In 3965 BBY, Mission Vao and her older brother Griff stowed away aboard a ship bound for Taris. Mission was still a child. Griff became her main caregiver, but his unreliable schemes and later abandonment forced Mission to become increasingly independent inside the Lower City.
Mission reaches the city that becomes her social home.
Griff functions as caregiver but provides unstable protection.
Mission grows up through Lower City networks rather than formal institutions.
Migration outside legal channels
The siblings did not arrive through a stable household relocation or state program. Stowing away made migration itself an act of survival.
That beginning foreshadowed Mission's later reliance on improvisation and informal networks.
Taris becomes home
Mission's Twi'lek ancestry did not determine her lived identity. She knew Tarisian streets, gangs, and neighborhoods far better than Ryloth.
Home was produced through experience rather than species origin.
Griff's unstable care
Griff taught Mission some survival skills but repeatedly prioritized schemes and relationships over long-term responsibility.
Mission eventually rebuilt dependable belonging through friendship with Zaalbar and ties to the Hidden Beks.
Explore the event
How old was Mission when she arrived?
The sources establish that she was a child and was about fourteen in 3956 BBY. They do not give a precise age at the 3965 BBY arrival.
Why is stowing away important?
It places Mission's migration outside formal protection. She enters Taris already dependent on family improvisation rather than legal status or institutional assistance.
Anthropological assessment
Mission and Griff's arrival shows migration as a household survival strategy. Children often experience major moves through decisions made by older relatives rather than through their own choice.
Mission's later identity demonstrates how urban belonging can become stronger than ancestral homeland identity.
3965 BBY · Legends · historical source review
The Vao siblings: arrival as stowaways, not privileged settlers
What happened
Mission Vao and her older brother Griff reached Taris as stowaways around 3965 BBY. Mission was a child and depended on her sibling for care, yet Griff's later unreliability left her vulnerable. The siblings entered a city divided by wealth, species and geographical level rather than a stable household with secure status. Mission's later friendship with Zaalbar and her experience in the Lower City belong to events after this arrival.
People, institutions and power
Travel without resources carries different risks from a wealthy family's relocation. A child in an unfamiliar city may rely on family ties, informal exchanges and neighborhood knowledge to obtain everyday necessities. Taris's architecture exposed people to unequal access to safety and services. Mission's later independence should not be used to deny the uncertainty of her early years. Her story is a reminder that everyday movement and care are part of history even when galactic chronicles emphasize wars and officeholders.
Boundaries of the evidence
The source does not establish a named ship, an official relocation program or a detailed arrival manifest. The 3965 BBY date is a retrospective Legends placement.
Historical judgment: Did Mission and Griff arrive in a government-supported relocation?
Correction and insight: No. They traveled as stowaways and depended on informal support.
Source: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Mission Vao dialogue and backstory. Reference bibliography ↗. Original-edition page citations need independent verification.
Legends · source interpretation · historical evidence
Family memory and the limits of player-dependent testimony
Mission Vao explains her early relationship with her older brother Griff through optional conversations in Knights of the Old Republic. Those exchanges are not the same kind of source as a cutscene shown to every player. The story allows the party to learn about Griff through later witnesses and optional encounters. Some details can therefore be missed on a particular playthrough. The approximate 3965 BBY placement of the siblings' stowaway arrival is a later chronological attribution; the game dialogue does not offer a dated shipping manifest or identify the original vessel.
Mission's memories of abandonment by Griff conflict with some claims made by Lena, Griff’s former partner. These are character perspectives influenced by loyalty, hurt and attempts to shift blame. A responsible account records the disagreement instead of announcing that every participant spoke with objective authority. The surviving dialogue still establishes the broader arc of an older sibling who offered intermittent care and later left a younger sister to survive in the unequal urban environment of Taris.
IDS analyzes the Lower City as a setting where belonging can develop outside formal citizenship or affluent neighborhoods. Mission’s Twi'lek species does not mean she was raised on Ryloth; she made Taris her social home. Her relationship with Zaalbar later became important to everyday security and friendship, but it should not be backdated to the exact moment she first arrived. Read the earlier biographical entry and the related migration record. They should remain complementary rather than silently merged.
Check the historical claim: Does every KOTOR playthrough show the same full Griff conversation in the main story?
Source-critical explanation: No. Mission's family material is partly optional and can depend on dialogue and visits. Preserve the difference between a scripted possibility and a mandatory scene.
Published source: Lucasfilm's Knights of the Old Republic game record. The linked publisher description identifies the book or game and its broad premise; it is not direct verification of every depicted conversation, date or event detail. Dates and character-level details drawn from the named original work still require direct chapter or game dialogue verification. Distinct anthropological interpretations are IDS editorial analysis.
Sources and further reading
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.