Rahm Kota

Rahm Kota was a Human male who served as a Jedi Master and General during the Clone Wars. Born on a war-torn world, Kota fought in the trenches during the planet's internal conflicts from the age of ten. At the age of eighteen, Kota met the Jedi Mace Windu, who had been dispatched to the planet to end the conflict peacefully. Discovering Kota's Force-sensitivity, Windu took Kota back to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi. Despite being well over the traditional age of acceptance, Kota was schooled in the Force by Master Yoda. As a Jedi Master, Kota took Falon Grey as his Padawan sometime before the Clone Wars, training him to Knighthood. During the Clone Wars, Kota was made a general in the Grand Army of the Republic. Unlike the other Jedi Generals, Kota did not believe that clone troopers were fit for battle and refused to lead them. Instead, he commanded his own militia, comprised of volunteers. In 19 BBY, when Order 66 was issued—an emergency contingency that ordered the clone forces to terminate their Jedi commanders, who had been deemed a threat to the Republic—Kota survived the slaughter of his fellow Jedi since there were no clone troopers serving with him.

Going into hiding with his militia, Kota allied himself with Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa. Kota began striking at Imperial targets, taking interest in the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader and hoping to draw him into a confrontation. This culminated in a mission to seize a TIE Fighter Construction Facility in orbit of Nar Shaddaa. Kota believed that he could draw Vader out with the strike but was instead confronted by the Dark Lord's secret apprentice. The two dueled in the facility's command center; Kota was beaten and blinded but managed to escape the confrontation. With his confidence shaken—and his connection to the Force seemingly gone—Kota turned to drinking and went into hiding in Cloud City on Bespin. He was discovered by the apprentice he had dueled on Nar Shaddaa, who wanted his help in fighting the Empire. The apprentice—who had been tasked by Vader to create a rebellion with which to oppose Emperor Palpatine—wanted Kota to instruct him in the Force. Kota suspected that the young man before him was the same man who had blinded him, but—through the Force—Kota sensed a bright spot within him that gave him hope that the apprentice could be turned away from the dark side. Kota agreed to help the apprentice and assisted him in making contact with Senator Organa, Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila, and Senator Garm Bel Iblis of Corellia, through a series of missions. Together, they pledged to form the Alliance to Restore the Republic to fight against the Empire. During this time, Kota recovered much of his former self and restored his connection to the Force.

During the subsequent meeting of the Corellian Treaty to formally create the Rebellion against the Empire, Vader attacked the assemblage with Imperial forces. The apprentice—who had come to renounce his ties to Vader and the Empire—had attempted to keep the meeting secret but had been discovered. Kota was captured, along with the gathered senators, and taken to the Death Star battlestation under construction in the Horuz system. Kota was to be interrogated and executed by the Emperor himself. The apprentice—who had been left for dead on Corellia—infiltrated the superweapon and fought his way to the prisoners. After engaging and beating Vader in a duel, the apprentice rescued Kota from a Force lightning attack by the Emperor. While the apprentice held off the Emperor, Kota and the senators escaped the Death Star aboard the apprentice's ship, the Rogue Shadow. Regrouping on Kashyyyk, Kota joined in the Declaration of Rebellion, an official proclamation of the group's intent to oppose the Empire's rule.

Over the next year, Kota served as a general in the new Alliance, using his own squad of commandos to assault Imperial targets. Captured during a mission to Cato Neimoidia, he was forced to fight in gladiatorial combat for the amusement of the world's ruler, Baron Merillion Tarko. Kota was eventually rescued by Starkiller, a clone of the apprentice. Although Starkiller was more interested in finding Juno Eclipse—who had been captured by the bounty hunter Boba Fett and taken to Vader—than in fighting the Empire, he provided Kota with coordinates and schematics for the cloning facilities located at Timira City on the planet Kamino. Kota led the Alliance Fleet to the water world, engaging an Imperial fleet in battle. With Starkiller's aid, the Alliance claimed victory at Kamino, rescuing Eclipse and capturing Vader. Kota was later responsible for the recruitment of X2, a Force-sensitive clone of his former Padawan, Falon Grey, into the Rebel Alliance.

During his time on Cloud City, Kota turned to drink to ease the loss of his sight and his Force connection, wanting nothing more than to be left alone. Kota allowed his appearance to fall into disrepair; his usually immaculate hair was allowed to hang loose, his robes became stained, and he left dirty the bandages that covered his sightless eyes.

Kota's journeys with Marek—and witnessing the apprentices' attempts to forge an alliance to bring down the Empire—helped him to rediscover his fighting spirit and confidence. By the time of the mission to destroy the shipyard over Raxus Prime, Kota began to act more like his old self, issuing orders again like the seasoned general he once was, and counseling Marek on how to use the Force to pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky—an act that the General, in his previous defeatist frame of mind, would have previously considered impossible. When Marek met with the three Senators to form the Rebel Alliance on Corellia, Kota appeared at the meeting having laid his ghosts to rest, being neat, sober, and confident—and with his connection to the Force seemingly reestablished when he was able to confidently walk to the meeting table as if he were able to see clearly. In a conversation with the other members at the meeting, he revealed that he considered the apprentice to have saved him.

Kota always suspected that Marek was, in fact, the darksider who had blinded him. Nevertheless, he sensed that the dark side did not hold sway over Marek as much as the boy thought. Resolving to help him, even if he felt he could offer no practical assistance to the young man, Kota was confident Marek would do the right thing. He supported the boy through the assembly of the dissident Senators and was sure that Marek's arrival on the Death Star signaled his intent to start the planned rebellion.

During his travels with Marek, Kota became a surrogate father to the young man, which surprised the battle-hardened General. As a member of the Rebellion, Kota returned to his role as a confident general, strongly believing that direct military action was necessary to keep the Alliance moving forward. He uses a green lightsaber.