Artissilia Traska

Artissilia Traska was a Dark Lord of the Sith dring the Great Galactic Wars who later ascended to the position of Empress of the Eternal Empire of Zakuul by rite of combat. She was the wife of Shaaviqa Vyirin, the Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order, and the daughter of Kaliri Avvari and Zha Traska. As a Dark Lord, she was known for her cleverness, power, and all-consuming hatred, but as Alliance Commander and later Empress, she settled and became known for her political cunning and wisdom.

Slavery
Artissilia Traska was born to Zha and Kaliri Traska in 14 BTC, who were Togruta slaves owned by Lord Shaltir, known for his excessive love of torture and bioengineering. Traska grew up working in the lab, and often being tested on, until she came of age, and was forced to become a dancer.

In 3 ATC, she fell in love with Vati, a young Zabrak also owned by Lord Shaltir. However, at a soiree, Lord Shaltir and 3 of his allies spent an evening torturing Vati for fun. Vati died from her injuries, and Ilia felt the death through the Force. She entered the room to see the humans laughing over her lover’s body and killed them with a massive burst of Dark Side energy. This act sealed her ascension to the Sith.

Sith Academy
She was sent to the Academy where it was expected she would fall to other acolytes, but she soon gained a reputation for subtle cruelties and incredible skill with manipulation of her enemies and allies. She took to Assassin training, and excelled, killing or arranging the deaths of each of her rivals in the Trials. Lord Zash killed the last contender, a Ffon Althe, and Traska became her apprentice, hunting down the relics of Tulak Hord, as well as murdering Darth Skotia and Lord Paladius.

Becoming Lord Kallig
Darth Zash ordered her apprentice to Dromund Kaas after the retrieval of the relics of Tulak Hord. In the Dark Temple, Zash started the ritual and revelaed that the relics would help Darth Zash switch their souls within their bodies. Traska summoned considerable power to break free, but the relics held fast, and Traska was saved only by the timely intervention of her Dashade ally, Khem Val. Traska then turned on Darth Zash, blasting her with Sith Lightining and then Force Draining Darth Zash's life energy to finish off the Dark Lord. Zash's apprentices had seen the end of the fight, and though they did not wish to anger Traska, they were still bound to avenge their own Master. Traska defeated the most defiant in a fight, forcing the others to back down and submit.

After murdering her master, Traska claimed the mantle of Lord Kallig, as well as assuming control of Darth Zash’s power base. Thanaton congratulated her on her victory, but then sent her in the tomb of Darth Andru to her death. Aloysius Kallig intervened and saved Traska's life, then ordered her to master Force Walking.

The Ghosts of Dromund Kaas and Ziost
Traska started hunting for ghosts on Dromund Kaas, where she bound Ergast and Darth Andru. When Thanaton caught her off-guard afterwards and nearly killed her, she started searching for more ghosts. This led her first to Ziost: to the Tomb of Falir Vyirin, an ancient Sith Lord who's ghost raved in her tomb about unfinished works.

Traska was not alone when she arrived at the tomb however: a Jedi Consular who had recently been named Barsen'thor was there with her sister Darth Liidane as well, investigating the tomb of her ancestor. The ghost of Darth Anjir still had power over her resting place, and locked the three women inside the tomb. The three were forced to work together to defeat the traps and rituals within the tomb as the ghost wailed about balance and unfinished works. The three spent three weeks in the tomb decoding inscriptions and unearthing knowledge, and eventually discovered that the final ritual required an alliance in truth of Dark, Light, and Neutral Force users. The three tried the ritual, only to fail.

Going back to the inscriptions, they realized that the three of them needed to meld minds: an alliance of souls and minds between the three branches of Force users. The three didn't trust each other enough. While the sisters were tight knit, Liidane's desire to stay Sith had driven a wedge in her relationship with her Jedi sister. And the two Sith refused to trust one another because of Traska's Dark tendencies and reputation for treachery and cruelty, while Traska believed Liidane was too soft and cowardly to truly commit herself to one side of the Force. Liidane left the two to explore the tombs, hoping for some water or sustenance the three could eat."'You think me a Sith? Then you are a fool, and I do so loathe fools.'""'You sit on the Dark council. You spout Sith teachings, you wear Sith armor, you wield Sith blades, you fly a Sith ship and you introduce yourself with Sith titles. What am I supposed to think?'""'Yin make assumptions. The Sith are animals- I hate them with the sort of loathing a Light creature like you could never comprehend. They murdered my lover, they stole my family, and they enslaved my people. They look at me like I'm a rabid dog, and that is their weakness. They underestimate me, and they will continue to do so until I tear down everything the Sith hold dear and I drown their precious Emprie in blood.'"While Traska respected Shaaviqa, the two could not reconcile their differences as Jedi and Sith. However, both were relying on assumptions made by their Orders, and as such their arguments were riddled with fallacies. The two refused to hear each other, until Ilia finally revealed her hatred for the Sith. This effectively broke the ice, and the two developed a tentative friendship that was later strengthened by their individual passions for knowledge and history as well as new Force techniques.

The arguments turned to bickering but the deep intensity in their relationship remained, until three nights after Traska revealed her true colors, the two started a romantic relationship. Darth Liidane chose this time to return to the hall the three had made camp in, and was less than pleased when she returned to find the two entangled.

Liidane remained with them another day as the three talked while trying to avoid the assumptions that characterized their previous discussions. Eventually, they felt ready to retry the ritual.

When they melded their minds for the second time, the three dropped all of their barriers: the ones they hadn't known about, the ones they felt they had to keep up, and the ones they had dropped before. The power they collectively summoned was felt throughout the galaxy, and it opened the doors to the inner sanctum, which was filled with jewels, holocrons, gold, flimsibooks, data archives, and all sorts of assorted wealth and knowledge. The ghost, frenzied by the millennia she had been left alone, attacked the three. Still deep in their mind meld, they moved like one: Liidane and Shaaviqa kept the ghost's attention and healed each other's wounds while Traska calmed the ghost.

Once calm, the ghost warned them that balance would have to be brought to the Force, or all would perish. Darth Anjir stated that neither the Jedi nor the Sith could continue their fighting if they wanted to survive. Ilia then bound the ghost with a promise of blood, unwilling to unsettle her newfound bond with Shaaviqa or Liidane by forcibly enslaving the ghost of their ancestor. The three retreated from the mind meld once the ghost was bound, but Traska and Shaaviqa maintained a deep Force Bond.

The Final Ghosts
Traska then left for Taris, where she sought the ghost of Kalatosh Zavros, a Jedi turned Sith who haunted a Jedi Enclave. She found out that a Jedi Padawan, Ashara Zavros, could summon the ghost, and proceeded to stalk the young Jedi. She sent assassins to "attack" the young girl, but under orders to let her fight them off so the Padawan's arrogance would increase. She then finally contacted the Padawan, luring her in with promises of peace and acknowledgent. Eventually, the Padawan agreed to let Traska into the Enclave, but warned her Master's.

Traska, more accepting and understanding of Jedi ethics and codes after melding with Shaaviqa, sought a peaceful resolution, but the Jedi attacked, seeing only another corrupted and power hungry Sith Lord. Traska refused to attack those who didn't attack her, and made her way to the center of the Enclave.

She ordered Ashara to summon the ghost, and then calmed and forcibly bound the ghost of Kalatosh Zavros. She then received a holocall from Shaa, who at first rebuked her more murdering Jedi, but relented when Ashara chimed in that the Jedi had attacked first after Traska had promised a peaceful negotiation. Shaaviqa remarked that the Jedi were turning to hate and anger against the Sith instead of peace and serenity and closed the call after promising to force the Jedi to look for peace with Sith instead of aggression.

Head of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge
She spent her tenure as Head of the Sphere of Ancient Mysteries extending the reach of the Sphere, forming elite teams to crack open tombs and retrieve artifacts, as well as organizing self sustaining labs that could be set up quickly on worlds across the galaxy. Many of these projects were undertaken with support from Darth Tedavi, Traska’s sister, who had murdered her predecessor on the Council floor using a mix of new medical advances Darth Varlita had ignored, proving his incompetence. Nox attributed her support to the simple fact that they were both Togruta, and she was unaware of the truth that Tedavi was her sister.

Makeb
She also aided the former Cipher Nine in the takeover of Makeb. She mostly took on a support role, relaying studies and scouting reports instead of taking on a front line role.

Revanite Crisis
Ilia aided the former Cipher Nine in the takeover of Makeb, as well as allying with Jedi Master Sarraivakanis and her wife, the Lord Wrath Nirra Vyirin, to defeat Revan.

Knights of the Fallen Empire
Ilia was on Nar Shaadaa when Ziost fell, and immediately rallied her Sphere to aid in relief efforts, as well as salvaging what relics and lore they could. She joined Darth Marr on a expedition to Wild Space, chasing the Emperor’s trail before it went cold.

The two Dark Lords were taken captive by Zakuul forces, and Marr was killed, while Ilia accepted an alliance with Valkorian, trying to buy time to escape and rally her forces. However, she was encased in carbonite for the next five years after Arcann attacked her and left her unconscious on the Throne Room floor.

Traska was rescued by Lana Beniko, Koth Vortana, and T7-01, although in the midst of her escape, she paused to shut down a failing reactor core. It was the last of her decisions that would benefit Zakuul, and when she returned, she was clearly seeking vengeance and understanding of what the Eternal Empire had done to her galaxy.

While on Odessen, Ilia met with Darth Marr’s ghost and Satele Shan. Satele and Marr urged her to find balance, instead of looking to only one side of the Force, as both Jedi and Sith have traditionally done. Ilia reached a turning point in her life in the Cave of Odessen, and entered into a state of balance, coming to terms with what she had done and what had been done to her over her lifetime.

Companions have noted a marked difference in her personality, although many of her crueler tendencies still arise in stressful situations.

Personality
"'Mess with some's head enough, and you can turn a scared little kid into an all-powerful bitch.'"Ilia can be best described as a sharp-tongued knowledge seeker with a bitter and cruel outlook on life. While she mellows as she ages, her tongue remains sharper than a vibroknife. She's incredibly possessive of people and knowledge, and she spends her time increasing her libraries or her power base.

She's also a fervent advocate for the end of slavery and discrimination within the Empire, and has been known to murder people without warning or explanation if they were careless enough to make racist or misogynistic remarks in her presence. As such, the Sphere of Ancient Mysteries is home to the most progressive people in the Empire.

Ilia is also known for her intolerance of incompetence. She normally has a "three strikes and you're dead" policy within the Sphere, but particularly deadly or impeding mistakes earn an immediate execution."“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”"

Abilities
Ilia prefers subtlety in a fight, relying on attacks that deal increasing damage over time or steal health that Ilia uses to heal herself or bolster her reserves. She does enjoy Sith Alchemy, and often uses it to augment her strength or create new weapons and familiars.

She's highly skilled with a double-bladed saber, and prefers Ataru or Juyo lightsaber forms, although she is skilled in Djem So as well.

External Notes
If the Republic had attacked Kalvis III, as was planned, Ilia would have been partners with the Barsen'thor. Ilia is more silver-tongued than Shaaviqa, and so would have been the Rift Alliance Ambassador in their partnership.

There was also a chance that a pirate convoy may have raided the planet, and as such, Ilia would have ended up a smuggler on the Voidhound's crew.