Ysanne Isard

Ysanne Isard is a fictional Imperial character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

History

Early rise

Isard was a ruthless and cunning woman; these traits earned her her nickname of Iceheart. Though she was beautiful, it was an eery offputting beauty due to her eyes: she had one red and one blue eye. She was a native of Imperial Centre, only daughter of Armand Isard, then the Director of Imperial Intelligence. He tried to get Ysanne murdered as she moved up rapidly through Imperial Intelligence ranks by dispatching her on a mission to Darkknell to retrieve the stolen datapads containing the plans of the first Death Star, certain that she would fail. Unfortunately, Ysanne survived but did fail to recover the datapads. She soon realised why her father had sent her on that mission. In revenge, Ysanne had him implicated in the theft of the Death Star datapads. She also had Armand framed for the bombing of the Treitamma Political Centre (an assassination attempt upon General Bel Iblis). Ysanne then had Armand Isard executed.

Ysanne Isard was promoted to the recently vacated position of Director of Imperial Intelligence. While in this position, she took command of the Lusankya (a Super Star Destroyer constructed at the same time as its sister ship Lord Vader's Executor) which Palpatine had had secretly buried deep beneath the cityscape of Coruscant. Isard used the Lusankya as her private prison where she kept captured Rebels so that they could be brainwashed to be made into sleeper agents. After the death of Palpatine and the defeat of the Empire during the Battle of Endor, she allied herself with Palpatine's immediate successor, the Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, who had assumed command of Imperial Centre and Imperial Oversector 0. Later, Isard allowed him to be captured by the New Republic at Brentaal, and arranged for his death. The Ruling Circle of Imperial officials assumed command but Ysanne Isard had them murdered. Ysanne Isard then assumed command of Coruscant but her rule was threatened by rival warlords and the New Republic.

Imperial leader

A short-lived but significant threat to Isard's regime was the appearance of Trioculus, the supposed "Son of Palpatine." In reality, he was an impostor, part of a ploy orchestrated by the Central Committee of Grand Moffs to seize power in the chaos following the Battle of Endor. Though he was too weak militarily to challenge Isard directly or to attempt to capture Imperial Centre, Trioculus managed to win the allegiance of a considerable portion of the Starfleet, and at one point was even recognized as the legitimate ruler of the Empire by the (false) Prophets of the Dark Side. Isard devoted considerable resources to undermining the pretender, isolating the Moffs who lent him their support, and finally using her Grand Admirals to destroy the Prophets themselves when they attempted to usurp her rule.

Before the New Republic took Coruscant, Isard coerced General Evir Derricote and his scientists off the planet Borleias and onto Coruscant, where they created the Krytos virus that only targeted non-human races; the strategy was to strain the New Republic's resources by forcing them to deal with the problem. The Krytos virus was specifically engineered to incapacitate and be treatable but otherwise fatal; this was to maximize terror, exploit inter-species tensions within the New Republic, and as a variety of economic warfare. She then fled Coruscant onboard the Lusankya which in the process tore off a large part of Coruscant's cityscape, killing millions. She headed to the bacta-rich world of Thyferra, taking it and its bacta assets; while her agent on Coruscant (Kirtan Loor) continued his guerilla war, she, having seized control of the galaxy's bacta supply (which was necessary for treating the Krytos virus), proceeded to raise the price of bacta astronomically. As the New Republic had to buy the bacta for the victims as it was an essentially guaranteed cure, Isard reaped a windfall and significantly weakened her foe at the same time. She later fought Rogue Squadron in a conflict known as the Bacta War. During the battle the Lusankya was captured, though Isard, along with a clone of herself, managed to escape and to scatter the prisoners.

After Thyferra

Both Isards remained quiet during the Thrawn crisis, the clone (who had remained in control of the Lusankya prisoners) came into the service of Prince-Admiral Krennel, while the real Isard commandeered a secret Imperial base and went into hiding, resurfacing to help the New Republic retrieve the missing prisoners from Prince-Admiral Krennel.

Fearing execution for treason after being contacted by a resurrected Palpatine on Byss, the real Isard plotted to retake her old flagship Lusankya in order to present it to the Emperor and be reconciled for her failures. Anticipating her treachery, New Republic agents killed her during the attempt^*. Her clone was slain along with Prince-Admiral Krennel during the New Republic invasion of Citruic.

References

Tales from the New Republic, 1st paperback printing, 1999. Peter Schweighofer, Craig Carey (editors). ISBN 0-553-57882-0
- "Interlude at Darknell", Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole
  - Part One by Timothy Zahn
  - Part Two and Three by Michael A. Stackpole
  - Part Four by Timothy Zahn
Rogue Squadron, 1st printing paperback, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56801-9
Wedge's Gamble, 1st paperback printing, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56802-7
The Kryptos Trap, 1st paperback printing, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56803-5
The Bacta War, 1st paperback printing, 1997. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56804-3
Isard’s Revenge, 1st paperback printing, 1999. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-57903-7

External links

Article from the Star Wars Databank

Star Wars Imperial characters