Nyana McKenzie
(Onboard the Archigos)
¶ Overview
- Full Name: Nyana Ashara McKenzie
- Original: Nèatha (NAY-ah)
- Alias: An Fhàsaire (an AH-sah-reh) (aka: "The Reaper")
- Codename: Penelope
- Species: Sooni
- Height: 175cm (5'9")
- Born: August 9th, 2581
- Place of Birth: Othala Colony
- Died: November 11th, 2680
- Gender: Female
- Sex: Female
- Sexual Identity: Demisexual
- Faction: Independent League, Heretics
Nèatha was the leader of the Heretics and wife of Alastair McKenzie. She was a driven woman, unwilling to be shackled by her people's past and uncompromising in her beliefs. She was one of the most gifted warriors the Sooni ever produced, as well as very gifted politician. In her personal life, she was an easy going, prank loving, simple woman who loved her husband and her children.
¶ Physical Description
Nèatha is a tall, athletically built woman with long orange-red hair, orange eyes and a Caucasian complexion. Despite her age she appears to be in her early thirties. She often has her hair braided, especially if she's planning on training or fighting.
¶ Personality
Nèatha is, at her core, a very easy going person. She has a strong sense of duty, loyalty and justice. Internally, she doesn't see herself as anything special; the idea that someone else might not do what she would do, or be as kind or self-sacrificial as she is just doesn't occur to her.
She is a fan of pranks and has a mischievous streak. She views pranks as a sign of affection and messing with people is a good way to know she likes you. It also works well with her stoic outer appearance.
¶ Special Abilities
¶ Orange-eyed Sooni
Eye color has meaning for the Sooni, and those with Orange eyes (especially if they have orange-red hair to match) are especially meaningful. These individuals are believed to be (and often provably so) direct descendants of the first Chosen. They are known to be stronger, faster, and more skilled than most Sooni, and are expected to be great leaders. The first-born daughter of each Chosen is always also a Chosen, so there's a lot of pressure for them to have daughters.
Nèatha, for her part, embraced both the duties and the skills granted to her by her lineage, even playing up the "chosen one" bit some, when required.
¶ Enhanced Sooni Strength / Reflexes
While, as a Sooni, Nèatha has enhanced strength, speed and reflexes. However, even next to other Sooni, her abilities are top tier. She's considered one of the most skilled warriors the Sooni have ever produced.
¶ Weapon Master
Nèatha can summon powerful but not quite velyki level weapons from the mass of what's around her. Not just that, but she can perfectly recreate any weapons she's ever held, and she has an innate ability to pick up a weapon and be proficient with it. When facing non-Sooni opponents, she often chooses to do this, rather than tip her hand at how powerful she really is. While she has a preference for large, heavy bladed weapons with reach, she isn't afraid to pick up a gun or rifle when the situation requires it.
Additionally, one of the tricks her mother taught her is how to have more than one velyki weapon. While it's fround upon (and considered a taboo in several circles), she used that knowledge to give herself an edge.
¶ Master of Disguise
Nèatha learned at a young age how to modify the perceptions of others. While it takes a great deal of concentration, she is able to maintain the appearance and voice of anyone she's spent enough time studying. She studies their mannerisms, their life and sometimes is more convincing than the original.
It takes her days to prepare a false identity, weeks to prepare to impersonate someone, and months to perfect either. If she has cause to perfect one of her identities, she can fool anyone, even their spouses or family. She has often joked she could fool even her own family if she tried hard enough.
¶ Form Manipulation
Nèatha is one of the few Sooni who knows the ancient skill of forcibly manipulating another's form. She can, with enough focus, modify someone's appearance. But not just their form, she can alter them at a genetic level. The more intense and complex the transformation (say, from one race to another) takes hours and could drain her to the point of physical collapse.
Because of how difficult and secretive this skill is, she only ever performs it in the most extreme of situations and always alone.
While she has never confirmed this, it's believed she can even apply this skill to herself, to aid in her disguises. This is especially useful if she needs to pass a medical exam or DNA scan. The process, however, is said to be excruciatingly painful, so it's likely she only does this as a last resort.
¶ Signature Weapon
Nèatha’s signature weapon is a midnight-black war-scythe that she conjures by tearing open a rainbow-hued rift and drawing it from a subspace rift. The serpentine haft carries ancient Luhd-iuil-naom runes that ignite red-gold at her touch, while the translucent crescent blade visibly “drinks” the blood it spills . Nèatha forged the weapon herself (under her mother's guidance), then tempered it by casting it into the event horizon of a super-massive black-hole —the "void" of Sooni legend. That gravitational crucible which would leave the scythe existing in two places at once: frozen at the singularity and tangible in her grasp, a paradox that can only be resolved by reaching through not just space but space and time, holding it there in that moment and then returning it to the exact instant it was removed. The weapon is so infused with the will to defy inihilation that it has become ingrained in reality that the universe “fights to defend” its existence .
Still tethered to the black-hole forge, the scythe can be manifest in forms scaled to an opponent’s strength, from a scarred veteran aspect to a galaxy-sundering apex Nèatha has not yet mastered. Tales that the Reaper’s scythe can “cut stars in half” are less hyperbole and more cautious prophecy —proof that this void-forged blade is as much a force of nature as the warrior who wields it.
Her use of this weapon in her early days was one of the reasons why she earned her title of "The Reaper"; most Sooni were decently versed in human mythologies and the image of Death with a scythe was so striking even she embraced it. This hasinadvertently ended up teaching the image to many other races through her actions.
¶ History
¶ Early Life
Nèatha was born to a Legendary Sooni weaponsmith. As a Chosen, the woman had promised to have exactly one daughter, and Nèatha was it. Nayna didn't ever know her father; while there were rumors about who it had been, her mother pretended to not even know herself, refusing to ever answer questions about who her partner had been.
Growing up, Nayna was exposed to some of the most elegant, unique and lethal weapons the Sooni ever produced. Even before she began her training, she demonstrated the ability to conjure perfect replicas of any of her mother's creations that she'd ever held. By the time she was four she'd reassembled her stone, and by the time she was 10 she'd defeated her mentor and gained the title of Master. It was one of the few moments her mother expressed being impressed by her daughter.
¶ Secret Training
Nèatha's mother spent a lot of time training her daughter all of her own skills but also driving her to surpass her in every way. As such she would teach her daughter heretical practices and rituals under the guise of 'know the weapons of the enemy'. Later in life, Nèatha would realize her mother was training her to become the enemy. Her mother's reasons for pushing her daughter to Heresy have always been muddy and unclear.
¶ Vigilantism
Achieving the rank of Master so young meant that most of Nèatha's teenage years were spent either training others, or gaining experience. She felt that while she could easily beat anyone she'd ever encountered in the sterile environment of a duel, she lacked real world fighting experience. So, she started traveling the Sooni empire and facing down radicals or rebels who were trying to subvert Sooni rule.
¶ The Reaper
She became incredibly good at hunting down and rooting out radical groups. She single-handedly put fear into all these groups, making them very distrusting and increasingly paranoid. She became so skilled at this, she earned the name "The Reaper", since no one knew who she really was, but it seemed without fail when a radical group would form, she would appear and kill them all. She took pride in this, and became well known and respected among her people for her work.
After spending a few decades among these groups, however, it became less about honing her skills and more about understanding how others saw her people. Slowly she began to question the tenants she was taught, and after seeing how some of her people treated other races she felt these radicals had a point. Their methods were wrong, but the things they were upset about were very real.
¶ Political Career
In a rather radical change, Nèatha decided to stop her vigilante activity, and pursue a career as a politician. Due to her rather famous service to her people and her status as a Chosen, she was admitted as a council member by a unanimous vote, one of the first ever in the Council's history. It was rare that a Chosen would join the council, and one as patriotic and attentive to the Overseer's teachings appealed to both moderates and Zealots alike.
Unfortunately for them (and her aspiring career), she became a firebrand for other races under Sooni rule. She was incredibly good at politics and gave impressive speeches, but she earned a lot of enemies among the Council due to her outspoken views. They thought they were electing a hardline patriot, and instead they got one of the few Sooni brave enough to ask if they even deserved to rule these other races, demanding a higher level of leadership from the rest of the Council.
¶ Reclaiming Othala Colony
As her political career continued, Nèatha grew tired of the idea that everything that happened was ordained by the Overseers and therefore sacrosanct. To her the perfect visual representation of this was the original Sooni Colony worlds. They were left untouched since the Grey attacked them. They were to stand as a testament to the "test" that was the war with the Grey, and the destruction of the colony worlds were a "punishment" never to be undone.
To her, this was madness, pure and simple. So, after repeatedly being shot down in her attempts to get the Council to start rebuilding those worlds she staged a protest by moving to Othala Colony. She'd been born there; her mother was eccentric enough she'd wanted her daughter born among Sooni history, and Othala had been her family's ancient home.
Nearly two hundred others followed Nèatha and moved to the colony. The Council was furious, forbidding them from making any repairs or alterations to the colony itself. Instead, Nayana and her rebellious friends established a small settlement outside of the original colony borders, leaving everything untouched and living rather poor, simple lives. Nayana held this simple lifestyle up as an aspirational thing, and she became even more popular for it. She was the wise, eccentric Councilwoman living in self-imposed exile to prove a point. Common people loved that story.
¶ Daughter
It was while she and the others were living on Othala that she had her first (and in her mind only) child. Glyse was born a Chosen like her mother, and the speculation about who the child's father was ran wild. Nèatha, for her part, never gave a single clue.
Her daughter's birth was monumental. She was the child of the 'first new child of Othala', making her a second generation 'Othalan'. Additionally, she was born a Chosen, just like her mother. This was seen as a sign by the common people, proof Nayan was right and the Overseers wished them to rebuild their old worlds.
¶ The Archigos Crash
- See the Archigos Experiment.
Nèatha was one of the first on the scene when the Archigos crashed on the colony. Most of the crew was beyond help, but a few of them were able to be saved. The survivors had one thing in common; they all had incredible will, showing an innate talent for Focus usage. One of them, Alastair McKenzie showed an innate ability that was on par with her own, if her ability to gauge could be trusted.
While the council was debating what to do about these humans who'd landed on one of their sacred ancient colonies, Nèatha set about learning more about these people and attempting to train McKenzie, to see if he really had Focus ability or not. When it turned out he did, she also started training him in some of the other skills she'd learned while doing infiltration; she figured it would come in useful for him when dealing with the Council.
While working with him, he taught her some of the principles of engineering, which reminded her of the lessons her mother had taught her as a child. She could see a lot of similarities between the two and how they approached problems. She found herself drawn to this strange human and his myopic focus on saving his crew and returning to his people. He had all the same earmarks as the charismatic radical leaders she'd spent her early life tearing down; this time, she told herself, she'd help build this one up.
¶ Founding the Heretics
- See the Sooni Heretics.
When the Council voted to declare the Othala Colony a site of Grand Heresy and demanded death for everyone on the colony, Humans and Sooni alike, Nèatha knew that her life was over. Not in the way the Council intended, but she knew she had to become the thing she'd made her career fighting. She was going to become the leader of a rebellion, becoming something worse than a radical or even a terrorist; she had to become a heretic.
She gathered all her allies from the colony and elsewhere and founded the Heretics. As their leader, she knew she would have to set an example, showing not just her followers but the Council and Zealots exactly how far she was willing to go. In her defiance of the Council's order, she announced not just her intention to lead a group a heretics off the planet, ignoring the death pronouncement, not just insisting she would defend the colony of her birth, but she publicly announced her romantic involvement with McKenzie, whom the Council had declared an abomination.
This decision was unsettling even for her followers. The idea of mixing Sooni and Human DNA seemed unholy to most, so the potential for offspring was a very contentious topic. Nèatha didn't care, she had fallen for McKenzie and this as good an excuse as any to make it official. She did avoid mairiage, as that was seen as a bridge too far for her fledgeling group, and there was no time in the chaotic escape from Othala.
¶ The Temple of Banan-ache-iuil
After the Othala evacuation, things were tense for the first few weeks, with many of her followers questinging her decisions and the choices that seemed to be putting her Human and his surviving crew first of the needs of her people. Many were disturbed by her disregard for some of thier most undeniable beliefs and traditions. A very dangerous situation was brewing and Nèatha was desperate for ways to stop it without having to fall back on he strength and power, knowing leading through fear wasn't a good choice in this situation.
During this time, it was brought to her attention that they did not have many copies of Sooni scripture. A suggestion was made; a temple that was removed from the Council's records had been found by one of her followers who was a scholar. She discussed the plan with McKenzie and they decided it was worth the effort and danger to try and persue. [Owen Rees][] put the idea in her head that, maybe, a new 'scripture' could be founded that helped justify what she was doing. While it disturbed her, she knew it was likely the only way to get everyone onboard.
Arriving on a backwater planet, Nèatha led a covert “Alpha Team” into the temple —a labyrinth built by Banan-ache-iuil and wiped from Council archives. Unknowingly guided by the temple's Caretaker, they discovered several fundamental truths about the nature of the Overseers, as well as the preserved corpse of Abhar-iuil-tach, the [Overseer][] killed for first releasing the Jyse on the universe. This caretaker gave them a data-core of pre-Doctrine writings and first-era commentary before politely dismissing them from the site. That trove, combined with their fragmented existing library, gave Nèatha access to source material the Council itself had redacted or forgotten, exactly the kind of leverage she had hoped the temple would yield.
¶ Post-Temple Solidification
Back aboard the Archigos she distilled those texts into a Heretic Canon that framed free will, mixed unions and “new paths” as sanctioned steps in the Overseers’ plan. By quoting these newly uncovered verses she neutralised outrage over her public pregnancy—first revealed when the Caretaker’s scan confirmed a human–Sooni child—and silenced conservative voices, reminding doubters why she was still feared as An Fhàsaire. With doctrine now anchored in ancient authority, the Heretics rallied around her leadership, and talk of abomination or succession faded almost overnight.
Now that she was known to be pregnant, she and McKenzie married in a rushed ceremony on the bridge, copies of which were sent across Sooni space. The visual impact of a Chosen marrying a Human was the perfect fuel to reignite the fires of radicals across Sooni space. Nèatha knew it would help distract the Council while she and her new husband escaped. They added a few more Heretics to their group as they continued to run, thanks in part to this.
¶ Meeting Rhaenvaeh
During their escape, the Grey scientist and leader of the secret Grey Rebellion, Rhaenvaeh approached them with a proposal. She'd help them escape back to Humanity, provided they do her the favor of allowing her to hide and leave with them. Nèatha used her ability to physically transform someone to turn Rhaenvaeh into "Rhae", a mysterious Sooni who joined the cause. The only people who knew her real nature were Nayana and McKenzie, and Rhaenvaeh's crew, which was subsequently killed when Rhaenvaeh asked them to fire on the ship.
Since this meeting, Rhaenvaeh and Nèatha formed an interesting friendship, despite Rhaenvaeh attempting to despise all things Sooni, especially the woman who transformed her (at her request).
¶ Work with the Heretics
Nayana was instrumental in helping Rhaenvaeh form the CNK Institute. She ensured that it would provide a good cover for the Heretics, as well as simply providing a strong haven for these exiles who followed her to another galaxy. She worked with McKenzie to train him on being a spy, as well as a gifted Focus user. She worked hard to help build a foundation for [Humanity][] to possibly survive the impending invasion of her people.
The last part of her live was completely consumed by these preparations. She and McKenzie rarely had time to themselves, and between preparing the galaxy for a war they didn't know when it would come, and raising their children, there was little time left for other things.
¶ Assassination
Nèatha was assassinated by a Zealot returning from a trip to he CNK Institute. Her shuttle was disabled, she was captured and tortured, then the whole thing was blown up. (The assassin sent video of her torture to McKenzie and Rhaenvaeh.)
In the end she was an easy target, by choice. She didn't work to hide her identity from her people; she wanted to be the lightning rod that all of their ire and focus was on. She understood that as a Chosen it would be difficult to hide who she was; she had the skills to do so, but that would force the Zealots to get more clever to find anyone. If they didn't have to look, they'd be focused on her, not the others.
It's unknown why they chose to assassinate her when they did, or if this was an action sanctioned by either the other Zealots or the Council. It came out of nowhere and there were no satisfying answers. McKenzie claims to have found the assassin responsible, but he refuses to elaborate. The only evidence he'll ever produce is the man's Velyki weapons, which has terrifying implications.
¶ Major Associations
¶ Fiadha
- Relation: Mother
Nèatha and her mother have always had a tense relationship. Nèatha was never enough for her mother, but she accepted that long ago. Her mother instilled in her a sense of individuality and free will rare among the Sooni, and as such she long ago decided she wouldn't let her mother's will dictate her own. Oddly, that was one of the few things her mother vocally approved of.
Underneath the tension, there's an understanding that there is a great work to be done, and Nèatha is the tool her mother has to acomplish it. They are partners in whatever this journey is, despite her mother being the only one knowing the destination. Nèatha is content with that, playing her role where and how she sees fit, but knowing that once it's finally revealed, her mother's great work would be a task she would have willingly chosen for herself.
¶ Zaine (Sàen)
- Relation: Rival, Possible Father
Nèatha and Sàen have always been rivals in one form or another. When she was working for the council, he saw her as a tool, looking to use her for increasingly dubious missions. After she 'hung up her scythe', she became his political opponent, pushing back on him and his views. Once she became a Heretic, they became opponents in a physical sense, the two of them clashing more than once with weapons, and both learning how truely fearsome the other could be.
At the end of the day, their clash is one of fundamentally different desires for the future of the Sooni, and by extension, Humanity. He wants the Sooni to be conquerors and rulers, eventually elevating themselves to Godhood lke the Overseers. She, on the other hand, wants the Sooni to be partners, friends, teachers and guides. She want to take over for the Overseers, playing the role to other races that they played to the Sooni, but without the religious aspect. In a way, she has to acknowledge their goals are two different approaches with the same core desire to be like their creators.
¶ Alastair McKenzie
- Relation: Spouse
Before Alastair, Nèatha thought that she would do what her mother did and have exactly one child, keeping the identity of her partner unknown as they didn't matter. It wasn't that she didn't believe in romance; it was simply that most people didn't interest her in that way, and the complication of who and what she was could be too much for a potential partner to handle. But when she met Alastair, there was another person who could see her for who she was, had his own goals and was driven in a way she'd only ever seen once before; her mother.
When she was being honest with herself (or Rhaenvaeh), she married Alastair because of the political and strategic benefits. She gave him a child because she loved him. She was his partner because she believed in him.
¶ David McKenzie
- Relation: Son
She knew her son was unique from the very beginning. His abilities and innate understanding of Focus rivaled hers. Even other Heretics considered him an abomination, but she loved him dearly. Even when it became evident that he had trouble with Empathy, she supported him. Even when she couldn't teach him, she found someone who could. He was her pride and joy and she would have done anything for him.
¶ Glyse McKenzie
- Relation: Daughter
Nèatha saw a lot of herself in her daughter. Headstrong, gifted, and wanting to do things her own way. They often butted heads and disagreed, but they both loved each other deeply. She pushed Glyse to be a warrior and leader like she was, assuming that her daughter would one day succeed her as leading the Heretics. Her daughter clearly didn't want that, but Nèatha had no doubt that, eventually, her daughter would come around to the idea.
¶ Rhaenvaeh Canel
- Relation: Lifetime Friend / It's Complicated
Rhae and Nèatha quickly became close friends as they worked on establishing CNK. They became more than friends on more than one occasion, with Nèatha's casual confidence allowing her to be content to simply enjoy the situation for what it was, while leaving Rhae utterly confused. The blurred boundaries between being best friends, or being more than that was something Nèatha never had any intention of clarifying. Rhae, on the other hand, barely even understood sexuality as Humans and Sooni defined it, let alone having any interest in romance... and yet she was constantly pressuring Nèatha to put terms on whatever had happened between them.
Nèatha vaguely felt guilty, knowing that McKenzie would feel jealousy at her relationship with Rhae, but never enough to close the door on future encounters. He knew, she found out, and they simply avoided discussing it. Much like Rhae refused to discuss if she had anything more than carnal feelings for Nèatha.
Nèatha found both to be intensely amusing.