Salana Lanov

Salana as a Beast Rider

**Salana Lanov** was an Onderonian Beast Rider and later Chief Financial Officer of Tirannan Industries. She is publicly romantically involved with the Chiss Aristocra and former Mandalorian Thriv'aes'hrallae, although they are not known to be engaged or married. As a close friend and confidant to Zuki Tirannan, she was known to be in the CEO's inner circle of trusted allies, and as such was given duties far outside the scope of an average CFO. This included acting as an envoy to the xenophobic Chiss Ascendancy with the hope that Tirannan Industries could break into the Ascendancy's markets. As well as being a brilliant and logical mind, Salana is known for her proficiency in combat due to her Beast Rider background.

## **History**

### **Early Life**

Born in the wilderness of Onderon in 6 ABY to a prolific clan of Beast Riders of Onderon, called the Lanov Clan, Salana was instructed at a very young age in the art of taming and riding the great beasts that thrived in that planet's vast jungles, plains, and mountains. This training also included instruction in harsh wilderness survival, hunting and hand-to-hand combat. By the age of 12, Salana could be considered a proficient warrior and rider, with the ability to call and tame a wide variety of creatures, as well as prodigious skill in the art of spear fighting.

Even as a young girl, Salana displayed a knack for numbers and logic. She was often called upon to solve difficult logistical issues faced by the clan, such as how to best optimise the yields of a poor hunting season to survive the winter migrations or how many goods to trade away and how many to keep during trade expeditions to balance profits with necessary supply upkeep.

Salana's life with the Lanov Clan was peaceful and simple, and by the age of 16 she could be considered a very apt rider, skills which she would keep with her the rest of her life.

### **The Skullfire**

Salana's idyllic existence as a Beast Rider would come to an end in late 9 ABY, when the Lanov Clan stumbled onto an old Separatist testing facility deep in the jungles of Onderon. Cautiously exploration of the facility revealed that it was a lab of some sort. Salana discovered a dead holoterminal, which she unwittingly reactivated, and the reasons for the facility's abandonment were made clear in an instant. Shattered containment tubes began spewing a bright blue gas throughout the facility, causing coughing and disorientation in the clansmen.

The Clan quickly departed the Separatist facility, thinking their troubles behind them. Unfortunately, it was not so. Frequent, agonizing headaches began to quickly develop in the clan, followed quickly by audio-visual hallucinations. Eventually, every clansman would begin to become confused and have trouble walking straight or speaking, which killed several dozen through hunting accidents. Slowly, every clansman would go mad, forgetting even their own names and where they were, causing outbursts of fear and anger. At last, they would be struck with violent seizures and, foaming from the mouth, they would die in pure agony. The disease afflicting the clan would come to be known by the Chieftain as "The Skullfire".

By mid 10 ABY almost every member of the Lanov Clan had been killed by this disease, leaving only Salana and her younger sister alive. They resolved to travel to Iziz to attempt to find treatment, but despite the slower progression of the disease in the young girls, they were beginning to have more and more frequent headaches and forget more and more of their pasts. The journey was long, and Salana's sister died just before reaching the city. Grief won out over logic in Salana, and she used precious hours to bury her sister with a cairn laid atop her grave, the stones engraved with the details of the young Lanov girl's life.

Finally, in late 10 ABY, Salana reached the city of Iziz, begging all the doctors she could find for a cure. It was there that she found out that the disease was a manufactured airborne prion, a rogue protein that attacked and destroyed the central nervous system, presumably developed as a weapon of war by the Separatists occupying Onderon. She was given treatment, but was told that it was ultimately fatal, especially in this late stage.

It was then that a chance encounter would alter the path of Salana's life forever, and offer her the second chance her family never got.

### **Meeting Zukita Tirannan**

As she stumbled through the streets of Iziz, Salana quite literally ran into the CEO of up and coming tech giant Tirannan Industries, Zukita Tirannan herself, who had been visiting Onderon to organise a trade deal with the planet's defence forces. Zuki held the girl up and asked what was wrong, but Salana was far too far along in the disease's progression to answer coherently. Zuki, seeing something of herself in the girl, took pity upon Salana, dropping everything and missing a critical meeting to bring her back to the advanced TI trade craft in orbit.

Salana was put in a medical coma and brought back to Coruscant, where she was treated by the best Tirannan Industries geneticists. Isolating the rogue protein in Salana's body and editing it out through an invasive protein flush, Salana was cured after several months of difficult trial and error. When she was brought out of her coma, she was mostly back to normal. Her memory was still a bit spotty, and would be forevermore, but she remembered enough to be extraordinarily grateful to Zuki Tirannan, to whom she pledged her life, begging to join Zuki as her clan had been wiped out, and she had no home to return to.

Zuki, seeing the potential in the young girl, tested the her aptitude and discovered her prodigious logical mind. She was employed as the assistant to Zuki's personal accountant, a man named Gerant Taggor. Taggor was a very apt teacher, and Salana a very apt student. In just two years, Salana was one of the best financial minds in the galaxy, far exceeding her teacher. In 12 ABY, Salana was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of all of Tirannan Industries, becoming the master of the company's finances.

### **CFO of Tirannan Industries**

Salana proved herself a very competent financial officer, making several of Tirannan Industries' most profitable trades. Within ten years of her becoming CFO, Tirannan Industries was experiencing record profits, rivaling that of even Kuat Drive Yards. Although TI was under constant financial siege by other old guard companies who saw TI as a threat to the financial balance of the sector, Salana's brilliant leadership kept the company thriving.

In 25 ABY, TI was beginning to make moves to undermine KDY in order to expand its horizons in the field of shipbuilding, when KDY began to undergo a number of changes. Salana, curious at the sudden shifts in policy and apparently random internal conflicts, began working with TI's Investigation and Infiltration Department to better understand the situation at hand. TI began meddling in the internal conflicts from behind the scenes, causing even greater mayhem for its own purposes, as the IID infiltrated and sabotaged KDY's shipyards. Although she was unaware of it at the time, it was then that Salana had her first indirect contact with Chiss Mandalorian Thriv'aes'hrallae, better known by his corename Vaes, of Clan Beumaryn, who she would later come to know much more intimately.

During the Acquisition of Kuat, TI was able to exploit the disarray of KDY in order to steal the secrets to their shipbuilding techniques. After that period, TI's shipyards over Coruscant became much more prolific, and with advanced near-sentient TI automated systems, exceeded the production efficiency of a standard KDY shipyard, although in terms of pure mass they were never able to match KDY's grandiose shipyard rings.

### **Meeting Vaes Beumaryn**

In early 29 ABY, soon after the completion of the TI Headquarters building on Coruscant, Vaes Beumaryn came to visit the planet in order to broker a deal with Tirannan Industries. Zuki Tirannan, otherwise occupied at the time, assigned Salana to meet with him, giving her full authority to broker the deal as she saw fit. After long hours of discussion, the two reached an agreement: TI would assist Mandalore in patrolling Mandalorian space, binding the Mandalorian Empire and Tirannan Industries as even closer allies.

However, as time passed and Vaes and Salana hammered out the details of the deal, they became more and more fond of one another. The tone of their meetings began to shift, and before long, they were accompanying on another on what could only be called romantic dates. It was not long before the two found themselves falling for one another. Before Vaes left, they had become lovers, and this relationship would continue long into the future.

### **The Gassing of Coruscant**

During the brief conflict between the Crimson Empire and the New Republic in 30 ABY, the Crimson Empire blockaded Coruscant, preventing representatives from the Empire of the Hand from getting through to meet with Tirannan Industries. Salana was able to get in contact with the Crimson Empire fleet, upon which she discovered a plot to launch a wide-scale chemical attack against the surface of Coruscant.

Despite the Crimson Empire attempts to jam communications across the surface, due to Salana's quick thinking, TI was able to launch a warning to the people of Coruscant, using flying drones to scatter holoprojectors detailing Salana's conversation with the Crimson Empire captain. Salana's plan saved millions, and thwarted the effectiveness of the Crimson Empire's tactics. The Empire of the Hand met with Zuki and Salana not long afterward, and a research treaty was established between the two galactic powers.

### **Loss at Onderon**

In late 30 ABY, Salana was startled to find that her home planet of Onderon had been cut off from Galactic communication. She requested Zuki's leave to investigate with an elite TI Mercenary Corps battalion consisting of Apex-class Battle droids and Stalker bio-constructs. She received permission readily, and departed Coruscant for Onderon, arriving in short order in a Stiletto-class Frigate, TI's stealthiest warship.

Upon landing on the planet, Salana and her battalion made their way to Iziz, where they found an occupying force of Mandalorians under Lana Beumaryn's influence. After a prolonged battle, in which the Mandalorians won a pyrrhic victory, Salana and what remained of her forces were surrounded in a power station, and placed under siege. Salana herself was saved by timely intervention by Vaes Beumaryn himself, who broke Lana's blockade in a to rescue Salana and a few of her elite troops from the jaws of defeat.

Salana was then taken to Rentor, and after reestablishing contact with Tirannan Industries Headquarters, she received leave from Zuki Tirannan to remain within the Chiss Ascendancy, where she was given the directive to act as Tirannan Industries envoy.

### **Envoy to the Chiss Ascendancy**

Salana remained with the Chiss until 33 ABY, brokering new deals and doing her best to break their xenophobia in order that she might introduce TI products into the Chiss market. However, despite the pretext of Tirannan Industries Envoy, Salana used the opportunity to spend much more time with Thriv'aes'hrallae, now a full Aristocra of the Chiss Ascendancy, and their relationship grew to new heights.

In 30 ABY, the Chiss Irizi and Dasklo Families, opponents of Vaes, plotted to assassinate both the Aristocra and his lover. The pair survived the attempt and uncovered the plot, as a result of which many senior Irizi and Dasklo family members were tried for treason.

In 33 ABY, after 3 years with the Chiss, and with Vaes, Salana and Vaes gained word of trouble in the **Corporate Sector**, where TI now resided, and departed the Chiss Ascendancy to render aid.