A legendary Bajoran resistance hero, rescued from a Cardassian labour camp, who died protecting Benjamin Sisko during the Circle's attempted coup.
Li Nalas was famed across Bajor as the resistance fighter who killed a notorious Cardassian officer, a deed that grew into legend during his years in captivity. Kira Nerys and Miles O'Brien freed him from a Cardassian labour camp, and he returned home to be hailed as a hero, though he privately admitted that the real story was far less glorious than the myth.
The Bajoran government made him the senior Bajoran officer on Deep Space Nine in place of Kira, hoping his fame would unite a divided people. When the isolationist Circle, secretly backed by the Cardassians, tried to seize power and expel the Federation, Li stood with Benjamin Sisko and the station's crew against the coup.
Once the plot was exposed, Li was shot while shielding Sisko and died of his wound. Sisko reflected that Li had become the hero Bajor needed even if he had never felt like one. His story shows the tension between Bajor's legends and the people behind them.