Ari'essa Keteris

**Ari'essa Keteris**was a force-sensitive human female, a noble from the planet Serenno and a Lord of the Sith Empire. A powerful force user and skilled combatant, Ari'essa was known for her cold, calm and collect

ed nature both on and off the battle field. She served the Sith Empire through the latter years of the Cold War and the Galactic War until she grew disillusioned with the perceived weakness of the Dark Council and fled Imperial Space with her power base and a number of allies. Eventually settling on Hoth, Ari'essa and her companions founded the Glacius Consortium with the intent of ruling the Outer Rim as the Sith Empire should have: with an iron fist. As the one who led them to Hoth, Ari'essa Keteris seized the mantle of leader of the Consortium styling herself as the Frost Queen.

## Biography

Ari'essa Keteris was born on the Imperial-controlled world of Serenno to a minor house of nobility in the year 3,662 BBY. House Keteris resided in an estate in the planet's Northern hemisphere and, though they were not the wealthiest house, they lived comfortably and wanted for nothing. House Keteris ruled over a small territory in the mountains adorned with lush valleys and crystalline lakes.

As a child, Ari'essa preferred to spend her time alone exploring the natural wonders of her home and had a tendency to avoid the other children her age. In the evenings, she was no different and would avoid her older siblings, instead finding satisfaction in reading the histories of her world, of the Sith Empire and of war. As she grew older, she found herself studying combat techniques at home and practicing them in the woods. Her family began to worry about her love of solitude and their concern only grew as they observed her disinterest as her siblings were taken, one by one, to the Sith Academy on Korriban. Her behavior didn't change, their absence had no impact on the young girl.

Eventually, Ari'essa's time came and she quietly bid her parents farewell before boarding the ship that would take her to her new life on Korriban. As she arrived, she could feel the eyes of her fellow acolytes upon her, she was younger than many of them at the age of 12, but she had discovered her force sensitivity early and, despite her best efforts, she had been caught practicing secretly in the woods. They knew she was young and many believed she would be easy prey in the trials to come. She returned their hungry glances with an emotionless stare as she was marched into the Academy and up to the office of one of the many overseers. The overseer was an elderly woman named Ragate and through her introduction, she quickly grew irritated with the young girl's indifference to her warnings and threats. On the verge of yelling, Ragate dismissed Ari'essa with a final warning, the entire Academy, not only the acolytes would be trying to break her.

### Tears of the Tomb

In the years to come, Ari'essa found herself excelling at the tasks assigned to her by Ragate and other instructors. In combat practice and dueling, she remained unbeaten by her peers and she was always the first to return with an artifact when her class of acolytes was deployed to the valley to search the tombs. Her success taught her to sleep lightly after several attempts on her life were made by jealous acolytes intent on getting ahead. After the first attempt, she made an attempt to report the incident to Ragate, she had seen the face of her would-be murderer, but the Overseer didn't care - she was as determined as any to see the girl beaten.

Ari'essa learned quickly that the only person at the Academy she could depend on was herself. She ate alone, practiced alone outside of class, and had no friends or allies to come to her aid should she ever need it.

After four years of constantly watching her back and sleeping with her eyes open, graduation approached. Ragate informed the remaining acolytes that their final challenge broke with tradition and would not involve an expedition into the legendary Tomb of Naga Sadow. Instead, they would be returning to the labyrinth of Tulak Hord's Tomb, which she had reserved strictly for them. They would be permitted entry and given one hour to find a strategic way to eliminate their fellow acolytes whether it be through ambush or artifact - the last acolyte standing would officially have completed their time at the academy and be taken by a Sith Lord as an apprentice.

The class of six acolytes marched with Ragate to the mouth of the tomb and entered as she sealed the massive door behind them. Each of them had been given a wrist console to count down the time until the bloodbath would begin. Ari'essa's confidence quickly faltered as, not even a minute into the challenge, the other five acolytes turned on her in the Entrance Hall and drew their training blades. Caught off-guard, Ari'essa was thrown back with a proficient force push as three of the acolytes descended upon her. The acolytes weren't fast enough however, and Ari'essa unleashed a force wave that knocked them all off of their feet before collapsing a part of the ceiling on the three closest to them with a smirk. The remaining two acolytes charged her with their blades as she pulled their own and leapt at them. They hadn't prepared for her to fight back and her martial abilities made quick work of the first acolyte while the second dropped his blade and stumbled backward until he fell against the wall in the corner of the Hall.

Tears ran down the acolyte's face as he cowered in fear. He pleaded for his life, saying that he only did what he did to survive. Ari'essa stared down at the weak acolyte and grabbed him by the throat, physically choking him until he stopped breathing. After the last gasp sounded from his mouth, the Tomb's entrance lifted once more and Ragate stood in the light with an unpleasant look on her face. The pair walked in silence back to the Academy and took the lift to the upper levels where Ari'essa was eventually led to a sealed door that hissed open upon their approach. Ragate gestured inside without a word and turned almost immediately as Ari'essa took a step to enter.

Inside the chamber were shelves adorned with ancient artifacts and varying forms of Sith art. At the far end, a large desk sat on a raised platform and on the other side sat a rather handsome, middle-aged man in elegant robes in a dark shade of red. His hairline had begun to recede, but other than a few strands of silver on either side, it was jet black and shone even in the dim light. He looked up as she entered and sized her up with a look of stern curiosity and an unfamiliar warmth. When she had reached his desk, he stood and spoke in a quiet, yet powerful voice and introduced himself as Darth Astor, underling of Darth Rictus of the Sphere of Mysteries. He informed her that he had chosen her because, through his observation, she could benefit most from a perspective that differed from the tradition of Sith violence and rage. He stated, though he knew she was well-read, he wanted to see her appreciate the art and culture of the Sith and their rich history instead of only viewing it through the lens of what it could gain her. In short, he wanted her to be open to understanding other perspectives and to see her own weaknesses lest they be exploited by a wiser opponent.

### Onderon's Moon

The 16 year-old Keteris found herself swept away to Onderon for her first task serving as the apprentice of Darth Astor. In his starship, they pulled out of hyperspace over the temperate world with a bang and remained. Astor observed the sphere from the cockpit and asked his new apprentice what she could sense of the people below. She closed her eyes and listened. She could sense the bustle of the markets in Iziz and the carnivorous hunger of the beasts that thrived every else on the savage planet. In the spaceport in particular, she detected the rage and disgust felt by many upon laying eyes on a crew of Duros traders unloading their cargo from their vessel.

She opened her eyes and told her master that she felt nothing but the basest of emotions from both the people and the beasts, that the citizens of the planet were no different from the animals they protected themselves from. She observed that such prejudices and base emotions would be easy to manipulate to which her master responded, "Perhaps, but such cynicism will do you a great disservice. People are always more complicated than their base emotions and while some can fall prey to them, others have motives and weaknesses that are far more difficult to exploit, unless you can look deeper. We shall return to this lesson later however, for now..."

As he finished his last word, the Sith Lord turned the vessel toward the jungle moon of Dxun and the ship began to make its descent. Astor set down his vessel in a clearing near a lake and as they marched down the loading ramp, Ari'essa could see what had brought them to the Demon's Moon. Covered in centuries of vines and brush stood the infamous Tomb of Freedon Nad.