Izill

“There are six Yaanari classes, dead and living, slave and free, in a League or running from one.”

- Izill Dayltcr’zar Nemahemzar, known to many by just Izill or’ Baroness to her slaves and apprentices.

"Heartless like the void, cruel, determined, and one of the most interesting creatures I met during my journey"

-Alir scribe, adventurer and explorer Moorutu Kirtan

Izill (Pronounced both Iz-I-ell or Iz-ill depending on the dialect of Yaanari) is a Baroness of the eastern and richer leagues close to the Commonwealth. Her family name, Namahemzar (tongue pain in the Yaanari language).

Stories by Commonwealth xenologists depict her as a bleeding dinosaur with her eyes dragging beside her, a cartoony image that has a small hint of fact due to the lady being one of only eighty known beings that were subjected to the void of space, and managed to return to an oxygen-rich zone alive. Losing her eyes to the void, and having them replaced with a now dead Child.

She is as cruel as she is old, baring more thsn a hundred half breeds, and even priding herself by rearing a child with an enslaved Dyss Bezerker; a prize which puts her at a special place amongst many Leagues.

## Flesh Merchant

Most of the info on the baroness comes from rumours of her "deeds" fabricated by her foes and Izill herself, as Yaanari nobles value the use of terror to keep future opponents away. However, unlike many Yaanari she isn't opposed contact with xenos.

Many of Izzil's halfbreed offspring work for her as courtiers, members of her administration, bodyguards and even assassins. During his stay with the baroness, Moorutu learnt why Izill placed so much trust on her "bastard" sons and daughters:

*"Unlike you Alir, we do not think much of other species and would never allow a stranger, even one with some Yaanari blood in her or him, to rule us. Only this last year, I have had to deal with assassination attempts, former allies trying to steal resources from me and four small wars against my competitors, two of which are still going on even as we speak. I am old, respected and feared Moorutu and I still need to deal with all of this. Can you even begin to imagine what would be like for one of my halfbreed offspring if they managed to reach power? Well, they can and that is why they are so desperate to keep me alive"*

The story about Izill's youth, like most things surrounding the red-eyed Yaanari are a mixture of truth and propaganda. Like other barons and baronesses, Izill has allowed the story to grow and change over the years, if only to make future rivals and foes think twice before making an enemy out of her.

## Youth in chains

Nothing is known about Izill's family before she was sold into slavery. The baroness herself insists that her parents were members of one of the league's most prominent families, but there are no documents which speak of this. Some of her foes whisper that she was born a bastard in a disgraced family, so poor they couldn't (or wouldn't) hope to take care of her. Therefore, they sold her to work at the palace owned by baron Niizell. This minor lord only trusted slaves of his own race to stand next to him, leaving the rest to work at the factories and fields. It was there, under the richly-decorated roofs of Niizell's palace, that Izill began her education on the intrigue and violence which plague Yaanari life.

Pale and frail as a child, she was the subject of cruelty, both at the hands of Niizell's sons and fellow slaves. Izill argues that her frailty was only one of the reasons why she was so loathed by other members of the palace's staff. Quiet and diligent, she served baron Niizell well, often conducting task's even before the high lord could think of it. She didn't do it for love, but to be able to follow the baron around not only to learn his strength, but also his weaknesses. Soon enough, the pale Yaanari had become her master's shadow, always eager to please him.

By the time Izill had reached her teenage years. The baron trusted her enough to manage the thousands of slaves who worked in his factories. Constant meals and a life of constant hardship had transformed the pale Yaanari, from a frail lizard to a tall, lean drake who almost stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her lord. The slaves who had previously beaten her now either cowered under her cold gaze or disappeared without leaving a trace. Izill speaks of how she managed to make it so few suspected her of being the culprit of these killings and, even if the baron suspected, she was too valuable to punish for a few, cheap slaves.

As a manager of the slave force, Izill was both brilliant and merciless. Following her strict plans, a dozen chained races worked extra hours following the pale Yaanari's every instruction. They did not only do this in fear of her harsh punishments but also the small rewards she promised for those who showed their worth. Izill even says the slaves began to like her as she started to punish those Yaanari slavemasters who arrived late, took longer rests or dared to break a slave so much he would not only be able to work. In a world where all masters were cruel and easy to anger, Izill was the closest thing to a benevolent boss they could hope for.

Niizell's daughters did not share this feeling for the rising slave though. The eldest of them, Kazilli, was shocked to find out how her father was thinking about freeing Izill. Thinking that this was only the baron's first step to turn the pale Yaanari into her new heir, Kazilli and her eleven siblings prepared a coup. Their father was obviously now a puppet who followed Izill's whispers as if they were commands. He was weak and there was only one thing which could be done with a weak baron.

## Freedom

While she knew of the daughter's hatred towards her and the baron, Izill still did not know of the planned coup. Gaining power and influence were now the sole focus in her mind, that and finding the best specimens among the legion of slaves she now commanded. Like most of her kind, Izill had no trouble when it came to mating with other species. Every week, just as she was relieved from her duties, she went to the slave barracks to satisfy her urges. She chose only those who were willing, not so much out of consideration towards them, but to lower the chances of having one stab her in the back when she least expected it.

It was during one of these secret trips that the daughters began their coup. Hearing the blasts and explosions in the palace, Izill knew there was no point in turning back. Most of the slave masters who took care of guarding the barracks were now fighting for Kazilli and her sibling's in the palace's many rooms, leaving very few to guard the horde of confused slaves behind bars. After a few minutes of shock, Izill finally managed to focus and start the emergency plan she had been plotting ever since she was given the job of managing the fabrics.

Throughout the two years of managing nearly ten-thousand chained, living beings, Izill had begun to form a special work-force consisting on the best, brightest and most loyal slaves she could find. As they worked in more specialized jobs, they were fed better and kept together in a more comfortable building, instead of the farms where most slaves lived. They owed their good luck to Izill and, because of this, they obeyed their every order without a second doubt.

As the daughters finally secured the palace, gates were opened, unleashing a wave of slaves upon the few, shocked guards who still remained between them and the baron's palace compound. Dozens, if not hundreds died, dismembered by the vengeful mass of Alir, Karthemas, humans and more. Desperate officers tried to form firing lines, only to be torn into bloody shreds as those were immediately crushed by the mass of freed slaves. Only the defenders of the palace itself managed to push back the tide, shooting from windows and towers at the ocean before them.

Of course, Izill knew that, no matter how much they tried, the slaves could not hope to overwhelm the palace's defences and guards. Shielded by the chaos around them, the pale Yaanari and nearly six hundred slaves raced towards the baron's private shipyard, killing whatever guard dared to stand in their way. As the baron's shadow, Izill knew exactly how many ships now rested on the shipyard, including which were fueled and ready to leave for space. Some of those slaves who followed her had once been pilot and members of a crew. When she ordered them to get into stations, they did so with glee, shooting the small, skeleton crew which had been left in the ship.

By the time Kazilli and her sisters were starting their counter-attack, the "Sweet Payback" had already left the range of any guns in their arsenal. When they found out, two days after suppressing the slave revolt, the elder daughter tried to not give to much importance to the daring escape. A bunch of slaves in a stolen ship will not get far, she argued. Also, secretly, she had already begun to plot how she would get rid of her siblings, each of whom now wished to rule a slice of their father's territory. After a few weeks, the previously-allied sisters were too busy fighting each other to remember about Izill and the slaves she had taken with her.

That would be their most fatal mistake.

## Corsair

Izill admits that, when she finally managed to break free of her chains, she had been far too happy to think of the challenges which would come next. She no longer had a wealthy and powerful protector or a title which made everyone else respect and fear her. The slaves she had freed still owed her their lives, but Izill was not certain that would be enough for them to still obey her with the same blind trust they had shown in the past.

On the bright side, she had made a good choice by stealing the "Sweet Payback". Larger and stronger than a light vessel, but lighter and more agile than a ship of the line, its guns and shields were still a great asset she would have no issue using. Before that, however, she had to make sure the crew was on her side. So, after allowing them a full solar day to enjoy themselves, she called a meeting to decide what should be done next.

As Izill expected, every member of her new crew had a plan of its own. Some wanted to return to their home worlds in the hopes of seeing their families again, other, still eager to get some payback, wished to return and blast the palace into radium with the guns of their new ship. There were also those who wanted to land and save what slaves remained of the revolt. Others agreed to that but also wanted to personally behead the baron's daughters and every slave-master they could get their hands upon.

After listening patiently to their ideas, Izill meticulously explained their faults. There was just not enough space to house or feed the nearly fifty-thousand slaves who worked at the factories and palace. An orbital bombardment would destroy the towers and main buildings of the palace, but there were plenty of bunkers hidden underneath which would survive the battering just fine. They were too few to try an invasion and they could not hope to travel freely across Yaanari space without drawing the attention of other league ships which would have no problem hunting them down and covering them once more in chains. As the reality of the situation began to sink in, the freed slaves asked Izill what needed to be known. Knowing she was once more in command, the pale drake smiled and gave them the answer: They would serve another league, not as slaves, but as corsairs.

Izill knew little of void combat and space travel, but enough about Yaanari politics to know there would be plenty of leagues who would eagerly accept a new ship to their ranks. Baroness Lamizzar, a past rival to Izill's old master, was delighted to have the favourite ship of her old foe at her command and she accepted the pale Yaanari's service without a second to doubt. Like pirates, they would hunt down ships, but only those belonging to Lamizzar's foes, giving the baroness a tenth of what they captured. In exchange, they would be under her protection and be allowed to use the ship-yards and armouries of her territories.

It took Izill many months to learn the basics of how to use and manage a spacecraft. Those in her crew who had once been pilots or pirates taught her everything they knew, from the proper use of speed during void combat, to how to assault a lone ship. While she did become a competent captain, in the end, Izill never managed to reach the level of those who had trained at a naval academy or lived their whole lives on a space ship. Because of this, she always surrounded herself with advisors whenever she set foot on a ship.

Nevertheless, Izill's guile and strategies soon earned her and her crew a name as they fought alone or alongside Lamizzar's fleets across Yaanari space and beyond. Her crew eagerly captured and sold defeated Yaanari crews, while freeing slaves from other races so they would join their ranks. That way, what loses Izill's crew suffered during combat were easily replenished with extra crew, some of whom already knew the hardships of void combat. Captured merchant ships were turned into slow, but heavily-armed ships of war, their crews led by Izill's most trusted lieutenants. Nearly a decade after their flight, Izill's corsair fleet became the largest under the service of baroness Lamizzar.

While she was still generous to those who proved themselves, Izill could be just as cruel, if not more so, towards those who betrayed her or did not follow her orders. One crew who retreated during a battle before she gave the order were "decimated" (that is, one of out every ten was mauled to death by his companions). Those who, during a raid, captured wealth and hid it from the rest were sold as slaves as payback. Killing a fellow crew member, on the other hand, would be tortured and then fed to the ravenous animals in the ship's storage.

After five years of constant skirmishes and raids, the crew Izill led was made of thousands, many of whom no longer cared about making slaves of other races, including their own. At that moment, her band appeared to be no different from any of the many who constantly came in and out of the league's borders.

She had a host of ten million, the love and support of several Yaanari worlds, and enough of a fortune to live in primal decadence for the rest of her days, yet her homeworld was still under her last two sisters, of which neither could dare overpower the other of the homeworld of Yaan. This would also coincide with Lamizzar's failure to lead the 'Coalition of Rivals', to wish to destroy the Commonwealth. One which, to someone like Izill, would fail so spectacularly, that those that would keep a fleet at the end of which would become the de-facto ruler of the state.

Izill, would wish to become such a character.

A League queen, a blood queen, and an empress of slaves.

***The Bloodwar failings, and Izill's fall***

 After the league wars in the internment period between the great southeastern war and the birth of Valir, the league was at last under Izill's claws and began the golden age of the empire...

Raiding the ever expanding Thadrakos families to the east, and reaping the weak westernlands of the Commonwealth, Izill was as much the standard ruler as a Yaanari would be...then, she got greedy...

 Then, she heard of an Alir medical caravan that may have in fact pure commonwealth genome that could with her slaves taken from powerful cities across the commonwealth, turn her like the aged apes.

 What followed, would be her undoing for as the Commonwealth intervened into the war she had started (The 'Bloodwar') she would be killed without honours during the siege of uncaring, and justly forgotten planet.