Nim Pianna was a Force-sensitive Tholothian female member of the Jedi Order who trained under Jedi Knight Rael Averross as a Jedi Padawan during the Republic Era. During her first year of training, her Master helped her refine her lightsaber combat skills. In 48 BBY, Averross and Pianna were tasked with protecting the Advent, a food-carrying cargo freighter, from pirates. When several members of the Advents crew mutinied, Averross led Pianna into a confrontation with the mutineers' droids inside the ship's cargo bay, where she was struck with a slicer dart during the melee. The nanotechnology caused the Padawan to lose control of her physical actions and attack her Master. Averross reluctantly chose to kill Pianna to prioritize their mission of saving the Advents remaining loyal crew members.
After holding hearings, the Jedi Council vindicated Averross's actions concerning Pianna's death, though not all members of the Jedi Order felt he was blameless in the incident. Averross continued to grieve his Padawan's death for several years after the Advent mission and was sent on an extended mission to the Inner Rim planet Pijal to serve as lord regent for the world's Princess Fanry. While regent, he commiserated over the failed Advent mission with the Jedi Master Dooku during a visit to the planet Coruscant. Over time, Averross came to consider his work in preparing the Fanry to be a constitutional monarch as a way to make up for the mistakes he had made with Pianna.
Nim Pianna was a Padawan of the Jedi Order (emblem pictured) during the Republic Era.
The Tholothian female Nim Pianna was a Force-sensitive individual who was born around 62 BBY. During the Republic Era, she began her Jedi training as a member of the Jedi Order in the Jedi Temple on the Core Worlds planet Coruscant. In 49 BBY, Jedi Knight Rael Averross took Pianna as his Jedi Padawan. During their training, he enjoyed teasing the Padawan, often making gruff jokes to mess with her. In their first year together, Averross helped Pianna refine her lightsaber combat skills.
In 48 BBY, Pianna and her Master were assigned to protect the cargo freighter Advent, which was tasked with delivering food to a star system suffering from famine. While on board the Advent, the Jedi closely monitored the ship's external sensors due to concerns about pirate activity in that sector of space. Several members of the Advents crew mutinied and began killing loyal ship staffers with the aid of reprogrammed droids.
Although standard protocol for mutinies dictated that securing a ship's bridge should be the first priority, Averross instead chose to capture the Advents cargo bay, believing that the mutineers would attempt to seek pirate assistance. Pianna and her Master engaged the mutineers from an elevated platform in the cargo hold using their lightsabers. During the melee, she was struck with a slicer dart from an enemy droid. The nanotechnology caused her to lose control of her physical actions and attack her Master. Averross reluctantly chose to kill Pianna to prioritize saving the Advents remaining loyal crew members from the mutineers. Immediately following the Padawan's death, he successfully regained control of the Advent until Galactic Republic personnel arrived.
Qui-Gon Jinn (pictured) disapproved of Rael Averross's decisions on the Advent that had led to Nim Pianna's death.
After the incident, the Jedi Council held hearings concerning the breach of mutiny protocol that had led to Pianna's death. During these hearings, Averross's former Jedi Master, Dooku, testified to the Council in defense of the actions Averross had taken on the Advent. Upon reviewing hologram footage of the incident, the Council ultimately concluded that Averross was right to prioritize the lives of the Advents remaining loyal crew members over his student's life. The official report released by the Council concerning Pianna's death was authored by Jedi Master Mace Windu, who vindicated Averross from blame. The datapad-viewable hologram of the incident on the Advent was kept as a file accessible to members of the Jedi Order and several Jedi perused the footage in the event's aftermath. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn reviewed the footage several times and eventually came to feel that Pianna's death could have been prevented if Averross had followed mutiny protocol.
Following the hearings, Averross was given an extended assignment on the Inner Rim planet Pijal to serve as lord regent. Still grieving Pianna's death, he threw himself into preparing the Pijali Princess Fanry to be the constitutional monarch of her planet. Averross saw his devotion to Fanry as a way to make up for his mistakes with Pianna. The regent sought exciting hobbies to distract him from his grief, including Pijal varactyl riding. In 42 BBY, during his assignment as lord regent, Averross and Dooku reminisced about Pianna's death while in the Galactic Senate Building on Coruscant and talked about the latter's Council defense for the Knight. Dooku offered to open a bottle of Soulean brandy in Pianna's honor, though the regent declined.
Qui-Gon Jinn disussed Nim Pianna's death with Obi-Wan Kenobi (pictured) prior to their mission to Pijal.
Over time, Averross told Fanry several stories about Pianna and how she had died. The regent took great care to ensure he controlled every aspect of the princess' life to protect her so that he would not fail another student, which left the young girl feeling socially isolated and unappreciated. Eventually, Fanry came to feel that Averross's actions as lord regent were never aimed to help her succeed, and she resented being viewed as Pianna's replacement in his eyes. By 40 BBY, Pianna's fate was not widely known outside the Jedi Order. Prior to leaving on their mission to Pijal, Jinn told his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, about Pianna's death and his disapproval of Averross's handling of the situation.
Having heard many stories about the fate of Averross's Padawan, Fanry staged an assassination attempt on herself using a slicer dart, the same weapon that had once taken control of Pianna, to instill fear in her lord regent. Days later, after staging a revolution and seizing absolute power during her coronation, the young monarch mentally pledged to herself that she would not share Pianna's fate of dying due to Averross's failings. When the revolution ultimately failed, Averross felt guilt-wracked that he had failed Fanry as a teacher, which to him resembled his second failure as a mentor. Around 23 BBY, Dooku sent his recently recruited Sith assassin, Asajj Ventress, to investigate his sister Jenza's location. After Ventress found Jenza, the latter told her of Dooku's conversation with Averross about Nim Pianna on Coruscant years before.
As a Padawan, Nim Pianna and Rael Averross shared a workable affinity in combat. She trusted her Master's judgement, and he cared for her deeply in return. The pair enjoyed an amiable social relationship in which they bantered with each other. Pianna felt betrayed when Averross killed her, having retained her emotions when a slicer dart controlled her physical actions. Following Pianna's death, Averross grieved deeply for her loss. In his report on the Padawan's death, Windu noted that Pianna would have wanted Averross to prioritize saving the lives of the rest of the Advents crew during the ship's mutiny, reflecting that it was a Jedi's duty to be selfless. Pianna possessed a youthful appearance at the time of her death.
In combat, Nim Pianna wielded a green-bladed lightsaber.
Nim Pianna first appeared in a hologram in Master & Apprentice, a 2019 novel written by Claudia Gray. In an interview, Gray reflected that Averross's motivation for mentoring Fanry was fueled by his failure to save Pianna. The author also felt Averross's inability to healthily process his guilt and heal following his Padawan's death proved incapacitating for him. Gray expressed that it was important for there to be at least one failed partnership—Averross and Pianna—present in the novel amongst the several other Master and Padawan relationships showcased, which were ultimately successful in the student completing their training.
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