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“But there must always be a Darth Traya, one that holds the knowledge of betrayal. Who has been betrayed in their heart and will betray in turn.”
If there was one word that defined the mighty Darth Traya and her journey, it was “betrayal;” betrayal from the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force itself. Intriguing, right?
If you are wondering who this badass woman was, or what her personality and beliefs were, you have come to the right place!
Traya, a woman of many talents and a challenger of the Force, was somehow never perceived as a villain among the Star Wars fans (or maybe a good villain that we all agreed to love?).
Her ideas were challenging yet engaging, her thoughts clear, and her focus sharp. Her powers were immense, and her personality strong. There was literally nothing that could come between this mysterious Sith lord, or whatever you want to call her, and her beliefs.
All in all, all these things made her a fan favorite, and that’s why I am here to give you an insight into her not-so-boring life. From her early days as a Jedi Master to her last days as a woman hell-bent on destroying the Force, I have covered it all.
So, gear up Padawans, this journey is not going to be an easy one. Disclaimer: I bear no responsibility if your beliefs get corrupted after going through this Darth Traya Guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
A renowned historian, a controversial Jedi Master, a preacher of Free Will, and a woman of many mysteries, Darth Traya undoubtedly was one of the most well-written characters of the Star Wars Universe.
Her remarkable skills with the Force, her mastery in telekinetic lightsaber combat, and her powers to see the future and go invisible, combined with her dark aura, made her the riveting character she was.
What was most intriguing about her was that she was neither good nor bad, neither a hero nor a villain. Her personality fell between the lines of Light and Dark, and the greyness of it made her the mystery that she was. She was exiled by the Jedi, betrayed by the Sith, and left alone to fight her war against the Force.
Darth Traya Quick Facts
- Birth Name: Kreia
- Sith Name: Darth Traya
- Species: Human
- Place of Birth: Unknown
- Place of Death: Malachor V
- Year of Death: 3951 BBY
- Affiliations:
- Jedi Order
- Galactic Republic
- Sith Order
- Sith Triumvirate
Darth Traya’s Physical Appearance
Darth Traya was a woman of tall stature. She was always seen wearing a robe covering all of her body, with her silver-gray hair parting into two braids with several hairbands adorning them.
Traya had pale skin, an oblong face, and sharp facial features. Half her face was always covered with a hood, indicating that she hardly ever used her eyes to “see.” She lost her vision for a long-term non-use of eyes, which eventually turned all white. However, later on, her eyes turned black when she fell to the Dark Side of the Force.
Darth Traya’s Personality
Darth Traya had an enigmatic personality with unorthodox thoughts. Her manipulative skills, deceitful nature, and art of using people to further her agenda made her one of the most astute women in the Star Wars Universe.
Darth Traya was conniving and had no trouble lying to people, sometimes even without uttering a word. Traya even lied to Meetra Surik, her closest companion, that the Force had been stripped away from her by the Jedi Council.
Years of being alone and a constant feeling of betrayal made Traya bitter, self-centered, hateful, and devoid of any positive thoughts. She hated everyone, the Jedi, the Sith, and even the Force itself.
She couldn’t bear the idea of being controlled by an entity without one’s will. An idea that led her to wage war against almost everyone in the Galaxy.
She was supercilious and considered anyone around her weak and unworthy of respect, making her name-call people, belittle them, and think of them as weak-willed and ignorant.
She would often insult Meetra’s allies, but remember she never confronted them in front of her, further proving that she was pretty smart and really knew how to get around with people.
On the matter of love and compassion, Traya’s thoughts weren’t any different. She was heartless, cold, and almost wary of love and compassion.
“If you seek to aid everyone that suffers in the galaxy, you will only weaken yourself… and weaken them.”
She believed that compassion and love make everyone vulnerable. They make people weak and dependent; something Traya could relate to on so many levels. Constant betrayal and years of being left out might have played a role. And honestly, I wouldn’t blame her for that.
But as they say, no one is perfect; Traya wasn’t a pure hater. She did show compassion for Meetra Surik. Not only that, she loved her to the point where she was willing to risk the entire Galaxy for her.
Darth Traya was skeptical of the things she didn’t know about, a quality common in self-centered people. And artificial intelligence was one of them. Also, she didn’t feel much love or respect for non-human species.
Apart from being any of the above, Traya was a highly intelligent woman. She had a pretty strong mind, consequently, leading her to master the Dark Side of the Force like no one could have ever imagined. A true embodiment of women’s empowerment if you ask me.
Darth Traya’s Powers and Abilities
Kreia, later known as Darth Traya, was once a remarkable Force-sensitive Jedi with powers beyond comprehension. A skilled Jedi with unorthodox thoughts, a renowned historian, and a teacher, Kreia was a jack of all trades.
And I will be honest, no matter how much Darth Traya despised it, her connection with the Force was a strong one. From conventional to advanced Force skills, she had it all. Force lightning, Force Sprint, Force Crush, Force Fear, Force Scream; there was hardly a talent she didn’t possess.
Force Cloak
Force Cloak – a perfect skill to alter the vision of others and make oneself invisible – was something Traya was really good at. This ability allowed her to slow things around, which proved lifesaver many a time during her journey.
Using this ability, Traya escaped many life-threatening situations when she was overcome by her adversaries. Not to mention, by using Force Cloak she sneaked into many enemy spaceships and outposts without even raising an eyebrow.
Seeing without Seeing
Darth Traya could even see without using her eyes. She used Force to see and often said that using her eyes to see makes the process slow.
It was an anomaly she could have easily cured but preferred not to, and called her natural sight a distraction. Moreover, not using her eyes for so long made them all white, which, if you ask me, made her look quite intimidating even when she wasn’t fully corrupted by the Dark Side.
Future-Telling, Prophecies, and Telepathy
Darth Traya was also skilled in the art of future-telling. She made several prophecies, one about the fate of the Mandalorians, where she predicted the death of Jango Fett, a bounty hunter and the father of all clones. Moreover, it was these wise words and future-telling that kept Meetra Surik close to her.
Traya was also adept at telepathy. She could communicate with people from long distances using the Force; the very Force she often despised. This skill often came into play when she had to convey her messages to Meetra Surik when she was on a mission.
Dark Healing
Darth Traya was also skilled in the art of Dark Healing. She could make the dead come alive as she did with Hanhar, a bounty hunter, and Colonel Tobin, a commander from Onderon.
But let’s not forget, not only did she use it to revive people, but she also used it to assassinate many; after all, not everyone can survive Dark energy in their body.
A Memory Modifier
Who could be better suited for the power of clouding others’ memories than Darth Traya? Though these mind tricks were pretty common among both Jedi and Sith lords, Traya was always successful in using this skill. She once altered the memory of Jedi Mical to make him forget her plans that he came to know about mistakenly.
Furthermore, she could even temporarily erase the memories of others so that she could replant them whenever she desired. Even Meetra Surik wasn’t aware of her abilities until quite late.
Telekinetic Lightsaber and Exotic Physical Combat Forms
Telekinetic lightsaber combat is a skill known to few, and Darth Traya was one of them. She could wield three lightsabers at once and kept them in the air, each deriving its power from the Force and acting on its own will. Pretty cool if you ask me.
She was also skilled in physical lightsaber combat, and its various forms, including Meetra Surik’s Shii-Cho, Dooku’s Makashi, and Kenobi’s famous Soresu lightsaber combat technique.
Hibernation Trance
The list of Darth Traya’s skills and capabilities can never be made exactly. One among them is her ability to enter a hibernation trance using the Force. It would slow down her vitals and biological functions, making her almost dead. She would then utilize the energy when it was really needed.
The Life of Sith Lord: A Life of Betrayal and Hatred
The life of the Sith Lord was not an easy one. She was betrayed, exiled, stripped off of Force, and whatnot. That too by the hands of people she once pledged loyalty to.
The unfateful events of her life combined with her core-shattering beliefs made her the woman she was: a woman filled with anger, hate, and most importantly, the eagerness to fulfill her mission.
The Early Days
Not much is known about the early life of Darth Traya, except that she was a Jedi who rose to the ranks of Jedi Master. She was also a remarkable historian who used her connection with the Force to travel across the centuries to unravel the hidden truths of the Galaxy.
An Exceptional Teacher
Darth Traya, or should I say, Kreia, was an unconventional Jedi Master. Her pupils were often left amazed by her teachings and out-of-the-box questions.
Would a lightsaber still be a lightsaber if it loses its power? Or would a Jedi still be a Jedi if they lost their connection with the Force? These were the questions those weaklings had to face. Not to mention, she would often challenge them, making them question their own beliefs.
“Kreia’s conundrums,” as were her tactics called by the fellow Jedi, were not appreciated often but never defied openly until quite later.
Kreia’s Connection with Revan and the Mandalorian Wars
One of Kreia’s equally unconventional students was Revan. He played a significant part in making her Darth Traya which we all know today. Revan led many Jedi to the Mandalorian Wars – a move for which Kreia was eventually blamed.
The Mandalorian neo-crusaders had waged a War against the Republic, and the Jedi Council refrained from fighting them off. When Revan asked for the Council’s permission to counter-attack, they refused. Revan then went to his Master, Kreia.
It is unknown what Kreia said to him, but it was quite certain that Revan launched a full-fledged attack on the Mandalorian after meeting her. And let’s not forget, later on, Revan also fell to the Dark Side of the Force and declared himself the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Many of Kreia’s former padawans followed Revan to the War and either fell to the Dark Side or left their Jedi training. And once again, Traya was held responsible for her Padawan’s falling.
Consequently, Jedi Master Atris openly denounced Kreia and encouraged the Jedi Council to abandon her, resulting in her exile from the Jedi Order.
Exile and the Life After
Darth Traya was always a woman of weird beliefs. Even during her days as the Jedi Master, she challenged everything known to the Order. After the exile, Kreia followed the footsteps of her former Padawan, whom she called the “heart of the Force.”
The Force echoes led her to Malachor V, a planet that had seen enough destruction and was once a stronghold of Revan’s Sith empire.
On Malachor V, among the ruins, Kreia found a perfectly intact Trayus academy, an ancient house of Sith that kept many secrets of the Galaxy in its heart, where she was presented with the Sith Manuscripts by the Sith assassins.
Those manuscripts changed everything known to her, yet they were somehow an extension of her thoughts. She found her purpose, and she found the reason for her disbelief.
Even when she was a Jedi, she always loathed that the Force had its will, and it made everyone obey it. Those manuscripts revealed to her the betrayal of the Force; a betrayal to the Force-sensitives that made them live an unfulfilled and compromised life.
These revelations made Kreia fall to the Dark Side of the Force and join the Sith Order. She assumed the title of Darth Traya, the Lord of Betrayal, openly denouncing the too-good-to-be-true side of the Force for good.
The Triumvirate
Putting it simply, Darth Traya hated the Force. She hated it so much that she wanted to destroy it for once and all and free all the beings from the will of the Force.
This hate, or passion if you call it, made her go on a mission to find the Force Wounds. She believed that by using those Force Wounds, she could actually wound the Force itself to the extent of actually destroying it.
After turning to the Dark side, she re-established the Trayus academy and started preparing a new army of Sith against the Republic. The Sith Troopers pledged loyalty to her as they did to her former Padawan, Revan.
During her search for Force Wounds, she came across two infamous Sith Lords – Darth Sion, the Lord of Pain, and Darth Nihilus, the Lord of Hunger. And together they formed the Triumvirate.
The Triumvirate’s mission was to end all the Jedi and destroy the Order; think of it as a preface to Order 66. She trained them and taught everything known to her; well, except her true plans. And, therefore, at her command, a mass destruction weapon was built and placed inside the Sith Temple.
The Betrayal
Soon, Darth Nihilus’s and Darth Sion’s hunger for power and destruction overpowered the Triumvirate’s bond, and, resultantly, they betrayed her. And if you ask me, the encounter between the former apprentices and their Master was a really painful scene to watch.
Nihilus and Sion stripped Traya of the Force, but they didn’t kill her, as killing her would have saved her from misery, therefore, agreed to exile her. Once again, she was left with nothing but a mission and eagerness to avenge those who had wronged her.
Darth Nihilus became the new Lord of the Sith, and Traya went into hiding with her previous name, Kreia. But, little did they know, they were doing just what Traya wanted, and the mission to erase the Jedi was continued by Nihilus and Sion.
Even though her mission was still carried out indirectly, the betrayal by the Sith filled her heart with hatred once again. She pledged to take revenge on both, the Sith and the Jedi, as now she was nothing, neither a Jedi nor a Sith, just a being free of all ties.
However, Traya didn’t let this betrayal stop her. She went ahead and started looking for other wounds in the Force to end what she had started. Her quest led her to one of Revan’s previous allies, Meetra Surik, a.k.a The Exile.
Kreia and Meetra Surik: The Journey to Kill the Force
If you don’t know about Meetra Surik, then you are oblivious to one of the major events in the Galaxy. Meetra was the one who triggered the previous Mass destruction weapon on Malachor V and was responsible for destruction on a such great level that it had created a wound in the Force, and, therefore, was exiled from the Jedi Order.
But luckily, she was the only Jedi from the Raven force who did not fall to the Dark Side in the wake of the Mandalorian war.
Kreia took Meetra as her pupil and aligned (only on the surface) her goals with her. She wanted to exploit her former student’s power of Force bonding to create a wound greater than ever before and with effects lasting for centuries. Contrary to Revan, she called Meetra the “death of the Force”.
On the escape from Peragus, they eventually formed the Force Bond, interlinking their lives. However, even after this new journey ushered in, Meetra was unaware of her Master’s true plans. In this journey, many others started aligning themselves with Kreia and Meetra.
Meetra managed to convene the remaining Jedi Masters, who had survived the Purge, on a far-off planet of Dantooine. But, as fate would have it, Traya revealed herself and tried severing the links of Jedi Masters to the Force, which resulted in their deaths as their bond was too strong to be broken.
The Revival of Darth Traya
After bringing down what was left of the Jedi Council to its knees, Traya then traveled back to Malachor V where she resumed her title as the Sith Lord. There, she managed to overpower and kill Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus with the help of Meetra, finally revealing her plans to Surik.
The Great Scourge of Malachor V
Meetra’s travel to Malachor V, known commonly as the Great Scourge of Malachor V, led to an encounter between the two allies who had been bonded by the Force and were the literal embodiment of “till death do us part”.
While finally revealing her real plans and beliefs to Meetra, Darth Traya told Surik about the betrayal of the Force, her hatred for it, and how she had been planning all along to destroy it. She also told her she wanted to free the Universe from the shackles of an entity that controlled and subjugated its beings.
Traya encouraged Meetra to let go of the Force, truly free herself from its will, and become an individual without any bonds, and gave a very choice to Meetra; to kill her or else get killed, as the encounter would end only with the end of one of them. Seeing no other way out, Meetra severed the Force Bond that ever existed between the two.
Traya, the Lord of Betrayal was once again being betrayed. Meetra entered into a duel with her Master, but before she finally bid farewell to her former Master, Traya gave her a peek into the future. She also showed Meetra the path leading to Revan, who was the real deal.
Hence, as a result of a lightsaber duel, Darth Traya was finally defeated at the hands of her old student.
Darth Traya’s Famous Quotes
“Know that there was once a Darth Traya, and that she cast aside that role, was exiled, and found a new purpose. But there must always be a Darth Traya; one that holds the knowledge of betrayal. Who has been betrayed in their heart, and will betray in turn.”
“….It is the internal struggles, when fought and won on their own, that yield the strongest rewards.”
“One quickly learns that the Jedi Code does not give all the answers. If you are to truly understand, then you will need the contrast, not adherence to a single idea.”
“To be united by hatred is a fragile alliance at best”
“I am but a mirror whose only purpose is to show you what your eyes cannot yet see.”
Darth Traya – a Force to Reckon with
Darth Traya, a person exiled by the Jedi and left by the Sith, whose name even translated to betrayal, was truly a Force to reckon with. A remarkable yet failed teacher, a historian, a Jedi with massive powers, and a woman with unorthodox beliefs, Traya had it all.
Her thoughts challenged everything known to the Force sensitives, and her ideas shattered the very core concept of the Force. She hated the Force really bad, and went as far as she could to destroy it.
To me, Traya was an unconventional yet intriguing character. Although, her life was nothing short of a mystery, her strong beliefs and journey to achieve her goals added depth to the idea of the Force.
A few would go so far as she did in achieving what she believed in. If you wanted to study a personality, who was most of the time in an existential crisis, Traya’s life is the right way to begin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Who Killed Darth Traya?
Answer: The death of evil always happens at the hand of the person they love the most. This couldn’t be truer for Darth Traya. She was defeated and killed by Meetra Surik, the only person she held in great regards.
A duel between former companions on Malachor V, where Traya’s journey against the Force started, finally closed the chapter of Darth Traya for good.
Question: Could Darth Traya Actually See?
Answer: Well, she could see, just not through her eyes. After years of relying on Force to see and wander through centuries to explore the depths of the hidden history, her vision had vanished.
She used Force to see and got used to it. Even though she possessed the power to heal her eyes, she didn’t. She found the task of seeing through her eyes tiresome.
Question: Who was Responsible for Kreia, a.k.a, Darth Traya’s Exile from the Jedi Order?
Answer: Multiple reasons can be attributed to her exile. Kreia was never really loved by her fellow Jedi. She was unconventional and challenged the established laws of the Force. Her teachings were often looked down upon, although never openly defied.
When her former Padawan Revan waged war against the Mandalorians in defiance of the Council’s orders, many of her other students also followed Revan in the War and fell to the Dark Side. All these events prompted Jedi Master Atris of the Council to bring the motion for the removal of Kreia from the Order.