Aryn Leneer

Aryn Leneer was a female Human Jedi Knight and former Padawan of Master Ven Zallow. Leneer was immensely talented in the ways of the Force and was particularly noted for her proficiency in Force empathy. When the Sacking of Coruscant occurred, Leneer fled Alderaan against the wishes of the Jedi High Council, sought the man responsible for the death of her master and fought him in a vicious duel; Darth Malgus. The Sith Lord eventually subdued her with his powers but spared her life. The Jedi High Council disowned Leneer for her actions.
==Biography==
===Early life===
A Force-sensitive Human orphaned on the planet Balmorra, Aryn Leneer was discovered by Jedi Master Ven Zallow at an early age and taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for induction into the Jedi Order and training in the ways of the Force. Zallow took over Leneer's training immediately, and she quickly learned that her life was to be dedicated solely to the Order and its teachings. Overtime, Leneer developed a strong, emotional bond with Master Zallow, as she perceived him not only as a teacher, but as a father. Leneer constructed multiple lightsabers; her first one was a blue-bladed lightsaber, another one was a yellow-hued bladed lightsaber, and the last one was a green-bladed lightsaber.
===Great Galactic War===
====Comrade of Havoc Squad====
Leneer was eventually made a Jedi Knight and was a member of Havoc Squad with Zeerid Korr in the early days of the Great Galactic War as she fought against the Sith Empire on behalf of the Galactic Republic. A formidable and well honed combatant with a lightsaber she was well respected by her squad mates. Aside from her skill with a lightsaber, Leneer developed her innate empathic abilities during the war, using it to booster morale among her comrades. Although she never consumed alcohol she would go to the cantinas with Havoc Squad after battles and training being a steadfast comrade and friend and would often be the shoulder to cry on after a nights hard drinking. Leneer, in particular, bonded with Korr when she aided him in coping with the death of his wife and the crippling of his daughter, Arra Yooms.
====Onslaught of the Empire====
When the Imperial fleet invaded the planet Alderaan, Leneer fought alongside the Alderaanian armed forces to hold off the Imperial attack. Wielding her lightsaber and the Force, Leneer fought besides Jedi Knight Satele Shan and helped turn the tide in order to repel the invasion. When Alderaan was secured, Leneer joined Jedi Shan as part of the Republic's delegation for the signing of a peace treaty with the Sith Empire. Led by Master Dar'Nala and Senator Paran Am-Ris, Leneer was stationed within the High Council building on Alderaan with fellow Knight Syo Bakarn. She was uncomfortable being stationed near so many Sith, but used Zallow's teachings to calm herself. When she detected her former master's death through the Force, she realized that the Sith had betrayed the Republic and attacked Coruscant, leading to the death of Master Zallow and many other Jedi.
After a brief outburst involving an attack on members of the Sith delegation, Leneer was informed that the Jedi were currently negotiating for the Sith to leave Coruscant peacefully. Leneer became extremely angry with the terms, believing that the Sith attack showed that they were clearly not interested in peace and that the war should continue. She retired to her room where she dealt with the shock of her master's death. She then resolved to track down and kill the man who murdered her master. Although Syo attempted to convince her not to leave, she managed to escape the High Council building and depart for Eeseen spaceport. Despite being spotted by Jedi Vollen Sor and his Padawan Keevo, Leneer managed to secure passage off planet.
====A quest for vengeance====
Leneer decided that to get through the Sith blockade around Coruscant, she would need an extremely skilled pilot. Her attention then turned to the man who would fit the bill: Zeerid Korr. She began to search for him and located him outside his sister-in-law's apartment on the planet Vulta. Hitching a ride aboard the Fatman, Korr's ship, Leneer made it to Coruscant as part of her mission to discover her master's killer. Their ship was detected and shot down in Coruscant's atmosphere, but she used her strong force abilities to slow her and Zeerid's fall and they landed safely on the surface. Leneer proceeded to take Korr through the Works, an industrial area of Coruscant and managed to enter the Temple. Finding the Jedi Temple in ruins, Leneer located her astromech droid T7-01 and also found a recording of her master's death. She pieced together the clues as to her master's killer, discovering that it was the dreaded Darth Malgus who had led the attack. She later went back to the ruins of the Temple without Korr, who was busy scouting a spaceport to escape the planet through, and she entered into a fierce duel with the Sith Lord, who had also returned to the Temple. Following a lengthy display of athleticism, she fought to a draw and left the battle early when Zeerid learned where she was and interrupted the combat, rescuing her. Leneer, who was full of hate at that time, thought she could inflict more pain by killing Malgus' lover, Eleena Daru. Korr realized her plan and tried to convince her otherwise, but she refused to listen to him. Korr then explained the plan to escape Coruscant to her.
The two entered the spaceport and located a shuttle that they could escape the planet with. However, Leneer then located Eleena Daru and captured her. She prepared to kill her, but then learned of Daru's harsh treatment under Malgus's control and realized that she was making a mistake, and that her master would not want her to kill an innocent being. After she let go of her excess anger and hunger for revenge, Leneer decided to spare the Twi'lek and face Malgus one last time. She convinced Zeerid to escape, who eventually agreed after sharing a kiss with Leneer. Aryn then faced off one on one with Malgus. They entered into an intense battle, with Aryn using her lightsaber skills to fight and eventually injure Malgus. During the battle, they taunted each other, with Leneer allowing Malgus to see that she had regained who she was and would not fall to the dark side. Malgus eventually used his Force abilities to gain an advantage, and overwhelmed Leneer with a blast of Force lightning and ended the battle. However, noticing how Daru had been spared, the Sith stopped short of killing the Jedi. Leneer later awoke, and realized that Malgus had spared her. After they each promised to kill one another if they ever met on the battlefield, Leneer escaped Coruscant.
===Exile===
For disobeying the Jedi High Council, Leneer was disowned from the Order though the option for her to rejoin was possibly open; records of Grand Master Satele Shan suggest that Leneer tendered her official resignation to the Order. Aryn then found and reunited with her long-time friend and former Republic officer, Zeerid Korr, who permanently settled on Dantooine. After locating his farm, she decided to stay with him and his daughter.
===Echoes and secrets===
====Return of an old foe====
At the beginning of 3626 BBY, during the third Galactic War, Leneer walked in on Zeerid Korr and his daughter as Korr was fixing an astromech droid when she felt a disturbance in the Force—Leneer announced that Malgus was coming to Dantooine. In that instant, she summoned her lightsaber. Darth Malgus wanted to break his bonds to Darth Vowrawn, the Sith Emperor, and realized that such psychological phenomena were practiced by the late Jedi of the Dantooine Enclave. Wishing to create a new future in spite of the Republic and the Empire, Malgus went to the enclave to obtain a relic that would help break his chains.
Leneer followed Malgus into the Jedi Enclave, although the former Jedi sensed that the Sith Lord had grown more powerful than the last time they dueled. After Malgus abandoned his Imperial medical droid, TL-30, at a crossroads within the enclave, Leneer caught up with the Sith Lord. Realizing that she could not bring down Malgus alone, Leneer fled the enclave.
====Return to the Jedi====
After ensuring that Zeerid Korr and Arra Yoom went to someplace safe, Leneer traveled to meet with Satele Shan. Within two weeks, after the former Sith Emperor Tenebrae was finally defeated within Shan's mind by the Commander of the Eternal Alliance and Task Force Nova, Leneer returned to Coruscant and told Shan of her latest encounter with Malgus.
Shan then asked Leneer how the issue should be dealt with, although Leneer argued that she herself was no longer responsible as she had left the Jedi Order. Shan stated that she herself had similarly let go of her ties to the Jedi, and Leneer realized that the Order had changed when one of Shan's students, Syl, referred to the Jedi Master only by her first name. Syl spoke from the door of the meeting room, telling Shan that Master Sal-Deron wished to see her. After the student left, Satele Shan ushered Leneer out of the room, repeating that the Jedi Order had changed alongside many of its members. The Jedi further stated that the responsibility she once held belonged to others, and they must learn of Leneer's story before the ex-Jedi returned to her family. As the pair left the room and walked down the hallway outside, Leneer questioned whether everything else had really changed just as the Jedi did. Shan answered affirmatively, saying that regardless of how hard they fought change, the Jedi had always been familiar with it. Shan also expressed her feeling that more change was yet to come.
Shan and Leneer then relayed the latter's news to Master Sal-Deron. Gnost-Dural of Task Force Nova also made the acquaintance of Leneer by way of Satele Shan. In a heated state, Leneer insisted that she could recognize Malgus—whom she referred to as "that maniac"—anywhere, and reaffirmed that the Sith Lord had been on Dantooine. The ex-Jedi further said that the longer the Jedi sat idle, remaining skeptical of her words, the more time Malgus would have to escape his misdeeds at the enclave.
A holographic recording of Leneer's secret meeting with the Jedi leadership was procured by the Empire's Intelligence officers, and Emperor Vowrawn was displeased at the news of Malgus' resurfacing. Seeing that the measures controlling the errant lord no longer functioned, the Imperial Reclamation Service proposed to deploy an excavation unit to search the enclave and capture Malgus, although Vowrawn wanted the rogue Sith's escape kept secret. Darth Rivix of the Empire's Hand thus proposed a covert operation to retrieve Malgus, and Imperial ground forces led by Colonel Barden Golah and Lord Ziliss were dispatched to the enclave ruins.
====Discussions on Odessen====
Gnost-Dural, Arn Peralun, and Leneer then met with the Alliance Commander in a private room at the Alliance base on Odessen to covertly discuss Malgus' visit to the Dantooine Enclave. Gnost-Dural said that he had already informed General Ardinondu Dipolus Daeruun of Task Force Nova about Leneer's encounter with Malgus. While Daeruun was preoccupied and could not join Leneer and the others on Odessen, he was ready to deploy military reinforcements where necessary. Nevertheless, the general and Gnost-Dural had agreed that the resurfacing of Malgus should be kept a secret in order to prevent panic on Dantooine, as well as to keep the Empire from knowing.
Master Gnost-Dural suggested that Peralun and the Alliance Commander search the Jedi Enclave and uncover what Malgus did there. While Leneer insisted that it would take more than them to take down Malgus, Gnost-Dural explained that Peralun had studied the enclave ruins before the incident, and the two had nearly defeated Malgus on Corellia recently. Seeing that the two were determined to carry out the mission by themselves, Leneer volunteered to transport them to Dantooine and guide them there. Stating that she would wait for them by a shuttle, the ex-Jedi left the room.
Gnost-Dural expressed his satisfaction that Leneer, with her knowledge of Dantooine and Malgus, offered to help, and that she would ensure her family's safety at all costs. The Jedi Master also reminded Peralun and the Commander that Aryn Leneer was no longer a part of the Jedi Order, and warned that her only responsibility was to safely transport them to Dantooine and back.
====Echoes of darkness====
As Leneer piloted the shuttle through hyperspace to Dantooine, the Alliance Commander asked her how she could sense Malgus before he had even set foot on Dantooine. Leneer explained that she had personally experienced Malgus' dark presence while fighting him on Coruscant, and she could never forget the Sith Lord's suffocating aura. Leneer went on to express her certainty that Gnost-Dural had told Peralun and the Commander about her past, and that while she did not wish to be involved in Jedi business again, she was determined to keep her family safe. Having arrived over Dantooine, Leneer set the shuttle down a distance from the enclave ruins to prevent drawing any unwanted attention.
Leneer, Peralun, and the Alliance Commander arrived to see Imperial forces occupying the vicinity of the Dantooine Enclave. To maintain their discretion while making their way to the enclave, the group followed Leneer's lead through hidden access tunnels. Leneer explained that the tunnels were built by locals to scavenge the Jedi ruins, a commonly-known secret that the government frowned upon. The group decided to find one such tunnel to enter the ruins, battling through local fauna, including several groups of xuvva, kath hounds, and zeldrates, as well as ambushes by Imperial soldiers. While they searched for a tunnel, the Alliance Commander asked of possible hostiles other than Imperials in the enclave ruins. Peralun speculated that little would be left in the abandoned site, but Leneer wryly asked if the fact that many local wildlife used the ruins as nesting grounds counted.
After eliminating three Imperial scout camps and nearby Imperial patrols, the latter a course of action proposed by Leneer to prevent the infantrymen from alerting their "buddies" of the group's presence or to learn of how they gained entry to the ruins, the group entered an access tunnel leading to the enclave. As they entered, the Commander reminded the group to be prepared for anything that might be waiting, and Leneer voiced her agreement.
Within the tunnels, the three cut through swarms of hostile skar'kla and encountered an abnormally large graul. After they felled the beast, Leneer expressed her concern that she had no resistance in the caves when she first followed Malgus; while she had seen a few creatures in the tunnels, none of them were hostile towards her. The graul's aggression, the ex-Jedi believed, was a result of Malgus' actions that tipped the balance of the Force there. While the Sith Lord may not have done so intentionally, the Force in the caves felt unnatural to Leneer, who felt the echoes of pain and suffering that resonated within the tunnels—pain and suffering that had been caused by betrayal and murder, ruthless acts of the Sith when they destroyed the enclave, and senseless deaths. Arn Peralun added that the Jedi of the enclave were capable of wiping others' minds and perhaps acts even worse, although Leneer interrupted Peralun to press on the hunt for Malgus.
The group entered the Dantooine Enclave and battled through dozens of its hostile security droid guardians, as well as some skar'kla swarmers. While doing so, the Alliance Commander asked Leneer why she knew so much about the enclave, and pointed out that she was no longer part of the Jedi Order. Leneer responded that the Jedi would not wipe one's mind of memories and knowledge of Jedi affairs if one left the Order, with Peralun adding that the Jedi no longer did such a thing.
====Secrets of the Enclave====
The three eventually traveled up to the enclave's ground level and confronted the Sith Lord Ziliss there, killing her two henchmen.
==Personality and traits==
Being an empath, emotions of every range were a daily part of Leneer's life. This gave her the unique ability to personalize with those she interacted with. She laughed easily and earnestly among friends and consoled those whose lives were filled with pain or sadness. She was a steadfast friend and and would stick by her companions during hard times as she proved by neither questioning or abandoning Zeerid Korr when she found out that he was smuggling engspice for the Exchange. She could also give in to her own emotions as when her anger over Master Zallow's death nearly overwhelmed her, but in the end she was able to keep true to herself and to her master's teachings. She was extremely close to Zallow, viewing him as a father, and also shared a friendship with fellow Jedi Syo Bakarn.
==Powers and abilities==
===A skilled combatant===
Aryn Leneer was a powerful Jedi and a remarkably skilled duelist. Leneer also understood most droidspeak.
Leneer demonstrated impressive telekinetic abilities. In one encounter, she swept two Sith adepts off their feet with a powerful wave of energy and sent them crashing into a pair of large statues which shattered into chunks from the impact. Leneer could also use her telekinetic abilities to disarm her opponents; in one encounter, she telekinetically forced the lightsaber from the grip of one of the Sith adepts into her own grip, disarming him in the process; in another encounter, she disarmed a skilled shooter, Eleena Daru, with her telekinetic abilities. Leneer was even able to seize control of a thrown lightsaber aimed for her from Darth Malgus's mental grasp with her telekinetic abilities mid-flight. Furthermore, Leneer could hurl large objects like missiles towards her targets with her telekinetic abilities; in one encounter, she hurled six cars of a cargo tram towards her targets with a gesture but barely an effort.
Leneer demonstrated impressive defensive abilities. During her confrontation with the Sith on Alderaan, when one of the Sith adepts aimed a powerful wave of energy at her, she was able to deflect it with a gesture in such a way that the wave split into two, with half toppling additional large statues nearby and half sending the other Sith adept packing ten paces away from her original position. During a confrontation with Malgus, Leneer comfortably deflected the shrapnel flying around her from the resultant destruction of stones from his impact on the ground with her defensive abilities. In addition, Leneer survived a fifty-kilometer dive from the space onto the rooftop of one of the skyscrapers on Coruscant without a parachute, using the Force to slow her descent from terminal velocity and protecting herself and her companion in the process, preventing their death upon landing. On another occasion, Leneer used her power to slow the descent and cushion the landing of a dropship she was aboard. Even though Malgus was able to overwhelm Leneer with his telekinetic abilities, sending her crashing into objects on several occasions during their confrontations, she was able to use her defensive abilities to blunt the impact of crash and prevent injuries to her on each occasion.
Years after the Great Galactic War, during her hunt for Malgus, Aryn Leneer stated that she was not ashamed to admit that she was no longer the fighter she once was.
===Proficient in the Force===
Leneer often used the Force to augment her speed and physical actions such as acrobatic maneuvers during duels and even leap over obstacles such as walls several meters high. During a burst of speed, Leneer could perceive and react to the environment around her so fast that a millisecond would seem like a minute to her, giving her ample time to perform an action in the span of a millisecond. To human eyes, she would appear as a blur of motion, existing simultaneously in multiple places.
Leneer was gifted in the use of Force empathy, which earned her the title of "Force Empath." This talent allowed Leneer to perceive her surroundings with great clarity and detail irrespective of their complexity. Leneer used this talent to strengthen her bond with her Jedi Master, Ven Zallow, to such a degree that she felt her master's pain as he died from a lightsaber wound at the hands of Malgus. Leneer was even able to perceive exactly where the lightsaber had pierced her master. Leneer could also use this talent to perceive emotions of others on a planetary scale by significantly amplifying her own senses; she performed this feat on Coruscant.
==Equipment==
As a Jedi, Aryn Leneer wielded a blue-bladed lightsaber with a blue hilt.The Essential Reader's Companion While being interrogated by Malgus during the Sacking of Coruscant, Vrath Xizor said that Leneer used a green-bladed lightsaber that belonged to her master, Ven Zallow. Later, the Jedi Knight used a yellow-bladed lightsaber to duel Malgus on Coruscant. Years after she left the Jedi Order, Leneer used her blue lightsaber during the hunt for Darth Malgus.
==Behind the scenes==
Aryn Leneer first appeared in the March 2011 novel The Old Republic: Deceived, by Paul S. Kemp. She was first pictured in the source book The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural, written by Robert Chestney and released in December of the same year. In Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught, the character is voiced by Moira Quirk. Aryn Leneer's theme debuted in the 2021 Update 6.3 to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
==Appearances==
*The Old Republic: Deceived 
*Star Wars: The Old Republic 
*Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught
*
*Star Wars: The Old Republic: Legacy of the Sith
==Sources==
*The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural 
*The Essential Reader's Companion
==Notes and references==
Category:Balmorrans
Category:Females
Category:Former Jedi
Category:Humans
Category:Individuals with she/her pronouns
Category:Pre-Ruusan Jedi Knights