Anya Venari
Star Queen Tirathana VII
Name: Grand Seraph Aeda Shaytari
Loyalties: Queen Tirathana VII, Kaeshana Confederation
Role: Personal bodyguard to the Queen, leader of the Angelii
Development Threads: N/A
Age: 95
Species: Eldorai
Force-Sensitive: Yes
Appearance: Aeda rarely removes her helmet and often wears a mask when she is not in armour. The reason for this is quite simple; she bears a striking resemblance to the Venari house, and the current Queen and her sister in particular. The reasons for this are not well known, but are discussed in the history. With this in mind, Aeda has long dark hair, blue eyes and a tall and well-formed physique.
Personality: Aeda is secretive and suspicious, almost to the point of paranoia. Her loyalty and friendship to her cousin Anya is absolute, and is really the only person she really trusts. Surprisingly Aeda is often more friendly to outsiders than to her own people due to her years of exile. Aeda speaks very sparingly and laconically.
Weapon of Choice: Carries a Seraph Battle Shield, a Sarix and blaster pistol.
Wealth: Moderate. Though well paid as a mercenary during her exile and now as a Royal Guard her wealth is nothing remarkable.
Combat Function: Aeda is the bodyguard of the Star Queen, and is thus trained and experienced in melee, Force based combat and strategic functions.
Strengths: Powerful pyromancer abilities. Talented duellist especially using Sarix and shield. Absolutely loyal to her charge. Tactically skilled in command.
Weaknesses: Eldorai physical weaknesses. Limited skill with ranged weapons. Limited skill as pilot or with galactic technology. Distrusted by many Eldorai.
Skills: Aeda is extremely skilled in the use of pyromancy, one of the unusual Eldorai adaptations of the Force (or Sciia as they call it). With this power she can summon flames, heat objects by touch, burn opponents and cook dinner without an oven!
Notable Possessions: A ring her father gave her when she met him on his deathbed. It was the ring he had offered to her mother, but which she had been forced to decline.
Other Notes: Aeda Shaytari and Anya Venari are similar in many ways, not just in history, but in looks. The striking resemblance Aeda bears to the royal family has a simple yet controversial reason; she is the illegitimate daughter of Queen Tirathana VI’s sister Vaenia and Entheri Shaytari, an Eldorai noble who seduced the princess. The Princess had a child by this liaison, for which Entheri was banished from Kaeshana, and Vaenia was severely shamed. Since aborting the child of a royal was against the religious customs and laws of the Eldorai, the child was born but was always treated poorly.
The result was the birth of Aeda, who had to take the last name of her father’s family as she was not a legitimate child. Though it was no fault of her to be born, Aeda was always treated as an outsider, an unwanted problem and a reminder of the family’s shame. Her striking resemblance to her mother’s family only increased the disdain, and the young Aeda took to wearing masks and hoods whenever she went out in public.
Tirathana VI wed later in life, and her first child was a son, so when Vaenia died young after giving birth to a young daughter Nalia, Aeda was actually the oldest female member of the family left. The fact that she was illegitimate did not necessarily rule her out of succession, but the Queen passed a binding law that excluded Aeda and her children specifically from any royal inheritance. Matters stabilised later when first Silaqui and then Anya were born to the Queen, so Aeda was sent to the Angelii to develop her talents and keep her out of the way of future issues.
Time passed and Aeda grew to resent the family which, through no fault of her own, despised her. She hadn’t asked to be born, but there was one bright spark. She grew attached to the youngest daughter of the Queen, Anya Venari, who was sent to the Angelii Academy eventually when her doubts became too great to contain. The two formed an unlikely pair, with Anya being more accepting of her cousin than anyone else. However, when Nalia, Aeda’s half-sister, and the legitimate daughter of Vaenia, started to worm her way into Anya’s friendship Aeda was left out. Aeda and Nalia cordially detested each other, and so Anya’s naïveté left her out.
However, when the plot was revealed and Anya was banished, Nalia implicated her half-sister, and Aeda too was banished, in her case for life. Angry at Anya’s lack of trust and for what had happened, Aeda went her separate way, becoming a mercenary in the Republic and Mandalorians, experiencing an exile much like Anya’s, and similar revelations too.
However, Aeda found herself drawn back into her cousin’s orbit when Anya, by that stage aide to the Exarch of the Protectorate, invited her to return. The two reconciled but Aeda did not return as she had outstanding contracts to fulfil.
Aeda returned by invitation of Anya after Nalia’s coup and the return to favour of Anya. After the murder of Queen Silaqui, Anya offered Aeda the position of being her bodyguard, a position her cousin accepted. Now, despite the continued snobbery and mistrust, she works with the new Queen to safeguard the crown.
