WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Shadow of Vader's Castle by Cavan Scott, Derek Charm, Nicoletta Baldari, Nick Brokenshire, Francesco Francavilla, and Valeria Lopez, on sale now.
Following Darth Vader's redemption and death above Endor, the galaxy was inspired to begin truly resisting the Empire on an unprecedented scale. While the rebels capitalized on this swell of support, some citizens decided to take acts of resistance into their own hands. Two young Mustafarians decided to blow up Vader's castle on the fiery planet to prove to everyone that he was truly gone and that the Empire's presence could no longer haunt their home. In the process they learned the origins of Vader's personal servant, Vaneé.
Before the Mustafarians Tuttle and Giggek embarked on their journey to Vader's castle, they were discovered by an older Mustafarian, Lellis, who tried to persuade them not to go by sharing the horrifying origins of Vader's mad servant. Vaneé had not always been the loyal and incredibly creepy acolyte of the Sith doctrines that was first introduced in Rogue One. In fact, he had started out as an imperial inspector, snobbish and cynical perhaps, but nowhere near the disheveled fanatic that he would become under Vader's influence.
Vaneé had come to Mustafar to inspect Vader's castle for safety violations due to the many troopers stationed there going mad. One such trooper started rambling horrifying eyes seeping up through the floors. Vaneé dismissed him as a lunatic, viewing it as a shameful way for an imperial to conduct himself. Infuriated that he wasn't being taken seriously, the trooper attacked him. Vaneé was no fighter and almost certainly would have been injured if not killed had it not been for the intervention of a droid, who stunned the trooper.
Not heeding the trooper's warnings, Vaneé entered the castle, walking through endless corridors and breathing in the same hallucinogenic smoke that had affected the guards. But while most of the troopers seemed to go mad instantly, Vaneé staved off some of the effects at first, dismissing any figures he saw in the gas as illusions, not believing that he, an imperial, could be in danger while in an imperial fortress.
He would soon realize how wrong he was. Vaneé stumbled upon Darth Vader while the Dark Lord was armorless and regenerating in a bacta tank. Normally, someone seeing him like this would warrant death, but Vader merely asked what Vaneé's assessment of the castle was. At this point, Vaneé was feeling the worst of the gases, seeing more horrific images, and stated the castle needed to be evacuated and filtered. Vader agreed to do this, but not before he found a suitable servant for himself while he stayed in his castle.
Vader thought Vaneé was a perfect candidate, perhaps seeing the potential in Vaneé's mental fortitude or deciding to punish the inspector for intruding upon him during a private moment. Vaneé was less inclined to do so and tried to flee. Vader restrained Vaneé with the force and made him look at the increasingly horrifying visions in the gas. Vaneé was terrified at first, but tried to bluster his way through, faking laughter at the hallucinations. But as Vader kept him trapped within the gases for days, the laughter quickly became real as Vaneé's mind unraveled.
By the end of his trials, the once prim and proper imperial had been reduced to a giggling lunatic who vowed to serve Vader, saying that the visions told him to do so. While Vaneé was not so unhinged during his onscreen appearance, he was just as devoted a servant to Vader as he was when he was first turned into a loyal and deranged follower of the Sith.