Javul Charn

Javul Charn, a Human female, was born around the time of the fall of the Galactic Republic. She spent a portion of her early years on the Hutt moon Nar Shaddaa with her parents and younger brother, Ayx. During the early years of the Galactic Empire, Charn's father, a former Republic Navy veteran, and mother worked as touring musicians throughout the Mid and Outer Rim. Their tours served as a disguise for their involvement in the growing resistance movement against Imperial rule, allowing them to smuggle information between cells on different planets. Despite maintaining a low profile, Charn's father, like many former Republic Military personnel, was identified by the Empire as a potential insurgent. When Charn was fourteen years old, Imperial forces raided a venue where her parents were performing on the Bothan homeworld of Bothawui. Both of her parents, along with three of their backing musicians, were killed in the ensuing gunfire.

Following their parents' deaths, Charn and Ayx moved to the spaceport town of Mos Eisley on the Outer Rim planet Tatooine, living with the family of a friend of their father who had served with him in the Republic Navy. Charn quickly became best friends with the man's teenage daughter, Kendara Farlion, and the two spent much of their time together. Charn's appearance and developing singing talent attracted attention from several men on her adopted homeworld, including a group of Imperial stormtroopers, a Zabrak spacer who wanted to marry her, and a man who proposed buying Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley and making Charn the house singer.

Upon reaching adulthood, Charn chose to follow in her parents' footsteps by joining the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Working with Commander Yanus Melikan of the Corellian Guard, Charn began performing on the Corellian circuit under the identity Alai Jance, the daughter of a Nar Shaddaa pirate, with an act that included singing, dancing, and dramatic scenes based on cultural legends. Like her parents, her singing career served as a cover for her Rebel activities, transporting cargo and information for the resistance. She remained a relatively unknown performer until a performance at the Quarek'k club on the galactic capital of Coruscant. There, a song cycle about Human immigrants on Mandalore caught the attention of Hityamun Kris, a Mandalorian who had abandoned his clan to join the Black Sun crime syndicate, eventually rising to the rank of Vigo. Despite quickly learning about Kris's illegal activities, Charn began a relationship with him, and they eventually became engaged. With Kris's financial support, Charn's career improved, and their relationship offered some protection from Imperial authorities, while also providing the Alliance with information on Black Sun's operations.

During one of her tours, Charn's ship experienced a sudden drop out of hyperspace, damaging an equipment container on board. An attempt to repair the container revealed a body inside, which Charn turned over to the authorities on Coruscant. The official explanation was that the deceased was a stowaway fan who had died of asphyxiation, but the Rebels discovered that he was a diplomat wanted by the Empire. This incident led them to discover that Kris had been using Charn's tours to transport items, including narcotics, weapons, biological agents, and sentient beings, around the galaxy without attracting the attention of the Empire or rival Vigos. Since Kris's actions were endangering her work with the Rebellion, Charn decided to end their relationship.

After breaking up with Kris, she adopted the stage name Javul Charn. Her official biography claimed she was born in the lightless sublevels of Coruscant and raised in a neighborhood plagued by gang violence. Charn's career quickly surpassed that of Alai Jance, and her elaborate performances, which combined singing, dancing, and acting with holographically projected landscapes, helped her achieve galaxy-wide fame. The extensive equipment required for her concerts was split between two ships: the freighter Deep Core and her luxury private yacht, the Nova's Heart, a modified SoroSuub PLY-3500 named after her first holo-album to sell over ten billion copies. Charn's entourage and crew traveled with her aboard the Nova's Heart, from where they produced and managed her concerts, holocasts, and personal appearances. Among the crew were several Rebels, including Melikan as cargo master, the Nova's Heart's captain, Serdor Marrak, and Charn's friend, Farlion, as her road manager. Not all crew members were aware of Charn's Rebel activities, but the Rebels ensured that all crew members were checked for Imperial or Black Sun connections.

Kris reacted angrily to Charn's departure, threatening and pleading with her to return. When Charn refused, Kris cut off all contact with her. However, the Rebels discovered that Kris was still using the Nova's Heart to smuggle contraband. Contraband was often found and removed before takeoff, but there were several occasions when it was not found until after departure. The cargo smuggled by Kris's agents included more sentients, including victims of turf wars between Kris and his fellow Vigos, criminals fleeing the authorities, and political abductees. Although some survived the journey, all suffered food, water, and oxygen deprivation, and three beings were found dead aboard the ship. When the Rebels discovered an important Black Sun cargo aboard the Nova's Heart, Charn saw an opportunity to stop the crime syndicate's interference and convince the Empire that she was a loyal citizen. She turned over the cargo to the Imperial Security Bureau and provided them with extensive information about Black Sun's activities, including the names of ships and their captains, timetables, cargoes, methods of operation, and recognition codes. This information led to the arrests and conviction of several senior Black Sun members operating around the Corellian Trade Spine, including a couple of Vigos. Charn's actions crippled Black Sun's activities, forcing the syndicate's leader, Prince Xizor, to redesign his organization's operations along the Corellian Spine, while also creating opportunities for the Alliance to increase its own activities in that region.

For a time, Charn's tours proceeded smoothly without Black Sun interference. Around 1 BBY, Charn visited Cloud City on the planet Bespin, where she hired the Bothan Tereez Dza'lar as a costumer. In 0 BBY, Charn was scheduled to embark on a tour from Rodia in the Outer Rim to Alderaan in the Core Worlds, via Christophsis, Falleen, Bannistar Station, and Bacrana. The tour would also serve as a cover for a mission for the Alliance. Charn was tasked with picking up a container holding stolen Imperial military plans during her stop on Bannistar Station and delivering it to her Alliance liaison on Alderaan. However, following a concert on Coruscant shortly before the tour, Charn received threatening messages among her fan mail. When she and her entourage were showered with black fire lilies as they boarded the Nova's Heart after a personal appearance, she realized that the messages came from someone capable of getting close to her and suspected Black Sun was behind the threat. As a result, Farlion insisted on hiring security for the tour. Charn was reluctant, fearing that bodyguards might interfere with her Rebel activities, so Farlion suggested hiring someone in her hometown of Mos Eisley instead of professional security firms.

In Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley, Charn and Farlion encountered smuggler and freelance pilot Dash Rendar, who was seeking work to finance repairs to his YT-2400 light freighter, the Outrider, which had been damaged on a recent smuggling run. Explaining only that she needed protection from a stalker, Charn hired Rendar as her bodyguard, along with his Nautolan co-pilot Eaden Vrill and his LE-series repair droid Leebo. With Charn's new security crew aboard, the Nova's Heart departed Tatooine for Rodia. Shortly after leaving, Charn was in her quarters with Farlion when the ship suddenly lost power, dropping out of hyperspace, and an alarm signaled a hull breach. Finding the door locked, the pair took a hidden escape passage from Charn's quarters to the cargo hold. When they returned to Charn's quarters with Melikan, they found several crew members, including Rendar, Vrill, and Leebo, searching for them. Rendar was concerned that the incident was sabotage, and Charn instructed the ship's executive officer, Bran Finnick, to run diagnostics. The Nova's Heart's systems showed no further signs of sabotage, and the ship's Twi'lek engineer, Arruna Var, determined that the power cut was triggered by a signal embedded within the approach protocols sent by the Rodian Space Authority. This made Rendar suspect that the stalker was more dangerous than an overzealous fan. When he spoke to Charn, she told Rendar that she suspected Black Sun, as she was often mistaken for Alai Jance, the former lover of a Black Sun Vigo. With the upcoming Rodia concerts taking place at the Holosseum in Equator City, a center of Black Sun activity, Rendar suggested canceling the show. Unable to disrupt the tour without risking her mission, Charn refused.

The Nova's Heart docked at a private landing facility at Equator City's spaceport, and Charn took a shuttle to the Holosseum, where she was greeted by a large group of fans, many of whom had camped out overnight to see her arrive. Concerned that Charn was too exposed, Rendar quickly ushered her inside the building. Charn's show, which included a section where she portrayed a sprite, saw her "fly" on a support cable from four sets suspended above the stage. As Charn rehearsed, the door in the stage floor leading to the storage area below opened, and concert seats came flying out and started to move into position. One bank of seats clipped Charn's support cable as it passed, dragging her towards another seating bank. Charn freed herself from the cable to avoid being crushed and activated her emergency antigrav unit to slow her descent. Moments later, however, her antigrav unit failed, and she dropped in an uncontrolled fall. Vrill caught Charn at the last moment, saving her from being crushed by the closing stage door.

Var ascertained that a power surge from the city grid had overloaded Charn's antigrav unit and triggered the stage door to open, but only someone in the building could have made it close again. Rendar was concerned that the saboteur might be among Charn's crew, but she still refused to cancel the concerts. The possibility of Black Sun involvement led Rendar to suspect Hityamun Kris, who was operating on Rodia. When he mentioned this to Charn, she confessed that she was Alai Jance and admitted that Kris was a likely suspect. Despite Rendar's concerns, Charn's first two concerts on Rodia were uneventful. On the night of the third and final concert, however, Kris arrived at the Holosseum with three bodyguards and proceeded straight to Charn in the backstage area. The Mandalorian told Charn that he still hoped to win her back and warned her not to be stubborn. Although shaken by the encounter, Charn regained control of her emotions and completed the concert without further incident.

Given the possibility of a saboteur within her crew, Charn decided to abandon the Nova's Heart and most of the crew and continue the tour aboard a different ship. To that end, after returning to her yacht later that night, Charn disguised herself and left the ship while the crew slept. She headed to Every Delight, a club in Equator City's Port Town, where she hired an individual known to her only as Rancor's Wrath to attack her ship as it left the planet the following day. As she was leaving, Charn was confronted by Rendar and Vrill, who had tracked her down after discovering she was missing. Rendar was angry that Charn had taken an unnecessary risk, but she merely lied that she had needed to unwind and forget her troubles.

The Deep Core departed Rodia the following afternoon, with the Nova's Heart following two hours later. As the yacht cleared the Rodia system, Rancor's Wrath attacked as planned. An explosive charge timed to go off at the same time as the attack damaged the cargo bay airlock before Rancor's Wrath withdrew. Following the attack, Charn met with the senior crew. Playing up the idea that the saboteur was behind the latest attack, she announced her intention to continue the tour in a different ship and offered to pay for repairs to Rendar's Outrider if he agreed to act as her pilot. After arriving on Tatooine, however, Rendar's mechanic confirmed that the repairs could not be completed in time to get her to Christophsis for her next concert. Forced to locate another pilot at Chalmun's Cantina, Charn hired the Corellian smuggler and old-time rival of Rendar, Han Solo, who agreed to take her and a small crew in his YT-1300 light freighter, the Millennium Falcon. Rendar initially refused to work with Solo and threatened to quit. When Charn asked him to change his mind, Rendar demanded to know the truth about her stalker. Still hiding her Rebel connections, Charn revealed the extent of her dealings with Black Sun and that there was a chance that it was Prince Xizor himself who was seeking revenge. Concerned about her safety, Rendar agreed to stay.

As soon as Charn's cargo was aboard, the Millennium Falcon departed Tatooine, leaving Marrak to conduct repairs on the Nova's Heart and look for further signs of sabotage before rejoining the tour later. To ensure that the saboteur was left behind, Charn opted to take only a minimal crew with her. In addition to Solo, Rendar, Vrill, and Leebo, the crew comprised Farlion, Melikan, his Sullustan assistant Nik, and several cargo droids, including Melikan's Otoga-222 maintenance droid Oto. Despite these precautions, however, it soon became clear that the saboteur had tampered with the Millennium Falcon when a sudden gravity failure in the ship's cargo hold almost resulted in Rendar being crushed by falling crates. Since the gravity failure was set to trigger when the ship entered or exited hyperspace, there was no way to tell whether the saboteur was still aboard.

The Christophsis leg of Charn's tour saw her perform three successful nights in an amphitheater in the capital city of Chaleydonia. The next stop was a single concert in Falleen Throne—the capital city of Prince Xizor's homeworld, Falleen—where Charn was also due to meet with a Rebel contact. As the Millennium Falcon and Deep Core were loaded for departure following the final night on Christophsis, Hityamun Kris paid Charn a visit in her dressing room. The Vigo admitted that he had been attempting to frighten her into returning to him, but warned that Xizor wanted her dead and there was nothing he could do to protect her if she insisted on going to Falleen. When he tried to force the issue, however, Rendar, Vrill, Solo, and Melikan arrived and disarmed him and his bodyguards. Back at the Millennium Falcon, Rendar also tried to convince Charn to cancel the visit to Falleen. When Charn, who was unable to miss the scheduled rendezvous, once again refused, a frustrated Rendar grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. Charn admitted that Xizor had ample reason to want her dead, but told Rendar only that she would not let her fans down.

Rendar kept security tight during Charn's three concerts on Falleen, but there were no signs of any threat to her, and the performances were well received by the thousands of Falleen in attendance. As the crew of the Millennium Falcon prepared for departure following the third concert, Charn sneaked out in disguise. She found her contact waiting in the guise of an Equilibrate priest at a Wayfarer's Temple near the spaceport. The priest provided Charn with a data wafer containing updated orders and codes to access the container she was to pick up on Bannistar Station, which officially held replacement parts for her holographic rig. As Charn turned to leave, she found Rendar waiting near the exit, having seen her leaving the ship and followed her to the temple. Charn disguised her true purpose, telling Rendar that she was a member of the Equilibriate religion and had visited the temple to replace her lost copy of the Fulcrum, the holy text of that order.

Afterward, the duo utilized the turbolift to return to their designated hangar, but upon the turbolift doors parting, they were confronted by an Anomid assassin known as Edge lying in wait. With swift action, Rendar pulled Charn into safety and sealed the turbolift doors just before the assassin's Kerestian darkstick impacted them. As their descent continued, Rendar established contact with Vrill and Solo, who consented to collect them in a vacant hangar bay situated three levels below the Millennium Falcon's current position. This ruse only afforded them a fleeting respite, as Edge materialized at the new level shortly after Charn and Rendar, initiating gunfire as they sprinted towards the location where Solo, Vrill, and Melikan stood ready near the hangar entrance. As their comrades returned fire, Edge unleashed a Repulsor throwing razor at the retreating Humans. Evading the razor's trajectory with a leap, Charn divested herself of her robe and hurled it at the razor, sufficiently impeding its progress to allow her to secure a clear shot with her blaster. In the ensuing moments, the assassin sustained a blaster wound to the leg, diminishing his speed enough for Charn's contingent to withdraw to their vessel and make their escape.

Following their jump into hyperspace, Rendar proposed that Charn adopt a new identity and accompany him aboard the Outrider to a location beyond Edge's reach. Prompted by Melikan, Charn finally divulged her affiliation with the Rebel Alliance and the authentic purpose of her mission to Rendar. Recognizing the heightened peril, Melikan and Charn resolved to truncate the remainder of the tour after acquiring their cargo during Charn's forthcoming performance on Bannistar Station. Despite Rendar's reluctance to engage in the Rebellion, he consented to remain and guarantee Charn's secure arrival at Alderaan. Conversely, Solo expressed his unwillingness to jeopardize himself or his vessel by transporting their cargo to the Core Worlds and, notwithstanding Charn's proposition to double his compensation, would only commit to remaining for the Bannistar Station stop and a subsequent meeting with the Nova's Heart.

Bannistar Station functioned as an Imperial refueling station, comprised of a network of interconnected fuel tanks suspended above a planetoid. The Rebels' consignment had been placed within the module designated for the Nova's Heart's original docking. However, owing to the Millennium Falcon's differing configuration, the freighter was rerouted to a docking facility on a separate module, rendering the cargo inaccessible. To gain access, Charn intended to persuade the Imperial authorities to reconfigure the modules, ostensibly to facilitate her performance on a sizable transparisteel spiral staircase positioned within the open space between them.

Commander Arno D'Vox, the commanding officer of Bannistar Station, greeted Charn's group and volunteered to personally guide Charn on a tour of the premises. Charn accepted D'Vox's proposition, stipulating that Rendar and Vrill accompany her on the tour. D'Vox escorted Charn and her security detail to the station's command center before directing them to a cantina situated in a communal habitat zone, ensuring that Rendar and Vrill were seated at a separate table while he indulged in a private luncheon with Charn. Perceiving that D'Vox's evident infatuation with her might render him receptive to reconfiguring the station modules, Charn consented to have dinner alone with the commander that evening. As a contingency, however, Charn entrusted Rendar with the data wafer containing the cargo's location and requested that he formulate a backup strategy for its retrieval.

Charn and D'Vox dined in a secluded room at The Nadir, an eatery positioned at the lowest point of the station's primary module, and she accompanied him back to his quarters to deliberate her requirements for the concert. Upon Charn's explanation that she would need to curtail her show to perform within the station, D'Vox suggested reconfiguring the modules to accommodate an outdoor performance. However, his proposals excluded the module Charn required. Reluctant to arouse suspicion by pressing the issue, Charn acquiesced to D'Vox's suggested configuration, and the Imperial contacted the command center to issue the order. This prompted an intervention from Red Rishyk, D'Vox's security chief, who voiced concerns regarding the order. Rishyk's arrival furnished Charn with a pretext to return to her own quarters and evade D'Vox's amorous advances. Despite Charn's lack of success, Rendar and Solo brokered a business arrangement with a pair of local spacers, enabling them to approach close enough to retrieve her cargo.

The subsequent evening, as Charn performed before a sizable audience assembled on the catwalks and balconies of the surrounding modules, Edge resurfaced. The Anomid traversed to the transparisteel staircase on which Charn was performing, closely followed by Rendar, who positioned himself between the assassin and his target. Charn narrowly averted a throwing razor by casting her jacket into the air to disrupt its tracking mechanism. Shortly thereafter, the stage lights extinguished, plunging the staircase into darkness and exposing Charn due to the illumination emanating from her holo-emitter lenses. Rendar initially instructed Charn to shut her eyes to negate the light; as Edge approached, Rendar directed her to reopen her eyes and fix her gaze directly upon the assassin. With Edge momentarily blinded by the intense light, Rendar initiated gunfire, but Edge persisted in his attack, driving a vibroblade into Rendar's leg. Before Edge could redirect his attention to Charn, however, Vrill descended onto the staircase and tackled the assassin, propelling them both off the edge towards the planetoid below. Following treatment for their injuries, Charn and Rendar were interrogated by D'Vox and Rishyk. D'Vox leaned towards surrendering them to Xizor, despite Charn's attempts to bribe him. However, Melikan, Solo, and Nik intervened, disarming the Imperials and confining them in a refresher before fleeing aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Fueled by anger over Vrill's demise, Solo consented to transport Charn directly to Alderaan. Their journey was cut short when Leebo revealed that Oto had attempted to shoot Charn during Edge's assault. Under questioning, the droid confessed to being the saboteur. Bran Finnick, covertly employed by Hityamun Kris, had orchestrated Oto's reprogramming to sabotage Charn's tour and intimidate her into returning to the Vigo, but the new subroutines had also granted Xizor access to the droid, enabling him to program it to assassinate Charn, and the Imperial Security Bureau had exploited them to program Oto to gather evidence of Charn's involvement with the Rebel Alliance. Oto was slated to transmit their location to both Xizor and the Empire upon their next exit from hyperspace. Rendar proposed leveraging this to their advantage. Deactivating the droid, they contacted Marrak to alert him to Finnick's treachery and arranged to rendezvous with the Nova's Heart in the Circarpous system. Subsequently, they executed another jump in the incorrect direction, temporarily reactivating Oto in an attempt to divert Black Sun and the Empire away from their intended destination. Before they could re-enter hyperspace, however, Kris arrived aboard his personal yacht. Charn persuaded the Vigo to permit them to depart, but the rapidity of his arrival alerted them to an independent transponder embedded within Oto that was broadcasting their signal even when the droid was deactivated.

With the intention of employing the Nova's Heart to draw away Charn's pursuers, the Millennium Falcon proceeded to the rendezvous point near Circarpous V, where the Rebels transferred Oto and the transponder to the yacht, along with Farlion and Nik. The rendezvous was disrupted by the arrival of Xizor aboard his own yacht. As the two vessels separated and fled, Xizor was deceived into pursuing Oto aboard the Nova's Heart. The Millennium Falcon was not out of danger, however, as they discovered their path obstructed by an Imperial Star Destroyer and a pair of cruisers. At that juncture, Kris entered the system and utilized his own ship to divert the Imperials, enabling the Millennium Falcon to escape into hyperspace. Contacting Charn one final time, Kris informed her that her perilous Rebel activities had persuaded him to abandon his pursuit of her.

With the Millennium Falcon nearing fuel depletion, Solo piloted the ship to Commenor to refuel. However, upon discovering the Imperial Dreadnaught Avenger awaiting them, the crew were compelled to jump back into hyperspace and attempt to reach Alderaan. After finally disengaging from hyperspace on the periphery of the Alderaan system, they were contacted by Alderaan Space Control. Charn responded with her personal identification code, and the Millennium Falcon was directed to land in a secure spaceport within the capital city, Aldera. As the ship approached its landing, Charn and Melikan expressed their gratitude to Rendar and Solo for their assistance and invited them to join the Rebel Alliance, but, to Charn's disappointment, the smugglers proved unwilling to relinquish their independence and declined. Before disembarking, Charn confessed to Rendar that she harbored personal motives for requesting that he stay and kissed him. Leaving Leebo aboard, the four Humans were greeted by a contingent of Royal Guards, and Charn and Melikan were escorted away for a debriefing. Following the unloading of Charn's cargo and equipment, she observed with Princess Leia Organa of the Alderaanian royal family from a viewing gallery as Rendar and Solo re-boarded the Millennium Falcon and departed.

Charn honored her commitment by covering the costs of the Outrider's repairs and arranging for its relocation to the Bestine Port Authority for safekeeping during his absence. She left a message with Rendar's mechanic, directing the smuggler to a hotel in Tatooine's capital city, Bestine, where she had secured a luxury suite for him to occupy for as long as he desired. She also dispatched a HoloNet message in which she conveyed her gratitude to Rendar for all his aid and expressed her hope that she might one day be able to thank him in person.

Javul Charn was conceived for the 2011 novel Shadow Games authored by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. The genesis of Shadow Games occurred approximately five years prior when Reaves and fellow author Steve Perry were brainstorming ideas for a Star Wars novel they intended to co-write. Perry's initial concept centered around a musician who enlists bodyguards upon encountering danger and is subsequently revealed to be less innocent than initially perceived. The character that evolved into Charn was originally envisioned as male but was transitioned to female as the pair refined the concept. Publisher Del Rey sought substantial alterations from the initial pitch, ultimately leading to Perry's withdrawal but his agreement to permit Reaves to collaborate on the project with Bohnhoff instead.

Charn, alongside Rendar and Leebo, was among the characters featured in Reaves and Bohnhoff's original story outline, and her prominence within the narrative led to the book's original designation as the working title Holostar. While Rendar and Leebo were pre-existing characters, Reaves and Bohnhoff determined that the titular holostar should be a novel character devoid of established backstory and unburdened by reader expectations. In determining the nature of Charn's stage act, the authors were eager to integrate the technology prevalent within the Star Wars universe into her performances. The synthesis of music and theater within Charn's stage act was informed by Bohnhoff's personal experience in both domains. An illustration of Charn by Chris Scalf was incorporated into the 2012 reference book The Essential Reader's Companion.