The Ultimate Starwars Resource
Padme
Born Padme Naberrie, Queen Amidala was the formal name of the royal leader of Naboo. As a child, Amidala was prodigiously talented and extremely well educated. She had long been interested in public service, volunteering in the Refugee Relief Movement in her youth. At the age of eight, she joined the Apprentice Legislature and became an Apprentice Legislator at age eleven. By fourteen, she was elected Queen of Naboo.
During the Trade Federation siege of Naboo, the scheming Neimoidians tried to force the strong-willed Amidala to sign a treaty that would legitimize a brazenly illegal occupation. Amidala refused, and was sentenced to a prison camp. En route to incarceration, Amidala was freed by Jedi ambassadors, who took the Queen and part of her retinue to Coruscant, to plead her case before the Senate with the help of Naboo's galactic representative, Senator Palpatine.
Yoda
Yoda, the ancient and revered Jedi Master, lived his final years hiding on the swamp planet of Dagobah. Nine hundred years old, Yoda had trained Jedi for eight centuries, and was very powerful in the Force. Among his last pupils were the most important (and reckless) Jedi in recent history, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.
In the waning days of the Republic, Yoda was a respected senior member of the Jedi Council. Serving alongside such luminaries as Mace Windu and Ki-Adi-Mundi, Yoda was present during the turbulent events that would eventually unravel the centuries-old Republic and seal the fate of the Jedi order.
Leia Organa
Leia Organa had accomplished much at a young age: a leader in the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a former member of the Imperial Senate, and a member of the Royal Family of Alderaan. Yet despite her stature, for many years, Leia herself was not privy to much of her true heritage.
It was common knowledge throughout the court that Leia was adopted into the Royal Family. What wasn't common knowledge was that Leia was born to Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi pupil who succumbed to the dark side and became Darth Vader. She was one of a set of twins, born in secrecy and protected from Vader and the Emperor. At the urging of Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Senator Bail Organa took custody of Leia and brought her to his homeworld of Alderaan to be raised as his own. Obi-Wan took the boy, Luke, to the distant world of Tatooine. Leia has few memories of her true mother, Padm?midala. All that Leia can recall is that she was beautiful, but sad.
Anakin Skywalker
A child born of prophecy, possibly conceived by the will of the Force itself, Anakin Skywalker has left an indelible mark on the history of the galaxy, leading it through periods of lightness and dark.
As turmoil engulfed the galaxy during the transition from Republic to Empire, Anakin fell to the dark side of the Force. Consumed by evil, Anakin abandoned his past and his humanity. He became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, apprentice to the evil Emperor Palpatine.
Darth Vader
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, was the scourge of the Jedi, a master of the dark side of the Force, and one of the Emperor's most trusted servants. He wasn't always a fearsome enforcer, however.
He began life as Anakin Skywalker, a young slave from Tatooine skilled in piloting and strong in the Force. Once discovered by maverick Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Anakin was taken before the Jedi Council to be trained. There was some controversy on the subject -- despite Jinn's adamant assurances that Skywalker was the chosen one spoken of in an ancient Jedi prophecy, the council was hesitant to allow his training at the age of nine.
Finally, the council agreed that Anakin should be trained, and he was assigned to Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi recklessly thought that he could be as skillful a master as Yoda. His mistakes had dire consequences for the galaxy.
In the last year of the Clone Wars, Anakin and Obi-Wan were stationed in the Outer Rim when word came of a shocking development. Coruscant was under attack. The planet that held not only his beloved wife, but also his close friend the Chancellor, was in the crosshairs of the merciless General Grievous and his droid forces.
It was with a fierce determination that Obi-Wan, Anakin, and their Republic forces launched towards Coruscant, to parry the blow to the Republic's heart.
As turmoil engulfed the galaxy during the transition from Republic to Empire, Anakin fell to the dark side of the Force. Consumed by evil, Anakin abandoned his past and his humanity. He became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, apprentice to the evil Emperor Palpatine.
Sustaining grievous injuries at the hands of his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader required cybernetic enhancements and replacements to sustain him. His pure innocent self seemingly lost forever, Darth Vader cast a dark pall over the galaxy, as he was one of the foremost agents responsible for the elimination of the Jedi order.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
A dedicated and legendary Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi has had a long and tumultuous career that has helped shape the fate of an entire galaxy. When he was 25 standard years old, he was caught up in the important events of the Battle of Naboo. At the time he was a Padawan learner, apprenticed to Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
Luke Skywalker
The path of a Jedi is often difficult, filled with conflict and pain. Luke Skywalker's life which began as a simple farmboy and saw him become the greatest hero the galaxy has ever known is an amazing example of this. Skywalker spent his restless childhood on the backwater desert planet of Tatooine, toiling away on his uncle's moisture farm. His guardians, Beru and Owen Lars, never told Luke of his true heritage. While Luke believed his father to have been a navigator on a spice freighter, he never suspected that Anakin Skywalker was once a famed Jedi Knight and incredible starpilot.
Chewbacca
An immense, fur covered warrior of great strength and loyalty, Chewbacca the Wookiee was a well-known figure in both the underworld and in the Rebel Alliance. Born on Kashyyyk over two centuries before the Battle of Yavin, Chewbacca was a wise, sophisticated being with exceptional skills in starship piloting and repair.
Drummed out of the military, Solo had few options but to return to the fringe lifestyle he knew so well. Chewbacca swore loyalty to Han, and became his partner in crime. The two of them became a well known smuggling duo. When they came into ownership of the freighter Millennium Falcon, their exploits became legendary.
General Grievous
When the greedy corporate titans and the disenfranchised systems of the galaxy pooled their resources together to leave the aging Galactic Republic behind, they became the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Their military assets formed a droid army of seemingly limitless size -- a weapon that needed a military mastermind to wield effectively.
Han Solo
If, at the height of his smuggling days, you told Han Solo that he would be a hero of the Rebellion, fall in love with an Alderaanian princess, and become a general in the Alliance, he would have had no shortage of smart remarks for you. But if anything is consistent in Solo's life, it is unpredictability.
Han and his Wookiee first mate and co-pilot Chewbacca had a variety of adventures throughout their long careers as smugglers. By hanging out on the fringe of galactic society, Solo not only made useful allies, but powerful enemies. Han eventually met up with a young gambler named Lando Calrissian. After a period of adventuring, Han won Lando's freighter, the Millennium Falcon in a heated sabacc game.
Jabba The Hutt
A loathsome slug of a gangster, Jabba the Hutt was the preeminent kingpin of crime in the Outer Rim Territories. Basing his operations out of Tatooine, the Hutt had his pudgy fingers in a number of lucrative and unsavory rackets -- slavery, gunrunning, spice-smuggling, extortion and more.
Mace Windu
A respected Jedi on par with the venerable Yoda, Mace Windu was a senior member of the Jedi High Council. His wisdom and experience were legendary, and his words carried great weight.
In the later years of the Republic, Windu spent most of his time in the Jedi Temple of Coruscant. He regularly conferred with Yoda and the ten other members of the Council, contemplating the very nature of the Force and the affairs of the Jedi Knights.
Boba Fett
A faceless enforcer, Boba Fett's distinctive armor strikes fear in the hearts of fugitives. He is a legendary bounty hunter, accepting warrants from both the Empire and the criminal underworld. He is all business, laconic, and deadly.