Nessinia Janis

Art by Antares

A studious xenobiologist with a slight disinterest in her emotional side, **Nessinia Janis** is an asari from Illium who has studied and worked across the galaxy.

## Biography

Nessinia was born in Nos Astra in 2017 to Myrina Janis, her mother, and a salarian father. Both of her parents worked on Illium, her mother as a businesswoman trading in stocks and her father as a pharmaceutical researcher. Her upbringing in Nos Astra and her mother’s business meant she was exposed to many different alien species from a young age and Nessinia quickly became fascinated with the other species that inhabited the galaxy, taking a great interest in their culture and physical differences. Noticing her interest, her father taught the young asari simple biology that she hadn’t yet learned in school, sparking her interest in the field early in her life.

Nessinia was still very young when her father passed away in 2032. While this wasn’t unforeseen, the young asari still felt saddened by her father’s death since she was far closer to her father than her mother. Even at her young age Nessinia already had an analytical mind, something which she shared with her father, unlike her mother, who was more fiery and emotional. Struggling to relate to this side of Myrina, the relationship between her and Nessinia grew particularly awkward after this death. Myrina found she couldn’t understand her seemingly impassive outlook and found it difficult to display love in a way her daughter seemed to enjoy and reciprocate, while Nessinia felt her affections were going unheard.

Unfortunately, their inability to relate to each other resulted in their relationship growing cold and Myrina relying on lavish displays of money to appease Nessinia. Thanks to her business, money was something Myrina never grew short of, allowing her to bestow lavish gifts upon her daughter. While Nessinia didn’t care much about the money itself or the elaborate trinkets it could buy, she did enjoy the freedom it gave her to pursue what she enjoyed. This allowed her to attend a prestigious private school in Nos Astra without worrying about the cost and let her buy as many scientific tools and books as she wanted. Nessinia was already smart, but this privilege gave her an extra boost. When she finished school in 2065, she left with incredibly high grades and an expansive knowledge of biology, albeit with very few friends.

It was around this time that she heard rumours of a new species emerging within the galaxy. The mystery and commotion around this elusive new species excited Nessinia and she was desperate to know more. It was this, combined with her pre-existing love of biology and aliens, that made her decide to study xenobiology at university. Nessinia attended the Hyetiana Institute of Science and Technology, graduating with a Master’s in Xenobiology in 2081. With her Master’s complete, Nessinia decided to take her education further and attain a doctorate in xenozoology, remaining on Hyetiana to take advantage of the sophisticated facilities and wide range of alien wildlife. By 2114 she completed her doctorate and attended her commencement alone, without telling her mother.

After her education was complete, Nessinia remained at the Hyetiana Institute of Science and Technology as a researcher. However, after a few years, she started to feel somewhat limited in her research. While the facilities and specimens offered at the institute were vast, Nessinia wanted to gather her own specimens, witness life in its natural habitat and conduct research without needing to get approval from her superiors. So, with her mother’s money backing her, Nessinia left her research job and bought supplies to support herself during a solo expedition.

Nessinia spent several years travelling around, paying for rides from transport and merchant vessels to take her to colonies and any garden worlds within the cluster. She even ventured into the Terminus Systems, attempting to seek out the elusive forayan after their retreat from council space and briefly the yahg after their discovery, but this search proved to be fruitless. Unfortunately, in 2127, her research was cut short. After many years without speaking, Myrina called her to let her know that she could no longer afford to send money, informing her that she pulled out of an investment in a fit of anger and caused a network of other investments to collapse. Hardly believing her mother had done something so stupid because her emotions, Nessinia was disdainful of this and vowed to never let the same thing happen to her. However, without any other option at that moment, she rushed back to Hyetiana, barely having enough credits to make the journey.

Once she’d returned to Hyetiana, Nessinia immediately sought out employment, knowing she could no longer rely on her mother’s benefaction to support herself. She quickly landed a job in a small research firm, putting her skills in xenobiological research to good use. While working there, Nessinia met a salarian called Eral Amik, a salarian who started working for the company in 2142. The two quickly became close, bonding over their research, and before long she was developing feelings for him. After a brief confession that revealed Eral returned her feelings, the two began dating, spending much time together both inside and outside of work.

Ecstatic to have someone who would listen to her talk about her research, Nessinia shared with him the data she’d spent many years collecting during her travels, explaining she intended to use it for a paper on whether there were any evolutionary similarities between species within the same cluster.

Eral took a great deal of interest in this, asking many questions, and Nessinia was happy to answer, believing his interest in her was genuine and stemmed from the love they shared. She even gave him full access to her files containing the data, believing he simply wanted to look and maybe provide insight into something she hadn’t considered.

Unfortunately, Eral was not as trustworthy as Nessinia assumed. After being together for just over two years, Eral suddenly broke up with her and moved away, tell her his clan had formed a breeding contract for him. While Nessinia was somewhat upset by this, she brushed it off fairly quickly, believing this to be a reasonable justification. That was until a year later, when a paper was published in a xenobiological journal she followed underneath the name ‘Mannovai Ormon Huhirn Zol Amik Eral’. Curious, Nessinia looked over the paper, only to find all the data used in it was her own. Even the hypothesis and conclusion was similar to the one she’d told Eral about.

Realising what had happened, Nessinia was horrified that someone she’d trusted could do this. All her hard work had been stolen, seemingly under her nose, and she wasn’t even sure if she could file a plagiarism report - after all, Eral could easily claim she’d willingly shared the data with him or come up with some underhanded excuse. In the end, Nessinia blamed herself - had she not let her emotions get the better of her, she never would’ve shared her data with someone so duplicitous and this would’ve never happened. From then on, Nessinia swore to never let anything like this ever happen again and decided to distance herself from her emotions. Every decision she made thenceforth would be based up objective facts only, disregarding her emotions, and she would never open up to someone she wasn’t certain she could trust again.

Nessinia continued working on Hyetiana after that, not allowing herself to quit a decent job just because of some trivial emotional problems. Her life was fairly uneventful until 2157 when first contact was made with humanity. As a xenobiologist, Nessinia was ecstatic about being present during first contact with a new species, especially after spending many years studying xenobiology.

In hopes of being able to meet these humans, she immediately gathered her savings and moved to the Citadel. She quickly became fascinated with the species, finding the similarities between human and asari physiology very interesting. While living on the Citadel, she sought out humans at any opportunity she had, undeterred by their responses to her intrusive questions.

When the human colony of Arvuna was founded in 2160, Nessinia felt drawn to it by the planet’s interesting native wildlife and the ability to live and breathe beside humans. Without a second thought, she travelled there, leaving Citadel Space behind. Fortunately, the humans of Arvuna were very accommodating and willing to feed and house her in exchange for her help in setting up the colony. Most were glad to have the assistance of a council species, even if they found Nessinia a little peculiar.

While living on the planet, she conducted much research and befriended many humans. In particular, she became close to a human named Adil Zafar, a fellow biologist. The two bonded over research, with Adil often accompanying her on her outings to study the Arvunan lifeforms, making the excuse that he needed to gather up soil samples for the colony. Eventually, it became clear to her that Adil was quite attracted to her. She quietly noted this, finding it interesting that attraction to asari also extended to humans, but was ultimately uninterested in forming a relationship with him. However, intrigued to know the extent of human attraction to the asari, Nessinia didn’t let him down easily, but let him continue to have his little crush on her long after she was aware of it.

After about a year of her living there, Adil gathered up the courage to confess. Nessinia bluntly rejected him, informing him that she’d known he’d liked her for quite some time. Although she didn’t intend to hurt the human, by then she had spent many years disregarding her own emotions that she forgot to consider this. Unfortunately, Adil was hurt by her blunt rejection and accused her of leading him on. At first, she didn’t care much about his outburst, until she realised the humans of the colony she’d settled on were behaving a lot colder to her. It didn’t take long for her to figure out that Adil must’ve told them what had happened between the two, and the colonists now thought she was cruel. While Nessinia was secretly upset and ashamed of this, she ignored these feelings and remained on the colony a while longer, continuing her research. However, her place in the colony didn’t get any easier or more comfortable, and in 2163, returning to council space.

For a while, she bounced between jobs, briefly working for Binary Helix on Noveria and in the department of biosciences at the University of Kithoi. Nessinia continued working for various companies without incident until 2177 when large sums of credits started rolling into her account again from an unnamed. At first, she was suspicious of this, but after a while, she simply assumed her mother had managed to reclaim her former wealth and was sending her daughter some funds. Not caring enough to question it, Nessinia put the money into her savings for later, content to keep working at research firms for the time being until she thought of a new research project that might need them.

In 2181, Nessinia took up a job with Apres Medical on the Depot Dowanubo, intrigued by the challenge high gravity posed on her research. There she remains, with a large chunk of credits accumulating in her savings account, looking for her next research opportunity to present itself.

## Personality

Nessinia is a very calm person who rarely gets angry. She always tries to remain neutral and rely on facts rather than feelings, believing that emotions are an irresponsible basis for decisions. Often this leads to her suppressing and ignoring her own feelings, especially those of anger and sorrow, presenting herself as a more indifferent person. This means she finds it incredibly difficult to express strong emotions like pain and love when the situation calls for it, sometimes making her appear incredibly distant or unfeeling. Despite this, she does generally enjoy the company of others. She is at ease when starting conversations, and can be quite persistent when talking to someone who is unwilling to engage if she wants information out of them.

Nessinia is innately curious and holds a fascination for all life, no matter how big or small. When she desires to know more about something, her composed exterior can falter, revealing a more impulsive and excitable side to her character. She can sometimes become overly fixated on topics she is interested in, to the extent where she can forget about everything else. This can lead to her getting very distracted, forgetting how to behave appropriately around people or disregarding other matters that she deems less important, no matter what the consequences of this may be.

Since she has made a habit of ignoring her own feelings, Nessinia frequently neglects to consider the feelings of others when making decisions. Her belief it is reckless to rely on emotions extends beyond herself. She tends to disregard others’ feelings when it comes to many matters, believing they will get in the way and distort judgement, which often makes her come across as cold and unempathetic.

## Physical Description

Nessinia is an asari of average height and a petite build - slim, with little muscle mass. While she is not quite skinny enough to look sickly, just a glance at her small figure is enough to indicate that she lacks any significant athletic ability. Her preferred attire usually consists of dull, darker colours, devoid of any embellishments or elaborate designs. Nessinia will dress for practicality first and foremost, ignoring the latest popular fashions and opting for more functional clothes that can adapt to many situations, often made of breathable material and fitted with many pockets. One garment she greatly favours is her lab coat, which she frequently wears even when she isn’t doing scientific work.

Nessinia’s skin is purple, fading to a slightly deeper hue on her smooth scalp. Deeper purple markings adorn her face, surrounding her eyes and trailing across her cheeks. Her eyes are a bright blue colour, standing out against her purple skin. Matching her composed personality, Nessinia normally has a calm facial expression and posture, maintained by regular meditation.

## Armament

### Combat Arms

Typically, Nessinia does not arm herself. Her omni-tool is equipped with the Combat Abilities Overload and Sabotage, and like all asari she has inborn biotic abilities.

## Themes

* MYTH by BEACH HOUSE
* Tomorrow's Dust by Tame Impala

## Family

* Myrina Janis - *Mother*
* NESSINIA'S FATHER - *Father*