HRG Rayne Turgachia was a Qua hybrid born on the planet of Chandrila. She was the grand-niece of the Sith Queen Rin Sakaros and become a Centurion of the Order of Keltrayu and the first mirzaya of the Golden Empire, but was best known to her fellow Centurions as one of the Order's rare healers.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Born on the heavily political planet of Chandrila, Rayne was the oldest of three golden-haired girls. The newborn baby was quite a shock to the rest of her family, since she was born with abnormal silver streaks in her dark green eyes. It was perhaps the biggest shock to her grandmother, Jasmine, who had only known two other people who had the same eyes: her late mother, Ye`keb Millennium, and her sister Katherine Sakaros, to whom she hadn't spoken since before her own children were born. Since the girl's eyes worked just fine, though, her family did not worry about them, finding them oddly pretty.
Most of the girl's early years were fairly uneventful. Born in 124 ABY, she quickly became the center of her father's world. From an early age, the man taught her to do all of the things he loved. In exchange, the girl loved being with her father and her uncles, soaking in everything they taught her like a little sponge in water. By the age of four, she had grown to love camping, hiking, and hunting with her father.
It was not long before her family noticed just how astounding the child's memory actually was. Something that had been mentioned in passing years ago was right at the front of the girl's mind, easy to recall. In fact, she never forgot anything, thanks to being both blessed and cursed with an eidetic memory. Every event in her life could be recalled with perfect detail even from such a young age.
Two younger sisters came along quite some time after herself. Eleven years after her birth, her sister Sovi was born, and five years later, Taia followed. Life could not have been more perfect, living with the rest of her family on the land that her grandmother now owned.
Perfection only lasted so long, however. Mere months after the birth of her baby sister, her father suddenly fell ill. Fearing the worst, he refused to let any of his family touch him, and instead immediately went to a local hospital, where he was quarantined. Doctors and med droids alike were so unfamiliar with Qua physiology that they were not much help with his illness. He died only a day after contracting the fatal Sickness.
Heartbroken, Rayne secluded herself away from her family the majority of the time, sitting in her room and reading rather than joining her uncles on trips, or playing with her younger sisters. This went on for months before the girl's grandmother finally talked her into joining her on her rounds of the universe as she displayed her works of art in various shows and galleries. This became something new for Rayne to love, and after a short while, the teenager came back out of her shell and learned to love the arts just as her grandmother did. Quite often her grandmother would make Rayne a part of the exhibit in order to add a touch of life into the static background. She'd dress the girl up in beautiful gowns or strange outfits, and paint her entire body to either blend into the background, or make her completely stand out. While the hours were long and the socialites were often rude, Rayne loved every minute of it.
She soon began to feel obligated to go places with her grandmother, who had a habit of wandering into the slums of a planet just to get some kind of inspiration, which worried the girl to no end. It was on one such trip to Nar Shaddaa that Rayne learned something that would change her life forever.
Family ties[]
A Whole New World[]
While wandering around the streets, her grandmother suddenly became very uneasy, saying the name "Rin" as she looked off toward the high ziggurat of the Merquise Syndicate. The woman refused to say anything more about it, and instead dragged Rayne back to the hotel they were staying at. After hours of prodding, the girl finally cracked the shell on her grandmother's secret. Jasmine was Force-sensitive, as was the rest of the family. The woman had been trained as a Jedi until she was a teenager, when she left to study art instead. The woman she had spoken about was her estranged sister, Rin Sakaros. She had sensed the woman on planet for the first time in decades.
Curious beyond what she could handle and unable to get much else out of her grandmother, Rayne left the apartment hotel they were staying at, and approached the mammoth building. Trekking up the steps she was met by Jarek Solios, whom she had met earlier during their visit when he had helped her get out of a sticky situation. Uneasy, he took her to Rin, and the two spoke about their two lives. Rayne instantly loved her beautiful aunt, who was just as kind as she was intimidating. Their meeting was short, however, and eventually had to end.
A little over a year later, while on a supply run for her grandmother in the Outer Rim, Rayne found herself being followed by an unmarked ship, which soon began firing on her own small craft. In an attempt to outrun them, she made a break for the Unknown Regions, following her gut rather than logic, which was screaming about what a bad idea that was. She was out of luck, however. Her ship was disabled, and quickly boarded by a large band of what turned out to be pirates. She shot and killed two of them before they proceeded to beat her to a pulp. She thought she might die there, or worse, be taken captive by the men, but her thoughts were soon shattered. Two lightsaber-wielding warriors crashed through the transport, killing all but one of the remaining pirates. Fearing that they were members of One Sith, Rayne was completely terrified. The woman introduced herself as Breek Zagrev, and assured her that they were there to help. Both seemed oddly stunned about her own strange eyes, though as Breek hinted that they worked for Rin, Rayne could guess why. She shared the same strange design in her eyes that the Sith Queen had, and as far as she knew, they were the only two living people who had had those eyes.
They took her back to the Sith Star, where she stayed for an entire year as a guest of her aunt, though no one was allowed to know their relationship. The girl was made to wear colored contact lenses to keep her eyes hidden. During her time in the Empire she attended the wedding of Tariun Sakaros and Breek Zagrev.
Te`net[]
One Centurion, however, was far more curious than others. After speaking with Rayne for a short while, and asking her dozens of questions, Te`net Organi pulled her into an empty room, and used the Force to pull both lenses from her eyes with pinpoint precision. He was absolutely shocked at what he saw there, and immediately realized why Rayne had been so elusive when it came to her reason for being here. He swore his secrecy to her, and immediately told her to keep her lenses in at all times.
It was not long after this that Rayne had decided that she wanted to stay there with her aunt, to join the Golden Empire and the Order of Keltrayu. First, however, she had to try and convince her family to come with her. Organi accompanied her back to Chandrila, where Rayne told her family about the Empire, and that she was going back with Te`net to join the Order. None of her family was happy about this, though after several months of long, drawn out fights, her grandmother, mother, and sisters finally agreed to join them. Over this time Te`net and Rayne became friends.
It was on this trip that Te`net also discovered something special about Rayne. She was a healer; a rare gift in the Force that allowed a person to heal wounds and illness in other people. In the history of the Order, only one other Centurion had also been a healer. Still reeling from this news, she returned with Te`net to start a new life as a Novice, and healer, in the Order of Keltrayu. She was officially inducted into the Order in 146 ABY at the same ceremony in which Nairasho was commissioned a Centurion.
The Healer's Apprentice[]
New World, New Friends[]
Rayne's first years of training were challenging; in addition to learning to apply the gifts she had used only subconsciously all her life, she found herself far behind the curve in lightsaber combat. Though she was a decent shot with a pistol and had considered herself reasonably capable of protecting herself, Praetor-Blademaster Kieran Sapphire constantly found flaws in her lightsaber technique. Rayne spent many hours practicing, including basic training with very young Novices, but improvement came slowly.
In her early days aboard the Sith Star, Rayne made two friends who were to shape her life for years to come. One was the Chiss Novice Vos'elk'eetash; her cool and solitary personality butted up against Rayne's outgoing nature, but they gradually became friends. The other was Kyriel Windrunner, the apprentice of Jadian Star, who was not being trained as a Centurion but had great Force potential. Where Selkee was all cold confidence, Kyriel was much less sure of herself, and she and Rayne commiserated over the suddenness of their exposure to their new surroundings and the sheer volume of what they had to learn.
But the single most defining influence on Rayne's Novitiate and her life in general was Tillandra Moraes, a Rebeyr Centurion who had been the Order's only healer until Rayne's arrival. Tillandra and Rayne became close quickly, and Tillandra did not hesitate to take advantage of her student's eidetic memory and diminished need for sleep, teaching Rayne at all times of day and introducing her to large quantities of medical information. Rayne often observed or participated in medical treatment of other Novices and full Centurions.
Te`net Organi was not often aboard the Star, though he usually said hello to Rayne when he was. She worried about his safety when he went to Kachee to kill Shalach Hal-Razab, who had already killed the Centurion Khoro`ly`ooho`sh`lyhoo, though Te`net triumphed.
Eventually, Prefect Eskol Kaartinen approached Rayne with an additional duty. Having heard of her eidetic memory too, he asked her to serve as a sort of living holocron, preserving fellow Centurions' memories of key events in the Order's history. Rayne agreed, though it would be years before she had to devote much time to the task.
Sovi and Taia visited the Sith Star on occasion, as did Jasmine and Rayne's mother Katie. Though always happy to see her family, Rayne found herself butting heads with Sovi more often than not, as Sovi had become resentful of Rayne "abandoning" the family for "her new family".
Applied Healing[]
In 149 ABY, the Nightmare War erupted in the Empire, and many Centurions went to the field. With the Armada still scrambling to organize, Tillandra and Rayne were sent to the Defense of Rykar in anticipation of many casualties. There they came close to death themselves, fighting a tense standoff with three Vyrak legionnaires before Vem and Rajj-Yo came to their aid. The battle and its casualties were Rayne's first exposure to one of the negatives of healing: the ability—and consequently the responsibility—to triage patients with the Force, accurately predict which ones were beyond saving even with medical help, and allow those to die in order to most benefit others.
Late in the war, Te`net returned to the Citadel from the field, having been sent home by Legate Tarse Medrego after becoming increasingly ill. He had been unknowingly infected with a weaponized version of the Sickness, and infected Rayne before he realized what was going on. The two became extremely ill quickly, and lingered between life and death for weeks while Tillandra struggled to heal them both. In the end Rayne made it past the danger zone, and even managed to use some of her talents to accelerate her own healing and help Tillandra aid Te`net.
To bring an end to the Reawakened, Selkee and Rin had used Sith alchemy to create both the Shadow Massassi and the Anzat hounds. The Sithspawn had been effective, but Selkee struggled greatly with the things she had done in the course of her alchemical work, and Rayne found her friend hard to comfort. Meanwhile, Jade Star's husband Tekk Draykhan had been killed in the Battle of the Sith Star, and a grieving Jade abandoned Kyriel, who became Breek Zagrev's apprentice instead.
A Complication[]
While he remained critical of her skills, in 150 ABY Kieran Sapphire concluded Rayne was unlikely to maim herself with her own lightsaber and allowed her to build one. She and Te`net journeyed through the main galaxy collecting crystals on Naboo, Gala, and Tatooine. On Gala they rescued a girl from slavers, and on Tatooine they fought a krayt dragon together, allowing Rayne to incorporate a rare krayt dragon pearl into her lightsaber.
In 151 ABY, Rin revised the rules concerning the Royal Family of the Golden Empire and crowned Rayne a mirzaya. Rayne endured her comrades in the Order pledging their lives to her protection in a martyred sort of way, but drew the line at them calling her "Your Grace", insisting on being called by name. Te`net followed Rayne's request, though both he and Selkee would use her formal style to irk her. That same year, Rayne and Tillandra tended to Breek during her emergency delivery of Amina Sakaros.
Later in 151, Te`net took Rayne to his homeworld, Quadia, to see the progress in Emoria and visit the Museum of Remembrance; the visit to the Museum was a deeply emotional moment for both which bonded them even more tightly. Rayne also met Te`net's father, Ma`sii Organi, and through him learned more about both her own heritage and Te`net's past; Ma`sii had followed his son's career in the Order from afar.
Rayne had felt increasingly strongly toward Te`net over the years, but their relationship changed in 152 ABY, when Rayne found him grieving the loss of his friend Ephir Raltharan. While Rayne was consoling him, the two kissed, although Te`net fled the room when he realized what he had done. Rayne was deeply confused by the entire experience, and disturbed by Selkee's speculation that Te`net was worried about the consequences of being involved with a member of the Royal Family. When she became aware of the incident, Rin reminded Rayne that Centurions were not allowed to be romantically involved with Novices, but otherwise let it go.
Rayne attended Jira Zaffrod's concert at the Samayus Palace of Opera in 153 ABY, though Te`net was present also and both found the proximity awkward.
In 154 ABY, Te`net, Eskol Kaartinen, and Chindal were dispatched on a mission expected to take years. Before leaving, Te`net agreed to Rayne's demand that they would finally talk about their feelings and their abortive kiss if and when he returned.
Final Novitiate[]
Rayne was allowed to assist Tillandra in delivering Siobhan Zaffrod, Jira's second daughter. Siobhan, Quenam Kasafee, and Wyriz all became Novices around the same time. The three—collectively called "Sioquyriz" because they were seldom seen apart—all came to adore Rayne, and often snuck into the medbay just to visit her. As they grew, they would follow Rayne throughout the Citadel in a row like ducklings.
Aria Nikina, the new Prefect, continued Rayne's employment as the Order's "living holocron", and Rayne periodically gathered memories to add to her mental databank. In 155 ABY, she persuaded Rin to share her memories of Keltrayu, but when Rin immersed them both in her memories of his death at the Battle of Tizgo V, the experience was immensely traumatic, and Rin threw Rayne out of her throne room and refused to speak to her for weeks.
Rayne had to contend with a different memory issue when Aearbo Manitani, who had heard of Rayne's famous memory, sought her out and asked to see all of Rayne's memories of Nairasho. Aearbo's almost manic desperation concerned Rayne, and although Selkee told her the story of Aearbo's friendship with Nairasho and her despair upon Nairasho's death in the Nightmare War, Rayne privately thought there was more to the Loreskus's grief.
During the 156 ABY New Year Fete, Rayne was assigned to Charthoffel
In 156 ABY, Royal Intelligence and Breek found an active "farm", in which Qua slaves were being drained of blood (among various other slaving activities). Though Aria was planning an assault, Rayne begged permission to go, reasoning that, with Te`net still gone, she was the only member of the Order who could speak Qua. Rin reluctantly agreed, but had Aria assign Selkee as Rayne's protector during the mission. Rayne completed her assignment successfully, killing multiple slavers herself and successful medevacing and tending to wounded slaves. She and Tillandra also treated Kieran Sapphire for his injuries after the mission and tried to comfort his traumatized ward, Nizenya.
In light of her successful field work, Aria allowed Rayne to take her Centurion exam a few months later, and Rayne was commissioned before the end of the year. Though now equally Centurions, Rayne and Tillandra continued to work side-by-side as healers, and Rayne continued to learn from Tillandra's greater experience. Not long after Rayne's exams, Jade Star barely survived an assassination attempt on Rykar, and Rayne and Tillandra supervised her convalescence aboard the Sith Star.
Grief Upon Grief[]
In 157 ABY, Reiko Kaytana, who had a telepathic link with Rin, was assassinated. The resulting psychic backlash sent Rin into a coma, and both Rayne and Tillandra attempted to treat her without effect. Rin eventually emerged, but unable to sense or affect minds or be sensed herself.
Te`net finally returned to the Empire at the end of the year, but Rayne's joy quickly turned to ash as she discovered he had killed Eskol and maimed Chindal. Refusing to explain, he kissed Rayne, but told her he had resigned from the Order and urged her to forget him. Shocked and devastated, Rayne passed through Kaartinen's funeral in a daze.
Over the following months, Rayne settled into a sort of vacant depression. Rin, Tillandra, Selkee, and even Sioquyriz could tell the difference, but all were at a loss to comfort her. Rayne monitored the news as reports of a mysterious vigilante began to trickle in, and she suspected Te`net was still fighting the good fight from outside the Order, but it made her heartsick to follow the stories too closely.
Rescue Mission[]
You want to know what to do, Rayne? Go get him.
—Tariun sends Rayne after Te`net
In early 158 ABY, Rin finally lost patience with her telepathic muteness and went on a quest to get it back, leaving Breek to rule as Princess Regent. Tariun, though technically the senior Royal Executor, did not interfere…except once. Having heard of Rayne's depression, and after Selkee expressed her concerns and Tillandra concurred during the 158 Consular Assembly, Tariun finally pulled rank on Breek to send Rayne after Te`net, willing to face Rin's wrath to both get Rayne's head on straight and get Te`net back to the Order.
Rayne first sought Te`net on Quadia, but found only a bereaved Ma`sii Organi; Te`net had stayed there only briefly and left soon after arriving. Tracing reports of his actions and following her intuition, she finally tracked Te`net to Tershin in time to find him beating up both sides of an illegal arms deal. Helping him in the fight, she was overjoyed to see him but demanded he attend to the wounds he had taken.
The two talked all night, Rayne trying to get Te`net to come back and Te`net adamantly refusing, although Rayne chipped away at his resolve by showing him her crystal-clear memories of their siblings, who were not only mourning Eskol but missing Te`net. The two talked all night before finally falling into an exhausted sleep.
Rayne admitted she had only Tariun's authorization to be doing what she was doing, and was effectively hiding from Rin too, so they put in at Keliso for supplies. Once there, she was recognized, but the Sev'laya merchant in question agreed to her request for discretion. Rayne nudged Te`net's desire for some sort of closure and convinced him to visit Keltrayu's Tomb, using her authority as royalty to get them both past the Tomb Guards.
Ryane comforted Te`net as he broke down at the sight of Eskol's grave, but both were stunned when Eskol himself manifested as a Force ghost. After Eskol assured Te`net he had done the right thing and thanked Te`net for freeing him from being a Joiner, Rayne finally succeeded in convincing Te`net to return to the Order.
All Was Right With the World[]
Rin was annoyed at Tariun and Rayne for having gone behind her back, but was happy enough to have Te`net back that she did not give them too hard a time. Rayne herself had to deal with the hurt of Sioquyriz for having been summarily abandoned after months of Rayne's despondency, but she did her best to make it up to them, and they forgave her quickly.
With Rin's tacit consent, Rayne and Te`net began dating. On one occasion Te`net took Rayne to Rentor to see the sunset against the icebergs.
Rayne attended her sister Taia's investiture as a mirzaya at the 160 ABY Consular Assembly.
Powers and Abilities[]
Though a relative latecomer to the Order of Keltrayu, Rayne studied telepathy and telekinesis as much as other Novices and became proficient in their use. Her telepathy was particularly strong given her service as a "living holocron"; she became adept at extracting memories from the minds of others.
Rayne chose to specialize in Soresu, but while she surpassed Kieran Sapphire's initially dismal predictions for her future, she met the standard of Centurion competence without far exceeding it.
Rayne's greatest Force gift was her healing ability. She could accelerate the repair of injuries, accurately triage and prioritize multiple injured parties, purge systems of poisons and toxins, and guide healing trances. She supplemented her natural gifts with extensive study of medicine, both general humanoid physiology and various specialized fields. Part-Qua herself, she had a personal understanding of Qua blood's healing properties.
As a Qua hybrid, Rayne required only a few hours of sleep a night and could go days on end without sleep if needed. Although she did not heal quite as quickly as a full Qua, she recovered from all but the most serious injuries within minutes, and was effectively immune to disease or poison, apart from the weaponized Sickness that nearly killed her during the Nightmare War.
Rayne spoke several languages fluently, including Basic, Huttese, Sith, Qua, and Orhyo. Her eidetic memory allowed her to retain vast quantities of information, and her Qua biology kept her mind constantly repairing and improving neural connections to allow her quick access to all her memories.
Appearance and Personality[]
Like both of her sisters, Rayne had blonde hair; when Sovi and Taia were full grown, it became challenging for those unfamiliar with them to tell them apart. Alone among the three, however, Rayne had green eyes with silver streaks, a rare family trait shared only by her great-grandmother Ye`keb Millennium and her grand aunt Rin Sakaros. 1.57 meters (5'2") tall, she had a fit build. She carried a single lightsaber with a gold blade; her use of a krayt dragon pearl in the weapon's construction gave the blade a dark core.
Rayne had a deep loyalty to and love for her family, though she was unafraid to call her family members out for what she viewed as stubbornness or poor decisions; even her aunt (and her queen) Rin was not immune from this, although Rayne couched her critiques a bit more respectfully. She had a snarky sense of humor with her friends, but also had a very caring bedside manner with her patients, and did particularly well with children, such as Siobhan, Wyriz, Quenam, and Nizenya Sapphire.
Rayne got along well with nearly all of her fellow Centurions, but Tillandra and Selkee were her closest friends, along with Jinyx Windrunner. Rayne fell in love with Te`net Organi slowly, only realizing the depth of her feelings after he had gone off on a four-year mission and into the Second Swarm War. His absence wore on her, but their final reunion after he returned to the Order brought her a deep sense of peace.