HK-17
The Golden Age
The Queen
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"You too are an exile. You mourn for the broad open steppes where you have room to spread your fey wings. Here you feel stifled and constricted, like an eagle that cries and beats against the bars of its iron cage."
-Ozuvyn Sar-Sargoth
The Queen, born as Ikora Venj, was a non-Force-sensitive Arkanian Offshoot female who was exiled from her homeworld of Umbara following a political coup that moved to install her in a seat of power before it ultimately failed. She is known for her exotic Arkanian Offshoot features, with pale white hair and uncommon icy blue eyes. She is noted as having an aura of power that emanates from her. Her aloof and enigmatic demeanor belie a ruthless nature, but she is not above helping others for a price. It is said she now resides beyond the disc of the galaxy, rumoured to be one of the Primeval's many warlords.
Biography
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Early Life (25,000< BBY)
Ikora is embraced
by her parents.
Ikora Venj's birth year is unknown. Estimations have concluded that it was around or prior to 25,000 BBY. From accounts, Ikora was considered quiet and reserved for much of her childhood. She was the single child of two parents, both working in the hospitality industry. She was mostly raised in a cantina as after school, her house was unattended and she would be made to sit around her parents workplace until they were able to take her home, which was around the time she would need to go to sleep. She spent many years of her childhood tinkering with technology and reading, constantly reading.
In her teens she became rebellious and often caused trouble. Whether this involved skipping out on her classes or in some extremes, breaking into stores. She was transferred to different schools until she settled down and became as quiet and reserved as she had been as a small child. In her final years of schooling she met another boy, Tyal, and together they quickly fell in love. She spent most of her days with him, even so far as disappearing from home to be with him. Her unruly behaviour began to spark once again with the introduction of her first partner. They would vanish for days at a time while local law enforcement searched for them.
During the last and latest incident, Ikora's parents decided to move town to keep her as far away from Tyal as possible. She became increasingly more protestant and aggressive, but she was not without her intelligence. She began to fall into the wrong crowd that followed a radical political movement. Through sheer manipulation and carefully choosing her words as she spoke to her new 'friends,' she quickly became the top player in their movement over only a meagre three months.
A young and
rebellious Ikora.
Ikora began to orchestrate a series of terrorist attacks on the Umbaran government. Her movement supported a female monarchy, with governmental positions belonging to females, leaving men out of the government. Her movement was responsible for the killing of key diplomats and the bombing of various media outlets and governmental buildings. Ikora reached out to illegal organisations to allow her movement to be funded. With surprising success, various notable criminal syndicates on Umbara helped her fund her movement, while they had their own personal motives in mind.
Her involvement in the criminal underworld began to increase as her requirement for funding grew. She began to work as a smuggler for the crime lord Basiee, a Chevin known to be a lesser boss for a interstellar criminal syndicate. Ikora had gotten herself into deep waters and was drowning in the favours she owed others. She grew to resent this, but obliged to achieve her goals. The government continued to be harassed, and buckled under the pressure the terrorist movement was placing on them. Martial law came into effect, bills were passed that dictated any members of Ikora's movement would be met with capital punishment.
The crime lord Basiee began to see the futility in the movement. He set out to ambush her and take her in for a handsome reward. It would pay for two-thirds of what she initially owed him, as she had already paid him half of her debt in favours. This would result in a handsome paycheque for his troubles. He organised a meeting with her, and upon Ikora's arrival she was met by three bounty hunters. With surprising speed, agility and strength, she managed to outwit and overpower the bounty hunters, going so far as to bringing a pipe from the ceiling down on one of their heads and caving in the Rodian's skull. She was ultimately foiled when the Chevin took matters into his own hand. He took Ikora by surprise, curling his large taloned fingers around her throat and raising her off the ground.
Basiee captures
Ikora Venj.
Ikora knew her fate the moment she had been captured. She was hidden in a remote location, kept in a stone cell located underneath the structure. She still cannot quite recall where she was, only that she felt a dark presence while there. A presence that seeped into her very soul, that which woke her up each night in a cold sweat with an unexplainable sense of horror. She knew she had to escape before she was handed over to the government, and so as each day brought her closer to her fate, she trained her mind and body.
She kept a schedule in her mind. She roughly estimated what time she was brought her meals, when the guards would rotate, and which guard was the weakest link. She knew that a herd was only as good as its weakest link, and she meant to capitalise with this knowledge in mind. When the guards rotated shift, and her meal was brought in, she executed her escape. A droid came in with a plate across his raised palms, offering it to her. She came closer, twisted her body and delivered a powerful kick to the droid. He stumbled and fell. Ikora took the opportunity to make a run for it.
Ikora makes her escape.
The droid was quick to catch up. He moved to tackle her, but she leapt out of his range. She sprinted down the corridor until she came across a metal chain. Using the metal chain, she swung her body around in a fast twirl before unloading a heavy swing into the droids cranium. He fell with a heavy thud, but unbeknownst to her, his sudden destruction had activated an alarm. The corridors swarmed with bounty hunters, smugglers, pirates and every type of criminal you could find on the strange planet of Umbara. There was no hesitation when they took her down, and she didn't go down without a fight. She bit, clawed and spat in vain attempts of escape.
Ikora is returned
to her prison cell.
Ikora stood trial, and much to her surprise and dismay, Tyal was one of those on the board. It was never known to her that her former partners father had been a member of the government in the area of law. She was to be met with a public execution that hoped to defeat the political movement. It was only the near-begging of Tyal that kept her from being killed. It was decided that she would be exiled. Those on council agreed that death was a blessing, a peaceful end and a release from life. She would suffer for infinitude, a most extreme and perverse form of punishment, and one of a kind. A decommissioned sleeper ship was brought back.
The sleeper ship would be commandeered by a group of droids. Two to act as guards alongside a pilot droid. They would enter unknown coordinates before self-destructing, leaving Ikora in animated sleep until the ship inevitably collided into an object in space, and in the rare instance it did not, she would live in suspended animated sleep until the end of days. The horror she had known in the prison cell beneath the crime lords house came back to her tenfold. She screamed and shrieked to be killed, it took three guards to restrain her before they knocked her out.
Ikora and Tyal share a final kiss.
When she awoke, she found Tyal kneeling before her. They had kept her in unconsciousness until her departure. Through bribery, Tyal managed to have a final hour with her. They spent the entire time talking about the life she could have had if she didn't join the movement. What a life they could have had together. As she began to be shepherded onto the sleeper ship that was broadcasted globally, Tyal thrust himself into her arms and delivered a long kiss in farewell.
She boarded the ship, where the droid settled her down onto a smooth platform. The Queen has never been able to recall what happened in her final waking moments before she was induced into suspended animation. Few records that exist indicate that once the sleeper ship departed from the system, the droids successfully self-destruct and the ship, by records on Umbara, was never seen or heard from again. It sprouted a generation of bedtime stories of a witch that slept in a ghost ship, haunting the dreams of naughty children.
Post-Gulag Plague (830> ABY)
"The Queen does not concern herself with the frivolous false proclamation of a moribund empire."
-Ikora Venj to Romeo Sin
Ikora is found in
820 ABY, over
25,000 years later.
A primitive sleeper ship was reported to be floating into the Wayland System. A droid was sent to recover the ship, during the process the ship was compromised. The droid placed the sleeping Ikora in an environmental suit before attempting to transport her back to the droids small freighter. During the process, she was inadvertently awoken as she was ripped away from the machines keeping her in suspended animation. Screaming and flailing, there was nothing but fear in her. She didn't know who she was, where she was or why. She was brought against her will on the freighter where she was handed over to a team of scientists.
Ikora, frightened and alone,
tries to escape her rescuers.
As she was handed over, she grew into a frenzy. Memories surged back into her mind. She didn't know how long she had been out, or even who the strange aliens were that were pinning her down. They told her they were holding her down for her own safety, but in that moment she felt otherwise. They sedated her and brought her back to Wayland to question her. During the interrogation it was revealed she thought she was in a different time, and when they revealed all that had happened, what year it was, she had grown quiet and stop resisting.
When she began to talk again, three days later, she had grown a small following. She found this land strange, but their warriors proud and powerful. She began to manipulate them, carefully choosing her words as she had done so long ago. She was revered, for all they knew, she was the only living product of her time. She was an artefact, and while some vowed to keep her safe, against her will, others pledged their allegiance to free her. To allow her to do as she wished. She started a cult following that grew, and before she knew it, she had millions looking up to her as an idol.
She boarded a vessel with her allies, and began to jump system-to-system, puling in the dregs of each society. She manicured her brood, keeping only the most loyal to her along her journey. When she arrived in the Liech System, it was by accident as the navigational computer had failed. They were sent hurtling through hyperspace before they were able to fix the systems, several weeks later. When they emerged, they found themselves beyond any known sector in space, deep in the Unknown Regions, and furthermore, slightly beyond the galactic disc.
Their arrival was met by a Host Lord of the Primeval. They spoke, albeit briefly, and the Host Lord told tales of ruin and destruction upon the planet. It is said the planet was nearing a Type I civilisation, but had faced extinction at the hands of the Primeval for they did not bow to their demands. Seeing a way of survival for her and those who had come with her, Ikora now known as The Queen bargained the life of those who followed her and in return they would serve the Host Lord, and the High King of Gulamendis. An agreement was made.
The Queen rules over the entire Liech system, ensuring patrols are sent regularly to defend her borders. Those in the Primeval know her as The Queen, or furthermore The Queen of the Reef, a moniker derived from the nebula that encompasses the Liech system. Those who followed her roam the wastelands of the planet, finding pickings and scavenging for a living. They're considered the most die-hard scavengers in the galaxy, willing to find even a nickel and turn it into something beautiful. They move in large groups, much alike to the Tuskens of Tatooine.
The Queen is held in a zealous favour among the sentients on Tuas. She is seen as a divine leader and their provider. She saved them from annihilation at the hands of the Primeval, and brought prosperity to them by discovering Tuas. Albeit its discovery was total accident. The Queen rules aboard a station that orbits the very edge of the star system, flocked by only the most extreme and worthy warriors of her people. Those of Tuas are considered ferocious, and do not welcome outsiders. They have become a recluse society.
Ikora began to move her pawns, setting the board for a galactic-sized game of chess. She herself traveled to the far flung empire of Shadow, where she met Romeo Sin. She fooled his heart and played coy with him, all the while trying to manipulate him to join the Primeval. She twisted and bent history for her own desires, but it was not enough. She knew that he wouldn't join, and neither did she want to leave any traces behind that she had been there. She spoke of his children, collecting their names while feigning she was interested. When she departed, she had made certain he was close to the ship. She ignited the engines, and locked onto Romeo. She fired a salvo of concussive missiles mean't to destroy him, spraying the turf with the combined fire of four laser canons, but even in such close proximity, he had somehow survived. She quickly fled back beyond the galactic disc.
An interloper was found on Tuas, and Ikora immediately took action into her own hands. She led a search party deep into the grassy plains of Tuas, burning entire forests down to ash just to root the Jedi out. Finally, he was found in a field of fallen fighters. He cut a path of destruction towards her, a typhoon that destroyed all in its way. Finally, he came to attack the Queen. She acted with sheer ferocity, both times she defeated him in her prowess of martial arts. He was knocked to the ground, pulled onto his knees while Ikora slit his throat as a warning to the Ession Reformation. The Queen is not to be meddled with.
Personality
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The Queen is manipulative and has shown herself to be perhaps of the galaxies greatest speakers. She holds such a silver tongue that she could convince most to murder their mothers. Her skill in understanding emotions is a gift she utilises to the best of her abilities, and has placed her where she is now. She can be quiet and reserved, but is not shy from speaking. While she rarely leaves the Reef Nebula, there are occasions she will travel out, alone or with a fleet at her back. Her aloof and enigmatic demeanor belie a ruthless nature, but she is not above helping others for a price.
Strengths and Weaknesses
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The Queen is ruthless in combat, preferring close-quarters fighting over ranged combat. She is known to excel in utilising a quarterstaff and is well adapted to martial arts, but lacks heavily in firearms. Her lack of force-sensitivity makes her prone to Force-based attacks, and her limited versatility in combat can be capitalised on by a lightsaber.
