Tsavong Lah

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Tsavong Lah was the fanatical warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong during the Yuuzhan Vong War. A consummate warrior, he was the embodiment of his caste, over whom he held jurisdiction second only to that of the Supreme Overlord. He succeeded his father as warmaster at the time of the invasion, although he entered the galaxy somewhat later than the advance forces. This did not prevent him, however, from manipulating events behind the scenes, arranging for the destruction of Ithor and the disgrace of the rival Domain Shai, as well as overseeing several key victories, before finally emerging in 26 ABY as the architect of the Battle of Duro. Lah became infamous among both his own species and the citizens of the New Republic for his vendetta against the Jedi; following a defeat at the hands of Jacen Solo, the warmaster called for the surrender of all Force-sensitives to the Yuuzhan Vong, prompting a wholesale persecution of the New Jedi Order. Indirectly, this was to contribute towards the beginnings of the Jeedai heresy, an underground movement among the Shamed Ones which on Yavin 4 Lah was unsuccessful in eradicating.

An obsession soon followed with securing the capture of Solo twins Jacen and Jaina; the warmaster wished to sacrifice the two Jedi to the gods in order to bless his advance upon the Core. The twin sacrifice refused to bear fruit; nonetheless, Lah went on to lead the costly, yet ultimately successful, encirclement and capture of the New Republic capital, Coruscant. Intrigue among the priests and shapers who attended him during this period, however, led to the deliberate sabotage of one of the warmaster's implants, forcing Lah to retreat from the forefront of the invasion. The warmaster's over-extension of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, as well as his incapacitation, allowed the New Republic to recover somewhat from the numerous defeats they had sustained at his hands. Lah's eventual return to leadership capacity was thus overshadowed by the deaths of his son and father, who each died on campaigns of his design. Even the capture of the prized Jacen Solo proved to be a failure, as the Jedi defected insincerely to the Yuuzhan Vong, destabilized events on the newly terraformed Coruscant, and escaped, all immediately prior to the arrival Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane.

Heavily criticized by the ruler of the Yuuzhan Vong for his Pyrrhic victories and personal vendettas, Lah was ordered to postpone any further attacks upon the remaining defenders of the galaxy. Given ample time to prepare themselves, the New Republic military and its counterparts in intelligence set in motion a trap to lure the warmaster to his death. Disinformation and the careful subversion of the Yuuzhan Vong spy network encouraged Tsavong Lah's contemporary, the executor Nom Anor, to trust evidence suggesting that the warmaster could attain a crucial victory at Ebaq 9, a forgotten moon in the Deep Core. Ambushed, outnumbered and defeated by a host of New Republic fleets, Tsavong Lah accepted his fate, choosing to lead his warriors on one final crusade against Jedi present at the battle. In a brief, fierce duel with his long-time adversary, Jaina Solo, the warmaster perished.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 The shadow at Ithor 1.3 Enter the Warmaster 1.4 A warrior distracted 1.5 Battle Plan Coruscant 1.6 The fall of Coruscant 1.7 Rejection and the Solo twins 1.7.1 Failure of a son 1.7.2 Failure of a father 1.8 Deception and death at Ebaq 9 1.8.1 Forced passivity 1.8.2 False intelligence 1.8.3 The Battle of Ebaq 9 1.8.4 The Jeedai hunt 1.8.5 Duel with Jaina Solo 2 Appearance 3 Personality and traits 4 Appearances 5 Sources 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Little is known of Tsavong Lah's life prior to the Yuuzhan Vong War. He was born to Czulkang Lah, one of the greatest of all Warmasters^[2], into Domain Lah, one of the most powerful of the Warrior caste^[3]. What is known is that, while being instructed, Tsavong Lah met the Priest Harrar, who was attached to his training division. While Lah had utter contempt for all non-warriors, Harrar made some sort of impact on Lah, and the two would consider each other friends. He had a son, Khalee Lah, who was also a skilled, if somewhat fanatical, commander.^[4]

In the months prior to the invasion, his father expressed concerns over whether the invasion was a good idea. Supreme Overlord Shimrra, however, refused to tolerate insubordination, and replaced him with Tsavong Lah^[2]. Realizing that the old Warmaster still had value, but also that leaving his father in a position of command would threaten his own status, Tsavong Lah had his father made a teacher of warriors. No grievances were born by Czulkang Lah, however.^[2]

[edit] The shadow at Ithor

The initial invasion of the galaxy was to be threatened when the Yuuzhan Vong's vanguard, the Praetorite Vong, moved ahead of the Yuuzhan Vong Fleet. The ambition of Da'Gara cost the Praetorite Vong their lives at the Battle of Helska.^[5] The invasion was almost doomed from the start, but the New Republic were not the Empire the scout Nom Anor had warned Lah about. However, unwilling to let Intendants dishonor the Yuuzhan Vong, Shimrra and Lah were forced to increase their time table for the beginning of the invasion. Lah and his immediate subordinate, Supreme Commander Nas Choka, had yet to arrive in the Outer Rim Territories, so Commander Shedao Shai took control instead, with the task of establishing a forward base in the Outer Rim.^[6]

Aware that Shai had ulterior motives—such as recovering his grandfather's corpse—Lah ordered the ambitious Deign Lian to keep an eye on Shai. Indeed Lah was proved correct as Shai entered a personal feud with the famed Jedi Corran Horn. With Shai's fleet at a stalemate with the combined forces of New Republic Admiral Traest Kre'fey and the Imperial Remnant's famed Gilad Pellaeon, the two warriors dueled for the fate of Ithor. Horn defeated Shai, and all assumed Ithor would be spared.

Under Lah's orders, Ithor was destroyed with a biological weapon.^[7] In retaliation, the combined New Republic and Remnant forces wiped out Lian and the remainder of Shai's fleet. Both the Praetorite Vong and Shedao Shai had failed, and Domain Shai's reputation was forever tarnished. Yet Lah still did not reveal himself, directing Choka in some of the earlier Yuuzhan Vong victories of the war, including the conquest of Tynna.^[8]

[edit] Enter the Warmaster

Apprised of the events at the Battle of Fondor and Choka's capture of the shipyards there, Lah came forward to take a more active role in the invasion, two months after Fondor. The push for the Core Worlds, and thus the staging areas for the assault on Coruscant, was vital for the success of the invasion. Bypassing the dangerous Corellia, the Yuuzhan Vong Fleet made for Duro. Lah commanded the Sunulok throughout the Coreward push.^[9] He was still surrounded by those he thought fools however; the Yuuzhan Vong had seen continual setbacks. Only days before Duro, Mujmai Iinan had attempted to take Kubindi with half the number of coralskippers. Failures such as these were not tolerated. Yet the increasing abundance of news concerning the Jedi began to fester in Lah's mind.^[9]

Lah entered into a business relationship with Viqi Shesh, the traitorous senator from Kuat.^[9] Shesh's treachery was vital at Duro and indeed throughout much of the Coreward push. What Shesh failed to realize was that the Yuuzhan Vong would never be sated with the worlds she was aiding Lah to capture. During the Duro campaign, Lah also worked with Nom Anor. Their partnership would later take a turn for the worse, however.^[10] The Warmaster was drawn by the prospect of a captured Jacen Solo, offered by the duplicitous Randa Besadii Diori, and made plans to come to Duro personally.^[9] Lah had been informed by his priests that his chance for success would increase with every sacrificed Jedi.

Lah personally took command of the Battle of Duro, and was nearly able to sacrifice Leia Organa Solo to Yun-Yammka.^[9] Jacen Solo saved his mother, knocking Lah out a window and tearing off his leg.^[9] The wounded Warmaster had had his first encounter with the Jedi, and thus begun a burning hatred for their kind. Addressing the New Republic and indeed the entire galaxy over captured technology, he delivered his chilling ultimatum.

[edit] A warrior distracted

The ignorants of the galaxy quickly began turning in Jedi to the Yuuzhan Vong. In the first few months after the ultimatum, Jedi such as Dorsk 82 and Swilja Fenn were captured an turned over to the Warmaster. Still Jacen Solo eluded him, however.^[11] The New Republic was desperate to keep the Yuuzhan Vong in check, and it is probable that Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya knew full well of their designs on the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4.^[11] The Warmaster, however, had no plans to stop once the Jedi were handed over to him; he had seen with Durgard Brarun and CorDuro that he could manipulate their desire for safety in order to neutralize the hated Order.^[9] It was the youngest Solo who would come to cause the most problems for Lah. On Yavin 4, Anakin fought alongside the Shamed Vua Rapuung.^[11] Their valiant battle against Mezhan Kwaad and the warriors of Tsaak Vootuh had a profound effect on the Shamed Ones present on Yavin 4.

The Warmaster arrived on the jungle moon after Booster Terrik and Talon Karrde had raided the camp. They had left the Shamed Ones alive, however, which Lah could not understand. He saw the dangers of the brewing heresy though, and ordered all Shamed Ones on the moon killed. But these measures were not enough; somehow the word survived, and the Jeedai heresy would fester and grow until, long after Lah's death, it would become a deciding factor in the downfall of the Yuuzhan Vong.^[12]

Tsavong Lah replaced the foot he had lost to Jacen Solo with a vua'sa foreleg, an animal which he had grown specifically so that he could fight and kill it.^[3] At this point, in the stages between the fall of Yavin 4 and the final Coreward push, Vergere returned to the Yuuzhan Vong. She was to enter into a partnership of sorts with Tsavong Lah, and the two would work together over the apprehension and breaking of Solo. Lah also gave his blessing to the plans of Nom Anor and Qurang Lah, his crèche brother, to seize Yag'Dhul. Vergere informed him of the ship which had been harassing his personal forces; the Millennium Falcon; the news that the Solos were the owners developed in Lah a vendetta against the light freighter, much like Darth Vader so many years before.

In a skirmish with the Falcon, the Sunulok in fact came off worse as Lah waited for Han Solo to send his son across to be sacrificed. It was testimony to his fanaticism that he took Solo's sarcastic joke at face value.^[3] Solo ignited a hydrogen cloud which he dumped near the Sunulok, and the freighter was able to escape, much to Lah's fury. He then received word that the operation to take Yag'Dhul had also failed, and that the primary shipwomb had been destroyed at Sernpidal. Refusing to delegate any further, Lah hastened his designs for Coruscant. The stage was set for the Warmaster's greatest victory.

[edit] Battle Plan Coruscant

Before he moved in on Coruscant, Lah had to set up other facets of his plan. His first was to divide the Jedi from the New Republic. Operating from their base, Eclipse, the Jedi had proved a thorn in the side of Lah's invasion for too long. Razing New Plympto following the persistent rebellion engendered by Alema and Numa Rar, Lah grouped a billion refugees around the planet Talfaglio, giving the New Republic an ultimatum—hand over the Jedi or the refugees would perish.^[13] Meanwhile his tool Viqi Shesh manipulated events in the Senate, promised by the Warmaster that she would preside as Chief of State following Fey'lya's death. However, Shesh's plans did not go well, and she merely forced Borsk into supporting the Jedi. This won the Chief of State the support he needed to remain in power.^[13]

Excited by the prospect of capturing the Solo twins at Myrkr, Tsavong Lah dispatched Nom Anor and Vergere to secure the sacrifices Lah deemed necessary in granting him Coruscant. In his eagerness he perhaps overlooked the strength of the Jedi; a task force of Luke Skywalker's Knights and the forces of Generals Wedge Antilles and Garm Bel Iblis broke the Talfaglian blockade, wiped out the Yuuzhan Vong fleet present there, and captured a live yammosk. In response Lah accelerated his plans; a feint at Arkania allowed him to seize Reecee and Borleias, two vital staging points to Coruscant.^[13] He directed Maal Lah in the assault on Borleias, deeming the capture of the world of such importance that he sacrificed a whole limb to Yun-Yammka. He then had the arm replaced with a radank claw.

In bypassing the shipyards at Bilbringi, Lah threw the New Republic off guard, as it was seen to be his next target. The capture of Reecee resulted in the destruction of the fleet defending it, although Lah had lost half of his armada at Talfaglio. Still, the fleet that descended on Coruscant in 27 ABY was the largest thus seen in the war.^[13]

[edit] The fall of Coruscant

Tearing out from the OboRin Comet Cluster, Lah's fleet was preceded by a refugee screen of over six hundred ships.^[13] Relying on the habit of the defenders to risk life and limb to try and save as many innocents as possible, the Warmaster was proved correct as Admiral Sien Sovv ordered Generals Traest Kre'fey, Bel Iblis and Antilles not to fire on the refugee ships, even as they entered the minefield. In fact, on the Orbital Defense Headquarters concerned workers began shutting down the minefields, allowing the Yuuzhan Vong passage through. It was a fruitless gesture; the refugee ships merely crashed into the planetary shields.^[13] Bel Iblis surprised Lah, however, by firing through the refugee screen, an action which cost the General his commission. Elements of Kre'fey's fleet moved to do the same, willing to save Coruscant at any cost. The fragmentation of the New Republic military greatly aided Lah, even though at points he was taken off guard by their strategies – Antilles managed to wipe out an entire battle group and his personal vessel Sunulok was destroyed by the Jedi. Lah relocated to the Kratak.^[13]

Once the shields were down, the drop commenced, headed by Romm Zqar. All the while selfish senators were seizing elements of the New Republic fleet and vanishing into hyperspace. Only the Chief of State, Borsk Fey'lya, remained, calling for a personal audience with Lah in the Imperial Palace. However Lah's games of dejarik with Vergere had paid off; he saw Fey'lya's trick for what it really was.^[13]

Fey'lya's gambit paid off in some respects; twenty five thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors perished in the detonation of the proton bomb. It reduced Lah's capture of Coruscant to a Pyrrhic victory.^[13]

[edit] Rejection and the Solo twins

[edit] Failure of a son

The radank claw came close to rejection; rotten flesh began to crawl up his arm and Lah feared the implant would not take and he would become Shamed.^[13] He stepped up his efforts to capture the Solo twins so that he might please the gods, but was unable to play too active a role lest the knowledge of his problem spread. With Jacen Solo already in captivity^[10], he sent his son Khalee to Hapes in order to locate the wayward Jaina.^[4] Harrar accompanied his son in order that the hot-headed warrior exercised some control in his conduct, yet the deception priest found himself increasingly captivated by the idea that Jaina Solo was an incarnation of Yun-Harla, who he worshiped.^[4] Indeed, Jaina's capture of the Ksstarr and the use of gravitic devices to trick the Yuuzhan Vong ships to fire upon one another began to sway the minds of many a warrior.

Khalee failed in his task; Jaina consistently evaded capture, and he eventually killed himself for his dishonor. Meanwhile, the New Republic military had regrouped around General Antilles in the Pyria system; they now proved a threat to Coruscant. Lah had to focus on his own problem, however.^[2]

[edit] Failure of a father

At this time Tsavong Lah almost had Viqi Shesh killed; the mendacious former senator had outlived her usefulness. At her impending death, Shesh warned Lah that his infection was due to the machinations of the shaper and priest castes; desiring a world of their own, they sought to control Lah through his arm – when he followed their advice the infection would abate, and when he pursued his own course of action the infection would return.^[2]. Lah summoned Nen Yim to him, confident that she would discover the truth behind this treachery. Meanwhile, he dispatched Wyrpuuk Cha to Borleias to reclaim the world, sure that the rivalry between Domain Cha and Domain Kraal (who had lost the planet to the New Republic) would result in a victory.

Antilles' brilliant defense of Borleias already had Cha reeling before the Lusankya arrived and wiped out the Yuuzhan Vong fleet in moments. Lah, conducting a secret investigation into the shaper Ghithra Dal and the priest Takhaff Uul, who he suspected were engineering the infection of the radank claw, was too busy to resolve the issue himself. He instead dispatched his father, Czulkang Lah, to the planet, assuring his ostracized father that he would retain a military post if the campaign was successful. With his father went the worldship of Domain Hul.^[2].

The Starlancer Project lured Tsavong Lah into ordering his father to conduct an all-out assault on the planet. The resulting trap sprung in the way of Operation Emperor's Hammer devastated his father's ground assault.^[2] The defeat was somewhat made up for by the defeat of the shapers and priests who had been corrupting his arm. With characteristic cunningness, Lah manipulated the priests and shapers into unknowingly revealing themselves, whereupon he fed them to a pack of rancors.^[14]

The triumph, and the subsequent belief that the gods must love him, was hollowed by the death of his father at Borleias, and the destruction of the Domain Hul worldship as the Lusankya rammed it.^[14] And on Yuuzhan'tar, Jacen Solo escaped from captivity, ruining Lah's chances for the twin sacrifice, and embarrassing the Yuuzhan Vong with his fake defection. Nom Anor had failed him once again, and Vergere was revealed as a traitor all along.^[10] With the deaths of his father and son, and the failures of the Solo Project, Lah wondered if the gods loved him or hated him.^[14]

[edit] Deception and death at Ebaq 9

[edit] Forced passivity

When Supreme Overlord Shimrra arrived on Yuuzhan'tar, he accused Lah that his tactics had killed a third of the Warriors, that Borleias had been a wasted gesture, and that the recent victory of General Keyan Farlander's forces at Obroa-skai suggested that the enemy were far from vanquished. Shimrra told him to halt the offensive, and ordered the growing of new warriors with surge coral implants. The Supreme Overlord also dictated the age at which warriors bred. Finally Shimrra criticized Lah for his failure to combat the technology developed by the infidels which tricked his yammosks and duped his ships.^[15]

Forced to halt the offensive, Lah grew more fanatical in his dedication to the gods and to wiping out his hated foes. Yet Shimrra denied him the opportunity to continue. It was only when Nom Anor, who by now had become a dangerous political enemy of Lah's, was swayed by what he saw as the impending doom of the Yuuzhan Vong to the extent that he advised Shimrra a decisive battle was necessary that the Supreme Overlord gave Lah permission to engage in warfare once again. However the opportunity for Lah's decisive battle was only to come from Nom Anor's intelligence agents. The forced partnership was to be the Warmaster's downfall.^[15]

[edit] False intelligence

Still, the Warmaster conceived his own plans; he devised a plan to take Corellia and Centerpoint, the system which had remained a thorn in his side since the Battle of Fondor. However, Nom Anor came to the meeting with his own information. There was a fortress in the Deep Core known as the Final Redoubt, where a contingent of Jedi, the Advisory Council, the newly elected Cal Omas and much of the waning New Republic provisions and supplies were located. Nom Anor failed to realize that he had been tricked by the cunning manipulation of his spy network by Mara Jade Skywalker and elements of New Republic Intelligence. The Supreme Overlord, unfortunately for Tsavong Lah, took the bait. Lah set off with a fleet larger than any seen since his capture of Coruscant. His forces, testimony to his fanaticism, were divided into five task forces, each named for a Yuuzhan Vong deity. Lah commanded the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan from the helm of the Blood Sacrifice.

[edit] The Battle of Ebaq 9

Lah entered the system with his seemingly overwhelming force, along with twenty thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors and the last six voxyn, ready to take the moon if necessary. His overconfidence cost him; General Farlander immediately engaged the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka with a sudden change in formation which left Lah's advance force reeling. Tsavong Lah couldn't have known that the New Republic forces were being directed by the resurgent Admiral Ackbar, the military genius who had triumphed at Endor, defeated Thrawn and reduced the Empire to a shadow of its former glory.

The Warmaster ordered the Battle Group of Yun-Txiin and the Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah to flank and destroy Farlander's force. Then came the forces of Kre'fey, and then the Smuggler's Alliance fleet, which forced him to reconsider his strategies. Before he knew it he had engaged all his Battle Groups except his own one.

By the time Garm Bel-Iblis arrived with his fleet and made it clear that Ebaq 9 was a trap, it was too late. Even if the Warmaster had ordered his forces to retreat then, the minefield had already been set up along the hyperspace routes leading out from the system. He sacrificed the Battle Group of Yun-Yammka to keep the enemy occupied before moving forward to defend the Battle Group of Yun-Harla and that of Yun-Txiin against Kre'fey's forces. So many were the enemy that his blaze bugs could no longer represent their numbers. So many were the Jedi that the voxyn's howls were reduced to whimpers.

[edit] The Jeedai hunt

The Warmaster's armada was being separated and methodically destroyed. The Battle Groups of Yun-Harla and Yun-Txiin were becoming overwhelmed, that of Yun-Yammka was persisting in pointless sacrifice, that of Yun-Q'aah was trapped by Bel-Iblis. It was only then that Lah realized he could not return to Yuuzhan'tar, that he could not face the Supreme Overlord to die like an animal. He remembered the howls of the voxyn when they had entered the system. There were Jeedai on Ebaq 9.

Such was the elation of the Warmaster that he had trapped the Jedi on Ebaq 9 that he ordered an entire section of his personal Battle Group to crash into the shields of the moon. In a display of pragmatism, Lah ordered all other forces to retreat, covered by a third of the Battle Group of Yun-Yuuzhan. He took ten thousand troops onto the moon, along with the voxyn and grutchyna. The Warmaster then informed the New Republic fleet that all Jedi were welcome to come to the moon and engage in a 'hunt' in the moon's tunnels. To his delight, Jacen Solo answered his call. His greatest foe was coming to Ebaq 9.

As the retreating Yuuzhan Vong Battle Groups hit the minefield and were decimated, Lah received word that Vergere was coming to Ebaq 9. He denounced the Fosh as a fake, but she persuaded him of her connection with the Force. Lah gave her permission to land, as he led his troops against the ragtag forces of Jaina Solo. The remaining Yuuzhan Vong fought their way out of the minefield, but ten thousand Yuuzhan Vong warriors died when their weak transports were destroyed. it is doubtful even this news would have disheartened Tsavong Lah. He was enraptured by the idea of finally performing the twin sacrifice.

The RZ-1 A-wing interceptor Vergere flew from the Ralroost hit the main shaft of Ebaq 9 at thirty-five thousand kilometers per hour, and the resulting decompression, plasma explosion and firestorm wiped most Yuuzhan Vong warriors on the moon in minutes. Others had a few moments with which they could don gnulliths and ooglith cloakers and survive in the vacuum, yet only Tsavong Lah, with the help of his dying subalterns, managed to achieve this. At the same moment, the Blood Sacrifice was destroyed, and the last of the Warmaster's forces remaining in the system were destroyed.

[edit] Duel with Jaina Solo

Whilst contemplating suicide for his utter failure, Tsavong Lah realized that Jaina Solo and her friends were close by. He comforted himself with the thought that by killing Jacen's sister, he would cause immense grief and suffering to his enemy. He hid beneath the bodies of the fallen, a frozen baton of rank, blorash jelly and some frozen amphistaffs his only weapons, and waited for Jaina to pass. Decapitating a medical droid which strayed too close, Lah revealed himself, hurling blorash jelly to stick Jaina, Tesar and Lowbacca to the floor. At the same time he hurled his baton of rank, which impaled Lowbacca in the shoulder. Then he joined Jaina Solo in a duel.

The mighty swings of the Warmaster soon tired Jaina's arms, powerful enough to almost wrench them out of their sockets. Holding his amphistaff in both hands, Tsavong Lah continued at the Jedi in a furious, silent rage. Tesar attempted to shoot Lah, but the Warmaster stepped nimbly to one side. Solo managed to take out the amphistaff he was using, but he quickly picked up another one. Lah locked their blades together and kicked the hated Solo twin in the thigh with his vua'sa talon. She lost her lightsaber, but acted swiftly, taking Lowbacca's off his belt as Tesar tried to heal the Wookiee. The Warmaster was unprepared and lost two digits from his radank claw.

Tsavong Lah hurled himself at Jaina, maddened. His overhead lunge was only just blocked by the Jedi Knight. In that moment, Jaina saw her lightsaber behind the Warmaster. Engaging him in a series of rapid hits with Lowbacca's saber, she picked her own up with the Force, and impaled Lah through the throat. Tsavong Lah, who had masterminded the invasion from Ithor to Coruscant, was finally dead.

[edit] Appearance

Tsavong Lah was large, even for a Yuuzhan Vong. His face became well known among the New Republic after his address from Duro; it was a mass of scars and tattoos, with long earlobes, dark blue bags beneath the eyes, and lips so slashed and frayed by devotion ceremonies that they fluttered when he spoke. His eyes were dominated by jet black pupils, and a mane of dark hair flowed from the top of his head. Most obvious were the additions Lah made to his body during the course of his invasion; the vua'sa claw which replaced his leg and the randank claw which took the place of the arm he sacrificed to Yun-Yammka.

[edit] Personality and traits

Lah was known for being demanding and cruel, casually ordering subordinates to their deaths and fond of pitting his subordinates against each other, as evidenced by his participation in the bickering between Vergere and Nom Anor – Lah felt that rivalry encouraged better discipline and motivation for future success in war. He was also a firm believer that this success came through the will of the gods, and thus failure demonstrated the gods disfavor. It was perhaps this belief that encouraged him to give so much to defeating the infidels; Nas Choka would later speak with regret on the capriciousness with which Lah sent his warriors to die, and his self sacrifices were extreme to the point that others saw them as a path to manipulating the Warmaster, whose fanaticism often blinded him.

Whatever his shortcomings may have been, Lah was a brilliant tactician, not only on the battlefield but also in the Yuuzhan Vong society. His dealings with the shapers and priests who betrayed him suggests as much cunning as his deployment of the refugee screen to take Coruscant. His manipulation of the New Republic against the Jedi, and his dealings with Viqi Shesh proved crucial in the early stages of the campaign. Although he would be criticized later for capturing worlds without plans on how to hold them, it appears that Lah was far more interested with the machinations of war, preferring to leave the administration to the Intendant caste, whom he despised. Indeed he often executed many Intendants out of anger, as well as warriors when it was his right to do so. He disrespected the infidels, as is unsurprising considering his background, largely because he failed to understand them; however he did hold a grudging admiration for Garm Bel-Iblis.

Unfortunately, Lah's obsessive idealism and fanaticism in his methods became his ultimate undoing. His repression of the Jeedai heresy only provoked a rise in the number of believers, and his vendetta against the Solos and the Jedi did in fact doom him at Ebaq 9. In Admiral Ackbar, perhaps, Lah met his match.

[edit] Appearances

• Dark Tide II: Ruin (First appearance)
• Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial (Mentioned only)
• Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
• Balance Point
• Edge of Victory I: Conquest
• Recovery (Mentioned only)
• Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
• Emissary of the Void (Mentioned only)
• Star by Star
• Dark Journey
• Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
• Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
• Traitor
• Destiny's Way
• Force Heretic I: Remnant (Mentioned only)
• Force Heretic II: Refugee (Mentioned only)
• The Final Prophecy (Mentioned only)
• The Unifying Force (Mentioned only)
• Tempest (Mentioned only)

[edit] Sources

•  Tsavong Lah in the Databank
• The New Jedi Order Sourcebook
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The New Essential Chronology
• Star Wars Miniatures: Universe
• The Official Star Wars Fact File

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

Pyrrhic victory on Wikipedia

Preceded by: Czulkang Lah Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong 24–28 ABY Succeeded by: Nas Choka