Astraal Vao

Astraal Vao was a Rutian Twi'lek female who was born before 126 ABY. When she was a young child, she and her twin brother, Shado, were traveling in their parents' starship when it crashed onto the surface of the planet Vendaxa. Both of her parents were killed, and Vao and her brother were discovered and taken in by the humanitarian Imperial Mission. The Jedi Master Wolf Sazen found them years later and realized that they were both Force-sensitive; Shado joined the Jedi Order, but Astraal Vao felt that her destiny lay with the Mission. She became an Imperial Missionary and dedicated her life to helping others.

When the Empire that the Mission served was seized by the One Sith, Emperor Roan Fel and his daughter, the Princess Marasiah, went into hiding. The young Fel began to infiltrate Imperial systems to ascertain who in the Empire was still loyal to her father, and Vao grew close to the Princess during this time. She defied the new Empire by protecting Fel from Imperial agents who sought to capture her. In 137 ABY, the two were chased from the Imperial Mission temple on Socorro by the Sith Hand Darth Talon and secured passage offworld on the Mynock, a ship belonging to the bounty hunter Cade Skywalker. Vao arranged to rendezvous with her brother on Vendaxa, but Talon followed them and attacked. Shado and Sazen joined forces with Fel and the Mynock's crew to subdue her, but sabotage she had committed on the ship left them temporarily grounded.

Vao attempted to procure aid from Konrad Rus, the Imperial Mission's leader, but reinforcements came from another source, as the Fel-loyal Imperial Knights Antares Draco and Ganner Krieg arrived just before a legion of Sith. The ensuing battle saw the Princess mortally wounded, and Vao tended to her friend aboard the Mynock. When they were able to evacuate the planet, rising tensions between Skywalker, the Imperial Knights, and the Jedi nearly led to a brawl. Vao calmed the situation down and convinced Draco to allow Skywalker to heal the Princess. They arrived at Emperor Fel's fortress world of Bastion soon after, and Vao tried to persuade her brother to remain with the Empire-in-exile. Shado declined, however, and departed the planet.

Rutian referred to one of the many skin tones of the Twi'lek species, generally denoting a color somewhere between dark blue and aquamarine. Twi'leks, sometimes referred to disparagingly as "Tail-heads", were an omnivorous humanoid species originating from the planet Ryloth. They tended to eat cultivated molds, fungi, and rycrit meat. Their distinctive features included colorful skin, which varied in pigment from individual to individual, and a pair of shapely prehensile tentacles that grew from the base of their skulls. The tentacles, called "brain-tails", "lekku", "tchun-tchin", or "head-tails", were advanced organs used for communication and cognitive functions. Twi'leks possessed a fairly standard humanoid vocal structure and were capable of learning most alien languages; however, they usually preferred their native language of Twi'leki, which incorporated subtle movement of the lekku. When they wished, they could even communicate in complete secrecy using their versatile brain-tails. Twi'lek females were often used as slaves or dancers because of their beauty.

The Imperial Mission was a missionary society that peacefully provided aid to people and planets, and to help those generally in poverty. Established under the guise of the Imperial Remnant and would in-turn fall under the Fel Empire, that was formed after the Second Galactic Civil War.

Astraal Vao felt indebted to the Imperial Mission after it adopted and raised her and her brother, and she turned down an offer to be trained as a Jedi so that she could become a Missionary and live by its humanitarian ideals. The Mission was dedicated to aiding needy people throughout the galaxy, and Vao epitomized the kind of person whom the Mission tried to attract. She was intelligent, gentle, and very faithful to the Mission, where she believed her destiny lay. After years of devoted service, she grew close to Konrad Rus and was able to confide in him. To Vao, Rus embodied everything to which she had dedicated her life. She remained naive to the fact that he himself confided in Darth Krayt, however.

Although she was highly Force-sensitive, Vao had no formal training.

The One Sith, also known as the New Sith Order, was a sect of dark side warriors and devotees founded by the self proclaimed Darth Krayt that followed a revised doctrine of the Sith ways.

The Fel Empire, also called the Galactic Empire, Reborn Empire, Fel Imperium, New Empire or simply the Empire, was a constitutional hereditary monarchy in the Outer Rim Territories and the restoration of the First Galactic Empire, formed some time after 44 ABY following the ascension of Jagged Fel to the throne after decades of interregnum. It was formed from the Imperial Remnant, the primary successor state of the Old Empire which was established in 12 ABY.

The Fel regime shared many characteristics with the original version of the Empire as ruled by former Galactic Emperor Palpatine, such as the Council of Moffs, centralized rule, the Force-sensitivity of the Emperor, and, to a certain extent, xenophobia. However, unlike Palpatine, a Sith Lord steeped in the dark side of the Force, the Fels encouraged the proliferation of light side Force-users, even forming a Jedi Order analogue known as the Imperial Knights.

The Empire-in-exile, also known as the "true" Empire, the Imperial Remnant, the Fel Imperium, or the Bastion resistance by Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire, was the faction of the former Fel Empire that remained loyal to Emperor Roan Fel following the One Sith coup in 130 ABY.