For NPC Asks how about Rylee Dray and the Lady of Pain?
Ask Me About SWTOR NPCs
Thank you, @jjjwhovian !
And… hoo, boy! Did you just hit the jackpot! LOTS of notes on these two!
So first for Rylee Dray - You may already be familiar with some headcanons I have for her in my Halcyon Legacy: The Slice Girls
Its possible that not long after Zu'fanda Pampya (my Sith Inquisitor) was killed, the Cult of the Screaming Blade collapsed.
Destris Veran, Rylee's partner, was killed during the fallout, and Rylee was soon left on her own, without protection.
Its possible that SOMEONE snapped her up, effectively enslaving her for her slicer skills. Maybe its also possible that someone else (like Kira, Mako, and company) will hopefully come rescue her someday.
(We can hope.)
The Lady of Pain - the leader of the Exchange of Tatooine - does not take the Eternal Empire's subjugation of Tatooine well. She conducts a vicious guerilla-style resistance campaign against the Zakuulans.
But after about a year, it goes south, and she's captured by Tarso Gren, the Exarch of Tatooine.
Imprisoned aboard the Star Fortress, she's subjected to…. well. It's bad. I'm not getting into it.
A few years later, Tarso is visiting a colleague: Forta Gair, the Exarch of Belsavis.
On a lark - visiting a prison-world with a dreaded criminal of his own - he brought the Lady of Pain with him.
The two Exarchs were both a bit sadistic by this point, and it eventually occurred to them to have an impromptu gladiator fight between the Lady sand someone Forta was keeping prisoner.
(You'll recall Zakuulans have a history of being into gladiator fighting, including with enslaved fighters.)
The fight was vicious. It started unarmed, but both were allowed to use random objects as makeshift weapons.
Both women were just fighting for survival, knowing what would happen to them if they didn't fight.
Ultimately, the Lady of Pain lost.
She died because two Exarchs had a bet going, and were looking for cheap entertainment.
Oh - and her opponent? Who was forced to kill her?
That was an imprisoned twi'lek smuggler named Bas'riish.
SWTOR Headcanon : I present to you the Slice Girls !
So in my headcanon, there was a time about four years before the class stories where five NPCs (two of them fairly prominent) were teenagers running their own slicer gang and surviving on the hard streets of Nar Shaddaa. Mako, Kira Carsen, Kixiaralu, Chaney Barrow and Rylee Dray were.... THE SLICE GIRLS.
(You can all thank @tatterdown and @dorkynanni for the name... i had Wannabe stuck in my head while cutting out the screenshots. Thanks for that. Really. 😂 )
The Slice Girls ultimately broke up when, while on a job for the Hutt Cartel, they were compromised by a rival group and had to scatter. All five young women were forced underground, going their separate ways. But who knows what the future may hold for any of them?
No surprise who leads off our group. Whether it’s genetics, cybernetic implants, or simply raw talent, Mako is a slicer among slicers. She largely taught most of the others, and while she was never actually the leader of the group, she certainly had the maddest “skillz”, and was arguably its soul and linchpin.
When that Cartel operation went sideways, Mako was chased on foot by a pair of Rodian gangsters, trying to draw them off the others. The rest of the gang assumed she’d been killed, but Braden wound up saving her, then recruiting her for his bounty hunting operation. She wouldn’t make it back to N.S. for years.
Some of you may be thinking “Hey - where does it say that Kira Carsen was a slicer?”
Well, follow along, and i’ll lay this out.
During the Coruscant campaign Kiwiiks notes Kira’s computer talents. Now most Jedi seem to be well trained in technology, and basic computer skills and even slicing seem part of the curriculum. But for Kiwiiks to put Kira forward after only two years as a padawan suggests her skill is well above-average.
We later see Kira take the lead on accessing the Justicars’ computer systems, reinforcing the point that she’s really good at this. I figure she must have picked up on that somewhere, and both she and Mako grew up on Nar Shaddaa at about the same time.
Kira was the “muscle” of the group. Her Force abilities and combat training gave her the ability to fight off individual enemies, though she was careful not to blow her cover. I’m imagining Mako yelling at Kira to protect the others when things went south, and Kira probably blames herself a bit for Mako’s “death”.
When Mako left and the others wanted to split apart, Kira withdrew back to the refugee camps on the lower levels. Two years later, she would encounter Master Kiwiiks and the rest was history.
Kixiaralu - aka Kixi - appears on Coruscant during the Smuggler’s story. She is, perhaps, most famous for slicing into Skaavik’s medical records and “giving” him a plague to keep the ladies away from him. She also gets a cameo in the novel Fatal Alliance.
Her Wookiepedia doesn’t put her on Nar Shadaa, but the age-frame seems to fit, albeit she seems a tad younger than Kira and Mako.
In my head-canon, Kixi hoofed it when the job went bad, stowing away on the first transport she could board. As it turns out, the transport was headed to Coruscant. Kixi made a place for herself on the crime-ridden lower levels, assisting vigilantes like Larin Moxla. Unfortunately, she eventually ran afoul of the Migrant Merchants’ Guild, who took her prisoner and enslaved her, using her slicing skills.
Eventually she escaped with the help of the future Voidhound. (Unless you go DS on her. In which case, how dare you? She’s too cute.)
Chaney Barrow shows up on Belsavis during the Imperial Agent story. She was a bit of the black sheep of the group, being a considerably more ruthless and greedy than the others. When things got bad, she didn’t look back, running straight to the Exchange and offering her services. Eventually, she was caught by the Republic and imprisoned on Belsavis. She was released by Cipher Nine during the invasion of Belsavis, though her survival varies on whether or not you play it DS or LS.
Rylee Dray is actually from Nar Shadda in the “canon”, showing up as one of your cult members in the Sith Inquisitor story. She’s a skilled slicer and surprisingly competent and kind.
In my head-canon, when the group broke up, she had few options, and wound up working for the Cult of the Screaming Blade led by Lord Paladius. Later still, she allies with Lord Kallig, effectively becoming the leader of his new cult.
And since every ‘band’ needs a ‘plus one / groupie / roadie’ ....
Anuli wasn’t an “official” member of the group, but he’s something of the ‘kid brother’, especially to Mako. A nice kid, he learned from Mako and the others, and was genuinely gifted. Believing Mako to be dead, he started working for Gele'ren, a Hutt underboss. He appears in the Bounty Hunter story on Nar Shaddaa, where he sadly meets his end at the hands of the Eidolon. (Poor Mako. ☹️ )
I had debated adding Vette, but I much preferred having her meet Kira for the first time years later.
There we are. What do you think?
Rylee Dray is adorable, but this scene is problematic
Let me preface this by saying that I ESC-ped out of the scene before it went final, so none of it wound up happening to my man, Ozi. (He has a backstory explaining why he doesn’t go for casual dalliances. It wouldn’t make sense for him.) So please don’t beat me up if you agree with my conclusion.
Rylee has this little private dialogue with you back at your cult headquarters on Nar Shaddaa.
Honestly, that line is NOT a Flirt option. It was simply the friendliest choice available.
She’s cute. I don’t think she’s been shown enough love in her life. (And by ‘love’ i don’t mean that other thing.)
Again, NOT a [Flirt] option. The other two choices are frankly rude.
And these are the options. The first one is EXTREMELY rude, and the other two are both Dark Side choices that both lead to the exact same ending. (Awkward.) So i tried the more neutral choice.
REALLY, Ozi? You’re smoother than that. 🙄
That’s... these last lines do not fit together. But i swear this is how it goes.
You maybe can’t tell, but Rylee is doing that thing where SWTOR female characters stretch after an “intimate” cut-scene. (Is that a plausible thing IRL?)
I’m going to put aside for a moment the fact that your OC is nominally in a position of authority over Rylee at this point, as she’s basically running your cult for you. (Destris is kind of an idiot.)
I don’t like that your only options are to be a jerk to Rylee, or to sleep with her. Like, that’s limiting on many levels.
Is it just me?
More Q's about your Inquisitor!
How did Rylee Dray die?
How did Zinkea get along with Ashara?
First question:
Zinkaea’s cult on Nar Shadda was in a little “despite” against a gang that’s been targeting their weapon shipments, one day a small group raided the cults base, they were able to fight the group off but quite a few members died in the process.
Rylee was one of those people.
Zin was just starting to get serious about getting into a relationship with her as well, so when he heard about what happened…
Let’s just say the gang was never heard from again.
Second question:
At the start Zinkaea intended to corrupt Ashara and bring her over fully to the Dark Side but she was more persistent than he thought, he almost respected that.
I wouldn’t say they hated each other but they didn’t really get along, sure they both wanted the Empire to be better than it was but they’d clash when it came to the atrocities the Sith commits, the Apprentice getting angrier when Zin always took the Sith’s side.
And when Ashara brought making peace with Jedi into things Zinkaea would just sneer and belittle her for being stupid. Hell, when she suggested teaching his future children about the Jedi he pretty much laughed her out of the room.
Six/Seven years later when they reunite and Zin is now part of the Alliance…he regrets the things he said to her and treats her much better than before.
He never believed in her dream of Jedi and Sith working together. But he does now.
