Karrigan'Xalda
Daughter of the Karishzar
Megaera Pajari
Basic Information
Affiliates:
N/A
Living Relatives:
None of note.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Personality: Megaera is, to put it plainly, not exactly a pleasant person. Certainly not a 'good' one. She is quite open about her amorality, sarcastic and cynical. Honest self-assessment if a thing she prides herself on. If she had any ideas they have long since died. What she went through in the pit of the netherworld has undoubtedly hardened her, though she is not very talkative about what she experienced there. She has an at times biting, dry wit and her sense of humour tends to be rather on the morbid side.
As mentioned above, she harbours a strong dislike of Force-users, something which has only increased since she crawled out of the Pit and managed to get some understanding about what had transpired in the Galaxy since her death. Far as she is concerned they should all be collared and put on a leash - ideally, but things in the Galaxy often fall short of the ideal and she has learned to live with that. Likewise she strongly distrusts 'thinking machines'. Surprisingly, Megaera is fairly good with children and seems to soften a bit when in their company, though that may just be playacting. She has once said that she worked in an orphanage for a while, though that is probably rather hard to believe!
Wealth and Possessions: Megaera's wealth is rather limited. After all, it's not like the Netherworld had a currency or even a functioning monetary system! Ever since escaping she has come by, but is far from wealthy. She dresses simply and practically, much like a spacer, though she seems to have a certain fondness for more leather. Needless to say she is always armed with at least a concealed hold-out blaster and a vibro-knife, often also a shatter pistol. Well, usually more than one each. After all, you can never be too careful. Recently she has decided that she likes those modern weapons called bolters.
Starship:
A freigher she managed to 'secure' through probably rather illegitimate means.
Biography:
Akala's madness took many forms when she plunged the Galaxy into chaos. First trillions of sentient beings from across the stars were suddenly teleported into the Netherworld for some unknown purpose. Entire star sectors turned insular and isolated themselves, long-dead threats such as the Bando Gora tried to take advantage of the chaos, the great powers found themselves suddenly scrambling for control as their space empires diminished into shadows of their former selves.
It was survival of the fittest, a test where the powers were weighed, measured and sometimes found wanting. At the same time the Force was thrust out of balance, turning wonky and then temporarily failing as Akala drew it all into herself. Corellia was thrice damned and then finally broken in half, which was presumably very unpleasant for any Corellians on the planet since an apocalypse was unleashed upon their planet.
However, at the same time the barriers between this reality and the netherworld broke down. For a while there were portals that connected both realms, enabling passage between them, though at a price. Very briefly it seemed the dead would arise in an infinite legion of doom and march at Akala's command to drown the living, before she was struck down and 'normalcy' returned.
However, two rifts remained, one on Csilla, originally built by Omni, another on the broken remains of Corellia/Lashtu. As if eager to forget the cataclysm, the galactic powers, some having found themselves a good deal less great and reduced in power, soon returned back to business as normal, vying for control over the stars. The metaphysical implications around the Netherworld would, however, spawn entire cults and new religions. During the height of the Second Akala Crisis, some sentients had deliberately sought out the Netherworld through the portals. Sometimes in search of loved ones who had suddenly vanished, sometimes for more ulterior reasons or to seek out those they had lost long ago. Others, who had once been dead, had returned...
For what is dead will never die, but rises again, stronger and harder. Or so it is said. One of those who found their way out of the underworld before Akala was defeated - hopefully for good - was a young, blonde woman dressed in tattered rags, armed with a knife and blaster rifle. She emerged through the portal on Alderaan, a world that had recently gone through the misfortune of being shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong before being reconquered by the Republic.
Alas, going through this portal had the effect of making whoever passed it feel an uncontrollable rage that could only be sated by killing a sentient being. This was quite unfortunate for the Republic soldier she encountered right after leaving, for the poor fellow got his throat cut. Confused, mentally unstable but alive she made her way across the ruins of Alderaa. While Republic soldiers and Vong monsters battled for control over the planet she tried to make her getaway and regain a measure of sanity without being killed in the crossfire.
For a time she ended up in one of the refugee camps that had been established by the Republic in an area less affected by the Vong shaping of the planet. It gave her time to rest and make sense of things as humanitarian aid workers took care of her. Eventually she made sense of how much time had passed since her death. Since her escape from the netherworld she has laid low, passing as an itinerant mercenary and gun for hire. Ostensibly she is just one of many lost souls displaced by the years of war and chaos that have ravaged the Galaxy, just another one lost in the teeming masses. The name under which she goes by is undoubtedly an alias.
Journal of Megaera Pajari, post-escape from the Netherworld:
'How's returning from the dead? A tad disconcerting, a good deal less spiritual than one might expect. Apparently all it took was a shimmering portal and the insanity of a mad goddess to break the barriers.
Here I am. I suppose a more pertinent question is, how was hell? Sometimes a place made of bone, flesh, blood and fear. At others...pure emptiness personified. Nothingless. A seemingly endless road. You briefly see the light at the end of the tunnel, only to discover that you're where you started and on the road again. There is a river actually, much like Styx of legends and a Charon equivalent. The spirits of the dead rant and bleat at you about your misdeeds. Alas for them, I did not regret anything I did anyway.
Still meeting individuals I killed was...unnerving. Especially when on the Field of Blades they took delight in killing me. See, if you 'die' in the netherworld you just - what is the colloquial term again? - 'respawn'. Spend enough time inside it and the urge to kill or be killed takes over. Insanity and fear grips your mind and encases you. A certain degree of amusement is found when individuals who used to cloak themselves in self-righteousness give in to their baser instincts or go mad from the revelation. There are Sirens, their voice melodious beautiful, their words alluring and meant to lead you into your doom. Listen too long to their song and you fall prey to their illusions.
Those among the dead with enough sense organise themselves into hierarchies. I ran into a girl who called herself Naamah. Apparently her madness was such she thought herself a daemon serving a 'Dark God'. Took delight in tormenting the same victims over and over again. Rather puerile. Presumably she has 'respawned' since I blew her brains out and is continuing her grisly work. I was on the rack of a would-be 'daemon' for a good bit. Several years, I suppose. Then made a deal and took up the razor for her. Before I betrayed and killed her. So much time has passed, everything is so blurred...spend enough in the Netherworld and you forget...but I remember.
This brave new world is...different...and yet so similar. Once again the 'Free Galaxy' confronts the 'Evil Empire' of the Sith. Dramatic. The Republic, bastion of democracy and all that noble rot, is as Jedi-dependent as ever. Perhaps even more. Force-users are like a blight upon the Galaxy, no matter how many perish. Come to think of it, it was amusing how in hell they were suddenly deprived of their powers and brought down to the level of the everyman. Very democratic.
Metalorn, Manaan...seems like I missed a lot.Omega's fall from power gives me some satisfaction, though. Same applies to the war now being waged not on the far Rim, but in the Core, the 'heart of civilisation'. It was high time the affluent experienced tribulation for themselves. Alderaan is infested with the Vong. Disgusting. I wonder whether someone had the sense to rediscover Alpha Red. It looks like a solid method of pest control. Some holonet slicing has revealed there's been someone wearing my face running around. I shall have to kill her someday. Megaera Pajari has no need of her name anymore, so it shall be mine now.'
Basic Information
- Name: Megaera Pajari
Moira Skaldi
- Alias: Ruby, Nikita, Svetlana Kulashenka.
- Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
- Faction: None at the moment
- Force Rank: N/A
- Species: Human
- Planet of Birth: Third world planet in Wild Space.
- Age: Technically in her forties, looks like late twenties.
- Height: 5'8
- Weight: 120 lbs
- Eye colour: Blue
- Hair colour: Blonde
- Complexion: Caucasian
- Force Sensitive: No.
Affiliates:
N/A
Living Relatives:
None of note.
unless you count her mechanical 'clone'
Strengths and Weaknesses:
- Megaera is a very capable fighter, skilled in hand to hand, arms and melee combat. She has good reflexes, is a deft tracker and able to utilise a variety of weapons. Likewise she is an exceptional long distance, far above average, which makes her a very good sniper. She is a good sharpshooter with slugthrowers and blaster rifles.
- What little she has said about her past seems to imply she used to be a soldier t and 'freedom fighter' or terrorist of some sort. As such she is a skilled infiltrator and right at home in the criminal underworld. She is also experienced in the application of torture, having apparently both been on the receiving end of it and utilised it, and interrogation.
- Her training and experiences have been extremely diverse. She's a capable mechanic, a security slicer and computer hacker, a spy and an infiltrator. While she is not the best in any of these things, her skills are quite competent on every count.
- Unfortunately, she has spent a great deal of time locked inside the netherworld and has only recently escaped it. Not only is she very much out of touch with the world since she perished and thus has yet to get used to the changes that have transpired over the years and has no contacts in the real world, the experience has also left her quite mentally unbalanced. One does not simply bounce back after having spent years in the pit of hell. The horrors she saw in the netherworld have left scars, never mind the fact that she died...and then did so again plenty of times while in hell.
- She does not have any sort of superpowers or fancy space magic at her disposal. Thus she is unfortunately not able to mind rape people, crush durasteel with her mind or unleash lightning storms, as useful as these abilities might be. In the end she is just a common human who has to use her brain and combat skills to get by.
- Ultimately her loyalties are to herself. It is doubtful that she was a 'good' person to begin with, but this has probably been exacerbated by her experiences in hell. She does not trust easily and expects betrayal. At the same time she is completely free of moral scruples, but strangely open about it. She has little time for ideologues, crusaders and zealots of all stripes. The more self-righteous they are from her perspective, the more scathing she tends to be.
- She is distrustful and resentful of Force-users. This resentment has actually increased since her time in the netherworld. Needless to say this makes it rather difficult to work with them. In her mind the Galaxy would be better off without 'self-entitled space mages'. Moreover, she is very distrustful of droids, especially more advanced models such as HRDs. This is...extremely ironic.
Personality: Megaera is, to put it plainly, not exactly a pleasant person. Certainly not a 'good' one. She is quite open about her amorality, sarcastic and cynical. Honest self-assessment if a thing she prides herself on. If she had any ideas they have long since died. What she went through in the pit of the netherworld has undoubtedly hardened her, though she is not very talkative about what she experienced there. She has an at times biting, dry wit and her sense of humour tends to be rather on the morbid side.
As mentioned above, she harbours a strong dislike of Force-users, something which has only increased since she crawled out of the Pit and managed to get some understanding about what had transpired in the Galaxy since her death. Far as she is concerned they should all be collared and put on a leash - ideally, but things in the Galaxy often fall short of the ideal and she has learned to live with that. Likewise she strongly distrusts 'thinking machines'. Surprisingly, Megaera is fairly good with children and seems to soften a bit when in their company, though that may just be playacting. She has once said that she worked in an orphanage for a while, though that is probably rather hard to believe!
Wealth and Possessions: Megaera's wealth is rather limited. After all, it's not like the Netherworld had a currency or even a functioning monetary system! Ever since escaping she has come by, but is far from wealthy. She dresses simply and practically, much like a spacer, though she seems to have a certain fondness for more leather. Needless to say she is always armed with at least a concealed hold-out blaster and a vibro-knife, often also a shatter pistol. Well, usually more than one each. After all, you can never be too careful. Recently she has decided that she likes those modern weapons called bolters.
Starship:
A freigher she managed to 'secure' through probably rather illegitimate means.
Biography:
Akala's madness took many forms when she plunged the Galaxy into chaos. First trillions of sentient beings from across the stars were suddenly teleported into the Netherworld for some unknown purpose. Entire star sectors turned insular and isolated themselves, long-dead threats such as the Bando Gora tried to take advantage of the chaos, the great powers found themselves suddenly scrambling for control as their space empires diminished into shadows of their former selves.
It was survival of the fittest, a test where the powers were weighed, measured and sometimes found wanting. At the same time the Force was thrust out of balance, turning wonky and then temporarily failing as Akala drew it all into herself. Corellia was thrice damned and then finally broken in half, which was presumably very unpleasant for any Corellians on the planet since an apocalypse was unleashed upon their planet.
However, at the same time the barriers between this reality and the netherworld broke down. For a while there were portals that connected both realms, enabling passage between them, though at a price. Very briefly it seemed the dead would arise in an infinite legion of doom and march at Akala's command to drown the living, before she was struck down and 'normalcy' returned.
However, two rifts remained, one on Csilla, originally built by Omni, another on the broken remains of Corellia/Lashtu. As if eager to forget the cataclysm, the galactic powers, some having found themselves a good deal less great and reduced in power, soon returned back to business as normal, vying for control over the stars. The metaphysical implications around the Netherworld would, however, spawn entire cults and new religions. During the height of the Second Akala Crisis, some sentients had deliberately sought out the Netherworld through the portals. Sometimes in search of loved ones who had suddenly vanished, sometimes for more ulterior reasons or to seek out those they had lost long ago. Others, who had once been dead, had returned...
For what is dead will never die, but rises again, stronger and harder. Or so it is said. One of those who found their way out of the underworld before Akala was defeated - hopefully for good - was a young, blonde woman dressed in tattered rags, armed with a knife and blaster rifle. She emerged through the portal on Alderaan, a world that had recently gone through the misfortune of being shaped by the Yuuzhan Vong before being reconquered by the Republic.
Alas, going through this portal had the effect of making whoever passed it feel an uncontrollable rage that could only be sated by killing a sentient being. This was quite unfortunate for the Republic soldier she encountered right after leaving, for the poor fellow got his throat cut. Confused, mentally unstable but alive she made her way across the ruins of Alderaa. While Republic soldiers and Vong monsters battled for control over the planet she tried to make her getaway and regain a measure of sanity without being killed in the crossfire.
For a time she ended up in one of the refugee camps that had been established by the Republic in an area less affected by the Vong shaping of the planet. It gave her time to rest and make sense of things as humanitarian aid workers took care of her. Eventually she made sense of how much time had passed since her death. Since her escape from the netherworld she has laid low, passing as an itinerant mercenary and gun for hire. Ostensibly she is just one of many lost souls displaced by the years of war and chaos that have ravaged the Galaxy, just another one lost in the teeming masses. The name under which she goes by is undoubtedly an alias.
Journal of Megaera Pajari, post-escape from the Netherworld:
'How's returning from the dead? A tad disconcerting, a good deal less spiritual than one might expect. Apparently all it took was a shimmering portal and the insanity of a mad goddess to break the barriers.
Here I am. I suppose a more pertinent question is, how was hell? Sometimes a place made of bone, flesh, blood and fear. At others...pure emptiness personified. Nothingless. A seemingly endless road. You briefly see the light at the end of the tunnel, only to discover that you're where you started and on the road again. There is a river actually, much like Styx of legends and a Charon equivalent. The spirits of the dead rant and bleat at you about your misdeeds. Alas for them, I did not regret anything I did anyway.
Still meeting individuals I killed was...unnerving. Especially when on the Field of Blades they took delight in killing me. See, if you 'die' in the netherworld you just - what is the colloquial term again? - 'respawn'. Spend enough time inside it and the urge to kill or be killed takes over. Insanity and fear grips your mind and encases you. A certain degree of amusement is found when individuals who used to cloak themselves in self-righteousness give in to their baser instincts or go mad from the revelation. There are Sirens, their voice melodious beautiful, their words alluring and meant to lead you into your doom. Listen too long to their song and you fall prey to their illusions.
Those among the dead with enough sense organise themselves into hierarchies. I ran into a girl who called herself Naamah. Apparently her madness was such she thought herself a daemon serving a 'Dark God'. Took delight in tormenting the same victims over and over again. Rather puerile. Presumably she has 'respawned' since I blew her brains out and is continuing her grisly work. I was on the rack of a would-be 'daemon' for a good bit. Several years, I suppose. Then made a deal and took up the razor for her. Before I betrayed and killed her. So much time has passed, everything is so blurred...spend enough in the Netherworld and you forget...but I remember.
This brave new world is...different...and yet so similar. Once again the 'Free Galaxy' confronts the 'Evil Empire' of the Sith. Dramatic. The Republic, bastion of democracy and all that noble rot, is as Jedi-dependent as ever. Perhaps even more. Force-users are like a blight upon the Galaxy, no matter how many perish. Come to think of it, it was amusing how in hell they were suddenly deprived of their powers and brought down to the level of the everyman. Very democratic.
Metalorn, Manaan...seems like I missed a lot.Omega's fall from power gives me some satisfaction, though. Same applies to the war now being waged not on the far Rim, but in the Core, the 'heart of civilisation'. It was high time the affluent experienced tribulation for themselves. Alderaan is infested with the Vong. Disgusting. I wonder whether someone had the sense to rediscover Alpha Red. It looks like a solid method of pest control. Some holonet slicing has revealed there's been someone wearing my face running around. I shall have to kill her someday. Megaera Pajari has no need of her name anymore, so it shall be mine now.'
Megaera Pajari is none other than Moira Skaldi. Or rather the human she used to be. Original bio can be found here. Born on Artam, a planet stuck in the dark ages, she was the daughter of a disgraced noble who was originally training to become a priestess.
However, after corsairs came down from space to loot and pillage, she rose up against the corrupt monarchy that held sway over the planet and kept the people in ignorance, making them believe that space was the province of daemons. Joining a proto-communist revolution she became a terrorist and after the ancien régime was overthrown and supplanted by a new form of tyranny she fled the planet. Over the years she was a smuggler, terrorist and eventually a space pirate and slaver, before being 'recruited' by Republic Intelligence when they gave her an offer she could not refuse.
Working as an analyst, field agent and troubleshooter, she was part of an operation to track down then-Jedi Knight [member="Coryth Elaris"] when she went missing after the death of her fiancee, eventually finding out that the Jedi had been taken captive by a Sith and helping her escape from captivity.
When the government of Cato Neimoidia decided to impose a tariff on all ships moving through and about their system, the Republic decided to invade under the guise of removing a dictator and restoring democracy. Moira was on the ground as a field agent who gathered intelligence on planetary defences and, during the invasion itself, saved the 'heroic leader of the democratic resistance' from being killed by the secret police, with the aid of an Atrisian armoured company kindly provided by then-Admiral Kahoshi.
She would finally leave her mark and meet her end on Contruum. Here the Republic backed a vaguely Marx'ist terrorist insurgency against a fascist corporate state. Moira was sent to the planet to help organise, professionalise and direct the resistance to make sure it acted in line with Republic aims...and to prepare contingency plans if it did not.
During the course of the rebellion she, among other things, resorted to speeder bombings and used hundreds of poorly trained irregulars as cannon fodder in order to knock out Contruum's planetary defences and pave the way for a Republic occupation. However, then the Senate got cold feet, the invasion was called off and as a consequence the rebels were massacred by the security forces. Moira vanished and was believed dead, though the Contruum government put a price on her head. Many rebels followed suit, rightly believing they had been betrayed and blaming her for the deception. In truth she had been captured by a militant droid supremacist cult and been taken to Mechanus, a world of machines deep in the Unknown Regions. Here the human her died and a machine rose in her place, one who wore her face, retained her memories and name.
The human her was killed via lethal injection after her mind had been harvested. Her mechanical clone, unaware of her machine nature, would go on to join the Protectorate and rise to become its Chief of Military Intelligence. During the hellish battle of Gehenna against the savage Bando Gora, she was awakened to her true nature. After Moira spent some time freelancing with the Castillon/Merrill Rebel Alliance and the Atrisian Empire, she and Maelion Liates teamed up to found Archangel, a company that would serve as a front for their nefarious schemes to create a dystopia run by well-ordered machines and purge all organics. The human her languished in hell, which was probably what she deserved, until Akala's machinations broke down the barriers between both realities.
However, after corsairs came down from space to loot and pillage, she rose up against the corrupt monarchy that held sway over the planet and kept the people in ignorance, making them believe that space was the province of daemons. Joining a proto-communist revolution she became a terrorist and after the ancien régime was overthrown and supplanted by a new form of tyranny she fled the planet. Over the years she was a smuggler, terrorist and eventually a space pirate and slaver, before being 'recruited' by Republic Intelligence when they gave her an offer she could not refuse.
Working as an analyst, field agent and troubleshooter, she was part of an operation to track down then-Jedi Knight [member="Coryth Elaris"] when she went missing after the death of her fiancee, eventually finding out that the Jedi had been taken captive by a Sith and helping her escape from captivity.
When the government of Cato Neimoidia decided to impose a tariff on all ships moving through and about their system, the Republic decided to invade under the guise of removing a dictator and restoring democracy. Moira was on the ground as a field agent who gathered intelligence on planetary defences and, during the invasion itself, saved the 'heroic leader of the democratic resistance' from being killed by the secret police, with the aid of an Atrisian armoured company kindly provided by then-Admiral Kahoshi.
She would finally leave her mark and meet her end on Contruum. Here the Republic backed a vaguely Marx'ist terrorist insurgency against a fascist corporate state. Moira was sent to the planet to help organise, professionalise and direct the resistance to make sure it acted in line with Republic aims...and to prepare contingency plans if it did not.
During the course of the rebellion she, among other things, resorted to speeder bombings and used hundreds of poorly trained irregulars as cannon fodder in order to knock out Contruum's planetary defences and pave the way for a Republic occupation. However, then the Senate got cold feet, the invasion was called off and as a consequence the rebels were massacred by the security forces. Moira vanished and was believed dead, though the Contruum government put a price on her head. Many rebels followed suit, rightly believing they had been betrayed and blaming her for the deception. In truth she had been captured by a militant droid supremacist cult and been taken to Mechanus, a world of machines deep in the Unknown Regions. Here the human her died and a machine rose in her place, one who wore her face, retained her memories and name.
The human her was killed via lethal injection after her mind had been harvested. Her mechanical clone, unaware of her machine nature, would go on to join the Protectorate and rise to become its Chief of Military Intelligence. During the hellish battle of Gehenna against the savage Bando Gora, she was awakened to her true nature. After Moira spent some time freelancing with the Castillon/Merrill Rebel Alliance and the Atrisian Empire, she and Maelion Liates teamed up to found Archangel, a company that would serve as a front for their nefarious schemes to create a dystopia run by well-ordered machines and purge all organics. The human her languished in hell, which was probably what she deserved, until Akala's machinations broke down the barriers between both realities.
