Teemank

Teemank was a Chadra-Fan female who married the Chadra-Fan Beesar Tal-Apurna. After the Great Disaster in 232 BBY, she trained as a pilot with the Republic Defense Coalition to fight against the Nihil pirate organization. However, during the Battle of Kur later that year, she died when shot down by the marauders. Following this, Tal-Apurna grieved her death and began spying on the Nihil collaborator and doctor—Kisma Uttersond—for the Jedi to avenge her wife. 
==Biography==
The Chadra-Fan female Teemank was married to the Chadra-Fan Beesar Tal-Apurna for many years during the High Republic Era. Following the Great Hyperspace Disaster in 232 BBY,Star Wars: Timelines she joined the Republic Defense Coalition to fight the Nihil pirate organization plaguing the galaxy, despite her wife begging her not to. Although the coalition told Teemank she was too old and that Chadra-Fan did not need the Republic, the woman persevered through her fear of heights to train as a pilot. Teemank then taught Tal-Apurna some of her piloting knowledge, though the latter remained relatively inexperienced.
During her first deployment to the Kur Nebula against the Nihil in the Battle of Kur the same year, the marauders shot Teemank's ship down, killing her. Her wife deeply grieved the pilot's passing, becoming miserable after her death. Not long after, the Jedi Master Emerick Caphtor contacted Tal-Apurna and asked her to spy on the Chadra-Fan Nihil collaborator and doctor—Kisma Uttersond on the Outer Rim planet Chad. She agreed, finding the strength to do so in Teemank's memory, and eventually came to understand that her wife had initially joined the conflict to fight for her family. While attempting to place a tracking device on a Nihil freighter in 230 BBY,Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of The High Republic: Trail of Shadows 4 to 230 BBY. the vessel began to take off before she could stick the technology into place. Tal-Apurna instead boarded the vessel, expounding that she was doing this for Teemank, and reported the ship's coordinates to the Jedi.
Caphtor led a group of starfighters to the location, engaging in a skirmish with the Nihil convoy present. Caphtor then boarded the vessel the spy was on but was eventually forced to flee from the freighter with Tal-Apurna with the assistance of the private investigator Sian Holt, as the Jedi's encounter with one of the Nihil's Force-draining Nameless creature had left him incoherent. While aboard Holt's ship, Tal-Apurna told those present of Teemank's death to the Nihil while threatening Uttersond to reveal information about the pirates, insinuating that they could go after the doctor's family if he was uncooperative.
==Personality and traits==
Teemank and Tal-Apurna were in a committed relationship for a number of years, caring deeply for each other. However, the former felt deeply compelled to join the fight against the Nihil despite the protests of her wife. The pilot was afraid of heights but nevertheless trained as a Republic pilot, which Tal-Apurna respected. After Teemank's death, her wife deeply grieved her partner and helped spy on a Nihil collaborator to avenge her death, often inspired by the pilot's courage to carry on.
==Equipment==
While operating with the Republic Defense Coalition, Teemank flew a ship.
==Behind the scenes==
Teemank was first mentioned in the fourth issue of the Star Wars: The High Republic: Trail of Shadows comic-book miniseries. The issue was written by Daniel José Older, published by Marvel Comics, and released on January 26, 2022 as part of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia series' Phase I. While being interviewed on Star Wars: The High Republic Show, Older explained that Tal-Apurna's strong motivations for defeating the Nihil were family-motivated due to Teemank's death, serving as a contrast to Uttersond's character arc.
==Appearances==
*The High Republic: Trail of Shadows 4 
*The High Republic: Trail of Shadows 5 
==Sources==
*
*
*Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia
==Notes and references==
Category:Chadra-Fan
Category:Females
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:LGBTQIA+ individuals
Category:Republic Defense Coalition pilots