Anya Venari
Star Queen Tirathana VII
Image Source: Here. Unknown artist.
Name: Countess Selene Tarai, Lady of Oritave and Mistress of the Third Pillar of the Order of the Torch.
Loyalties: Eldorai Matriarchy.
Role: Diplomatic and political ambassador for Queen Tirathana.
Development Threads: Choir of Angels. From post 28 onwards. Selene heads an expedition to establish connections with the other native Qadiri of Tygara.
Age: 105, about 35 in human years.
Species: Eldorai.
Appearance:
Selene is an attractive and tall Eldorai female in early middle age. Though an aristocrat she has not had an easy life. Kidnapped by slavers early into her adult life she suffered cruelly at the hands of her captors. One of her pointed ears was cut off by her Master and her back was severely flogged for her continual stubbornness.
Medical technology has evolved though so her ear was restored and her scars mostly healed. Her back and her ear still appears slightly different though and the scars remain as thin, white lines.
Selene is blonde haired and blue eyed, not unusual for an Eldorai. She is tall, but not exceptionally so. She always wears clothes of the highest quality, favouring silks in blue and silver.
Personality:
Having seen more of the galaxy than most of her fellow Eldorai, Selene lacks the xenophobic and prejudiced view of so many of them. She is a close associate of Firemane and Queen Tirathana, and shares their agendas for opening up to the galaxy.
Selene rejects the dualist view of morality that the Jedi and Sith shared. Like other Eldorai she believes her Sciia is her spiritual power and that it is actions that make one’s destiny, not an energy field shared by all other things. She is broadly Light Side, living by a code of morality based on the Angelii vow.
To Selene loyalty and obedience are key. Once her confidence is betrayed she will only most gradually repair it. She has a very maternalistic view of her staff and subordinates, feeling it is her duty to care for them, but also expecting to live up to their collective sides of the bargain.
In her turn Selene is devotedly loyal to Queen Tirathana, keeping her confidence on many matters and becoming her chief negotiator.
In only one area is Selene’s usually mild nature undone, and that is on the issue of slavery. Having been a slave and seen so many of her people mistreated in this way she has a burning hatred for slavers and slavery. She will never negotiate with slavers and will always seek to free their chattel. This is hardly unique in the Eldorai, but her vehemence is all the more surprising considering her usual mild nature.
Force Sensitivity: Knight level. Once trained by the Angelii she left the order to pursue her political career, but she keeps herself prepared.
Weapon of Choice: Having been trained by the Angelii, Selene carries her Sarix with her, and more recently a Cylix bolt pistol or blaster pistol when needed. She is also a very capable pyromancer, able to summon fire through the Force.
Skills:
Force Skills:
- Advanced: Pyromancy.
- Advanced: Empathy/Force Sense.
- Trained: Telekinesis.
- Trained: Force Barrier.
- Trained: Force Sight.
- Beginner: Force Valour.
- Beginner: Force Speed.
Combat Skills:
- Advanced: Sarixi Duellist.
- Trained: Range Weapons.
- Trained: Other Eldorai Gear.
- Beginner: Explosives.
Non-Combat Skills:
- Fluent (reading/writing and speaking) Eldarai (High and Common), Galactic Basic.
- Can speak Huttese.
- Talented historian and scholar of old Eldorai texts.
- Advanced: Negotiation and Diplomacy.
- Beginner: Pilot.
- Beginner: Electronics/Slicing.
Wealth:
Being Countess of Oritave, in addition to her family inheritance has given Selene a considerable fortune to draw on. The Exodus diminished this as obviously her land was lost. However, she was rewarded on Tygara with a new fiefdom with increased land and income. She has a trade monopoly on the production of timber from the lands around New Santaissa, a very lucrative trade which gives her good relations with Firemane.
She has a large mansion in New Santaissa, several villas on her estates and a suite in the Ashira’s Light station. She also has a personal galactic transport on par with the Nubian Royal Transport ships. She also has a couple of smaller ships to take her from the surface to space.
In practical terms she is a multi-millionaire in modern terms.
Combat Function: As a diplomat, Selene’s primary goal is to avoid combat. However, failing this, she is trained as an Angelii to fight in battle as needed. As she wears no armour and carries only Sarix and pistol, she main aim will be to bring combat into a closer confine where she can strike.
Though out of practice, Selene is more than capable of joining an Angelii shield wall if needed.
Selene’s primary combat Sciiac (Force) skills revolve around pyromancy. She is skilled at summoning flames to roast her enemies, or heating metal to boil them.
Notable Possessions:
- Sarix
- Heirloom necklace with pendant of the Tarai House
- Space yacht
- Mansions and villas, along with suite on the Ashira’s Light station
- Engraved silver ring signifying her position in the Order of the Torch
History:
Selene Tarai is the 9th Countess of Oritave, a position of high regard in the Eldorai peerage. It is said (mainly by the Tarai family) that the first Countess was Divya Tarai, a soldier in the reign of Silaqui II and Ariane the Great.
That time was an era of great strife as the Kar’zun sought to establish dominance over the Eldorai and over all Kaeshana. Divya Tarai was a junior Lady of great ambition and through her connections secured a commission in the army. She was rapidly given an impossible task; to defend the fortress of Oritave against a large Kar’zun army in the aftermath of the defeat at Themiscyra.
Faced by a large Kar’zun force armed with primitive tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery, the Eldorai were forced onto the defensive. However, Divya Tarai was cunning, and manufactured mining equipment along with the weapons of an offworld smugger named Dannus for the defence. Having paid Dannus in pure gold she dismissed the human back to the stars but kept the blasters he had sold them.
This, combined with the mining equipment enabled her to defend the fortress for over a week. The Kar’zun should have pressed on towards Santaissa, but unwisely decided to grind down their enemy like an unstoppable glacier. The delay was enough for Queen Ariane to muster her forces, and in the subsequent Battle of Az’vakarz the Kar’zun were decisively defeated.
One of the few survivors from the garrison was Divya Tarai though she had lost an arm in the final defence. The Queen elevated Lady Tarai to the new rank of Countess of Oritave. Divya’s younger sister Filae, who had been present at the siege assumed the role after Divya died shortly after.
After this, the Tarai family became close supporters of the Queens, though they were never elevated to a Duchy. Instead they had the fortune of securing important marriages with several Queens with their sons. Over the centuries their power and wealth grew as they successfully chose the right side in most of the Byzantine powerplays in the Eldorai court.
When the Evora family took the throne in 214ABY the Tarai family successfully made the jump to the new dynasty. Later during the suspicious years of Maerys II the family were suspect of plotting – which they likely were! – but were not disenfranchised, instead several of their number were taken to the Island of Fallen Angels.
Fortunately, when Maerys II died situations eased. When the Venari dynasty ascended the throne the Tarai family again made the jump successfully, keeping their land and titles intact.
Selene Tarai herself was born in 3037EC, or 744ABY, to Anais and Caelis Tarai, and from early on was treated to a prosperous upbringing. As the middle of three sisters she was expected to be the ‘spare heir’ in case something happened to her sister Tamene. She was thus given a good education with the intent of making her either a priestess or Angelii, depending if she was a Sciian.
Life proceeded well for the young noblewoman, and she showed a quick and enthusiastic energy for her studies which put her in good stead with her tutors. More importantly she began to develop signs of being a Sciian, and her path to the Angelii was cleared so she could join when she was an adult.
However, the young Selene was unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, as offworld slavers came to prey on the Eldorai. As so often their attacks fell on more remote areas – such as Oritave – rather than the bigger centres which could better defend themselves. A large slaver group raided the city, their advanced weapons proving resistant to the Eldorai stasers and explosives.
The Tarai family was targeted and Selene’s family as they could raise the largest ransoms. Selene’s mother was killed, as was her elder sister. Tamene purposefully threw herself from a tower rather than be taken, but Selene was prevented from doing the same and was dragged away.
Of her time as a slave on Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine and elsewhere Selene does not speak of, and extensive elaboration is not required. Suffice to say she was subjected to physical and mental mistreatment to break her, and she almost succumbed. During her captivity her Sciia did come forth and slew several of her tormenters, but she was overpowered and had one of her ear tips cut off as punishment and was put into a cage below a Ysalimiri creature.
It was only during one of the frequent inter-gang battles on Nar Shaddaa that she was accidentally freed. An ill-aimed blaster bolt hit the nutrient frame of the Ysalimiri creature, killing it. Calling on her Sciia she summoned fire and broke her way out with other slaves, killing all in their path before sneaking aboard a freighter, and then by the efforts of an Eldorai Jedi named Adril Tythorin returned to Kaeshana.
When she returned she found the answer to why she had not been ransomed. Her younger sister Morai had decided she liked being the Countess, and had banished their father for speaking out against her. When Selene returned home her sister was angered and arrested her, claiming she was an impostor. Selene’s brother, excluded from the succession as a male, was not deemed to be a threat and so was sent away as well. However, he went to Santaissa but failed to obtain an audience with the Queen. However, he did manage to meet and impress the young princess Anya and she obtained an interview.
Queen Tirathana VI, her own legitimacy somewhat questionable, did not like it when others obtained power against the rules. Therefore she sent a company of Angelii and young Anya to restore the lost heir. Morai was captured and could have faced death but Selene spoke against it. Instead she had Morai placed under comfortable house arrest on one of their estates.
Needing to control her powers and to recover, Selene went to the Angelii and spent ten years in the Corps, learning to control her powers. Her brother and father acted as regent in her absence, a very unusual practice.
With her training complete, Selene returned and became Countess of Oritave in reality. The last years of Tirathana VI’s reign was spent building up her experience and wealth, but also in recovering from the horrors she had suffered. Her knowledge of Galactic Basic made her a perfect ambassador for visitors and she became de-facto ambassador of the Queen.
With the number of outsiders, Selene’s role was expanded to being overseer of the Offworlder Quarter of Santaissa. In the civil war which followed Tirathana VI’s death she opposed Nalia and was able to return a favour for Anya Venari’s sister and help Silaqui become Queen. It was around this time that she met [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] and Tegaea Alcori and having already had a connection to the former through the brief encounter with Adril, she befriended them. Later, after Silaqui’s death she helped Anya ascend the throne in her own right as Tirathana VII.
Her aid to Anya did not go unnoticed and Tirathana rewarded her by making her ambassadorial role official. She was also granted lands from the now defeated rebel faction.
The Exodus was a traumatic moment for all Eldorai, and Selene dedicated almost all her wealth to the cause of moving herself and those under her care across the galaxy. Entrusted to negotiate with the Coalition, she was not near Kaeshana during the final fall, but instead had helped prepare everything for the arrival of the people.
On Tygara Selene was granted her old title and given a large fief named Oritave in memory of the lost Kaeshana lands. She rarely visited her new home though, her brother and father continuing to administer her fief in her absence.
Now the Queen’s top diplomat, and with good relations with Firemane, the Countess is a major player in Eldorai politics. The only troublesome thing is the lack of an heir, as when she dies her sister Morai will become the Countess. This fact is not lost on Morai and she plots against her sister. Selene though knows she must do her duty and produce an heir and so has started to look for a husband.
Intent: To introduce a diplomatic and political character to use in the Tygaran Alliance’s threads. This character is primarily a diplomatic and non-combat NPC, but has the ability to fight if needed. She also serves as a character this writer can use to negotiate without involving the Queen herself.
