Asellus was one of the Shok'Thola, the Altarin'Dakor supreme leaders, the Warlords. She was one of the original Followers of Ashla who joined Sado and accepted the immortality offered by the Entity, in exchange for following its will and seeking to conquer the galaxy for the Altarin'Dakor. Known as one of the most extreme and ruthless of the Shok'Thola, she rose from a childhood as an orphan to a being worshiped as a goddess throughout the galaxy. She brutally rule a massive empire in the Altarin'Dakor galaxy and closely allied herself with Zalaria, Kronos and Akargan. She became active in the Second Great War after the death of Kronos, plotting to destroy the New Imperium and Zalaria, her former ally.
History[]
Asellus was born on the planet Notron (later named Coruscant) in 28,565 BBY. Orphaned as a toddler, she had virtually no memory of her mother or father and grew up with in an orphanage until she was ten years old. At that age she chose the name of Asellus for herself. Shortly thereafter, the center was nearly destroyed in a raid on the city by the forces of a grim and ruthless Follower of Bogan, a sorcerer named Mraxis Shun. Only a few children survived, including Asellus and a few of her close friends. Mraxis Shun noticed the abandoned children and decided to round them up and take them back to his fortress on the planet Vitonia, near the galaxy's rim, far from the Core worlds.
She lived in the sorcerer's palace as an indentured servant for six more years. The years were ones of abuse, hardship and only a few, rare acts of kindness. Small contact with her friends provided the only bright spots. During that time Shun noticed her strong latency in the Force, and decided to teach her rudimentary skills and powers with his Bogan philosophy. He dressed her to suit his tastes, dressing her in necrophilic dresses with pink or purple hair, among other strange costumes.
When she was sixteen years old, Asellus orchestrated an escape attempt from Shun's fortress. The attempt failed, however, and several of her friends were killed while trying to escape. Asellus, Shun's pet favorite, was thrown in the dungeon where he promised to torture her for the next ten years. On that eve, however, the Followers of Ashla attacked the fortress and killed Shun and his retinue. Only her position of safety down in the dungeons saved her from destruction as well. The Followers rescued her and brought her back with them, where she underwent rehabilitation and instruction in the Force at the Chatos Academy on Palawa.
As a Follower, she took on the new name of Onrai, and devoted herself to helping the needy and those in poverty and less fortunate circumstances. She learned healing, and spent large amounts of time traveling to villages on remote worlds, healing the sick and helping people to get on their feet. She especially focused her attentions on the bustling ecumenopolis of Notron, her homeworld, which with its tremendous population contained innumerable impoverished citizens, a myriad of ailments, and basic rights violations.
She was forty-five years old when Sado came to her and a number of other prominent Force users with the offer of immortality. Onrai saw nothing wrong with the proposal, seeing no reason to refuse such an open, free offer, and she relished the thought of living forever. Along with the others, she became among the first of the Shok'Thola, binding themselves to the Entity in 28,520 BBY.
Asellus could not have imagined how much the power, and the Entity's driving will, completely changed her. With immortality, nothing else mattered anymore. To her eyes, she became the focal centerpoint of the entire universe. When the Followers of Ashla rejected the Shok'Thola and sent them out, she fled with the others to plot her revenge. She decided that the galaxy had to pay for her mistreatment by Mraxis Shun. From then on, she would be lifted up as a goddess and worshiped throughout the galaxy.
The Great War[]
She helped lead the assault into the galaxy when the Altarin'Dakor came out of hiding, and her tactics were as ruthless and brutal as any of the other Warlords. Reveling in her newfound powers and immortality, she wiped out anyone who tried to stand in her way, specifically targeting the leaders of the Followers to enact revenge for their denial of her. Teaming up with the other Shok'Thola, she was instrumental in taking large swaths of the galaxy for the Altarin'Dakor in the early stages of the war.
When the Altarin'Dakor advance finally reached the Core and the Shok'Thola held control of Notron, Asellus could not have been more pleased. Settling into an opulent palace there, she retook the name of Onrai and set herself up as a deity, building shrines and temples to herself and forcing them populations to worship her as the Mistress of Notron, goddess of generosity and life. Nothing could have been further from the truth, however; the people were forced into worship and tortured or killed if they refused. Long gone were the days when she healed people and lifted up the poor and needy. The people were forced to live a lie that they knew wasn't true, but Asellus reign was one of pure terror and no one could stand in her way. Statues and shrines were built to her throughout the galaxy, most famously on Seoul 5, where the goddess Onrai was worshiped for her benevolence and motherly traits. However, the name of Onrai became an object of hate and derision, and the backlash became so negative that the name became a curse across the galaxy. In the end, when Notron was freed by the Galactic Alliance of Free Systems, Asellus abandoned the name of Onrai entirely and returned to her true name, one that itself inspired fear in all who heard it.
Asellus fought fiercely in the war's later stages, finding close comradeship with the other Shok'Thola, including Zalaria, Kronos and others. Ultimately, however, as the tide turned she was forced to flee through the Galactic Gate along with the others, forcing her to bide her time until she could return to the galaxy once more.
The Altarin'Dakor Galaxy[]
In the Altarin'Dakor galaxy Asellus went to work quickly to establish an empire for herself, knowing that any Shok'Thola who lagged behind would be absorbed or eliminated. She continued an alliance with Zalaria, with whom she shared a particularly close connection due to their similar backgrounds, and the two became lovers. Once the main Shok'Thola had established their territories, the long wait of nearly a thousand generations began to take its toll on Asellus, much as it did to all of them. Study of sciences and arts of all styles brought new advancements in Force knowledge and ability, though eventually even this fell into utter monotony and emptiness. To fight boredom, Asellus gave herself to an ever increasing yearning for passion and stimulation. Along with her lover Zalaria, she would engage in vile revelries of every type imaginable, including bloodletting escapades where they would gather thousands of innocent beings together and slaughter them one by one in an endless bloodlust. Their reputation became fearful and terrible even among the Shok'Thola, who rarely opposed them during this period.
Eventually, however, Zalaria snapped from the mindless hunger and rage, and began to back away. Claiming she no longer had the stimulation from such activities, she fell into the background, leaving Asellus and focusing instead on a way to escape the endless insanity of being connected with the Entity. Asellus was hurt deeply by her lover's rejection and abandonment, and turned even deeper into her vile and destructive ways, vowing one day to enact revenge. She ruled her territories with an iron fist, forcing thousands of races and millions of worlds to worship her as a goddess, and was known as one of the most ruthless and heartless of all the Warlords. People and resources became worthless to her - merely objects to be used in the furtherance of her own pleasure and ambitions. Asellus tried desperately to win the right of Spearhead of the Return so that she might lead the renewed assault into the galaxy and once more claim the adoration of all its people. To her dismay, however, Kronos won the contest, forcing Asellus to hold back and bide her time with other plans.
The Return[]
Asellus was not active in the opening advances of the Return until the death of Kronos. At that time, though Nimrod vowed to lead the charge back into New Imperium space and the rest of the galaxy, Asellus claimed that they all had the right, and declared that all the Warlords would attack simultaneously. She sent her fleets through the Galactic Gate and into the galaxy proper, though she decided to bypass the New Imperium and attack more to the east, into Delta Sector. Whole areas of the Unknown Regions there fell to her forces' advance. One key opponent with territory nearby - the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium - attempted to halt her advance, but were quickly overwhelmed when the technologically superior Altarin'Dakor ships completely overwhelmed and devastated them. The remains of the Ssi-Ruuvi fleet retreated to their core worlds, hoping that Asellus would not consider them worth pursuing as she drove deeper into the galaxy.
After Nimrod's death, Asellus found it prudent to once again consider the New Imperium as a threat to be eliminated, especially considering that the NI was counterattacking into AD space and could cut off her supply lines. Another key factor was the defection of Zalaria to the New Imperium. Astonished that her former lover and ally would join the enemy and unable to fathom why, she dedicated herself to finding out and exacting revenge on both her and the New Imperium. Asellus fell back into an alliance with other Shok'Thola, including Kronos and Velius, hoping to overwhelm the NI with sheer strength. This set up a massive confrontation at Mizar that would become one of the biggest battles of the Second Great War and a pivotal moment in the advancement of the Return.
Personality and Traits[]
Asellus was obsessed with beauty, pleasure, and power. Her megalomania reached unstoppable levels as she experienced what it was like to be worshiped, and she began to truly believe that she was a goddess. All who refused to bow to her were brutally executed or enslaved. Some of the other Shok'Thola secretly believed she had at least gone partially insane due to the immense dragging of time brought on by their millennia waiting in the Altarin'Dakor galaxy.
Her figure was lithe and athletic, though through the Force she augmented her body to be far more curvaceous and sensual. She had blond, very straight hair that fell down just touching her shoulders, and she often wore elaborate and revealing dresses for most functions, although she had battle suits for combat and recreational events. Her Force Power Level was somewhere around 400,000 on the Altarin'Dakor scale. She was very authoritative and controlling on the Shok'Thola meetings, though she knew better than to disrespect or disagree with Altima in any way.