Maz Kanata

Maz Kanata belonged to an unknown species, was Force-sensitive, and was born in 973 BBY, more than a millennium before the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance. One interpretation of her name is “owner of the warrior's crown.” She made her home in a lakeside castle on Takodana, which she shared with the ancient protocol droid ME-8D9, nicknamed Emmie.

While welcoming free traders and smugglers under her roof, she demanded only one thing of her guests: not to bring politics and war into the house. Centuries of wandering the galaxy had brought her a collection of antiquities and curiosities kept in the castle's vaults and storerooms; among them was a lightsaber built by Anakin Skywalker and later owned by his son Luke.

Thirty years after the Battle of Endor, Han Solo brought the scavenger Rey to her. The lightsaber called out to the young woman through the Force, but she refused to take it and fled. In the battle of Takodana the castle was destroyed and Rey was taken prisoner; Kanata gave the lightsaber to the former stormtrooper Finn. She later joined the Resistance herself.