Kreia

Kreia ˈkreɪə was an unconventional and highly controversial Force-sensitive who took upon herself to build a new Jedi Order of her vision in freeing the galaxy's sentient beings from being enslaved to the Force. A Human female Jedi Master and historian, Kreia wished to gain a full understanding of the Force, but her unconventional and novel approaches—including her training of the Jedi Knight Revan, who turned against the Jedi and founded a new Sith Empire—prompted a perturbed Jedi Council to exile her from the Jedi Order. Kreia's quest indeed led her astray; she sought contrast with the Jedi ways by opening herself up to the dark side of the Force, but she was overwhelmed by the darkness on the Sith world of Malachor V, where the Mandalorian Wars that Revan waged culminated in the deadly activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon. The echoes of the Malachor tragedy proved overbearing, transforming Kreia into the bitter Sith Lord Darth Traya ˈtreɪə.

While Revan had reclaimed his Jedi identity, helping to dismantle the Sith Empire of his own creation in the Jedi Civil War before setting for the Unknown Regions in search of the True Sith, Darth Traya consolidated a Sith Order of her own. And yet, she was betrayed once more by her own Sith apprentices, Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion—both ever-slavishly hungry for power and eager to spread death and suffering (respectively, to a certain degree) across the universe. Watching powerlessly as the two Sith Lords then led the First Jedi Purge, thereby reducing the entirety of The Jedi Order to all but a handful of individuals scattered throughout the known galaxy, Traya soon came to believe that neither the Jedi nor the Sith deserved to win their seemingly-endless war, as both groups stripped their members of all individuality and reduced them to mere dependents of the Force who then ceaselessly wrought war and devastation across the galaxy. But most of all, her experiences caused her to develop a deep-seated hatred for The Force itself and all that it represented on a philosophical level and yearn for its destruction, as she felt this would emancipate the universe from the sort of existential enslavement she believed the Force subjected it, and all its inhabitants, to. Thus, Darth Traya renounced her Sith title and persona and reverted once more to her previous identity of "Kreia"—now neither Sith nor Jedi nor anything in between, but rather something altogether outside that simplistic dichotomy.

She then found "the Jedi Exile," a Human woman named Meetra Surik, whom Kreia saw was the opposite of Revan and his mighty power in the Force. Surik the Exile was instead a void of sorts, a wound in the Force itself, having unconsciously severed her connection to it in the climax of the Battle of Malachor V, carrying with her the countless deaths and unmitigated suffering she undeniably helped wreak in its wake. As the Jedi Council, believing to have seen the "death of the Force" within Surik, cast her out of the Order, Kreia decided to seize upon this serendipitous opportunity and take her on as a student. Through the Exile, Kreia intended to rid the universe of the Force and its will, beginning with the extermination of Darths Nihilus and Sion as well as the three Jedi Council members who survived the purge. As Kreia and Surik the Exile grew acquainted with each other, the latter—who easily formed powerful bonds in the Force with others—grew increasingly attached to her new mentor, to the extent that the two became symbionts; so bonded to one another through the Force that they felt each other's pain and their lives became permanently intertwined. Aboard the light freighter Ebon Hawk, Kreia also manipulated those who would soon find themselves traveling alongside Surik and herself as part of her plans for Surik.

Kreia would aid Surik in locating Jedi Masters Vrook Lamar, Kavar, and Zez-Kai Ell—who had been the ones to originally exile Surik after refusing to fight both the Mandalorians and the Sith, partly out of fear and partly out of a zealous devotion to the prevailing Jedi dogma of their era. Surik convinced the Masters to convene within the ruins of The Dantooine Jedi Enclave, although they would deny that Surik, in letting go of the Force, had become master of her own destiny and was thus able to make her own choices independent of the Force and its seemingly inevitable Will; and declare that Surik's ability to so effortlessly bond with others meant that others grew far too easily attached to her, and would likewise carry all the pain and suffering and death of Malachor V, thereby becoming susceptible to becoming imbalanced themselves, sharing their fates with the fate of Surik herself.

Frustrated at what she perceived to be the Masters' blindness, Kreia revealed her identity as the Jedi Outcast Kreia and former-Sith Lord Darth Traya and passed her judgment on the Jedi Masters, severing their own bonds to the Force. However, as they were themselves far too attached to the Force to survive without it, the Jedi died, passing on from the Living Force to the Cosmic Force. Shortly after, Kreia traveled to the secret Jedi Academy on Telos IV and exposed Jedi Master Atris' fall to the dark side, who was then confronted by Surik. After Surik persuaded Atris to let go of her dark side teachings and leave to find her human self once more, she confronted and destroyed Darth Nihilus over Telos. With the last echoes of her past laid to rest, Surik journeyed to Malachor V to confront Kreia and face her final test.

On Malachor V, Kreia once more assumed the role of Darth Traya. Asserting her dominance over Darth Sion, Traya made preparations for Surik's final test—the death of the past itself. After Surik made her way through the numerous Sith minions on Malachor V, she found Traya within the Trayus Core. Traya explained her overall goal to free the universe from the Force and its influence, as well as her hatred for it and its control over every single being's destiny. Traya told Surik that she must let go of everything other than herself to achieve her full potential: to be a truly freed individual—to live and be herself in the most pure form possible. Traya then delivered unto Surik an ultimatum: either kill her, or Traya would kill Surik. Thus, Surik was forced to betray her now-former master as her now-former master did her, thus severing their ties and letting go of each other. Ultimately, Surik would defeat Traya in the depths of the Trayus Academy, granting her death per the mentor's will. But before Traya died, she imparted a final gift—seeing through the fabrics of the Force, she told Surik of her visions of her, her companions', and indeed the entire galaxy's future.

Surik then proceeded to destroy the Trayus Academy, bringing an end to its call of darkness before leaving to the Unknown Regions in search of Kreia's former student, Revan. Together, they would face the True Sith Emperor, Vitiate. Although they would be killed by the Sith's enforcers, Surik and Revan clung on as spirits before eventually choosing to let go of themselves for the fate of the galaxy. As Force ghosts, they passed on their legacies to the Commander of the Eternal Alliance, an individual whose organization became independent of the Force-based dogma of the Jedi and Sith Orders, uniting people of differing allegiances to forge a new galaxy free of authorities such as Emperors and wars such as the war against Zakuul. However, this apparent progress would be undone by the Third Galactic War and the New Sith Wars, as well as the era of the Sith Rule of Two. Thus, despite Kreia's ambition, the galaxy would inevitably find itself embroiled in a series of highly destructive conflicts between the light and dark sides of the Force once more.

Text and facts from the “Kreia” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.