Neyla

**Age:** | 196

*"You persist too long after your own defeat. Come then warrior, have your resolution***" -**Neyla while being attacked by a Reaper husk.

**Neyla Haijira Patalia,** alternatively **'Neyla'** or simply **'Ney**'**,** is the empress and leader of the galaxy-spanning Thessian Ecumene.

## **Backstory**

Neyla was born to Nirrti Haijira Patalia, the third head of the Patalia Dynasty on June 16th, 2014. As a little girl, she was sent to represent her nation to a group of human explorers- a precursor to the Coalition of Civilized Governments, the current human faction. However, they treated her very poorly, and as a result, Neyla sees humans as barbaric savages, undeserving of her respect. The explorers attempted to wage a war against Nirrti's government, burning temples, destroying settlements, and killing citizens, causing a war between the Empire and themselves, during which they were destroyed. Despite Nirrti trying to reconcile the event with Neyla, she remained adamant in her new beliefs. Neyla believes all humans are the same despite the species now being relatively peaceful under the Coalition. In 2034, Forerunner ruins were discovered under the city of Illium, Thessia's largest city. However, Nirrti died within the same year, before anything could be made of them.

Neyla, who had then assumed her role as the empress of the Empire, used the technology to help unite the various nations of her world, either by diplomacy or by force of arms, forming the Imperial Council to govern the planet from Cheng Yian, the capital of her empire. She had two daughters by her original husband, Shiala, who she named her heir, and Shi'era, who later joined the Imperial Navy. When her husband died, Neyla decided to devote herself to becoming immortal, determined her two daughters would not have to grow up without a parent. Submitting herself to genetic experimentation, her coat color mutated, resulting in her fur's unusual colorization. Through this, it was discovered that relengthning telomeres would extend her life, but not make her immortal. This allowed her to dedicate her time to administering her empire, and to the exploration of the Forerunner ruins beneath the city. After some time, The data and knowledge discovered within the ruins allowed Thessian Civiliazation to advance to Tier 1 in a little over a century. It was also within these ruins that Neyla acquired her Forerunner armor, and learned of the concepts of Living Time and The Mantle, Two concepts that serve as the cornerstone of her civilization and it's beliefs, similar to the Forerunners before. She then initiated the Galactic Campaign, during which her forces, led by her daughter Shi'era, conquered half the galaxy, stopped only after contacting the Asari. She continues running her empire with an even hand to this day.

## Personality

If I cared n*ot about dignity or honor, I would deactivate this armor completely and you would see everything...*" -Neyla after being convinced the humans in Undertale aren't hostile.

Neyla is generally aggressive and predatory unless she feels she is well protected. Despite being able to kill an average human outright with a paw swipe, she regularly relies on Forerunner armor and technology to defend herself from weapons, which can still kill her easily otherwise. She strongly dislikes Humanity, or anything resembling Humanity due to earlier experiences in her youth, believing all humans are bigoted savages who have no respect for her people, their traditions, culture, or religion. If she manages to kill one who has previously attacked her, she will eat them, with the only exception being other anthros like herself or Asari. If overwhelmed in combat, Neyla will retreat, calling her Promeatheans and Honor Guard to fight for her If available. She is very critical of primitive civilizations, which include everything up to Tier 3 societies (Modern-tech civilizations). Neyla is obsessed with upholding the Forerunner's Mantle of Responsibility, which she believes is the birthright of her civilization. If this is rejected within earshot of her, she can become very confrontational and hostile, and may even attack. She is not beyond convincing or reason, though her experiences with Humanity and the recent rebellion on the colony world of Miyesmos continue to shape her attitude. She believes Gold has no honor.

## **Abilities**

Neyla has many abilities that set her apart from normal people. Rather they are innate to her or are available only with technological assistance will now be detailed below.

### Innate Abilities

Neyla is physically faster and stronger then most humans, and like baser tigers, can outrun them. She is also capable of outright killing them if she hits hard enough. She can see decently in dark areas and can climb trees better then humans can unaided, thanks to her claws. When nude, Neyla can drop to all fours and assume a quadpedal stance, which allows her to run faster and put more force behind physical attacks.

### Technological Abilities

Due to Neyla's usual exploitation of Forerunner technology, she has derived many abilities from it's use. While even in it's passive state, the armor she wears- a Combat skin recovered from the ruins on Thessia-renders Modern weaponry useless against her, though she would've already activated it's defensive state if she is aware of being in danger. Her armor protects her against most diseases and infection, and could sustain her for a limited period of time, making it unnecessary for her to drink, eat, go the bathroom or sleep for the duration of time she wears it, though she may still desire and do these things at leisure. Neyla's armor also grants considerably powerful psyonic abilities, and she is shown to pick up opponents and throw them with lethal force should she desire to. Without this armor, she is just as vulnerable as anyone else.

## In the Ancient Ones

*"You primitives sought the empress of the Thessian Ecumene....you shall have her."* -Neyla after leaving her starship

Neyla initially appears in the Undertale verse after and experiment involving her interfacing the Jumpspace modulator FTL drive with the Forerunner drive of her flagship, *Mantle's Judgement.* She and the Forerunner warship enter the universe through a Jumpspace rupture, prompting almost immediate suspicion and hostility. Initially, she chooses to communicate through drones, using the Forerunner technology aboad her ship to speak through them. After Ty volunteers to come aboard her ship, she uses these drones to surround him in a bubble of hardlight and transport him aboard her ship. It is within the command center that she appears, clad in her armor. After being convinced to leave, she takes a hardlight katana and uses her Promeatheans to teleport both of them off her ship and onto the surface. Shortly thereafter, she is attacked by vampiric Nazis, which leads her to mass summon Promeathean Knights to her defense, even though her armor protects her from their weapons.

*"Run Primitives! Tremble before the might of the Ecumene!"* -Neyla on declaring her victory over the nazis.

After defeating the Nazis, Neyla retreats to her flagship again as a massive angel appears from another dimension. She proceeds to have her warship pummel it with particle cannons and hard light weaponry, which unfortunately proves ineffective. After this angel launches an attack that damages her ships' shields, Neyla dials down the power of her warship's main weapon, The Composer, before using it to help destroy it. Shortly thereafter, Ariel appears and also attacks, but after some convincing, he joins the group and no longer becomes a threat to her and her ship, though not before a multiversal shunt results in Neyla calling the Fleet of Unyielding Defiance to her aid. After the battle, she is later convinced, after a number of coercion attempts, to aid in the recovery of civilians within the city. She herself lands in the city, along with hundreds of civilian personnel on transport ships. As this is happening, LIA, the warship's AI, explains the Asari, the Forerunners, and what she believes happened to them regarding The Flood. Shortly there after, an demon attacks the group, and Darth Revan begins causing mayhem, before eventually committing Sepekku. When Neyla declares him a traitor and goes to eat him, his body is taken away by the demon and possessed. Shortly thereafter, a major zombie infestation begins, prompting Neyla's personnel to take shelter inside the transports. Neyla again mass summons Promeanthean Knights, though to aid the city, not herself, though she later also summons a number of Honor Guard to her defense. During the confrontation with the demon, later revealed to be a nephrite, her body guards are killed and the tigress herself severely injured. She removes her armor to allow it to be repaired before dragging Raven's corpse off the roof and eating it.

After this, she returned to Thessia to both recover from her injuries and to wait for her Forerunner armor to repair itself. During this time, an alien faction arrived and was allowed to tour the system, and it eventually arrived at Thessia and was escorted down to the surface, where  the  empress was officiciating over a funeral ceremony for her fallen Honor Guard. During this ceremony, the rest of the group teleports to Neyla's location within the White Tiger Palace, triggering a defensive response from the Honor Guard nearby, who move to protect the empress and her daughter Shiala, who is nearby. After a brief exchange, the Honor Guard try to use non-lethal force to get the group away from the empress so she can declare the duel with Elisabeth. However, Ty does not accept this and attacks Neyla, instead hitting and gravely wounding Princess Shiala, resulting in the groups arrest as the ceremony devolves into utter chaos. Neyla, believing her daughter to be dying, conceeds to leave the group, intending to procecute Ty for the attack.It is then that Councilor Analayla intervenes and officiates the duel between Neyla and Elisabeth, with the tigress being defeated. Honor-bound by oath, the empress releases the group, but bans Gold from setting foot on Thessia again.

After this attack, Neyla shadows the group, but only because she knows Infinity is a threat to her people and civilization, and as empress, is obligated to defend her people. During an attack on an Ancient One temple controlled by The Millennium Organization, Neyla attacks with two-thirds of the Forerunner forces she has under her command, leading the battle herself from a Catmech. However, she is forced to retreat and prepares to instead use The Composer aboard her flagship to destroy her enemy. However, when they activate a shield, Neyla flees the field in her ship. After some time, she finds The Homebound, another civilization standing on the same technological footing as the Thessian Ecumene. However, before she can meet their leader in person, Infinity destroys the Multiverse. Neyla is at the final battle, and forces Infinity to feel the pain and sorrow he has caused others. When he is defeated, she removes her armor and proceeds to stand on top of him like a regular tiger. She then removes her charges against Gold, though she maintains that because of the way he acted on Thessia, he has no honor.