JEDI HoloNet

Hapan society is matriarchal, conservative, and old. In an arena where a woman’s status is determined by male consort it is generally agreed that to marry a gentleman of low birth or of criminal persuasion is to commit political suicide. Citrine Metrais’ extramarital affair with a known vagabond of piratical infamy stood in defiance of both these ancient by-laws. When this was revealed to the public eye (likely by one or more of the family’s opponents in the court) Citrine’s aunt endeavored to stifle ridicule from the other families and to downplay the severity of her niece’s indiscretion.

Pregnancy rendered all efforts futile, and the lady–her household’s influence diminished–was softly driven to Terephon. Although she dragged her frigid husband with her to the Hapan Rim, the Lorelli rogue with whom she had conceived expressed his desire to see her clout restored and to aid in their daughter’s upbringing. She denied him and the vagabond stole away back beyond the Transitory Mists heartbroken, though she would continue to speak fondly of him in small circles and even in front of her spouse.

Aphre Metrais was born 288.21 and raised on Terephon; a life meant for luxury spent among Hapes’ temperate beauty instead began with a view of boggy marshes and moorlands. Aphre found a husband in Arian Oroine, an enlisted man in service to the amazonian royal elite, and Citrine’s miserly tendencies afforded her family relative comfort as it thrived between the jungle mesas. When Arian’s soldiering was done in 312, Yvonne was born and the fortuitous birth of a daughter was seen by Aphre as an opportunity to uplift the Metrais and return them to their rightful home, a goal long since abandoned by her mother who had resigned herself to a continued quiet existence at the edge of Consortium space.

The fringe did not sate Aphre however, and she took to the Ducha’s court everyday to contest her circumstance while Arian remained a dutiful househusband. Yvonne loved her mother but adored her father, who instilled in her a love of books and nature. They would hike for miles away from the urban creep of Tu’ana, across hills to distant cities. Arian was silently thankful for his daughter to have been raised here so far from Hapes, as it meant a chance for her to grow alongside a more diverse, moderate people.

As she grew, those around her grew wary of Yvonne, who did not seem to demonstrate the Hapan inability to see in the dark. True night seldom came in the Hapes Cluster, but when the light dimmed the child remained uncannily aware of her surroundings. Amid mounting successes by her mother to win back the household’s prestige, some tried to dismiss this peculiarity as evidence of mixed blood from what was most probably a non-Hapan grandfather. Eventually a passing Jedi, Master Vyl Biccien, confirmed Yvonne’s mother’s fears of the markings of Force sensitivity.

In an ironic twist, Aphre’s years of struggle stood to amount to nil. Whereas Hapes and the Consortium’s innermost systems had gradually softened in anti-Jedi sentiment since the opening of the borders centuries prior, Terephon and the Hapan Rim had forgiven Citrine’s entanglement with the vagabond–who they considered a son along with all the raiders of the Mists–but steadfastly distrusted the monastic order that had brought those pirates to ruin in ages past.

For weeks husband and wife argued over their daughter’s fate, the young girl shedding silent tears. The green hills and ochre sunsets of Terephon no longer held sway over Yvonne’s heart, when all she had to return to was a joyless home divided over a debate she could not understand. Eventually, something in Aphre must have softened, who found in her would-be heir a kindred sadness she likely carried through all her childhood.

Master Biccien was recalled four weeks from initial contact by the Metrais family. He clarified again that Yvonne’s senses were indicative of sensitivity–not necessarily suitability for training–and that that judgment was not his to make. The Metrais understood; Yvonne was taken from Terephon to Alzoc III for further examination on 322.07; three days later Aphre was succinctly denied by the aristocracy permission to return to her familial villa on Hapes. She neither contested the decision nor reapplied.