Chal

Chal was a non-binary Ardennian who was born before around 401 BBY. During the High Republic Era, they joined the Path of the Open Hand cult on the planet Dalna. Following the Path's departure from Dalna in 382 BBY, Chal joined the rest of the cult aboard the group's starship, the Gaze Electric.
The Path's leader, the Mother, tasked Chal and fellow group members Fel Ix and Severn with sabotaging communications buoys in the Galactic Frontier. The trio embarked on the stealth shuttle Way of Clarity for the work and briefly encountered the Republic ship Felicitations. Later, in the Tybal system, Chal and their colleagues attempted to capture the prospecting vessel Brightbird crew—the Padawan Rooper Nitani, the aspiring prospector Dass Leffbruk, and the pilot Sky Graf. However, Graf used their blaster to shoot at the Ardennian, forcing them to flee the Brightbird with Severn and leave Ix behind.
==Biography==
===A close call===
The non-binary Ardennian Chal was born before around 401 BBY and lived during the High Republic Era. At some point, they joined the Path of the Open Hand cult and lived on the planet Dalna. In 382 BBY, the Path of the Open Hand left Dalna and began traveling on the Gaze Electric starship under the direction of their leader, the Mother. At the Mother's request, Chal and fellow Path of the Open Hand members Fel Ix and Severn prepared to sabotage communications buoys across the Galactic Frontier to make them usable to only the Path.
After memorizing the Graffian codes necessary, the trio boarded the Way of Clarity stealth shuttle with a map of the buoys that would be the most effective in halting frontier-wide communication. Chal and their team set out to visit as many of the buoys as possible for the Mother, focusing on the ones near Dalna. For the second buoy they altered, Chal worked with an astromech to remove and replace a few key components from its coding with memorized Graffian codes. Chal acknowledged Fel Ix when they finished their alterations and prepared to release the technology into space.
However, a nearby Republic ship—the Felicitations—inquired what the team was doing. Fel Ix lied that they were repairing the buoy as Chal and their astromech hastily loaded it into the Way of Clarity airlock for redeployment. Once released into space, the Felicitations crew tested the buoy and found it operational, much to the relief of Chal and their colleagues. The Ardennian then delivered water bottles to those in their ship's cockpit, indicating that the encounter had been a close call.
===Meeting the Brightbird===
Afterward, the team traveled to the Tybal system to make the same alterations to another buoy on the Path's list. When the hyperspace prospecting ship Brightbird arrived, Ix decided to try to capture its crew due to the Path's hatred of Jedi after learning Jedi Padawan Rooper Nitani was aboard. Chal and Severn helped him hold Nitani and the aspiring prospector Dass Leffbruk at blaster-point, with the Ardennian collecting one of the Padawan's lightsabers. Though the pair began searching through the galley and lounge of the Brightbird for supplies, they were forced to stop when Nitani used her other lightsaber to threaten Ix.
When Chal commented derisively about the Jedi not knowing the Force, the Brightbird pilot—Sky Graf—shot the Ardennian with their blaster, causing them to howl in pain. Ix grudgingly told Chal to give Nitani her other lightsaber back, which they rolled across the floor to Leffbruk. Afterward, Chal and Severn departed the Brightbird, while Ix stayed aboard the ship with Nitani and the others, telling his colleagues to continue their mission. The Path of the Open Hand disbanded not long afterward, and its members scattered.
==Personality and traits==
While with the Path of the Open Hand, Chal was loyal to the Mother and deeply believed in the group's ideals. They maintained a cold temper, displaying agitation upon meeting Nitani due to their intense dislike of Jedi. Though the Ardennian worked efficiently with their crew, they displayed little emotion when speaking to Ix and Severn. Chal had gray skin and possessed a stout figure.
==Skills and abilities==
Chal proved able to memorize sets of Graffian codes during their work for the Path, helping their team efficiently insert coding into comms buoys with around an hour's worth of work.
==Behind the scenes==
Chal appeared in the 2023 young-readers novel The High Republic: Quest for Planet X, written by Tessa Gratton as part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project's Phase II. In the novel, the character is primarily referred to as Chal, with the exception of two usages spelled "Char." This article assumes that the former spelling, which is used more consistently, is correct.
When asked about the usage of singular "they/them" pronouns in the novel for Chal, Gratton stated that they had intended the usage to indicate a non-binary gender for the character. The author added that the character may not personally identify as non-binary and instead may identify with a gender unique to their species that translates to the usage of "they/them" pronouns in the Galactic Basic language. For the purposes of the free-to-edit, unofficial online Star Wars encyclopedia known as Wookieepedia, Gratton was comfortable with designating Chal—and several other characters that were not within the binary genders of male and female—as non-binary.
==Appearances==
*The High Republic: Quest for Planet X 
==Notes and references==
Category:Ardennians
Category:Individuals with they/them pronouns
Category:Non-binary individuals
Category:Path of the Open Hand members