OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Flesh out Kaida's posse.
Image Credit: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Eldorai, Qadiri, Vashyada, To Hell and Back, Eldorai Exodus, Twin Exiles, Xioquo, Lavina Taldir, Eyrecae, Telara Maedis, Tryana.
CREW INFORMATION
Crew Name: The Vanguard of Duty.
Crew Type: Ship’s Crew, Comrades-in-Arms, Officer's Command Staff.
Base of Operations: Ardent Duty.
Crew Size: 12.
Loyalties: Kaida Taldir, Asuran Star Combine, Shadow Knights (lore submission), Shadow Knights, Court of the Shadows, Exemplars.
Description: The Vanguard of Duty are the senior crew of the Ardent Duty, Kaida's frigate, as well as part of the command squad of her unit. Like their boss, they belong to the Shadow Knights, a group of Eldorai and Tygaran renegades. A close knit community of exiles from Kaeshana and Tygara, the Shadow Knights are committed to independence. This applies not just to the more overt slavery of Hutts and Sith, but also the dependence on other races for supplies and equipment. Culturally, the Shadow Knights cannot full escape their origins and have adopted a polyglot system of a stratocratic oligarchic republic which is more representative than a monarchy whilst still retaining a strong executive. In their society, service guarantees citizenship, which grants voting rights and the right to run for political office.
The Shadow Knights are insular and do not seek recruits from outside the twin planets' origins. Their main goal is to maintain their freedom but also to ensure that their kin are not oppressed. Their society is built around a nomad fleet centred on a worldship. Within this context, Kaida acts as one of their commanders. She has been put in charge of the Ardent Duty, a dramatically named strike frigate. With powerful armaments and stealth systems, it is designed for rapid strikes, raids and preying on enemy supply lines.
It is expected to operate on its own or with minimal support for extended durations of time. The assault frigate has enough space to accommodate a battalion-sized unit, meaning Kaida can bring her whole posse along with her. Obviously she cannot micromanage every aspect of her command, so she needs people to delegate certain tasks to. This especially applies to various fields related to running a ship. Thus the Vanguard is an important component of her command, along with her regular companions Eyrecae Alzari, Lavina Taldir, Tryana and Telara Maedis.
While Kaida has caught up on many things since joining a spacefaring society, she is a groundpounder, not a professional naval officer. Thus the crew includes people who help run the ship or are involved in commanding its marine contingent. Reflecting the makeup of the Shadow Knights, their backgrounds are rather diverse. They range from deserted Angelii to professional revolutionaries to adventurers or political exiles from Tygara.
Life aboard the Ardent Duty is austere. Kaida's interactions with the crew are professional. She is not the type of superior who lets her hair down in private. She is an introvert and a somewhat abrasive, very stoic stickler for rules. Everything must be neatly filed, uniforms must look orderly and everyone must participate in regular drills to stay in combat shape. She has zero tolerance for slacking, drunkenness, disobedience, cowardice and similar failings. The ship has a punishment room. There soldiers are punished for lack of discipline and other misdeeds. It is unofficially known as Kaida's Gym. The canings will continue until morale improves.
Kaida's personality is very cold, dour and laconic. However, she is also scrupulously fair in her treatment of her subordinates. The discipline she enforces is a harsh one, but it is applied equally. Indeed when an officer commits a crime she receives a greater punishment than an enlisted soldier or non-commissioned officer because an officer should have a better understanding of the crime and her responsibility. This means a senior officer might be shot for a crime an enlisted soldier might get caned for. Kaida is sexist and does not like having males in her crew, but she will not tolerate maltreatment of them. Loot acquired on raids is shared fairly, though important things will obviously be sent back to the worldship. Moreover, she is fine with doing unglamorous work normally considered beneath an officer.
In Kaida's view, the law is an unyielding bar to which society bends, not the other way round. The law must protect and treat every citizen fairly. Even the strange ones. Whoever violates the law undermines and endangers the nation. Anyone who does their duty is a citizen, even if they do strange but not unlawful things in their private lives. Personal feelings on a citizen's habits are irrelevant. She is also fond of venting slavers, Ren and Sith into the cold void of space. Kaida has a strict policy against fraternising with her crew. When one of her officers made inappropriate advances and tried to seduce her, Kaida had her caned for conduct unbecoming. Then kicked her off the ship.
Like any warship, the crew of the Ardent Duty is a mixture of naval personnel, support staff and marines. The ground forces contingent is quite large, as the frigate is supposed to carry out raids, boarding operations and so on. The Vanguard of Duty, like the crew as a whole, it is composed of both Force-Users and Non-Force-Users. Kaida is a former member of the Angelii, the Force-Using shock troops and palace guards of the Eldorai Matriarchy, and has joined the Shadow Knights' equivalent, the Caerith Tyari.
She commands one of their companies, the Exemplars, who use the ship as a mobile base. They are organised as a military unit rather than a sect of space wizards. The crew includes both Eldorai and Tygaran elves. For all of Kaida's flaws, she is not racist towards the 'little sisters'. In a weird sort of way, she appreciates a good number of them more than her own people. Kaida must obviously follow instructions from high command. Suffice to say her superiors would react extremely poorly if she hung up on them during a holo-conference. The Shadows run a tight ship, after all. However, the fact that she will spend long periods of time on the fringes of space away from the main fleet gives her a bit of leeway. This also means that they only have a limited supply line.
By necessity, they are masters of improvisation. The Ardent Duty is far from a new, shiny ship. Indeed, it is not pretty on the outside and living conditions are very cramped, but it works and has a couple exotic weapons. A lot of their equipment has been stolen, purchased on the black market or acquired through raids. To varying degrees, the members of the group tend to come from the fringes of Eldorai or Tygaran society. This tends to be where the Shadows recruit their people from, so it is not exceptional per se. After all, outcasts are the ones with the biggest incentive to join a rebellion since they do not reap the benefits of the old order. Needless to say the Vanguard does not encompass the Ardent Duty's entire crew, as it is a frigate, or even Kaida's whole posse, but it consists of some key members.
CREW MEMBER 1
Name: Nimari Valansir
Age: 81
Species: Eldorai
Role: Executive Officer of the Ardent Duty. While she has some understanding of space combat, Kaida is not a trained space warfare officer, so Nimari is the senior naval officer aboard the frigate.
Description: Nimari is the senior naval officer on the Ardent Duty. Back in the day, she served in the Eldorai's surface navy, reaching junior officer rank in the water fleet. However, she grew disgusted with the royalists' inability to stop the foreign raiders, as well as their practice of trying to hide it from their people. When Tirathana VI died and a struggle for the succession broke out, Nimari threw in her lot with Nalia, the candidate of the militarists.
The princess promised to restore Kaeshana to greatness and drive back the foreign invaders. However, her coup attempt was foiled by the Omega Protectorate, who put her cousin Silaqui in power. Nimari regarded the new ruler as a foreign puppet and was forced to flee in the aftermath. She spent a stint with the Lords of Fringe, which allowed her to acquire knowledge about starship command, piloting and space combat. Later she fought the Matriarchy. She ended up working with Naesala Faethyra. This is a bit ironic since Nalia was the exact opposite of a revolutionary, but people can play multiple roles. Moreover, Nimari's motivation was a desire for Eldorai self-determination. She didn't want to bow to Kaeshana's foreign masters.
Nimari has been with the Shadows since the Exodus and shared her skills with them. The Eldorai renegades were left with few ships and even fewer trained naval personnel, so they had to start practically from the ground up. This ensured steady promotion for those with experience, though attrition took a considerable toll, especially in the early days. Nimari was injured during the Battle of Kaeshana. When the First Order took control, she sacrificed her ship to help Eldorai refugees escape the planet. She survived, but the loss of many of her crew members and her command weighs heavily on her.
Nimari was raised in the Ashiran faith, as was the law under the ancien régime, but has since converted to Illyrianism. However, she believes the Eldorai must help themselves before waiting for the goddess to solve their problems. Illyrians were persecuted by Church and State, and thus her faith shows her revolutionary credentials. Nimari is a good pistol shot and has skill with a blade, but her primary role is ship command, not frontline combat. Kaida is not a naval officer and thus does not understand the intricacies of space warfare beyond the basics.
This is a role Nimari fills. She has authority over the ship crew and the bridge officers. Moreover, she is in charge of the ship during when Kaida is not aboard.Their interactions are not free of tension. Here it plays a role that Kaida fought alongside the 'loyalists' who backed Silaqui. At the time she was a soldier of the Omega Protectorate, having been forced to go into exile under Tirathana VI. Kaida is not apologetic about her past choices. Nimari is not pursuing old grudges, but finds herself validated.
In a way, Nimari is also there to keep an eye on the former Angelii and make sure the ship is not misused. While the commander used to be a royalist, she rebelled early on and never returned to the Matriarchy's services. Thus she is respected by the Forsaken and former insurgents alike. Kaida's biography, on the other hand, is a far less straightforward. Nimari has spent most of her life in the military in one way or another and this is reflected in her professional attitude.
CREW MEMBER 2
Name: Iae'Vraz
Age: 69
Species: Xioquo
Role: Aide-de camp to Kaida. Because he is reliable, good with sums and records, he also doubles as the supply officer, holding the post of purser and captain's clerk. This makes him responsible for handling all money on the ship, as well as supplies. In other words, he's the chief accountant, clerk and record-keeper.
Description: Kaida's present adjutant is a Xioquo male called Iae'Vraz. Their relationship was quite poor at first. She eventually came to grudgingly appreciate him after she realised he was actually useful. His predecessor was a female Eldorai who was just as sexist as Kaida. But she was sloppy and committed the unforgivable sin of not writing out her boss' orders clearly. Kaida's new assistant is a lot more reliable. One might note that, even by Eldorai standards, Xioquo society is extremely misandrist.
Vraz has a mind for sums and is good at cataloguing, organising and filing. For this reason he also handles supply matters. Thus he is stuck with doing a lot of the paperwork, as well as inspecting supplies and handling the money. This is a rather unglamorous job, but also an important one because the Ardent Duty will often be out of contact with the nomad fleet for extended durations of time. This means that its crew does not have much in the way of a regular supply line. They must acquire a lot of their equipment and supplies through raids, salvage, black market purchases and outright theft. Kaida has an understanding of low level logistics and a very dour, unexcitable personality. Thus she actually appreciates the work that must be put into keeping her command afloat, instead of dismissing it as bean-counting and pen-pushing like more a flamboyant commander might.
Vraz was born into a noble family, but legally only females could own property or represent themselves in courts before their head of house or at a religious court. As a male he belonged to a sub-class, barely above slaves. He chafed under these restrictions, but had to conform. He was expected to enter an advantageous marriage to further the influence and power of his family. So he was married to a mistress from another noble family. However, she was an abusive, tyrannical sociopath and treated him very cruelly. The two families remained allies for political reasons and he had to continue to play his part, hide his trauma and obey. When he made the mistake of having an affair with a servant girl, it ended poorly for both of them.
The family of his wife eventually fell into disgrace. Of course, this was for political reasons, as they had run afoul of courtly intrigue. Oppression in Xioquo society was systemic, after all, and the government was a totalitarian dictatorship. Vraz was not purged because he was a possession that could be reallocated as his family's interests dictated. So he was promptly remarried. His new wife lacked the cruelty of his first and made better of his skills. However, he still had to obey her without question and was mostly an ornament for her to show off. She took him along on a raid like a harem pet, but he was able to slip away during the bloodletting.
This brought its own share of hardships though. His life had been oppressive, but he had also been shielded from how the common people lived and what they endured. This meant he had little understanding of the outside world. However, he was able to link up with the 'sky people' and provide them with some information on the Xioquo. But Vraz saw too much of his old mistress in the Firemane and elf queens, and eventually sought out something outside of the establishment.
He found it with the Shadow Knights. Of course, life with the rebels is not a shiny and happy utopia. Leaving aside the fact that quite a few Shadows still have unenlightened beliefs about gender roles, he has also faced stigma due to his background as a noble. After all, his family had owned slaves and he had benefited from being privileged. For this reason a group of Xioquo males from the underclasses who agitated for equal rights refused to accept him as someone who had been oppressed. He was even accused of embellishing his story and dismissing the ordeal of the true oppressed.
Vraz had a thick skin though and joined the military as a path to attaining citizenship. Though given dead-end jobs, he displayed great courage under fire. When his commander lost her nerve during a fight with Kraal, he was able to rally soldiers and essentially shame them into standing their ground. For this he was commended, but also incurred the disfavour of a senior official who had been the commander's patron. On paper, being assigned to Kaida's command is a promotion, which has the side-effect of getting him out of the way.
CREW MEMBER 3
Name: Tarthanal Siladal
Age: 75
Species: Eldorai
Role: Apothecary. Head Medicus. In other words, the chief medical officer of the Ardent Duty.
Description: Tarthanal is the chief medical officer aboard the Ardent Duty. This makes him the ultimate medical authority and he is not shy about invoking doctor's orders when he has to deal with recalcitrant patience. This is probably for the best, since she has to deal with many stubborn individuals who insist on being bad patients. He does not take kindly to a patient yanking off their I.V. A soldier who has been hospitalised will stay in bed until he says otherwise. Tarthanal is not a former insurgent, rogue or Angelii. Instead he was simply one of the poor unfortunate souls who did not have the luck - or connections - to receive one of the coveted silver tickets of embarkation that would have guaranteed them a place in the exodus fleet when nemesis came to Kaeshana.
A lottery system combined with a pick of the best scientists and vital trades had been set aside to be evacuated. The rest would have to try and get aboard any ships if they could. He did not have that luck. Tarthanal was Force-Sensitive, but had joined the medical profession rather than the Angelii because the latter only accept women. So he became a nurse - a stereotypical male profession in Eldorai society - and worked in a run-of-the-mill clinic at the time of the exodus. Tarthanal was of humble origins and lacked the means to pay a smuggler to take him off-world, especially since demand had really inflated prices.
When the asteroid impacted upon Kaeshana, the planet was devastated. Those in the most remote areas did the best to start with, but in the towns and cities death and disease were rampant. He was one of the survivors of the apocalypse. His medical training, though limited, allowed him to act as a bush doctor who cared for the people abandoned in the blasted wasteland. He became a doctor mainly through on the job training.
Resources were scarce, strife was endemic and foreign raiders sensed opportunity. Oftentimes the only form of justice was a rough form of street justice that came out of the barrel of a gun. Tarthanal was forced to become a hardened survivalist to protect himself and his patients. Suffice to say it was not the place for squishy healers. He became a tough, resourceful man, who could make the most out of scarce supplies and stand up to warlords and gangs.
Tarthanal was often called upon to travel long distances, and sometimes treated sick since few veterinarians were handy. His skills made him valued, but the stress and the trauma caused him to turn to the bottle. He joined the Shadow Knights because they needed doctors and he and the refugee community he belonged to needed protection. He has now been with the group for a long time and is considered one of its old members.
When an epidemic broke out and the Shadows had to impose a harsh quarantine, he provided aid to the sick at great personal risk to himself. Tarthanal was on Kaeshana during the battle. Running a field clinic in the ruins of Santaissa, which were wracked by a blizzard, he recovered wounded soldiers under fire from First Order walkers. He was evacuated from the planet following the Alliance withdrawal and has remained with the nomad fleet since then. There he helped set up a proper medical infrastructure, which eventually became the Court of Healing. He was assigned to the Ardent Duty due to his medical skills, professionalism and ability to remain cool under stress.
CREW MEMBER 4
Name: Nalaea Eilcyne
Age: 75
Species: Eldorai
Role: Nalaea is the Eldorai officer in command of one of the two squadrons of attack craft that are part of the Ardent Duty's complement.
Description: Nalaea is the commander one of the two squadrons of the Ardent Duty's complement of attack craft. She is a talented pilot and starfighter commander who can pilot most small craft. She comes from a military family. Her ancestors flew Bladesingers during the great war against the Kar'zun as well as several Eldorai civil wars; she graduated to flying a modern starfighter in the cold void of space. Nalaea participated in the battle to defend Kaeshana from the First Order. However, she was shot down during the engagement and stranded behind enemy lines. She was unable to make her way back to the Matriarchy's forces during the retreat from the war-torn planet, but was rescued by the Shadow Knights after having to go on the run from the First Order.
She was treated by the Ardent Duty's future doctor, who nursed her back to health. Originally, Nalaea intended to return home, but ultimately decided to stick around with the rebels. Legally this makes her a deserter. Though purists distrusted her for being an 'ex-royalist' and an 'exodite', she proved herself in many engagements against Imperial factions and Archangel. Moreover, they had few good pilots and attrition had been high. For a while she served as an instructor and helped the Shadows set up a rudimentary, mobile flight school to train new combat pilots. She is right at home in a cockpit or with a pair of good blasters in her hands.
Kaida had her predecessor court-martialled, demoted and publicly flogged for drunkenness on duty. She was a war hero with an impressive kill record, but as far as Kaida was concerned this did not put her above military law. Naleae is not an infallible ace, but competent and brave in a fight. However, she has a somewhat complicated relationship with her fellow starfighter commander Kytara Valon, who is in overall command.
Kytara suffered near-fatal injuries during a battle with Archangel, but the Shadows saved her life via an experimental procedure that resulted in her consciousness being transferred into a spirit gem. Naleae did not wish her ill, but is a bit resentful of her superior. This ties in with her Ashiran religious beliefs, which make her uncomfortable among soulstone elves. She views the process as a form of necromancy, which goes against Ashira's precepts on life, and thus worries about their souls. Moreover, she is a bit unhappy about being passed over for command.
CREW MEMBER 5
Name: Kamran Jal Mazdak
Age: 75.
Species: Qadiri.
Role: Senior intelligence officer. While the exact term is not used, Kamran essentially acts as the G-2 of Kaida's command. This makes him responsible for collecting and analysing intelligence to determine the strength, intentions and actions of the enemy. He is also responsible for security clearances and operational security.
Description: Kamran is a eunuch and a spy who acts as the Ardent Duty's chief intelligence officer. This is a job he is well-versed in, as he has ample experience trading in secrets on his native Tygara, the homeworld of his race. He does not have the Force, but is extremely perceptive and has a knack for reading people. He is not some sort of genius mastermind, but very good at adapting when circumstances change or unexpected events throw a wrencher into his schemes. Kamran has a talent for disguises. He is rather bemused by the Eldorai's gender wars. While not egalitarian, the less technologically developed Qadiri are actually more progressive in gender matters.
Kamran was enslaved at such an early age that he barely remembers his family. His childhood was a peaceful, pastoralist life. Until the young boy was captured by slavers, forcibly separated from his family and shipped away to serve foreign elites. He became another statistic in an epidemic slave trade that spanned across Tygara. The young boy was put on auction in a slave market in a port. Auctioners peddled the frightened boy as if he was no different from the silks, spices, coffee beans and sugar that could be purchased in the bazaar.
He was eventually purchased by a merchant, who gave him a new name to further separate him from his origins. To increase his value and make him a useful business aseset, the merchant taught him to read, write and help him as an accountant. Moreover, he had him turned into an eunuch. Once his education was complete, Kamran was sold to a Qadiri noble family. Being an eunuch gave him a low social standing, but also access to the corridors of power. He could not inherit and did not have the Force, so he was not seen as a threat. In Qadiri society, eunuchs are generally seen as not having external allegiances, as they cannot sire offsprings and pass on lands or tites, so they are usually seen as more trustworthy. Moreover, they can easily be replaced or killed, since they lack a concrete power base of their own and have a low social standing.
Originally, Kamran served as a royal guard in his liege lady's household. However, a more senior eunuch called Malik Jal Kafar, who served as a general and viceroy, recognised his talent and took him under his wing. Young Karmal learned a lot about administration, strategy and spycraft, serving as his mentor's spy and hatchet man. He kept his secrets and buried the bodies. However, after his mistress died, Malik tried to usurp control by putting her minor son in power as a puppet. The regency was short-lived, and Malik was assassinated by the dead Mirza's former bodyguards, who resented the actions he had taken against their dead mistress' family. Kamran insists he was not involved, but maintains his mentor doomed himself by ignoring his warnings. He was absent when the bloodletting took place, having absconded with enough gold to buy himself safe passage.
Kamran is a good spy and not distracted by pleasures of the flesh. His mind is sound, and he is highly adaptive. He is of below average height and has a lean figure, but is stronger and more high-spirited than is apparent on first sight. For obscure reasons, he is very knowledgeable about poisons. He has an almost ascetic personality. For this reason, he gets on surprisingly well with Kaida. Kamran despises the old nobility and claims that he does what he does 'for the people', though his actual goals are more ambiguous. He is no stranger to committing ruthless actions if he believes it serves a greater purpose. Kaida is cynical about such claims.
His primary role is to provide his superior with the right information that allows her to make informed decisions. Aside from the crew of her ship, Kaida has a battalion sized command, so he has a good deal of influence. Flawed intelligence or bad analysis of it can spell doom for a mission. The intelligence he produces is supposed to help his boss plan operations and deploy her troops effectively. Moreover, he is responsible for security clearances, controlling classified information and operational security.
CREW MEMBER 6
Name: Sravana Jaivalis
Age: 68
Species: Vashyada/ Qadiri halfbreed.
Role: Commander of a marine detachment that is stationed aboard the Ardent Duty. They protect the ship, but also participate in offensive operations, such as boarding actions.
Description: Sravana is a tough Vashyada warrior and in command of the Ardent Duty's marine detachment. She has brought a small but battle-hardened group of her fellow wood elves with her. Of all the Eldorai's cousin races, the Vashyada are the least technologically developed. Divided into various tribal chiefdoms nominally under the suzerainty of a dyarchic monarchy, they are hunter-gatherers. They are, however, well-attuned to nature and their Force adepts are strong in the Light.
The Vashyada were strong in defending their homes in the deep forests against Qadiri and Xioquo incursions, but lacked viable means to strike back, relying on asymmetrical warfare, deception and guile. Sravana came from a clan that lived far away from the capital city of Vastyro and had often been the target of foreign incursions. Indeed, she did not grow up in Yarkul, but in distant Khajwar, which lay on another continent and was mostly inhabited by Qadiri.
Here, her people were less isolated than their kin. This allowed them to trade, but also meant they did not have the benefit of being protected by the main group. Her tribe alternated between being hostile to the Qadiri city-states and mountain clans and trading with them. Sometimes they let the Qadiri hire some of their Rangers as irregulars. Sravana has mixed Qadiri and Vashyada ancestry. This is not uncommon for her tribe, which had many Vash/Qadiri halfbreeds due to being joined by Qadiri mercenaries, adventurers, escaped slaves or fugitives. Her tribe calls itself the Abhrazia.
They had a somewhat mixed culture and even a mix of names, meaning she grew up in a cultural melting plot. Her maternal grandfather was a Qadiri peasant who fled exploitative tax collectors and stumbled upon the tribe. At first he was indentured, but then set free and married into the tribe. Sravana learned how to ride a Yazgid. She speaks Prosabia, but often incorporates Qadiri loanwords. Her people lived a nomadic existence in the swamps and forests, but adapted some foreign technology. With no illustrious ancestry or patron, she made herself a name as a huntress, raider and mercenary. The Vashyada warrior took the unorthodox step of starting to traing a small elite unit with - by Tygaran standards - 'modern' weapons stolen from fallen enemies or bartered from Qadiri traders, as well as small ships.
As was typical for the Vashyada's militia structure, these warriors provided their own equipment, though Sravana took steps to train them in the use of rifled acquired from the outsiders. Using war canoes and armed with bows, javelins and primitive rifles, this group of warriors ambushed Xioquo and Qadiri. They lay in ambush, steered their boats close to the enemy to fire, then swiftly retretreated in order to have time to reload before returning to attack again.
The coming of the sky people changed many things, and much of it for the worse. The Qadiri of Khajwar received support from the humans of Firemane, provided they played ball and submitted to their sky overlords. Some defied them, regarding them as foreign invaders. At the same time the Vashyada of Yarkul established contact with their distant brethren. Sravana was one of the Vashyada who found these changes disagreeable. She wanted to be free from the control of the more dominant old Qadiri rulers and the exploitative human overlords. Thus when the opportunity presented itself, she and her small unit came over to the Shadow Knights when the rogues carried out a recruitment drive in the area. Sravana showed her skills when she rescued one of their agents after an operation went awry.
Her heritage makes Sravana strong and robust, but she is also quite agile. She has inherited a diminished form of the Qadiri's inherent navigational talent and learned how to pilot small craft. Unlike her brethren in Yarkul, she has no special reverence for Lady Tylania. To her the Paragon is a semi-mythical figure she has never met. Indeed, some of the members of her tribe are descended from Vashyada who called Tylania a fraud and tried to usurp her. Sravana's personal spirituality is a mixture of Qadiri and Vashyada beliefs. She is fairly laid-back and has a certain roguish charm, though she is focused on the job.
CREW MEMBER 7
Name: Faelar Joceran
Age: 62
Species: Eldorai
Role: Head Mechanicus. In short, the chief engineer aboard the Ardent Duty. The frigate has a number of experimental systems, which makes the position even more important than usual.
Description: Faelar is the chief engineer of the Ardent Duty. She grew up in the Eldorai Matriarchy on Kaeshana. Her formative years were spent during a time of transition for the Eldorai. After having done all it could to insulate itself from the rest of the galaxy, the Matriarchy was reluctantly opening up in order to acquire the technology and know-how to defend itself against external threats. For many centuries the Eldorai had believed space was an endless void filled with ghosts and demons, but contact with outsiders had put these beliefs in question.
Moreover, their technology lagged behind that of the humans. In this constellation, engineers who could study and work with outside tech were particularly valued, especially where it pertained to starships. Faelar came from a minor community in western Kaeshana and had humble origins. However, her technical skills won her a scholarship at a new technical school the government had set up. It promised lucrative opportunities and a chance to do something for the motherland. She worked with Firemane and attended an academy on Kuat to broaden her skills. She served on the Valora's Blade, the second Eldorai capital ship to be created as part of the Star Queen's armaments programme. Young, bright, ambitious and ready to work with 'human monkeighs', she seemed to have a promising career ahead of her. Senior postings on various capital ships followed.
Her technical skills meant she was valuable enough to be saved in the exodus. Her family was also assured a silver ticket of embarkation. However, most of the other inhabitants of her settlement were written off as non-essential. Some managed to get a ticket via what amounted to a national lottery system, many did not. Stricken with guilt, she felt it was a betrayal of those left behind, especially after learning the extent of the devastation. Thus, despite the protests of her family, she decided to defect. But Kaeshana had become a blasted wasteland. Strife was endemic. The survivors cursed the exodites who had been able to flee. This applied to Faelar and some other volunteers who had returned, too. Some of her comrades left. Faelar stuck with her decision, even when it was difficult.
She joined the Shadows, one of the most organised remnant groups. They rescued her from being enslaved. She displayed a knack for salvage and getting broken machines working again. She served on one of their few combat ships. Faelar lived through the Battle of Kaeshana, but remained on the planet to help the resistance. Among other things, she aided Eldorai fugitives who had escaped from a camp where Sith were conducting experiments to transform the elves into orcish creatures. Faelar was still there when Netherworld aftershocks caused Kaeshana to be dragged through the Nether. She was one of the few survivors, though being trapped in hell took a deep toll on her. Prolonged exposure to the Nether also turned her Force Dead.
CREW MEMBER 8
Name: Zairj'Vakas
Age: 84
Species: Xioquo
Role: Second-in-command of the Exemplars. The Exemplars are a military unit of Force-Using soldiers in the service of the Shadows and under Kaida's command.
Description: Vakas is a former janissary, a Force-Sensitive slave-soldier in the old Xioquo matriarchy. All Tygaran races practiced slavery to varying degrees, but to Qadiri it was simply another state of being in. Manumission, though not easy or common, was possible. This was not how the Xioquo saw it. For the Xioquo, so obsessed with survival, power and the influence of the Dark Side, slavery was the defining aspect of their society. Slavery provided the labour which allows mobilisation of their forces for war, kept the population subdued and prevented population explosion.
The life of a slave was miserable and often short. Vakas was not born into slavery, but was enslaved after her family fell into disgrace. Her mother had been an engineer who designed steam-powered gyrocopters, but was framed and arrested on fabricated charges of sabotage. This meant Vakas remembered what it was like to be free, though her overseers did their best to stamp out any hint of free will or independent personality. To accomplish this, they drummed it into her skull that her parents were traitors and that she had redeem herself to wipe away the stain. She was lucky because her Force-Sensitivity made her valuable enough to be trained as a slave-soldier. Their training was savage. Rather than live in the Underealm, she lived in a cave system in the Tygaran arctic. It served as an advanced raiding base for Xioquo incursions.
Scattered Qadiri tribes also dwelt in the arctic, making a living as nomadic hunter-gatherers and fishers. The Xioquo warred against the ice elves, who were far from the desert lands their people tended to inhabit. The base received little support from the Underealm and the sorceresses back home tended to obsess over vanity projects such as summoning ice dragons. Using their training and cohesion, the janissaries were able to take control, while maintaining the ruse of still being subservient. But they were eventually branded traitors by the Underealm. The base had good defensive potential, but they were in number and their resources were very scarce. This compelled the rebels to try and reach out to some of the Qadiri tribes in the area. Vakas acted as a negotiator. This took a lot of work due to the many decades of enmity between both people.
However, it also helped familiarise her with diplomacy and the idea of cooperating with other elf races rather than seeing them as hereditary enemies. It was a harsh life, and they faced many attacks, though they received support from fugitive slaves and stranded or disgraced Xioquo raiders. As someone who broke her chains herself, Varas does not feel indebted to the humans of Firemane, who overthrew the ancien régime, and she did not want to kneel.
Recruited by the Shadows, she has proved herself to be a capable warrior and officer. As is typical for Force-Users from her race, she is an elementalist. She specialises in the aspect of fire. This is unusual, but not unheard of among her people. Xioquo have a natural resilience to the cold, and she lived her life in the arctic. Vakas is in command of the Exemplars when Kaida is not there, and acts as her second when they are led into battle. She holds the rank of Captain. Compared to her boss, she is less icy and more emotional, though fierce when protecting her personal freedom.
CREW MEMBER 9
Name: J'aiz'ria
Age: 28
Species: Togorian.
Role: Combat Systems Officer. As the name implies, she maintains the ship's combat systems and is responsible for the technical professionals who keep the equipment running. In other words, she is in charge of the ship's guns. She can also double as a Tactical Action Officer.
Description: The Togorians have suffered greatly since the end of the Dark Age, for they have been the victims of repeated xenocidal campaigns of successive Sith regimes and House Zambrano. Their world has subjected to occupation, deforestation, saturation bombardment until it was turned into an arid waste. Their people have been murdered, intentionally starved, enslaved and experimented on. Now it is under the protection of the Order of the Silver Jedi, who have carried out reconstruction efforts and provided humanitarian relief to the survivors.
J'aiz'ria is one of the Togorians who lived through the One Sith occupation and the genocidal campaign they subjected her people to. She is a member of the Wanderers of Gwaarth, who derive their name from a Togorian spirit of the hunt. They are a nomadic group of Togorians who want to seek their fortunes in the stars and rebuild somewhere not ravaged by war. Today, they are allied to the Shadows. One could say that she is stationed aboard the Ardent Duty as part of an outreach programme to strengthen ties between both groups.
The Shadows are pan-Asuran nationalists and have an isolationist mentality, though they work with non-elves when they believe the terms are good. In a way, they prefer non-humans to humans. This is a somewhat irrational, but understandable knee-jerk response to their experiences with human-dominated groups that tried to dominate or enslave and exploit their kin and their homeworld. Moreover, Togorians have even more reason than Eldorai to utterly hate Sith and Imperials.
J'aiz'ria is a friend of Ahzija, a Togorian career rebel and Sith huntress. It was she who rescued J'aiz'ria from a death camp the One Sith deported the Togorians to so that they could murdered, starved and worked to death. These events have left deep mental and physical scars. J'aiz'ria was involved with a clandestine network of Togorian inmates. This group tried to make life more bearable for the inmates. This also involved trying to preserve Togorian culture and heritage, as the Sith were trying to reduce them to a state of mere beasts.
They also tried to hide children and other vulnerable Togorians from the death squads that roamed the walled ghetto and took captives away to be murdered or subjected to vile alchemical experiments. However, this came at a cost. J'aiz'ria was one of the Togorians saved by Ahzija, but had experienced the brutal reprisals the Sith carried out in retaliation for acts of the resistance. She clashed with Ahzija over tactics and piloted freighters to ferry Togorians who had managed to escape captivity or hidden in the wilderness away from the devastated planet. During that time, she also participated in raids to rescue captured Togorians and procure loot. She became very proficient in the gunnery, and acquired a fondness for big guns. After a stint with the Mandalorian Clans, J'aiz'ria has joined the Wanderers and the Shadows. She is fairly new to interacting with elves and less familiar with their odd quirks than Ahzija, though good at her job. She is Force-Sensitive, but very reluctant to use her powers or seek advanced training in them, as the example of the Sith has left a bad taste in her mouth.
CREW MEMBER 10
Name: Nul'vakush
Age: 500s
Species: Kar'zun
Role: Host Talon. Basically, the Eldorai equivalent of a Master Chief Petty Officer, performing the role of a senior enlisted advisor.
Description: Nul'vakush is the most senior non-commissioned officer aboard the Ardent Duty. In this capacity, he serves as a liaison between the commander, which in this case is Kaida, and enlisted personnel. He assists her in ensuring discipline, training and keeping up morale. He is known to be a stickler for for rules and orders, honourable, dedicated and reliable. Naturally he has a big booming voice fit for a drill sergeant. Kaida sort of gets on with him, as far as she is able to actually like people. Kar'zun interest groups wanted one of their own on the ship, and the 'Icicle' was ironically fine with this because she considers them solid and dependable.
His people have a history of enmity to the Eldorai. Centuries ago the Kar'zun were on the brink of conquering Kaeshana, before being crushed by Ariane the Great. What followed was a campaign of persecution and deportation. It was a shocking near-genocide the Kar'zun have only recently begun to recover. Many Eldorai refuse to acknowledge it. Nu'lvakush was born as the child of warriors from the final war. He keeps alive the old martial traditions of his forebears.
Back on Kaeshana, Nul'vakush was a ranger of sorts, patrolling the reservations his people had been forced to live in, and doing his best to keep them safe from the abusive treatment Eldorai officials - and many 'ordinary' Eldorai - inflicted on them. It instilled in him a strong adherence to honour and his personal code, but also bitterness. He stayed behind on Kaeshana to help those among his people who could not flee. A petty Eldorai magistrate who considered him 'uppity' pressured a Kar'zun elder into framing as a troublemaker. Bizarrely, the Kar'zun's land was finally their own. Nul'vakush led forays into the ruins of the Eldorai's once great cities to recover technology the Kar'zun could use, as well as cultural heirlooms the Matriarchy had stolen from them.
Until the Eldorai came. This time they didn't come as genocidal conquerors or exploitative businesswomen looking for 'contract labourers' though. Instead they were poor refugees fleeing the cataclysm. They had been too poor to buy themselves passage on an exodus ship, too unlucky to win the lottery and not well-connected enough to be guaranteed a place among the 'best and brightest' who had been prioritised by the Eldorai Matriarchy and its Firemane overlords. Their homes had been laid to waste, and now they fled warlords, gangs and foreign slavers.
Nul'vakush let those in who were ready to treat his kind as people rather than demons. Many of them would have no doubt once scorned the stone people, but those who had been the true of his people's misery had long fled, taking their ill-gotten gains with them. He got a chance to smash Eldorai ultra-nationalist fanatics who had also been left behind and, predictably, blamed the Kar'zun for Kaeshana's woes. Now he is with the Shadow Knights, having escaped Kaeshana during its final cataclysms. Life is far from perfect in the nomad fleet, but an improvement. He was understandably reluctant to take orders from an Eldoria, but unlike many of her compatriots Kaida is not racist, and she has an almost Kar'zun-esque amount of self-discipline.
CREW MEMBER 11
Name: Merana Lepiarin
Age: 80s
Species: Eldorai. Her soul is contained inside an Eldorai Spirit Gem.
Role: Electronic warfare specialist, quasi-AI.
Description: Another one of the more unorthodox features is the inclusion of an Eldorai Spirit Gem, which is hosted by a big computer bank. The gem contains the soul of an Eldorai expert in computing and robotics. called. Merana Lepiarin, an Eldorai expert in computers. She was originally part of the Eldorai military. Merana worked in the codebreaking section, helping the Matriarchy crack codes used by the pretender Taenarys, who intended to land on Kaeshana with her mercenaries to 'reclaim her rightful throne with fire and blood'.
This allowed Queen Tirathana VI to dispatch agents to work on separating her from her sellswords. However, when she suggested a new method of codes for the Matriarchy using galaxy tech she was shunned as spurning the ways of the ancestors. Frustrated Merana resigned but was imprisoned because she might knew too many state secrets. However she was too useful to be imprisoned so she was pressganged back into service, but she was able to get her revenge by sabotaging a code breaking machine she'd been given to crack, allowing her to escape the planet.
Eventually she joined the Shadows where she met and started a professional rivalry/relationship with Yohara. She was mortally wounded during an attack on the nomad fleet. At her request she was put into the spirit gem as part of this project. She is friends with Yohara, and thus got posted somewhere important where she could make an impact. She has a quirky sense of humour and can be quite bossy. Kaida has threatened to freeze her gem if she uses her access to the ship's surveillance system to spy on her.
Her presence annoys Kaida, who demands that she have no access to her cabin. With the aid of the computer bank, she can aid the crew with calculations, analysis and tactical predictions, leading to significant improvements in the ship's performance. This has also helped cut down on crew size requirements. Moreover, her slicing and codebreaking talents make her a useful asset for electronic warfare. When not integrated into a big computer bank, she has a variety of droid bodies she can use to move about. She is fond of using her HRD body to tease the comically serious Kaida. One of her preferred ways of doing this is proposing 'upgrades' to her shell: "Okay, so that's a no on the bust augmentation...but how about I change the hair to blonde. You like those, don't you?" Sometimes she also gives her commander unwanted dating advice, and sends her lists of potential matches."Here's one on 'frostfire'. 92, female Eldorai, looking for her soulmate. Enjoys community service, cooking and playing music! She sounds just your type, shall I match you?"
CREW MEMBER 12
Name: Nankiya of Clan Whitestone
Age: 75
Species: Vashyada
Role: Navigator
Description: Hailing from Ajustra, Nankiya was an escaped slave who decided to stay at a freeport after she helped her fellows overthrow the Qadiri slavers and pitch them overboard. During her time with the Qadiri, as well as Vash/Qadiri hybrids and others, she learned the ways of a navigator. Vashyada are commonly derided as being 'primitive' and 'rustic' and seldom take to the seas, but she learned fast. Her new expertise served her well, as the group used ships they had liberated to explore the seas and trade, buying and selling goods such as spices, silks, linens and metals. It also made her used to working in a multicultural environment.
When the sky people came to Tygara, they promised to bring peace, end slavery and uplift the natives. Nankiya was one of those who suffered under Firemane's reign. Scratch the surface, and the idealistic facade was stripped away, revealing an exploitative, colonialist megacorp driven by a desire for power and profit. Nankiya and her crew did not have the correct 'licenses'. In other words, they had not paid a bribe to Firemane officials. So their ship was impounded for 'smuggling contraband'. Firemane officials also accused them of working together with slavers, which was an absurd accusation. After all, most of the members of the crew were ex-slaves.
There was no way for them to get redress, so Nankiya left with members of the freeport, seeking out a new home where they would not be under the iron heel of the humans of Firemane and the puppet queens who collaborated with them. Much is different in the stars, but the dark void of space is just the sky-ocean to her, and the sky cousins' focus on independence and self-reliance appeals to her. Nankiya still misses her ancestral home, but has a strong sense of wanderlust. Her mercantile background makes her good at haggling, and she has a knack for reading people. She and Chanadi, a Qadiri officer and protege of Kaida, are both fond of songs.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Born into a family of lower caste Eldorai, Kaida was orphaned when her home town was devastated by her flood. Both she and her older sister Lavina were discovered to be Force-Sensitive and joined the Angelii, an elite corps of Force Using soldiers who served the Eldorai Star Queen. Kaida rose to become the commander of the prestigious Valora's Chosen Great Company. The laconic frost elf reached the rank of High Captain, which is the Eldorai equivalent of Colonel. She fought Bando Gora Reavers, Xioquo witches, Sith Lords and Ren. However, over time she became disillusioned with the Matriarchy. Though personally supportive of Queen Tirathana VII, she came to view it as corrupt, backward and dependent on foreign support. Against these highly negative images, she idealised the front community, the solidarity of the soldiers in the trenches, leadership resting on deeds rather than status and the blind obedience that this demanded.
It is probably a good thing that Kaida is not in a position of political leadership and lacks the ambition for it. So she recanted her vows and defected to the Shadow Knights. These were a group of Eldorai renegades who had been originally formed to protect the Forsaken of Kaeshana, but now strove to build a new future for the Eldorai unbound by the three pillars of crown, nobility and temple. Inevitably Kaida gravitated towards a military role. For you can take the ice lady out of the Angelii, but not the Angelii out of the ice lady. Eventually she was given permission to form a new unit, after proving herself to the Shadows on many missions.
It was not an easy road, for the Shadows lacked the resources of the Matriarchy. A lot of their stuff had to be acquired through raids. They were also more than a little fractured, being an ideologically diverse coalition of rebels. However, some of Kaida's battle sisters had decided to join their former commander. Though lacking in charisma, Kaida had won the rank and file's respect with her bravery and competence.
After Kaeshana was dragged through the warp and emerged on the other side of the galaxy, Kaida led a task force to investigate and search for survivors. As the Shadow Warriors discovered, the planet was free from foreign occupation, but even more devastated. Nothing of the old grandeur and hubris of the old Eldorai Matriachy was left on the inhospitable tomb world. Instead it was a blasted hellscape with a portal to the Netherworld. They encountered bizarre Force phenomena on the tainted, haunted world and had to overcome a mystical barrier. Exposure to the Nether energies caused Kaida to lose her connection with the Force, though she would eventually regain it. However, they were able to evacuate the scattered bands of survivors. Then they quickly left the death world. The Eldorai had to abandon any notion of reclaiming their home. Instead they had to find and build a new one.
In the aftermath of the rescue operation, there was some turmoil on the Shadow Knights' worldship, as the survivors of the cataclysm had become privy to revelations about the Eldorai's past that put the elves long-held beliefs into question. Kaida was given a new command and a frigate, which she named the Ardent Duty. It would serve as a mobile base for the Exemplars, a unit of Shadow Angelii commanded by her, as well as for the other military assets under her command. A number of specialists were assigned to it to support her command. Nimari Valansir, a long-time Shadow Knight and former naval officer in the Eldorai Matriarchy's water fleet, was posted on the Ardent Duty to run the naval side of things, as Kaida is not a trained space warfare officer. Kytara Valon, a former smuggler and mercenary, was made overall commander of its complement of attack craft.
However, the crew was not limited to Eldorai, but also had a significant Tygaran contingent. The Shadows have been broadening recruitment to include the 'cousins', declaring them to be fellow Asurans. It helps that, for all of Kaida's flaws, she is not racist. Rather she is frosty to everyone and expects every citizen to do their duty. She was vexed when she learned that it was supposed to be a gender-integrated command, as she is sexist. Kaida brought in her Qadiri protege Chanadi Jai Himoud, with whom she had become acquainted during an Eldorai diplomatic mission to the distant Qadiri queendoms. It also acquired a Togorian member after the Shadows formed a tentative partnership with a group of Togorian exiles. Togorians have a history of fighting against oppression and genocide at the hands of Imperialist tyrants. Moreover, they are big and strong, so only the foolish would make racist remarks within earshot of them.
Intent: Flesh out Kaida's posse.
Image Credit: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Eldorai, Qadiri, Vashyada, To Hell and Back, Eldorai Exodus, Twin Exiles, Xioquo, Lavina Taldir, Eyrecae, Telara Maedis, Tryana.
CREW INFORMATION
Crew Name: The Vanguard of Duty.
Crew Type: Ship’s Crew, Comrades-in-Arms, Officer's Command Staff.
Base of Operations: Ardent Duty.
Crew Size: 12.
Loyalties: Kaida Taldir, Asuran Star Combine, Shadow Knights (lore submission), Shadow Knights, Court of the Shadows, Exemplars.
Description: The Vanguard of Duty are the senior crew of the Ardent Duty, Kaida's frigate, as well as part of the command squad of her unit. Like their boss, they belong to the Shadow Knights, a group of Eldorai and Tygaran renegades. A close knit community of exiles from Kaeshana and Tygara, the Shadow Knights are committed to independence. This applies not just to the more overt slavery of Hutts and Sith, but also the dependence on other races for supplies and equipment. Culturally, the Shadow Knights cannot full escape their origins and have adopted a polyglot system of a stratocratic oligarchic republic which is more representative than a monarchy whilst still retaining a strong executive. In their society, service guarantees citizenship, which grants voting rights and the right to run for political office.
The Shadow Knights are insular and do not seek recruits from outside the twin planets' origins. Their main goal is to maintain their freedom but also to ensure that their kin are not oppressed. Their society is built around a nomad fleet centred on a worldship. Within this context, Kaida acts as one of their commanders. She has been put in charge of the Ardent Duty, a dramatically named strike frigate. With powerful armaments and stealth systems, it is designed for rapid strikes, raids and preying on enemy supply lines.
It is expected to operate on its own or with minimal support for extended durations of time. The assault frigate has enough space to accommodate a battalion-sized unit, meaning Kaida can bring her whole posse along with her. Obviously she cannot micromanage every aspect of her command, so she needs people to delegate certain tasks to. This especially applies to various fields related to running a ship. Thus the Vanguard is an important component of her command, along with her regular companions Eyrecae Alzari, Lavina Taldir, Tryana and Telara Maedis.
While Kaida has caught up on many things since joining a spacefaring society, she is a groundpounder, not a professional naval officer. Thus the crew includes people who help run the ship or are involved in commanding its marine contingent. Reflecting the makeup of the Shadow Knights, their backgrounds are rather diverse. They range from deserted Angelii to professional revolutionaries to adventurers or political exiles from Tygara.
Life aboard the Ardent Duty is austere. Kaida's interactions with the crew are professional. She is not the type of superior who lets her hair down in private. She is an introvert and a somewhat abrasive, very stoic stickler for rules. Everything must be neatly filed, uniforms must look orderly and everyone must participate in regular drills to stay in combat shape. She has zero tolerance for slacking, drunkenness, disobedience, cowardice and similar failings. The ship has a punishment room. There soldiers are punished for lack of discipline and other misdeeds. It is unofficially known as Kaida's Gym. The canings will continue until morale improves.
Kaida's personality is very cold, dour and laconic. However, she is also scrupulously fair in her treatment of her subordinates. The discipline she enforces is a harsh one, but it is applied equally. Indeed when an officer commits a crime she receives a greater punishment than an enlisted soldier or non-commissioned officer because an officer should have a better understanding of the crime and her responsibility. This means a senior officer might be shot for a crime an enlisted soldier might get caned for. Kaida is sexist and does not like having males in her crew, but she will not tolerate maltreatment of them. Loot acquired on raids is shared fairly, though important things will obviously be sent back to the worldship. Moreover, she is fine with doing unglamorous work normally considered beneath an officer.
In Kaida's view, the law is an unyielding bar to which society bends, not the other way round. The law must protect and treat every citizen fairly. Even the strange ones. Whoever violates the law undermines and endangers the nation. Anyone who does their duty is a citizen, even if they do strange but not unlawful things in their private lives. Personal feelings on a citizen's habits are irrelevant. She is also fond of venting slavers, Ren and Sith into the cold void of space. Kaida has a strict policy against fraternising with her crew. When one of her officers made inappropriate advances and tried to seduce her, Kaida had her caned for conduct unbecoming. Then kicked her off the ship.
Like any warship, the crew of the Ardent Duty is a mixture of naval personnel, support staff and marines. The ground forces contingent is quite large, as the frigate is supposed to carry out raids, boarding operations and so on. The Vanguard of Duty, like the crew as a whole, it is composed of both Force-Users and Non-Force-Users. Kaida is a former member of the Angelii, the Force-Using shock troops and palace guards of the Eldorai Matriarchy, and has joined the Shadow Knights' equivalent, the Caerith Tyari.
She commands one of their companies, the Exemplars, who use the ship as a mobile base. They are organised as a military unit rather than a sect of space wizards. The crew includes both Eldorai and Tygaran elves. For all of Kaida's flaws, she is not racist towards the 'little sisters'. In a weird sort of way, she appreciates a good number of them more than her own people. Kaida must obviously follow instructions from high command. Suffice to say her superiors would react extremely poorly if she hung up on them during a holo-conference. The Shadows run a tight ship, after all. However, the fact that she will spend long periods of time on the fringes of space away from the main fleet gives her a bit of leeway. This also means that they only have a limited supply line.
By necessity, they are masters of improvisation. The Ardent Duty is far from a new, shiny ship. Indeed, it is not pretty on the outside and living conditions are very cramped, but it works and has a couple exotic weapons. A lot of their equipment has been stolen, purchased on the black market or acquired through raids. To varying degrees, the members of the group tend to come from the fringes of Eldorai or Tygaran society. This tends to be where the Shadows recruit their people from, so it is not exceptional per se. After all, outcasts are the ones with the biggest incentive to join a rebellion since they do not reap the benefits of the old order. Needless to say the Vanguard does not encompass the Ardent Duty's entire crew, as it is a frigate, or even Kaida's whole posse, but it consists of some key members.
CREW MEMBER 1
Name: Nimari Valansir
Age: 81
Species: Eldorai
Role: Executive Officer of the Ardent Duty. While she has some understanding of space combat, Kaida is not a trained space warfare officer, so Nimari is the senior naval officer aboard the frigate.
Description: Nimari is the senior naval officer on the Ardent Duty. Back in the day, she served in the Eldorai's surface navy, reaching junior officer rank in the water fleet. However, she grew disgusted with the royalists' inability to stop the foreign raiders, as well as their practice of trying to hide it from their people. When Tirathana VI died and a struggle for the succession broke out, Nimari threw in her lot with Nalia, the candidate of the militarists.
The princess promised to restore Kaeshana to greatness and drive back the foreign invaders. However, her coup attempt was foiled by the Omega Protectorate, who put her cousin Silaqui in power. Nimari regarded the new ruler as a foreign puppet and was forced to flee in the aftermath. She spent a stint with the Lords of Fringe, which allowed her to acquire knowledge about starship command, piloting and space combat. Later she fought the Matriarchy. She ended up working with Naesala Faethyra. This is a bit ironic since Nalia was the exact opposite of a revolutionary, but people can play multiple roles. Moreover, Nimari's motivation was a desire for Eldorai self-determination. She didn't want to bow to Kaeshana's foreign masters.
Nimari has been with the Shadows since the Exodus and shared her skills with them. The Eldorai renegades were left with few ships and even fewer trained naval personnel, so they had to start practically from the ground up. This ensured steady promotion for those with experience, though attrition took a considerable toll, especially in the early days. Nimari was injured during the Battle of Kaeshana. When the First Order took control, she sacrificed her ship to help Eldorai refugees escape the planet. She survived, but the loss of many of her crew members and her command weighs heavily on her.
Nimari was raised in the Ashiran faith, as was the law under the ancien régime, but has since converted to Illyrianism. However, she believes the Eldorai must help themselves before waiting for the goddess to solve their problems. Illyrians were persecuted by Church and State, and thus her faith shows her revolutionary credentials. Nimari is a good pistol shot and has skill with a blade, but her primary role is ship command, not frontline combat. Kaida is not a naval officer and thus does not understand the intricacies of space warfare beyond the basics.
This is a role Nimari fills. She has authority over the ship crew and the bridge officers. Moreover, she is in charge of the ship during when Kaida is not aboard.Their interactions are not free of tension. Here it plays a role that Kaida fought alongside the 'loyalists' who backed Silaqui. At the time she was a soldier of the Omega Protectorate, having been forced to go into exile under Tirathana VI. Kaida is not apologetic about her past choices. Nimari is not pursuing old grudges, but finds herself validated.
In a way, Nimari is also there to keep an eye on the former Angelii and make sure the ship is not misused. While the commander used to be a royalist, she rebelled early on and never returned to the Matriarchy's services. Thus she is respected by the Forsaken and former insurgents alike. Kaida's biography, on the other hand, is a far less straightforward. Nimari has spent most of her life in the military in one way or another and this is reflected in her professional attitude.
CREW MEMBER 2
Name: Iae'Vraz
Age: 69
Species: Xioquo
Role: Aide-de camp to Kaida. Because he is reliable, good with sums and records, he also doubles as the supply officer, holding the post of purser and captain's clerk. This makes him responsible for handling all money on the ship, as well as supplies. In other words, he's the chief accountant, clerk and record-keeper.
Description: Kaida's present adjutant is a Xioquo male called Iae'Vraz. Their relationship was quite poor at first. She eventually came to grudgingly appreciate him after she realised he was actually useful. His predecessor was a female Eldorai who was just as sexist as Kaida. But she was sloppy and committed the unforgivable sin of not writing out her boss' orders clearly. Kaida's new assistant is a lot more reliable. One might note that, even by Eldorai standards, Xioquo society is extremely misandrist.
Vraz has a mind for sums and is good at cataloguing, organising and filing. For this reason he also handles supply matters. Thus he is stuck with doing a lot of the paperwork, as well as inspecting supplies and handling the money. This is a rather unglamorous job, but also an important one because the Ardent Duty will often be out of contact with the nomad fleet for extended durations of time. This means that its crew does not have much in the way of a regular supply line. They must acquire a lot of their equipment and supplies through raids, salvage, black market purchases and outright theft. Kaida has an understanding of low level logistics and a very dour, unexcitable personality. Thus she actually appreciates the work that must be put into keeping her command afloat, instead of dismissing it as bean-counting and pen-pushing like more a flamboyant commander might.
Vraz was born into a noble family, but legally only females could own property or represent themselves in courts before their head of house or at a religious court. As a male he belonged to a sub-class, barely above slaves. He chafed under these restrictions, but had to conform. He was expected to enter an advantageous marriage to further the influence and power of his family. So he was married to a mistress from another noble family. However, she was an abusive, tyrannical sociopath and treated him very cruelly. The two families remained allies for political reasons and he had to continue to play his part, hide his trauma and obey. When he made the mistake of having an affair with a servant girl, it ended poorly for both of them.
The family of his wife eventually fell into disgrace. Of course, this was for political reasons, as they had run afoul of courtly intrigue. Oppression in Xioquo society was systemic, after all, and the government was a totalitarian dictatorship. Vraz was not purged because he was a possession that could be reallocated as his family's interests dictated. So he was promptly remarried. His new wife lacked the cruelty of his first and made better of his skills. However, he still had to obey her without question and was mostly an ornament for her to show off. She took him along on a raid like a harem pet, but he was able to slip away during the bloodletting.
This brought its own share of hardships though. His life had been oppressive, but he had also been shielded from how the common people lived and what they endured. This meant he had little understanding of the outside world. However, he was able to link up with the 'sky people' and provide them with some information on the Xioquo. But Vraz saw too much of his old mistress in the Firemane and elf queens, and eventually sought out something outside of the establishment.
He found it with the Shadow Knights. Of course, life with the rebels is not a shiny and happy utopia. Leaving aside the fact that quite a few Shadows still have unenlightened beliefs about gender roles, he has also faced stigma due to his background as a noble. After all, his family had owned slaves and he had benefited from being privileged. For this reason a group of Xioquo males from the underclasses who agitated for equal rights refused to accept him as someone who had been oppressed. He was even accused of embellishing his story and dismissing the ordeal of the true oppressed.
Vraz had a thick skin though and joined the military as a path to attaining citizenship. Though given dead-end jobs, he displayed great courage under fire. When his commander lost her nerve during a fight with Kraal, he was able to rally soldiers and essentially shame them into standing their ground. For this he was commended, but also incurred the disfavour of a senior official who had been the commander's patron. On paper, being assigned to Kaida's command is a promotion, which has the side-effect of getting him out of the way.
CREW MEMBER 3
Name: Tarthanal Siladal
Age: 75
Species: Eldorai
Role: Apothecary. Head Medicus. In other words, the chief medical officer of the Ardent Duty.
Description: Tarthanal is the chief medical officer aboard the Ardent Duty. This makes him the ultimate medical authority and he is not shy about invoking doctor's orders when he has to deal with recalcitrant patience. This is probably for the best, since she has to deal with many stubborn individuals who insist on being bad patients. He does not take kindly to a patient yanking off their I.V. A soldier who has been hospitalised will stay in bed until he says otherwise. Tarthanal is not a former insurgent, rogue or Angelii. Instead he was simply one of the poor unfortunate souls who did not have the luck - or connections - to receive one of the coveted silver tickets of embarkation that would have guaranteed them a place in the exodus fleet when nemesis came to Kaeshana.
A lottery system combined with a pick of the best scientists and vital trades had been set aside to be evacuated. The rest would have to try and get aboard any ships if they could. He did not have that luck. Tarthanal was Force-Sensitive, but had joined the medical profession rather than the Angelii because the latter only accept women. So he became a nurse - a stereotypical male profession in Eldorai society - and worked in a run-of-the-mill clinic at the time of the exodus. Tarthanal was of humble origins and lacked the means to pay a smuggler to take him off-world, especially since demand had really inflated prices.
When the asteroid impacted upon Kaeshana, the planet was devastated. Those in the most remote areas did the best to start with, but in the towns and cities death and disease were rampant. He was one of the survivors of the apocalypse. His medical training, though limited, allowed him to act as a bush doctor who cared for the people abandoned in the blasted wasteland. He became a doctor mainly through on the job training.
Resources were scarce, strife was endemic and foreign raiders sensed opportunity. Oftentimes the only form of justice was a rough form of street justice that came out of the barrel of a gun. Tarthanal was forced to become a hardened survivalist to protect himself and his patients. Suffice to say it was not the place for squishy healers. He became a tough, resourceful man, who could make the most out of scarce supplies and stand up to warlords and gangs.
Tarthanal was often called upon to travel long distances, and sometimes treated sick since few veterinarians were handy. His skills made him valued, but the stress and the trauma caused him to turn to the bottle. He joined the Shadow Knights because they needed doctors and he and the refugee community he belonged to needed protection. He has now been with the group for a long time and is considered one of its old members.
When an epidemic broke out and the Shadows had to impose a harsh quarantine, he provided aid to the sick at great personal risk to himself. Tarthanal was on Kaeshana during the battle. Running a field clinic in the ruins of Santaissa, which were wracked by a blizzard, he recovered wounded soldiers under fire from First Order walkers. He was evacuated from the planet following the Alliance withdrawal and has remained with the nomad fleet since then. There he helped set up a proper medical infrastructure, which eventually became the Court of Healing. He was assigned to the Ardent Duty due to his medical skills, professionalism and ability to remain cool under stress.
CREW MEMBER 4
Name: Nalaea Eilcyne
Age: 75
Species: Eldorai
Role: Nalaea is the Eldorai officer in command of one of the two squadrons of attack craft that are part of the Ardent Duty's complement.
Description: Nalaea is the commander one of the two squadrons of the Ardent Duty's complement of attack craft. She is a talented pilot and starfighter commander who can pilot most small craft. She comes from a military family. Her ancestors flew Bladesingers during the great war against the Kar'zun as well as several Eldorai civil wars; she graduated to flying a modern starfighter in the cold void of space. Nalaea participated in the battle to defend Kaeshana from the First Order. However, she was shot down during the engagement and stranded behind enemy lines. She was unable to make her way back to the Matriarchy's forces during the retreat from the war-torn planet, but was rescued by the Shadow Knights after having to go on the run from the First Order.
She was treated by the Ardent Duty's future doctor, who nursed her back to health. Originally, Nalaea intended to return home, but ultimately decided to stick around with the rebels. Legally this makes her a deserter. Though purists distrusted her for being an 'ex-royalist' and an 'exodite', she proved herself in many engagements against Imperial factions and Archangel. Moreover, they had few good pilots and attrition had been high. For a while she served as an instructor and helped the Shadows set up a rudimentary, mobile flight school to train new combat pilots. She is right at home in a cockpit or with a pair of good blasters in her hands.
Kaida had her predecessor court-martialled, demoted and publicly flogged for drunkenness on duty. She was a war hero with an impressive kill record, but as far as Kaida was concerned this did not put her above military law. Naleae is not an infallible ace, but competent and brave in a fight. However, she has a somewhat complicated relationship with her fellow starfighter commander Kytara Valon, who is in overall command.
Kytara suffered near-fatal injuries during a battle with Archangel, but the Shadows saved her life via an experimental procedure that resulted in her consciousness being transferred into a spirit gem. Naleae did not wish her ill, but is a bit resentful of her superior. This ties in with her Ashiran religious beliefs, which make her uncomfortable among soulstone elves. She views the process as a form of necromancy, which goes against Ashira's precepts on life, and thus worries about their souls. Moreover, she is a bit unhappy about being passed over for command.
CREW MEMBER 5
Name: Kamran Jal Mazdak
Age: 75.
Species: Qadiri.
Role: Senior intelligence officer. While the exact term is not used, Kamran essentially acts as the G-2 of Kaida's command. This makes him responsible for collecting and analysing intelligence to determine the strength, intentions and actions of the enemy. He is also responsible for security clearances and operational security.
Description: Kamran is a eunuch and a spy who acts as the Ardent Duty's chief intelligence officer. This is a job he is well-versed in, as he has ample experience trading in secrets on his native Tygara, the homeworld of his race. He does not have the Force, but is extremely perceptive and has a knack for reading people. He is not some sort of genius mastermind, but very good at adapting when circumstances change or unexpected events throw a wrencher into his schemes. Kamran has a talent for disguises. He is rather bemused by the Eldorai's gender wars. While not egalitarian, the less technologically developed Qadiri are actually more progressive in gender matters.
Kamran was enslaved at such an early age that he barely remembers his family. His childhood was a peaceful, pastoralist life. Until the young boy was captured by slavers, forcibly separated from his family and shipped away to serve foreign elites. He became another statistic in an epidemic slave trade that spanned across Tygara. The young boy was put on auction in a slave market in a port. Auctioners peddled the frightened boy as if he was no different from the silks, spices, coffee beans and sugar that could be purchased in the bazaar.
He was eventually purchased by a merchant, who gave him a new name to further separate him from his origins. To increase his value and make him a useful business aseset, the merchant taught him to read, write and help him as an accountant. Moreover, he had him turned into an eunuch. Once his education was complete, Kamran was sold to a Qadiri noble family. Being an eunuch gave him a low social standing, but also access to the corridors of power. He could not inherit and did not have the Force, so he was not seen as a threat. In Qadiri society, eunuchs are generally seen as not having external allegiances, as they cannot sire offsprings and pass on lands or tites, so they are usually seen as more trustworthy. Moreover, they can easily be replaced or killed, since they lack a concrete power base of their own and have a low social standing.
Originally, Kamran served as a royal guard in his liege lady's household. However, a more senior eunuch called Malik Jal Kafar, who served as a general and viceroy, recognised his talent and took him under his wing. Young Karmal learned a lot about administration, strategy and spycraft, serving as his mentor's spy and hatchet man. He kept his secrets and buried the bodies. However, after his mistress died, Malik tried to usurp control by putting her minor son in power as a puppet. The regency was short-lived, and Malik was assassinated by the dead Mirza's former bodyguards, who resented the actions he had taken against their dead mistress' family. Kamran insists he was not involved, but maintains his mentor doomed himself by ignoring his warnings. He was absent when the bloodletting took place, having absconded with enough gold to buy himself safe passage.
Kamran is a good spy and not distracted by pleasures of the flesh. His mind is sound, and he is highly adaptive. He is of below average height and has a lean figure, but is stronger and more high-spirited than is apparent on first sight. For obscure reasons, he is very knowledgeable about poisons. He has an almost ascetic personality. For this reason, he gets on surprisingly well with Kaida. Kamran despises the old nobility and claims that he does what he does 'for the people', though his actual goals are more ambiguous. He is no stranger to committing ruthless actions if he believes it serves a greater purpose. Kaida is cynical about such claims.
His primary role is to provide his superior with the right information that allows her to make informed decisions. Aside from the crew of her ship, Kaida has a battalion sized command, so he has a good deal of influence. Flawed intelligence or bad analysis of it can spell doom for a mission. The intelligence he produces is supposed to help his boss plan operations and deploy her troops effectively. Moreover, he is responsible for security clearances, controlling classified information and operational security.
CREW MEMBER 6
Name: Sravana Jaivalis
Age: 68
Species: Vashyada/ Qadiri halfbreed.
Role: Commander of a marine detachment that is stationed aboard the Ardent Duty. They protect the ship, but also participate in offensive operations, such as boarding actions.
Description: Sravana is a tough Vashyada warrior and in command of the Ardent Duty's marine detachment. She has brought a small but battle-hardened group of her fellow wood elves with her. Of all the Eldorai's cousin races, the Vashyada are the least technologically developed. Divided into various tribal chiefdoms nominally under the suzerainty of a dyarchic monarchy, they are hunter-gatherers. They are, however, well-attuned to nature and their Force adepts are strong in the Light.
The Vashyada were strong in defending their homes in the deep forests against Qadiri and Xioquo incursions, but lacked viable means to strike back, relying on asymmetrical warfare, deception and guile. Sravana came from a clan that lived far away from the capital city of Vastyro and had often been the target of foreign incursions. Indeed, she did not grow up in Yarkul, but in distant Khajwar, which lay on another continent and was mostly inhabited by Qadiri.
Here, her people were less isolated than their kin. This allowed them to trade, but also meant they did not have the benefit of being protected by the main group. Her tribe alternated between being hostile to the Qadiri city-states and mountain clans and trading with them. Sometimes they let the Qadiri hire some of their Rangers as irregulars. Sravana has mixed Qadiri and Vashyada ancestry. This is not uncommon for her tribe, which had many Vash/Qadiri halfbreeds due to being joined by Qadiri mercenaries, adventurers, escaped slaves or fugitives. Her tribe calls itself the Abhrazia.
They had a somewhat mixed culture and even a mix of names, meaning she grew up in a cultural melting plot. Her maternal grandfather was a Qadiri peasant who fled exploitative tax collectors and stumbled upon the tribe. At first he was indentured, but then set free and married into the tribe. Sravana learned how to ride a Yazgid. She speaks Prosabia, but often incorporates Qadiri loanwords. Her people lived a nomadic existence in the swamps and forests, but adapted some foreign technology. With no illustrious ancestry or patron, she made herself a name as a huntress, raider and mercenary. The Vashyada warrior took the unorthodox step of starting to traing a small elite unit with - by Tygaran standards - 'modern' weapons stolen from fallen enemies or bartered from Qadiri traders, as well as small ships.
As was typical for the Vashyada's militia structure, these warriors provided their own equipment, though Sravana took steps to train them in the use of rifled acquired from the outsiders. Using war canoes and armed with bows, javelins and primitive rifles, this group of warriors ambushed Xioquo and Qadiri. They lay in ambush, steered their boats close to the enemy to fire, then swiftly retretreated in order to have time to reload before returning to attack again.
The coming of the sky people changed many things, and much of it for the worse. The Qadiri of Khajwar received support from the humans of Firemane, provided they played ball and submitted to their sky overlords. Some defied them, regarding them as foreign invaders. At the same time the Vashyada of Yarkul established contact with their distant brethren. Sravana was one of the Vashyada who found these changes disagreeable. She wanted to be free from the control of the more dominant old Qadiri rulers and the exploitative human overlords. Thus when the opportunity presented itself, she and her small unit came over to the Shadow Knights when the rogues carried out a recruitment drive in the area. Sravana showed her skills when she rescued one of their agents after an operation went awry.
Her heritage makes Sravana strong and robust, but she is also quite agile. She has inherited a diminished form of the Qadiri's inherent navigational talent and learned how to pilot small craft. Unlike her brethren in Yarkul, she has no special reverence for Lady Tylania. To her the Paragon is a semi-mythical figure she has never met. Indeed, some of the members of her tribe are descended from Vashyada who called Tylania a fraud and tried to usurp her. Sravana's personal spirituality is a mixture of Qadiri and Vashyada beliefs. She is fairly laid-back and has a certain roguish charm, though she is focused on the job.
CREW MEMBER 7
Name: Faelar Joceran
Age: 62
Species: Eldorai
Role: Head Mechanicus. In short, the chief engineer aboard the Ardent Duty. The frigate has a number of experimental systems, which makes the position even more important than usual.
Description: Faelar is the chief engineer of the Ardent Duty. She grew up in the Eldorai Matriarchy on Kaeshana. Her formative years were spent during a time of transition for the Eldorai. After having done all it could to insulate itself from the rest of the galaxy, the Matriarchy was reluctantly opening up in order to acquire the technology and know-how to defend itself against external threats. For many centuries the Eldorai had believed space was an endless void filled with ghosts and demons, but contact with outsiders had put these beliefs in question.
Moreover, their technology lagged behind that of the humans. In this constellation, engineers who could study and work with outside tech were particularly valued, especially where it pertained to starships. Faelar came from a minor community in western Kaeshana and had humble origins. However, her technical skills won her a scholarship at a new technical school the government had set up. It promised lucrative opportunities and a chance to do something for the motherland. She worked with Firemane and attended an academy on Kuat to broaden her skills. She served on the Valora's Blade, the second Eldorai capital ship to be created as part of the Star Queen's armaments programme. Young, bright, ambitious and ready to work with 'human monkeighs', she seemed to have a promising career ahead of her. Senior postings on various capital ships followed.
Her technical skills meant she was valuable enough to be saved in the exodus. Her family was also assured a silver ticket of embarkation. However, most of the other inhabitants of her settlement were written off as non-essential. Some managed to get a ticket via what amounted to a national lottery system, many did not. Stricken with guilt, she felt it was a betrayal of those left behind, especially after learning the extent of the devastation. Thus, despite the protests of her family, she decided to defect. But Kaeshana had become a blasted wasteland. Strife was endemic. The survivors cursed the exodites who had been able to flee. This applied to Faelar and some other volunteers who had returned, too. Some of her comrades left. Faelar stuck with her decision, even when it was difficult.
She joined the Shadows, one of the most organised remnant groups. They rescued her from being enslaved. She displayed a knack for salvage and getting broken machines working again. She served on one of their few combat ships. Faelar lived through the Battle of Kaeshana, but remained on the planet to help the resistance. Among other things, she aided Eldorai fugitives who had escaped from a camp where Sith were conducting experiments to transform the elves into orcish creatures. Faelar was still there when Netherworld aftershocks caused Kaeshana to be dragged through the Nether. She was one of the few survivors, though being trapped in hell took a deep toll on her. Prolonged exposure to the Nether also turned her Force Dead.
CREW MEMBER 8
Name: Zairj'Vakas
Age: 84
Species: Xioquo
Role: Second-in-command of the Exemplars. The Exemplars are a military unit of Force-Using soldiers in the service of the Shadows and under Kaida's command.
Description: Vakas is a former janissary, a Force-Sensitive slave-soldier in the old Xioquo matriarchy. All Tygaran races practiced slavery to varying degrees, but to Qadiri it was simply another state of being in. Manumission, though not easy or common, was possible. This was not how the Xioquo saw it. For the Xioquo, so obsessed with survival, power and the influence of the Dark Side, slavery was the defining aspect of their society. Slavery provided the labour which allows mobilisation of their forces for war, kept the population subdued and prevented population explosion.
The life of a slave was miserable and often short. Vakas was not born into slavery, but was enslaved after her family fell into disgrace. Her mother had been an engineer who designed steam-powered gyrocopters, but was framed and arrested on fabricated charges of sabotage. This meant Vakas remembered what it was like to be free, though her overseers did their best to stamp out any hint of free will or independent personality. To accomplish this, they drummed it into her skull that her parents were traitors and that she had redeem herself to wipe away the stain. She was lucky because her Force-Sensitivity made her valuable enough to be trained as a slave-soldier. Their training was savage. Rather than live in the Underealm, she lived in a cave system in the Tygaran arctic. It served as an advanced raiding base for Xioquo incursions.
Scattered Qadiri tribes also dwelt in the arctic, making a living as nomadic hunter-gatherers and fishers. The Xioquo warred against the ice elves, who were far from the desert lands their people tended to inhabit. The base received little support from the Underealm and the sorceresses back home tended to obsess over vanity projects such as summoning ice dragons. Using their training and cohesion, the janissaries were able to take control, while maintaining the ruse of still being subservient. But they were eventually branded traitors by the Underealm. The base had good defensive potential, but they were in number and their resources were very scarce. This compelled the rebels to try and reach out to some of the Qadiri tribes in the area. Vakas acted as a negotiator. This took a lot of work due to the many decades of enmity between both people.
However, it also helped familiarise her with diplomacy and the idea of cooperating with other elf races rather than seeing them as hereditary enemies. It was a harsh life, and they faced many attacks, though they received support from fugitive slaves and stranded or disgraced Xioquo raiders. As someone who broke her chains herself, Varas does not feel indebted to the humans of Firemane, who overthrew the ancien régime, and she did not want to kneel.
Recruited by the Shadows, she has proved herself to be a capable warrior and officer. As is typical for Force-Users from her race, she is an elementalist. She specialises in the aspect of fire. This is unusual, but not unheard of among her people. Xioquo have a natural resilience to the cold, and she lived her life in the arctic. Vakas is in command of the Exemplars when Kaida is not there, and acts as her second when they are led into battle. She holds the rank of Captain. Compared to her boss, she is less icy and more emotional, though fierce when protecting her personal freedom.
CREW MEMBER 9
Name: J'aiz'ria
Age: 28
Species: Togorian.
Role: Combat Systems Officer. As the name implies, she maintains the ship's combat systems and is responsible for the technical professionals who keep the equipment running. In other words, she is in charge of the ship's guns. She can also double as a Tactical Action Officer.
Description: The Togorians have suffered greatly since the end of the Dark Age, for they have been the victims of repeated xenocidal campaigns of successive Sith regimes and House Zambrano. Their world has subjected to occupation, deforestation, saturation bombardment until it was turned into an arid waste. Their people have been murdered, intentionally starved, enslaved and experimented on. Now it is under the protection of the Order of the Silver Jedi, who have carried out reconstruction efforts and provided humanitarian relief to the survivors.
J'aiz'ria is one of the Togorians who lived through the One Sith occupation and the genocidal campaign they subjected her people to. She is a member of the Wanderers of Gwaarth, who derive their name from a Togorian spirit of the hunt. They are a nomadic group of Togorians who want to seek their fortunes in the stars and rebuild somewhere not ravaged by war. Today, they are allied to the Shadows. One could say that she is stationed aboard the Ardent Duty as part of an outreach programme to strengthen ties between both groups.
The Shadows are pan-Asuran nationalists and have an isolationist mentality, though they work with non-elves when they believe the terms are good. In a way, they prefer non-humans to humans. This is a somewhat irrational, but understandable knee-jerk response to their experiences with human-dominated groups that tried to dominate or enslave and exploit their kin and their homeworld. Moreover, Togorians have even more reason than Eldorai to utterly hate Sith and Imperials.
J'aiz'ria is a friend of Ahzija, a Togorian career rebel and Sith huntress. It was she who rescued J'aiz'ria from a death camp the One Sith deported the Togorians to so that they could murdered, starved and worked to death. These events have left deep mental and physical scars. J'aiz'ria was involved with a clandestine network of Togorian inmates. This group tried to make life more bearable for the inmates. This also involved trying to preserve Togorian culture and heritage, as the Sith were trying to reduce them to a state of mere beasts.
They also tried to hide children and other vulnerable Togorians from the death squads that roamed the walled ghetto and took captives away to be murdered or subjected to vile alchemical experiments. However, this came at a cost. J'aiz'ria was one of the Togorians saved by Ahzija, but had experienced the brutal reprisals the Sith carried out in retaliation for acts of the resistance. She clashed with Ahzija over tactics and piloted freighters to ferry Togorians who had managed to escape captivity or hidden in the wilderness away from the devastated planet. During that time, she also participated in raids to rescue captured Togorians and procure loot. She became very proficient in the gunnery, and acquired a fondness for big guns. After a stint with the Mandalorian Clans, J'aiz'ria has joined the Wanderers and the Shadows. She is fairly new to interacting with elves and less familiar with their odd quirks than Ahzija, though good at her job. She is Force-Sensitive, but very reluctant to use her powers or seek advanced training in them, as the example of the Sith has left a bad taste in her mouth.
CREW MEMBER 10
Name: Nul'vakush
Age: 500s
Species: Kar'zun
Role: Host Talon. Basically, the Eldorai equivalent of a Master Chief Petty Officer, performing the role of a senior enlisted advisor.
Description: Nul'vakush is the most senior non-commissioned officer aboard the Ardent Duty. In this capacity, he serves as a liaison between the commander, which in this case is Kaida, and enlisted personnel. He assists her in ensuring discipline, training and keeping up morale. He is known to be a stickler for for rules and orders, honourable, dedicated and reliable. Naturally he has a big booming voice fit for a drill sergeant. Kaida sort of gets on with him, as far as she is able to actually like people. Kar'zun interest groups wanted one of their own on the ship, and the 'Icicle' was ironically fine with this because she considers them solid and dependable.
His people have a history of enmity to the Eldorai. Centuries ago the Kar'zun were on the brink of conquering Kaeshana, before being crushed by Ariane the Great. What followed was a campaign of persecution and deportation. It was a shocking near-genocide the Kar'zun have only recently begun to recover. Many Eldorai refuse to acknowledge it. Nu'lvakush was born as the child of warriors from the final war. He keeps alive the old martial traditions of his forebears.
Back on Kaeshana, Nul'vakush was a ranger of sorts, patrolling the reservations his people had been forced to live in, and doing his best to keep them safe from the abusive treatment Eldorai officials - and many 'ordinary' Eldorai - inflicted on them. It instilled in him a strong adherence to honour and his personal code, but also bitterness. He stayed behind on Kaeshana to help those among his people who could not flee. A petty Eldorai magistrate who considered him 'uppity' pressured a Kar'zun elder into framing as a troublemaker. Bizarrely, the Kar'zun's land was finally their own. Nul'vakush led forays into the ruins of the Eldorai's once great cities to recover technology the Kar'zun could use, as well as cultural heirlooms the Matriarchy had stolen from them.
Until the Eldorai came. This time they didn't come as genocidal conquerors or exploitative businesswomen looking for 'contract labourers' though. Instead they were poor refugees fleeing the cataclysm. They had been too poor to buy themselves passage on an exodus ship, too unlucky to win the lottery and not well-connected enough to be guaranteed a place among the 'best and brightest' who had been prioritised by the Eldorai Matriarchy and its Firemane overlords. Their homes had been laid to waste, and now they fled warlords, gangs and foreign slavers.
Nul'vakush let those in who were ready to treat his kind as people rather than demons. Many of them would have no doubt once scorned the stone people, but those who had been the true of his people's misery had long fled, taking their ill-gotten gains with them. He got a chance to smash Eldorai ultra-nationalist fanatics who had also been left behind and, predictably, blamed the Kar'zun for Kaeshana's woes. Now he is with the Shadow Knights, having escaped Kaeshana during its final cataclysms. Life is far from perfect in the nomad fleet, but an improvement. He was understandably reluctant to take orders from an Eldoria, but unlike many of her compatriots Kaida is not racist, and she has an almost Kar'zun-esque amount of self-discipline.
CREW MEMBER 11
Name: Merana Lepiarin
Age: 80s
Species: Eldorai. Her soul is contained inside an Eldorai Spirit Gem.
Role: Electronic warfare specialist, quasi-AI.
Description: Another one of the more unorthodox features is the inclusion of an Eldorai Spirit Gem, which is hosted by a big computer bank. The gem contains the soul of an Eldorai expert in computing and robotics. called. Merana Lepiarin, an Eldorai expert in computers. She was originally part of the Eldorai military. Merana worked in the codebreaking section, helping the Matriarchy crack codes used by the pretender Taenarys, who intended to land on Kaeshana with her mercenaries to 'reclaim her rightful throne with fire and blood'.
This allowed Queen Tirathana VI to dispatch agents to work on separating her from her sellswords. However, when she suggested a new method of codes for the Matriarchy using galaxy tech she was shunned as spurning the ways of the ancestors. Frustrated Merana resigned but was imprisoned because she might knew too many state secrets. However she was too useful to be imprisoned so she was pressganged back into service, but she was able to get her revenge by sabotaging a code breaking machine she'd been given to crack, allowing her to escape the planet.
Eventually she joined the Shadows where she met and started a professional rivalry/relationship with Yohara. She was mortally wounded during an attack on the nomad fleet. At her request she was put into the spirit gem as part of this project. She is friends with Yohara, and thus got posted somewhere important where she could make an impact. She has a quirky sense of humour and can be quite bossy. Kaida has threatened to freeze her gem if she uses her access to the ship's surveillance system to spy on her.
Her presence annoys Kaida, who demands that she have no access to her cabin. With the aid of the computer bank, she can aid the crew with calculations, analysis and tactical predictions, leading to significant improvements in the ship's performance. This has also helped cut down on crew size requirements. Moreover, her slicing and codebreaking talents make her a useful asset for electronic warfare. When not integrated into a big computer bank, she has a variety of droid bodies she can use to move about. She is fond of using her HRD body to tease the comically serious Kaida. One of her preferred ways of doing this is proposing 'upgrades' to her shell: "Okay, so that's a no on the bust augmentation...but how about I change the hair to blonde. You like those, don't you?" Sometimes she also gives her commander unwanted dating advice, and sends her lists of potential matches."Here's one on 'frostfire'. 92, female Eldorai, looking for her soulmate. Enjoys community service, cooking and playing music! She sounds just your type, shall I match you?"
CREW MEMBER 12
Name: Nankiya of Clan Whitestone
Age: 75
Species: Vashyada
Role: Navigator
Description: Hailing from Ajustra, Nankiya was an escaped slave who decided to stay at a freeport after she helped her fellows overthrow the Qadiri slavers and pitch them overboard. During her time with the Qadiri, as well as Vash/Qadiri hybrids and others, she learned the ways of a navigator. Vashyada are commonly derided as being 'primitive' and 'rustic' and seldom take to the seas, but she learned fast. Her new expertise served her well, as the group used ships they had liberated to explore the seas and trade, buying and selling goods such as spices, silks, linens and metals. It also made her used to working in a multicultural environment.
When the sky people came to Tygara, they promised to bring peace, end slavery and uplift the natives. Nankiya was one of those who suffered under Firemane's reign. Scratch the surface, and the idealistic facade was stripped away, revealing an exploitative, colonialist megacorp driven by a desire for power and profit. Nankiya and her crew did not have the correct 'licenses'. In other words, they had not paid a bribe to Firemane officials. So their ship was impounded for 'smuggling contraband'. Firemane officials also accused them of working together with slavers, which was an absurd accusation. After all, most of the members of the crew were ex-slaves.
There was no way for them to get redress, so Nankiya left with members of the freeport, seeking out a new home where they would not be under the iron heel of the humans of Firemane and the puppet queens who collaborated with them. Much is different in the stars, but the dark void of space is just the sky-ocean to her, and the sky cousins' focus on independence and self-reliance appeals to her. Nankiya still misses her ancestral home, but has a strong sense of wanderlust. Her mercantile background makes her good at haggling, and she has a knack for reading people. She and Chanadi, a Qadiri officer and protege of Kaida, are both fond of songs.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Born into a family of lower caste Eldorai, Kaida was orphaned when her home town was devastated by her flood. Both she and her older sister Lavina were discovered to be Force-Sensitive and joined the Angelii, an elite corps of Force Using soldiers who served the Eldorai Star Queen. Kaida rose to become the commander of the prestigious Valora's Chosen Great Company. The laconic frost elf reached the rank of High Captain, which is the Eldorai equivalent of Colonel. She fought Bando Gora Reavers, Xioquo witches, Sith Lords and Ren. However, over time she became disillusioned with the Matriarchy. Though personally supportive of Queen Tirathana VII, she came to view it as corrupt, backward and dependent on foreign support. Against these highly negative images, she idealised the front community, the solidarity of the soldiers in the trenches, leadership resting on deeds rather than status and the blind obedience that this demanded.
It is probably a good thing that Kaida is not in a position of political leadership and lacks the ambition for it. So she recanted her vows and defected to the Shadow Knights. These were a group of Eldorai renegades who had been originally formed to protect the Forsaken of Kaeshana, but now strove to build a new future for the Eldorai unbound by the three pillars of crown, nobility and temple. Inevitably Kaida gravitated towards a military role. For you can take the ice lady out of the Angelii, but not the Angelii out of the ice lady. Eventually she was given permission to form a new unit, after proving herself to the Shadows on many missions.
It was not an easy road, for the Shadows lacked the resources of the Matriarchy. A lot of their stuff had to be acquired through raids. They were also more than a little fractured, being an ideologically diverse coalition of rebels. However, some of Kaida's battle sisters had decided to join their former commander. Though lacking in charisma, Kaida had won the rank and file's respect with her bravery and competence.
After Kaeshana was dragged through the warp and emerged on the other side of the galaxy, Kaida led a task force to investigate and search for survivors. As the Shadow Warriors discovered, the planet was free from foreign occupation, but even more devastated. Nothing of the old grandeur and hubris of the old Eldorai Matriachy was left on the inhospitable tomb world. Instead it was a blasted hellscape with a portal to the Netherworld. They encountered bizarre Force phenomena on the tainted, haunted world and had to overcome a mystical barrier. Exposure to the Nether energies caused Kaida to lose her connection with the Force, though she would eventually regain it. However, they were able to evacuate the scattered bands of survivors. Then they quickly left the death world. The Eldorai had to abandon any notion of reclaiming their home. Instead they had to find and build a new one.
In the aftermath of the rescue operation, there was some turmoil on the Shadow Knights' worldship, as the survivors of the cataclysm had become privy to revelations about the Eldorai's past that put the elves long-held beliefs into question. Kaida was given a new command and a frigate, which she named the Ardent Duty. It would serve as a mobile base for the Exemplars, a unit of Shadow Angelii commanded by her, as well as for the other military assets under her command. A number of specialists were assigned to it to support her command. Nimari Valansir, a long-time Shadow Knight and former naval officer in the Eldorai Matriarchy's water fleet, was posted on the Ardent Duty to run the naval side of things, as Kaida is not a trained space warfare officer. Kytara Valon, a former smuggler and mercenary, was made overall commander of its complement of attack craft.
However, the crew was not limited to Eldorai, but also had a significant Tygaran contingent. The Shadows have been broadening recruitment to include the 'cousins', declaring them to be fellow Asurans. It helps that, for all of Kaida's flaws, she is not racist. Rather she is frosty to everyone and expects every citizen to do their duty. She was vexed when she learned that it was supposed to be a gender-integrated command, as she is sexist. Kaida brought in her Qadiri protege Chanadi Jai Himoud, with whom she had become acquainted during an Eldorai diplomatic mission to the distant Qadiri queendoms. It also acquired a Togorian member after the Shadows formed a tentative partnership with a group of Togorian exiles. Togorians have a history of fighting against oppression and genocide at the hands of Imperialist tyrants. Moreover, they are big and strong, so only the foolish would make racist remarks within earshot of them.
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