Game History
WEST END GAMES
In the beginning there was a blonde blue eyed girl growing up on a retro-tech
backwater world called Purgatory ( http://www.deathstar.org/groups/FoE/FoEhp/bios/purgatory.html ).
Her parents were techs imported to staff the new Imperial spaceport. The parents
were rebel spies however, and the mother a Jedi in hiding. She taught her daughter
secretly, by focusing on passive techniques and meditation cloaked in childhood
activities so that neither the daughter nor authorities recognized it.
The daughter, Shan Connal, spent most of her time outside of school in the neighboring
swamps developing a close relationship with nature, particularly the wildlife. One
day coming home from an overnight camping trip she saw her parents being arrested and
taken out of their house by armed troops. Not knowing why or what to do she hid out
in a little used warehouse on the spaceport periphery. A gunfight outside woke her,
and she investigated to find a disparate band of travelers under fire from stormtroopers.
Something in one of them drew her, and she knew without a doubt that this one was a
Force user. Not like in the bedtime stories her mother had used to teach her Jedi
history, but still a Force User and so when the group fled Shan went with them and
they were stuck with her.
Unfortunately they were soon to be embroiled in a planetwide power struggle involving
the dominant ruling Houses. Two Houses were wiped out before the dust settled, and by
this time Shan had pestered the Jedi Padawan (not even close to fully trained, not sure
what other term to use) into revealing her lightsaber and engaging in some very
definate Jedi abilities to save all their lives. A fact dutifully reported to the
local Imperial garrison by the traveler in the group who happened to be an undercover
Imperial ISB agent investigating rebel activities on Purgatory.
The Imperial blockade around the planet had not yet been lifted, and the ship carrying
her parents was boarded. Shan's mother contacted her via a mental link and related that
she was a Jedi (the mom), and that the parents were spies for the Rebellion on board a
rebel blockade runner. That the troops had been rebel ones evacuating the family to
safety along with datacubes they had stolen in their work at the spaceport. With her
parents always busy with their work and each other Shan had 'borrowed' a cube or two
as a gesture to get attention, and now was told to deliver said cube to the Rebellion.
Mom and dad then suicided, still in linkage with their daughter, in order to take a
few stormtroopers with them.
Shan's new friends took her offplanet with them, and the cube was duly sent to the
Rebellion. The Padawan, Aretta Fariss, had inherited a battered old freighter from
her deceased aunt, called the Black Hole due to its nature as a time and money sink.
The pair stuck it out as smugglers and cargo haulers anyway, under a variety of aliases,
and the Padawan taught Shan a bit about using the Force.
Having gone to Imperial schools all her life and with a grudge against the rebels
over the loss of and betrayal by her parents (as well as their abandonment of her
after they got their cubes), Shan thought very highly of the Empire and Emperor. She
couldn't really equate what she knew of Jedi heroes from her mom with the anti-Jedi
propoganda of the Empire, but really wanted to BE a Jedi.
FORCES OF THE EMPIRE ROLEPLAYING GROUP
One trip Shan went to visit a still living uncle, a teacher in a university and upon
returning to await the Padawn's pick up learned instead that the ship had been attacked
by patrol ships and destroyed. Imperial agents waiting for her picked Shan up and
shortly she was deposited on Coruscant. Her reverence for the Emperor (Washington
Lincoln Churchill and Alexander all in one) made it easy for her to agree to continue
her training under Imperial approved instructors and she was assigned to a Dark Jedi.
As much as she wished to please him she
had been well brainwashed by her mother and couldn't manifest any rage or hatred to
learn, and was quickly becoming a dismal failure. Her Master used her in a gambit
to acquire a particulra enemy Jedi of his, but in the end failed and lost both.
Not wishing to waste her potential the he had her cloned however.
The clone was specially designed. In appearance the same girl but the mental imprint
from Shan was fused with portions selected from the Dark Jedi's that this time there
would be no difficulty in the Darkness. The clone selected the working alias of Raven,
and the false identity of Celesta Chessene complete with false back history as long
lost twin yada yada. Raven was put into training and did well enough
that her Master forced a Loyalty test.
Caught up in rage and hatred that she couldnt really control, Raven had begun secretly
plotting to kill and replace him (as all students eventually do). He let her have an opening
and then when she took it slapped her down hard. By the end of the session she had
come out of her fog and saw how much more she had to learn, and in a twisted way had
come to like and even love the old tyrant for showing her the way to power. Pleased
with his work on her, He adopted her in secret.
Her training continued of course, it never ends. But she was also given duties,
usually focusing on anti-Rebel activities. Over the next few years Raven became a
respected interrogator (torturer) and behavior specialist under the tutelage of
another Dark Master, Jarek Alderson, and in conjunction with another dark apprentice who was
in training as Emperors Hand. Darana and Raven combined forces and caused considerable
havok with turned rebels and even turning a few Jedi. Raven's nice house on Coruscant
was firebombed by the rebels at one point in retaliation.
At one point her Master determined that his students were to form a group known as the Third
Circle and work together under one of the more vile, twisted, and brilliant Dark Masters,
Salvatore del Balaam. Salvatore began a Purge among the Dark Jedi, weeding out all not
strenuously loyal to His Majesty. One who managed to escape capture and execution was
Daniel Tarkanien. Salvatore and the Circle chased him down, and when Daniel failed to
surrender his ship and person, Salvatore executed Daniel's parents (loyal Imperials)
via live holofeed. Daniel disappeared into the void.
A few months later female Members of the Circle present during the chase began to
disappear. Raven woke up from her ambush in a cell as had the others. During her two
week stint as Daniel's prisoner she developed a respect for him, trapped together as
they were while he plotted how he wanted to kill her. Eventually she escaped, barely,
and returned to the Empire. Shortly thereafter she infiltrated the Alliance and took
her revenge on Daniel. When he recovered the two made a pact of non-aggression, to
completely avoid any further action against the other. Not long afterwards Daniel
miscalculated and was captured, and quickly executed by Salvatore.
Raven was shocked at her response, angry at the Emperor for his foolish waste,
needless waste of lives and resources. And all his own fault that Daniel had fled
in the first place. Fear of Salvatore and the Emperor kept her silent however. But
she began to plan for the future.
In her personal life she was still under the influence of Shan's imprint, and so had
a huge crush on one of the younger dark lords, Vordis. Being the power hungry type he
was to achieve the position so young he saw advantages to marrying one in
favor, and allowed her to pursue him. When she ended up pregnant the writing was on
the wall and he proposed to her. They had three children despite Vordis' busy military
career in charge of a fleet, that took him out for extended periods. Raven developed
hobbies closer to home, in the medical field (spaarti cylinder) and took a seat on the
board of a veterans hospital when word of patient abuses came to light.
The hospital was the second of her personal power bases. The first began when a group
of assassins attemped to kill her in transit. The assassins who were not slain she
claimed, and in an epiphany, developed a technique of bahavior modification via
reinforcement implants and basic principles of Positive/Negative reinforcement. The
assassins were her first test subjects and eventually the Servitor Project became a
success. The first, Jaime Wilder, became her Chief Aide, and took charge of her
security and the growing network of duties and projects assigned to her as the civil
war heated up. The Servitor Project was streamlined and expanded, and kept in production.
Raven also began to revitalize her old smuggler's ties as informants and then as part
of a new underworld power base. With Prince Xisor slain by Lord Vader and the ranks of
Black Sun becoming leaderless, Raven took some of the operatives in under her wing and
subjected them to a modified form of the Servitor project. When released these became
the nucleus of her young criminal activities. Money and material from this new venture
was diverted, as was a good deal of her Imperial pay and bonuses, into private accounts
and hidden holding companies for the day when she would need them.
As a bonus, her Master assigned Raven to a Governorship in his Sector. Unable to do
fieldwork while pregnant Raven accepted gracefully and settled in to do her best with
the help of Wilder.
The small rebel presence on Messina turned into a small scale revolt that took 2 years to
put down, and by then Raven liked Messina, both for its distance from Coruscant and her
Master, and for its peaceful agrarian society. Her Master allowed her to remain as
Governor and she began setting up trade ties with neutral consortiums, and quietly
with rebel undergrounds elsewhere while diverting a portion of planetary funds for her
own projects yet again.
By now an adult Raven had read Vordis' his files, knew his past (abusive father abuses
son and saintly mother... kills mother in drunken rage, son kills father, joins Dark Jedi
corps, develops rage to fine edge). The couple had agreed to an open relationship, so
long as their affairs were handled with privacy. Vordis began a very public relationship
with Raven's friend and mentor Cassandra Steele and when asked to tone it down, Vordis
threatened her. Raven backed down and the affair soon fizzled, but Raven now realized
how much of his father was in Vordis and what sort of a father he would be to her sons.
No longer under the influence of Shan's schoolgirl crush on the man, Raven began laying
plans for her own safety, and that of her family.
Using her Black Sun teams, she set up a trap which Vordis obligingly tripped. With her
husband dead (*coff* Missing In Action *coff*)
Raven could now focus on her children, rapidly approaching the age to
begin training. Recalling her own experiences with the Force and training, she chose
to let them choose, and sent them secretly to a Jedi for training, far from the Empire.
About this time she encountered an older gentlemen... Incognito in a bar she was
attracted to him and a bit high on power tripping. Although he didn't volunteer
information or show interest in her as a woman he didn't mind her company either,
and let her choose the pace of their relationship. They met secretly and it wasn't
long before Raven fell hard for him.
Knowing what was liable to happen to a normal, nice guy in the vipers nest of Imperial
Court Raven began to worry. Alot. She had yet to tell him who she was either, but one
night in his patient way, she slipped into rapport with him, and she knew that he knew,
and that he had continued to see her and that worst of all, he was a Jedi.
Afraid of what the Emperor and her Masters would do if they found out Raven didnt show for their
next few meetings, but she missed him terribly and had to go back. Noone in her other
world seemed to know, or notice anything new so she began to think she could have both
worlds. Although he never asked anything of her or chastized her occasional dark
lapses in his presence, or showed disapproval, Raven began to try to be someone he
could be proud of.
What feeble Light was in her came from him, from what he brought out in her, made
possible by Daniel's death so long before. The small flame perservered, and one day
with her closest friend since their beginning, Raven told Darana about her Jedi.
Darana feared the Dark Masters' wrath turned upon Raven when they found out, and had the
Jedi killed. Darana's operatives got ahead of themselves and dropped the corpse off
on Ravens doorstep to find. Raven went ballistic, but then the anger faded away. It
was not a fitting way to remember him, to wreak dark revenge. The body was dealt
with and life went on. The grief, that she could not escape and the disfunction of
being trapped in the Light was becoming difficult to hide.
Her Master requested her attendence to assist him in the development of yet another
protegee, upon Cassandra's homeworld. Engrossed in anti-Jedi activities with Darana
Raven joined Him. When He departed for Coruscant Raven remained behind to spend time
with her old mentor and friends and their large brood, the Steele family. Not taking
her anti-depressant meds as she should Raven broke down in the middle of a private
holofeed to Darana, and attempted to commit suicide.
Cassandra, a doctor in her own right, got Raven into a hospital and kept her there
until she promised to take her medication. Darana arrived to check on her, and Raven
told the two the truth of the situation, that she could not remain in the Empire. Her
mental instability had returned and the darkness in her mind was destroying her. The
two disagreed that the Jedi were her only hope, but Raven insisted and they let her
leave.
SWG FORUM
The Emperor's own death at the hands of the Dark Skywalker freed Raven. Drawing on her hidden
bank accounts and a privately registered refurbished ship, she headed out searching
for Jedi.
-- Character played in the Star Wars roleplay group, Cantina Roleplayers Guild .
