- "Do you know what I was doing while you were off prancing around the Meridian with your laser sword? I was in the hospitals, visiting the wounded and holding people’s hands while they died. I’ve had two planets shot out from under my feet. Don’t you dare lecture me about war."
- ―Alethia Archenksova
Alethia Thul Archenksova is a Human female diplomat, the former High Councillor of Odan-Urr, and one of the primary leaders of the Lotus movement. Alethia came of age in the early years of the Galactic Empire, which she served faithfully until being placed in stasis a few days after the Battle of Yavin. She was, ironically, rescued from this fate by the Jedi Edgar Drachen 33 years later and joined him in Clan Odan-Urr.
Character History
Youth and the Empire (29 BBY–0 BBY)
Alethia was born on Coruscant during the waning years of the Galactic Republic, and her life before Odan-Urr was profoundly influenced by the rise of Sheev Palpatine, who was already the Republic’s Supreme Chancellor by the time she was born in 29 BBY. Her early years were spent in quiet but increasing comfort and her father’s munitions business grew steadily as the rule of law began to fray at the edges. When the Clone Wars broke out, business boomed as the galaxy burned. In the pre-war period, Alethia and her younger brother spent their summers on Alderaan with their mother’s family, despite their disapproval of their father’s profession. But manufacturing gave way to naked war profiteering and Alethia’s mother, now completely estranged from her family, grew increasingly involved in the Commission for the Preservation of the Republic.
The feelings crystallized after the Battle of Coruscant, when Separatist forces raided the capital and nearly made off with the Chancellor himself. Already staunch supporters of Palpatine, the attack on their home and the subsequent Jedi coup attempt pushed Archenksova’s family closer to the nascent New Order. The family were active and devoted COMPNOR members and Alethia was an early member of the Sub-Adult Group. At 16, she was admitted to the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant.
Although she excelled in her studies, Alethia was diverted from a military career. Shortly before graduation, she stumbled onto a plot by a classmate—with whom she was romantically involved despite anti-fraternization regulations—to bomb an assembly including senior brass.[1] By disrupting the plot and killing the perpetrator, Alethia earned herself a position in the Imperial Security Bureau.
Archenskova’s ISB career began with several assignments to the Mid and Outer Rim worlds, ferreting out corruption in situations where production quotas were going unmet or valuable Imperial resources were being sold on the black market instead of making their way to the military. After three years, she was reassigned to the Core, operating under cover as a member of the Coalition for Progress’ Art Group. In this capacity, she eventually settled on Alderaan, where she was successful in integrating herself into elite circles. As she discovered individuals who were financing the rebellion, Alethia used blackmail and threats of imprisonment or execution to pressure the disloyal into revealing information.
Alethia’s career came to an abrupt ending just before the Battle of Yavin. Recalled to Coruscant to report on the Organa family’s involvement in the Rebel Alliance, Alethia was offworld when the Death Star destroyed the planet. With no immediate use for her, the ISB enlisted her in a pilot project to place agents in stasis to reserve them for future needs. Archenksova was put into a state of suspended animation aboard a specially refitted freighter, the Shalott, which was programmed to jump randomly through hyperspace until it received a recall order from Coruscant. With the chaos surrounding the collapse of the Empire, that signal never came.
Fighting for Odan-Urr (33 ABY - 35 ABY)
Alethia with Aaleeshah and Turr Darvesh
33 years later, the Shalott arrived in the Yhi system, between the orbits of Suni and New Tython. A small team of Jedi, led by Edgar Drachen, boarded the vessel to investigate it. All but one of the stasis pods had fatally degraded during the voyage. Drachen had Alethia, the sole survivor, revived and taken back to the Arca Praxeum. Drachen and his superior and old friend, Turel Sorenn, interrogated and debriefed the captured ISB agent. Satisfied that she would not be a threat, and sympathetic to her plight, Sorenn commissioned her into the Kotahitanga-Unity Defense Force as a lieutenant and assigned her to House Satele Shan in Seher.
Despite her culture shock, Alethia adjusted to life in the KUDF and quickly distinguished herself. When Mako Henymory, a Krath displaced by the initial phase of Darth Pravus’ purges, became Quaestor of Satele Shan, he took her on as his assistant and Aedile. Alethia, for her part, reached out to Mako’s predecessor, Mar Sûl, in hopes of better understanding Force-users and their capabilities.[2]
This training was short-lived. Mere weeks into her term as Aedile, Darth Pravus and the Iron Navy arrived at New Tython to exterminate the Jedi. Alethia and Mar barely escaped with their lives, though the Seherob were not so lucky.[3] Fleeing the ashes of New Tython, the Odanites responded to a distress call from Florrum, where members of Undesirable species and the suppressed Krath and Obelisk orders were under attack from Clan Plagueis. Alethia coordinated Satele Shan’s logistical efforts and began the hunt for Inquisitorius agents who might have infiltrated the house’s ranks.[4] Despite valiant effort by the Odanites, Plagueis was victorious and the Undesirables were enslaved or exterminated. Mako, in the wake of losing two of his dearest companions, gave into his grief and messily slaughtered several Plagueians. Alethia took acting command of the house while Henymory was imprisoned by the Council.
There was some good news, however; High Councillor A'lora Kituri was guided by the Force to the reclusive Vatali Empire. In exchange for deleting the Vatali’s home system, Kiast, from the First Order’s star charts, Empress Kaltani Anasaye offered the Odanites shelter in their secluded nebula. Drawing on her experience with the Empire, Alethia led the mission to infiltrate the First Order.[5] In the following weeks, with Mako still in jail, Alethia represented Satele Shan in their first audience with the Empress.[6] As the Vatali Conclave debated whether to allow the Odanites to stay permanently, Alethia helped lobby the nobility for support,[7] and was so involved in the process that she even selected the High Councillor’s dress for the final Conclave vote.[8]
The Conclave voted to allow the Odanites to settle, and Mako and Alethia set up shop on Daleem and turned their attention to the war against the Iron Throne. After Henymory stepped down and Alethia took command as the Director of the newly reorganized JTF Satele Shan, she set out to destroy the Sith through any means necessary. Odan-Urr had formed an alliance, the White Lotus, with Clan Arcona, and Alethia led a combined force in a mission to destroy the Iron Navy’s starship assembly yard.[9] More controversially, she embarked on a campaign of targeted assassinations of Sith targets, even recruiting House Excidium’s quaestor, Blade Ta’var, to the cause. However, the brutality of these missions was unsettling to many Jedi.[10]
Events came to a head in a Council meeting. Although the Council and the new High Councillor, Turel Sorenn, reluctantly supported Alethia’s activities, Councillor V’yr Vorsa was so disturbed by them that she resigned in disgust and set out to break Blade free of both the Sith and Alethia’s influence.[11] However, the opposing parties were reunited at Paragon Colony in former Taldryan space, where Alethia made personal enemies of Grand Inquisitor Ishanta and Herald Morgan Sorenn while Vorsa dueled Pravus’ personal assassin, Necren.[12] Although Vorsa remained estranged from the Council of Urr, Blade Ta’var completed her defection to Odan-Urr and the Jedi.
The White Lily of Kiast (35-37 ABY)
Alethia with Len Iode, Tamashi Adaephon Delat, and Edgar Drachen
After Satele Shan settled in on Daleem, Alethia turned her considerable skills at manipulation to the war effort, producing a steady stream of propaganda to aid recruitment as boost morale. By mid-35 ABY, her skillful networking and self-promotion was beginning to pay off. Along with Arcia Cortel and Ihi Ariki, Archenksova had become one of the new non-Force-users to ascend to the higher levels of power within Odan-Urr, or, for that matter, the entire Lotus. Her reputation as a hardline hawk, while troubling to the Jedi, endeared her to many in the OEF and especially to the Tythonian refugee population who hungered for vengeance. Although many of the Jedi had their doubts about her, Alethia’s popularity among the rank and file elevated her to a seat on the Council.
Alethia helped take the lead on expanding the Lotus, as she and High Councillor Sorenn formed a tenuous alliance with Rhylance of the battered Clan Taldryan. Despite a level of mutual distrust, the Odanites helped Taldryan steal several warships from the Iron Navy.[13] Taldryan turned those same vessels against the Iron Throne, and fought alongside Odan-Urr and Arcona against the Grand Master’s flagship, the Suffering. Unfortunately, that battle took and abrupt turn for the worse as Rath Oligard’s Collective arrived on the scene and routed the allied forces.
Odan-Urr was not unscathed by the Collective’s abrupt and devastating attack on the Brotherhood. Oligard’s agents had infiltrated the Sentinel Network and assassinated many reliable sources, and the Lord Superior himself managed to hijack OEF frequencies to broadcast a call to arms for all non-Force-users. Amid growing tensions between Jedi and non-Jedi, High Councillor Sorenn made the controversial decision to open a second front in Odan-Urr’s war for survival.[14] After a successful strike against the Collective’s homeworld, Nancora, Alethia leveraged Sorenn’s support and her own popularity among the OEF and SeNet to take the position of High Councillor.[15]
Despite the resounding Odanite-Brotherhood victory at Nancora, the war against the Collective would come to dominate Alethia’s tenure as High Councillor. The Collective retreat from Nancora served as cover for an attack on the clans. Thanks to a warning from Turel, most of the clans’ fleets were able to cut off the attack, although the Collective forces massed over Yridia II and destroyed the Odanites’ former rivals in Clan Tarentum.
Even with the new threat, the Odanites were still at war with the Iron Throne and Alethia doubled down on the Lotus alliance with Arcona. The two clans celebrated their victory and continued survival at Canto Bight as cover for a strike against the Collective’s financial backers in Capital Enterprises.[16] Although the two clans secured another victory, it came at a significant cost as Turel and several padawans were taken captive.[17]
Alethia prepared permanent accommodations for the Council of Urr and the Odanite fleet by commissioning a dedicated platform for Odan-Urr so that her forces would not be reliant on the Vatali Empire’s Palioxis Station. The Odanites occupied the new station, Pharos, midway through her term.[18] This proved prescient, as the Vatali were about to become highly unreliable allies.
Councillor Archenksova wearing an Oku flower
Decades before the Odanites’ arrival, the Vatali fought a brief civil war over the imperial succession. Vauzem Anasaye murdered his elder brother, the newly crowned Emperor Essadan, and attempted to unite the nobility under a Sephi-supremacist return to the feudalism of the empire’s early days. His younger sister, Kaltani, overthrew him in turn with the help of Essadan’s supporters and the non-Sephi Quorahi. By the time Odan-Urr arrived in the system, the remnants of the Vauzem Dominion had been gathering strength for some time.
Seeking to exploit any avenue available in her pursuit of the Odanites, Grand Inquisitor Ishanta made contact with the Dominion. In return for her support, the Dominion expected to push the Odanites out of their safe haven in the Kiast system. Ishanta had Empress Kaltani poisoned while alone with Alethia. Throwing matters into further confusion, a forged decree appointed Archenskova to be the regent while Kaltani was incapacitated. Many otherwise loyal nobles, already frustrated with the chaos the Odanites had brought to the system, recoiled in disgust that the Empress had named a Human outsider to govern them. When the Dominion’s forces attacked, often in fake OEF uniforms, the Vatali Royal Guard was hard pressed to repel them.[18] Alethia found herself waging a third war, fighting the Collective and the Brotherhood as High Councillor and the Dominion as Regent.
Alethia maintained back channel contact with the Dark Council via the Grand Master’s apprentice—and her predecessor’s sister—Morgan B. Sorenn. As the Brotherhood prepared to attack the Collective at Meridian Prime, Alethia seized the opportunity the get the OEF out of the system and out of the ongoing Vatali Civil War.[19][20] The Meridian campaign led to the first open cooperation between Odan-Urr and the Brotherhood since Turel’s ill-fated broadcast over Nancora the preceding year.[21][22]
The Meridian campaign ultimately proved highly successful, resulting in the death of Rath Oligard’s lieutenant, Daggo Mouk, and a major blow to the Collective. Ironically, Odan-Urr’s role as the primary resistance to the Iron Throne had left the wayward Odanites the largest and most potent fighting force among the clans. Odan-Urr’s contributions masked its precarious position and convinced Sorenn and the Dark Council, which had abandoned Darth Pravus’ extremist ideas about purity, that the Odanites were more useful as friends than foes.
Following Mouk’s death, Morgan delivered his research to the Odanites, believing them more trustworthy guardians than the clans. As a show of good faith, the Deputy Grand Master also delivered evidence of Ishanta’s plot.[23] Alethia finally disclosed the extent of her cooperation with the Sith to the Council and organized a raid to capture Ishanta.[24] With Kaltani slowly recovering from her poisoning, things appeared to be looking up.
Although the war in Kiast was winding down, Alethia was faced with the monumental task of selling peace with the Sith to Odan-Urr after years of bitter fighting and the genocides on New Tython, Florrum, and elsewhere. Public knowledge that the Inquisitorius had sparked the Vatali Civil War, even against orders, would likely have made peace impossible. Instead, Alethia told the Vatali that the Collective had orchestrated the attack. Although this helped further bind Odan-Urr and the Empire and cleared the way for a treaty with the Iron Throne, Alethia’s right hand, Aura Ta’var, found the deceit unacceptable. When she confronted Alethia about lying to start a war, Archenksova responded bluntly and harshly. The comments ended up being her political downfall; Aura had learned quite a bit from Alethia and recorded the entire conversation. Faced with the possibility of losing influence with the Council entirely, Alethia resigned the High Councillorship and settled into a role as Odan-Urr’s de facto ambassador-at-large.[25]
Life After Power (37 ABY–Present)
Alethia quietly resigned as High Councillor, bitter that she had been outmaneuvered by her former protege but satisfied that she had brought two of Odan-Urr’s three wars to an end. She took a minor role in the capture of Grand Inquisitor Ishanta and, with Turel, oversaw her execution above New Tython.[25] Alethia and Ken Iode then travelled on to Arx, where she finalized peace with the Brotherhood and settled into self-imposed exile. Although she attended Council meetings via holo and maintained close ties to the OEF and SeNet, Alethia rarely returned to Kiast. Instead, she focused on rebuilding relationships with the Iron Throne and securing allies among other elements, including the Shroud Syndicate and Jedi sympathizers in other clans.
When the Brotherhood established ties with the Severian Principate, Alethia found herself drawn to Principate space often, imagining it as an idealized version of the Empire she’d served decades before. Although she and Ken discussed defecting to the Principate, both ultimately decided that continued service to Odan-Urr was more important.
Odan-Urr, meanwhile, settled into a post-war order as they believed the Collective was unwilling or unable to strike at Kiast itself. The situation changed during the Collective attack on Arx. Alethia and Ken joined up with Morgan and Ken’s son, Len, to successfully kill Collective commander Ghafa Ordam and seize control of her ship.[26] Despite the eventual Brotherhood victory, the war shattered Alethia’s belief in Kiast’s security. The Collective managed to overrun Arx despite the united efforts of all seven clans and the Iron Legion. Perhaps worse still, Grand Master Telaris snatched victory from defeat using a powerful Sith ritual that linked the minds of all combatants, including the Odanites and non-Force-users present.[27] Meanwhile, the Odanites returned home to find that a Quorahi faction, the United Tribes, had allied with the remnants of the Vauzem Dominion. Although they were defeated in the ensuing battle, the Empress and her family survived only thanks to the Odanite intervention. Convinced that Collective and the Iron Throne were both still existential threats and that the Vatali were incapable of protecting the Odanite flank, Alethia returned to Kiast intent on rebuilding Odan-Urr’s strength.
Description
Appearance and Attire
Alethia is of average height for a human female, slender, and fine-boned. She has fair, even-toned skin and deep blue eyes. She generally keeps her hair dyed a silver color, but occasionally changes the color as an easy way to make herself less recognizable. Alethia keeps her hair about shoulder-length and wears it pulled back and out of the way when in the field. It's very rare to see her even slightly disheveled.
Alethia has an extensive wardrobe. She dresses with purpose, knowing that her appearance is the first act of communication and persuasion with everyone she meets. Her outfits tend towards the regal, evoking both authority and non-threatening femininity. Archenksova favors cool shades of blue, purple, and green, rich fabrics, and cuts that hint at or accentuate her figure rather than blatantly displaying it.
Speech and Mannerisms
Between her upbringing on Coruscant and her education at the Royal Imperial Academy, Alethia’s natural accent is the crisp prestige accent of the core worlds, which was widespread throughout the Imperial military and bureaucracy. While not terribly uncommon among the Odanites and the Brotherhood, Alethia’s accent is pronounced enough to be notable. She can affect a few others passably, but rarely finds the need to do so. Regardless of the accent itself, Archenksova’s voice has a silky, mellifluous quality. She’s very conscious of this and sees it as another arrow in her persuasive quiver.
Her movements are graceful and deliberate, the result of a youth spent in dance classes and martial arts training.
Personality
Alethia’s demeanor is, in most situations, warm and inviting. Surrounded by soldiers, reformed criminals, and detached monks, Alethia has distinguished herself as the gregarious and charming councillor with a knack for etiquette. A warm smile, liberal use of compliments, and an apparently-inexhaustible desire to listen make for good first impressions and fast friends. However, this charm turns icy in situations when it is not useful. When discussing military and intelligence operations or debating with the Council, her cold, calculating Imperial nature shows through. The shifts from charismatic and friendly to steely and surgical and back again can be jarring for those unaccustomed to them.
However, Archenksova has spent the majority of her life luring others into a false sense of security until they provide the means to their own downfall. This has contributed to a certain paranoia and an obsession with understanding those around her to gain power over them. She has difficulty letting her own guard down, even among her relatively trusted friends and allies.
Relationships
Aurora Ta’var
- Turel Sorenn: "She blackmailed you?"
- Alethia: "You don’t have to sound so impressed"
- ―Breaking Point, Part 2[25]
Aura, then known as Blade, initially came to the Sentinel Network’s attention as a Sith vigilante who occasionally killed other Sith. After observing her for a time, Alethia made contact with the newly minted Quaestor of House Excidium. The two quickly came to an arrangement, and Blade was eager enough to kill whichever monstrous Sith Alethia asked her to kill.[28] The situation was mutually satisfying, however it grew complicated when Jedi Councillor V'yr Vorsa discovered that Alethia and SeNet were authorizing assassinations.[11]
Eventually, Vorsa tracked Ta’var down and started her training as a proper Jedi. After fighting alongside the Odanites for the first time,[12] Blade defected to Odan-Urr just in time to escape the burning of Judecca. Dropping her Sith name, the Zeltron rededicated herself to the Jedi path as Aurora Ta’var.
Despite their wildly different backgrounds and worldviews, Alethia and Aura formed an easy friendship, sharing drinks[29] and leisure time on Kiast.[30] Now reunited with her daughter Zoe, Aura tried to pull Alethia in as surrogate family.[31]
Alethia increasingly relied on Aura as her window into the Force and the Jedi mentality,[18] and in return attempted to mold the Zeltron in her own image as a future High Councillor. Ultimately, their differing worldviews came to a head. Aura was outraged when Alethia manipulated the Vatali Empire into declaring war on the Collective by blaming them for the actions of the rogue inquisitor, Ishanta. By secretly recording Alethia’s choice words about her domination of the Council, Aura was able to blackmail Archenksova into resigning and took her place as Odan-Urr’s leader. Although Aura has repeatedly tried to make amends, their relationship remains chilly.
Kenneth Iode
In a final parting shot of romantic meddling, Aurora assigned Ken Iode to serve as Alethia’s pilot and bodyguard during her diplomatic endeavors.[25] Despite the trying circumstances, the pair quickly bonded. Ken served with distinction as a TIE/IN pilot in the Imperial Navy, defecting only after discovering that the Empire had built a second Death Star. Ken retained his sense of duty and honor as well as the devotion to order and security that Alethia fought to protect in the ISB. Ken provided a model for life after the Empire just as Alethia found herself with time to contemplate her role in the galaxy for the first time since the destruction of New Tython.
By 38 ABY, the two were openly dating as well as commandeering warships.[26]
Len Iode
- "You know what, I think this is the first mission which has gone perfectly for us. Ever."
- ―Len Iode
Alethia and Len commissioned into the KUDF within a few months of each other. The Chiss became one of her early friends due, in part, to his relatively benign attitude towards Imperial discipline and values.[32] Len’s father was a former TIE pilot and, as a Chiss orphan raised outside the Ascendancy, he identified with Alethia’s initial outsider status. The two worked together in various configurations during Alethia’s career in JTF Satele Shan, with Iode ultimately serving as her right hand.[33] Len remains one of Archenksova’s confidants and supporters, even partaking in some missions despite the awkwardness of Alethia dating his father.[26]
Morgan Sorenn
- Alethia: "I like what you’ve done with the place, Morgan."
- Morgan: "Burnt corpses are so fashionable no matter the decade."
- ―The Battle of Arx[26]
During the Lotus War, Alethia viewed Morgan—who sided with Pravus against both her brother and her master—with open contempt.[34] The two met briefly during an attempt to rescue captive scientists from the Inquisitorius and Alethia learned that Morgan knowingly tolerated the presence of an Odanite spy in her inner circle.[12] The two kept in occasional contact through clandestine channels as each climbed the hierarchy. Morgan reached out to then-High Councillor Archenksova in the leadup to the Brotherhood attack on Meridian Prime, despite the state of open warfare between their factions.[21][22] The campaign went well, eventually leading to peace and a limited degree of reconciliation between Odan-Urr and the Iron Throne.
[23]
During her diplomatic mission from 37–38 ABY, Alethia leveraged the now-retired Deputy Grand Master’s contacts to forge a relationship with the Shroud Syndicate. The women, despite their best efforts, eventually became friends and occasionally partners in crime.[26] Although their relationship still relies heavily on insults and back and forth banter, the pair have come to view each other as trustworthy—or whatever passes for it between a pirate and a spy.
Turel Sorenn
- Turel: "Do you always wear perfume on stealth missions?"
- Alethia: "Most men never get close enough to notice. Don’t worry. I won’t tell the General."
- ―The Rising Tides[12]
As Clan Odan-Urr’s Proconsul, Turel was privy to Alethia’s initial debriefing sessions and one of the few Odanites who is aware of the full extent of her career with the Empire. Despite his reservations, Sorenn recognized the woman’s potential and allowed her to climb the ranks within Satele Shan. After the Battle of Florrum left her superior officer briefly imprisoned, Alethia began to take on a more prominent role with the JTF and developed a hesitant but mutual respect for Turel. The Jedi appointed Alethia the Director of Satele Shan after Mako’s resignation, a decision that would later come back to bite him—Vorsa, his wife, left the Council and Odan-Urr entirely in protest of Alethia’s actions.[11] Nevertheless, Turel and Archenksova maintained a cordial enough working relationship throughout his tenure as High Councillor.[12]
By the time the Collective struck, Alethia had amassed enough support on the Council to be Turel’s most obvious successor as High Councillor, a situation which Sorenn accepted. After his controversial effort to save the Brotherhood’s civilian population,[35] Alethia attempted to manage the situation in a way that would preserve Turel’s seat on the Council while smoothing the way for her own ascension as High Councillor.[14]
When Turel settled into a comfortable semi-retirement, the two met for dejarik weekly. Alethia’s more extensive travel has broken this routine, though the pair continue to share the occasional game.
Mar Sûl
- "I assure you, Yuki, you have never seen me give anyone a longing anything."
- ―Alethia
Alethia arrived on New Tython shortly after the Order of the Force Ascendant turned against the Odanites. Mar Sûl, once the proud defender of Seher, largely turned his back on the Seherob and the Odanites alike after the violent loss of his friends and comrades in the Force Ascendant. However, once she was selected by Mako Henymory as Aedile of House Satele Shan, Alethia contacted the former Quaestor. Still reeling from her first encounters with Force-users and the post-Imperial galaxy, Archenksova reached out to a fellow outcast to guidance and information on the Jedi and their capabilities.[2] A few weeks later, when Pravus and his fleet came to destroy New Tython, Mar barely escaped the planet thanks to Alethia’s intervention.[3]
The two worked well together, although Alethia’s increasingly prominent role in Odan-Urr’s leadership made such missions infrequent. The pair made another almost impossible escape from the Rakhghoul-infested vessel Charon,[36] and Mar became one of Alethia’s favorite escorts and honor guards.[6] Despite a strong mutual attraction and Aura’s best efforts, the pair never took the plunge into a romantic relationship. Mar’s relationship with Alethia—and Odan-Urr—soured when Alethia led the Council into renewed peace with the Dark Brotherhood, and the crusader has effectively cut ties with both.