Farah San'jana

[Farah San'jana]

[Basic Information]


Name: Farah San’jana

Alias: PD-0082, Farah Forst

Faction: The First Order

Rank: Private

Birthworld: Pa'Desh

Citizenship: First Order, Pa’Deshi

Languages: Basic, Pa’Deshi (2 Dialects)

Age: 23

Height: 163cm

Weight: 55kg

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Skin Color: Fair

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[Appearance]​

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Much of Farah’s appearance today is directly attributable to her time in the Ku’kashi Temple, effectively a black site and reeducation facility run by the religious secret police who enforce, unflinchingly, religious homogeneity over the people of Pa’Desh. The Jidani Sparr, the aforementioned secret police, attribute any religious nonconformity to the nefarious work of Killi’bal, the Pa’Deshi God of Death and Evil. Killi’bal encourages this dissent as a way of provoking sin and, ultimately, bringing about the end of all creation. The black god is known to encourage individualism, over caste or family, as the first step down his dark path. Therefore, upon arrival at the Ku’kashi Temple, all pilgrims have their heads shaved to discourage individualism and worship of the dark path. Farah, at one point, had long, beautiful brown hair which she considered one of her best features. However, after being forced to shave her head at the Temple, she has adopted a shorter style. Even after escaping, letting her hair grow long felt too much like trying to breathe life back into the person she had been before her pilgrimage, and that seemed like a lost cause.

Likewise, Killi’bal is known to entice otherwise faithful men and women to sin through the luxuries of the world. Therefore, at the Temple, food and drink is severely limited and only distributed to those who demonstrate good faith—by reciting prayers and mantras—in the true gods of Pa’Desh, Nundu Und’ili, and I’ella. Initially upon arriving, Farah refused to engage in this practice and lost a great amount of weight quickly. She eventually conceded and recited the prayers and mantras, but she has yet to reach the weight she was before arriving at the Temple Ku’kashi. However, since being released, Farah has joined the First Order’s Stormtroopers Corps, and so while once she was merely thin and lean, she is now suitably muscular, in line with the demanding standards of the First Order’s armed forces.

Aside from that, Farah is fair skinned for a Pa’Deshi, this is because she is, in many ways, a mirror image of her mother, an off-worlder. However, she has spent many years under the hot, tropical son of the jungle world and has been tanned accordingly. Still, no native Pa’Deshi would assume, by looking at her, that she, in fact, a native as well. Farah also has large, hazel eyes, which her father always joked was his only contribution to her appearance (which isn’t totally true, he also influenced her hair color).

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[Personality & Traits]​

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Farah is a native of the jungle world of Pa’Desh where religion rules. Religion, specifically Nunduism, was naturally, therefore, at the center of her life growing up. Her adherence to and belief in the faith has waxed and waned over the years, often being a source of comfort and solace yet also of tension and conflict. Nundu, the chief god of the religion, is considered to be a forgiving, father figure while I’ella, his wife, is a loving mother, and Und’ili, another god, is an industrious creator. The faith therefore values all of these traits—mercy, love, and grit—and Farah seeks to have each in abundance. However, Farah’s beliefs are also heterodox to the state sanctioned theology. She believes that the historic inequality of the sexes which is endorsed by Nunduism is out of line with the historic realities of the faith. Therefore, while much of how she attempts to conduct herself is in line with a typical worshiper of Nundu, there are some areas where she is decidedly more progressive.

Farah is also largely ignorant of the galaxy beyond her isolated little planet, as she has never left the surface of Pa’Desh. This has had a huge impact in shaping how she sees the world. The casual cruelty with which the divinely sanctioned ruler of Pa’Desh governs is inherent to the state, as is the considerable militarism. Therefore, Farah doesn’t enjoy the same skepticism towards these institutions that someone more familiar with the rest of the galaxy might have. Her first experience with off-worlders in mass was when the First Order arrived, broken and beaten, and yet still made room for her in the refugee camps. Her second was when the Eternal Empire arrived, wholly unprovoked, to exterminate the fleeing remnants of the First Order. This has had a morphed Farah into believing that the galaxy beyond is dangerous and in need of urgent pacification. Further, these twin experiences has afforded the First Order a substantial amount of innate trust, after all, when evil intentioned off-worlders arrived and killed thousands of her people, it was the First Order who drove them away. She can only speculate, with horror, what would have befallen the planet had the Order not been present to protect them.

Farah had very bad experiences with the force-sensitive Jidani Speer, the religious secret police of Pa’Desh. Therefore, she is inherently skeptical of and hostile towards Force users and all manner of mysticism. She rejects the Force and its advocates as the dangerous weaponization of superstitions better left forgotten. The fact that she is hostile towards the Force while also deeply religious herself is an irony mostly lost on her, and not something that she would consider worth the time to ponder.

Lastly, Farah is lost. As the daughter of an off-worlder and a Pa’Deshi, she is torn between the two worlds. She was raised on Pa’Desh as a Pa’Deshi with only the slightest amount of influence from her foreign mother, and yet, now she serves the First Order, her mother’s government. She was raised to believe in the tenants of Nunduism, but now she is out of step with the traditional interpretations of very core beliefs of the faith. She doesn’t know who she is and what’s more, she doesn’t know who she wants to be. She’s committed to taking life one day at a time as she tries to discover herself.

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[Biography]​

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Origins & Early Childhood​

Twenty-three years ago, Farah was born to Tundari and Fane San’jana (née Ebonvar). Farah was the product of a rare union between a native Pa’Deshi and an off-worlder. Tundari, a member of the Kikaji caste, worked as mid-level customs official at the Nundu Planetary Spaceport. Her mother, Fane, was a First Imperial citizen and an anthropologist from a university on Bakura, her home world. Fane first set foot on Pa’Desh twenty-nine years ago, when she arrived, she was intending to stay only for a two-year period. During that time, Fane intended to visit a number of temples scattered across the world, both functioning and ruined. She hoped to publish a book tracing the development of the native Pa’Deshi religion, Nunduism, from its historically verifiable origins—the product of the gradual apotheosizing of a powerful Jedi shipwrecked on the planet—to its current status as a state religion. She theorized that a case study analyzing how a force user was elevated to godhood may help academics better understand the faiths of primitive peoples across the galaxy.

She did not anticipate meeting her future husband, Tundari. The two met at the Spaceport the same day Fane arrived, some of Fane’s literature spoke in all too secular terms for the tastes very conservative, hyper-religious customs officer. Tundari, recognizing that the woman was more interested in research than evangelism, intervened and returned her books to her. This chance meeting developed, first, into a professional relationship, for Fane quickly realized she would need to speak the local language to navigate effectively around the planet and Tundari made a fine tutor. Over a year later, the two first began a romantic relationship and Fane decided to put off returning to the university and continue work on her book on Pa’Desh. Alas, the book was never to be completed. As Tundari and Fane spent more time together, growing more attached, he took the bold step of proposing marriage. It was, and remains, very unusual for a Pa’Deshi to marry an off-worlder who are generally viewed with suspicion. Moreover, the Pa’Deshi are loath to marry outside their caste and off-worlders are not properly members of any caste. This passionate decision, then, created something of a stir and ensured that Tundari and Fane were widely unpopular in their community. Further, Tundari, though not as fanatically religious as some, deeply and sincerely held to the tenants of Nunduism and could not marry a non-adherent. Despite not truly believing, Fane did convert to the faith swearing to love Tundari as I’ella loved Nundu. By converting, Fane had subjected herself to the authority of the Jidani Sparr, the religious police. The Jidani Sparr, on Pa’Desh, have informants everywhere and nothing escapes their notice. This made it effectively impossible for Fane to publish her book on the origins of the religion without suffering a swift and terrible punishment. And so, she did not. Likewise, because of the culture’s backwards views on women, Fane gave up teaching and settled into a comfortable, if banal, life as a homemaker.

Three years after the marriage, Fane conceived and gave birth to Farah. The early years of marriage had been difficult, Fane was unable to work due to cultural restraints, and Tundari having lost his job at the Spaceport following the union, forcing him to take various, poorer paying jobs. However, Farah’s birth helped to rekindle the marriage and for a time, things improved. Unfortunately, Farah was destined to be an only child, and three subsequent pregnancies each ended either in miscarriage or in an early death brought about by the planet’s woefully inadequate infrastructure and healthcare. Farah was only old enough to remember the death of the third child, a brother named Sabbir. The baby died at the tender age of three, when Farah was seven years old. The loss of her brother was deeply upsetting to the young child and her father pointed her to the faith. From that point on, Farah found in her religion a constant source of comfort, trusting in Nundu to shepherd her brother into paradise.

After Sabbir’s death, Tundari and Fane resolved to stop having children, worried about the impact more loss would have on their daughter. Instead, they turned their attention wholly to raising their daughter in a loving and safe environment. Tundari, proud that Farah was taking her faith so seriously, himself became more devout and this would sow the seeds of many troubles further down the road. In Nunduism, it is believed that Nundu brought to the world peace, knowledge, and beauty. Meanwhile, I’ella, his wife and sister, brought fertility, health, and love. This belief encouraged Tundari to accept the religious and cultural norm that women, including Fane and Farah, were to be subservient to their husband or father. So, when Farah turned ten, Tundari forbade further education, in accordance with both the faith and the law. This was the first real strain on the marriage. Fane, an academic herself, highly valued education and would not see her daughter denied it, certainly not over some religious tenant she did not, herself, hold. Fane therefore began to quietly tutor Farah whenever Tundari was away at work, not in the womanly arts of homemaking but in math, science, literature, and the like. This continued for several years and, though Tundari may have suspected, he never said a word. However, this did cause serious tension in the marriage as both partners quietly began to foster resentment towards the other.

Adolescence​

At the age of thirteen, Farah was visiting one of the many bazaars of Old Pa’Dan, when she was approached by two men in plain clothes who identified themselves as Jidani Sparr, the religious secret police. Farah complied and was led to one of their nondescript and unassuming facilities where she was interrogated for over twelve hours. During this time, she was not permitted food, drink, or to use the bathroom. Nothing but being either barraged with questions or forced to sit in uncomfortable silence. They even restrained her from offering the customary prayers and meditations Nundu demanded—“why do nonbelievers need prayer” they had asked her—a true believer would cooperate with the Jidani Sparr. Under these conditions, she admitted that her mother had been continuing her education beyond the maximum legally permissible age. Because her mother was an off-worlder and a citizen of the nearby and growing First Order, the Jidani Sparr was measured in their response. Rather than imprisonment, or even execution, they instead merely ‘convinced’ Fane that she should seek to better herself through fervent religious prayer and meditation at a faraway temple for a number of years. Her mother was gone before Farah was released from custody.

Without her mother around, Farah’s education came to a halt. Her father tasked her with keeping the house clean, well ran, and food on the table, all the roles that her mother had performed before her religious hiatus. Farah disliked the work but cared deeply for her father and knew he could not easily withstand another heartache. And so, she persevered. Held firm to her faith, in spite of what had happened, and grew closer to her father through their shared devotion. However, this was not a permanent solution. She had enjoyed her mother’s lessons, enjoyed reading, and enjoyed thinking about things beyond the kitchen. Gradually, she would take time out of her duties and, when the door was locked and the windows closed, would move through her mother’s possessions, all kept in a box in her father’s room, and select one of her many books to read and study. Her self-instruction increased slowly over the next two years until she discovered, for the first time, her mother’s extensive notes regarding Nunduism and its origins. She devoured the material, learning about Captain Iell Forst who she had known only as I’ella, the goddess of love and fertility. But if I’ella was actually Captain Forst, then she was not a quiet, humble, submissive woman, but an intelligent, fierce warrior in her own right.

The discovery shook her to her core, and, in a moment of rebellious youth, she rejected the entire faith. No only so that she could pursue her studies and her ambitions, but because of what it had done—what it had made her do—to her mother. The smartest, most caring woman she had ever met. Farah resolved that she would be educated, by any means necessary. She sought out the underground female education market and, though she could not afford to hire one of the black-market tutors, she did work out arrangements where she would educate younger girls, between the ages of ten and twelve, on the tutor’s behalf—and in exchange herself be educated. In this way, she managed to continue the illegal studies which, almost anywhere else in the galaxy would have been compulsory.

Adulthood ​

Farah had only recently turned seventeen when her mother was released from her period of isolated prayer and reflection. Though initially ecstatic at having her mother returned to her, Farah slowly realized that the woman who returned was an altogether different person than the woman who had been taken. The biggest difference—Fane was now a committed follower of Nunduism, the same faith that Farah had come to reject once she discovered her mother’s notes. This conversion meant that Farah couldn’t ask her mother any of the many questions that had been burning in her absence, and also that she would need to hide her continued studies, fearing her mother may report her to the Jidani Sparr. However, given the importance of frequent prayer and meditation, Fane came to realize that Farah was no longer a devout adherent over the next few months as her invitations to prayer and reflection were consistently spurned by her daughter. This realization, quickly reported to her father, had the curious effect of bringing her mother and father closer together in their now shared faith and in concern for the spiritual wellbeing of their wayward daughter.

Over the next year the household was in constant tension. Farah repeatedly tried to explain how it was Fane’s own work that had opened her eyes to the falsehood of the native religion, which only inspired Fane to burn her books, notes, and research. After many tears shed, many voices raised, and many family dinners spent in an awkward, oppressive silence, Tundari and Fane resolved to take drastic action. They would arrange a marriage for Farah and, once she was acting as a wife, in the role of I’ella, her faith would be rekindled. Farah, naturally, fought this decision the best she could, but ultimately her options were limited. She could run away, she supposed, but women without families on Pa’Desh had only three avenues in life—none of them pleasant and all of them brief. And so, faced with few options, she decided first to attempt to feign the religious fervor her parents demanded, in hopes they would relent on their ambitions, and, when that failed, decided that it was more important to continue her relationship with her parents—after all, she does love them—than destroy the relationship over a marriage she figured she could probably stomach. And so, for a time, she played the role of the good daughter, much to her parent’s rejoicing. She was arranged to wed another member of the Kikaji caste, Tunduru Bana’vari. Tunduru was a kind enough man, but far from brilliant, and his mother was known to be a severe and overbearing woman. Still, while Farah was certain she could never love Tunduru, she was certain she loved her parents enough to pretend, and so the arrangements were made.

The night before the ceremony, Farah was plagued with dreams. Dreams of a loveless marriage. Dreams of a life wasted. Dreams of a dour and cruel mother-in-law. But what scared her most was the nightmares of having daughters and having to accept that those daughters would grow up ignorant, impotent, and subservient. This was a fate she could not accept. And so, in the dead of night, she ran to her mother and pleaded with her, desperately begging her to intervene. She told her mother that she had continued her studies illegally, that she would be discovered if she were married, that she could be imprisoned or worse. Her mother listened intently to her daughter’s complaints and then promised to speak to her father and see what could be done. The Jidani Sparr arrived before dawn.

Farah was arrested on counts of heresy, promoting illegal education, and pursuing illegal education. The crimes were serious and the punishments had the potential to be extremely severe. However, because Farah—despite having never interacted with a First Imperial Citizen beyond her mother—had inherited citizenship with the powerful First Order, and because her mother was such a remarkable success—from heretic to true believer—that the Jidani Sparr elected to be merciful. Instead of execution, which was appropriate given the seriousness of the offense, Farah would be sentenced to the same fate as her mother. Forced reflection. Farah was moved to the Temple Ku’kashi, the largest of the Jidani Sparr’s ‘enlightenment centers.’ Farah resided there for three years. She was forced to recite dogma multiple times a day, if she refused, she was not provided with food or water. She was forced to mediate through hard labor in the blistering tropical sun. She was placed in stress positions for extended periods of time and told she would only be released when she offered prayers with sufficient ferventness. Worse still, she was forced to submit to various efforts of mental domination by the Force-using Jidani Sparr. These prolonged and strategic conditions did have, to a certain extent, the desired effect—just shy of two years into her stay she began to rely on the gods for guidance and protection, and—when the guards began to treat her more kindly—she found that they had answered her prayers. Over the next year her faith was restored, as the Jidani Sparr had hoped. However, the faith that grew from the shattered woman was not wholly orthodox. She had not forgotten her mother’s research and findings, and this historical knowledge mixed and mingled and intertwined itself with her sprouting faith, producing decisively heretical positions. Fortunately, Farah was smart enough to never admit this.

Unlike her mother, Farah was never released from the Temple Ku’kashi. She escaped. It wasn’t the result of a great plot meticulously planned. She had simply been in the right place at the right time. An earthquake struck the Temple while she was tending to the gardens, the wall was broken and she happened to not be under the direct supervision of the guards—after all, she was believed to be recovering. She just ran out the wall and into the forest, not stopping to look back. If the Jidani Sparr sent anyone to search for her, they didn’t try very hard and the woman eventually made her way back to Pa’Dan. She was caught between twin desires—on the one hand, she wanted desperately to see her parents, on the other, she feared they would return her to custody. Instead, she trekked to the Nundu Planetary Spaceport and sought to leverage her First Order citizenship as a means of getting off the planet. It was there that she, for the first time, discovered that the First Order was in the midst of a catastrophic conflict and were mounting a desperate retreat to Bakura. Unsure of what this meant for her, Farah simply stayed in the spaceport, surviving off of charity for a few months. Farah would never leave Pa’Desh to relocate to the First Order, instead, the First Order relocated to her.

The woman had never seen anything so beautiful and yet so terrifying as the last vestiges of the once indomitable First Imperial Navy appeared in the skies above Pa’Dan. Several weeks later, they had established an agreement with the planetary government and seized the Old Fort as their headquarters and base of operations. Farah made her way there in a massive swarm of refugees. She was granted admission and lived in the camps for a few months. Life in the camps was unpleasant, hot, and supplies were scarce, but it was altogether no worse than her years at the Temple and so she persevered. When the Grand Admiral declared that the Order’s strength would be reborn on Pa’Desh, forged by fire and emerging the stronger for it, she saw an opportunity.

Farah was the eighty-second person to volunteer for the first corpse that would be raised on Pa’Desh, she signed up under the name Farah Forst—an homage to that long dead goddess and captain Iell Forst—and was given the designation PD-0082. She survived basic training, though only barely, and watched with horror as the Eternal Empire attacked her home world to punish her adopted government for fabricated crimes, but she herself did not see combat. Farah is far from the most feverishly patriotic recruit the First Order has ever known; she joined for the safety, food and medical care, and intends only to serve her time and then transition to a comfortable civilian life. But the chaos unleased by the Eternal Empire over the skies of her home, and the certain destruction that would have befallen the planet had the First Order not been present to fight back has demonstrated one thing with perfect clarity. The galaxy is an unsafe place. And Farah's home and her family cannot protect themselves. The First Order can. And the First Order can because of men and women like Farah, doing their part to protect their homes. For that, she will fight.

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[Roleplays]​

Faction

None (Yet)

Personal

None (Yet)