Mon Mothma

Mon Mothma, also known affectionately as Double-M, was a human female Chandrilan politician and revolutionary leader who was one of the Alliance to Restore the Republic's founding members and its civilian leader. During the final decades of the Galactic Republic Era, Mothma represented her homeworld of Chandrila in the Republic Senate and, in this role, was an outspoken advocate of peace and democracy during the Clone Wars, a pan-galactic conflict between the Republic and its splinter state, the Confederacy of Independent Systems. After the reorganization of the Republic into the Galactic Empire at the end of the war, Mothma retained her seat in the now-Imperial Senate, but she began organizing underground resistance movements to combat the Imperial government alongside militant Luthen Rael and fellow senator Bail Organa of Alderaan. After years of leading a double life, Mothma became the impetus for the official establishment of the Rebel Alliance by resigning from the Senate, assuming leadership as Chancellor of the newly-established Rebel Alliance. The Rebellion, led by her, overthrew the Empire in the Galactic Civil War and restored the Old Republic as the nascent New Republic, of which Mothma was its first Chancellor.

In accordance with Chandrilan custom, Mothma was betrothed to Perrin Fertha, and the pair moved to the galactic capital Coruscant, where she began her tenure as senator of her homeworld, forming ties with several fellow progressively-minded senators, including Organa, Onaconda Farr of Rodia, and later, Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Together, they strived to maintain the Republic's democratic ideals and loyalty to the government amidst the burgeoning Separatist Crisis. Despite their faction's efforts to alleviate the crisis, the Republic entered the Clone Wars. Mothma and her allies were vehemently opposed to the war and often led efforts to de-escalate the conflict and bring about a diplomatic solution, but they faced opposition from militarist senators and corporate entities. Her faction's peace initiatives and anti-war legislation often saw failure and pushback, such as the murder of Senator Farr during controversy over a bid to overturn a military funding increase.

As the war drew to a close, Organa, Mothma, and Amidala petitioned the increasingly-authoritarian Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine to rescind his executive wartime powers following the end of the war. To their horror, Palpatine—secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—instead declared the Jedi Order guilty of treason and announced that he would transform the Republic into an Empire. Under the new regime, Mothma continued to serve in the now-Imperial Senate, and she and her allies did what they could to politically oppose Palpatine's reign, though she also involved herself in underground resistance. Carefully navigating various interests in both the Senate and the Rebellion, Mothma was pitted against numerous individuals, such as political rivals Ars Dangor and Sly Moore; Perrin, who had grown accustomed to the life of a consort; their daughter Leida, with whom she had an estranged relationship; and Rael, who grew increasingly violent. Mothma, however, found comfort with individuals including Organa, his wife, Breha, their daughter, Leia, her cousin, Vel Sartha, and her childhood friend, Tay Kolma. To hide her involvement with Rael's rebel network from the Empire, Mothma betrothed her daughter to Stekan Sculdun, son of Chandrilan oligarch Davo Sculdun.

As the Empire increased its efforts to crack down on various rebel cells, Mothma continued with her struggle but found her influence diminishing and chances for peaceful settlement gone. When the Empire massacred peaceful protestors on the planet Ghorman, Mothma publicly denounced the Empire and resigned from the Senate, with the growing Rebellion formally unified as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The fugitive Mothma began working directly with the Alliance. As the conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire grew, large-scale warfare became inevitable. Upon receiving intel that the Empire was constructing a planet-killing superweapon, Mothma sanctioned the recruitment of Jyn Erso, who led the Rogue One squadron in stealing the Death Star plans during the Battle of Scarif. After the Battle of Yavin saw the battle station's destruction, Mothma led the Alliance through its struggle, helping plan the Battle of Endor with the Alliance High Command, which saw the apparent death of Emperor Palpatine and left the Empire in chaos.

In Endor's immediate aftermath, the Rebel Alliance restored the Old Republic as the New Republic and resumed the Galactic Senate as the New Republic Senate on Chandrila. Mothma was elected as Chancellor, and intended to do away with the emergency wartime powers she inherited from Palpatine and demilitarize the New Republic Defense Fleet by ninety percent while leaving the defense of individual planets to themselves. When the war finally came to an end, the Republic signed the Galactic Concordance with the Empire, and the Republic passed the Military Disarmament Act. The looming prospect of Grand Admiral Thrawn's return to the galaxy was a watershed moment in her leadership. The end of Mothma's chancellery brought a close to a period of unity in the Republic, with several political factions, such as the Centrists and the Populists, breaking out in disagreement over the best future for the new government.

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