Sicatra

Sicatra was a human female^[2] who was the heir to the city-state Bethune's royal family^[1] around 382 BBY.^[4] She fled Bethune seeking for asylum in Firevale and eventually married Firevale's heir Prince Colden.^[1]

Biography

Princess Sicatra was a scion of the ruling house of Bethune, a city-state on the planet Gansevor. In around 382 BBY, she met, fell in love with, and married Prince Colden of Firevale, a rival city-state that enjoyed a monopoly on the precious mineral baudraxite. Following their marriage, Sicatra and Colden devised a plan to force the abdication of Colden's mother, Queen Keraan, so that Colden could take control of Firevale. Sicatra's marriage to Colden and their move to Firevale was declared to be a 'kidnapping' by Bethune, which sent an army under Field Marshal Tozen, who Sicatra remained in contact with, to besiege the city.^[5] Meanwhile, a mercenary army led by Abediah Viess was hired to provide backup in case Firevale proved too resistant for Tozen's troops.^[1] The newlyweds hoped that the siege would force Keraan to abdicate the throne, allowing Colden to succeed and negotiate a pre-arranged truce with Bethune, in which Firevale would agree to involve Sicatra's city in their lucrative baudraxite trade.^[5] Yet their plans were disrupted when Seleen, the Firevale envoy to Gansevor's capital, Horatio, managed to send out a message to the Republic, requesting help for her besieged home. Her message was picked up by the Jedi Knights Porter Engle and Barash Silvain, who arrived on Gansevor to bring an end to the siege.^[6]

When the Jedi began interfering with the siege and Silvain began to investigate the situation in Firevale, Sicatra initially remained out of sight. However, when Silvain was brought before Keraan by Colden, who then began to argue with his mother about the marriage, Sicatra revealed herself and went to speak privately with the Kage Jedi.^[2] During the course of their conversation, Sicatra was able to deceive Silvain into thinking that the newlyweds were innocent victims who had been forced to flee Bethune due to the Bethunian rejection of Colden and the fact that Sicatra was pregnant. Sicatra claimed that her child would have been taken away from her and given to someone else if she had stayed in Bethune. This information led Silvain to order Engle, who had been dealing with the besieging army, to force both the Bethunians and Viess' mercenaries to withdraw. However, Tozen and Viess had other plans and began an intensified bombardment of Firevale, causing much death and destruction within the city.

Dismayed, Colden suggested that they open the gates in order to begin ceasefire negotiations, but Keraan argued that such an act would merely lead to her abdication, not knowing that such an act was precisely what her son and Sicatra wanted.^[5] Meanwhile, in the midst of the Bethunian encampment, Viess and Tozen disagreed on how Firevale should be treated, with Viess wanting to raze the city to the ground. Tozen refused to increase the bombardment, so in response the mercenary general had him shot and ordered the guns to intensify their fire. Shocked at the savagery of the attack, Sicatra was contacted by a dying Tozen who told her of what had happened. Visibly upset, Sicatra then revealed the truth to Silvain, admitting her and her husband's plot and even that she had faked her pregnancy. These revelations led Keraan to attack her in a fit of rage, but Silvain intervened through the Force and saved Sicatra's life. With Firevale's very existence hanging in the balance, Sicatra mounted the city walls to deliver an impassioned speech to the Bethunian soldiers below, exhorting them to end the siege and take vengeance on the mercenaries who had killed their commanding officer, and who did not care for Gansevor. Her words were successful, and the attack of the Bethunian soldiers forced Viess and her mercenaries to halt the bombardment and flee the planet, bringing an end to the siege. When Sicatra admitted that the speech had been the right thing to do, Silvain reprimanded her, stating that the right thing would have been to not lie and manipulate in the first place, pointing out that Sicatra was responsible for all the death that had taken place over the course of the siege.