Duchess Satine Kryze was the pacifistic leader of the New Mandalorians and the ruler of Mandalore during the Clone Wars. Born into Clan Kryze, Kryze left her homeworld of Kalevala to undergo diplomacy and statecraft training on Coruscant. Yet after her father, the Duke of Clan Kryze, became a casualty of the ongoing Great Clan Wars, Kryze was determined to save the Mandalorians from ruination. She returned to Mandalore under the guard of two Jedi: Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who protected the young duchess from her many enemies. Kryze ended the civil war by convincing the Mandalorian chieftains to embrace peace, but though she and Kenobi developed feelings for each other, their clandestine romance was not to last. Kenobi left Mandalore with Jinn, while Kryze shouldered the burden of rebuilding her society alone. She and her regime cultivated a new age of prosperity for the Mandalorians, with her efforts turning her into a figure of controversy. Some lauded her as the Mandalore of times of old, while others criticized her nonviolent policies as too weak to stand the test of time.

At the dawn of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, Kryze was granted leadership over the Council of Neutral Systems. She remained loyal to the Galactic Republic while officially keeping Mandalore Space unaligned with the Republic or the Confederacy of Independent Systems. However, she suffered an internal threat to her rule in the form of the Death Watch, a splinter group bent on overthrowing her peace-loving administration. After Kenobi, now a Jedi Master, came to Mandalore to investigate rumors of a Separatist plot, Kryze and her old flame discovered that the leader of the Death Watch was none other than Governor Pre Vizsla of Concordia, one of her own allies. When Kryze traveled on Coruscant to reassert her people's neutrality before the Republic Senate, she further became a target of assassination by the Death Watch. Ultimately, Kryze prevailed, and with the aid of Kenobi and Senator Padmé Amidala, she exposed a conspiracy that would have resulted in a Republic occupation of Mandalore.

Kryze's campaign for Mandalorian self-determination was not without consequences. The Clone Wars disrupted intergalactic trade, forcing her people to turn to the black market in order to survive. With the help of Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano; her own nephew, Korkie; and three other cadets from Sundari's Royal Academy of Government, Kryze unearthed a black market conspiracy, the mastermind of which turned out to be another of her most prominent supporters, Prime Minister Almec. Kryze's rule came to an end in 20 BBY, when Pre Vizsla entered into an alliance with the Sith Lord Darth Maul to seize Mandalore. After Maul's Shadow Collective army assaulted the planet, Vizsla and his Death Watch soldiers—including Kryze's estranged sister, Bo-Katan—swept in to quash the criminal invaders, garnering enough public support to depose Kryze and her colleagues. When Kenobi came to rescue Kryze from imprisonment in her own royal palace, Maul murdered her before Kenobi's eyes as retribution for his previous bisection of Maul. Kryze used her final breaths to reaffirm her decades-old love for Kenobi before passing on.

Biography[]

Early life[]

The daughter of a renowned chieftain,^[9] Satine Kryze was raised on the planet of Kalevala in the Mandalore system.^[1] She had a sister, Bo-Katan, who joined Death Watch,^[10] as well as a nephew named Korkie.^[10] Later, she became the duchess of Mandalore and led the New Mandalorians, a pacifist faction created around 738 BBY to rebuild and preserve Mandalore through reforms and peace rather than the Mandalorian tradition of violence and warfare.^[6] However, a devastating Mandalorian Civil War broke out between the True Mandalorians and the Death Watch, a breakaway sect wanting to preserve Mandalore's warrior and clan-based culture.^[11] During this time, Satine's New Mandalorians only advocated peace for Mandalore's fractured society. As a response to the conflict, the Republic sent two Jedi, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on an extended mission to Mandalore. They spent a year on Mandalore protecting the young Duchess, from the hostile insurgents threatening her world, and Kryze and Kenobi grew close to each other. Despite his feelings toward her, Kenobi continued with his training and was reassigned. Kenobi later stated that had Kryze asked him to stay with her, he would have left the Jedi Order to be with her.^[8]

Kryze was left to rebuild her world and led the New Mandalorians, centered around the New Mandalorian capital city of Sundari.^[5] Kryze rebuilt her government, with a Prime Minister and several Ministers^[12] rather than the group of clans united under the Mand'alor, as was the tradition on Mandalore.^[11] Mandalore prospered during this time period, and its society transitioned into a modern and peaceful one,^[5] replacing the warrior-based culture that had dominated the planet for millennia.^[11] However, her pacifist government was opposed by a group of militarists known as Death Watch, who had been defeated during the Mandalorian Civil War.^[6] Duchess Kryze and several other Mandalorian officials worked to root out the Death Watch, and eventually ascertained that all of the remaining members of the organization had been exiled to Mandalore's moon of Concordia.^[5]

Search for the Death Watch[]

A sinister plot[]

With the outbreak of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Duchess Satine formed and led a political organization known as the Council of Neutral Systems that spoke for one and a half thousand systems that sought to stay out of the devastating conflict. However, the pacifist stance adopted by her caused an increase in terrorist activity performed by the Death Watch, who felt she disrespected the ancestral warrior ways of the Mandalorians. In addition, rumors reached the Galactic Senate that she was raising an army to help fight on the behalf of the Separatists.^[5]

To investigate these rumors of sedition, the Jedi High Council sent Obi-Wan Kenobi, now a Jedi Master, to Mandalore. Kryze greeted Jedi Kenobi, who had come to see her in her palace. While glad to see her old flame once again, Kryze was enraged by the false rumors of sedition that had brought Kenobi to Mandalore. She vehemently denied all accusations that she was in league with the Separatists. She then told Kenobi that in her belief, the Galactic Senate was attempting to meddle in Mandalore's domestic affairs, but Kenobi stated that he was on a mission from the Jedi Council. Wanting to change the heated mood of the discussion, Kryze promptly invited him on a walk through Sundari.^[5]

Kryze and Kenobi expressed their happiness at seeing each other again. Kenobi was amazed with the progress that had taken root on Mandalore, but Satine explained to him that the New Mandalorians' pacifist stance was opposed by certain groups, particularly the Death Watch. At that moment, a terrorist bomber blew up the memorial shrine where Kryze and Kenobi were walking. Kryze recognized the holographic insignia of the Death Watch. Kenobi, wanting to protect Kryze, pursued the bomber and cornered him with his lightsaber. However, just as Kryze arrived, the bomber hurled himself off the top of a building and onto the glass floor below. Kryze spoke to him in Mando'a and recognized the man's dialect as Concordian. When Kenobi expressed his interest in traveling to Concordia in order to investigate Death Watch activity, Kryze decided to accompany him, believing that he would be unable to make much progress without her, and the two departed for Concordia. As a result of these events, Kryze understood that Death Watch was a far bigger threat than her government had previously believed it to be.^[5]

Upon arriving on Concordia, Kryze and Kenobi were greeted in the hangar of the local governmental complex by Governor Pre Vizsla and a few of his guards. When Master Kenobi decided to open an investigation of the supposedly abandoned mines, Kryze opposed his move. Vizsla left his guards to take care of the dead bomber, arranging his funeral, while he and Kryze wrote the family a letter of condolence on his datapad. Kenobi then handed the Duchess a small ear comlink and departed for the mines on a small speeder bike. While the Jedi began his investigation, Vizsla questioned where he had gone but Kryze replied that he was simply meditating. While having a drink with Governor Vizsla, Duchess Kryze began to discuss with him that someone was misinforming the Republic that the Death Watch was taking over Mandalore. When she discussed that an external force had to be assisting the renegade group, Vizsla began to speculate that such a force had to be in the highest levels of the Separatist Alliance. He then joked that having such a powerful being plotting her downfall was a sign of her influence and a compliment. Unbeknown to Kryze, though, Vizsla had secretly collaborated with Count Dooku, the public leader of the Separatists, to arrange the kidnapping of the Duchess.^[5]

Making a discovery[]

While Kryze was occupied, Kenobi reached the mines he was searching for. He entered one to discover that it was not abandoned, as he had thought, but rather used to create armor and jetpacks for the Death Watch. Two warriors noticed Kenobi and put him on a conveyor belt that led to a rock crushing machine. In utter distress, Master Kenobi contacted Kryze on a comlink. Kryze, hearing his call for help as she was dining with Vizsla, attempted to discreetly talk to him in order to not be noticed by the Governor. Telling Vizsla that she needed to go outside for some fresh air, she took one of the speeder bikes in the hangar and hurried to the mine. When Kryze arrived in the mine, Kenobi told Kryze that he was trapped and about to be killed in the rock grinding machine. Wanting to create a diversion that would lead the two Death Watch guards away from Kenobi, she set off an alarm in the mine. With the two guards gone, Kryze rushed to the control panel to disable the rock crusher. Finally, she was able to press the right button on the panel, saving Kenobi only seconds before what would otherwise have marked his death.^[5]

At that moment, however, the two Death Watch guards returned and began to attack the Duchess. When one of them grabbed Kryze by the back, she began to fight back and kicked a metal canister onto the conveyor belt, allowing Kenobi to jump up and attack the guards. Obi-Wan quickly fought them, sending them against a wall and knocking them unconscious. The two of them then took a service elevator out of the mine and onto the moon's surface. While inside the elevator, Kryze chided Kenobi for fighting the guards with such ease despite the Jedi's pacifism, and he accused her of not being troubled enough with the fact that he had nearly been killed. Before they could continue arguing, however, they were attacked by more Death Watch soldiers. The Jedi Master fought the newly arrived members as Kryze stayed hidden behind him. When Kenobi was attacked by one of the soldiers, Kryze threw a rock at his assailant, momentarily stunning him and allowing Kenobi to defeat the guard. However, at that moment, the leader of the Death Watch arrived with a new group of three guards at his side. He removed his helmet and revealed himself to be Pre Vizsla, which completely shocked the Duchess.^[5]

Vizsla criticized Kryze's New Mandalorian government and told the Duchess that she went against the very ways of the Mandalorians. Kryze then watched as Kenobi used his lightsaber to duel Vizsla, who was armed with an archaic Darksaber. As Kenobi gained the upper hand, Vizsla ordered his men to fire the guided missiles from their jetpacks. Kenobi took Kryze to safety, grabbing her in his arms and jumping down the elevator shaft to evade the incoming missiles. After Kryze and the Jedi had gotten to safety, Vizsla ordered his men not to continue with the attack, believing that they would be able to take care of her in a short time. Kryze returned with Kenobi to Sundari and prepared to board her starship, the Coronet, in order to leave for Coruscant and inform the Galactic Senate of her pacifist position in the current conflict. When Master Kenobi tried to convince her that Death Watch was being backed by the Separatists, she vehemently denied this fact. She also restated her neutral stance in the war, even though Kenobi had told her that such a position could not last in the current state of affairs, which slightly angered her. Kryze, along with her Jedi escort, then left for Coruscant.^[5]

Aboard the Coronet[]

After the discovery of the Death Watch, Satine Kryze, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and numerous clones left Mandalore on board the Coronet for the planet of Coruscant. Shortly after entering hyperspace, the Duchess called up the two Jedi to her throne room. Once they arrived, Kryze began to argue with Master Kenobi about how she finds the notation of fighting for peace distasteful. As the discussion became more and more heated, Kryze dropped it as dinner was prepared.^[8]

During dinner an assassin probe droid burst into the room and began to attack the guards. Master Kenobi quickly disabled the droid but it released smaller assassin droids. Kryze then pulled out a small droid deactivator and began to blast at the tiny droids. They destroyed all but one of the droids which Kenobi hatched a plan to expose who activated the assassin probes. He put the small droid under a lid and began to walk around the table. The droid began to jump at the Duchess and the senators in the room but stood still for its master Senator Tal Merrik. Merrik then drew a blaster and held up Kryze as a hostage.^[8]

Merrik preceded up to the bridge of the Coronet and killed all of the crew at their stations. Kenobi then radioed Jedi Skywalker who was preoccupied with a third droid. The Coronet then dropped out of hyperspace and Merrik called three Droch-class boarding ships loaded with B2 super battle droids. Skywalker and the clones attacked and destroyed the droids. Meanwhile, the Jedi Master confronted Merrik on the bridge who had wired the engines to explode. Kryze began to beg Kenobi not to risk anymore lives on her behalf. Merrik began to back down the corridors of the ship with Kenobi waiting for an opening. Duchess Kryze then professed her love for Kenobi, which he expressed too.^[8]

Merrik let his guard down at the statements of love which Kryze used to her advantage and slammed her heel into his foot. While Merrik was in pain, she grabbed his blaster and pointed it at him with her trembling finger on the trigger. Merrik said this turn of events made no difference, as he could destroy the Coronet once he was away. Kryze said she wouldn't allow that, but Merrik said that if Kryze killed him, she would be a hypocrite and undermine her pacifist ideals. He then turned to Kenobi and said that if he killed him, he would be a cold-blooded killer in the eyes of the woman he loves. Merrik then was killed by a stab from the back by Skywalker who stated that he killed a bomber set to destroy the ship. The Coronet then landed on Coruscant and the senators, along with the Duchess, met with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.^[8]

Trouble in the Senate[]

Defending neutrality[]

After Kryze arrived on Coruscant, she began to speak her thoughts to the Senate. The Death Watch was the main talk among the various senators present. Chancellor Palpatine deemed the Death Watch to be a military threat and that the Republic must intervene. Kryze dismissed the fears of the Death Watch and insisted to keep the affair internal to Mandalorian interests. Palpatine then surprised her with a holographic message of Deputy Prime Minister Jerec. Jerec stated that the Death Watch was too great of a problem than the Mandalorian government had revealed to its people. He then flatly stated that Mandalore required assistance from the Republic. Kryze could not believe the untruths spoken from such an honorable man. She could not protest because Jerec was killed in a terror bombing on Kalevala earlier that day. Palpatine found the hologram to be enough evidence to proceed on a mission to liberate Mandalore.^[7]

The Duchess was appalled by the occupation, seeing it as the Republic trampling Mandalore's right to self-determination, and making the planet a military target. The Senate then decided to vote for the military occupation of Mandalore during its next session. Kryze stormed out of the Senate building onto the landing platforms outside. Obi-Wan Kenobi was there to meet her but she was too angry to listen to the advice he had. She and her guards boarded an airspeeder and set off. Her flight was smooth until a Death Watch assassin triggered explosives he had previously rigged to the airspeeder. The speeder began to go down but Aramis, the pilot, managed to get near a platform. He shouted for Kryze to jump to safety and then crashed into a building with Satine witnessing it all.^[7]

Duchess Satine met with Chancellor Palpatine in his office after the assassination attempt. Unfortunately for her, Kryze learned that no evidence remained from the crash so it could only remain an accident. Mas Amedda then commented that such an attack is more proof that the Republic should intervene. Kryze then angrily left Palpatine's office and once again found Kenobi. He began to express his concern that Kryze was an obvious target to the Death Watch. Not caring about her own safety, Kryze found the attempt on her life as proof that she was right: someone is pushing Mandalore towards war. As the two walked they were met with Senator Padmé Amidala who had more bad news. She informed Kryze that the Senate voted for the occupation of Mandalore because of her recent assassination attempt. Already stunned, Kryze then learned of the invasion set to begin the next day.^[7]

On the run[]

Later that night, Kryze ventured her way into the shadowy levels of Coruscant to meet with her Mandalorian contact from the Republic Ministry of Intelligence, Davu Golec. After meeting up with him, Golec handed a disk containing the data of Deputy Minister Jerec and stated the one viewed by the Senate was a forgery. After watching for a few moments, the Death Watch assassin discovered Kryze and Golec. He pulled out a blaster and shot Golec through the heart. Kryze instinctively pulled out her weapon but began to look too suspicious to arriving Republic authority. She began to run from the scene and was chased by police droids and two clone troopers. She soon lost her pursuers in an alleyway with a departing speeder and contacted Jedi Kenobi to meet her at a Coruscant Park.^[7]

Kenobi soon arrived in his cloak and found the Duchess on a bench. Kryze gave Kenobi the disk and urged him to deliver it to Senator Amidala. Kryze decided that she would turn herself in on the steps leading to the senate building to let Kenobi slip under the suspicion as an associate should she remain at large. As the two began to walk down a nearby alleyway, the Death Watch assassin threw a thermal detonator near them. After losing the ability to hear temporarily, Kenobi began to brawl with the assassin. As their fight began to escalate, the assassin was kicked off the ledge, but he escaped by using his jetpack. At the Senate building, Kryze surrendered to the Senate guards as Kenobi stealthy ran into the building.^[7]

Passing along the disk to Senator Amidala, Kenobi was just in time so that she could rush into the session and show everyone the real message from Deputy Minister Jerec. With the true light shed, the occupation of Mandalore was abolished along with the Death Watches plans. The next morning in his office, Palpatine expressed his gratitude and apologies to Duchess Satine Kryze for uncovering the real truth. Kryze then began to express her thanks towards Obi-Wan Kenobi for his undying friendship in these most uncertain times.^[7]

Fighting corruption[]

Smuggling deals[]

The neutrality of Mandalore during the Clone Wars was causing trade routes to the planet to be shut down, forcing the Mandalorian government to make deals with smugglers. In an attempt to help, Padmé Amidala went to meet with Satine and discuss possible solutions to the problem. While on the planet, an outbreak of sickness was discovered during a visit by Amidala and Kryze to new hospital. While investigating, it was discovered that smugglers were adding slabin to shipments of tea in order to dilute it and thus stretch it out into greater quantities. During the investigation Amidala and Kryze discovered the source of the tea and went down to the warehouse to shut it down. After the resulting battle against the Moogan smugglers, the Duchess had the warehouse burnt down to prevent any further damage done by the tainted tea.^[12]

Exposing treachery[]

Upon request from Kryze, Amidala had asked Master Yoda to send a Jedi to help out in exposing the corruption in the Mandalorian government. Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano was sent to investigate the situation undercover as a teacher at the Mandalorian Royal Academy of Government. With the aid of Kryze's nephew Korkie and some of his friends, Tano and the group of students discovered Almec behind the black market dealings. By that time Almec had Kryze arrested for treason and attempted to have her sign a confession so he could seize power on Mandalore. Refusing to sign, Kryze was tortured, along with being threatened of torture to her nephew. After Tano freed Kryze and the students, Kryze had Almec arrested and imprisoned on charges of treason as well as rooting out the corruption in the Mandalorian government.^[10] Following all of these incidents, Kryze continued to work in the Senate and was present when Amidala delivered her momentous speech opposing the proposed bill to fund five million clone troopers and escalate the Republic war effort.^[13] Later, she attended Senator Onaconda Farr's funeral, where his body was taken on a frigate to Rodia.^[14]

Later in the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi was apparently killed by Rako Hardeen. In reality, Kenobi had faked his death, although this fact remained unknown to all outside the Jedi Council, Kryze included. As such, Satine attended Kenobi's "funeral," sobbing as she watched his "corpse" lowered into a tomb.^[15] Later, however, Jedi Masters Yoda and Mace Windu informed the "funeral" attendees that Kenobi had not actually been killed.^[16]

Ousted[]

Satine would soon learn that criminal gangs called the Shadow Collective were attacking different parts of the city. Immediately, she suspected the Death Watch. She tried to calm her people outside the royal palace, but Pre Vizsla himself arrived and stated he was not the attacker, and he promised to root them out and defeat them. Kryze would then be ousted by Vizsla and thrown into prison, placed right beside Almec's cell. Soon, Vizsla's former allies, Darth Maul and Savage Opress came by her cell, asking if there were any other political prisoners besides her. With an indirect comment from Satine, the Sith brothers chose Almec to be their puppet ruler as they challenged and defeat Vizsla for control of Death Watch. Almec was reinstalled as Prime Minister, who deceived the Mandalorian populace in thinking that Satine murdered Vizsla.^[18]

Sometime after her arrest, Satine's loyalists, including Korkie and her sister Bo-Katan, who was previously aligned with Death Watch until its schism due to Maul's takeover, managed to spring her from prison. They managed to get outside Sundari to sent a transmission to Obi-Wan Kenobi before Satine was recaptured. Kenobi managed to infiltrate Sundari, disguising himself as a Death Watch soldier. However, they were discovered and Kenobi's escape ship, the Twilight, already in a state of disrepair, was critically damaged by three missiles fired from Death Watch jetpacks. Satine and Kenobi were forced to abandon the ship and were captured. Maul had them brought back to the throne room in the Sundari Royal Palace, where the Sith held Satine in a Force choke while taunting the Jedi Master. After decreeing that he wished Kenobi to feel his pain, Maul pulled Satine onto the darksaber, fatally wounding her. Falling into the arms of the helpless Kenobi, Satine used her dying breath to express her eternal love for the Jedi Master.^[17]

Return of the old ways[]

Kryze's untimely death would spark the end of her faction's power over Mandalore. Later, in 20 BBY, the former ARC trooper Alpha-Ø2—a deserter from the Republic's Grand Army now going by the name "Spar"—arrived on the planet.^[11] There, he met a local constable named Fenn Shysa who persuaded him to act as Jango Fett's heir.^[19] Spar became the new Mand'alor and, going by the title "Mandalore the Resurrector," he won out over the New Mandalorians.^[6] Forming the Mandalorian Protectors, a new army of supercommandos, Spar brought the warrior ways of the Mandalore's past back to the forefront of their culture and joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems against a Republic he saw as oppressive.^[11]

Personality and traits[]

Duchess Satine Kryze was a staunch pacifist who would not commit to war as she found fighting for peace to be distasteful and contradicting. She was so devoted to peace, she was willing to die for her beliefs.^[1] She was vehemently opposed to the Death Watch, the War, and even some of the Jedi's beliefs.^[5] Though she was a pacifist, she was not afraid to defend herself, carrying a small droid deactivator on her body.^[8] Kryze believed that one who brought a weapon to negotiations did not want peace. These beliefs caused the Duchess to be secretly opposed and later betrayed by many of her closest friends and allies, including Vizsla,^[5] Merrik,^[8] and even Almec.^[12] Satine even had a sister, Bo-Katan that was the right hand of Pre Vizsla, her sworn enemy. Also, Kryze was upset that the Jedi had let themselves be drawn into the war, because it was everything they were supposed to be against.^[20]

Behind the scenes[]

Duchess Satine Kryze was first mentioned in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. She was based on an illustration of Queen Padmé Amidala by Iain McCaig and her guards were a Sith concept also by McCaig. Satine Kryze was portrayed by actress Anna Graves who also provided the voices for bounty hunters Sugi and Rumi Paramita in the episode, "Bounty Hunters,"^[21] as well as the Minister of Finance in the episode "Corruption."^[22]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Mandalore of the Mandalorians[3]
Jango Fett (52–44 BBY) ← —20 BBY[2][3] Pre Vizsla[3] (20 BBY[2][3]) →

Notes and references[]