Nichos Marr Nichos Marr , a Human male , was a Jedi trainee at the Jedi Temple on the galactic capital of Coruscant during the last days of the Galactic Republic . With the emergence of the Galactic Empire and the beginning of the Great Jedi Purge in 19 BBY , Marr was among a group of students who went into hiding in the enclave of the Ho ' Din Jedi Master Plett , which was located on the planet Belsavis . Galactic Emperor Palpatine , however , discovered the group , and in 18 BBY he commissioned the colossal dreadnought " Eye of Palpatine " to destroy them . When the vessel failed to arrive because of Jedi sabotage , Palpatine sent a backup force of starfighters to finish the task . The Jedi repelled the attack , but had to evacuate from Belsavis , taking separate paths . Marr eventually became an artificial intelligence programmer at the Magrody Institute and fell in love with his colleague , Cray Mingla . The two joined Jedi Master Luke Skywalker ' s Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 in 11 ABY , where Marr trained for about a year before being struck with a fatal disease , Quannot ' s Syndrome . Mingla tried to save his life by transferring Marr ' s consciousness into a droid body using Ssi - ruu k technology , but she was unable to do so , as the droid Marr turned out to be just that — a droid , while the real Marr had died . Willing to rejoin Marr in the afterlife , Mingla later sacrificed her life to destroy the reactivated " Eye of Palpatine " and save Belsavis from its impending attack . Biography . Born at some point before 19 BBY , Nichos Marr was a Human male Jedi trainee at the Jedi Temple on the galactic capital of Coruscant during the waning days of the Galactic Republic . After the Republic was reformed into the Galactic Empire and the Great Jedi Purge began , Marr was among a group of Jedi children who fled to the planet Belsavis and found refuge with the Ho ' Din Jedi Master Plett in his compound , which consisted of a house and a series of underground tunnels . On Belsavis , Marr and the other children were cared for by the Ho ' Din Brigantes Ustu and a young woman named Margolis Mingla . Plett also took precautions to protect the children , shielding a number of tunnels with mental barriers that induced dread in those that approached , and warning the children to stay away from the tunnels because of the dangerous Kretch insect s that lived there . Marr and other children , including Lagan Ismaren and Hoddas Umgil , often played in the compound , daring each other to go to the forbidden tunnels to search for the city of Plett ' s Well . In 18 BBY , Galactic Emperor Palpatine commissioned the massive asteroid - shaped dreadnought " Eye of Palpatine " to wipe out the Jedi community on Belsavis , but the ship failed to arrive , having been sabotaged in the Moonflower Nebula by the Jedi Knight Callista . In response , Palpatine ordered a backup wing of starfighters to destroy Plett ' s enclave . The Jedi defeated the Imperials by using Y - wings and then left Belsavis , erasing the memory of their presence from the local Mluki s ' minds and going separate ways . Remembering little from his childhood on Belsavis , Marr went on to become one of the most brilliant artificial intelligence programmers at the Magrody Institute of Programmable Intelligence . At the institute , he met and fell in love with a fellow scientist , Cray Mingla ; unbeknownst to Marr , she was the daughter of Margolis Mingla , who had taken care of him on Belsavis . Soon enough , the two became engaged . In 11 ABY , Marr sought to be tested for sensitivity to the Force , and arrived at Jedi Master Luke Skywalker ' s newly established Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 , accompanied by Mingla . Skywalker confirmed that they both were Force - sensitive , and the two started training at the Praxeum . Marr was not the most powerful of Skywalker ' s students , but he proved himself to be a very steadfast learner and one that Skywalker was proud of . When Marr tried to maneuver an edged weapon with the Force for the first time at the Academy , he failed , and the weapon left a scar on the little finger of his right hand . Marr trained for about a year at Skywalker ' s Academy until he was diagnosed with the fatal Quannot ' s Syndrome , an inexplicable degenerative decay of the nervous system . Mingla spent many nights on Yavin researching , looking for a way to save her lover . As Marr was hospitalized on Coruscant and his life quickly faded away , Mingla decided to try to use forbidden Ssi - ruu k entechment technology to transfer Marr ' s life energy into a droid body . She personally designed a droid carcass to house Marr ' s essence , while the technicians of the biomedical institute on Coruscant replicated Marr ' s face and hands to the tinniest detail — complete with the scar and a birthmark on his right hand — creating prostheses which fitted perfectly into the droid body . Soon , Mingla performed the entechment procedure . The droid came to life and was seemingly indistinguishable from the real Marr , leading Mingla to believe that she had succeeded and had saved her fiancé from certain death . In reality , the transfer had not worked as planned — the real Marr had succumbed to the disease and died during the procedure , while the droid turned out to be nothing more than a machine programmed with Marr ' s memories and mannerisms . When Mingla realized this aboard the reactivated " Eye of Palpatine " six months later , she decided to sacrifice her life in order to destroy the dreadnought — which was due to arrive at Belsavis and attack Plett ' s Well — and to be reunited with her lover in death . Mingla exchanged places with Callista , whose essence had been trapped in the " Eye " computer for many years . Callista transferred her spirit into Mingla ' s body and escaped from the dreadnaught , while Mingla occupied the computer and destroyed the ship with the droid Marr ' s help ; both perished in the explosion . By 25 ABY , Skywalker had established gray memorial plinths in a grove on Yavin IV , one for each of his deceased students , including Marr . Personality and traits . Nichos Marr possessed great knowledge in the area of artificial intelligence and was considered one of the Magrody Institute ' s best specialists in that area . As a Jedi , he was determined to use the Force responsibly and correctly , and he spent a lot of time in training . Marr deeply loved Cray Mingla , and she returned those feelings , going to great lengths to try to save Marr ' s life . Marr had blue eyes . Powers and abilities . Nichos Marr was not very adept at using the Force , but Luke Skywalker respected his determination to learn . Marr ' s first attempt at using telekinesis resulted in him receiving the scar on his right hand . Behind the scenes . Barbara Hambly created Nichos Marr for her 1995 novel " Children of the Jedi " . Marr later received an entry along with his first visual depiction in " The Essential Guide to Characters " and was briefly mentioned in several other novels and reference books . In " Children of the Jedi " , Marr appears in his droid form , and the question of whether he is a man or a machine is raised throughout the novel numerous times , until in the end it is finally established that Marr is , in fact , a droid . Due to this revelation , the real Marr never actually appears in " Children of the Jedi " , but is rather only mentioned by other characters . Some sources , such as " " and " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , however , still erroneously imply that the real Marr and the droid were the same person . The eponymous Children of the Jedi in Hambly ' s novel were originally thought to be offspring of Jedi Knights of the Galactic Republic . However , with the release of the prequel trilogy and its ban on Jedi marriage , this has been retcon ned , with " The New Essential Guide to Characters " establishing that they were trainees from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant .