Arden Lyn

Arden Lyn was a female Human and master of Teräs Käsi who belonged to the Followers of Palawa. This ancient Dark Jedi, along with her fellow Padawans, joined the Legions of Lettow upon the advent of the First Great Schism between Force users, and became the lover of Xendor, head of the Legions. When Xendor was killed during the conflict, Lyn ascended to leadership of the Legions, although she was confronted by Jedi Master Awdrysta Pina. Lyn defeated Pina with a powerful Kashi Mer talisman, but the Jedi Master stopped Lyn's heart before being destroyed, sending the martial artist into a Force trance.

25,000 years later, in 4 BBY, at the end of the Great Jedi Purge, Lyn was reawakened by scouts on Irkalla in the Unknown Regions, before being confronted by three of Darth Sidious's Inquisitors: Antinnis Tremayne, Ameesa Darys, and Grand Inquisitor Laddinare Torbin. After fighting off Tremayne and killing Darys, Lyn was maimed by Torbin, who spared her life so that she could serve Sidious as an Emperor's Hand. Lyn did so for a while, spurred on by the Sidious's promise that he would resurrect Xendor from the dead. When she finally came to accept that Sidious had been lying, she turned rogue, and aided Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin in his attempt to abduct Sidious. The endeavor failed, and Lyn was forced to flee.

Lyn enlisted students to her cause, training them with the intent of eventually turning them against the Emperor. At least three were identified. One of her students was the notorious gaderffii-wielding Hoar, a Tusken Raider from Tatooine who was acclaimed as the greatest fighter of his people as well as a member of the Tusken splinter group Grave Tuskens. She instructed him in the arts of Teräs Käsi, and he in turn fought to defeat her enemies, hoping to gain her favor. Also amongst her recruits were the Gamorrean Thok, whose competitive nature was appealed to when faced with the prospect of battling members of the Alliance, and when he, per Gamorr tradition, served her after she bested him in a close battle after she freed him from prison. Her third student was a Force-sensitive stormtrooper known only as 17786, whose identity was largely a mystery other than being the offspring of Grand Admiral Nial Declann. Among Lyn's targets was the Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker, the son of Darth Vader, who was at that time struggling against the temptations of the dark side. Lyn sought to capitalize on Skywalker's inner conflict while planning to destroy him. When the Followers of Palawa, still in existence during the Imperial Period, were attacked on Bunduki by an Imperial detachment led by the Dark Jedi Yun, Lyn entered the fray, attacking both the Palawan monks, with whom she had some old scores to settle, and the Imperial forces. Secretly, however, she had intended to use her students to overthrow Sidious. However, her plans failed before they could come to fruition, as Mara Jade, another Emperor's Hand, reported on her activities to the Emperor, forcing her alongside Thok and 17786 to go into hiding (Hoar had left the group by this time after he disobeyed a direct order to kill Skywalker).

Lyn was later contacted by Grand Admiral Zaarin, himself planning a coup against the Emperor, who hoped that the master of Teräs Käsi would catch the Emperor off-guard during his planned coup of the Empire. Over Imperial Center, Zaarin's forces disabled the Emperor's Imperial-class Star Destroyer Majestic, which was then boarded. Lyn used her powers to abduct the Emperor, although the conspirators' gambit was eventually foiled due to the arrival of Imperial forces, amongst them Inquisitor Tremayne. With the arrival of Vice Admiral Thrawn and his flagship, the Vanguard, Zaarin's forces were forced to flee Imperial Center. As Lyn fled in the wake of the botched coup, she was pursued by Tremayne, who was still resentful over his loss to her years prior. She began focusing on finding the Kashi Mer talisman that had afforded her earlier success, and had allowed her to cheat death

Teräs Käsi, or "steel hand" in Basic, was a deadly and mystical martial art discipline renowned throughout the galaxy for its lethality.

A destructive individual, Lyn and her lover Xendor wreaked havoc and tumult throughout the galaxy during the First Great Schism. After her reawakening by the Inquisitors, Lyn's mind was highly unstable, and she had been driven insane. When Darth Sidious recruited her to his cause, he appealed to her love for the long-dead Xendor, promising to bring him back to life. Although initially swayed by Sidious's words, Lyn eventually came to the realization that the Emperor had tricked her, and at the first opportunity, turned on him. Lyn was also adept at recruiting students to her cause, as she demonstrated after turning rogue. When faced with a specific opponent to hunt down and confront, Lyn looked for weaknesses to exploit.

As a master of Teräs Käsi, Lyn wielded the powers of the Force with malevolence. Her powers were heightened through the use of a Kashi Mer talisman, which allowed her to destroy a Jedi Master. Her skills served her well when faced with Force-adept opponents, such as the Inquisitors, as she was able to fight off three of them at once, even killing Inquisitor Darys in the process. In addition to her Teräs Käsi skills, Lyn was able to harness sound energy, conjuring powerful sonic shock waves. Lyn often used her Force powers and martial arts skills in conjunction with her prosthetic droid arm, which she could use to shoot bolts of energy. She was apparently skilled enough to, along with her students Thok and 17786, subdue and capture Darth Sidious himself.

Lyn's other powers included Battlemind, Force valor, Force grip and push, and Force healing. Lyn could also speak, read, and write Bunduki, as well as Old Galactic Standard. She could also repair items and disable various devices. It was suggested by Jedi Master Tionne Solusar, when writing about Lyn during the Second Galactic Civil War, that Lyn's study of Palawan trance techniques allowed her to survive Master Pina's morichro attack at the end of the First Great Schism.