Mystra was an alien assassin who served as an enforcer for Raskar, a former pirate and the ruler of the planet Antipose. Raskar organized profitable gladiatorial competitions with a rare power gem as their ultimate prize, and Mystra helped him maintain order on the planet, which included killing undesirable individuals on her employer's behalf.

In 0 ABY, when the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca arrived on Antipose in search of a power gem, Mystra interrupted a confrontation they had found themselves in with a trio of competitors for the artifact. The enforcer took the pair to meet Raskar, who demonstrated the power gem to Solo and attempted to persuade the smuggler to participate in the arena fighting for it. Suspecting that Solo would attempt to find a way to obtain the gem outside the system, Mystra then tried to intimidate the smuggler with her skill with a wrist blaster.

Nevertheless, Solo eventually had Chewbacca start an impromptu brawl, observed by Mystra from afar, with the leading gladiator in order to create a distraction that allowed him to sneak into Raskar's villa and perform a close scan of the power gem. Determining that the artifact's useful properties had diminished over time—a fact that Raskar had not disclosed to any of the contestants competing for it—Solo ultimately convinced the ex-pirate to let him and Chewbacca leave with the gem, and Raskar and Mystra both saw the smugglers off as they departed the planet.

Biography[]

Enforcer for a planetary ruler[]

Mystra was a gunslinger and assassin^[2] who served as a bodyguard^[3] and enforcer for Raskar,^[1] the ruler of the^[4] Centrality^[5] planet^[1] Antipose.^[6] A former pirate, Raskar had settled on Antipose with a valuable power gem^[1]—one of several rare artifacts composed of a^[7] meteoritic^[8] mineral that could disable the deflector shields of starships^[7]—in his possession. He then organized a system of gladiatorial competitions with the power gem as the prize for the ultimate winner.^[1]

Over time, many individuals sought to participate in the gladiatorial fights, with Raskar collecting arena admissions—from both the audience and the participants—as well as percentages from all associated betting. Mystra helped the former pirate maintain order on Antipose, killing any undesirable individuals on his behalf. Raskar, however, never made it known to Mystra that, in addition to a force field, the power gem, kept in a chamber at his villa in the planet's only city, was also protected by concealed destructive energy beams.^[1]

Meeting Solo and Chewbacca[]

In 0 ABY,^[9] the smuggler Han Solo was tasked by Princess Leia Organa with finding and obtaining a power gem in order to help the Rebel Alliance combat the new^[1] Star Dreadnought of the Sith Lord Darth Vader, the Executor.^[10] Solo and his copilot, Chewbacca, then traveled in their light freighter, the Millennium Falcon, to the^[1] Tharin sector^[11] shadowport^[12] Junkfort Station to begin the search. There, an alien—who, unbeknownst to Solo and Chewbacca, was an agent for Raskar and Mystra—pointed the pair to Antipose, claiming he had seen a power gem there. After the two smugglers departed from Junkfort Station, the agent notified Raskar and Mystra of the pair's impending arrival.^[1]

Setting their ship down at a landing field outside Antipose's city, Solo and Chewbacca were soon confronted by a trio of individuals who, interested in acquiring the power gem themselves, were attempting to intimidate any potential rivals into leaving the planet. Before any shots could be fired, Mystra arrived at the site on a floater, interrupting the confrontation and ordering that the trio harassing Solo and Chewbacca leave Antipose. Addressing Solo both by his name and his identity as a Corellian, Mystra then ordered the two smugglers onto the floater, whereupon she took them to the city. There, she briefly showed the pair the Antipose Arena—letting Solo know that people were willing to pay for the opportunity to fight for the power gem—before traveling to Raskar's villa.^[1]

Solo and Chewbacca met Raskar there, and Mystra was present when her employer, wanting to motivate Solo to enter the gladiatorial contest in the arena, arranged for a private demonstration of the power gem's potential. Raskar ordered Mystra to shoot at the artifact—thus startling Solo, who was unaware of the force field protecting the gem—and then demonstrated the artifact's adverse effect on the said force field. Since^[1] the crime lord^[12] Jabba had placed a high bounty on Solo that Raskar was interested in collecting, he then offered to let the smuggler participate in the gladiatorial fights for the power gem for free. Solo agreed on the condition that his mighty Wookiee companion be allowed to fight on his behalf instead, with Raskar warning him that he would use Mystra to ensure that Solo did not flee in case Chewbacca was defeated in the arena.^[1]

A smuggler's distraction[]

Suspecting that Solo would attempt to somehow game the system of the gladiatorial contests, Mystra confronted the smuggler and his partner after they had left Raskar's villa. The enforcer demonstrated her skill with her weapons and attempted to intimidate Solo into not trying to cheat. Boarding her floater but remaining in contact with Raskar over comlink, Mystra then proceeded to observe Solo and Chewbacca from afar while Solo obtained directions to the training grounds of a hulking alien gladiator who was the leading contender for the power gem. The smuggler had indeed hatched a plan to obtain the power gem without either himself or Chewbacca having to fight in the arena. To that end, Solo then convinced his companion to instigate an impromptu brawl with the gladiator, violating the planetary law prohibiting any fighting outside of the arena.^[1]

Mystra notified Raskar of the situation, with the ex-pirate instructing her to immediately break up the fight. The enforcer attempted to do so but soon judged that it was too late for any such effort given the gathering crowd of spectators, believing they would begin rioting if the authorities interfered with the duel. Intent on punishing Solo for cheating him out of his profits from the fight, Raskar ordered Mystra to search for the smuggler and then traveled from his villa aboard a floater of his own in order to assist her.^[1]

Solo, however, had used the distraction provided by the amassing crowd to slip away unnoticed and sneak back into Raskar's villa. Mystra's employer was notified of the smuggler slicing his way into the power gem's chamber, and both he and Mystra then sped back to the villa. Raskar, however, was confident the power gem's defenses would deter Solo's attempts, and when the villa's alarm system notified him that the chamber's energy beams had been fired, he assumed that the smuggler had perished and accordingly slowed down his floater, to Mystra's surprise. The enforcer then speculated that Solo's demise would make it easier for Raskar to collect the bounty on him.^[1]

End of the contests[]

When the pair arrived at Raskar's villa, however, they discovered that Solo had instead tricked the ex-pirate's training droid into the path of the destructive beams. Solo had also used a portable scanner to determine that the potency of the power gem's effect on shields was gradually diminishing and that the artifact was only still good for one proper use against a starship. At first, Raskar ordered Mystra to simply kill Solo in order to prevent that information from becoming public, with the enforcer expressing her confidence that the smuggler could not avoid death at her hands.^[1]

Solo, however, instead convinced Raskar to declare Chewbacca the ultimate winner of the competition since the Rebel Alliance was at that point only interested in using the power gem once anyway, and therefore the two smugglers had no interest in publicly revealing Raskar's deception. Since that plan relied on Chewbacca prevailing in the ongoing duel against the gladiator, Mystra began to despair as she observed via monitors that the Wookiee appeared worn out by the fighting. As she and Solo subsequently traveled via floater to the place of the fight, however, the smuggler explained to Mystra that becoming tired merely enraged Chewbacca, and when he informed his companion that their plan had worked and that he no longer needed to prolong the fight as a distraction, the Wookiee swiftly defeated his opponent.^[1]

Mystra and Raskar later saw Solo and Chewbacca off as the pair departed Antipose with the power gem, with the enforcer expressing their gratitude to the two smugglers for allowing them to save their reputation and her employer remarking to Mystra his admiration for Solo as a scoundrel.^[1] Raskar later experienced financial difficulties and, as a result, was forced to return to interstellar piracy.^[4]

Personality and traits[]

Mystra was a mysterious and exotic^[2] green-skinned female alien.^[1] She viewed gladiatorial combat as an "interesting" and "practical" solution to the problem of having many individuals who competed for the ownership of Raskar's power gem.^[3] Mystra had little respect for the contestants in the arena, believing them to be over-confident "scoundrels" and that the galaxy was full of such individuals. In addition, she viewed Han Solo as being "shifty" and a "schemer," but she did, however, admit to Raskar that the smuggler possessed a certain charm.^[1]

When warning Solo and Chewbacca not to cheat in order to obtain the power gem, Mysta boasted of never missing a shot with her wrist blaster and never being outdrawn,^[1] with Solo coming to view her as a real danger.^[3] However, Mystra soon perceived that Solo would ignore her warning anyway and continue with his own plan of acquiring the gem.^[1] Mystra also had a vengeful streak, as evidenced by her suggestion to Raskar to make Solo "pay" for the latter's attempt at subverting the gladiatorial arena system to obtain the power gem.^[3]

Skills and abilities[]

A professional killer,^[13] Mystra was observant enough to notice that, during a confrontation, Han Solo had both positioned himself so that the sun would be in his opponents' eyes and had also maneuvered so that he and Chewbacca would have them in a crossfire. Mystra speculated that Solo's opponents would not have survived the resultant engagement.^[1]

Equipment[]

Mystra wore a dark red jumpsuit with yellow accents, including a belt and a pair of gauntlets, and yellow boots. She also wore a yellow-and-dark-red^[1] cybervision helmet^[13] that obscured her eyes^[1] and gave her perfect aim at any target.^[13] A pair of lethal wrist blasters, capable of delivering a sting-level blast as well as causing a relatively large explosion, were mounted on Mystra's gauntlets and attached by cables to the red visor of her helmet. In her line of work, Mystra also utilized a yellow-and-green floater that was of a similar model to that used by Raskar, had the driver's controls at its front, and could carry at least two passengers.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Mystra serves as a secondary antagonist in "The Power Gem," a comic story written by Archie Goodwin, penciled by Al Williamson, and published between July 26 and October 3, 1982^[1] as part of the daily black-and-white Star Wars comic strip distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate to major American and Canadian newspapers from 1979 to 1984.^[15] It was not until a decade later that a reprint of "The Power Gem," colored by Steve Buccellato and included in the^[16] August 1993^[17] eleventh issue of the Dark Horse Comics' Classic Star Wars comic-book series, established Mystra to have been a humanoid alien.^[16]

Appearances[]

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• "The Power Gem" (First appearance)

Sources[]

• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
• "ComicScan: Star Wars...On A Daily Basis" — Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 2
• Star Wars Scrapbook: The Essential Collection
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
• Star Wars: The Comics Companion
• Galactic Gladiators: Great Warriors of Star Wars on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)

Notes and references[]