In its earliest ages of civilization, Onderon was a world marked with savage jungles that were filled with dangerous creatures. To survive, the primitive human inhabitants of the planet protected themselves behind the walls of fortified settlements. Over time, these grew to become enormous walled cities, like the planet's capital, Iziz. In the modern era, during the time of the Clone Wars, the planet's monarch King Sanjay Rash allied Onderon to the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Many Onderonians, however, refused to recognize the legitimacy of Sanjay's rule -- they preferred the neutral stance championed by former monarch Ramsis Dendup, whom Rash ousted.
During the Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic had little recourse with worlds that willingly sided with the Separatist Alliance -- the rules of engagement enforced by the Senate and the Jedi Order contained the battlefield to contested worlds. But what of planets where the Separatist banner did not garner unanimous support among its populace? When an insurgency on Onderon refused to recognize the legitimacy of its monarch and began a rebellion to oust both the king and the Separatist influence on the planet, Anakin Skywalker saw an opportunity: If the Jedi could train and equip the rebels on Onderon, these freedom-fighters would keep the Separatists occupied during the Clone Wars.
Saw Gerrera was a loyal follower of King Ramsis Dendup, the benevolent monarch of Onderon who attempted to keep his world apart from the tensions of the Clone Wars. Saw believed firmly in independence, and did not want to see his planet thrust into galactic warfare. But Dendup was ousted by King Sanjay Rash, who committed the world to the Separatist cause. Saw was one of the fervent young loyalists who refused to acknowledge Rash's rule, and openly rebelled against the crown. He and his sister Steela were cast out of the walled city of Iziz and forced to live in ruins amid the jungles of Onderon, but formed a rebellion.
A young native of Onderon, Steela and her brother Saw were members of the insurgency that opposed the rise of King Sanjay Rush, and Rush's alignment of the planet to the cause of the Separatists during the Clone Wars. Not as boisterous or as outspoken as her brother, Steela was nonetheless firmly dedicated to the cause of Onderonian independence. She was not one for impassioned speeches or political rhetoric. These were not her areas of expertise, and she felt far more comfortable peering through the macroscope of her blaster rifle. A crack shot, Steela racked up an impressive number of droid kills with precise headshots fired from the cover of canopy jungle.
Debuting late in the Clone Wars was this powerful automated predator, a heavily armed and ray-shielded air support unit capable of wiping out infantry and armor units in relentless barrages of explosive ordnance. The underside of the gunship's flat fuselage carries two clusters of missile pods, and can be fitted with droid deployment racks for insertion and extraction into the heaviest combat zones.