Shira Elan Colla Brie was born on Coruscant and raised on an estate belonging to Palpatine. As a teenager she lived in the Imperial Palace as part of COMPNOR’s Adolescent Indoctrination Program. Shira came to learn and accept the Galactic Empire’s New Order.
Shira began her service to the Empire as a pilot at the Coruscanti Pilot Institute, where she became friends with Myrette Davani. Six months after the Battle of Yavin, during her final year, Shira transferred to the Academy of Carida to complete her training. There, Davani was her roommate and had a lot of the same training.
In addition to her field and pilot training, Brie became Darth Vader‘s apprentice in use of the Force. He had placed her in accelerated training for Imperial Intelligence after sensing her potential. She was also trained in numerous forms of combat, including Echani and Noghri Stava. Shira also had numerous biological alterations to her body’s defenses, giving her accelerated healing and a high pain threshold.
While at the Academy, Shira got her first taste of destruction and was given free reign to test her powers. An example of this was the incident where, while testing MT-STs, her walker was equipped with actual lasers as opposed to training ones. Brie ended up killing six students and destroying a dozen of the MT-STs. She was never investigated by the Academy staff. In another incident two cadets spent a night on the town to celebrate their impending graduation. When a Caridan asked to buy them a drink, Shira turned him down and caused the man to fall unconscious without touching him.
After graduating with top honors from the Academy, Vader arranged with Intelligence Director Isard to send Shira on a solo intelligence mission. She proved herself on that mission, and reached the rank of Major in the Imperial Special Forces. She was then sent by Vader to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance and eliminate Luke Skywalker. Imperial forces destroyed the city Chinshassa on planet the Shalyvane to provide a background cover story for her. She used as her alias the shortened version of her name, Shira Brie. Posing as a Shalyvane refugee, she accomplished her infiltration with ease. While serving with the Rebels, Brie would work alongside Kyle Katarn, Corwin Shelvay, and Erling Tredway on a mission to D’rinba IV to disable the superlaser of the second Death Star. The mission succeeded despite Brie turning against her comrades midway through and attempting to sabotage their efforts along with Darth Vader.
Shira was then assigned to Rogue Squadron and served at Haven Base on Arbra. Her beauty and intelligence made her a popular member of the Alliance. She struck up a friendship with Luke Skywalker, and made it obvious that she wanted to be more than friends. Luke also seemed willing to pursue a relationship with her. When Luke headed to Bespin to check up on Lando Calrissian, because he had not yet reported back to Arbra since he returned to Cloud City, Shira volunteered to join him.
There they helped Lando to liberate the city from Imperial forces. On a mission to Spindrift, Shira remained close by Luke’s side. She often called Luke “Ace,” her nickname for him.
After the mission on Spindrift, Shira asked to return to Shalyvane to honor her family who, she said, had been killed in the Imperial attack on her home. Since the precise coordinates of Arbra were known only to a few in the Rebellion, she required an escort from Skywalker as well as two other members of Rogue Squadron, Hanc Thorben and Wald. While on Shalyvane in the capital city of Chinshassa, Brie privately approached the Circle of Kavaan to perform a blood-ritual in honor of her family, but her blood was actually a trigger for a hidden communication device, she was actually contacting Darth Vader. But during the ceremony she and the rest of Rogue Squadron were attacked by a horde of Em’liy, the native species of Shalyvane. Using her knowledge of the sewers, Brie made her way past the Em’liy to her X-wing fighter and piloted it back to the scene of the battle, saving her fellow squad members lives.
Due to her heroics, Princess Leia Organa presented Brie with the Burdine Cluster and promoted her to the rank of Captain, in a ceremony held in Haven Base, with many of the Rebel stationed on Arbra in attendance.
Members of Rogue Squadron were assigned to covertly attack an Imperial fleet and destroy a captured teezl, a glowing creature with special abilities that would have given the Empire an advantage in communication. As part of the mission, Brie, Skywalker, Thorben, and Alph were chosen to pilot modified TIE fighters first used at Spindrift and infiltrate the armada. When the final preparations for the mission were made, Shira told Luke that she was afraid they might not survive, and surprised him with a kiss.
During the battle, the Imperials used the teezl to prevent the Rebels from signaling each other, making it so they were unable to tell friend from foe. As Skywalker approached the primary target, another TIE moved into his line of fire. Unable to use his signaling device to determine if the TIE was a Rebel, he relied on sensing through the Force. This led to him shooting down Brie. When he returned to base after completing his mission, Leia revealed to Luke that Thorben’s fighter camera recorded visual proof that Skywalker had fired on Brie, apparently killing her. Due to the evidence against him, as well as Brie’s tremendous popularity among her comrades, Luke was stripped of his commission until an investigation and trial could be held.
Luke, with the help of Chewbacca, secretly went to Shalyvane to discover the truth behind Shira’s past. He returned to the Circle of Kavaan to do the exact same blood-ritual he saw Shira perform earlier, but when his blood contacted the altar, the communication device displayed a hologram of Darth Vader. Vader revealed that Brie’s true purpose was to kill Luke, or to discredit him with the Rebellion so that he would join him. Luke then went to Krake’s Planet, home of an Imperial data vault where he was able to infiltrate and gain proof of Brie’s true mission, clearing himself of the charges against him.
It was thought that Brie died in her fighter’s crash, but she survived because of her biological modifications and Vader had her damaged body nursed back to life and enhanced with cybernetic parts. This gave her the ability to fire energy blasts from her hands. Now, taking the name Lumiya, she received more training under Vader. He taught her the more advanced methods of the dark side and even some of the ways of the Sith. Knowing his master would not approve of him taking an apprentice, he presented her to the Emperor as an Emperor’s Hand.
Before the Battle of Endor, Lumiya traveled to the planet Ziost to train further in the dark side. When she learned both her masters died in the Battle of Endor, she vowed revenge and claimed the title of Dark Lady of the Sith. While on Ziost, she had constructed a new weapon, the lightwhip. Built out of Mandalorian iron and a shard of the Kaiburr crystal, it resembled a lightsaber, but with the ability to flex and move like a whip. Lumiya then set out to take revenge upon the Alliance.
Lumiya began training a young stormtrooper, named Flint, as her apprentice. She then sent Flint, calling himself the Dark Lord of Belderone, to oversee the take-over of the planet Naldar. When Luke Skywalker managed to turn Flint back to the light, Lumiya was furious enough to order the execution of her former apprentice. When the attempted execution failed, she then decided to cut her losses gather her forces.
Lumiya controlled some Imperial forces, most of the danger she posed came from alliances she had with slavers and alien invaders. She had an alliance with the Nagai, and set up her headquarters on the planet Kinooine.
After posing as a cyborg and being assigned as the head of planetary security on Herdessa, she encountered Princess Leia and Mon Mothma and was barely prevented from capturing them. She then ordered a kidnapping attempt of a Rebel Alliance group that was gathering on Kabray, and allowed Luke Skywalker to track her to Kinooine. When he arrived on Kinooine he discovered that Lumiya had allied her forces with the Nagai invaders.
At first Lumiya defeated Luke, Dani and Kiro, and she revealed that the reason for her success was her lightwhip that contained both energized metal and pure energy strands. This was because of the fact that Luke’s Jedi training prepared him for energy weapons or solid weapons, but not both. After being rescued by Kiro, Skywalker constructed a shorter lightsaber with a synthetic red blade, called a shoto. He confronted Lumiya again and defeated her, destroying her armor and revealing her face.
Luke tried to reason with her, telling her that his father, Darth Vader, had turned away from the dark side and that she could, too. The arrival of the entire Nagai fleet on Kinooine forced Luke to abandon Lumiya,and flee the planet with Dani.
Lumiya continued to attack the Rebel Alliance, she launched a two-pronged assault on their capital world of Endor. Using an inside agent, Bey, they gained the Alliance battle plans and battled the Alliance with a number of fighter squadrons. Lumiya led the forces personally, enjoying her return as a fighter pilot. A ground force composed of Nagai and Maccabree attempted to kidnap the grounded leadership. This ground maneuver failed, and as the Rebels abandoned their flight patterns, the space battle also began to turn. Lumiya ordered a retreat, although their efforts still caused the Alliance to abandon the planet.
After other battles on Mandalore and Iskalon, Lumiya and her Nagai allies invaded of Zeltros. Unfortunately for her the Tofs, mortal enemies of the Nagai, also invaded. This caused the Nagai to abandon their alliance with Lumiya and instead join with the Alliance, Empire, Zeltrons, and Hiromi Empire to repel the Tofs.
Lumiya then supported the Tofs, convincing Prince Sereno to ally with her. Pursued by this new coalition however, Lumiya and the Tofs were attacked on their base planet of Saijo. As the battle turned against Lumiya she tried to exert some personal revenge by shooting Princess Leia. Lumiya’s former Nagai agent Bey in disguise prevented this, and it was Lumiya instead that was left for dead. With the Tofs surrender, Lumiya’s second invasion force had failed. Though she managed to escape and survive, the many betrayals she received only increased her desire for power.
After the failure of the Tof invasion, Lumiya withdrew into the shadows and started rebuilding her forces. Within a few months, she had a formidable fleet under her command, and Ysanne Isard assigned her a detachment of theImperial Royal Guard. In return, Lumiya agreed to investigate Rebel infiltration of Imperial Intelligence facilities in the Cron Drift, and to track down Mara Jade. Lumiya discovered Mara Jade on Caprioril and fought her in a duel. She was defeated, and both the Empire and the Alliance believed Lumiya to be finally dead. Jade survived to join Talon Karrde‘s organization a few months later. Around this time, Lumiya had also begun training another apprentice in the ways of the dark side, one of her Royal Guard detachment, Carnor Jax.
Sometime before the Battle of Ebaq 9, Lumiya entered into contact with Vergere, a former Jedi Knight and Sith apprentice who had been captured by the Yuuzhan Vong prior to the Clone Wars. After this contact was established, Vergere passed on her view of Sith teachings to Lumiya and trained her in the ways of the Sith. From these lessons, Lumiya accepted that she was incapable of realizing her full Sith abilities due to her cybernetics.
Vergere and her decided on who would become the next Dark Lord of the Sith, evaluating such candidates as Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker, and Jaina Solo, before finally deciding on Jacen. During his capture at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong, Vergere began Jacen’s training. After Vergere’s death, in order to ensure Jacen fulfilled his destiny, it would be some time before his training could continue.
To meet Jacen, Lumiya used her Force ability to sway the minds of those she required in her plans. One of them was Galactic Alliance Admiral Matric Klauskin, and she appeared to him in the guise of his dead wife, Edela. Lumiya influenced Matric into starting the Second Galactic Civil War. At the threat of peace talks she worked alongside Thrackan Sal-Solo to interrupt them, manipulating security personnel at the Toryaz Station near Kuat. It was here that she left the Sith prophecy, which would eventually lead Jacen to her.
Lumiya tested Jacen on Lorrd, before revealing herself to him. She used the alias Brisha Syo. Lumiya took Jacen Solo, Ben Skywalker, and Nelani Dinn, the Jedi stationed on Lorrd, to Vectivus. Acting under the orders of what was apparently an apparition of a future Sith Lord Jacen Solo, she separated Jacen from Ben and Nelani and revealed to him her true identity. She also told Jacen that Vergere had sacrificed herself in an attempt to pass the Sith philosophies through him. Denying at first what his instincts told him to be true, Lumiya questioned Jacen’s purpose, forcing him to acknowledge his disillusionment with his life as a Jedi. Accepting his destiny, Jacen killed Nelani when she tried to arrest Lumiya. He agreed to Lumiya’s suggestion that he needed an apprentice who, unlike Ben, could be molded to Sith teachings.
Later, Jacen summoned Lumiya to Coruscant in order to both answer his questions and test her for her true intentions, bringing her into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in proximity of her enemy Luke Skywalker. Though disguised, Lumiya proved to him her intentions, passing on an easy attempt to attack and kill Skywalker. Little did Lumiya know that Luke felt her presence and was intent on finding her. Lumiya also suggested to Jacen that one part of his training required him to become a Jedi Master. Later she explained one of the lines of the prophecy to him. He will immortalize his love. Lumiya did not know of Solo’s relationship with the Hapan Queen Tenel Ka, nor of his child with her, Allana. When she told him that he would have to prove his selflessness by sacrificing one he loved for the good of his destiny, Jacen assumed that he would have to kill Tenel and his daughter. In reality, Lumiya herself had no idea who Jacen had to kill, as she was only following the will of the Force.
Lumiya did not know of all Jacen’s enemies, however. When the Dark Jedi Alema Rar attempted to assassinate him in the depths of Coruscant, she was barely able to save him, although Alema was successful in killing the World Brain. In order to increase discontent among the Galactic Alliance and Bothawui, she agreed with Jacen to assassinate members of the Bothan True Victory Party, including the Bothan ambassador. However, her presence on Coruscant did not gone unnoticed, Luke recognized her presence and warned Jacen.
At another meeting with Jacen, accompanied by his apprentice Ben Skywalker, Lumiya was startled when Alema Rar leaped out of the darkness to assault Jedi Master Tresina Lobi, who had eavesdropped on their conversation. Alema was operating on her agenda to cause grief to Leia Organa Solo, wished Jacen’s Sith nature to remain hidden, and thus had attacked Lobi before she could warn Luke. Lumiya joined in the fight, but lost her cybernetic arm to Lobi. Eventually the two women overpowered her, and Rar decapitated the Jedi Master. Alema agreed to partner with Lumiya, to help Jacen become a Sith and preserve the Balance. Jacen gave Lumiya a GAG apartment safehouse and access to various GAG resources, which she quickly covered with traps to kill any infiltrators. She then left for Hapes with Jacen, who was traveling there in order to investigate an assassination attempt on Tenel Ka. Luke and Mara Skywalker discovered the location of her safehouse and drew the link between her and GAG, but it did not occur to them that she was in league with Jacen.
She met with Jacen frequently on the Anakin Solo to discuss their plans. Lumiya agreed to go to the Roqoo Depot in the Hapes Cluster in order to get Ben. In fact Jacen was setting up a duel between his mentor and Luke Skywalker, as it would benefit him for at least one to be taken out of the equation. Lumiya recognized it as a trap, and rigged a proton bomb on her chest to explode when her life signs terminated. Working with Alema, Lumiya strapped a detonator onto the Twi’lek girl as well. Lumiya’s hope was that if she did die at Luke’s hands, her death would also cause his. In the hangar bay, Lumiya also revealed to Alema that there was a plan in place to ensure Jacen became a true Sith Lord and implied that there were some Sith still active in the Galaxy other than herself.
At the Roqoo Depot Lumiya did duel Luke and Mara Skywalker, drawing them out by attacking people in a cantina. Her duel with Luke was ferocious as Alema and Mara battled in the corridor. Lumiya used Luke’s inherent good to distract him with the fates of the cantina patrons that she used as Human shields. In the face of Luke’s use of the Jar’Kai style of shoto and lightsaber to combat her lightwhip, Lumiya was lucky enough to see a distraction as Mara’s life was threatened by the poison darts of Alema Rar. She struck swiftly and ensnared Luke with her lightwhip, burning his chest and severing his artificial hand. Luke continued to fight by drawing heavily on the Force, but was disarmed by Lumiya. She began to insinuate that it had been his son Ben who was her connection in the Galactic Alliance Guard. Luke was now at her mercy, Lumiya hesitated long enough for him to grab a blaster from one of her victims and use the Force to guide his hand, shooting her five times in the chest. Mara stopped him from killing her. Luke left her on the cantina floor, and approximately two minutes after the Jedi fled, the bomb detonated.