The Ronin

The Ronin was the alias used by a male human former Sith who wandered the far edge of the Outer Rim Territories in the aftermath of the Sith rebellion. He would later be nicknamed as Grim. The Ronin had begun the rebellion as the Dark Lord of the Sith and led the Sith armies in battle after they broke away from the Jedi clans, seeking to control their own destinies and end the cycle of never-ending wars between rival feudal lords and their Jedi knights.

The lords formed alliances as they sent their Jedi to battle the Dark Lord, his witch, their forces, and the Sith demons that the witch resurrected after their deaths. However, the Dark Lord grew disenchanted with what the Sith became during their rebellion and turned on his followers, ending the rebellion. The Dark Lord renounced the Sith, shed his former identity, and became the Ronin. After the rebellion failed, the former rival lords led a revitalized Empire.

Accompanied by the faithful astromech droid R5-D56, the Ronin wandered through the Outer Rim in a self-imposed exile and did not speak about his past. Pledging allegiance to no clan, he made it his life's mission to hunt and eliminate other Sith, collecting their kyber crystals to prevent them from causing any more evil. He was both guided and taunted by the disembodied voice of his daughter Mirahi in his head, whose identity was unknown to him and to whom he sometimes responded aloud.

Twenty years after his rebellion, he came upon a village on the planet Genbara that was being attacked by Bandit Troopers led by Kouru, who claimed the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. Their lightsaber duel ended when the Ronin killed her; however, she awoke from her death as a Sith demon. His path brought him into contact with the Traveler and the crew of the Poor Crow, who sought his help in confronting the witch and uncovering the secrets of the planet Rei'izu, the former capital of the Empire who had seemingly vanished from the galaxy.

His travels led him to the planet Dekien in search of a shard of the kyber mirror of Shinsui Temple, to the Imperial Dreadnought Reverent where he escaped capture by Lord Hanrai, and ultimately to Rei'izu, where he confronted Mirahi. Choosing reconciliation over conflict, he joined forces with her against the Jedi, banding with the crew of the Poor Crow.

Sometime later, the Ronin and R5-D56 found themselves on the planet Olcatz. There, they were pursued by a Jedi known as the Grand Master, who desired revenge on the Ronin due to a prior incident in which the Jedi was maimed and disfigured by Grim. The two dueled, but the former Sith managed to escape. The Grand Master and his followers, the Crusaders, placed the planet under lockdown while the Ronin joined forces with the Anzellan Que-Dama and his crew to strike back against the Jedi. In the ensuing battle, the Ronin aided in fighting off the Crusaders, eventually killing the Grand Master in a duel.

Biography

Early years

As a boy, the man who later came to be known as "the Ronin" had a deep-seated anger he carried throughout his life, and kindness had rarely been afforded to him in his youth. He at one point became a Jedi apprentice to a lord, an occasion upon which he learned the board game shogi. At the time, it was fashionable for a Jedi master to use the game to train their most promising apprentices how to manage a battlefield. The boy, however, was not interested in shogi, only developing an appreciation for it years later, when he was no longer a Jedi.^[1] Due to his exceptional performance for a child taken into the Jedi clans, he was bequeathed the power and responsibility of a lightsaber, as well as power over people, his Jedi guardians.^[4]

At some point, a lord fired a blaster bolt at the Ronin; although he dodged, it struck the left side of his face and left his jaw misshapen and scarred. Thereafter, the Ronin wore a metal prosthetic that supported his jaw from ear to ear, and he took the lord's blaster to carry on his own belt.^[1] Still a Padawan, the young Ronin had long, but shorter hair than later in his life, and wore an apron, along with his by then still functional lightsaber hanging from the belt, as opposed to using a scabbard auxiliary. By this time, his lightsaber had no guard either.^[5]

According to Jedi records, he was deeply loyal to both his lord and his adopted clansmen. When he was knighted, his clansmen became his guardians,^[1] one of which was the woman who became known as the witch, whom he fell in love with.^[4] During a battle, he faced a choice between saving his lord or saving his guardians, eventually allowing his lord to die, which was considered a cowardly act among the Jedi, as outliving one's lord was seen as dishonorable and unacceptable for a knight within the Empire. As a consequence, the Empire sentenced him and his guardians to death, declaring them rebels for disobeying Imperial orders.^[1]

Dark Lord of the Sith

Prior to the unification of the Empire, Jedi knights had served various constantly warring feudal lords. The Sith arose as a splinter faction of the Jedi clans seeking self-determination and an end to the constant wars plaguing the galaxy. Together with a Sith witch, the Ronin led the Sith rebellion against the Jedi as the Dark Lord of the Sith. The witch would resurrect the bodies of the dead before they could join the Force to create Sith demons that continued to fight for the Sith.^[1]

Later, during a skirmish, the Ronin fought a Jedi who would later call himself the Grand Master, knocking him down onto the ground and cutting off his legs and lower jaw. The Ronin blasted him for his obsession with judgment, claiming it was a denial of the balance needed between light and dark sides. The Ronin saw the young man as closer to darkness than the Sith themselves.^[6]

As the Dark Lord of the Sith, he devised lightsaber auxiliary technology that extended the capabilities of lightsabers, and holographic blueprints for his designs were distributed amongst the Sith cells. After the young warrior Kouru built her lightsaber, she received the dark lord's blueprints to construct a parasol auxiliary, and her Sith master made a fan auxiliary. The Dark Lord and the Sith witch had been in love, and they conceived a daughter on Rei'izu, unknown to the Dark Lord.^[1]

During the great muster on Rei'izu, the Dark Lord looked into the divine kyber mirror of Shinsui Temple and saw a vision of horrors and warfare. He became disenchanted with the rebellion he had led and turned his lightsaber against the Sith who had followed him. The Sith rebellion ended after the Ronin's change of heart. At the culmination of the rebellion, the Empire was reunited through alliances amongst the rival feudal lords, and the Jedi came to be the Emperor's most faithful servants. The Sith became scarce in the galaxy as they were hunted down by Jedi Knights and agents of the Empire, as well as by the Ronin himself.^[1]

A new companion

At some point, the Ronin found himself on a planet where Zabrak Sith Master Okinaa and his astromech droid R5-D56 were. The Ronin then challenged Okinaa to a duel, but Okinaa refused, as they believed one of them would die. However, when the Ronin removed the hat that covered his face, Okinaa recognized him from a prior premonitory dream they had and, accepting their fate, agreed to the duel and told R5-D56 to ask the Ronin for help if something happened to them.^[7]

Okinaa ordered R5-D56 to witness their duel, and suggested to the Ronin that they fight elsewhere, as they were in a holy place. The Ronin refused Okinaa's suggestion and attacked, beginning the duel. In response, Okinaa leaped down the side of the cliff, moving the duel away from the holy place. As the Ronin pursued them, Okinaa taunted the Ronin, refusing to draw their lightsaber. Eventually, the Ronin forced Okinaa to ignite their lightsaber, and the two exchanged several blows before Okinaa leapt to a tree in the middle of a nearby body of water and again taunted the Ronin, who had waded into the water. Okinaa jumped down to attack the Ronin, who landed a fatal strike that split Okinaa's mask.^[7]

Before dying, Okinaa warned the Ronin that their fate was the fate of Sith, and said a farewell to R5-D56. As the Ronin dragged Okinaa's body out of the water, a distressed R5-D56 tapped their body with his arms. At night, the Ronin lit a fire to burn Okinaa's body. After putting on Okinaa's hat and waving goodbye to their body, R5-D56 accepted the Ronin's offer to come with him,^[7] and the two traveled away together.^[1]

Hot spring and sake

Years after the end of the war,^[8] while hiking on^[3] Mount Hakamori,^[9] a snowy mountain on an astronomical object a group of thieves attempted to steal the R5-D56 from the Ronin. An individual formerly called Shogun witnessed the incident, and left before they began fighting to avoid being struck by a stray blaster bolt and later learned that all but one of the bandits had been killed.^[3]

That night, while the the Ronin was bathed in a secret hot spring, Shogun visited the location, surprised to see the Ronin, but remarking that it was nice to see someone else there. Shogun joined the Ronin in the hot spring and commented that it would be even nicer if they had some sake. In response, the Ronin offered to share his sake with Shogun, which Shogun accepted. Shogun then informed the Ronin that the hot spring was made to heal the battle wounds of knights and offered to give him a massage for a discount. The Ronin declined the offer, explaining that he deserved his pain due to the many individuals he had killed in the war.^[3]

Shogun then recounted their own experience in the war, describing it as "horrible" and telling the Ronin of their vision of the Father and how they were still searching for the Temple of Elujoji on the planet Sukalan. The Ronin told Shogun what he knew of the temple, having heard from his teacher that "the truth of the galaxy" was there and that it was the only place where one could purify their soul, but he did not know its location. In response, Shogun joked that the sake and hot spring were good enough to purify them. The two then smiled and laughed after noticing that R5-D56 was gambling with a group of Ewoks nearby. Shogun said they would have liked to take the Ronin to a nearby casino, but that it was closed due to a hassle, and told him they had heard about a fight between a group of thieves and an individual with a red lightsaber.^[3]

Just then, the sun rose, and the Ronin announced his departure. Shogun walked with him for some distance and then offered to buy a drink for the Ronin at a station below, but the Ronin declined, explaining that someone was picking them up. Just as they began to walk away from each other, the Ronin asked if Shogun had forgotten something. When Shogun questioned him, the Ronin asked if they were going to kill him and revealed that he was aware that Shogun was a Jedi. The Ronin then experienced a vision of him dueling Shogun, in which Shogun quickly defeated him and destroyed his lightsaber. After the vision ended, Shogun told the Ronin that they had not forgotten anything and then said a farewell before walking away with their droid. After they left, the Ronin realized that had he had his hands on his lightsaber and actually fought Shogun, he would have died.^[3]

Just a passerby

Two decades after the Sith rebellion, the Ronin wandered the Outer Rim Territories with his droid companion, R5-D56. He also acquired a mysterious voice whispering in his mind, urging him towards danger. He would later learn that it was the voice of his daughter, Mirahi. The Ronin made it his life's mission to hunt down other Sith, collecting their kyber crystals as to prevent them from causing further harm,^[1] despite the fact that possessing kybers had been made illegal by the Empire.^[10]

Eventually, the duo came to the planet Genbara, where, after two months, they ran out of credits while wandering in the spring through the countryside. A local woodcutter told them of a small lean-to they could spend the night at, and offered directions to the mountains, noting that only one out of four villages that lay in the valley beyond the mountains still remained, allegedly due to angering a spirit that did not take kindly to settlers.^[1]

After following a road up the mountains past a ridge,^[1] the duo and stopped at Tono's Teahouse just outside the village. He repaired the shopkeeper's power droid in exchange for food and tea, when Bandit Troopers led by Kouru, a self-styled Dark Lord of the Sith, attacked the village. Kouru's bandits rounded up the village's residents in a central area when a group of bounty hunters who had been hired to protect the village counter-attacked. They began to turn the tide of the battle when Kouru emerged, killing a Trandoshan guard with her lightsaber parasol.^[2]

Stepping up

R5-D56 had sustained damage from the attackers' shrapnel. The teahouse's Sullustan shopkeep had once been a mechanic, so the Ronin entrusted his astromech to the store owner for repairs while a pot of tea boiled and departed to duel Kouru. The former Sith strolled casually down the village road towards the bandit leader amidst the blaster fight until he reached her. Kouru asked the Ronin who would dare challenge her, telling the man he did not look like a villager. The errant Sith identified himself as "just a simple wanderer." Kouru removed her lightsaber's parasol auxiliary and leapt ferociously to strike him.^[1]

The Ronin parried the bandit's lightsaber strike with the white flare of the Force,^[1] leading her to boast that it had been a long time since she killed a Jedi.^[2] The Ronin used the Force to throw the torso of the destroyed RA-7 protocol droid guard at her from behind, prompting her to call him a coward. The Ronin then drew his red lightsaber and retorted that he was not a Jedi, unfortunately for her, claiming that if he were, she may have stood a chance. The two then dueled in the village square.^[1]

The pair moved to a nearby river. They continued to fight on floating logs down the river to the edge of a waterfall that concealed a temple.^[2] The bandits had killed all but one guard, a Gran, when the shopkeep's tea boiled.^[1] At that moment, R5-D56 flew up in the air and launched^[2] a salvo of twelve^[11] missiles which killed every bandit except Kouru.^[2]

Ending the village threat

The Ronin jumped off the log upon which he and Kouru had been balancing and lay in ambush in the temple below. Kouru followed his footsteps into the temple, where she saw the more handsome of his lightsabers activated. She struck the being holding his saber, cleaving it in half, only to see that it had been held by a metal statue of a Jedi rather than her foe. The Ronin then killed Kouru, stabbing her through the chest with the hidden blade of his scabbard auxiliary. He hung his head in prayer after slaying the bandit.^[1]

After returning to the village, he was initially mistaken for a Jedi knight by the child village chief. He demonstrated to the villagers that he was not by unsheathing one of his red blades and using it to shatter Kouru's lightsaber hilt. Although he initially collected the kyber crystal from within,^[2] the voice in the Ronin's head observed to him that the boy had a familiar look on his face. Recognizing that the boy was too ready to become old but had no protection to help him survive, the Ronin gave the crystal to the child and said it would ward off evil. Some time later, R5 admonished him for giving away the kyber, as it would either be too difficult to sell or invite trouble for the villagers, prompting the Ronin to ultimately regret his decision.^[1] The duo left the village, walking down a long path to the mountains^[11] northward. That night, they stopped to rest in a lee of a low hill, and saw funeral pyre smoke billowing from the direction of the village.^[1]

The road to Osou

The next day, as the Ronin and R5 walked towards Osou spaceport along the road away from the village, they approached a crossroads near a crashed silver starship at the end of the valley. Beside a copse of pink-blossomed trees, they met a being who was practicing playing the flute. The individual, who wore a vulpine mask, joined the due on their trek, and asked him his name, to which he did not reply. In his stead, R5 answered "Ronin" in binary. To match his alias, they told the Ronin to call them "the Traveler."^[1]

As the road to the spaceport became busier over time, The Traveler and the Ronin joined an impromptu caravan of treaded wagons, landspeeders, and other travelers on foot making their way to the spaceport from nearby farming villages. The trio heard news from the villagers regarding the Empire, and rumors about the population of the little red moon over Buna vanishing as they did in the days of the Sith rebellion. The return of the Sith demons frightened the villagers and concerned the Ronin.^[1]

As he reached town, the Ronin found several posters, one of them a wanted poster for himself for the crimes of banditry, extortion, and disturbance of the peace in the countryside. The Traveler informed him that the Gran bounty hunter who had helped defend the village from Kouru was in a local cantina telling tales of the Sith who had attacked the village. Having his status as a Sith revealed, the Ronin fled, telling R5 to keep an eye on the Traveler. He was hunted down by local Imperial troops, but was intercepted by a resurrected Kouru, narrowly escaping her. During a fight with Kouru in the dockyard, the Ronin jumped onto the open ramp of an ascending ship where R5 was waiting for him. Kouru tried to follow but was pushed down by the Traveler using the black current of the Force.^[1]

New allies

Aboard the light freighter Poor Crow, the Ronin used his mechanical knowledge, as well as the Force, to disable the ship's gravity generator. He threatened to disable more systems as he interrogated the Traveler. The interrogation was quickly interrupted by the bounty hunter Chie, who attacked the Ronin with an electrostaff and the ship's captain Ekiya. The fight deescalated and the group sat down together to drink tea and discuss what they wanted from each other. The Traveler explained that the crew was hunting the Sith witch who was resurrecting the dead and that they had tracked down the Ronin due to his expertise of hunting Sith. Together they set course for the planet Dekien in search of a shard of the kyber mirror of the Shinsui Temple, which the Ronin had previously hidden in the Seikara Caverns.^[1]

On route to Dekien the Ronin ate and slept to regain his strength and then at the urging of the Traveler sparred against Chie to prepare him for their upcoming adventure. While sparring, Chie surprised the Ronin with her skill and ferocity, and she interrogated him about his past as a Sith, revealing her distaste for the Jedi's loyalty to their lords rather than the people and the Sith's hypocrisy in conquering planets in the name of liberation. After a long match, the Ronin disarmed her, but her words had provoked a violent anger in him such that he was unknowingly levitating many of the cargo containers in the room with the Force.^[1]

Settling in

The Traveler interrupted their session, and as they left the room, Chie revealed to them that she did not trust the Ronin as he stayed behind, the anger ringing in his ears. Eventually Ekiya came to check on the cargo crates that the Ronin had disturbed, and the Ronin realized that they were various religious artifacts containing kyber crystals. She interrogated the Ronin on why he and the Sith had betrayed the Jedi and revealed that she had been a citizen of the lost planet Rei'izu, pressed into the Sith army and taken off world to fight on the front lines shortly before the planet disappeared. The Ronin attempted to apologize, but realized there was no excuse for his past actions and that his numerous sins were catching up to him.^[1]

The Ronin built a new lightsaber as a replacement for the one he lost to Kouru and sparred Chie again, revealing that his new lightsaber's hilt extended into a staff. The Ronin passed time with the Traveler, who told the Ronin stories about how the crew had come together and repeatedly cheated in their games of shogi.^[1]

Undercover

When the Poor Crow arrived on Dekien, wanted posters for the Ronin had already arrived. In order to avoid detection by the authorities and bounty hunters, Ekiya disguised the Ronin as an auteur actor who was considering taking a role in a holographic performance where he would be playing the Dark Lord of the recent Sith rebellion. While on route to the caverns he overheard gossip from rich dignitaries about the disappearing bodies of fallen Jedi and how it might signify the return of the Sith Witch who was presumed dead. The Ronin found himself arguing for the valor of the Sith cause and had to hold his tongue so that he would not let his anger get the best of him and blow his cover. The Traveler stepped in and defused the situation by pretending to be the Ronin's assistant.^[1]

When the crew spotted that Lord Hanrai and his entourage were also pilgriming to the Seikara Caverns, they decided to avoid him. The crew split up, with Chie attempting to delay Hanrai while Ekiya stole an escape vehicle and the Ronin and Traveler proceeded to the caverns. The Ronin became concerned by the Traveler's secrecy and offered to tell them the story of how he got his jaw prosthetic if the Traveler revealed something about themself in turn. The Ronin revealed that he had been shot by someone he had betrayed and did not defend himself, though he did take his blaster. Before the Traveler could reveal something of their own, the coast was clear and they moved into the cave system.^[1]

Facing Hanrai

Within the caves, the Ronin plunged himself and the Traveler into an underground river, following the current to a graveyard. The Traveler revealed their face to the Ronin, in order to properly glare at him, and the Ronin pried for more information about their past, to which the Traveler delayed. Eventually they came across the grotto where the Ronin had left the shard of the mirror of Shinsui Temple. When they realized that the shard was no longer there, the two fled, but they were intercepted by Hanrai before they could reach the exit. Hanrai addressed the Traveler and challenged them to a duel.^[1]

When the Traveler protested, Hanrai drew and attacked anyway, and the Ronin drew his own blade to defend the Traveler. The Ronin found an even match in Hanrai, who attacked with the strength of a wave and deftly defended against all of the Ronin's own attacks. The Ronin was briefly distracted when Chie dragged the Traveler off a ledge. He attempted to use the Force to soften their fall but was interrupted by Hanrai, who attacked him and revealed that Chie had been secretly working for him. However, their fight was interrupted when the ceiling of the cavern burst open, torn with the Force by two of Hanrai's entourage who had been killed by Kouru and were now resurrected Sith demons. The Ronin stopped fighting and was caught in a trance staring at the undead, the unnatural consequences of what he had helped unleash on the galaxy, causing his mind to fall into disarray.^[1]

Aboard the Reverent

Hanrai and his entourage used the opportunity of the Ronin's fugue state to take him prisoner aboard the Jedi Dreadnought Reverent. The Ronin came to in his cell, where he was guarded by several pairs of Jedi each immersed in opposite aspects of the Force, in order to counter any power that he might try to use. While he was talking back to the voice in his head, a young Twi'lek Jedi guard named Yuehiro overheard him and asked him about his identity. They talked for a while before Chie came to take the Ronin to Hanrai. Hanrai challenged the Ronin to a game of shogi and offered him tea.^[1]

As they played, they discussed the Ronin's history, both his initial Sith rebellion and then his reason for turning on the Sith. The Ronin explained that the vision he saw in the mirror of Shinsui Temple caused him to abandon the Sith, and in turn Hanrai revealed that he had found the shard ten years earlier. He entrusted the shard to his student, the Traveler, with a mission to find Rei'izu. He had not heard from them until they appeared alongside the Ronin in the Seikara Caverns.^[1]

Hanrai offered the Ronin a place by his side in the coming Imperial succession crisis. He especially wanted the Ronin's help dealing with the Sith witch who had been raising the dead. Hanrai left the Ronin alone with the two undead Jedi who had been captured and Yuehiro as a guard. The Ronin told Yuehiro that he believed the only truth was suffering and violence and that he would not join Hanrai. The Ronin used the Force to destroy the hull of the Reverent underneath the cell blocks the two undead Jedi where kept in, launching them out into space.^[1]

Path of destruction

The Ronin then moved through the Reverent, destroying parts of the ship in his wake. Kouru, who had boarded the ship along with the Traveler and Chie and set out to find him, noticed him pass by her in the dark, ignoring her presence. The Ronin continued towards Hanrai's personal garden in a large rotunda aboard the ship. There he found the Traveler and Hanrai in conversation. The Sith killed Hanrai before the Jedi could detect him, but shortly after, the Jedi lord was resurrected by Mirahi. The living dead relayed that the witch extended an invitation for the Traveler and the Ronin to Rei'izu.^[1]

The Ronin attacked the lord and the men dueled, Hanrai defensively, and the Ronin, aggressively, the latter resenting the Jedi lord for demanding death and war from his servants. Hanrai then maimed the Ronin's hands and lightsaber hilt, aiming for his torso next. As the blade slightly hit the Ronin's side, the Traveler impaled his former master in the same manner that the Ronin had slain Kouru on Genbara, sending him to his knees. Hanrai then allowed both to leave the ship for Rei'zu. As they evacuated, the Ronin inquired the Traveler, who revealed his secret plan to have the Sith face off against the witch.^[1]

Recovery

Back on the Poor Crow, the Ronin recouped with a bacta patch when Kouru entered his quarters. He lunged at her, using the black current to Force pull his old lightsaber from Kouru's waist. The bandit attacked him by ripping out his respirator prosthetic, and the Ronin began to lose oxygen and consciousness, but still ignited his saber against Kouru. On a corridor of the ship, R5-D56 noticed the confrontation, and managed to take away the prosthetic from Kouru and hand it back to Ronin, while also zapping his palm to confiscate his lightsaber, subsequently storing it inside its astromech casing.^[1]

Sometime later, both Ekiya and Kouru served him some rice porridge, and asked him to work on figuring out a way to open the puzzle box that the Traveler had acquired on the Reverent. After a while, the Ronin managed to open the box, only to find his old collection of kyber crystals, but no sign of the Shinsui Temple kyber shard they hoped would guide them to Rei'zu. The Ronin then confronted the Traveler about the missing shard, to which they claimed to not remember.^[1]

Kyber shard

The Poor Crow, low on fuel and wary of Imperial patrols in the Dekien system in the aftermath of the destruction of lord Hanrai's ship, concocted a plan to return the Jedi apprentices the crew rescued from the Reverent to Dekien in a way that did not give away the Crows location, and to that end, the Ronin rewired comms and navigation systems of the escape pod to be used by the apprentices.^[1]

In conversation with the Traveler, the Ronin revealed the reason for his first visit to Dekien, and speculated on the Sith witch's plans. By this time, his hands had recovered to an extent that he no longer used bandages. Together, they disassembled the Traveler's lightsaber hilt, only to find that the Shinsui Temple kyber shard they sought had been in it for all the while. As the Ronin grabbed the shard and looked into it, a vision seemingly transported him to a different realm.^[1]

Into the mirror

In a void where light and darkness merged and replaced the natural sky, the Ronin became aware of the Sith witch before him—a figure he had not seen since leaving Rei'izu. She appeared exactly as she had then, wearing a simple dark kimono and trousers with her long hair tied back. The environment around them shifted into a clear vision of the snowcapped Shinsui Temple complex, overlooking the distant city of Yojou, Rei'izu's ancient capital. The Ronin recognized it as a reconstruction of the day the Sith rebellion reached its peak. Inside the temple, he and the witch stood before the kyber mirror, an artifact said to reveal truth or grant dominion to those who looked into it.^[1]

In this vision of the past, the witch began to pray before the mirror, remaining motionless for days as the Ronin managed their forces in preparation for an impending Imperial counterattack. Weary and uncertain, he eventually approached the mirror himself. When his hand touched its surface, he was overwhelmed by a vision showing the endless cycle of conflict throughout history—how each victory gave rise to new wars, and how their own rebellion repeated that pattern. Unable to accept what he saw, the Ronin struck the mirror with his fist, shattering it into thousands of pieces. The destruction marked the end of the mirror's power and the collapse of what he and the witch had built together.^[1]

When the vision dissolved, the two were again alone in the void. The witch accused him of destroying them both through his actions, while the Ronin admitted that he had acted out of despair. When he asked why she had brought him back, she denied doing so and told him that if he was to return, he would do so in her name. The void around them faded, leaving only darkness before the Ronin regained his sight.^[1]

The old capital

Back from his vision, the Ronin moved to the cockpit, where he announced he knew the way to Rei'izu. Ekiya inputted the coordinates he gave her into the navigation computer, who rejected the numbers after three separate attempts. The Ronin, believing the Sith witch only gave him permission to do it, tried to enter the same coordinates, and this time, the system did not reject them. As a Jedi Dreadnought above deployed small starfighters and engaged its tractor beam to immobilize the Crow, the ship narrowly escaped by jumping into hyperspace. The journey was short, and they jumped out in the planetary orbit of Rei'izu.^[1]

While the planet was seemingly lit, Rei'izu's sun was nowhere the crew could see. The Crow's systems displayed contradictory data, some confirming their position around Rei'izu, and others showing there was no celestial body at their location. It also flashed lights indicating damage to the ship caused by the jump. The Ronin led the crew to Yojou, the old capital city of the first Empire, where they landed, and walked towards pilgrims' ward, beyond the Moga River.^[1]

During the walk, Mirahi possessed Kouru's body, and told the Ronin to meet her past the ward and the chasm, at the end of the true pilgrim's path. After hours of walking, certain technology such as the speeder and chronometer they used stopped working as they approached Shinsui Temple, at end of the pilgrims' ward. R5-D56 also started showing signs of malfunction. By then, shades of Sith demons amassed around the crew and mounted an attack. The Ronin cut through one of the demons, who melted into thin air. As more followed, Chie decided to take an impaired R5 and the apprentices back to safety.^[1]

Up the mountain

The remainder of the crew crossed a bridge to reach the first shrine, when a Sith demon was conjured in front of them. The Traveler, Kouru and the Ronin joined forces and took the Sith down, who immediatelly disappeared. As they exited the first shrine and moved onto the next bridge toward the second shrine, the demon they had killed was resurrected. They moved forward, killing demons in their wake. The Ronin walked ahead, until the Traveler cut one of the bridges, sending Kouru into the abyss below.^[1]

Walking up the steps of Shinsui Temple, the Ronin and the Traveler talked. After the Ronin second-guessed his decision to seek Rei'izu, the two shared a moment of intimacy, at which point the Traveler snatched the Ronin's lightsaber and ignited it mere centimeters away from the his throat. Kouru, brought back by the Sith witch, killed the Traveler, who dropped the saber and collapsed to the floor, disappearing into the air.^[1]

Facing his daughter

Kouru told him a woman awaited him inside the temple. He entered the inner chamber, where he saw his daughter, Mirahi, whose identity was still unknown to him. In a vision, she showed him scenes from her upbringing. She was taken in by the Traveler, then known as Idzuna, who cared for and tutored her. She showed him how, wanting to stop the Jedi and reshape the galaxy, she quarreled with Idzuna, accidentally killing him in the process, then bringing him back as a demon. Mirahi then shared her ultimate goal, which was not to kill the Ronin, but to strenghthen and enlist him as a lord of demons, working under her.^[1]

Pondering her proposal, the Ronin became lost in thought, speaking to the ghosts of Kouru, Hanrai, the Traveler, and the witch. After deliberating, he offered his lightsaber to Mirahi, who took it in gratitude. As he opened his arms, his daughter ignited the lightsaber and pierced it through his gut. Shivering, the Ronin embraced his daughter and lurched backwards, causing both to tumble off of the mirror and back into the real world. Rei'izu then sudden burst back into life, as Mirahi worked with Chie, Ekiya, and the Jedi apprentices to ensure they were all safely evacuated from the temple before anyone could inquire them about the gravely injured Ronin and his red lightsaber.^[1]

A new beginning

The following day, the Ronin woke up from his injuries after his daughter stabbed him. It was on this occasion that she told him her name, Mirahi. Sometime later, the Ronin, still on his respirator prosthetic, sat down at a teahouse in Rei'izu's pilgrims' ward with the teashop owner and a friend as they typically did before the Sith takeover of the planet. While two decades had passed since then, from the perspective of the locals, it felt as if only one week had passed, and the Jedi apprentices that had accompanied the Ronin were credited for undoing the decades-long Sith curse the planet and its residents had been under.^[1]

Chie and R5-D56 met up with the Ronin at the teashop, who was repairing a droid, amidst a general planetary effort to rebuild Rei'izu, either due to the Sith takeover, or the maintenance needs that arose from twenty years of disrepair. The Ronin had refused more bacta treatment than what was strictly necessary for survival, so that he could focus on helping to rebuild the planet.^[1]

After being tipped off by Chie that Imperials were headed to Rei'izu, and that the Ronin might attract unwanted attention to himself, he took up on her offer to leave the planet aboard the Poor Crow. Upon climbing aboard the ship, he spoke to the ghosts of Kouru and the Traveller, the latter of which let him know that his daughter Mirahi was also onboard. Mirahi, who had kept a sliver of the kyber mirror with herself, asked for his help in using it to fashion a lightsaber for her so that both of them could fight the Empire and the Jedi. Echoing the witch's wish to honor her name through honoring their daughter, the Ronin obliged, and began to teach Mirahi by disassembling his own lightsaber hilt first.^[1]

Gambling troubles

Continuing in his quest for red lightsaber crystals,^[12] the Ronin and R5-D56 visited a location in the snowy mountains of the planet Olcatz where the Anzellan Que-Dama maintained the mobile gambling hall named To-Ba from an^[6] AK-BK walker.^[13] R5 joined in on the gambling, throwing a chance cube that broke in half, revealing a glowing cheating mechanism inside. Confronted by Yakuza troopers, R5 electrocuted them and sped away, as the quietly Ronin observed the scene in the background. After being informed of the trouble, Que-Dama sent the Twi'lek^[6] bodyguard^[14] Aneé-san to deal with R5.^[6]

As the bodyguard lit her lightsaber upon cornering the droid, the Ronin made his way into the bridge, knocking several Yakuza troopers down. R5 fled behind him, and the Ronin and Aneé-san began dueling in the deck of the gambling hall. Unbeknownst to him, his presence was being recorded by the Rodian bounty hunter Do N-Yuk, who relayed this information to a^[6] radical Jedi sect^[14] known as the Crusaders. The sect was led by the self-styled Grand Master, who sought revenge against the Ronin.^[6]

Facing justice

R5 entered Que-Dama's cockpit,^[15] and in the ensuing stir, his droid fell on control levers that set the walker in motion, causing it to fall to the side. A subsequent avalanche fully capsized the vessel. The Grand Master and the Crusaders soon after arrived on Olcatz, as the Ronin and Aneé-san stood on the upside-down walker's snowshoe-covered feet. In one fell swoop, the Grand Master leapt onto the snowshoe where Aneé-san stood, and cut off her left arm. When the Jedi was about to piece into her torso, the Ronin used the Force to whisk her away from the platform and onto the snow below, claiming she was his to deal with.^[6]

R5-D56, still in the cockpit of the walker, zapped the Wookiee Fzbol, who lay unconscious on top of him. This shock startled the Wookiee, who accidentally pushed a lever that set the capsized walker's legs in motion. As the feet where the Ronin and the Grand Master neared one another, the Jedi lunged at the Ronin, slashing his right shoulder. Another blow cut off his^[6] hair clip,^[15] and this vision of the Ronin with his hair down reminded the Grand Master of his previous encounter with the Sith, causing him to lunge at Grim once more.^[6]

The Ronin then lost his balance, and held onto the edge of the walker's snowshoe. As the Grand Master was ready to deliver the final blow, R5 flew in and tackled the Jedi. He then slashed the droid into pieces, while the Ronin quietly escaped, falling onto the mountainside. Under the Grand Master's orders, the Crusaders' transport craft began a barrage of fire, aimed at the downed walker.^[6]

Gathering forces

To-Ba's Ewok servers, who survived the destruction of the gambling hall, spotted the disassembled R5-D56 and the unconscious Ronin and Aneé-san, and carried them off-site. The Ronin woke up in a bacta hot spring. Aneé-san, who was also bathing in it, explained to the Ronin how he got there, that she did not run away because the Crusaders had placed the planet under lockdown, and that R5 was being repaired by Que-Dama. She then invited him to join their plans for a counter-strike against the Jedi, using the Ronin as bait, and asking him to borrow some of his collected kyber crystals, a deal which he accepted.^[6]

Led by an Ewok, the Ronin later headed for Tkoku Island on Olcatz, where Que-Dama based his operations off of. On the way, he stopped by a cemetery with dozens of tombstones and a large rock showing the Grand Master and his forces battling Ewoks. The guide later took him to a promontory from where the island could be seen from above. There, he was greeted by the protocol droid CZ-D16, who took him to see the R5-D56, now repaired and upgraded so as to serve as the heart of their interceptor system.^[6]

Aneé-san, joining them, relayed that the Crusaders were still trying to track them down. She held up wanted signposts for herself and the Ronin,^[6] some of which offered 1,500,000 credits for whoever captured the Ronin alive.^[16] After the Ewoks finished setting their traps, the team heard intercepted communications from a Crusader to the Grand Master, relaying that they had found the Ronin thanks to an anonymous tip.^[6]

The assault commences

That evening, Que-Dama asked the Ronin and Aneé-san to leave the control center and stand outside, to bait the Grand Master. The two of them moved into position on the Tkoku Bridge, as the deflector shield generator was activated. After the Grand Master and his Crusaders landed their ships on the other side of the bridge, the Jedi ordered his followers to capture the Ronin alive. The Ewoks launched a series of attacks against the Crusaders as they attempted to cross the bridge.^[6]

Four Crusaders managed to make the crossing, and dueled with the Ronin. After dealing with them, he joined Aneé-san, who was contending with the Grand Master. They all retreated past the shrine gate, when the Ronin activated the button on his wrist cuff, launching several missiles from nearby lamps, but they were all blocked by the Grand Master's swift lightsaber blocking. The three once more engaged in simultaneous lightsaber combat.^[6]

Three-way duel

During the clash, the Jedi cut off the Twi'lek's lightsaber-equipped arm prosthetic, and Force pushed her away, rendering her unconscious. In the ensuing duel between the Grand Master and the Ronin, the latter warrior used the Force to push three small kanzashi sabers previously belonging to Aneé-san's arm prosthetic into the Jedi's face, destroying his jaw implant. The Grand Master then attempted to pierce the Ronin's gut, which was initially blocked with the Force. The Ronin then gave in, and the blade impaled him.^[6]

The Ronin then pretended to be defeated, and seized the opportunity to grab the Grand Master's arms while an awoken Aneé-san struck the man with a lightsaber attached to her missing right lower leg. Her blow damaged his eyes, making him uncapable of discerning colors. In confusion, the Grand Master picked up Aneé-san's saber instead of his own, and when he got up to attack the Ronin, the former Sith slashed him in the torso, killing his foe.^[6]

Some time afterward, while the Ewoks celebrated their victory over the Crusaders, the Ronin got ready to leave the island, carrying R5-D56 on his back. Que-Dama offered him a boat and invited him to come again in the future. They then saw the Rodian bounty hunter Do N-Yuk ferrying the Grand Master's prosthetics, claiming that they were worth more than the bounty on the Ronin. The former Sith then noticed that Aneé-san still kept his kyber crystals in the^[6] hairsticks^[16] in her lekku. When she refused to give them up, the two again engaged in a lightsaber duel.^[6]

Personality and traits

Identity and physical traits

His identity and origin was a mystery to all except for R5-D56, though the droid did not disclose it either.^[17] His taciturn and serious demeanor earned him the nickname of "Grim" —short for "grimace"— among the part of the crew of the Poor Crow, while others, such as the Sullustan shopkeep on Genbara and the Traveller, referred to him as "Master Ronin."^[1]

The Ronin was a tall,^[1] muscular human,^[3] with a broad frame.^[1] He possessed a pale skin and long, jet black hair. Two dark scars crossed both his cheeks, from the nose bridge to the jaw.^[11] Several deep laceration scars were etched on his torso, as well as one on the top left-hand side of his forehead^[3] and on his right shoulder, the latter wound being inflicted by the Grand Master.^[6] He had several pins on his shoulders, chest, and within a gash on the left side of his forehead.^[3] Because of his previous injury, and lack of adequate treatment,^[18] his jaw occasionally throbbed with pain, such as when the weather became damp, or when he was reminded of the lord who shot his jaw in the first place.^[1]

Persona and relationships

A man of prayer, he was seen as humble and gracious by his peers. He was prone to quiet contemplation and was described by his companion droid R5-D56 as "senile and eccentric."^[1] He had a strong sense of right and wrong,^[17] being loyal only to his own code of honor and R5-D56.^[14] He carried a deep-seated guilt for his past actions during the Sith rebellion, which haunted him and made him reject proper self care, and hesitate to form attachments, believing himself to be responsible for death and disaster.^[1]

The Traveler noted a dramatic flair in him and a capacity for "multiple homicide" when cornered. According to lord Hanrai, records on the Ronin's past as a Jedi revealed him to be talented, ambitious, protective, and loyal. Kouru regarded him as judicious in his movements, sly and attentive,^[1] though at times cowardly, such as when in their duel he attempted to hurl a droid at her from behind.^[2] While he initially tried to hide his Sith side during his passage through the village on Genbara, his fighting style, considered foul, revealed his true nature.^[19]

Ever since R5-D56 joined the Ronin in his travels,^[7] they developed a close relationship, in which R5 often chided his companion when he was being inappropriate,^[1] and provided care for the human.^[18] The Ronin respected the droid, at one point referring to him as "master,"^[3] and showed concern when learning about his temporary destruction on Olcatz at the hands of the Grand Master.^[6]

Powers and abilities

Though no longer in the prime of his health in the decades after his rebellion, the Ronin was a capable lightsaber duelist and skilled with the Force, both black current and white flare. At the time of his duel against Kouru on Genbara, the Ronin believed his sensitivity to the Force had dulled with lack of practice. Despite this, he could still perform feats such as catching Kouru's lightsaber blade between his palms using the Force and moving at high speeds to avoid a blaster bolt.^[1]

The Ronin had long been skilled as a mechanic, with the Force amplifying his affinity for the workings of electrical and mechanical systems including droids and vehicles. He believed himself to be better at understanding intricate electronics than the complexity of sentient beings. He used his talent for repairs to earn credits, food, and lodging during his travels. Likewise, his mechanical aptitude made him skilled at designing the Sith lightsaber auxiliaries and at breaking starships, as demonstrated when he disabled the Poor Crow's gravity generator and when he single-handedly destroyed the Jedi Dreadnought Reverent using the Force.^[1]

Equipment

Despite Imperial edict, the Ronin illegally carried two lightsabers, one of which had an elegant, old hilt resembling a Jedi scion's inheritance and was sheathed in a scabbard auxiliary constructed from other lightsaber hilts, durasteel and component parts that had a cruder appearance. This primary lightsaber^[1] broke at some point after his Padawan years,^[5] its blade locked in a perpetual cycle that required the specialized scabbard to contain it, a problem Kouru later fixed after stealing it.^[1]

The second was a lightsaber hidden within the scabbard of the primary blade, serving as a backup and to trick his opponents. When the Ronin's main saber was stolen by Kouru, he refashioned the auxiliary into a new weapon with a hilt that could extend into a staff.^[1] He also carried the long-barrelled^[2] wakizashi blaster.^[20] that had injured his jaw, an old but well-maintained weapon, which he kept on his waist. He also wore a wrist cuff that served as a both as communication device linked to R5-D56,^[1] and an activation trigger for weapons systems.^[6]

After the Sith rebellion, the Ronin used a prosthetic jaw support due to the prior blaster injury, and later a respirator after his duel with Hanrai weakened his lungs. He typically wore tattered dark hooded robes with a long white belt, a gray sash at his waist, four gray-colored shoulder accouterments, and an inner lining of cloak where kyber crystals were sewn into the seam^[1] of his kimono.^[21] He sported a metallic-looking hair clip that created a topknot, until it was destroyed in his duel with the Grand Master.^[6] He also walked on sandals while wearing socks^[1] or zori sandals over his dark boots.^[5] On occasion, he wore black gloves.^[2] When he first encountered Okinaa, the Ronin wore a tall, pointy hat that covered his face, with five long slits to allow the wearer to see.^[7]

Behind the scenes

Conception and naming

The Ronin first appeared in "The Duel," a non-canon short film released as part of the first volume of the Star Wars: Visions series, produced by Kamikaze Douga and released on Disney+^[2] on September 22, 2021.^[22] Before the short's release, he was first pictured in a video uploaded to the official Star Wars YouTube channel on July 3, 2021.^[23] He was voiced by Masaki Terasoma in the Japanese version, and Brian Tee in the English dub.^[2] Terasoma and Tee later reprised their roles for the^[6] sequel^[24] non-canon short film "The Duel: Payback," released as part of the third volume of Star Wars: Visions on Disney+ on October 29, 2025. The second short film was produced by the studios Kamikaze Douga and ANIMA.^[25]

While not named in "The Duel",^[2] in supplementary material the character has been referred to as "Ronin"^[25] or "the Ronin"^[26] (Japanese: 浪人^[27] or ローニン).^[28] In real life, rōnin were vagrant, masterless samurai warriors in feudal Japan.^[29] Sketches from 2020 revealed several potential names for the character, including "ダース・サンピン" (Darth Sanpin,^[30] from 三一, meaning "low-ranking samurai"),^[31] "ダース・スローニン" (Darth Suronin,^[30] from 素浪人, a "poor or lowly rōnin"),^[32] and "ダース・ゲドー" (Darth Gedou,^[30] from 外道, meaning "heretic", or "devil").^[33]

According to Visions executive producer Josh Rimes, Lucasfilm was "blown away" by the designs of the Ronin,^[17] being later chosen to be the main character for a spin-off novel.^[34] The Ronin's background and subsequent exploits beyond what is shown in the first short film were expanded upon in the Ronin: A Visions Novel, written by Emma Mieko Candon^[1] and published on October 12, 2021,^[35] The Ronin was voiced by narrator Joel de la Fuente in the unabridged audiobook adaptation published on the same day as the novel.^[36]

Characterization

Designed by Takashi Okazaki^[37] based on the dangerous "Man With No Name" rogue archetype common to samurai and Western genres, according to Okazaki, the Ronin was inspired by the actor Toshiro Mifune's "gangster atmosphere and voluminous silhouette" in Yojimbo,^[38] a 1961 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa.^[39] In his duel with Kouru, the Kamikaze Douga production team thought it would be interesting to explore the idea what would happen if two Sith met, explaining that the Ronin wants to fight her not to save the village,^[40] or due to a sense of justice, but that he is merely on a journey to collect crystals, and allows himself some fighting if it does not get in the way of that goal.^[41]

The two Sith then carry on a cowardly fight, contrary to the bushidō (the ethical code of the samurai).^[40] According to "The Duel" director Takanobu Mizuno, a scene cut from the short in which the Ronin tries to trick Kouru by striking scarecrow droids would have emphasized the "evil against evil" theme by portraying Ronin's fighting style as more cunning and less honorable. The sequence was removed to reduce the film's runtime and production workload, though a remnant of the idea appears in the finished short when the Ronin uses the Force to strike the Sith from behind with a broken droid.^[42] Mizuno was also drawn to how the Ronin initially hid his Sith side, and the reaction from the villagers when truth came to light.^[19]

Sexuality and identity

For the novel, Candon stated that she conceived the Ronin as a queer character from an early stage of writing, explaining that this decision reflected both her own identity as a queer writer and her interest in exploring the "Big Grim Swordsman" archetype through a queer lens. She felt that the Ronin's personal history—appearing to conform to Jedi norms while privately experiencing friction with those expectations—aligned naturally with this thematic approach.^[4]

Candon further described the Ronin as a character defined by his capacity for deep connection, but by the time the events of the novel occur, the Ronin has severed all former ties and denies himself emotional intimacy. However, Candon noted that when intimacy is openly offered to him, he struggles to refuse it, humorously referring to him as "a giant pansexual disaster."^[4]

In her portrayal of the character, Candon deliberately refrained from depicting him as the "lone killer samurai badass" archetype, as she felt it would downplay the violence in it, as well as the psychological scarring inherent in being the perpetrator of acts of aggression.^[18] The author saw parallels between the Ronin and Anakin Skywalker in that both turn against the Jedi^[43] and are emotionally manipulated by mentor figures.^[44] When characterizing the Ronin, the author saw him as a type of Anakin who regrets his fall to the dark side of the Force,^[45] and goes into a self-imposed exile, much like Obi-Wan Kenobi did.^[46]

Physical condition

The Ronin was also developed with inspiration from author Emma Mieko Candon's experiences with injury and recovery, in particular in her work with veterans at a lab in university where trauma was researched, as well as from her own poor health following a bout of viral meningitis, whose treatment with steroids scarred her lungs and caused avascular necrosis of her hipbone, requiring a prosthetic replacement.^[18]

While not identified as such in the short film, Kamikaze Douga intended for the apparatus on his jaw to be a prosthetic, which Candon developed a backstory for, noting that, while bacta could have been used, the Ronin did not feel like he deserved proper treatment for the injury. She observed that, since he generally does not take good care of his health, R5 acts in a caregiver role in their relationship.^[18] In the novel, the character is often referred to as "old man," despite the author noting he was likely in his late forties during the events in the book, reflecting his precarious health.^[47]

Concept art gallery

Appearances

• Visions – Takashi Okazaki 1
• Visions 1
• Ronin: A Visions Novel (and audiobook)
• Star Wars: Visions — "The Duel" (First appearance)
• Star Wars: Visions — "The Duel: Payback"

Sources

Notes and references

External links

• VISIONS SEASON 3 Final Production Brief on Getty Images (October 22, 2025) (backup link)