Aria Massani

Artist: Unknown

### Relatives

Roan Saal/Darth Noctis (father), Myla Thulie (mother), Ihlik Saal (older brother, deceased)

## Aria Massani

Aria Massani (Saal), is a descendant of Renso Kator's True Sith, and one of the first Champions crowned by the Council of Elders after the new Qyaari order was re-established. A former acolyte of the Korriban Sith Academy and one of the top Inquisitors, the Dark Council had marked her as a future Darth once she came of age. One of the few survivors of Lord Bracknell's attempt to purge all Force users from the galaxy, she and Yerbol teamed together with other survivors in order to stop the former Sith Lord, and later eliminated the Xiis which emerged from Wild Space after Renso Kator's failed attempt to keep the genetic experiments hidden from the rest of the known galaxy.

She plays a vital role as a member of the Qyaari and the Alliance, often spending most of her time away from the Qyaari captial world working alongside her husband and partner, Yerbol Massani.

## Early Life/The Korriban Academy

Aria is the second born child of Dark Council member Roan Saal (Darth Noctis) and Onderon Senator Myla Thulie (Saal), her parents never spoke of her older brother Ihlik by the time Aria was born and thus she has no idea he ever existed and believes she is an only child.

Aria spent much of her early life with her mother on Onderon, where Myla kept a very close watch over her (perhaps to the point of smothering her, just a little!). Aria began to show signs of Force sensitivity at around 3 years old, though Myla frantically attempted to conceal her abilities from her father and urged Aria to do the same. Roan however does notice, and he begins secret lessons with Aria behind her mother's back, not moving to take her to the Academy on Korriban until she was around 6 years old. Aria would accompany Myla on several of the Senator's excursions, which led to her meeting Sho and some of the other local kids.

Having not been outside of the Skyramp before, it was no surprise when Aria panicked after Sho persuaded her to venture out into the jungle and the pair got lost. Aria had to learn very quickly to cope under the stressful situation and the pair were forced to spend the night in a tree to avoid being attacked by the local Cannock packs until Sho's father found them the next morning. Myla was furious when they returned Aria and insisted that she should stay away from the Mandalorian, however made no attempt to stop her from spending more time with the other kids so she can't have been that serious. Aria joined Sho and the other kids in their games, where most were impatient with her lack of experience in their simple mock battles. Sho and a Beast Rider boy known as Nils were particularly patient with her and stuck by her until she got the hang of it, leading to Aria developing a childhood crush on Nils. When Aria became more confident in her Force abilities and began to show them more openly during the games, most of the other kids (including Nils) were intimidated and afraid by her abilities and tried to keep their distance, Sho was carefully curious and remained a steady friend.

Aria continued with Roan's lessons, but noticed her parents fought about them a lot, and became frustrated that her mother seemed to hate her learning more from her father, but not really understanding why. Roan later makes arrangements with Cheriss and the Dark Council to remove Aria behind Myla's back and shuttle her to Korriban. Being young and eager to learn more about her mysterious abilities, Aria follows without question and begins her training at the Korriban Academy. Most of the Dark Council are displeased, branding her as a "useless runt" due to her small size and apparent inexperience with all but the most simple of abilities. Aria has to work harder in order to train and prove them wrong, encountering her father's apprentice Vano on one of the tomb sprints when she ducks into the same hollow as the Mirialan to escape from a hoarde of angry tomb beasts who are chasing her. While Vano is initially displeased, the pair form somewhat of an understanding rather than a rivalry, which later develops into a close adoptive sister-ly bond as they continue to train side by side. Roan gives Aria extra lessons in secret alongside Vano to help strengthen her abilities further in an attempt to ensure she would meet a better fate than her brother.

## Sith Acolyte/Inquisitor

Aria continues to thrive under the intensive training regime, quickly gaining prestige and favour with the Darths who had once doubted her ability to survive longer than a month in the Academy. Roan encouraged her to practise her abilities, including manipulation of others, leading to her forming several on-and-off relationships as a young teen, although Roan strictly policed which ones were allowed to become more serious. As a young teen she began a short-term relationship with a Grand Moff's son, although broke it off after a few months after he became too intimidated by her growing abilities and rank within the Academy. She then entered into a semi-long term relationship with Vano's younger brother, Merak.

This relationship continued right up until Merak's death during the Korriban purge. Roan appeared to approve of her choice, keeping careful watch from afar but not interfering very much. Whether or not the relationship could have developed into something more serious, had Merak survived, is unclear. Aria is still unsure how much of it had been real attraction or love, and how much of it was that the other Acolyte enjoyed having the "bragging rights" of being "allowed" to get closer to her by her father.

Aria is allowed intermittent contact with her mother under Roan's discretion, which is later stopped as Aria turns 16 and is given the task of killing her mother as part of her initiation trials. Her prestige gain and rank within the Empire became more important to Aria during her years of training and she agrees to the assignment, carrying out the task relatively smoothly (although would later admit that she had nightmares about it for some years afterwards before finally finding peace with her actions). Impressed by her dedication to the Sith, the Darths of the Council watch her further especially after the appearance of Lysa.

Aria and Lysa form a fierce rivalry where Aria begins to feel rather threatened by the ex-Jedi who appears to be climbing ranks just as quickly, if not faster. Aria throws herself into every assignment granted to her by Roan and/or the Dark Council, becoming so ruthlessly efficient at carrying out tasks that the impressed Darths grant her the rank of Inquisitor as the rivalry between Aria and Lysa reaches its highest point, with the pair both competing for the official apprenticeship to Lord Bracknell. Aria appears to have the upper hand initially until Lysa discovers the location of an ancient artefact in Naga Sadow's tomb and claims that once she finds it, Bracknell will not be able to refuse her the apprenticeship.

## Trivia

* Aria is to this day unaware that she had a brother, as neither of her parents told her about him
* She may not have any other blood relatives, but Aria has a close adopted-sister relationship with Vano Shenly
* While most acolytes keep minimal contact with the rest of their family on the Dark Council's orders, Aria continued to have somewhat regular contact with her mother under Roan's discretion, until the age of 17 when Roan could no longer barter with the Dark Council and Aria was sent to kill her mother as part of the Sith's "initiation trials"
* While she and Lysa were competing for the apprenticeship to Bracknell, Roan was loathe to allow his daughter to become apprentice to his rival and had secretly approached Cheriss to arrange for Aria to be apprenticed to her instead, provided she could kill Lysa and retrieve the artefact they required
* Aria's name is a feminized form of the High Sith word "Ari" which means "Lord"