Gella Nattai

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"Do you think…that if you weren't a Jedi and I wasn't, well, whoever I am, that perhaps you and I could be real friends?"
"If I were not a Jedi, then I would not be who I am. I have dedicated my life to my vow. I—I can’t separate that person."

―Axel Greylark and Gella Nattai^[2]

Gella Nattai was a human female Jedi Knight and Wayseeker^[4] who was active during the High Republic Era. She wielded two purple-bladed lightsabers.^[2]

Nattai was essential in helping negotiate peace between the warring planets Eiram and E'ronoh^[2] in 382 BBY.^[5] She protected the planets' heirs, Prince Phan-tu Zenn of Eiram and Princess Xiri A'lbaran of E'ronoh, in the lead up to their wedding being held to promote peace. She developed a close yet tumultuous relationship with Axel Greylark, son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark, who she helped bring to justice for crimes he committed despite their companionship.^[2] Though she inadvertently assisted with Greylark's escape from prison, she was also instrumental in helping defeat Binnot Ullo, one of the leaders of the Path of the Closed Fist, during the devastating battle on the planet Dalna known as the Night of Sorrow.^[6]

Biography[]

Early life[]

Gella Nattai was born around 412 BBY^[1] When she was young, she was dropped off by her parents at the Jedi temple on Devaron to be trained as a Jedi. She was trained by Arezi Mar as a Padawan.^[2] By 382 BBY,^[5] Nattai had achieved the rank of Jedi Knight.^[2]

Mission to Eiram and E'ronoh[]

Convergence-textless — Gella Nattai during her mission to the Eiram and E'ronoh War

Arrival into chaos[]

In 382 BBY,^[5] after a failed expedition to Orvax with her Pathfinder team left her shaken, Nattai accompanied Jedi Masters Creighton Sun and Char-Ryl-Roy as well as Roy's Padawan Enya Keen on a relief mission to the planet Eiram, which was in the midst of a five-year-long war with its twin planet E'ronoh.^[2] The Jedi travelled aboard the Republic Longbeam cruiser Valiant, yet when they exited hyperspace, they collided with another Longbeam, Chancellor Orlen Mollo’s flagship the Paxion, which had also journeyed to the system in the hope of bringing an end to the conflict. At the same time, a hauler carrying ice to E’ronoh was also arriving at the jump point and was forced to veer into Eiram’s gravity well. To make matters worse, all ships struggled to communicate with each other due to the presence of a signal jammer. With starfighters from both planets in a stand-off, the E’roni pilot Bly Tevin then lost control of his fighter and opened fire on the Eirami, causing a skirmish to begin. While Sun, Roy, and Keen piloted the Valiant towards the Timekeeper Moon midway between both worlds, Nattai realised the issue with Tevin’s fighter and boarded her own starfighter to enter the skirmish. Hailing both Princess Xiri A’lbaran, Captain of E’ronoh’s Thylefire Squadron, and the Eirami General Nhivan Lao, Nattai was able to get them to agree to concentrate on preventing Tevin from crashing into Eiram. However, just as Nattai was beginning to use her fighter to slow Tevin’s descent and push him away from Eiram, Tevin’s ship suddenly exploded, the result of the sabotage that had made him lose control in the first place. The explosion also caused Xiri and Lao to crash-land on Eiram’s surface.

Having failed to save Tevin’s life, Nattai regrouped with the others on the Timekeeper Moon, where Chancellor Mollo had also docked the Paxion. She reported what had happened in the skirmish and had to be dissuaded by Master Sun from attempting to rescue Xiri from Eiram. Shortly afterwards, having been guided by the Force, Nattai managed to uncover the jamming beacon that had been disrupting their comms; it had been crafted from various miscellaneous parts and left on the moon by an unknown party. Nattai destroyed the beacon, allowing the Republic ships to receive a message from Eiram, informing them that Xiri was alive and unhurt. Mollo used this welcome news to invite both Queen Adrialla of Eiram and Monarch A’lbaran of E’ronoh to attend a peace summit aboard the Paxion, at which Xiri would be returned to her kinsmen by the Eirami. After some manoeuvring, both parties agreed to come to the negotiating table.^[2]

Negotiations aboard the Paxion[]

Nattai attended the first day of negotiations, observing as the E’roni Viceroy Ferrol did his best to level accusations at the Eirami and disrupt proceedings. After the first day failed to produce any results, Nattai conferred with Master Sun about the jamming beacon from the Timekeeper Moon. It was found to have E’roni dust on it, and both Jedi suspected that Ferrol might have been ordered it to be planted on the moon. However, they did not have enough evidence to act on their suspicions and were forced to continue to powerlessly observe as the negotiations remained unproductive over the following days. During this time, Nattai managed to strike up a positive relationship with both Xiri and the Eirami Prince, Phan-tu Zenn, initially through sparring with them and then through talking about their differing life experiences. After another unproductive day of talks, Nattai, her fellow Jedi, and Mollo decided to play holos of the suffering on both planets throughout the Paxion in order to motivate the delegates further. The next day, Xiri proposed to end the strife and secure peace by marrying Phan-tu, a suggestion that was supported by Nattai and the Jedi but initially rejected by Monarch A’lbaran and Queen Adrialla. Both Xiri and Phan-tu were subsequently able to persuade their parents to agree to it.^[2]

That night, Phan-tu sounded the alarm upon discovering the body of Jerrod Segaru, an E’roni captain, in his bed. Nattai was one of the first to arrive on the scene and witnessed the sudden arrival of Axel Greylark, son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark, who had been sent by his mother to represent her interests in the proceedings. Feeling a disturbance in the Force, Nattai took Enya Keen with her to scout the debris field between Eiram and E’ronoh, using Greylark’s ship, the Eventide. Unsure of what exactly they were searching for, Nattai and Keen found the body of Braxen, an E’roni guardsman, floating in space and brought his remains aboard the Paxion. The next day, the negotiating parties landed planetside on E’ronoh, where the funeral of Segaru was to be held.^[2]

Touring E'ronoh[]

Nattai spent much of Segaru’s funeral being flirted with by Greylark, an individual who she immediately disliked, finding him pompous and immature. After rocks were pelted at the Eirami delegation by an extremist group known as the Children of E’ronoh, a decision was made for Xiri and Phan-tu to tour E’ronoh in order to both curry support for the peace process among the E’roni people, and also to draw would-be assassins out into the open. Both Nattai and Greylark were assigned to accompany the prospective couple, with Nattai posing as an E’roni handmaiden. Together, they travelled across E’ronoh aboard the royal sail barge Amaryliss, visiting the settlements of Barakat Outpost, A’ranni, and U’ronoh, among others.^[2]

On the way to A’ranni, while traversing the Badlands, the group came across an Eirami soldier, Salas, who had been forced to kneel on a mine. Nattai used the Force to hold back the mine’s trigger, allowing the others to pull Salas to safety, before throwing the mine away. Though Salas soon passed away, he informed them that there were other Eirami soldiers in the area that needed saving. Having scouted the outskirts of A’ranni, the group found that the Eirami had crashed in a cave and were pinned down by a squad of E’roni – both sides were unaware that the peace process had been initiated. Nattai approached first, using her lightsabers to deflect the attacks of the E’roni and then pulling down crates to protect Xiri and Greylark, who shot to stun. With the E’roni soldiers stunned one-by-one, the group attempted to persuade the Eirami survivors to come with them, but they were not believed as Phan-tu had fallen into a cavern passage and was not visible to them. One of the Eirami took aim at Nattai, but she was saved by a timely shot from Greylark.^[2]

At the mining town of U’ronoh, the group found that the locals had been taken hostage by the Children of E’ronoh led by Rev Ferrol, Viceroy Ferrol's son. Both Xiri and Phan-tu were taken captive, giving themselves up to save the villagers, but were then quickly rescued by Nattai and Greylark, who were able to sneak aboard the Children’s shuttle before it took off. Facing a Jedi, Rev opened the ship’s cargo bay doors and jumped out with a parachute. To prevent her companions from getting sucked out too, Nattai used the Force to block the doors with crates, allowing Greylark time to reprogramme the ship’s autopilot to prevent it from crashing into E’ronoh’s capital, the Rook. Giving the other three the remaining parachutes, Nattai jumped out of the shuttle and used the Force to survive the drop back down to U’ronoh. At the village gathering that night, Nattai was confronted by a woman named Kala, who had been indoctrinated by the Path of the Open Hand, a Force cult that believed using the Force to be wrong and the Jedi way of life to be therefore immoral. Nattai also spoke with Greylark, with whom she had grown surprisingly close during the tour, and he shared why he also had issues with the Jedi – namely how they had treated him following his father’s death.^[2]

Preparations for the wedding[]

Once the heirs had returned to the Rook, the wedding ceremonies were rushed ahead of schedule in order to catch the individuals trying to undermine the peace process. This ploy was successful, as Enya Keen was able to apprehend Abda, a secret member of the Path of the Open Hand, in the act of trying to assassinate Xiri in her chambers. Nattai and Master Sun continued to suspect the Ferrols, but this was ruled out when Abda was found poisoned in her holding cell – poison not being the E’roni way. A black disc was found at the scene, identified by Greylark as an invitation to a game on Hesperys Station. Nattai agreed to travel with Greylark to the station in order to help the investigation.^[2]

At Hesperys Station, Greylark led Nattai to the Rusty Rancor, an establishment that contained a fighting pit, ran by Ney Madiine. Nattai was tricked by Greylark into participating in one of the cage matches against Madiine’s champion, the false Jedi Dario Melek. Though Nattai easily bested Melek, her victory was short-lived as she was then dropped into a holding cell. Unbeknownst to Nattai, Greylark had been attempting to get Madiine to give him dirt on Viceroy Ferrol and had planned on leaving the Jedi behind. Madiine had informed him that a bounty had been placed on his head by the owner of a gambling den he had wronged and that she would give him a head start to escape. While on his way out, however, Greylark had a change of heart and decided at the last minute and rescued his companion. Nattai then forced him to release the other prisoners of the fighting ring and together they escaped the station, heading for the scheduled wedding on Eiram.^[2]

A royal wedding[]

The night before the wedding, Nattai attended the rehearsal dinner and was persuaded into dancing with Greylark, who, with Phan-tu, had recently revealed an Eirami research facility as the source of the poison used to kill the assassin Abda. But later that night, she felt a disturbance in the Force and rushed to Greylark’s room with Xiri only to find the body of Viceroy Ferrol there, whom Greylark had killed in self-defence. Nattai also found the wreckage of Greylark’s therapy droid, QN-1, and, with the help of Jedi Knight Aida Forte, reassembled it. She then scoured its memory banks, listening to the various holorecordings Greylark had made. They revealed that he had been working with an unknown individual to undermine the peace process from the moment of his arrival on the Paxion. After showing the recordings to the Chancellors, Xiri and Phan-tu, and the Jedi, Nattai resolved to find Greylark, as he was loose in Eiram’s capital with vials of the poison found at the research facility.^[2]

As Nattai, Enya Keen, and Forte rushed to find Greylark, they realised that he was broadcasting his location to the Galaxy from the wedding venue, and that bounty hunters were flooding the streets of the capital to get to him. Telling Keen and Forte to inform Masters Sun and Roy of the danger to the ceremony, Nattai proceeded alone and used her intuition to find Greylark atop one of the towers emitting the protective dome that shielded the capital from Eiram’s rough seas. Nattai attempted to persuade Greylark, who was threatening to destroy the tower, not to disrupt the wedding, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as Greylark had planted detonators in the other towers as well, both of which exploded and brought the protective dome down. The chaos that ensued soon impacted the tower Nattai and Greylark stood in, and its roof collapsed. As Nattai held back some of the rubble with the Force, Greylark admitted that he had fallen for the Jedi Knight, but he was then shortly afterwards knocked out by the debris.^[2]

Later, with Greylark in custody and the wedding ceremony having been saved by the other Jedi, Nattai suggested that the signing of the peace accords should be done on the holy moon of Jedha, to which both parties agreed. Meanwhile, Chancellor Greylark informed her that her son had gifted Nattai the Eventide. Nattai had dinner with Xiri and Phan-tu one final time, before meditating with Master Sun and informing him that she was going to declare herself to be a Wayseeker, a type of Jedi that operated independently of the Jedi Council. She had been considering becoming one for some time, but recent events had helped her make the decision. Nattai then boarded the Eventide and flew away from Eiram, drifting through realspace for hours before picking a destination to travel to.^[2]

The Path of the Open Hand[]

In the aftermath of the events, Nattai blamed herself for what happened with Greylark and began to suspect he had been working for the Path of the Open Hand. After the Battle of Jedha was suspected to have been instigated by the Path, Nattai went with Jedi Master Orin Darhga to Pipyyr, where Greylark was imprisoned, to interrogate him about the organization. When the facility received a transmission that Greylark was to be transferred, Nattai and Darhga offerred to do it. However, the message had been fabricated and Greylark was taken by the Path and his old friend Path member Binnot Ullo, escaping with them. After faking their deaths, Nattai and Darhga followed them to Jedha, where they stowed away on their ship and ended up at the Path compound on Dalna. Nattai tried to confront Greylark and get him to stop, but she and Darhga were discovered, leading Ullo to kill Darhga. Nattai was imprisoned in the compounds caves as a large-scale battle erupted between the Path and the Jedi that became known as the Night of Sorrow.^[6]

After turning against the Path, Greylark immediately freed Nattai and they joined the fight alongside Kyong Greylark. The two then took down Ullo, who had been leading the Path in the battle, while united forces from Eiram and E'ronoh turned the tide of the battle. When the caves of the compound flooded and collapsed, Nattai and Greylark were saved by Grand Master Yoda and Master Yaddle, who used the Force to pull them to the surface. With the battle over, Greylark willingly returned to finish his sentence and Nattai planned to truly begin her Wayseeker journey on Jedha. First, though, Nattai decided she would visit Greylark in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center.^[6]

Personality and traits[]

Gella Nattai had tan skin, brown eyes and shoulder-length dark brown hair. Nattai was a solitary Jedi, not working well with groups, which resulted in a failed Pathfinder mission to the forested world of Orvax. She later warmed up to Axel, Xiri, and Phan-tu during their voyage across E’ronoh, and protected them from any dangers they faced whilst on their journey. Nattai was also, according to Jedi Master Creighton Sun, impulsive^[2] and found her emotions clouding her focus whenever she was around Axel, which led to his escape.^[6] As a youngling, she was also isolated and quiet, having spent a lot of her spare time wandering the temple alone in search of secret tombs or passages. Nattai was nonetheless devoted to the Jedi, as she would not be who she was if she weren’t a Jedi.^[2]

Equipment[]

She wielded twin lightsabers made from moonstone that both emitted a purple blade.^[2] The kyber crystals in Gella's lightsabers were connected to one another through the Force, which she used to track down Axel Greylark when he stole one of her lightsabers during his escape from custody.^[6]