Illiana Nakotov was the woman pledged from childhood to marry Xar Kerensky, prince of Varnus. She was a native of Varnus and the same age as Xar, growing up within one of the royal families and training from birth to one day become queen. From the time they were children, she and Xar were good friends, and as they grew older they fell very much in love. However, the day that the Empire arrived to survey the planet would change their futures forever.
As Rebel and Imperial forces fought in orbit, Xar Kerensky's father boarded his personal shuttle to try and negotiate a peace. No one was aware, however, that the entire battle had been orchestrated by the Altarin'Dakor agent General Akira and his henchman, Dasok Krun. Krun personally destroyed the king's shuttle and, in the course of the battle, caused the planet itself to be bombarded. Varnus was heavily damaged and its capital city of Vectur devastated. It was assumed that the entire royal family was dead.
In reality, however, another plot was underway. Secretly Dasok Krun's men kidnapped both Illiana and Xar's brother Rydon Kerensky. Meanwhile Xar, who had been off-world, was captured and trained by the Dark Jedi named Runis. Xar eventually escaped and returned to his planet to find everything he'd once known was gone.
The loss hit Xar hard, and he always cherished the memory of his betrothed, Illiana. However, Illiana was in fact alive, and both she and Rydon had been taken to the Altarin'Dakor as slaves. They were studied to determine their Varnusian roots, and then Illiana and Rydon were seperated. Illiana became part of the Shok'Thola Kronos' harem, while Rydon became a servant of the Shok'Thola Zalaria.
Illiana soon forgot completely about Xar and her past, and Kronos became everything. Through brainwashing and induction into the life of an Altarin'Dakor she ceased to be the person she'd once been. When Xar was captured by Kronos, he nearly went mad with rage when he found his former betrothed as a willing concubine of the evil Warlord.
When Kerensky escaped with the help of Zalaria and killed Kronos, he sought out and rescued Illiana, though she didn't want to go. She refused to believe that Kronos could be killed, and Xar had to forcibly take her back to Varnus. Once there, she could not be reasoned with or rehabilitated, and Xar finally realized the woman he'd once loved was no more. Illiana was placed into a center for the mentally unstable, where doctors tried to help her overcome her Altarin'Dakor subversion and remember who she had once been. However, try as they might, there was little sign that Illiana would ever recover from what had happened.
Illiana had wavy, fiery red hair, pale skin, and green eyes, features that captivated Xar from a young age and struck a chord in his memory for years after her apparent death. Every time Xar would see a woman with red hair, he would think of his betrothed. However, after his escape from Kronos, Xar only had eyes for the Shok'Thola Zalaria, whom he was Bonded to, and virtually all memory of Illiana and significance of those features faded from his mind forever.