Voriya Zae

Voriya Zae was a  and a member of the. She was a friend and acquaintance of the Sith witch Rin Sakaros until Rin's exile from the clan.

Early life
Born into the Frenzied River Clan on Dathomir, Voriya grew up as a Force-using witch. She was among the best trackers and hunters of her clan, and gifted in the use of. Though fierce in appearance, she was fond of her sisters and enjoyed teaching survival skills to them. She was also among the clan's better rancor riders, and had a close relationship with a young female rancor which she was training as a mount.

Voriya and Rin
In 74 ABY, when Voriya was twenty-six, Rin Sakaros arrived on Dathomir and asked to join the Frenzied River Clan. Though the elders of the clan were hesitant, Voriya took to Rin quickly, and the pair became fast friends. They trained together regularly, with Voriya teaching Rin her "magic" skills and each teaching the other martial arts and fighting abilities. While the elders were somewhat daunted by Rin's obviously great Force potential, Voriya was impressed and enjoyed watching Rin's quick progress, never knowing Rin had previous training from both Sith and.

Voriya and several other witches were on an outing with Rin when they attempted to conjure a. Their efforts produced only a mild dust swirl and some cloud cover, but when Rin joined their efforts, the storm quickly blossomed into a tornado, with blue-white lightning seared down to crack the ground at their feet. Startled, Voriya and the others witches lost hold of their power, and were even more awed to discover that the storm itself lost little potency; Rin could hold most of it together with her own power.

The elders of the Frenzied River Clan were disturbed by such obvious mastery, but Voriya was again supportive of Rin and her gifts. She began to study from Rin as well as the reverse, and her adamant support of Rin in the face of the elders' hesitance brought the two young women closer together. The lead witches were also disturbed by Rin's difficulty learning to ride a rancor; rather than establishing a partnership with it, she kept trying to control its mind instead. Voriya remained defensive of her friend and argued that Rin simply needed more time to acclimate to the sisters' ways.

In 75 ABY, however, a little more than a year after Rin had joined the clan, the two witches were out teaching survival skills to a pair of younger witches. They were attacked by a rancor, and Voriya's spells were unable to stop it. Rin reacted by blasting it with so powerful that she scalded much of the beast's hide down to bone and killed it instantly. Horrified, Voriya accused Rin of using "shadow magic" and reported the incident to the clan elders. The elders exiled Rin from the clan, and this time a thoroughly disheartened Voriya did not come to her defense. After a brief, tense standoff between Rin and the elders, the Sith left the clan.

The words of Allya
"Never concede to evil."

- Voriya Zae, quoting Allya to Rin Sakaros shortly before her death

Voriya continued to train, but her heart was no longer in her work. She felt brokenhearted at what she considered Rin's duplicity, and ashamed of herself for having bought into it. The elders assured her that they forgave her indiscretion, but Voriya continued to doubt herself and her judgment. She wondered whether she could have amended her friend's wayward ways, and if she had missed an opportunity to help Rin.

Six months after Rin's exile, however, Rin returned at the head of a army. Shocked, Voriya and the other clan witches participated in the counterattack, although Rin's use of s broke down much of their fighting spirit. Voriya arrived in the clan building in time to see Rin impale the Clan Mother through the heart with her lightsaber. Voriya's companions attacked Rin and were massacred immediately.

Rin offered Voriya the chance to surrender and join her, but Voriya could finally see what her erstwhile friend was. She replied with the stricture of Allya: "Never concede to evil". Even knowing she was no match for Rin's skills or weapon, Voriya attacked anyway, and Rin killed her with a single lightsaber blow across the chest.

Powers and abilities
As a Dathomiri witch, Voriya Zae was trained to view the Force as a type of magic, and consequently used "magic words" when performing her "spells". Despite this limitation, she displayed skill with above the average in the Frenzied River Clan. She also had an affinity with rancors.

In martial combat, Voriya was trained to use both a staff and hand-to-hand combat. Her skills were already among the best in the clan before she met Rin Sakaros, and training with Rin only made her more capable. She was accurate with a throwing spear, and after some time with Rin became an agile and capable knife fighter.

Appearance and personality
Voriya stood 1.68 meters (5'6") tall and had a lean, muscular frame. Her dirty blond hair hung to the middle of her back, tied into formal braids.  She usually wore her lizard-hide armor, red with blue tassels and green accents, and carried knives and other weapons on her person.

A strict adherent of the principles of Allya, Voriya was opposed to "shadow magic" and those who used it. However, she tried to see the best in others and could be blind to the faults of her friends; she only turned on Rin Sakaros when her mastery of Sith technique was impossible to ignore. Voriya was also courageous, willing to fight a losing battle rather than surrender her principles in order to live.