Nelani Dinn Nelani Dinn was a female Human Jedi Knight during the time of the Second Galactic Civil War . At some point during her early life , Dinn was taken for Jedi training and was taught for a time by Jacen Solo , eventually graduating to become a Jedi Knight . In 40 ABY , Dinn was stationed on Lorrd when she met up with two other Jedi — Jacen Solo , her former teacher , and his apprentice , Ben Skywalker . Solo and Skywalker were there to investigate an unusual artifact found on Toryaz Station , and after some mysterious incidents in Lorrd City , the three soon found the person who had planted the artifact , a woman named Brisha Syo . Syo took them to her home , a mining facility near Bimmiel , and revealed her true identity : Lumiya , Dark Lady of the Sith , who had been in parts unknown for many years . Dinn was separated from the group , though , and encountered the ghost of a Sith Lord named Darth Vectivus . When Vectivus could not goad Dinn into striking him down , he sent Dinn up to a higher floor , right as Lumiya attempted to turn Solo to the dark side . Dinn attempted to intervene , engaging Lumiya in a duel . The duel concluded with no clear victor , and Dinn then attempted to arrest Lumiya . However , Solo , now under Lumiya ' s sway , suddenly began to chase the young Knight through the mining facility , intent on killing her . Solo was eventually able to catch Dinn , and he ended her life with a thrust of his lightsaber . Biography . Training and Jedi Knighthood . Nelani Dinn was born on the Outer Rim world of Lorrd , and at some point , she was discovered by the Jedi and taken for training . In 33 ABY , Jedi Knight Jacen Solo instructed Dinn in lightsaber technique . Dinn was shy , and when she became enamored with Solo , she was too self - conscious to tell him . However , her training , which involved slicing live gundarks in half , went a long way towards overcoming her shyness problem . By 40 ABY , Dinn had passed the Jedi Trials and become a full - fledged Jedi Knight . In 40 ABY , Dinn was stationed on her home planet of Lorrd when she was contacted by Solo , who was investigating an artifact recently found on Toryaz Station . Dinn found a contact who would examine the artifact , Dr . Heilan Rotham , and meet Solo and his apprentice , Ben Skywalker , on Lorrd . The three traveled to Dr . Rotham ' s office in Lorrd City , and Dr . Rotham found that the artifact contained encoded messages that Dinn considered ominous . However , their meeting was cut short , as Dinn received a message — a man in a Y - wing was threatening to fire missiles into a populous area of Lorrd City unless he was allowed to speak to a Jedi . Seeing that Dr . Rotham would need some time to decipher the artifact , Dinn was accompanied by Solo and Skywalker as she left to settle the matter . Strange disturbances . Dinn , Solo , and Skywalker were greeted by lieutenant Neav Samran of the Lorrd Security Force , who explained the situation to them . The man in the Y - wing was Ordith Huarr , a former fighter pilot who had flown for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War . Huarr claimed that he had been seeing the ghost of his late wife , but before Dinn was able to garner any more information from Huarr , Jacen Solo used the Force to pull the airborne Y - wing to the ground . Huarr then detonated the missiles , killing himself . Following Huarr ' s death , Dinn was agitated with Solo , because she thought that Solo could have used more peaceful means to end the conflict and prevent any loss of life . Afterward , the group returned to Dr . Rotham , who had translated the remaining messages on the artifact , save one . Mysterious occurrences similar to the plight of Ordith Huarr soon began to happen frequently on Lorrd . One man , Dr . Movac Arisster , a professor at the University of Pangalactic Cultural Studies , took hostages inside an aquarium and strapped himself to one of the hostages , with a bomb strapped to his back . Arisster claimed to have spoken to the late Jedi Master Aayla Secura , and said that Secura told him to bring the Jedi in to talk . Arisster wanted one thing — to become famous . Arisster was dying of cancer and wanted to be able to defeat a Jedi , to give some trace of immortality to himself . Arisster decided to defeat the Jedi by denying them a happy ending , meaning that he would prevent the Jedi being able to do their duty and save the hostages . Solo , realizing that Arisster had won , allowed Arisster to detonate the bomb , killing himself and his captive , Serom Haxan . Dinn became furious that Solo had just left Arisster to kill himself and Haxan without exploring any other options . Several more Force ghost related incidents occurred , including a man named Borth Pazz , who threatened to jump off a building unless he was taken for Jedi training . Pazz stood atop the building in old Jedi robes holding a dated , non - functional lightsaber . Pazz demanded that the Jedi teach him a Jedi trick , despite his complete lack of Force - sensitivity . When his request was denied , Dinn watched as he jumped from the rooftop , his fall slowed by Solo ' s use of the Force . Pazz ended the day with a broken leg , and he was taken away , howling about Jedi trickery and deception . Soon after these events , a mysterious woman named Brisha Syo arrived on Lorrd . Syo was arrested immediately after she landed in the Lorrd City Spaceport , and Solo suspected her of causing the incidents involving Huarr , Arisster , and Pazz . Syo admitted that she had caused the events and revealed that she was Force - sensitive . Syo also admitted to leaving the artifact on Toryaz Station and offered to take Dinn , Solo , and Skywalker to her true home , a planetoid in a star system close to Bimmiel . Against the advice of Dinn and Skywalker , Solo accepted the offer to travel to Syo ' s home . The Home and death . Dinn , Syo , Solo , and Skywalker subsequently arrived at Syo ' s home , a former mining outpost on an asteroid in the MZX32905 system , in the vicinity of Bimmiel . Syo explained that the final administrator of the outpost , a Sith named Darth Vectivus , had left the place behind many years ago . Nelani felt the dark side permeating the asteroid , which Syo attributed to the original inhabitants of the outpost — a sentient species akin to mynocks . For a while , the mynock - like species was led by a caste of Force - users , who eventually became dark side adherents . Syo soon revealed the reason for her bringing the Jedi to the Home , as the mynock - species called it — a Sith Lord was down in the caverns , where the dark - side corruption was greatest , and Syo did not think that she should face him alone . Dinn , Skywalker , Solo , and Syo took a mine car into the depths of the Home , but on their way down , Syo shoved Skywalker and Dinn out of the car . Dinn and Skywalker soon found themselves being ambushed by a large group of the indigenous creatures , but they eventually discovered that the creatures were nothing but illusions , projections of the Force . Dinn was suddenly grabbed and pulled away from Skywalker by an unseen force and whisked in front of the ghost of Darth Vectivus . Vectivus challenged Dinn to kill him , revealing that he , as well as all the illusions in the Home , were connected to a live being somewhere in the galaxy . Dinn refused to lash out at the illusion , even after Vectivus tried to goad her into killing him by taking the form of Palpatine . Vectivus then told Dinn to climb up to safety and wait for the others to join her . Up above , Syo had revealed her true name and identity to Solo — Lumiya , Dark Lady of the Sith . Lumiya was trying to turn Solo to the dark side , suggesting that he take up the ways of the Sith . Jacen began to surmise that he would be able to save the galaxy with the new power such an allegiance would give him . Lumiya believed that since Jacen had not been twisted by the light side , he could resist the temptations of the dark , but just as Lumiya revealed this , Dinn appeared and intervened in the discussion . Dinn was concerned that Lumiya ' s words were having an effect on Solo , and after Lumiya suggested that Solo ' s former master , Vergere , had been a Sith , Dinn attacked Lumiya . With Lumiya still trying to talk Solo onto the dark path , the two dueled , with neither gaining the upper hand . Solo implored the two to stop the duel , but as soon as they had ceased fighting , Dinn arrested Lumiya in the name of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances . Lumiya consented , but Solo , who wanted to learn more from Lumiya , was not ready to allow his new mentor to be taken into Alliance custody . Having fallen under the sway of Lumiya ' s words , Solo was willing to defend the Sith , even against his own former student . Solo , confident that the galaxy would fall if Lumiya was arrested , chose a side and suddenly chased after Dinn , with the intention of killing her . After a chase through the Home , during which Dinn steadily lost ground to Solo , she was cornered and quickly disarmed . Dinn pleaded with Solo , not for her life but for him to reconsider his actions and retreat from the future she imagined lay before him . Nonetheless , Dinn ' s former mentor stabbed her in the center of the chest with his lightsaber , and the Jedi Knight died staring into the eyes of her killer . Legacy . After Nelani Dinn ' s death , Lumiya promised Jacen Solo to give her body the proper rites due to a noble warrior . Solo also distorted Ben Skywalker ' s memory of the events on the asteroid . In the next few months , Skywalker , after witnessing Solo ' s killing of bounty hunter Ailyn Vel , decided to investigate further into how Dinn had truly died . After the Jedi Masters Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker searched Lumiya ' s apartment , they came to believe that Brisha Syo was Lumiya ' s daughter and that Syo killed Dinn . Personality and traits . Dinn described herself as having a " shyness problem " when she began training with Jacen Solo , and when she developed feelings for the Jedi Knight , she was too self - conscious to tell him . However , when the two met again in 40 ABY , Dinn , having gained better self - confidence from her Jedi training , openly expressed her feelings for Solo . Dinn was very excited when Solo and Dinn met again , but was disappointed when Solo did not return her feelings . She was idealistic and opposed the methods used by Jacen Solo in the cases of Ordith Huarr and Movac Arisster . She believed that Solo could have explored other , more peaceful , alternatives in those situations , which ended in the deaths of both Huarr and Arisster . Since she was so firmly committed to the light , she did not hesitate to attack Lumiya when the Sith tried to turn Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force , and kept trying to bring Solo back to the light , up until the point of her death . Before Solo killed Dinn , he saw a glimpse of her possible future , which included love , and a family . Powers and abilities . Nelani Dinn was attuned to the emotional states of other beings , as evidenced when she sensed the anxiety of lieutenant Neav Samran . Dinn was skilled with telekinesis , which she used to maneuver herself while in low - gravity sections of the Home . She was able to sense the host to whom the phantom of Darth Vectivus was connected , initially believing that being ' s dark side aura to be Vectivus ' own . She also felt the Sith Lord ' s Force - exertion when he used it to illuminate the exit from the caverns for her . Dinn possessed a yellow - white bladed lightsaber , and was trained in its use while still a Padawan by Jedi Knight Jacen Solo . She moved with blinding speed while dueling , but was not fast enough to contend with Lumiya , who repeatedly evaded Dinn ' s attacks before retaliating with her own . Despite her own skill , Dinn had no experience against lightwhip - wielding opponents , and was overwhelmed by Lumiya ' s exotic weapon . Her dueling prowess was also inferior to that of Jacen Solo , who defeated Dinn in combat and killed her with minimal effort . Behind the scenes . The character of Nelani Dinn was created by author Aaron Allston for his novel , " " . Dinn says that Solo taught her lightsaber technique " seven years " before the events of " Betrayal " , set in 40 ABY . This would place their first meeting , and the time in which she was his pupil , during the five years which Solo spent away from the Jedi Order between " " and " " . However , the date of " seven years ago " may have originated as a holdover from earlier drafts : as Aaron Allston has revealed in his blog , the novel was originally set in 37 ABY , and later revised . At least one other trace of the revision of the dating survives in the published novel , when Zekk , who should be 32 , is said at one point to be 29 .