Satele Shan is a human Jedi who serves as Grand Master of the Order through the Cold War and the Galactic War against the resurgent Sith Empire, roughly three hundred years after Knights of the Old Republic. She was born on Brentaal IV in 3699 BBY to the Jedi Knight Tasiele Shan, herself a descendant of Revan and Bastila Shan.
The webcomic that started it
She first appeared in Threat of Peace, the 2009 Dark Horse webcomic drawn by Alex Sanchez that ran as a prelude to BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. The comics hinted at the Shan descent; the game's official Holonet entry confirmed it. It is the longest deliberate family line Star Wars has built outside the Skywalkers, and unusually it runs through the mother's name each time.
Three masters
She was the Padawan of Ngani Zho, studied under the Zabrak Battlemaster Kao Cen Darach, and trained with the Twi'lek Master Dar'Nala. That last detail matters: the Jedi of this era are refugees, having abandoned Coruscant for Tython after the Sacking, and Shan's education is spread across a scattered Order rather than one temple.
The Sacking of Coruscant
Her defining public failure is the Treaty of Coruscant — a peace negotiated at gunpoint after Darth Malgus and an Imperial strike force sacked the capital and destroyed the Jedi Temple. Shan is the Grand Master who signs it. Everything she does afterwards is conducted in the shadow of having chosen survival over honour, and the game is fairly clear-eyed that it was the right call and that it cost her.
Theron
She has a son, Theron Shan, conceived with the Republic soldier Jace Malcom after the Battle of Alderaan and given away to be raised by her old master. He turns out not to be Force-sensitive. Their relationship — a Grand Master and an intelligence officer who has every reason to resent her — is the best-sustained personal material in The Old Republic.
Why she is worth reading
Because she is a Jedi leader written during a decade when the films were not producing any, and the writers used the space. Shan is doctrinally orthodox, politically cornered, personally compromised, and completely convincing as all three at once.
Where to find her
Threat of Peace and the "Deceived", "Hope" and "Return" cinematic trailers; Sean Williams' Fatal Alliance (2010); Alexander Freed's comic The Lost Suns (2011); and the game itself.
