Character Lyssara Talis

[Lyssara Talis]

LYSSARA TALIS
WITCH OF THE NETHER · Miraluka · Sith · Nightsister

NAME

Lyssara Talis

SPECIES

Miraluka

AGE

Appears late 20s

HEIGHT

1.73 m (5.5')

BIRTHWORLD

Vylmira

HOMEWORLD

Alpheridies

ALLEGIANCE

Unaligned

DOSSIER BELIEFS TRAITS HISTORY TIES

• PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
  

  Lyssara is a striking Miraluka woman with pale skin and long raven-black hair that falls in sleek waves down her back. Her features are delicate, almost ethereal, an impression made more pronounced by the stark contrast of her dark hair against her complexion. Like others of her species, Lyssara possesses no physical eyes. A black velvet covering rests across them instead, embroidered with intricate Dathomiri symbols whose meaning she rarely bothers to explain.
  
  There is a quietness to Lyssara that can make her easy to underestimate. She moves with deliberate grace and seldom appears hurried or outwardly agitated, even when circumstances around her become violent. Her voice is similarly soft, rarely raised beyond what is necessary to be heard.
  
  The raven color of her hair is not natural. Before entering the Netherworld it was considerably lighter, only becoming black after her return. Whether this was a consequence of prolonged exposure to the Netherworld, Serishta's teachings, or something else entirely remains unknown.​

  
  INVENTORY

  • Black Dathomiri spider-silk eye covering inscribed with Nightsister symbols
• PERSONALITY AND BELIEFS
  

  Lyssara Talis is a quiet and deeply self-possessed woman. Soft-spoken by nature, she rarely raises her voice and has little inclination toward displays of anger, intimidation, or authority. She prefers to observe before speaking and tends to choose her words carefully. Even threats, when she makes them, are often delivered with the same calm tone she might use for ordinary conversation.​

  
  This reserved nature should not be mistaken for timidity.
  
  

  Lyssara is capable of extraordinary violence and possesses few reservations about using it when she believes circumstances warrant it. Her years within the Netherworld profoundly altered her understanding of death. She does not regard killing with the same gravity as many among the living, nor does she require hatred or anger to take a life. Violence is a tool, and sometimes an exceptionally effective one. She can therefore commit acts others would consider horrific without displaying cruelty or taking particular pleasure in the suffering involved.
  
  Her morality is nevertheless more complicated than simple malice. Lyssara is capable of affection, loyalty, curiosity, humor and genuine attachment. She does not inherently desire the suffering of others, nor does she believe cruelty is synonymous with strength. She simply possesses an unusual threshold for what she considers unacceptable.
  
  Knowledge fascinates her, particularly knowledge concerning the Force, Dathomiri magick, spirits, ancient civilizations and the boundary separating life from death. Forbidden knowledge holds little inherent taboo for someone who spent part of her life learning from the dead. Where others see something that should remain undisturbed, Lyssara is far more likely to wonder why.
  
  She values power, though not necessarily dominion. Political authority, titles and institutions hold little intrinsic meaning to her. Lyssara seeks power primarily as a means of achieving independence and mastery over herself and her surroundings. To possess knowledge is to possess choices; to possess strength is to ensure those choices cannot easily be taken away.
  
  Her loyalty consequently belongs to people rather than institutions. Respect must be earned personally, and she is deeply skeptical of anyone who expects obedience simply because of rank, tradition or title.
  
  Despite her affinity for darker expressions of the Force, Lyssara does not consider herself Sith. Her identity is far more closely tied to the teachings of Serishta and the traditions of Dathomiri witchcraft she inherited from her.​
• STRENGTHS
  

  Child of the Force — As a Miraluka, Lyssara experiences the world primarily through the Force rather than physical sight. Force Sight is not an ability she consciously activates but an intrinsic part of how she perceives existence. Living beings, disturbances in the Force and phenomena invisible to conventional senses can therefore be particularly apparent to her.
  
  Witch of the Nether — Lyssara possesses extensive knowledge of Dathomiri magick taught to her by the spirit of Serishta. Her abilities are particularly suited to interacting with spirits, manipulating manifestations of the Netherworld, conjuration and other esoteric applications of the Force.
  
  Unflappable — Experiences that would deeply unsettle many people are ordinary to Lyssara. Her time within the Netherworld exposed her to death, spirits and entities beyond conventional understanding, leaving her remarkably composed when confronted by the supernatural.
  
  Patient Student — Lyssara possesses an intense appetite for knowledge and the patience necessary to acquire it. She is comfortable studying a problem rather than immediately attempting to overpower it and readily incorporates unfamiliar knowledge into her existing understanding.
  
  Quietly Dangerous — Lyssara does not rely upon anger to fight effectively. Her calm demeanor frequently persists even during violence, allowing her to act deliberately rather than surrendering herself to rage.​

  
  WEAKNESSES
  

  Morally Estranged — Lyssara's prolonged exposure to the Netherworld has distorted her relationship with death and violence. Choices that seem perfectly practical to her may appear monstrous to others, and she does not always anticipate the emotional or moral consequences her actions have upon those around her.
  
  Forbidden Curiosity — Knowledge is one of the surest ways to overcome Lyssara's caution. An unexplored ruin, unknown ritual, unusual manifestation of the Force or secret deliberately kept from her can tempt her into situations she would otherwise recognize as unnecessarily dangerous.
  
  Self-Reliant — Lyssara dislikes dependence. She would much rather solve a problem herself than admit that she requires another person's help, a trait that can leave her isolated or cause her to shoulder dangers she need not face alone.
  
  Touched by the Nether — Lyssara returned from the Netherworld, but she did not return entirely untouched. Her connection to that realm runs deeper than she completely understands. Reaching across the boundary is easier for her than it should be, but every door opens in both directions.
  
  The Living and the Dead — Lyssara understands spirits and the Netherworld extraordinarily well. Ordinary people can sometimes prove considerably more difficult. Her quiet disposition and unusual moral perspective can make her seem detached, unsettling or indifferent even when that is not her intention.​
• HISTORY
  

  Lyssara Talis was born into a Miraluka family on the serene world of Vylmira. Her parents were respected members of the local Miraluka community and raised their daughter with a deep reverence for the Force, something Lyssara seemed naturally inclined toward from childhood. Like all Miraluka, she experienced the Force not merely as something surrounding her, but as the means through which she perceived the world itself.​

  
  That childhood ended with the destruction of Vylmira.
  
  

  Lyssara was still a teenager when the forces of the Unmaker devastated her homeworld. Her family numbered among those fortunate enough to escape, eventually joining other displaced Miraluka on Alpheridies. There, amid a people trying to rebuild their lives, community elders encouraged Lyssara to undertake a traditional pilgrimage. Her sensitivity to the Force had long been apparent, and the journey was intended to deepen her understanding of it while preparing her for the possibility of eventually pursuing the path of a Jedi.​

  
  She never completed that pilgrimage.
  
  

  While meditating within an ancient site on Alpheridies, Lyssara inadvertently awakened a dormant Force nexus. Something had corrupted the place long before her arrival, leaving the boundary between the physical world and the Netherworld dangerously thin.​

  
  Lyssara crossed it.
  
  

  What followed is something Lyssara herself has never completely explained. Time within the Netherworld bore little resemblance to the orderly passage she had known among the living. She wandered through a realm of perpetual twilight populated by echoes, lost souls and things for which she possessed no name. How long she experienced that existence remains uncertain, even to her.​

  
  It was there that she encountered Serishta.
  
  

  An ancient Nightsister whose spirit had become trapped within the Netherworld, Serishta recognized both Lyssara's extraordinary sensitivity to the Force and the opportunity presented by the young Miraluka's arrival. What began as necessity gradually became apprenticeship.
  
  Serishta taught Lyssara to survive. Then she taught her witchcraft.
  
  Under the dead Nightsister's tutelage, Lyssara learned traditions of Dathomiri magick far removed from the path she had once expected to follow. She learned to interact with spirits, to reach through the boundaries separating worlds, to summon and shape manifestations of the Nether, and to regard the Force through a philosophy utterly unlike that of the Jedi teachings with which she had been raised.
  
  Serishta became more than a source of knowledge. In a realm where nearly everything Lyssara had understood about existence had ceased to apply, the ancient witch became teacher, guide and one of the few constants available to her.​

  
  Eventually, Lyssara found her way back.
  
  

  The young woman who returned was not entirely the one who had departed. Her hair, once light, had become raven black. Her relationship with the Force had changed profoundly, as had her understanding of life and death.
  
  Whatever had happened to Lyssara within the Netherworld, part of that realm seemed to have followed her home. She did not become the Jedi her pilgrimage had once been intended to create.
  
  Instead, Lyssara Talis returned to the living as something considerably stranger: a Miraluka carrying the teachings of a dead Nightsister and an intimate familiarity with a world that most beings encounter only once.​

• RELATIONSHIPS Character Name — relationship Character Name — relationship Character Name — relationship

  THREADS OPEN Thread title goes here OPEN Thread title goes here DONE Thread title goes here