OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To sub the leader of the Blades of Reason. The character will serve as a frenemy and foil to Kaida.
- Image Credit: Here. 'Grumpy Elfi' by Tsvetka on Deviantart.com.
- Role: High Illuminatrix of the Blades of Reason, an Eldorai rebel party.
- Links: Eldorai, Blades of Reason, Shadow Knights.
- Age: 109
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Force User
- Species: Eldorai.
- Appearance: Cadera is of average height and build for an Eldorai. She has blonde, almost white hair, pointed ears and grey eyes. She prefers practical clothing. She wears her hair about shoulder-length. She has some minor cybernetics that augment her memory and an implant that protects her against poisons.
- Name: Cadera Naeyra.
- Loyalties: Blades of Reason, Shadow Knights.
- Wealth: Average.
- Copy of her political pamphlet 'What Is To Be Done'.
- Copy of 'On the Origin of Species' by Charae Darwai.
- Copy of her book 'The ABC of Rationalism'.
- NN-14 blaster pistol
- An HRD called Sylviane. Serves as a bodyguard and aide.
Skills: Political acumen. Good public speaker, skilled at intrigue and personnel management. Cadera has decent self-defence skills, but is not a warrior, commando or super spy. She has minions to do such things for her. Extremely strong-willed and resistant to mental manipulation. Piloting. Machinist - good at tinkering with droids and cybernetics.
Personality: Determined, driven and combative are goods words to describe Cadera Naeyra, High Illuminatrix of the Blades of Reason. Crafty and pragmatic, she knows when to make tactical retreats and adjust, but never loses sight of her goals. Or of her belief that she is in the right. Radicalised at an early age, she has spent decades as a professional revolutionary. She has an extraordinary capacity for disciplined work and has a strong work ethic, though this also makes her very impatient with those who cannot keep up. Though she can display kindness, especially towards children, she is moody and volatile. Indeed she can be venomous in her critique of others, exhibiting a propensity for mockery, ridicule, and ad hominem attacks on those who disagree with her.
While she shows no sign of sadism or of personally desiring to commit violent acts, she endorses the violent actions of others and exhibits no remorse for those killed for the revolutionary cause. As she once said, a revolution without firing squads is a contradiction in itself. However, time and many setbacks have taught her patience as well as caution. Tending to eschew luxury, she lives a spartan life style. While not a soldier, she exercises regularly and enjoys hunting and swimming. She developed a passion for mountain walking in the Alderaanian peaks. She despises untidiness, always keeping her work desk tidy and insists on total silence while she is working. She's also a bit of a tinkerer. Tinkering with machines helps her relax.
Cadera's evaluation of Eldorai society is pessimistic. Per her analysis, it is defined by superstition, backwardness, xenophobia, classism and ignorance. The homeworld is under the control of foreign invaders, while Tygara has been abandoned. The Matriarchy is dependent on foreign aid and might as well be considered a client state. They continue to maintain a quasi-feudalist power structure, with economic and political power being concentrated in the hands of a small elite chosen from birth. The Shadow Knights are fractured and divided. Their emancipatory message has become diluted by compromise. The key word is backwardness. Too many Eldorai still subject themselves to the 'tyranny of superstition'. They believe in false idols, for they pray to deities that evidently do not exist. This is the opium of the people, for it gives monarchs, aristocrats and clerics power over the masses. Ashira is not a goddess, she was merely the first Eldorai and they must cast off their shackles. The Blades of Reason must become the motor of progress, acting as a vanguard of dedicated revolutionaries to spread Rationalist ideas among the common people, especially the workers and soldiers. Cadera believes that representative democracy provides the illusion of freedom, while in fact maintaining the dominance of the upper classes.
Instead she promotes a centralised, authoritarian system where rights are tied to service to the collective. She also supports the idea of democratic centralism. While the directing bodies of the Blades are elected, all members are bound by strict party discipline. Likewise the decisions of higher bodies are absolutely binding for all lower bodies and all members. Every Blade must act like a cog in a well-oiled machine. She describes democratic centralism as consisting of 'freedom of discussion, unity of action'. Detractors accuse her of being intolerant of contrary opinions. She is also very critical of Force-user dominance. She does not see this as merely an Eldorai problem, but identifies general trends in various societies, especially the main powers. Force-users have an inherent advantage due to their preternatural abilities, so power often gravitates towards them. However, this power is unearned because it is with them from birth and it allows them to exert hegemony over those who have been born without.
Cadera dominates the Committee of Rationalist Security, which is the Blades' leadership group. However, she is not an absolute leader, but relies heavily on two faithful acolytes, Trokana and Stylena. Sadly, both despise each other. Trokana is an accomplished orator and glamorous military commander, but vain and a poor politician. By contrast, Stylena is a dull public speaker and has not won any laurels on the battlefield, but a highly skilled power broker and backroom manager. Their squabbling plays into Cadera's hands, but also often irritates her. She sees herself as superior to both, but also depends on them. Cadera has been successful at placing several of her acolytes in key positions of the Redeemers, the Shadow Knights' counterintelligence and domestic security agency. While she dominates debates in the Committee, she does allow some room for contrary opinions.
Kaida and Cadera have a number of things in common. Both loathe the monarchy, aristocracy and are committed atheists. Both also believe they're in the right and others would be better off doing as they tell them to. However, Kaida is icy, whereas Cadera is more passionate. Moreover, Kaida is a socially awkward, brutally honest introvert and a stickler for rules who's poor at socialising, but a formidable soldier. Cadera is no warrior, but a skilled politician and not above using manipulation and deceit to serve what she considers to be a larger goal. Kaida is more than a little disdainful because she views Cadera as a 'civilian politician'.
COMBAT INFORMATION
- Weapon of Choice: Blaster pistol, hold-out blaster, blaster or slugthrower rifle, minions.
- Combat Function: Cadera is not a soldier and her place is not on the frontlines. She's good with pistols, carbines and rifles and has been in enough dangerous situations to keep calm under pressure and think on her feet. That said, she is not a special forces commando, martial arts savant or elite soldier. She also cannot use the Force. She would stand little chance against someone with exceptional combat skills. Being an Eldorai she's agile and dexterous, but is physically weaker and has a lower pain threshold than a human. She's a decent pilot, but is not a dogfighter. She's a leader, not someone who's supposed to storm the trenches. Cybernetic implant protects her against poisons.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
For someone with such radical views, Cadera had the background of someone whose family had profited from the old order. She was born on Kaeshana during a time of transition and change for the Eldorai. Her mother was from a family of peasants. Despite this lower class background, she had rosen to middle-class status, studying at a university before teaching at an institute for young nobles. She married the son of a prosperous middle class family. Soon after their wedding, Cadera's mother obtained a good job in the city of Knossus, rising to become Overseer of Primary Schools in the Thessia district a couple years later.
Eventually she was promoted to Overseer of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of countless schools as part of the government's plans for modernisation. Her dedication was rewarded by the State, which bestowed on her the status of hereditary noblewoman. However, trueborn aristocrats still looked down on her, regarding Cadera's mother as a parvenu with tainted blood. Cadera was born in Knossus and baptised by an Ashiran priestess a few days after her birth. She was one of eight siblings, having two older and six younger ones.
As was traditional in Eldorai families, her mother was the breadwinner. Her father had a more mundane job. He had career aspirations of his own, but sacrificed these to stay at home, look after the estate and the children. Cadera grew up in a very traditional system of education and childhood. As a young girl she learned from a male servant how to read and write, and began her junior schooling at age ten. Both parents were avowed monarchists. They eschewed contact with political radicals and there is no evidence that the dreaded Investigators of Ashira's Truth ever put them under surveillance for subversive thought. In the case of Cadera's mother, her avowed monarchist beliefs might have been overcompensation due to her low class origins. All in all, Cadera's childhood was quite congenial. Every summer they holidayed at a rural manor. Among her siblings, Cadera was closest to her brother Zathrian, whom she often bossed around. She had an extremely competitive nature. She manifested an interest in sports at an early age and spent much of her free time outdoors or playing the Eldorai version of Dejarik, and excelled at a highly conservative, disciplinarian school.
When she was still young, her mother died of a brain haemorrphage. This seems to have scarred young Cadera deeply. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic, aggressive and she renounced her belief in Ashira. At the time Cadera's older sister Nethari, whom she was close to, was studying at a university in Santaissa. This was Kaeshana's capital and the only place on the planet foreigners were allowed to dwell in. Nethari often visited the foreign quarter, which was kept under strict surveillance, as the Eldorai were distrustful of foreigners due to continuous incursions and slaver raids.
Exposed to foreign ideas, Nethari began to doubt the system. Being older than Cadera, she'd done a tour of duty with the army and fought foreign raiders, who possessed superior technology to the Eldorai. Discharged after being wounded in battle, she lost faith in the regime and its ability to protect the Eldorai. She also studied the writings of banned subversive organisations and became involved in political agitation against the absolute monarchy of the reactionary Queen Tirathana VI. She even organised anti-government protests. However, she did not stop with peaceful protests, but joined a revolutionary cell bent on assassinating the Star Queen and was selected to construct a bomb due to her military experience, knowledge of explosives and chemistry. However, before the attack could take place the conspirators were arrested and tried for conspiracy to commit regicide, heresy and treason. Nethari was executed by immolation. This unfortunate event had a profound effect on Cadera.
At the time the young Eldoria had been studying at a prestigious seminary. Her mother had wanted Cadera to become a cleric, while Nethari would inherit the family estate. However, things had not gone the way she'd planned. Shaken by recent events, Cadera left the seminary despite scoring high marks. She told her father that she wanted to study law. What had happened to her older sister planted the seeds of radicalism inside her. She began to feel a strong antipathy towards the system. Her father was in awkward spot, for he had to disavow his treasonous, executed daughter to avert suspicion, lest the secret police take an interest in the remaining family. At university, Cadera was exposed to radical thinking. She got in touch with some of her dead sister's old friends who had managed to avoid being locked up by the Investigators.
She devoured forbidden literature such as the writings of Charae Darwai, a renowned biologist who had been imprisoned ages ago for claiming that Eldorai and humans shared common traits and origins. Cadera also read the works of the scientist and scholar Galliena Gallia, who had been imprisoned and burnt at the stake after proclaiming the heretical belief that planets other than Kaeshana contained intelligent life. Another scholar who made an impression on her was the heretical preacher Arryn, who'd postulated that Ashira was not wholly divine, but infused with the spirit of a mortal Eldorai woman. Cadera took this belief one step further by concluding that Ashira was not a goddess at all. Instead she'd been an ancient Eldorai who had been deified by mundanes who'd misunderstood her Force powers.
She also joined a student society and took part in demonstrations against the government, which had been cracking down on 'heretical thinking' in universities. The Investigators arrested Cadera and accused her of being a ringleader in the demonstration. She was expelled from the university and exiled to her family's estate after performing disciplinary labour service. Her father was concerned by her radicalisation and was able to convince the governor to rescind Cadera's exile. Presumably bribes were involved. However, the expulsion from university was upheld. Much to her father's disappointment, Cadera displayed little interest in the management of the family estates. Eventually Cadera was able to complete her law degree as an external student, though the celebrations were marred when her brother Zathrian died of a rare disease.
Cadera managed to get her foot into the door of the legal profession by working for a regional court. However, she soon became disillusioned. In one case, a merchant from her hometown was accused of 'blasphemous rhetoric' and 'smuggling'. As Cadera found out, the defendant had actually been framed. Moreover, the judge heading the court was compromised since she was the friend of a matriarch who wanted the merchant out of the way and stood to benefit from a guilty sentence. Cadera's attempts to prevent this were unsuccessful. She fully embraced revolutionary politics. She became enamoured with the pro-revolutionary novel 'What is to be done?'. It should be noted that Cadera had no qualms about living off the estate's income.
Travelling to Santaissa despite being prohibited from entering the capital, she got involved with a revolutionary cell called the Young Eldorai, which demanded radical change in Eldorai society and government. Their programme included the abolition of Church tithes and of the religious courts, constitutional government and the creation of an elected assembly...though only 'worthy' Eldorai would get a vote. It was not radical enough for Cadera. The Investigators were notorious for infiltrating subversive organisations with police spies, and so the young radicals were soon unmasked. Cadera, who had grown frustrated with the cell's lack of drive, had brought matters to head by organising a demonstration that turned violent. She managed to evade capture when the Investigators cracked down on the radicals. While many of her comrades were forced to confess real and imagined crimes against the state, Cadera went underground, living under a pseudonym.
The revolutionary underground had become her life and she was drawn to like-minded radicals, who founded a secret society called the Blades of Reason. They rejected the authority of the Crown, aristocracy, clergy and the existence of divinity of Ashira and the other Eldorai deities. Cadera raised money for the illegal publication of a holonewspaper that would spread their message. Displaying organisational skills, she became the holonewspaper's editor. Her pen produced articles characterised by inflammatory rhetoric and dry wit. Dismissing those who believed in peaceful change and reform, she endorsed the use of political violence and armed insurrection.
She also tried to build connections with the community of Eldorai émigres and exiles that had emigrated from Kaeshana or been banished by the Crown. However, she found the emigres to be a fractious bunch cut off from the realities on Kaeshana. It did not take long for the Blades to embrace propaganda of the deed and direct action - in other words, stoop to terrorism. Government repression bred reaction. Their actions coincided with the uprising of the New Green Ribbons, a radical egalitarian movement led by a pretender to the Eldorai throne. However, both groups pursued divergent aims and soon became rivals.
Cadera was opposed to cooperation with the Green Ribbons. Both rebel groups spend a lot of time fighting each other and the ancien régime, which took advantage of their rivalry. It was a time of bloodshed. Violence begot violence and collateral damage was high. Cadera was not primarily a fighter, but displayed a talent for organisation and logistics. She stirred the mob with her oratory, helped organise political assassinations and bombings. For a while, the rebels managed to take control over some remote territories. However, their regime was unstable and characterised by erratic outbursts of violence that helped turn many of the people they professed to free against them. With the benefit of hindsight, even Cadera admitted that they had been like children who believed they loved freedom, but in reality loved the sound of their own voice more. Thus her brief time as an administrator in a rebel-held town was an unsuccessful one. Trade collapsed and the rebels failed to keep essential services running.
Eventually the insurgency was crushed. Cadera herself was captured by government forces. It is likely that she was tortured. Detractors claim that she signed a confession which implicated comrades, though this cannot be verified. However, her time in prison also taught her useful skills, such as investigating, calculating and confronting in order to establish which prisoners were stool pigeons, traitors or double agents. She established herself as a leader among prisoners, but was separated from them and put in isolation once the guards took notice. Waterboarding was one of the less 'severe' techniques used to break recalcitrant prisoners. The Eldorai Matriarchy was a despotic monarchy and so the camp guards and the dreaded Investigators of Ashira's Truth did not have to play coy with constitutional niceties. Meanwhile, life outside the prison moved on. Tirathana VI died and was succeeded by her daughter Silaqui III. after a brief civil war. The new monarch sought the backing of the Omega Protectorate and agreed to some liberal concessions to win their support. Repression was eased and many political prisoners were granted an amnesty, provided they swore an oath to never again take up arms against the Crown.
Cadera remained imprisoned, not the least due to the violence the Blades had unleashed on the Church, setting temples aflame and killing priestesses, but was able to escape during the brief period of chaos after Silaqui was assassinated by treasonous Angelii. The renegades were part of a reactionary putsch that sought to turn the clock back to the old days of the Matriarchy. However, it was put down by loyalist forces and Firemane mercenaries. In Silaqui's stead, her reformist sister, Anya Venari, ascended the throne, assuming the regnal name Tirathana VII.
Cadera resurfaced in a remote settlement far away from the capital city. There she lived under an assumed name and even managed to secure a position as a schoolteacher. While subtly influencing young pupils, some of them became dedicated acolytes, she tried to rebuild her old contacts. However, several of the surviving Blades believed that the time for violence had passed. A group of them argued that they should disavow violence as a means of achieving political change. They were encouraged when the new Queen promulgated freedom of religion. While still a despot, she was determined to be a benevolent despot and push Eldorai society towards modernity. Such notions were anathema to Cadera, but she was isolated. While she was busy building up her own cadre, her past caught up with her.
Inevitably locals began asking questions about the strange newcomer, then she was denounced. However, one of her young converts, whose mother worked for the gendarms, tipped her off. Cadera went into exile, accompanied by some of her converts. The exiled revolutionary was certain that members of the appeasement faction of the Blades of Reason had denounced her. There are good grounds to suspect this, though this might have been her and paranoia talking. Either way she put her pen to good use by bombarding the 'Revisionists' with a steady stream of pamphlets and writings, condemning them in the strongest terms.
However, her time in exile was not spent solely as a demagogue. Prior to leaving Kaeshana, Cadery only had a very limited undestanding of the outside world. Now she got to see the technological wonders - and terrors - other races had built first-hand. She was awed when she saw the shipyards and factories of Fondor. It was an eye-opening experience for her. She read voraciously and consumed every news item she came across on the HoloNet.
She could not help compare conditions abroad with those on Kaeshana. It all led her back to one question: Why had the Eldorai been unable to accomplish this? Why were they so often victimised? Why were they dependent on foreign patrons like the Protectorate and Firemane? To Cadera the answer was clear: Backwardness. The Eldorai had been beaten and vassalised because of their backwardness. For their military backwardness, their cultural backwardness, their political backwardness and their technological backwardness. They were centuries behind the advanced nations. Their only choice was to make good this lag as quickly as possible. Otherwise they would be crushed and only survive as exotic curiosities or slaves. Everything that held them back by keeping then locked in the past had to go.
At the same time, her stay abroad also enlightened Cadera to the manifold threats the Eldorai they might face - far bigger than the pirates and slavers who had assailed them so often. Cadera happened to be on Coruscant when the One Sith 'returned from the shadows' and seized the Republic's capital in a surprise attack. Armies clashed, Jedi and Sith did battle, many civilians were caught in the crossfire and died. Until now, she had not truly witnessed the destructive power of the technological terrors the outsiders wielded. She was caught in a blast when a warship crashed into a district in the lower levels of the ecumenopolis, causing large-scale destruction. The landmark would be called 'The Scar' in the future. She was fortunate to survive, though she was badly injured. It took her a good while to get back on her feet and get off the city-planet. It did not help that Eldorai are physically weaker than humans and have a lower pain threshold. What she had witnessed during the battle had a profound impact on her views.
She continued to hold the Revisionists in contempt, but was forced to confront some hard truths and realise that it was better to gather other dissidents to her and form a genuine alternative to the ancien régime. Cadera's acolytes were surprised when she gave them her orders. Several had expected her to order them to prepare an insurrection against the monarchy. Instead she told them to learn as much as possible about the technology of the outsiders. To this end they were supposed to educate themselves and seek positions that would enable them to expand their knowledge, especially when it came to medicine, engineering, ship design and manufacturing of modern weapons. She eventually added cybernetics to the list.
Some of her followers deserted her, for this plan seemed dull and lacking in adventure. Cadera dismissed them as ignoramuses. Several of them joined a splinter group that tried to launch an amateurish coup attempt back home. It was foiled by the Border Police and the Royal Customs Service. Her remaining acolytes were organised into a tight-knit network, which soon established contact with other Rationalist sects. Their portfolio included smuggling, industrial espionage and theft of tech they believed would benefit the Eldorai. She also painstakingly rebuild the propaganda network she'd directed back on Kaeshana. Meanwhile, back home young radicals were challenging the appeasement course of the Blades of Reason. A charismatic firebrand called Aravae Elsatra, a former officer who had ironically studied at the Protectorate Military Academy on Fondor, called for direct action against the ancien régime. But before she could foment rebellion, she needed to take over the Blades of Reasons' steering committee. To this end she plotted a coup and got in touch with Cadera, whose network could be useful to her.
Afer giving the matter some thought, Cadera agreed to help her. Not because she expected Elsatra to succeed. Far from it, she was certain the 'hothead' would fail. But she could kill two birds with one stone by getting rid of the Revisionists and putting herself in a position where she could either take over or exert influence. Elsastra took over in what was essentially a coup, using her grassroots support base to topple the old leadership and unmask the present High Illuminatrix as a government spy. Ironically, her evidence was provided by agents of Tarissa Cadalthor. The Cadalthors were an extremely reactionary noble house, which was disenchanted with the Queen's liberal reforms and wanted to turn the clock back. Fanning the flames and then presenting yourself as the group best equipped to put them out seemed like a good idea to them. The 'Revisionists' were overthrown and Elsastra initiated an insurrection against the government. Cadera took care to remain aloof, but a number of her people were put into key positions. They had know-how that many of the Rationalists lacked and could funnel weapons and other tech to them. Somehow most of the deliveries ended up with cells influenced by her supporters.
None of the players could know that their actions coincideded with the Netherworld Event. Kaeshana - along with virtually every planet in the Galaxy - was thrown into chaos. Many Eldorai believed the End of Days was at hand. Countless people vanished, religious fanatics declared that the end of days was at hand and that therefore the only way to avert hellfire was to regain Ashira's favour by purging the unbelievers and 'human monkeighs'. Nonbelievers were targeted by militants and the Blades responded with violent action. The security forcess were caught in the middle, trying to impose order and keep the Matriarchy from descending into chaos. Elsastra did not survive the calamity. The official history of the Blades of Reason states that she died honourably. Not a chance of foul play - none at all!
At this stage, Cadera returned from exile under an assumed name. The much reduced leadership committe was persuaded to elect her as the new High Illuminatrix. She immediately proceeded to press her views upon the group. There would be no more insurrections. The group would focus on providing a genuine alternative to the Eldorai, rather than playing into the hands of reactionaries and foreign enemies. Not everyone agreed, and it took her a while to silence the naysayers. In a way the chaos caused by the Netherworld Event played into her hands.
Some Eldorai who'd been teleported into the Netherworld returned to Kaeshana with their faith reaffirmed. Others concluded that the church's teachings were a lie. There was no heaven, no goddess, no divine wrath. Driven into exile by the crackdown, the Blades reconstituted themselves. Having been deprived of much of their support base on Kaeshana, they became a potent voice amongst the communities of Eldorai exiles. They continued to agitate on Kaeshana, spreading propaganda among the disgruntled, though this limited them to the urban classes as they failed to reach the rural folk. However, their activity shifted from violent action towards political work and propaganda. Some Blades dreamed of one day returning and launching a revolution to topple the monarchy, others reasoned that it made more sense to seek a new home for 'enlightened' Eldorai. The second option was moot since the overwhelming majority of Eldorai lived on Kaeshana.
Until the Great Cataclysm. A huge asteroid devastated the planet. Most Eldorai managed to escape before the impact, but many had to be left behind. The Shadow Knights arose out of the ashes, dedicated to protecting the 'Forsaken'. Feeling embittered towards the now Tygara-based Eldorai Matriarchy, they reached out towards rebel groups such as the Blades. Thus the Blades became part of the revolutionary bloc the Shadows strove to build. Cadera's gift for organisation showed itself when she took charge of rationing and supply. She also took two gifted proteges under her wing: Trokana and Stylena. One is a gifted orator and military commander, who flirted with Revisionism prior to Cadera's takeover. The other a skilled backroom manager and political gangster; an energetic troubleshooter who gets things done. To guard herself against assassins, she selected a captured HRD as her bodyguard.
Members of the group took up arms as soldiers of the Shadows during the failed Kaeshana Rebellion. They joined the Shadow Knights' nomadic fleet after the First Order's annexation of Kaeshana. Throughout all this, Cadera remained High Illuminatrix, weathering any storm that threatened her leadership. She joined the Shadow Knights' leadership council. Several of her acolytes gained positions in the propaganda, R&D, economics and secret police bureaus of the rebel coalition. The modern-day Blades are comparatively well-organised and place a lot of emphasis on training cadres. Detractors accuse them of intolerance and have labelled them the 'Cult of Reason'. Cadera dismisses such claims, insisting that her group offers genuine liberty rather than enslavement to false idols. She keeps some extremely radical voices around so that she can present herself as the voice of moderation, strengthening her bargaining position on the council.
