Chellwinark Frethylrin

Chellwinark Frethylrin, also known as Chell and Fret, was a female Keshiri who served in the Galactic Empire during the Imperial Era as an analyst. While she was in training, she met Irei, a female Kadas'sa'Nikto apprenticing at her parents' droid repair shop, and the two girls fell in love. Irei revealed that she was Force-sensitive, and her fears about the Empire discovering her began changing Frethylrin's perspective. By altering records, Frethylrin attempted to conceal Irei's existence from the Empire, but she refused to leave it and go into hiding with Irei. When the repair shop burned down, Frethylrin believed Irei had died with it.
For the next three years, Frethylrin continued working for the Empire while refining her data manipulation skills. After hearing rumors about the Shroud, a device Irei had been designing to hide them, the Imperial analyst made contact with the wealthy Omwati Qeris Lar. He concealed his knowledge of Irei's survival and capture by the Empire, instead convincing Frethylrin to seek out the crew of the Stinger Mantis—Cal Kestis, Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, and Merrin—to retrieve the Shroud's schematics. Frethylrin stole a suit of stormtrooper armor and arranged things to encounter the crew when they were infiltrating a Haxion Brood base and get taken aboard the Stinger Mantis. She and the Nightsister Merrin were immediately drawn to each other, but the others were suspicious about her. Claiming she had already deserted the Empire, she said she had a job to pay them back that would help in their fight against the Empire.
After traveling to Hosnian Prime to meet Lar, he directed them to seek the schematics on Murkhana and to hurry because the Inquisitorius also sought them. Frethylrin did not reveal the extent of her personal connection to the device. The crew decided the Shroud was too powerful to leave with the Empire. While en route to Murkhana, Frethylrin and Merrin became lovers and the Keshiri woman confessed that she was still active with the Empire to retain access to their systems. Merrin decided to keep the secret. After Kestis, Merrin, and Frethylrin broke into the prison where the Shroud's plans were supposedly located, they instead discovered Irei, alive and imprisoned; the schematics were in her memory. Frethylrin attempted to safely guide Irei to the Stinger Mantis without Merrin and Kestis, who was fighting the Fifth Brother, but Irei was seriously injured on the way and the pilot Dritus lost an arm to the Inquisitor. Despite Merrin's heartbreak, she healed the Nikto with her magick. The crew then demanded the truth from Frethylrin and she told them her story. After two days of recuperating on Zimara, during which Merrin and Frethylrin decided to remain friends, Irei agreed with the crew and her ex-girlfriend that Lar could not be trusted with her designs.
Frethylrin wore makeshift armor when she, Irei, Merrin, and Kestis met with Lar. As anticipated, he attempted to alter the deal and shot Frethylrin when she rejected his terms. She was knocked unconscious and came to after a battle. While recovering on the Stinger Mantis, Frethylrin asked Merrin on behalf of herself and Irei if Merrin would join them, but the Nightsister's place was with her family on the ship. The Stinger Mantis dropped Irei and Frethylrin off on Zimara.
==Biography==
===The Keshiri and the Kadas'sa'Nikto===
Chellwinark Frethylrin, who shortened her name to Fret, was a female Keshiri whose homeworld was Kesh, born sometime between 33 and 32 BBY. Her home planet was not part of the Galactic Republic, and for a time, her parents were inspired by the Separatist cause. Her family moved from Kesh when she was young, during the Clone Wars that took place from 22 BBY to 19 BBY. After the self-proclaimed Emperor Palpatine announced the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Galactic Empire,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas the government of the Imperial Era stopped relying upon clones for labor. Frethylrin left her family, whom she never saw again, to train and work as an analyst—what she later characterized as a "people-watcher." Analysis was a part of Imperial Intelligence responsible for gathering and interpreting surveillance data.Dawn of Rebellion During her training, she met Irei, a female Kadas'sa'Nikto who was apprenticing in town at her parents' droid repair shop. Imperial trainees had limited free time and were discouraged from any form of fraternizing, but Irei and Frethylrin fell in love.
Irei eventually admitted to Frethylrin—whom she called "Chell"—that she was Force-sensitive. The Nikto girl's fear of the Empire made Frethylrin aware that working for them would hurt people and that the actions of individuals mattered; however, it was the only life Frethylrin had known. Aside from their repair shop, Irei's parents also worked for the local Imperial garrison, putting them in frequent constant contact with Imperial officers and stormtroopers, and they thus had many records and reports containing their names. Frethylrin secretly manipulated Imperial records in the hopes of concealing Irei's existence from the routine surveillance, such as deleting security holograms or swapping pictures and names.
Irei began designing a device called the Shroud that would theoretically help them both hide. She worked on it for a year and Frethylrin believed she was capable of completing it. However, when they met up one blistering-hot day at the droid repair shop and Irei pleaded with Frethylrin to desert and run away with her, the Keshiri girl refused. She was too scared of the consequences and thought she could somehow change the Empire from the inside or secretly protect people from a position of privilege; furthermore, she thought that Irei would be in more danger if they were on the run together. Frethylrin convinced Irei to stay and stopped seeing her, believing she was selflessly making Irei safer. However, Frethylrin's data manipulations had instead drawn attention to Irei. The Empire did not know who had altered the records, but when Frethylrin was eighteen years old, the Empire found Irei and burned down the shop where Irei and her parents worked. The grief-stricken Frethylrin, not knowing Irei had escaped, believed she had either been taken or killed; Frethylrin blamed herself.
===Until the right moment===
Irei's apparent death and Chellwinark Frethylrin's role in it convinced her to commit to leaving the Empire someday. She remained in her Imperial career for three years while attempting to help others by refining what she had tried to do for Irei. When she began to pick up talk about the Shroud and a connection to the wealthy Omwati Qeris Lar, she made contact with him. Lar was aware that Irei still lived, but he did not disclose that to Frethylrin; instead, he told her that Irei had finished her schematics and he could point the Imperial toward their location, and that he had the resources to produce it for anti-Imperial use. Frethylrin wanted to save Irei's life's work, to keep it away from the Empire, and get herself out.
Lar also told Frethylrin about a specific S-161 XL luxury yacht called the Stinger Mantis and its crew: Jedi Master Cere Junda and Jedi Knight Cal Kestis, both human but respectively a woman and a man; the Latero pilot Greez Dritus; and Merrin, a Nightsister of Dathomir; Frethylrin was especially fascinated by the latter. What she had learned about the Stinger Mantis crew made them a beacon of hope to her. She decided that her only way to escape the Empire and save Irei's work was to appear to be the perfect Imperial until the right moment; otherwise, she would be investigated and "disappeared." By retaining her access to Imperial systems and information, she could help the Mantis crew acquire the Shroud's schematics. After tracking the movements of Imperial troops and the Mantis crew, she decided to put herself in the crew's path with the expectation that they would take her to safety. To the Empire, she would appear to be on a data-collecting mission in the Outer Rim and not due to report back for another month.
===The right girl for the job===
Learning that the Stinger Mantis crew were infiltrating a Haxion Brood base on an asteroid in the Outer Rim, Chellwinark Frethylrin placed herself there and stole a set of stormtrooper armor as a disguise. She did not stand out because the base was full of stormtroopers and Haxion Brood. After Cere Junda, Cal Kestis, and Merrin set charges to blow up the base and began their escape, Frethylrin followed behind Merrin in her stolen armor. However, the Nightsister realized she was being pursued and disappeared and reappeared behind the "stormtrooper." With fear in her filtered voice, Frethylrin told Merrin to wait because she knew about Dathomir—referring to the battle that killed the other Nightsisters—and she was sorry. As she was threatened by the Dathomirian, Frethylrin recited other biographical details and asked for Merrin's help. Merrin removed Frethylrin's stormtrooper helmet and grabbed the other woman's throat, but Frethylrin again asked for help from Merrin and the Stinger Mantis crew, saying they were her only way out of the Empire and that she was not a spy like Merrin thought. They were interrupted by a comm from Greez Dritus and by Kestis running, pursued by stormtroopers. While Merrin was distracted, Frethylrin fled from her sight and put the helmet on again.
Unbeknownst to the two women, the entire conversation was overheard by the crew through their open comms. Kestis silently remembered fallen friends and wanted to believe and help Frethylrin, but that was not why the Mantis crew was at the base. While Junda was running for the Mantis to board it, Frethylrin helped boost the human up into the Mantis before the other woman helped pull her inside as well. After Frethylrin rolled into the hold, she immediately surrendered and took off her helmet again. Although Dritus was incredulous, Junda said they would discuss it later after their getaway. Frethylrin accepted Kestis' invitation to sit on the bench with him and Merrin slid in next to her. She soon endeared herself to Kestis by complimenting BD-1, his friendly BD unit. As the young man was giving introductions, the Mantis was hit by a blast that rolled the ship and dropped Frethylrin and Merrin, who grabbed the Keshiri and cushioned them both with a flash of her magick.
Frethylrin instructed Dritus and Kestis on how to confuse the Imperial systems and their operator long enough to jump to hyperspace and avoid having their trajectory captured. When the two men stared, she said she used to be close with an engineer. Junda deferred to Kestis, who made the call to follow Frethylrin's instructions. During the jump, Frethylrin fell back-first onto Merrin's front as they toppled to the floor together, and the crew's bogling stowaway settled into Frethylrin's lap. Now that she had given Junda a reason to believe her, the Jedi Master asked what else she knew that they could use against the Empire. Dritus, however, remained suspicious and unwelcoming.
Later, with the crew gathered in the ship's kitchen as Frethylrin drank caf, she claimed she had already deserted the Empire. To flatter the crew, she lied by saying they and their ship had a reputation within the Empire of being terrible rebels in a dangerous warship; in actuality, they were barely known. She truthfully told them that the Empire was all the life she had known, that an outside perspective had made her realize her work as an analyst was hunting and harming people, and that she wanted out. Merrin, distracted by her crush on Frethylrin, only partially listened to the story, but the others asked questions. The pain in Frethylrin's voice was real and Merrin responded to it, which the Keshiri appreciated. She offered to pay back her debt to the crew with a job she had in mind, meaning the acquisition of the Shroud schematics. After BD-1 led Frethylrin to Merrin's cabin, the Mantis crew discussed the proposal, with Dritus as the only dissenter; the result was accepting Frethylrin's offer.
Frethylrin and Merrin bonded further during the days of travel to Chikua City on Hosnian Prime, where the crew met with Qeris Lar. After Frethylrin greeted him with a hug, they laid out their plan to steal the datacard with the Shroud's schematics from an Imperial compound on Murkhana, a planet in the Outer Rim. She told the crew she had known the inventor, who wanted Frethylrin to desert, but they were tracked and killed by the Empire; she did not admit how personal it was to her or that she and the inventor had been in love. Lar claimed he would use the datacard, his access to the requisite mirkanite, and other resources to produce the Shroud for rebels, but they had to hurry; the Inquisitorius was en route and only days away from collecting the schematics themselves.
After returning to the Mantis, the group debated what to do. Dritus did not consider anything that involved an encounter with an Inquisitor to be worth the risk, and he did not trust Lar. Frethylrin pointed out that they did not have to: if his information was good, they would retrieve the plans and could decide later whether or not to give them to Lar; if his information was bad, they would "do a little shooting and a little scooting," but she insisted his information was not bad. The two Jedi thought to use Lar's resources in exchange for the plans, although they and Merrin all differed on what they would request from him; Frethylrin said the Shroud itself was the reward. Dritus still disagreed and suggested they drop Frethylrin off somewhere and go back to their lives. Kestis then returned to what Frethylrin had said, deciding the Shroud's potential made it too important and dangerous to fall into the Empire's hands and they could make a decision after retrieving the schematics.
Frethylrin and Merrin met in the engine room and discussed trust. After Merrin threatened Frethylrin should she betray the crew, their conversation took a turn and became physical passion. While Merrin and Frethylrin were together, Kestis used his psychometry on Frethylrin's leather wrist and forearm wraps, seeing a memory of her love for Irei and the day she refused to leave. He decided that speaking of it would be a betrayal and he would trust Merrin's instincts about Frethylrin over his own doubts.
===Mission to Murkhana===
As Frethylrin and Merrin continued their emotional and physical connection, the Nightsister's no longer struggled with calling upon her magical ichor. Eventually, the Imperial shared that she had not yet truly deserted and gave her reasons for retaining access. Merrin was hurt but she kept Frethylrin's secret.
When the Mantis arrived at Murkhana, Junda interrupted one of their intimate moments with a crew call for a mission briefing. Frethylrin described to them the location they would be infiltrating, a facility just outside Murkhana City with a garrison and a prison. The plan was for her to use her codes to let Kestis and Merrin through the compound's curtain wall, then the pair would take on their usual roles—Merrin entering from above and Kestis from below—with Frethylrin there in case further codes were needed for the interior. Dritus once again questioned the mission and his concern was dismissed, but he landed their ship. While on reconnaissance with Merrin, Junda observed to her that being with Frethylrin seemed to be healing her and making her happy.
The mission hit an immediate complication when Frethylrin's use of the day's new security codes revealed that she had retained her access as if still on active duty with the Empire. After Merrin defended Frethylrin and her own choice to keep it secret, Kestis privately notified Junda that he knew Frethylrin was lying and she had not left despite Irei's request. Although Junda decided not to call off the mission, Dritus would constantly monitor Frethylrin's location via tracker in case something else went wrong.
The crew had not told Frethylrin beforehand that they were remotely unlocking all of the prison cells, creating a riot among the incarcerated beings who escaped and the stormtroopers guarding them. Frethylrin was alarmed but also found it hilarious. She shared a private moment with Merrin before Kestis and BD-1 joined them. On comms, Junda said the Shroud plans were inexplicably located in a prison cell. When the group approached it, Frethylrin let go of Merrin's hand as she discovered that Irei was alive, and thus she must have her own schematics. Frethylrin was both devastated and elated; neither she nor Irei had expected to see each other again.
However, Frethylrin had little time to process because the Fifth Brother had arrived in orbit, sent to interrogate Irei and pull her plans out of her mind. Frethylrin briefly introduced her to Kesis and Merrin as the inventor of the Shroud and "dead." At first, Irei refused to leave her cell, but as Kestis explained that they were working to keep the Shroud away from the Empire, the inventor agreed to let them take her away from the Empire at all cost. Through her expression, she made clear to Frethylrin that she would rather be killed and wished for her former lover to kill her rather than let the Empire take her.
Through the comms, Junda directed the quartet to a possible exit as they carried out a yelled conversation on the move. Merrin, although heartbroken and furious about what Frethylrin had hidden from her, still worked to protect the former couple. Kestis refused to give Frethylrin's blaster back and she claimed she would have told them about Irei. When the Nikto began to say they did not know how she felt, Kestis knocked down the Purge Troopers, stormtroopers, and prisoners in front of them. He did know how it felt to have to hide from the galaxy and believed Irei's invention would keep anyone else from having to feel the same. Frethylrin took Irei's hand and pleaded with her to keep moving and not get shot because she was needed. However, Irei rebuffed Frethylrin's promise to protect her and took Kestis' word instead.
When Kestis pulled Merrin aside for a moment, Frethylrin and Irei slipped away from them. At some point, Frethylrin removed the tracker that Dritus had been monitoring. She believed that staying close to Merrin and Kestis would compromise taking Irei to safety, since the engineer was a "walking target" at risk of being captured by an Inquisitor and the other two were prepared for battle.
Frethylrin's choice was a mistake for all of them. Most of her stolen armor was blown off or damaged, and Irei was badly wounded by blasters and burns from electro-weapons. Kestis had insisted that Merrin leave him behind to face the Fifth Brother and Junda had joined her Padawan. Shortly after Merrin returned to the Mantis, Frethylrin limped towards it with the dying Irei across her shoulders, shouting for a medbay; however, the ship did not have one, only basic supplies. Despite not being accustomed to healing, Merrin offered to help Irei through magick and the limited medical supplies with Frethylrin's support. When Irei's condition was stabilized, Frethylrin held Merrin.
When Dritus went to plead with Junda to help get the injured Kestis back to the Mantis and instead of trying to turn the Fifth Brother to the light side of the Force, the Latero put himself in front of Kestis when the Inquisitor swung Junda's lightsaber—at the cost of one of his four arms. Junda and Kestis carried Dritus back into the ship and Merrin yelled for Frethylrin to fly them. With the Jedi Master co-piloting, Frethylrin launched the Mantis and made the jump to hyperspace. When she was not flying the ship, she was at Irei's side, hoping for her to wake up.
===Better be able to explain===
After a day and a night of the crew keeping their distance from each other, Dritus emerged to confront Frethylrin. To prevent them from coming to blows as Dritus accused Frethylrin of leaving them all to die, resulting in losing his arm, Cal Kestis interrupted their shouting; however, he also demanded an explanation of her lies and omissions or she must leave the ship with Irei.
Frethylrin and the crew gathered in the map room, where she told them the truth about her personal history with Irei and with the Empire, and how she believed she had gotten Irei killed three years ago. She argued that she was always going to leave the Empire after securing the Shroud schematics, while Dritus fired back that she had knowingly and foolishly endangered his crew and it had cost him an arm. However, Kestis knew the sincerity of Frethylrin's emotions through his prior psychometry, and he wanted to protect Irei as a fellow Force-sensitive fugitive.
After Kestis asked Frethylrin what they were going to do about her and Irei being on the run, a larger confrontation broke out between Dritus, Kestis, Junda, and Merrin about their frustrations and divergent motivation in the long run and regarding what happened with Frethylrin. The yelling match was interrupted by Irei, whom Frethylrin quickly hastened to help walk, telling them to stop and focus on their mutual predicament. Junda concurred and decided they should lay low for forty-eight hours, get medical help for Dritus and Irei, and then meet back at the ship to make decisions with clearer heads.
===Recovery===
With Dritus piloting, the Stinger Mantis set down in a village on Zimara, a small moon in the Outer Rim. Frethylrin escorted Irei to get further medical services; afterwards, Irei wanted to rest at a local inn, while Frethylrin needed to talk to Merrin about their relationship. They had been on the moon for a full day when Frethylrin found Merrin soaking in the sulfur baths, and they talked through how the former had not meant to deceive the latter about Irei; she had genuinely believed her former girlfriend was dead and would have said something if she had known. When Frethylrin asked what Merrin did when feeling haunted, the Nightsister claimed that the ghosts on Dathomir were pretty and good kissers. More seriously, she asked if Frethylrin had loved and still loved Irei, and the Keshiri said it did not change how she felt about Merrin. The Nightsister was grateful for how being with Frethylrin had helped her find herself again, and thus how to be her own spark for her magick without Dathomir as the source. She asked Frethylrin for time to herself to figure out what was next for her. Frethylrin thought Merrin might mean to figure out what she had with Cal Kestis, but Merrin said that was just how Kestis was. The two women agreed they wanted to be friends and shared a last kiss.
When the deadline approached to meet back at the Mantis, Frethylrin and Merrin arrived together. With Dritus running late and seemingly deciding to stay, Cere Junda and Frethylrin prepared for takeoff as pilot and copilot, respectively; however, Dritus returned, to everyone's relief.
Frethylrin sat with Irei and Merrin as everyone discussed what to do about Qeris Lar and the Shroud. Irei did not trust him and thought she would be trading one prison for another if she went to him. Since Lar wanted the Shroud, Junda suggested that they give the Omwati a fake and then disappear; Dritus also pointed out that Lar was likely to kill Frethylrin and she agreed. On the way to Hosnian Prime, Irei and Kestis rigged a faux prototype that could be detonated while Merrin helped Frethylrin build new armor out of scrap that Dritus had taken from the Haxion Brood base.
===Confronting Qeris Lar===
As usual, Junda and Dritus remained on the Mantis while monitoring the others as they met with Lar. As predicted, when the team asked him to guarantee Frethylrin and Irei's safety in exchange for "prototype," he claimed they would have to renegotiate while leaving behind the plans, the prototype, and Irei herself to work on the Shroud. He also threatened to tell the Imperials where to find Frethylrin. After Merrin reiterated that they would not change their minds, Lar took out a small blaster and shot Frethylrin in the chest. Although her newly rigged armor protected her, she was thrown across the room and remained unconscious through the subsequent events. Junda and Dritus recorded Lar describing his intent to sell mirkanite to the Empire as it produced the Shroud en masse, Merrin and Kestis battled Lar and his hired Haxion Brood guards, and the Fifth Brother arrived thanks to a tracker the Empire had hidden on Irei.
Frethylrin regained consciousness after Irei set off an explosion that took out the Inquisitor and collapsed much of the room. Seeing that Merrin lay injured and not breathing, Irei helped Frethylrin over to her. She spoke to and gently touched Merrin, who revived.
===Parting ways===
Regrouping on the Stinger Mantis, Cere Junda took care of the tracker on Irei and Greez Dritus flew a meandering route to Zimara to throw off anyone who may be trailing Irei and Chellwinark Frethylrin, although the Imperial channels believed everyone had died in the explosion. The former couple had decided to go into hiding together using Frethylrin's network and Irei's technical capabilities; however, they had both changed too much to resume their old relationship and Frethylrin had met Merrin.
Before arriving on Zimara, Frethylrin and Irei decided they wanted to ask Merrin to come with them. In the engine room of the Stinger Mantis, Frethylrin and Merrin helped patch each other's wounds while Irei repaired Frethylrin's damaged leather jacket before leaving them to discuss the offer. Merrin appreciated it, but the Mantis was home and she did not want to hide.
As Frethylrin and Irei prepared to leave the ship, Junda told Dritus that she believed the two would be seeds that grew the revolution against the Empire. Frethylrin confirmed with Dritus that they would be able to get in contact if needed through the holotable, which Irei had repaired. As Frethylrin hugged Kestis goodbye, she noted that Merrin could take care of herself, but Kestis did not need her to finish speaking before he understood that she wanted him to look out for Merrin. Frethylrin had a private goodbye with Merrin before she and Irei left the Stinger Mantis on the sunless side of Zimara.
==Personality and traits==
After years with the Empire, Chellwinark Frethylrin grew accustomed to lying and not trusting anyone. Her dishonesty with the Mantis crew primarily took the form of withholding critical information, but she also misled them with falsehoods, such as claiming she had already deserted the Empire before joining them. More than once after she had admitted to lying, she told Merrin "you have to believe me" despite previously demonstrating reasons to doubt her.
She carried herself with a swagger and presented herself with confidence, self-assurance, and enough charm that Cal Kestis found her likable despite suspecting she was not trustworthy before she revealed the extent of her duplicity. Although she often acted in a lighthearted and joking manner with the Stinger Mantis crew, such as describing their luxury yacht as "pretty cute," she grew serious when she described the eco-collapse that had occurred on Murkhana due to the Clone Wars and cried throughout telling them her true history.
Frethylrin's shaggy purple hair was cut above her shoulders, short in the front with thin curls at the base of her neck, but thick and long on top and in the back—what Cal Kestis characterized as a mullet. She had red eyes and lavender skin with dusky-purple freckles across her nose and on her chest, which was flat and smooth with old scars wrapped around it. Although her face and her waist were soft, she had strong features, including a jutting chin, full and dark lips, a wide back and shoulders, curved hips, and strong thighs. She was taller and broader than Merrin, who estimated Greez Dritus's height as about one-third of Frethylrin's. Her voice was in the soprano range and she had what Merrin considered to be a sharp accent. When she was nervous, she spoke quickly and quietly.
==Skills and abilities==
During Frethylrin's work as an analyst for the Empire, she specialized in Outer Rim troop deployments: determining how many people to send, where to send them, when to pull them out or send more. She was skilled in data analysis and manipulation, such as how to conceal her actual location with multiple locator beacons and identify illegal activity to conceal from the Empire.
Frethylrin had piloting experience from flying research and reconnaissance for the Empire, mostly in what she called her "little analyst solo ride." She was competent enough to fly the Stinger Mantis, a ship with controls customized for Greez Dritus' four-armed piloting, in an emergency and without hesitation.
==Behind the scenes==
Chellwinark "Fret" Frethylrin appeared in the novel Jedi: Battle Scars, written by Sam Maggs and published by Random House Worlds on March 7, 2023. Prior to the novel's publication, Fret was first indirectly mentioned as an "Imperial deserter" in two releases on December 1, 2022: by Kristin Baver in that day's episode of This Week! in Star Wars and in the official jacket copy revealed on StarWars.com. On February 22, 2023, IGN shared an excerpt from the novel and its audiobook of Fret and Merrin's first meeting.
==Appearances==
*Jedi: Battle Scars 
==Sources==
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*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
==External links==
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Category:Females
Category:Galactic Empire deserters
Category:Imperial Intelligence personnel of the Galactic Empire
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:Keshiri
Category:LGBTQIA+ individuals