Ysanne Isard

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Ysanne Isard
Star Wars character

Position	Head of Imperial Intelligence, de facto ruler of the Empire
Homeworld	Coruscant
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Height	1.8 meters
Affiliation	Galactic Empire
Portrayed by	N/a

Ysanne Isard is a fictional character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

1 History
2 References
3 External links

[edit] History

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Early rise

One of the most powerful figures in the Galactic Empire, Isard was a ruthless and cunning woman, earning her the nickname Iceheart among her subordinates. She was a native of Imperial Centre, only daughter of Armand Isard, then the Director of Imperial Intelligence. Perhaps realizing how dangerous his daughter was, the elder Isard tried to have her killed as she moved up rapidly through Imperial Intelligence ranks by dispatching her on a mission to Darkknell to retrieve the stolen datapads containing the plans of the first Death Star, certain that she would be killed. She survived, but did fail to recover the datapads. She soon realised why her father had sent her on that mission, and implicated him in the theft of the Death Star datapads and the bombing of the Treitamma Political Centre (an assassination attempt upon General Bel Iblis). She then had her father executed.

Ysanne Isard was promoted to the recently vacated position of Director of Imperial Intelligence. While in this position, she took command of the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya, which Palpatine had secretly buried deep beneath the cityscape of Coruscant. Isard used the Lusankya as her private prison, where she kept captured Rebels to be brainwashed into sleeper agents. After the death of Palpatine and the defeat of the Empire during the Battle of Endor, she allied herself with Palpatine's immediate successor, the Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, who had assumed command of Imperial Centre and Imperial Oversector 0. Later, Isard allowed him to be captured by the New Republic at Brentaal, and arranged for his death. The Ruling Circle of Imperial officials assumed command, but she had them murdered. She then assumed command of Coruscant, but her rule was threatened by both rival warlords and the New Republic.

[edit] Imperial leader

A few years after Isard took over the remains of the Empire, the appearance of Trioculus, a con artist posing as Palpatine's son, threatened her reign. While he was too weak militarily to challenge Isard directly or to attempt to capture Imperial Centre, Trioculus won the allegiance of a considerable portion of the Imperial Starfleet, and at one point was even recognized as the legitimate ruler of the Empire by the (false) Prophets of the Dark Side. Isard devoted considerable resources to undermining the pretender, isolating the Moffs who lent him their support in an attempt to prop him up as a puppet dictator. Finally, she used her Grand Admirals to destroy the Prophets themselves when they attempted to usurp her rule.

Before the New Republic took Coruscant, Isard coerced General Evir Derricote and his scientists off the planet Borleias and onto Coruscant, where they created the Krytos virus that only targeted non-human races; the strategy was to strain the New Republic's resources by forcing them to deal with the problem. The Krytos virus was specifically engineered to incapacitate and kill thousands to maximize terror and exploit inter-species tensions within the New Republic as a variety of economic warfare. She then fled Coruscant onboard the Lusankya, which tore off a large part of Coruscant's cityscape, killing millions. She headed to the bacta-rich world of Thyferra, taking it and its bacta assets; while her agent on Coruscant (Kirtan Loor) continued his guerilla war, she, having seized control of the galaxy's bacta supply (which was necessary for treating the Krytos virus), proceeded to raise the price of bacta astronomically. Isard reaped a windfall profit from the New Republic, who had to buy the bacta for the victims to formulate a cure. She later fought Rogue Squadron in the Bacta War, during which the Lusankya was captured. Isard, along with a clone of herself, escaped and scattered the prisoners.

[edit] After Thyferra

Both Isards remained quiet during the Thrawn crisis, the clone (who had remained in control of the Lusankya prisoners) came into the service of Prince-Admiral Krennel, while the real Isard commandeered a secret Imperial base and went into hiding, resurfacing to help the New Republic retrieve the missing prisoners from Prince-Admiral Krennel.

Fearing execution for treason after being contacted by a resurrected Palpatine on Byss, the real Isard plotted to retake Lusankya in order to present it to the Emperor and be reconciled for her failures. Anticipating her treachery, Iella Wessiri shot Isard dead during the attempt to repay for the death of Iella's husband Diric.[1]. Her clone was slain along with Prince-Admiral Krennel during the New Republic invasion of Citruic.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] References

Tales from the New Republic, 1st paperback printing, 1999. Peter Schweighofer, Craig Carey (editors). ISBN 0-553-57882-0
- "Interlude at Darknell", Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole
  - Part One by Timothy Zahn
  - Part Two and Three by Michael A. Stackpole
  - Part Four by Timothy Zahn
Rogue Squadron, 1st printing paperback, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56801-9
Wedge's Gamble, 1st paperback printing, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56802-7
The Kryptos Trap, 1st paperback printing, 1996. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56803-5
The Bacta War, 1st paperback printing, 1997. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-56804-3
Isard’s Revenge, 1st paperback printing, 1999. Michael A. Stackpole, ISBN 0-553-57903-7