Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out Siobhan's staff and retinue a bit.
- Image Credit: Found here, on denofgeek.com. Image of Vanessa Ilves, played by Eva Green, from the TV show Penny Dreadful.
- Role: Vice President of Firemane Industries, adviser for Siobhan and Tegaea.
- Links: Firemane Industries & Technology, The Limits of Glory, Aftermath.
- Age: 35
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Force-User.
- Species: Human
- Appearance: Kaylah is a human female of average height and with attractive looks. She is blue eyed and raven haired. When at work, she is always professionally dressed in the manner one would expect from a sophisticated businesswoman and member of high society. Her clothes are always of the highest quality.
- Name: Kaylah Danton.
- Loyalties: Firemane Industries, Tegaea Alcori and Siobhan Kerrigan.
- Wealth: High. Being Firemane's Vice President and a member of the Board of Control pays well.
- A pet vornskr
- Luxurious space yacht
- Preserved animal bodies and insects.
- A holocron that would teach core Force techniques and Theran listening...if Kaylah were able to access it. However, she isn't. So she uses it as a paperweight!
Combat Skills:
- Duelling
- Ranged weapons
Non-Combat Skills:
- Talented bureaucrat and administrator.
- Basic piloting skills.
- Good diver.
- Extensive knowledge of interstellar macroeconomics, personnel management, and galactic politics.
Personality: Kaylah is very efficient, organised and independent. She has a frank, no-nonsense approach and shows respect, but not mindless flattery. This has sometimes made working with Siobhan Kerrigan difficult. Her boss appreciates her professional skill, but expects a degree of pliability and sycophancy that Kaylah considers to be beneath her. They've found common ground through a mutual appreciation for fine clothes, horticulture and the opera though. She has an almost uncanny awarness of how far she can push her boss, and when it is prudent to back down and agree with her. Among the Firemane principals, she's considered old guard since she has history with Siobhan and Tegaea that stretches back to the glory days of the Omega Protectorate.
Kaylah has an excellent memory and keeps meticulous records. A private person at heart, she comes across as a bit aloof. She is a very demanding taskmistress who expects the best from her subordinates. Those who cannot keep up with her indefatigable work rate do not last long in their positions and can look forward to unemployment. It is no secret that she's a very ambitious woman and it is rumoured that she would like to succeed the 'Lady of Fire' and become Firemane's new CEO one day.
Her experiences during the Tarkin dictatorship's reign on Eriadu have endowed her with a deep disdain for Imperialist regimes. This mind set was reinforced when, many years later following the Protectorate's dissolution, the First Order bombed the planet from orbit. One of Kaylah's siblings, her older sister Petrice, perished during the attack. Since Petrice's young son had lost his father as well, Kaylah assumed guardianship for the boy. She is a strict, but loving foster mother. Fortunately, the rest of her family survived. Her mother has retired from civil service, but they are still in contact and she's eager to give her daughter maternal advice - though not always the sort Kaylah wants. Kaylah's brother and one of her cousins are also employed by Firemane. One works in marketing, the other is the captain of a heavy cruiser.
Kaylah has zero ability to use the Force, being as Force-sensitive as a plank. To a degree, she is a little bit resentful and jealous of those who were born with this gift, comparing them to a genetic aristocracy that believes it has a divine mandate to rule over the 'mundanes' due to a fluke of nature. At the same time, she's aware that she probably would have never become a member of Firemane's leadership council if she'd manifested significant Force potential. Her boss is quite adamant about being the only Force-sensitive board member. Nonetheless, she maintains a keen interest in scientific attempts to understand, replicate or counter Force powers from a scientific perspective.
On a more obscure note, she is interested in taxidermy, entomology and pursues scuba diving.
COMBAT INFORMATION
- Weapon of Choice: Kaylah is trained in basic hand-to-hand, the use of bladed weapons and firearms. She favours a vibrorapier and is a capable fencer. She carries a practical sidearm such as a shatterpistol, hold-out bolter or blaster when needed. However, overall she is not a combatant and so her goal is to avoid combat.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Kaylah was born to middle-class parents on the planet of Eriadu, close to the end of the Four Hundred Year Darkness. While her father was an officer in the military, her mother was a civil servant who worked for the government. Since their jobs kept her parents away from home a lot, she grew up to be independent and self-reliant, while also giving her a questioning attitude.
At the time, Eriadu was under the control of a neo-Imperialist dictatorship led by Regulus Tarkin, who claimed to be a descendant of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. Revisionist historians have cast doubt on this ilustrious lineage, but either way as every loyal Eriaduan was concerned, he was the Glorious Generalissimo who would lead their world to greatness. Obviously all those who disagreed were enemies of the people, wreckers and sloths.
While her family was not wealthy, they were well-off, benefiting from their government jobs. To a significant extent, Kaylah was raised by a Twi'lek servant called Aola, who taught her how to read and write and provided a window to a life outside of the confines of Human High Culture. The young girl had a sharp mind and proved to be a good student, but manifested a questioning attitude that would soon bring her into trouble.
When she was older, the girl was inducted into the Young Patriots, the youth movement of Generalissimo Tarkin's New Order Party. She experienced the regime's vile side when Party bosses instigated anti-alien pogroms in the capital and several other cities. Aola, who had relatives in the Alien Quarter and tried to help them, was badly beaten by government thugs and disappeared. When Kaylah tried to find out what had happened to her, she was only told that she would not be coming home anymore.
While she excelled in her studies, her attitude became more questioning and rebellious, especially after one of her few friends ran afoul of the regime's eugenics policies. She became involved in a nonconformist youth group that was seen as undermining the 'Eradiuan people's community'. Its heretical actions included listening to 'decadent' music, and spreading anti-regime slogans via grafitti and leaflets. When the members were arrested, her parents had to pull strings and pay a significant bribe to keep the lid on things and save the family from being stained. After being suitably disciplined in a rather brutal manner, she was sent off to do compulsory military service.
Eventually, her life took a profound turn. Increasingly paranoid and unstable, Tarkin started to suspect he was surrounded by enemies, who were sabotaging his bold campaign to conquer Eriadu's neighbours and build an empire. He was not entirely wrong, since a number of his subordinates were plotting against him. A new player, the Omega Protectorate, had arrived on Eriadu's doorsteps, and sought to incorporate the isolationist planet.
Concerned about his policies, a cabal of disaffected military officers, bureaucrats and former politicians tried to remove Tarkin from power. However, the dictator managed to survive the attempt and rally loyalist forces. Kaylah's parents were implicated in the plot. Her father was executed during the purge, and while there was no evidence linking her mother to the conspiracy, she disappeared. Kaylah herself was unable to flee Eriadu, but was able to elude the secret police. Ironically, the survival skills she'd learned during military service probably helped her in that regard. So she went underground, linking up with anti-government dissidents. Vengeful, she engaged in minor acts of sabotage against the regime, which included illegal broadcasts meant to stir up resistance.
Conveniently, the Protectorate was on the war path. Accused of espionage and conspiracy, their ambassador to Eriadu had been shot. Realising her chance, Kaylah linked up with the Protectorate invasion force when they seized the capital. During the course of this, she also came across and shot a secret police officer who'd been responsible for tormenting many of her friends. At the same time, she secured important documents that would later be used to prosecute Tarkinist officials. She was reunited with her mother when she was freed from the secret police's dungeon. Tarkin himself evaded capture or execution by committing suicide.
The Protectorate assumed control over Eriadu, putting a transitional authority in place. Kaylah's actions brought her to the attention of MICO, the Protectorate's military intelligence service. She accepted a job, helping a military intelligence officer question captured New Order Party leaders, who were eventually put on trial. Kaylah was not a field agent, but displayed great ability as an analyst and administrator. She was eager to take advantage of the new situation and worked closely with the transitional authority.
Eventually, she was introduced to Exarch Tegaea Alcori, who'd moved her Exarchate from Malastare to Eriadu and was second-in-command of the Protectorate, beneath Lady Protector Cira. The Exarch took a liking to the young woman, and so Kaylah joined her personal staff, climbing the bureauctic ladder. This gave her significant experience as an administrator and allowed her to work with a variety of government departments that answered to the Exarch's Executive Council.
It also put her in close contact with Protectorate figures such as the notorious Colonel Siobhan Kerrigan. Kaylah and Siobhan first met at the latter's wedding to Tegaea. Relations were good overall, though Kaylah considered Siobhan to be a bit too reckless and impetuous. Eventually Tegaea became Lady Protector following Cira's disappearance. She also moved up in rank since Tegaea's chief aide, Anya Venari, joined the Exarch Kerrigan's team.
Kaylah stayed with the couple when Tegaea stepped down as LP after being savagely tortured by the Sith Assassin Kaelin Isandros, who was slain by a rather rage-filled Siobhan. This made Kaylah part of the core cadre of old OP hands that would form Firemane's leadership team. Over the years that followed, Kaylah worked her way up the corporate ladder. She acted as a troubleshooter, and shifted between being a department head at HQ and running external outposts. Her organisational and administrative skill was on display when she supervised logistics during the Exodus from Kaeshana. Soon, the Eriaduan joined the Board of Control, She soon realised that the name was a bit ironic since many of the board members were in control of little and dependent on the flame-haired Lady's favour. Indeed it resembled a monarch's Privy Council more than a Board of Directors. However, she was determined to make her mark.
She began to work more closely with Siobhan when the so-called battering ram began to assert herself as a corporate executive. While Kaylah initially welcomed Siobhan's decision to take the reins become more sophisticated, both women also quarelled. Siobhan had something of an insecurity that stemmed from her Omega Pyre days and so she surrounded herself with pomp, ceremony and majesty. Increasingly, she expected subordinates to treat her like a queen and though Kaylah made some compromises to advance her career, she was unwilling to bow and scrape, acquiring rivals among some of Siobhan's new favourites.
For a while, she was out of favour with the Lady and dispatched to act as Firemane's chief administrator in the territory of the newly conquered Xioquo, 'advising' the vassal Queen Liavondra. This was a rather undesirable post with many pit falls and interpreted as an exile. However, Kaylah did very well in her new position, using her own brand of administrative efficiency, incorruptibility and common sense. She displayed courage when a war band of Kraal attempted a raid. In time, she returned to the Court of Fire not the least due to her good relations with Tegaea. Eventually, she and Siobhan reached a modus vivendi.
A number of changes took place in Firemane after the Battle of Kaeshana and Tarissa Cadalthor's unsuccessful coup against the Eldorai Queen. Tegaea stepped down as joint CEO to focus on another project, namely her passion for exploration. By this point in time, her position had largely been ceremonial. Siobhan appointed herself Executive CEO and a week later appointed Kaylah as Vice President, partly acting on Tegaea's advice. Due to the First Order's bombardment of her homeworld, she was very supportive of Firemane's actions against it. With Siobhan devoting most of her attention to the GA-FO war, Kaylah was given significant responsibilities on the domestic front, chairing a number of board meetings in her chief's absence. When Siobhan suffered a stroke shortly before the start of the Contingency's somewhat strange Incursion, there was speculation that she might die or step down, opening up the succession question. However, the Lady recovered and eventually began to take the reins of power again, though in a physically weakened state. To this day, Kaylah remains with Firemane, always close to the centre of power.