropped by nang hul projectiles . Vootuh managed to stop Solo from continuing the fight by threatening to kill Veila with his amphistaff ; Kwaad watched on , but as Solo tried to appeal to his friend ' s buried personality , she intervened . Vootuh silenced the shaper , and at that moment the critically wounded Vua Rapuung asked Solo to demand that Mezhan Kwaad reveal her actions . The master shaper ' s old lover was dying , and he wished to be redeemed before he passed away , by hearing Kwaad admit that it was she , not the gods , who had given him the appearance of a Shamed One . With the evidence of heresy already weighing against her , Kwaad nevertheless refused to grant Solo or Rapuung a response . Hul Rapuung , Vua ' s brother , and others in the assembled crowd , questioned why there was any harm in her replying to the question if the truth was to her favor . Vootuh threatened Domain Kwaad if the master shaper refused to give an answer , and Kwaad realized that she had been forced into a corner . She answered Rapuung ' s query , proclaiming that she had , as he suspected , caused his implants to fail , and that there were no gods . In the ensuing uproar , Kwaad manipulated her shaper hand and used the finger - spear s hidden inside to impale Vootuh and his three guards fatally . Similarly , she incapacitated Solo and Rapuung with two more of the barbs . With her immediate enemies thus neutralized , Kwaad took out a potent nerve toxin , huun , and threatened the assembled Yuuzhan Vong to allow her safe departure . Announcing that she answered solely to Supreme Overlord Shimrra himself , the shaper attempted to make good her escape , ordering Yim to drag Solo and Rapuung into the shuttle . As Solo ' s lightsaber rose from the ground and arced toward her , manipulated by the Force , Kwaad overloaded the young Jedi ' s senses with pain from her finger - spear in an attempt to stop his concentration and his use of telekinesis . The master shaper failed to realize in time that it was in fact Veila who had used the Force to lift the blade . With a swift strike , Veila decapitated Mezhan Kwaad . Legacy . The greatest consequence of Mezhan Kwaad ' s actions on Yavin 4 was the emergence of a heretical movement among the Shamed Ones , which grew rapidly among the members of the caste . The fact that Kwaad , not the gods , had Shamed Rapuung , was proof to some that the lowliest of the Yuuzhan Vong were being manipulated by their superiors . Many claimed that redemption from Shamed status could be found with the Jedi , as Vua Rapuung ' s alliance with Solo had enabled him to confront Kwaad and win back his honor . On his arrival on the moon , Warmaster Tsavong Lah attempted to have this nascent heresy crushed . Word escaped Yavin 4 nonetheless and gave an impetus to the oppressed Shamed Ones to revolt against their masters . The legend of Vua Rapuung , in which Mezhan Kwaad played a significant role as the leading villain , became the guiding tenet of the " Jeedai " heresy , a movement that eventually grew so powerful that it drew higher caste members into its ranks , and ultimately helped topple Supreme Overlord Shimrra and the Yuuzhan Vong Empire during the last battle of the war . Domain Phaath , as Mezhan Kwaad ' s rival Yal Phaath had intended , took over the project of investigating the Jedi , and Domain Kwaad was relegated to tending the ailing Koros - Strohna . The master of the domain , Tjulan Kwaad , was deeply angered and embarrassed by his subordinate ' s heresy and felt that Mezhan and her adept had disgraced the Kwaad . Indeed , Qelah Kwaad , Mezhan ' s domain sister , was often forced to live under the shadow of her late sibling ' s heresy , and make up for the master shaper ' s mistakes . Nen Yim survived the events in the Yuuzhan Vong compound , hiding among the Shamed Ones to preserve the new knowledge on the Jedi , and was later debriefed by Tsavong Lah when the warrior leader arrived on the moon . Yim was spared from the customary sacrifice so that she could record the information on the Jedi in a qahsa , a memory storage organism . Thus , Kwaad ' s discoveries on the Force and the physiology of Jedi were not lost . Kwaad ' s adept was also sent to tend to the Koros - Strohna , and aboard the dying vessel " Baanu Miir " she attempted to save the Yuuzhan Vong trapped there . Eventually , Yim came to the attention of Shimrra himself , after the young shaper gazed into the eighth cortex and saw the truth Kwaad had suspected — there was no knowledge held in reserve for the Yuuzhan Vong , and defeat was therefore inevitable against the constantly adapting New Republic forces . Shimrra escalated Yim to the rank of master , aware of her experience in heresy , and ordered her to create new technology with which to fight the New Republic . In her adept , Kwaad ' s heresy lived on , and in the last year of the war Yim discovered the truth behind the Yuuzhan Vong ' s inability to touch the Force . For the young Tahiri Veila , the results of Kwaad ' s half - completed shaping were severe . Left with her Riina Kwaad alter - ego lurking in her psyche , Veila later suffered a mental breakdown in the penultimate year of the war , and remained vulnerable even after she successfully integrated Riina Kwaad ' s ego into her own . Veila too entered into the epic cycle of the " Jeedai " heresy as the " One - who - was - shaped , " and the Shamed Ones honored her as a symbol of hope . She continued to bear the scarring of Domain Kwaad on her brow as late as 40 ABY , and maintained a high pain threshold due to the experimentation . Personality and traits . Mezhan Kwaad was driven by a belief in her heresy as intense as the fanaticism that guided the orthodoxy of the Yuuzhan Vong religion . The master shaper felt that the only way the Yuuzhan Vong could adapt and survive was to defy the protocols and make innovative advances ; in this respect , Kwaad was seeking to improve the fortunes of her race . Indeed , as she claimed during her failed escape , she had no desire to harm any fellow members of her species , and stated that she had acted out of necessity to kill Commander Vootuh and his guards . The master shaper was not merely driven by pragmatism and altruism , however . Kwaad ' s desire to aid the Yuuzhan Vong was only one of the many factors that guided her actions . In the Jedi project , Kwaad saw glory chiefly for herself , and much of her drive to shape Tahiri Veila came from her wish to possess a tame Force - wielder of her own . The master shaper ' s heresy and ambition , which culminated to some extent in delusions of grandeur , even led Nen Yim to confide later that Mezhan Kwaad may have been insane . In terms of her shaping ability , Kwaad was a talented and intelligent Yuuzhan Vong , who was able to adapt protocols in many ways to suit her purposes . The master shaper ' s long attempt to keep her heresy secret , however , rendered her paranoid and defensive , and she went about her work in secrecy . Kwaad ' s paranoia also led her to destroying the livelihood of her former lover , Vua Rapuung , when she believed him to be a risk to her survival . The shaper ' s actions in this regard were also guided by an element of spite ; having been spurned by her lover , she chose not to kill Rapuung , but instead to force him to appear as a madman . Kwaad ' s cruelty in her manipulation of Rapuung was reflected in her work ; Veila was fourteen when experimented on by the master shaper , and the heretic showed no compunction as she observed the effects her scientific investigation and subjugation of Veila ' s personality were having on the Jedi . Proud and confident in her work , Kwaad was nevertheless tricked twice by those around her ; lured out by Yal Phaath , her heresy was uncovered , and when faced by the lightsaber telekinetically moving toward her , she did not think that it was her prize specimen who was using the Force . The master shaper ' s overconfidence and arrogance , shown in her declaration of heresy before her death , often concealed a more introspective side of her personality . Kwaad was captivated by the world of knowledge granted to her by her enhanced brain , and on occasions became mesmerized and placid when she spoke of it . Behind the scenes . Mezhan Kwaad is a leading Yuuzhan Vong character in the first of the novels in Gregory Keyes ' s " Edge of Victory Duology " . " " allowed Keyes to explore extensively , as he intended , the structure of Yuuzhan Vong psychology and society , and introduce for the first time on page the shaper caste , as well as the Shamed Ones . Although the narrative is never told from Kwaad ' s point of view , her character provides one portrayal of the hitherto concealed shapers , as well as acting as vehicle to introduce the concept of Yuuzhan Vong heresy , which was later developed into a major plot point throughout . Cover artist Terese Nielsen , who drew Mezhan Kwaad for the cover of " Edge of Victory I : Conquest " , stated that although she had enjoyed fashioning the art , she was mildly disappointed to discover that the master shaper ' s features had later been artificially colored to appear blue , without her knowledge . Despite Mezhan Kwaad ' s role in " Edge of Victory I : Conquest " and in Tahiri Veila ' s character story , the master shaper did not receive an individual entry in " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , published in 2008 .