Bastila Shan

Bastila Shan, daughter of Helena Shan and a hunter, was born on Talravin. Shan shared a loving and powerful relationship with her father. Despite this relationship, she was not on good terms with her mother, Helena, believing that her mother pushed her father into dangerous hunts so they could live in wealth. As a child, Shan was discovered to be exceptionally gifted with the Force. She did not wish to leave her father behind and join the Jedi Order, but her mother felt that the life she and her family led, one full of relentless travel and fruitless exertions, was not a good life for Shan.

She believed that her daughter's life would be better with the Jedi and gave her to them. Shan was separated from her family and began her training, quickly proving to be an exceptional Jedi Sentinel. Shan was discovered to be gifted with a Force power that would gain her considerable renown later in life: Battle meditation. It was a rare skill that increased the morale of her allies in battle and reduced her enemies' will to fight. This ability would make her a considerable asset in the Galactic Republic's plans to defeat the Sith Empire during the Jedi Civil War.

The Jedi Civil War, also known as the Jedi Civil Wars, Second Sith War, the Old Republic Insurrection, the Malak War, the Republic–Sith War, and by the Mandalorians as the War of the Star Forge, was a devastating conflict that began when the Jedi Knight Revan, who had led the forces of the Galactic Republic to victory in the Mandalorian Wars, founded his own Sith Empire and declared himself the Dark Lord of the Sith. The war began when he, along with his friend and apprentice Darth Malak, led an invasion of the Galactic Republic in the year 3959 BBY, returning from the Unknown Regions with a massive Sith fleet, seizing control of Korriban, revitalizing the Sith Academy there and gaining access to the Star Forge early on during a mission to Rakata Prime. With the aid of veterans from the Mandalorian Wars, the Sith members who joined them, a host of Dark Jedi converts that had served with them prior, the former Jedi hoped to take over the Republic in anticipation of a greater threat posed by a Sith Empire that lurked within the unknown regions of the galaxy.

Shan possessed many qualities that set her apart from her peers and destined her for greatness, but these same traits and the inexperience of her youth set her down the path that would eventually lead to her fall.

Brash, impulsive, and somewhat overconfident (thanks in no small part to the rare gift that was her battle meditation), Shan acted as though she were unstoppable, though she was constantly aware of the responsibility resting on her. Despite the warnings of her masters, Shan continually sought to prove her worth by devoting herself to defeating the Sith.

Shan's relations with the Jedi Council and the Jedi Code were complicated. During the Mandalorian Wars, she trusted the Council's wisdom, rejecting Malak's proposal to join the fight, and years later, when the Jedi Civil War was at its culmination, still believed it was the right decision. Nevertheless, she thought the Jedi Masters were self-absorbed and stodgy, not to mention edgy, critical and overly secretive, traits that Revan would note in Bastila herself. Shan thought the Council intended to use the quest for the Star Forge to test her abilities and determine if she was worthy of the rank of Jedi Master, only to discover that she was, in the end, far from it.

Shan tried to follow the Jedi Code as strictly as possible, to the point of expressing even more radical views than some Jedi Masters, she believed that nobody deserved death without a chance of redemption, a belief that would later result in Revan's return to the light side. However, she was not always able to suppress her emotions, and sometimes disregarded the very idea that love should be outlawed among the Jedi.

Seeing Revan, once the Dark Lord of the Sith, climbing up the path of the light apparently without any trouble or internal struggles made her question her own devotion to the Jedi Code, even though she and Revan agreed to prevent each other from diverging from that course, and the development of this self-doubt later played no small part in her eventual downfall to what she feared most: the dark side.

Bastila's redemption saw a change in her personality as a Jedi. Instead of living a life of non-attachment and controlling emotions, Bastila took on a much grayer way of thinking, which led to a deterioration of her relationship with the Jedi Council. Along with Revan, Bastila saw that positive emotions such as love and happiness actually strengthened a Jedi's connection to the Force and helped them battle the dark side rather than increasing the risk of falling. She was also very defensive of Revan towards the Council. In fact, by the time Bastila learned of her husband's capture by the true Sith, she had come to believe that the members of the Council were ignorant, and wrong more often than they were right.

Despite her youth, Bastila Shan was exceptionally skilled in the rare power of Battle Meditation and through the Force, she could affect the outcome of a battle by thought alone. Through this power, one side was granted strength and a boost to their morale, in addition that side would be granted perfect coordination and the ability to respond instantly and perfectly to the enemy's every change in formation and strategy. These effects caused significant damage to enemy morale and fighting effectiveness thus causing two important shifts in the battle towards the user's favor.

Shan had a very strong Force sense and could sense disturbances in the Force such as Darth Malak's presence, although this might have been merely telepathy or an extension of her Force bond with Revan. She could also use Force Stun and was capable of using the Jedi Mind Trick on Hutts, such as Motta.

Additionally, Shan was a skilled lightsaber duelist, and wielded a yellow double-bladed lightsaber in combat. She proved capable of dueling the redeemed Revan, Jolee Bindo, and Juhani atop the Temple of the Ancients and emerging relatively unscathed, albeit defeated. Shan also managed to hold her ground against Darth Malak long enough for Revan and Carth Onasi to escape. It should be noted that Malak was considered to be one of the greatest swordsmen of his time.