Ahankari

"*Ahankari has the most powerful technology and the most disciplined armies. All of the warlords hate each other, but Ahankari is the one they also fear.*"
―Dinesh
**Ahankari Prime** is the unquestioned leader of the Ahankaran Empire. She is a gifted scientist or engineer, capable of reprogramming the night stalkers in addition to her role as the most feared warlord in the galaxy. She is known for her pride, beauty, cruelty and intelligence.

She possesses some technology to turn people into silver statues that are more precise than what night stalkers do naturally. These statues do not seem to turn into night stalkers, suggested by her confidence in placing several of them in the entrance to her throne room as decorative benches.

## Appearance

Prime is a tall woman with grey skin, black hair and luminous purple eyes. She has deliberately-applied silver flecks under one eye as a beauty mark. She takes great care of her figure and pride in her appearance, and subtly dislikes looking up at anyone, which is why she wears high heels that make her taller than her consort.

## Personality

Showing her callous disregard for life, Prime is known to mutilate those who displease her, or those she wishes to make an example of. She showed this to great effect in her first meeting with the Mu Squad, presenting them with a Lobhan associate of Dinesh's who she claimed tried to swindle her. The man had the tendons in his knees cut, rendering him unable to walk or even stand ever again, and his mouth coated in night-stalker silver that made speech impossible and eating painful. Likewise, there are once-living statues of people on their hands and knees in the foyer of her tower, a deliberate display of Prime's cruelty and spite.

While cunning and ruthless, Prime is prone to overestimating herself and underestimating everyone else; she is easily swayed by flattery and doesn't consider that anyone might even approach her in intelligence.

## Abilities

* Intelligence: Far and away her greatest strength, Prime is considered one of the most capable scientific minds in the galaxy, in addition to her political and military acumen. While her consort is the head of the military, Prime is more than a capable soldier herself and simply prefers to concentrate on ruling and research. As a researcher, she is capable of artificially controlling other intelligent life to an extent, and is in the process of expanding that control.
* Guile and intimidation: Her intellect also grants her an uncanny ability to understand the motivations of others, see through lies, and play on others' weaknesses or desires for her own ends. Prime is a practiced liar and manipulator, easily able to persuade others to see things her way, only rarely resorting to force. Usually, the threat of force is enough to sway those who can't be otherwise convinced.
* Devoted underlings: As a dictator, she inspires a mixture of admiration and fear that creates deep loyalty in her subjects. Her control is so total that few Ahankarans could even conceive of her defeat.

## Relationships

### Consort

Sahakari Prime is Ahankari's consort, right-hand woman, and co-parent. They have a cordial and extremely effective relationship, a true power couple, but how much of it is love and how much is ambition is up for debate.

### Dinesh

She treats Dinesh with open contempt, and takes great pleasure in making him uncomfortable. Nevertheless they have a profitable working relationship... as long as he remembers his place.

### Mu Squad

Prime introduces herself to the Mu Squad as a powerful tyrant to be feared and respected. Since then she has been rather more helpful and lenient, for example in healing Tyler Rmoutil of the injuries he sustained in fighting a night stalker on Mu despite his mission's failure.