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Ta'a Chume

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the Queen Mother of the Hapan worlds during the era of the New Order, she is a devious woman who gave birth to two sons. She would stop at nothing to see her elder son married to a powerful new queen, but he was a pacifist and - in her mind - a weakling. So, she had him assassinated in order to elevate her younger son, Isolder, to the position of heir. When Isolder fell in love with Elliar, Ta'a Chume disagreed with his selection. She also had Elliar murdered, and pushed Isolder to marry a more fitting wife. Ta'a Chume also had a dislike for the Jedi Knights, and when she meets Luke Skywalker, the dislike only increases when Luke bests her in gaining information on Han Solo's whereabouts. She allowed the Old Republic some measure of respect, but when it crumbled and the Empire took over, she became a brutal leader, firming up the Hapan armed forces to keep the Imperials at bay. The Hapan worlds have since enjoyed a measure of prosperity, and Ta'a has been reduced to keeping the various factions from killing each other's heirs in attempts to gain the throne. She pretended to agree to her son Isolder's proposed marriage to Princess Leia, but she was secretly against it, feeling that Leia would bring nothing but the downfall of the Hapan government. She arranged for an assassination attempt on Leia's life, but it failed. Isolder, upon hearing of this, also accused her of killing his former betrothed, Elliar, and his older brother. Ta'a Chume eventually backed off, and let Isolder marry the Dathomirian "princess" Teneniel Djo. When Tenel Ka was born, Ta'a Chume began doting on the child, in hopes that she could twist the child into a "proper" Hapes Queen. In this effort, however, she failed, and Tenel Ka became a full Jedi. Ta'a Chume, it was later revealed, had something to do with the attempt by a group of Bartokk assassins to kill Tenel Ka, and she was forced to step down as Queen Mother and relinquish the throne to Teneniel Djo. Her abdication, though final, did not prevent her from keeping a hand in the dealings of the royal family. After the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, and after the destruction of a portion of the Consortium Navy at the Battle of Fondor, Ta'a Chume even condoned several assassination attempts on Isolder and Teneniel Djo. However, the opening of Hapes to war refugees was too much for her to take. With the help of her aide Trisdin, Ta'a Chume began searching for a young woman to replace Teneniel Djo - a young woman she could mold in her own image. Her first attempt to locate such a woman focused on Jaina Solo, shortly after the Jedi lost her brother Anakin to the Yuuzhan Vong. After arranging for the murder of her daugther-in-law, Ta'a Chume quickly ordered new leadership be instated for Hapes, blaming the murder on the Ni'Korish. Her plans failed when Tenel Ka agreed to take her mother's position, a right which was hers to exercise. Despite her position as former Queen Mother, Ta'a Chume was arrested and charged with the murder to Teneniel Djo. She remained in a minimum security environment for many years, and slowly grew more and more angry at the fact that her Jedi-trained grand-daughter, Tenel Ka, had assumed the throne of the Queen Mother. Ta'a Chume's frustration and unrest only increased when Tenel Ka refused to marry, and continued to involve the Hapes Cluster in the politics of the greater galaxy. In the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy, which cost many Hapan lives, Ta'a Chume began to hear whispers of Tenel Ka's growing relationship with Jacen Solo. After the Qoribu Crisis, it became obvious that Tenel Ka was pregnant, and Ta'a Chume began to plot a new pathway to power. She arranged a deal with the Gorog hive to have Tenel Ka's infant daughter killed, knowing that she could only retake the position of Queen Mother without a direct heir in the way. Her plans were spoiled when the baby's father, Jacen Solo, arrived on Hapes with Ben Skywalker. The two Jedi added their strength to Tenel Ka's, and defeated the insectile assassins. Jacen, angry at the attempt on his daughter's life, confronted Ta'a Chume and had her restrained. Ta'a Chume then revealed that it had been Gorog who had come to her first, claiming that it wanted revenge against Tenel Ka for sending of a Hapan fleet to Qoribu. She also explained that the Gorog were looking for navicomputers and hyperdrives in order to escape from the Utegetu Nebula. Jacen, satisfied with her answers but unwilling to let her remain free, sent a sharp spike of Force power into Ta'a Chume's brain, rendering her unable to produce a coherent thought.