Ninth Sister

Masana Tide, hailing from the planet [Dowut](/article/dowut] and a member of the Dowutin species, was a Jedi Knight within the Jedi Order, having been trained by a Master. In 19 BBY, Darth Sidious initiated Order 66, an order embedded in the behavioral modification biochips of the Galactic Republic's clone troopers, designed to eliminate the Jedi. Tide was among the few who survived this purge, but she was subsequently captured by Sidious' Galactic Empire and subjected to torture until her will broke. She was then indoctrinated into the dark side of the Force as part of the Empire's Inquisitorius program, receiving the title of Inquisitor and the new name of Ninth Sister.

In that same year, the Ninth Sister underwent training alongside the Seventh Sister, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, and Eighth Brother under the Grand Inquisitor at the Inquisitorius Headquarters on Coruscant. They soon found themselves under the command of Darth Vader when Darth Sidious introduced them to Vader, who continued their training in the dark side's ways. During one particular training session, the Sith Lord removed the Ninth Sister's left eye as a lesson about loss.

At a later time, the Ninth Sister accompanied Vader to Cabarria to look into reports of someone using the Force and a lightsaber to escape a fight in a local bar. Before entering, she read Vader a report from a datapad, questioning his presence given the many false Jedi reports. She felt she should have investigated and reported back. Vader said she should be pleased with his help, and she realized he hoped to find a Jedi.

Vader told her to stay outside the bar unless called, and she thought he was a "sadistic monster." Inside, the Chas family of bounty hunters attacked Vader, hired by someone in the Republic Executive Building on Coruscant. They used an ion grenade to disable weapons and destroyed his lightsaber, so Vader asked the Ninth Sister to bring him her lightsaber. She ignored the call, blaming the ion pulse for frying her comm.

The Chas family had to retreat as their ray shields were failing, and Vader killed bar patrons to stop the family from attacking. As the assassins left the bar, they held the Ninth Sister at blaster point until Ramat Cha started a speeder bike. After their escape, Vader accused the Ninth Sister of trying to have him killed. She denied placing the bounty, suggesting another Inquisitor might have. Vader used the Force to take her lightsaber and ordered her to stay with the ship, threatening death if she fled. Vader then used a speeder to chase and interrogate the Chas family, killing Ramat and Bhada Cha with the Ninth Sister's lightsaber, but sparing their daughter Chanath Cha.

The Ninth Sister traveled with Vader back to Coruscant on his personal starship, but their transmitter was jammed, preventing them from sending clearance codes. Coruscant's defenses fired missiles at their ship. Unable to evade them, Vader took control. After being hit by a missile, they crash-landed on Coruscant. Vader ordered the Ninth Sister to stay with the ship while he dealt with the situation. Vader discovered Imperial colonel Barokki was behind the bounty, and executed him and four others in front of high-ranking Imperials.

In 18 BBY, a large group of Imperials went to Mon Cala, also known as Dac, to help Darth Vader investigate whether a possible Jedi was influencing King of Mon Cala Lee-Char's negotiations. The Ninth Sister, Vader, the Sixth Brother, and the Tenth Brother arrived in Dac City via a Zeta-class shuttle. Accompanying them were fourteen Purge Troopers, a specialized force of stormtroopers working with the Inquisitorius.

Upon exiting the ship, Gial Ackbar, the king's Chief of Security, confronted Ninth Sister, asking their purpose. She presented a writ protecting them from harm. Ackbar protested, and she directed him to Vader as he left the ship. Ackbar continued questioning them until Vader stated they sought a possible enemy of the Empire. Ackbar denied it, but then a shuttle carrying Telvar, the Empire's ambassador to the waterworld, exploded, killing everyone on board. Vader and the Inquisitors walked past Ackbar from the landing pad.

The ambassador's death led Governor Wilhuff Tarkin to deploy Imperial forces to Mon Cala. As TIE fighters engaged, the Mon Calamari Guard defended their cities, starting the Battle of Dac City. The Inquisitors, Purge Troopers, and Vader defeated Mon Cala troops on a landing pad and secured the area. Ninth Sister asked Vader where to go next, and he said they were going to the city's palace to find Lee-Char, hoping to learn the Jedi's location from him.

After killing more guards, they entered the palace and found Lee-Char. Under Vader's orders, the Ninth Sister used the Force to try to extract the Jedi's location from the King. However, a school of large creatures rose from the sea, creating a wave that tore through the city. The other two Inquisitors and Vader tried to hold back the water, but the wave was too strong. The Ninth Sister and the others were swept away, and Vader fell into the waters below.

The Ninth Sister, the Inquisitors, and all but two of their troopers survived the wave. They used an Imperial submarine to find Vader fighting a large squid-like creature in the ocean's Great Ungeness Trench. Vader asked about Lee-Char, and the Ninth Sister said they didn't know but that she had the Jedi's location. They immediately headed there.

Upon arrival, they found the Jedi and his six disciples evacuating their refuge, knowing Vader and the Inquisitors were coming. They scattered, except for one who attacked the submarine with a blaster. Vader crushed the acolyte's helmet, and they pursued the others. Another disciple sacrificed himself to slow them down. The submarine continued to Bel City, where two more disciples waited. As they moved through the corridors, Vader received a request from Tarkin to capture the King in exchange for a future favor. Vader agreed and ordered the others to continue while he found the King. The Inquisitors found the Jedi and his last two disciples at a dead end. Sixth Brother killed one, and the Jedi, Ferren Barr, confronted them.

After speaking with the Jedi, whom Ninth Sister identified as Ferren Barr, he revealed he knew they were former Jedi and the clones' role in destroying the Jedi Order. Ninth Sister dismissed this, saying their past was irrelevant. Barr argued that they were still Jedi underneath their dark side facade. Barr used a mind trick on the clones, ordering them to execute Order 66.

The mind trick worked, and the clones turned on the three Inquisitors. After Tenth Brother was fatally shot, Barr Force jumped over the fight with his acolyte Verla, escaping through the only exit. Ninth Sister and Sixth Brother used a combined Force push to clear the clones, with many falling off the deck. As they moved to leave, Sixth Brother betrayed Ninth Sister, severing her leg and leaving her to distract the clones so he could escape, mockingly wishing her luck. Ninth Sister swore revenge, but never got the chance as the Brother was killed by former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano on the moon of Raada while seeking power sources for her new lightsabers.

After surviving the fight on Dac, the Ninth Sister received a cybernetic right leg. Four years later, in 14 BBY, a Viper probe droid on the Scrapper Guild's Shipbreaking Yard on Bracca detected a potential Jedi, disguised as a scrapper, using the Force to save a fellow scrapper. The Inquisitorius learned of this, and the Ninth Sister went to Bracca with the Second Sister and Purge Troopers.

Stopping a train of Guild members, the Second Sister confronted the passengers. The Ninth Sister, in her TIE/rp Reaper attack lander, watched as the Second Sister threatened to execute everyone if the Jedi wasn't revealed. As the Purge Troopers aimed at the group, Prauf, the Abednedo saved by the Jedi, shamed the Empire for exploiting the Scrapper Guild. The Second Sister stabbed Prauf with her lightsaber, and Cal Kestis reacted by attacking her with his lightsaber, revealing himself. She blocked his attack and used the Force to lift him, throwing him to the Ninth Sister. The Ninth Sister held him over a ledge, announcing she found the Jedi, but Cal ignited his lightsaber, surprising her and causing her to drop him.

Kestis survived the fall, landing on another train. As he moved forward, the Ninth Sister shot at the tracks from her ship, causing the train to fall. After Kestis reached the Retired Control Tower's platform, the Second Sister confronted him, and they dueled. However, former Jedi Cere Junda intervened aboard the Stinger Mantis luxury yacht, extracting him before the Second Sister could finish him.

After Bracca, the Second Sister focused on hunting Kestis, while the Ninth Sister questioned his importance. Following his rescue by Junda, Kestis and the Stinger Mantis crew began a secret mission to rebuild the Jedi Order, leading him to Kashyyyk to seek out the Wookiee chieftan Tarfful. He fought alongside Saw Gerrera's rebel cell of the Partisans in an assault on the Imperial holding. After arranging a meeting with Tarfful, Kestis left, and the Second and Ninth Sisters counterattacked to drive Gerrera off-world. The Ninth Sister told the Grand Inquisitor she doubted Kestis would return. She was wrong when Kestis returned and climbed the Wookiee Origin Tree after Tarfful informed him of an astrium at the top, created by the ancient Zeffonian species.

From her TIE Reaper, the Ninth Sister confronted Cal in a deserted Wookiee village at the top of the tree, expressing her feelings about his return. She chased him in her ship, shooting at him with the ship's L-s9.3 laser cannons. However, a Shyyyo bird attacked her ship, forcing her away.

After driving the Ninth Sister away, the Shyyyo bird helped Kestis climb the Tree after he healed its wounds. At the bird's nest, the Ninth Sister attacked, injuring the bird and confronting Kestis. Jumping onto the tree, she stated her desire to quickly kill him, considering him unworthy. They engaged in a duel, the Ninth Sister using only one blade. Kestis slashed her helmet's visor, disorienting her. She pushed him away as she jumped back. Checking her visor, she called him "trash," before igniting her second blade. They continued dueling until Kestis gained the upper hand, severing her right hand. Initially stunned, she recovered and attempted to distract Kestis with a monologue about the loss of a limb being insignificant to an Inquisitor while secretly levitating her lightsaber behind him.

The Ninth Sister continued to fight Kestis, expressing her wish to torture him into becoming an Inquisitor, threatening to kill his friends, and dismissing his ability to stop the Empire. Her attempt to break him failed, and Kestis leapt over her and slashed her back. She charged him, but Kestis knocked her back with a Force push, sending her falling out of the nest, though she survived.

While on the Origin Tree, Kestis asked Junda if she knew the Ninth Sister before the Jedi Purge. Cere said she didn't, but could only guess what she was like. Kestis discussed the Ninth Sister's hopeless view of fighting the Empire. Junda theorized that Inquisitors were former Jedi turned through fear and torture, emphasizing the temptation of absolutes under the Empire's suffering. Kestis acknowledged this, mentioning the Ninth Sister's enthusiasm for causing suffering.

When Kestis spoke to Greez Dritus outside the Mantis on Kashyyyk, Dritus mentioned Kestis' impressive feat in outrunning a TIE fighter. Kestis revealed it carried the Ninth Sister, horrifying Dritus who brought up the ramifications of more Inquisitors like the Second Sister coming after them.

Upon returning to the Mantis, Kestis discussed his mission, believing he had killed the Inquisitor. He mentioned the Second Sister leaving the planet and his defeat of the Ninth Sister. Kestis also discussed the Ninth Sister's view that becoming an Inquisitor was inevitable. Kestis pointed out that Cere's experience disproved this hypothesis, as she had refused to join despite undergoing similar circumstances.

After her encounter with Kestis on Kashyyyk, the Ninth Sister received a cybernetic right hand to replace the one he severed and continued her work as an Inquisitor, fueled by a desire for revenge against the young Jedi. Darth Vader reassigned her to aid Seventh Sister in hunting down Tensu Run, who had gained notoriety for freeing prisoners from an Imperial outpost on Regis Kor and had recently sliced off Fifth Brother's left arm on Gerrigon.

Since her confrontation with Kestis, this Jedi had initiated a campaign against the Empire. During the year 9 BBY, Kestis undertook a quest to the Empire's central world, Coruscant, intentionally getting captured so his team could steal crucial data from the Ramsidian vessel belonging to Utapau Senator Daho Sejan. After the team finished their task and left the vessel, the Ninth Sister fired upon their platform from a LAAT/le patrol gunship. Supported by two additional gunships, she used telekinesis to run Sejan through with her lightsaber, pulling him close while accusing him of sheltering a traitor, before removing her weapon and carelessly discarding his body. Enraged at seeing her adversary, the Ninth Sister commanded her gunships to unleash fire on Kestis. This resulted in the death of Kestis' crew member Gabs, with the Sister also eliminating members Koob and Lizz. In a fit of anger, Cal charged at the Ninth Sister, but a crashing gunship pushed him off the platform's edge.

Kestis ended up on another platform, where the Ninth Sister's gunship had crashed. She exited the wreckage, using her spinning lightsaber to control her descent, and faced Kestis in a rematch. After exchanging blows, she used the Force to push him back, remarking on his improved skills and behavior. Using her strong ability to sense emotions, she declared she could feel Kestis' pain for leading his allies to their deaths in the fight against the Empire. The duel continued, with the Ninth Sister using her empathic abilities to anticipate Kestis' moves, but the Jedi Knight surprised her with his lightsaber's new split-saber function, slashing her across the torso. As she staggered from the wound, Kestis seized the opportunity to call her by her former Jedi name, visibly affecting the Dowutin. Kestis pressed on, reminding her of her past as Jedi Knight Masana Tide before her betrayal and transformation into the Inquisitor known as the Ninth Sister. She became increasingly agitated, pacing back and forth until her rage overwhelmed her. Roaring, the Ninth Sister charged at Kestis, but he easily blocked her attack and delivered a fatal blow, decapitating her and, according to Kestis, freeing her from her tormented existence.

In the years following the collapse of the Galactic Empire, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker traveled across the galaxy to rediscover the history of the Jedi Order, which the Empire had suppressed. During his quest for knowledge, Skywalker learned of the Ninth Sister's existence. During his self-imposed isolation on Ahch-To, Skywalker authored The Secrets of the Jedi, a book documenting the information he had gathered during his travels. The Ninth Sister was among the Inquisitors depicted in the book with illustrations, alongside information about the Inquisitorius. The few Jedi who survived her remembered her with dread.

The Ninth Sister was a massive Dowutin female, possessing brown skin and white eyes, the left of which she lost during a training session with Darth Vader. She had two small horns on her chin, and her fingers ended in black claws. As an Inquisitor, the Ninth Sister was both threatening and formidable. She possessed a strong ability to read people through the Force, enabling her to discern Vader's intentions when he requested her presence on Cabarria. She later declined to assist Vader when he needed help fighting bounty hunters.

Like her fellow Inquisitors, the Ninth Sister was a Jedi hunter, dedicated to eliminating the remaining members of the Jedi Order. She rejected any connection to her past as a Jedi, believing that she was not one to dwell on memories and that the past no longer affected her. The Ninth Sister was also arrogant and overly confident, as demonstrated during her fight against Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, where she taunted him, claiming that she wouldn't want to fight herself and that he was not worthy of her time.

Her Inquisitor training was a time of torment, as she described to Cal Kestis, emphasizing how her role as an Inquisitor had taught her that no setback was insurmountable. After Kestis severed her hand, she dismissed it after the initial shock, stating that losing a limb was insignificant after losing oneself, and considered breaking him down as she and the other Inquisitors had been.

Deeply entrenched in the dark side of the Force and her role as an Inquisitor, the Ninth Sister was disturbed by any reminder of her former identity as a Jedi Knight, reacting strongly to those who brought it up, becoming visibly agitated and angry if persistently reminded.

The Ninth Sister possessed significant Force abilities and was a skilled combatant. Initially, she lacked the combat prowess of some other Inquisitors, but she outlasted Tenth Brother during the battle in Bel City, successfully defending herself against Purge Troopers despite losing a leg. Over time, her abilities became distinctive within the Inquisitorius, marking her as one of the most dangerous Inquisitors.

Through the Force, she had remarkable empathic abilities to read minds, which enhanced her Force mastery. This ability became even more potent after her conversion to the dark side. Although initially lacking the combat strength of some other Inquisitors, she surpassed the Tenth Brother during the fighting in Bel City. She successfully repelled a group of Purge Troopers despite losing a leg. Eventually, her abilities grew to the point where she was considered one of the most deadly Inquisitors.

While less agile than other Inquisitors, the Ninth Sister used her raw strength, large size, and Jedi training to gain an advantage over her opponents. She put up a strong fight against the more agile Cal Kestis on Kashyyyk, continuing to fight despite losing her right hand and sustaining lightsaber wounds to her limbs and back, demonstrating a high pain tolerance.

As a skilled interrogator, the Ninth Sister successfully used a mind probe on King Lee-Char of Mon Cala to discover the location of a hidden Jedi, just before a large wave swept them away.

The Ninth Sister wielded a double-bladed spinning lightsaber, a weapon type used by all Inquisitors except the Tenth Brother. She wore a black helmet with two red visors covering her eyes. The Ninth Sister wore a black, form-fitting bodysuit with silver lines running vertically down her chest, back, and limbs. Around her waist was a kama made of six metal armor plates, protecting her thighs. She could attach her lightsaber to her back for easy access. She received a cybernetic right leg after the Sixth Brother's betrayal and a cybernetic right hand after her defeat by Kestis on Kashyyyk. She used a TIE/rp Reaper attack lander as personal transport on both Kashyyyk and Coruscant. The Dowutin also carried a Hush-98 comlink, which she falsely claimed had been fried by an ion pulse.

The Ninth Sister made her initial appearance, though unnamed, in Darth Vader (2017) 6, a comic book penned by Charles Soule, illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli, and released on October 4, 2017. Her design was credited to Camuncoli, the penciller, as well as inker Cam Smith, and colorist David Curiel.

The Ninth Sister was identified in Darth Vader (2017) 11. In Darth Vader (2017) 16, the former names of the Ninth Sister and Sixth Brother, Masana Tide and Bil Valen, were revealed, though the comic did not specify which name belonged to which character. The 2018 reference book Star Wars: The Dark Side later confirmed that the Ninth Sister was Masana Tide. While her former name is never directly mentioned in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, an achievement titled "Her name was Masana Tide!" is automatically awarded and displayed upon defeating the Ninth Sister on Kashyyyk. In Fallen Order, she was voiced and motion-captured by Misty Lee. Lee later reprised the role in the 2023 sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Despite already having a design, the Ninth Sister's appearance was updated for Jedi: Fallen Order to accommodate the finer details needed for the game. Efforts were made to retain the recognizable features of her design, including the raised shoulder pads, red visor, three chest stripes, and layered skirt. The base material used in the design was inspired by the Imperial military uniforms seen in the Star Wars original trilogy. The final concept design was created by Jordan Lamarre-Wan, the game's lead concept artist. The Ninth Sister's in-game model was created by senior character artist Vince Rizzi.

In "Darth Maul and Other Followers of the Dark Side," a booklet from the Star Wars Encyclopedia series, published by De Agostini on July 13, 2021, the Ninth Sister is stated to have died during her fight against Cal Kestis atop the Origin Tree on Kashyyyk. However, she appears alive in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.