Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To flesh out Vaena's retinue by codifying an NPC companion.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Captain of the Draconian Guard, bodyguard of and confidante to Vaena.
Links: Draconian Guard, Church of Ashira, Angelii, Lost in Translation, Ashiranism, Inexorable, The Repentant.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: 96
Force Sensitivity: Master
Species: Eldorai
Appearance: Tall Eldorai female, with pointed ears, white eyes and long blonde hair. She often wears her hair in a ponytail in combat to avoid it getting in the way while she's fighting. Her gaze is resolute and more than a little judging. She rarely shows emotion in public. She usually wears armour of some sort. Even when formal occasions require her to wear a uniform, she will wear a light combat suit or some form of armoured underlay beneath it. Her movements are economical, her stance alert. She has a number of scars. Among the most prominent ones are those inflicted by slug rounds in her right shoulder and abdomen. Her back has some harsh lines. These are the result of being flogged for disobedience during her time in the penal company. Her face has some burn scars, especially around the eye sockets. Ariawyn is physically blind and relies on the Force to see.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Ariawyn Eloris. Captain of the Draconian Guard.
Loyalties: Vaena Askari, House Cadalthor, Draconian Guard.
Wealth: Modest. She's the chief bodyguard of an Eldorai Duchess. So when she eventually retires, she will be able to do so quite comfortably. Assuming she does not die in the line of duty. However, Ariawyn is no spendthrift and lives modestly.
Notable Possessions:
- Sarix Mk2
- Sarzmigar Mk2
- Lightsabre. Has crossguards, an intense blade, dual phase mode, bifurcating cyclical ignition pulse and other standard systems.
- Dog tags of dead comrades from her time in the penal legions.
- Religious talisman.
- MSD-32.
- Seraph Battle Shield.
- VT-Bolt Blaster
- ACS-004 Immortal Battle Armor (purchased here, confirmed here).
- BCC BC-11 Comlink (purchase request here, permission here).
Personality: Elementalists tend to manifest personalities that reflect their chosen element. While this is obviously not always the case, it is certainly true for Ariawyn, who is an Earth mage. She is strong and rigid in her beliefs. Firm and unyielding, she views compromising on her beliefs as weakness. She has a good work ethic and a strong sense of discipline. She can show a more lighthearted, even amusingly crude side in private. She enjoys making fun of Karina Cadalthor, Vaena's pompous half-sister, which her liege makes no effort to discourage. As a result of growing up amongst poor peasants and criminals, she is quite straightforward in her words.
Ariawyn is very devoted to her charge, Vaena Cadalthor. Both bonded during their time as Angelii, when Vaena was still known as Vaena Askari, secretly the bastard daughter of a Cadalthor noblewoman. Ariawyn was the instructor who taught the young, somewhat shy girl how to use a Sarix and a gun, and both particpated in many battles together. These days Vaena is her social superior, but this has not stopped Ariawyn from being very blunt towards her. She serves as something of a confidante for Vaena, who values her blunt counsel, even though she doesn't always follow it! Significantly, she does not chastiste her bodyguard for her frank approach, which has helped maintain a bond between them.
Their relationship underwent a bit of a strain since Vaena welcomed a Force Dead Knight called Dimeria Nykerian of Alderaan into her retinue. It was not rocket science for Ariawyn to figure out that two are having an affair. Due to her conservative views, Ariawyn regards the Force Dead as soulless creatures, whose word cannot be trusted. In addition to that, she views the entanglement as something her mistress's rivals would take advantage of, as House Cadalthor is a nest of poisonous vipers. Ariawyn knows how cutthroat Eldorai politics are and is inclined to believe her liege is a bit too idealistic - and foolish. She is not afraid to make hard, ruthless choices to ensure that her mistress remains on the peak of the pyramid. She will not let morality and phony ideals get in the way of duty. She's shed too much blood in service of the Crown or simple survival for it to be otherwise.
Aside from her guard duties, Ariawyn also acts as a counsellor to Vaena, advising her on policy decisions. True to her background, she advises Vaena to be decisive, strict and unforgiving towards nobles and bureaucrats who are shirking their duties and to stand up for the small folk. Ariawayn despises most nobles and makes no secret of this. When Vaena had to decide which noble family to enter a marriage alliance with, Ariawyn advised her to pick a recently ennobled house that had risen on merit, rather than a bastion of the ancien régime. Ariawyn served the Eldorai Crown for decades, but has little attachment to it now. She believes that the present Star Queen is too soft and a vassal of the sky people. She is very critical of the Eldorai's reliance on Firemane, and tends to blame the nobility for it. She has encouraged Vaena to chart her own course for her house and to provide the Eldorai with leadership that she believes the Star Queen is not able to.
Ariawyn is religiously observant and a member of the Church of Ashira. This is a requirement in order to serve in the Draconian Guard, as House Cadalthor regards itself as a pillar of religious orthodoy. However, she is more drawn towards Valora, the Eldorai War Goddess. She is also devoted to Ardarvia, Goddess of Law and Justice. Her attitude towards the clergy is not free of cynicism, especially when it comes to the upper crust. Ariawyn was sterilised during her time in the penal legion. This was the law back in her time and angered her greatly. Now that her full civil rights have been restored and she is the Guard Captain of a member of the peerage, she has sought medical treatment to recover her lost fertility. She is also considering adopting a child. The fact that Ariawyn suffered under this law is one of the reasons Vaena used her influence to get it abolished.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Melee weapons (blades, polearms, sabre), guns, the Force.
Combat Function: Ariawyn's chosen element is Earth. Her skills in this field can be compared to those of an Earth Shaper. Aside from levitating stone or earth, she can use the Force to create barriers, furrows in the ground and shockwaves, raise pillars or spikes of stone. With effort, she can bring down stone from a ceiling, cause rock slides or summon an earthen wall, though this requires focus and is best done while she can touch the surface nearby. The concentration required also could also leave her open to enemy attacks. She could also use her powers to pin someone to the ground and immobilise or slow them.
Her skill as an Earth Shaper makes her strong at both defence and offence. In addition, she has minored in cryomancy, which allows ice and water manipulation. Cryokinesis is not her specialisation, so she is not as powerful as a dedicated ice mage. But her command of it is still potent, especially if combined with terramancy. She is very good at using her elemental skills to manipulate her environment in her favour. Ariawyn is very skilled in physical enhancement, using her powers to overcome the Eldorai's racial weaknesses. Force Sight makes her good at detecting concealed or cloaked beings.
She is a very capable soldier. Ariawyn has been trained in the use of a variety of ranged and melee weapons and has fought on several battlefields during the Eldorai Matriarchy's wars. She is a solid leader on the tactical, though not the strategic level. Ariawyn is a combat pragmatist and has no qualms about fighting dirty. Ariawyn has received lightsabre training and is proficient in its use. However, her use of it is focused on Form I, Shii-Cho, as it goes well with the use of a battle shield and is thus similar to how she'd use a sword. It is a decent style, but not an exceptional one. As she tends to wear armour, Ataru is not practical. She is decent with a lightsabre, but more experienced with a conventional blade or polearm/spear weapon.
Her sensitive hearing is a double-edged sword, since it also makes her more vulnerable to sonic weapons. She is a poor pilot and not skilled in combat piloting. Regarding combat against other elementalists, the obvious counter to earth is air, while ice and water are the opposite of fire. While she's trained in the use of conventional weapons, losing the Force means taking away her greatest asset. This puts her at a disadvantage against opponents who use ysalamiri or Voidstone tech, especially if they are physically stronger than her and engage her in close quarters. Moreover, she relies on the Force to see since she is physically blind.
Strengths:
- Force soldier. Ariawyn is a Force warrior, but also has the training of a crack soldier. She is skilled in small unit leadership, good with a blade, blaster and explosives.
- Force warrior. She has a strong Force connection, is gifted in physical enhancement and with elemental Force abilities, especially terramancy.
- Physically blind. Ariawyn relies on Force Sight to see. This is a problem if her powers are impaired or she is deprived of them. As a result ysalamir and Voidstone are particularly problematic for her.
- She is decent in the use of a lightsabre, but has more experience with conventional melee weapons. She is also largely limited to Form I. Depending on the opponent this can put her at a disadvantage.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Ariawyn speaks very little of her life before becoming a soldier. She was born before Kaeshana was exposed to the rest of the Galaxy. Her family were poor peasants who lived in a remote province away from the capital city of Santaissa. Their daily concerns were how to make ends meet, harvest enough grain and meet the demands of their local liege. Eldorai society had - and in many ways still has - some rather rigid class barriers and the common peasants were quite close to the bottom. Manual labour was considered an inappropriate pursuit for an Eldorai, but obviously someone had to do it and in lowborn peasant families even the little girls had to help.
Ariawyn is rather tight-lipped about her childhood, but it can be inferred that it was not a nice one. Among other things, she once mentioned an episode where her family's homestead was raided by corrupt militia, who accused them of hoarding and smuggling. This was supposedly a pretext for them to squeeze the peasants dry. She describes the liege they had to pay tribute to, a local matriarch, as a cruel, sadistic tyrant. Ariawyn ran away from home at an early age. After many twist and turns, she surfaced in the capital, where she ended up in a criminal street gang.
The gang committed various thefts, robberies and provided expendable muscle for the larger criminal groups, along with dealing drugs. A robbery gone wrong changed Ariawyn's life when she manifested her Force powers after being abandoned by her comrades and cornered by militia. It was quite a shock for the girl, who only know of Sciians from stories. She was able to kill one militia member and seriously wound two others, but was taken down. Bleeding from gun shot wounds in the shoulder and leg, she was put in irons. The fact that she was a Sciian - as the Eldorai call their Force-Sensitives - aroused the interest of higher authorities and so she was interrogated by a Priestess of Ardarvia, the Eldorai Goddess of Law and Justice. She was given a simple choice that had a long tradition in the lives of social miscreants: Army or a rather unpleasant time in jail.
Ariawyn chose the army and was inducted into a penal legion. Service in such units, euphemistically called the Repentant, was considered a way for convicts to repay their debt to society and restore their honour. Criminals were conscripted into them in exchange for lighter sentences or a stay of execution. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up the legion required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained. Ardarvian priestesses acted as commissars to keep both the rank and file and the officers in line. One of the barbaric practices of the penal legions was to sterilise the convicts. Ariawyn did not escape this fate. Her Sciia was considered diseased, so it was better to keep her from having offsprings who could continue to shame the Eldorai.
Discipline was iron and the punishments often stomach-churning. Ariawyn experienced this first hand, but over time her attitude changed, as if she'd manifested a desire to rise above her circumstances. It is likely that she was abused during during her time at boot camp. Thus she trained obsessively to become stronger. Given very basic training with rifle and blade, she was thrown into action at the first opportunity. Her first deployment was against a horde of foreign raiders who'd occupied an old fortress. From there, they raided and pillaged, taking Eldorai as slaves.
The approaches towards the fortress had been mined. and casualties were expected to be high. So the penal legionnaires were deployed to clear a mine field and then sent on a forlorn hope assault. This bought time for the Angelii to launch their assault while tying the enemy down. It was a bloodbath, as the Eldorai lacked advanced weapons. The Eldorai troops advanced under the cover of an elemental blizzard, which made it difficult for the pirates to spot them, but also impeded communication on both sides.
Sent into battle with very basic gear, Ariawyn survived against all odds. Perhaps she was lucky - or the Goddess was watching out for her. While they were fighting the raiders for a bridge, she was knocked down by an explosion. It might have just been a concussion, but Ariawyn saw a light, and she saw the enemy coming. One of them had a gun and she was sure that she was about to die. But the gun jammed, then exploded in the enemy's hands. The soldier stood and killed the pirate. Ariawyn would claim that she knew something had spared her and that she saw the symbol the fragments had formed. It was that of the War Goddess Valora.
Salvaging the dead man's remaining weapons, she was able to save two squadmates while being bombarded by heavy enemy fire, in terrain lined with explosives, despite having suffered several wounds. With so many of her superiors dead, she was temporarily in command of her squad. Her untrained, instinctual Force talents helped her navigate the mine field and ensure her comrades made it through alive. Ultimately, the fortress was stormed after the Angelii managed to infiltrate it. All the pirates the Eldorai could get their hands on were slaughtered or executed later on, but some had managed to escape in spaceships loaded with slaves. Making a snap decision, Ariawyn and some of her comrades took control over the fortress' defence guns and fired on the fleeing spaceships. After discovering the horrible abuse the enslaved Eldorai had suffered at the hands of the pirates, she executed several captured raiders herself. A profound change overcome her, as she realised the nature of the threats her people faced. Her actions earned her a commendation and she was eventually made a squad leader.
However, her next deployment was not long coming. It caused an inner conflict in her because this time her enemies were not raiders and slavers, but her rebels among her own people. They called themselves the New Green Ribbons, after a radical egalitarian movement that had rebelled against the Crown during the Time of Troubles many centuries ago. Labelling the Star Queen was an unjust tyrant, they declared that she must be overthrown in the name of the Goddess Ashira. Significantly, their leader was a royal pretender. For she claimed to be Aspasia, a scion of the Evora branch of the royal family, which had been ousted by Tirathana VI. In truth, she was probably an army deserter who'd discovered that she possessed talent as a demagogue.
It helped that many ordinary people had never met a royal. The usurper promised an end to oppressive taxation, freedom from exploitative nobles and 'forgiveness for all previous crimes'. Peasants would no longer toil the land for a lady or pay tithes to a corrupt Church. Every woman would reap what she had sown, from the highest lady to the lowest gutter rat. She would scour Santaissa clean, starting with the Star Queen and her decadent court. Ariawyn could not help feel sympathetic to the goals the rebels claimed to espouse.
But the uprising was a brutal one. The pretender's make-believe utopia was played out against a backdrop of blood and terror. The faux royal decrees unleashed a frenzy of hatred. Peasants rose up and butchered the matriarchs, their families and the hated tax collectors. Some nobles were dragged from their burning mansions, flayed, burned alive, hanged from trees or executed in other grisly ways. Even children were murdered. Brigands, who claimed to be affiliated with whichever faction seemed ascendant at the moment, attacked merchants and raided settlements. The retaliation from the government troops was just as brutal. 'Examples' were made of those who defied the régime. Villages accused of collaborating with the rebels were decimated.
Shaken by the savagery both sides induldged in, Ariawyn nonetheless did her duty. She also had her family to think of. If she defected to the rebels, it would reflect poorly on them and invite unpleasant consequences. Moreover, she knew of the foreign menaces that assailed the Eldorai. They could only have a chance to defend their homeworld if they stayed united. Things came to a head when loyalist and rebel armies clashed in her home province. Ariawyn and her squad had been sent on a recon mission, but were found out and captured by the rebels.
Some of her squadmates defected when offered the choice. Ariawyn did not. Suffice to say this made her captivity very 'unpleasant'. However, one of her siblings, her brother Calixt, had joined the rebels. He'd grown disenchanted with the 'glorious revolution' and refused to abandon his sister. He overpowered her guards and with his help she was able to escape and set her remaining comrades free. However, Calixt refused to join the loyalist army with her, as he was too desillusioned. So the two siblings bid each other farewell and he vanished, eventually leaving Kaeshana to become a smuggler.
Ariawyn returned to the government forces and stayed with them for the rest of the uprising. The rebels were losing ground. Divisions in their ranks and savage policies caused much of their support to diminish, though the hardcore renegades fought on fanatically. Ariawyn fought the New Green Ribbons in one of the last battles of the uprising. She displayed her terramancy during fierce fighting when she rained down rocks upon enemies who'd pinned down loyalist soldiers and shielded wounded soldiers with a barrier. The effort exhausted her, she was burnt and temporarily blinded by a rebel pyromancer.
The aftermath of the uprising was brutal, for the Star Queen had decreed that examples should be made of the renegade leaders. Ariawyn was recuperating in a military hospital when she received a visit from the Ardarvian Priestess of her penal company and an Angelii Host Leader. The young soldier was informed that due her conduct in the field, her debt to society had been repaid and she was to be considered a free woman. Furthermore, her Sciia abilities merited induction into the Angelii. So without further ado she'd been conscripted. Refusal was obviously impossible, for it was the law that all Force-users had to learn how to control their powers - and the strongest were conscripted as soldiers by the Angelii corps. So Ariyawyn accepted and was sent to train with the Angelii as soon as she was able to leave the hospital.
Angelii training was extremely gruelling, both mentally and physically, for the 'Heavenly and Wrathful Angels of the Great Goddess Ashira' were expected to be the Matriarchy's best soldiers. Charged with protecting the Star Queen, they were royal guards and elite shock troops. Though Ariawyn had small unit leadership experience, she started at the very bottom. Then again, all her experience had been obtained in a penal unit. But she displayed her usual work ethic and trained very hard. She fought slavers, Reavers and local rebels, among other things. Bravery in the field and leadership skill won her a promotion to Wing Leader and eventually Talon, making her the Angelii equivalent of a Sergeant. Change slowly came to Kaeshana, as foreigners were allowed to trade and reside in a special district of the capital. Ariawayn viewed these developments with distrust, having only experienced the darker side of contact with foreigners.
During this time, she became acquainted with and befriended a young Angelii recruit called Vaena Askari. Little did either of the two know that Vaena was actually the bastard of a noblewoman of the illustrious House Cadalthor. As far as Vaena knew, she was an orphan, who'd been raised by the benevolent Church of Ashira. The young girl had discovered her Force powers when a fire broke out on a farm and she instinctively used her powers to absorb the heat and save a friend who'd been trapped. It was not long before the Angelii knocked on her door. Young, idealistic and sheltered, Vaena had a somewhat romantic view of the Angelii.
While their backgrounds were very divergent, Ariawyn took the younger woman under her wing. Both fought on the loyalist side during the two palace revolutions after the death of Star Queen Tirathana VI. These ended with the defeat of hardline reactionary factions and the ascent of the exiled Princess Anya Venari to the throne. Taking the regnal name of Tirathana VII, the new monarch sought to usher in an era of enlightened despotism, where the Eldorai would open up to the outside world and seek foreign alliances to assure their independence. She encouraged her people to learn about foreign tech and started initiatives to that effect, building close relations with Firemane Industries. Persecution of nonbelievers was abolished and steps were taken to limit the power the upper class wielded over the common people, though these met with mixed success as the queen could not risk destabilising her rule and thus placing her reforms in jeopardy.
Ariawyn remained sceptical of a number of the changes that took place, but soldiered on like a loyal soldier. Leaving Kaeshana for the first time, she fought on foreign battlefields, such as on Gehenna, where she fought Bando Gora remnants. She slew several Reavers with blade and earth powers and successfully battled a Dark Master. The sorcerer tried to use her mental powers to bury her in a pit of despair and fear. The witch was able to weaken her and pierce her mental defences, but the memories of being oppressed and poor triggered her and Ariawyn smote her enemy. Ariawyn and her friend Vaena were separated during the Netherworld Event. While Vaena was left behind, Ariawyn was whisked away into the netherealm, along with trillions of other people from across the Galaxy. Forced to traverse the realm of the dead, she was confronted by the spirits of some of the people she'd killed. She also wandered through a canyon that was devoid of life and filled with skeletons. She had no companion in it, save for the howl of the wind and her own eroding sanity. She hallucinated, imagining her own skeletal remains being added to the pile.
Ariawyn barely speaks of this event, but it was clearly a trying time for her. It certainly shook her faith, though eventually she concluded that it must have been the den of Illyria, the Eldorai Goddess of Death, who'd been banished into the pit for rebelling against Ashira. Eventually, she managed to escape through the Alderaan portal. There she encountered the vicious Vong, who were demons to her. Fighting these 'abominations' was a learning experience for her, as she was almost killed the first time she battled a Vong and was lucky to survive thanks to Alderaanian partisans. Linking up with elements of the local resistance, she fought the in her eyes demonic creatures, until she was able to hitch a ride when the Republic reclaimed the planet.
After a few more twists and turns, she finally found her way back to Kaeshana. By then much had changed on her homeworld. Little did Ariawyn know that the Queen and a select few among the Eldorai and Firemane leaders had learned that the planet would be destroyed by an enormous asteroid in less than a year. All resources were being devoted to building an evacuation fleet that could save as many Eldorai as possible - and fine a new home. Ariawyn missed the expeditions to Arkas and Tygara, but she and Vaena were reunited shortly thereafter. However, Vaena was a changed woman now. More confident and determined than the girl Ariawyn had left behind. She had grown close to her superior Kaida Taldir, whom Ariawayn disliked. Moreover, she'd been promoted during the crisis, which put her above Ariawyn. This was a result of the fact that so many Angelii had vanished during the crisis, but though Ariawyn was happy for her friend, it stung a bit. Not the least because Ariawyn was stuck with being a Talon. It was an unspoken fact that her past as a criminal and her time in the penal legions meant that she had hit a glass ceiling and would not get an officer's commission.
At the same time, she was confronted by a family tragedy. Ariawyn's mother had risen from her impoverished circumstances to become a local community leader for the peasantry. However, the family's activism and refusal to toe the line aroused the ire of the local matriarch, who had long considered them a thorn in her side. So matriarch Benaezia schemed to get rid of them. When Ariawyn returned to Kaeshana, she was informed that her parents had vanished in the Netherworld without a trace. She was inconsolable, stricken with grief and regrets. However, doubts began to manifest. These strengthened when she ran into one of her cousins, who was in hiding and on the run from armed thugs. Ariawyn defended her and learned that her parents had been murdered. Enraged, she swore to avenge them. Benaezia was a powerful local leader and a noblewoman, but she did not care.
It was Vaena who noticed that Ariawyn had vanished and went after her. Surprisingly, she elected to join her friend after confronting her. Using their military experience, they infiltrated Benaezia's mansion, put her minions to the sword and killed the matriarch, though not before Ariawyn tortured her until she confessed. Thereafter, Vaena helped Ariawyn cover things up. This reestablished the bond between them. Indeed, it strengthened. Ariawyn was also one of the few Vaena told about her encounter with her biological mother, a Cadalthor noblewoman. At the time Vaena wanted nothing to do with the family that had scorned her. Both soldiers grew closer as a result.
What followed was the sequence of events so familiar to Eldorai, especially those who served in the forces: The Exodus from Kaeshana, the colonisation of Tygara and the Xioquo War, the Kaeshana Rebellion. Ariawyn was involved in all these events, doing her duty. She fought alongside Ariawyn, Kaida and Firemane forces when they stormed the Cadalthor compound after Duchess Tarissa Cadalthor's failed coup following the Kaeshana Rebellion. Tarissa, Vaena's cousin, was executed by Siobhan Kerrigan.
This left a vacuum in House Cadalthor...and to everyone's surprise the new duchess was none other than Vaena Askari, who had been approached by the Queen. Needless to say her family members were not happy about this. Previously they'd done well scorning her, now she'd suddenly been placed at the top of the family. In the case of many, contempt turned to outright hatred. Ariawyn had mixed feelings about her friend leaving the Angelii corps and entering the nest of vipers. However, when Vaena approached her, Ariawyn volunteered to join her personal guard. In gratitude, Vaena appointed her as Captain of the Guard.
The new duchess was determined to restore House Cadalthor to its former glory, believing it to be her duty. To do so she needed people around her could trust, as it would be only a matter of time before someone in her family tried to topple her. So Ariawyn left the Angelii corps and pledged herself to House Cadalthor, though it is clear that her loyalty is to Vaena alone, not to the noble family, as she feels contempt for most of their members. She's proved herself a severe, but effective commander of the Draconian Guard. Together, she and Vaena reformed the Guard, turning it into a force that was loyal to the young Duchess. Many of its new members were Qadiri, a subrace of the Eldorai. She took the time to familiarise herself with Qadiri culture and customs in order to be more able to lead and integrate the 'cousins'.
More recently, Ariawyn had to deal with the fact her liege and friend decided to welcome a Force Dead Knight from Alderaan into her inner circle. This was the cause of tension. Ariawyn was very candid in voicing her disapproval of the newcomer and did not hold her tongue in the presence of her duchess. However, when one of Vaena's relatives tried to capitalise on the rift by making a transparent recruitment offer, Ariawyn angrily turned her down. Vaena might be a bit foolish sometimes, but she was her friend and she would not forsake her. It might have been a good idea to pretend to accept the offer in order to acquire intelligence, but Ariawyn was not subtle and enraged. In any case, other matters soon superseded her concerns about Vaena's questionable taste in companions.
House Cadalthor's finance were in a poor state. Its once bottomless coffers were close to empty. The house had been forced to pay reparations to Firemane due to Tarissa's treasonous activities. While not crippling, they were a heavy blow. Vaena had agreed to pay them in order to avoid Firemane retaliation, but some members of her family, such as Karina, tried to cheat. Moreover, the members of the house were used to a very extravagant life style, which created expenses. They accepted loans they could not pay back and kept living as if they were on top of the world. The Great Exodus had already been expensive, but the house was weighed down by vanity projects.
Vaena decided to cut away the fat by selling off assets she deemed unnecessay. She wanted her house to return to its - somewhat idealised - roots as soldierly family. She also dispatched inspectors to assess the assets of her family members and force them to embrace her austerity policies. This caused protests, for many believed she was plotting to pauperise them and monopolise power. A cabal of disgruntled relatives tried to limit her power, depicting her as a tyrant. A family gathering ended poorly, as both parties failed to reach a compromise.
Vaena's lack of networking experience and blunt attitude worked against her. However, she reached out to low-ranking family members, who were bound to lose out if the cabal had its way. Then she let the cabal know that she was ready to compromise. However, the next gathering was a ruse. In truth, she plotted to ambush them. On the day the convocation took place, the trap was sprung. Ariawyn helped her lady carry out a purge. But the opposionists fought back, having taken precautions.
Ariawyn duelled the Guard Captain of Fraeya, the ringleader of the cabal. Both clashed in melee, drawing upon their duelling skills and Force powers. For a while things were at an impasse, as both were evenly matched in melee. But then her foe blasted Ariawyn with acid hidden inside her ring. The acid struck her face, burning the Guard Captain's flesh and eyes. Unable to see Ariawyn was disarmed and blasted with elemental lightning. However, as she tried to shield herself, she unconsciously used the Force to perceive her opponent. Stone skin wrapped around her and she manipulated the ground so that her enemy lost her balance. More lightning shot towards her, but Ariawyn used cryomancy to have moisture spread on her enemy. This caused the lightning to backfire. Ariawyn froze her enemy's leg, and struck her down with her sword.
Thereafter Ariawyn was put in the care of the healers. Vaena was with her during her recovery. She refused cybernetic implants or cloned replacements, electing to use her Sciia to see. A priestess taught her how to use the Force to see. Ariawyn had not emerged unscathed, but the purge was a success. The most serious oppositionists were executed, others were incarcerated or sent into exile after being stripped of their assets. There were no trials, for Vaena had appointed herself supreme judge. Through this act, she consolidated her authority.
