Ilyana was a female Dathomirian Zabrak Nightsister of the planet Dathomir. A member of Mother Talzin's clan, she was close to her fellow Nightsister Merrin, and the two would sneak out to make potions in the swamps. After Merrin helped her fellow Nightsister recover from an injury, Ilyana thanked Merrin with a kiss and a gold necklace that Merrin wore every day afterward. When General Grievous and his droid army massacred the Nightsisters in 20 BBY, Ilyana was killed. Merrin, one of the only survivors, buried Ilyana with the other dead witches. Merrin later remembered Ilyana as the girl she had loved, and after joining the crew of the luxury yacht Stinger Mantis, she told the former Jedi Master Cere Junda about Ilyana.
Ilyana made Merrin's necklace.
Ilyana was a member of the Nightsisters, a coven of Force-sensitive female Dathomirian Zabrak witches who operated on their homeworld of the Outer Rim Territories planet Dathomir. She was a member of the clan led by Mother Talzin during the Clone Wars, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. She was close to her fellow Nightsister Merrin, and the two girls would sneak out together to make potions in Dathomir's swamps. Merrin believed they would be together when they were older, and during Ilyana's convalescence from an injury, Merrin cared for her when she most needed it. As an unspoken thank-you gift, Ilyana made a gold necklace for Merrin as she watched and gave it to her with a kiss, which Merrin cited as her first. Ilyana told Merrin to always keep the necklace with her to remember her fellow Nightsister.
In 20 BBY, as retaliation for the machinations of Mother Talzin and fellow Nightsister Asajj Ventress, Separatist leader Count Dooku ordered General Grievous of the Separatist Droid Army to travel to Dathomir and slaughter the Nightsisters. Although Merrin survived the attack, Ilyana was among the many Nightsisters killed in the massacre. Upon finding her body, Merrin was forced to close Ilyana's eyes, bundle her, and bury her along with the rest of the Nightsisters, never seeing her again. Merrin remained as one of several survivors of the attack but believed she was the last of the Nightsisters.
Merrin, who loved Ilyana
As Ilyana wished, Merrin continued to wear the necklace every day. It constantly reminded Merrin of how trust and love could hurt and painfully end and invoked feelings of homesickness in her. Sometimes when a movement made the necklace strike her chest, she had an intrusive sensory memory of watching Ilyana make it, how Ilyana's hands felt, or of their first kiss.
In 14 BBY, soon after Merrin met the Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis and joined the crew of the Stinger Mantis luxury yacht during their secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order, she bonded with the crew's former Jedi Master Cere Junda, whom she came to regard as family. In one instance, after Merrin asked if Junda had ever buried someone she loved while fighting in the Clone Wars, the conversation shifted to a discussion of Merrin's time with Ilyana. Based on her personal experiences, Junda could not say that Merrin would ever move past it and explained that she herself never had. Merrin wondered if it was strange to find it comforting to know she was not alone, and Junda said it was not.
Sometime between 12 BBY and 11 BBY, Merrin had become infatuated with the Keshiri Chellwinark Frethylrin, a former Imperial analyst. On occasions when Merrin's feelings for Fret manifested within her, she would occasionally remember her times with Ilyana.
Ilyana was first mentioned in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, developed by Respawn Entertainment. While not referred to by name in the 2023 novel Jedi: Battle Scars, written by Sam Maggs, she is mentioned in multiple scenes. The dialogue in Jedi: Fallen Order did not explicitly state that Merrin's love for Ilyana was romantic, but Maggs confirmed in an interview that Respawn had envisioned Merrin as pansexual and included lines in the game that implied it. Her novel fulfilled the developer's wishes to make that aspect of Merrin's character inarguably canonical. Based on Merrin and Cere Junda's close relationship as established in the novel, this article assumes that the optional crew dialogue about Ilyana in Fallen Order canonically occurred.