I could have asked for no better mentor, no better fellow handmaiden, no better hand to hold in the troubled months we’ve been through since I came to her side.
—Ellé Okrest
Motée Sensari was the final senior handmaiden to Padmé Amidala and a member of the initial resistance movement against the Galactic Empire. She was a member of the Sensari family and the sister of Queen Jamillia.
Biography[]
Early life(47 BBY to 22 BBY)[]
Motée Sensari's parents had partaken in one of the few outright arranged marriages seen on Naboo in the 1st century BBY, one of two done between the Sensari and Klistorin family, and it was hoped that the children of these two marriages would prove Force-sensitive. But while much later Motée's cousin Cortin Klistorin would indeed prove Force-sensitive, neither Motée nor her sister Klisté Sensari were. Motée's parents divorced when she was ten years old.
Both girls were often made to feel inadequate, and Klisté funneled these feelings into political ambitions. During the invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY Motée helped her sister organize resistance on the planet's far side. They spent the next eight years guiding reconstruction efforts, until Klisté was very popular, at which point she announced her run for the throne on Naboo. She attacked the frontrunner Eirtaé Lasara as being too detached from the common people, and also allowed people to retain the impression that she was at least borderline Force-sensitive. Motée backed her sister up in everything, and insisted to the end of her life that she had seen nothing wrong in her tactics. Klisté won the election and in 24 BBY was crowned as Queen Jamillia.
The newly crowned Queen encouraged her sister to apply to be a senatorial handmaiden to the outgoing Queen Amidala, and Motée did, but was initially rejected, probably due to the influence of Eirtaé Lasara. Instead she continued to work for her sister in Theed, until 22 BBY, when on the deaths of Cordé Gredun and Versé Excenil she again applied to replace them, and this time was accepted.
Handmaiden(22 BBY to 19 BBY)[]
As handmaiden, Motée protected her mistress' life, as well as the secret of her marriage to Anakin Skywalker. She also grew increasingly concerned, alongside Amidala, at Chancellor Palpatine's increasing power, as well as Skywalker's friendship with him, though on the second subject she remained silent. In 20 BBY she became senior handmaiden on the death of Dormé Costil, and very closely mentored Dormé's replacement, young Ellé Okrest.
When the Jedi Temple was attacked at the end of the war, Motée sent Ellé to search for news of Skywalker before they were both summoned by Amidala. They found her with her former royal handmaiden Coté Lanlin and two dead bodies, one of another former handmaiden Ardré Kartik, and both seemed to believe Coté's life was in danger. Motée assured Coté that they would protect her with their own lives. Amidala informed the three of them she was going off accompanied only by C-3P0 and that if they had not heard from her in two weeks they were to assume her to be dead and themselves to be released from their oaths. They protested, but she left.
Motée, having observed how Amidala was now a threat to Palpatine in more than one respect, and what he had done to the Jedi, voiced at this time a belief that Amidala was indeed going to her death. She kept silent, however, on her fears that Palpatine wanted her dead, insisting she would only say more if her first assumption proved right. Two days later, the handmaidens were called to Naboo for Amidala's funeral. Before leaving Coruscant, Motée contacted Mon Mothma and expressed her willingness to enter her service.
Resistance member(19 BBY to 14 BBY)[]
It wasn't under after Ardré's funeral that Motée finally told all the surviving handmaidens that she believed the Emperor had had Amidala murdered. On hearing Sabé Andierre's impassioned speech and oath against the Emperor, she was all too happy to take it. Over the next month, however, she watched with dismay as subsequent events resulted in the death of three of the former handmaidens. Motée then helped Coté go underground, while she herself became a secret messenger for Mon Mothma.
Over the next five years Motée was always active and often off Naboo. She always kept close contact with Ellé and through her was liaison between the handmaidens and the various other resistance fighters in the galaxy. Among her tasks was the protection of her fellow Naboo citizen Mernos Costil. In 14 BBY, however, she was caught and arrested. Her arrest forced Ellé to flee and go underground immediately. Nothing was ever heard from her, but she was eventually presumed to be dead.