Anika Nolan

Anika is a Force-sensitive Human female born on Nynara in 1831 ABY. She was raised from birth to be a Sith Inquisitor, and her skillset was developed to match this. Anika’s fighting style originated from the variant of Makashi taught to her by her instructor, Darth Xanesh, which was specialized for use with dual curved blades. She later combined it with elements of many other forms, namely Niman, as she began to develop her form outside of Xanesh’s watchful eye. From her husband, she would also learn the traditional Makashi moveset.

In 1853, she would be sent to Coruscant to hide information about the recently impeached Chancellor Dem Raltis and his alliance with Kaalma, and to assassinate Senator Devera Nolan of Naboo. Although the first portion of her mission was a mild success, the second was not. She managed to develop feelings for the senator, and, after spending a great deal of time with a number of Jedi, the first major cracks in her allegiance to the Sith began to form. In 1855, her notions of distrust towards Kaalma became solidified when the Dark Lady used her young, barely trained daughter, Nadyri, as bait to lure the Republic away from Coruscant. She was with Nadyri on Had Abaddon as Kaalma left, telling the young princess to let the Jedi take her with them. Following the Siege of Coruscant, she would go on a brief hiatus, hastily marrying Nolan and reconsidering her loyalties to the Sith- though she maintained that her loyalty was, ultimately, with her people.

Shorly after the siege, she and Nolan conducted a hasty wedding ceremony on a Republic-controlled world. The initial years of their marriage were difficult, as it was painstaking to find time to spend together. Despite this, she gave birth to their son, Zaev Nolan, in 1858. She later expressed her regret for not being able to spend enough time with her son when he was young, as he was kept in Rhol Yan for the entirety of his early life.

Throughout the late 1850s, she worked to climb the ranks of the Sith, becoming Grand Inquisitor in 1857, replacing her master, Darth Xanesh, who had been promoted out of the position. During this time she had also been working slowly, but surely, against Kaalma. She, her husband, Adari Kassal, Cassis Tovar formed the Dawn Collective in 1859. The Collective remained a secret until the time of the Listehol Campaign, with Anika using her position to her advantage and preventing any information from reaching the wrong ears. Xanesh, who had also had a hand in the the Collective's founding, betrayed her to Kaalma, though the Dark Lady chose not to take action. If anything, she was interested to see how it turned out.

Although she was the one to warn the Republic of the Yuuzhan Vong, her role in the war was rather small. Her primary contribution was the sparking of a large-scale mutiny throughout the Imperial fleets stationed in the Outer Rim. The mutinied ships were sent to help the Republic in the fight against the Vong.

When the Listehol Campaign began in 1868, she leaked a number of pressure points to the Collective forces. During the Second Battle of Dromund Kaas later that year, she and Cassis Tovar had their showdown with Kaalma. Although she was horribly wounded in the encounter, she was able to gather enough strength to sneak up behind Kaalma as she was distracted and skewer her with the late Princess Nadyri's lightsaber. Anika was rushed back to friendly space, where she was able to get emergency care, and then to Rhol Yan so she could recover with her family.

After this, she went into exile on Tatooine. After several months, Kaalma appeared at her door, disheveled, confused, and carrying an old, cobalt blue lightsaber. After a group of bounty hunters arrive asking for a fight, she scares them away and decides to bring Kaalma to a sorceress in Mos Taike, and the sorceress reveals that the empress’ mind has been clouded by what she experienced while in Xanesh’s captivity, and tells her to find her home and meditate there. While on the way to the nearby Mos Shuuta to get a ship offworld, they are attacked by a krayt dragon. While they defeat the dragon, Anika is maimed within an inch of her life, and her droid, BX-09, finishes the drive up to the city. She regains consciousness after several days, and finds that she is completely alone, save for the nurses and medical droids to which her care has been entrusted.

Even though her plan is about to be a success, her loneliness feeds into a notion that she was somehow wrong in her decision to betray everything she had known, wondering if there could have been a better way. Eventually, Devera is allowed time to visit her, and he sifts through all the mail which had accumulated beside her bed. She is apathetic towards most of it, but she allows him to open a package from Kaalma, containing a pearl harvested from the dragon they had killed on Tatooine and a note wishing her luck and apologizing for destroying her lightsabers on Dromund Kaas.

After a year in the hospital, she is able to make a full recovery, and when Tovar offers her a place in the Jedi Order, she accepts, later using the krayt pearl to build a new lightsaber with a rare viridian blade. By 1875, she had taken Ralu Tovar as her Padawan.