Ulla Kallig • Dromund Kaas Imperial • haunted by...only those she allows to haunt her. no one else will have power over her ever again • cunning, regal, focused •
Age: 18 as of SWtOR, 19 as of the end of the SWtOR prologue
Backstory, Personality, Story Themes/Character Arc/Motivations and Fears, Looks
BACKSTORY
Ulla has a fairly standard backstory. Born into slavery on Dromund Kaas, that's the only life she's ever known until recruited by the Sith. She has a few older siblings, and their fates only cemented her determination to escape slavery and give herself the kind of security and power that would prevent anyone owning her ever again.
Those few siblings include two brothers, both Force sensitive, with one being sent to Korriban and never being heard from again, and the other killing himself to avoid the same fate, wanting to die on his own terms. She also has a sister who was sold to the Hutts as a pleasure slave.
Her heart was hardened against empathy to others in her circumstances, as she watched her parents look on these events with apathy. Obviously, not everyone forced into slavery has this attitude towards it, but Ulla's parents specifically were too locked into a slave mentality, believing it pointless to fight the facts of their existence. This led to Ulla's resentment of her parents, and her judgement of slaves who she viewed as too "weak" to escape their circumstances (including her parents and siblings).
It was owing to her lack of education that she decided to seek out knowledge herself. The lack of opportunity drove her to teach herself as many skills and subjects as possible. She knew that people would have an expectation of her as a slave, and she sought the ability to prove them wrong. It was through this course of learning that she was lead to believe that ignorance is another form of enslavement.
PERSONALITY
cunning, regal, focused
deceptive, manipulative, cunning - expanded on twice in further detail in a bit
ambitious, determined, focused, strong willed - i mean duh. If this isn't already clear, it's expanded upon in a bit. She enjoys the feeling of power that comes with harming others more than she actually enjoys the act of harming. doesn't particularly care for the cause of the Empire's war, however she does appreciate its culture and opportunities provided to her. She believes in the Imperial ideology of the strong rising to the top and having the natural right to rule
daring, curious, experimental, genius - mostly separate from her power struggle, she has a natural craving for knowledge. Specifically, her natural interest is in sorcery, alchemy, magic, history, and archaeology. Honestly she's kind of a nerd. If there was such a thing as a mad scientist but a wizard, that would be Ulla. She's for real got that Victor Frankenstein energy, that god-complex power-over-life-and-death thing going on. She's also not afraid to defy tradition, believing the Sith Empire has to change and adapt methods and tactics to achieve victory
sinister, formidable, regal - occasionally she will present an appearance of weakness, but an appearance is all it is in carefully calculated times that she feels it will work more towards her advantage. Most of the time however, she projects an aura of quiet confidence - not arrogance, but the knowledge for a fact that she's smarter/ stronger/better than the person speaking to her.
Anyone standing near her can viscerally feel the power she holds. She carries herself elegantly, dresses very well, and has near perfect posture. She does not take kindly to being talked down to
Best quality: her out-of-the-box way of thinking and psychological intelligence gives her the ability to understand how the world and people work in order to manipulate circumstances and emotions to her advantage; a long term thinker who has the patience to wait for a payoff
Worst quality: her fear leads to selfishness in order to protect herself; it is easier for her to judge others than empathize with them in order to cope with her circumstances
STORY THEMES/CHARACTER ARC/ MOTIVATIONS AND FEARS
Power and the pursuit of it, and what we lose in that process, bodily autonomy, the manipulation of others to get what you want only leads to your own isolation, playing the Great Game
Obviously, most of her story, drive, motivations are based around power. She has to face up to how far she's willing to go in the pursuit of power, that often those paths go hand in hand with her own destruction, and the question of whether she's running towards power or running away from a lack of it. She doesn't desire power as much as she fears others having power over her. Though she also does have a genuine interest in history, learning, sorcery, etc.
A good deal of Ulla's personality is a mask. It is an extremely rare occasion in which she is ever genuine with another person. Though she rationalises this as always looking to have the upper hand (as part of her ongoing quest for power), she has yet to be able to admit to herself that it is in fact her way of protecting herself from being hurt. Learning to open up and be vulnerable, and that it isn't weak to be genuine or ask for help is a significant learning curve for her.
Something that's part of the overall story theme is politics. Ulla plays the "Great Game" of spies, intrigue, and delicate manipulations in order to work her way up from slave to one of the heads of the Empire.
LOOKS
Ulla is attractive in a way that is very conventional or stereotypically attractive, and she often uses this to her advantage. This includes cloud-like golden hair, blue eyes (which later in life turn gold), fair skin, petite willowy body, etc. Some unique markers of her features would be freckles across her cheeks and nose, a slightly cleft chin, and very round eyes.
She has very sophisticated taste in clothing, almost regal in appearance. She usually wears dark and high-contrast robes, mostly greys and purples. Her robes are only lightly armored, allowing for flexibility even despite the occasional heavy adornment or decor. She occasionally wears Kallig's Countenance (an heirloom mask and Sith relic originally belonging to Aloysius Kallig). She has a spare kyber crystal (mostly to swap out when she's in the mood to switch up her lightsaber from red to purple just for aesthetics), and she often wears it in some form of jewelry (usually an anklet).
Faceclaims are never exactly how I picture my characters, more just like people who have roughly similar features and vibes as the character.
For Ulla the main things are conventionally pretty looks, blonde hair, and generally symmetrical features. If possible also blue eyes and a cleft chin (which only some of these gals have). None of them have her faint freckles though rip. Ordered from most to least similar to how I view her.
It must be said that I am bisexual (usually male-leaning) and have had both monogamous and polyamorous relationships, so that does bleed into how I write most of my characters.
Ulla could be best described as heterosexual and monogamous. That being said I think were she to give having sex with women a try, she’d be one of those women who identify as straight and insist they’re straight but then say shit like “oh yeah back in college me and the girls in my sorority had sex with each other all the time! But that doesn’t make me gay, that’s just what college is like!”.
Aside from sexual attraction though, it’s very hard for her to develop true romantic feelings for someone. It’s not that she’s incapable or even anything much to do with her personality really, she just can’t love anybody she can’t respect as an equal. With the circumstances of her life and powers, it amounts to a near impossible task finding someone who meets that criteria that she is also attracted to.
Andronikos Revel
As mentioned, it takes a lot for a person to be someone that Ulla could respect as an equal and be vulnerable in front of, and Andronikos manages to be the exact right combination of traits for this. He shows her due respect but also isn't afraid to speak his mind, and manages this balance in just the right way that she's able to respect him in a way that she hasn't been able to with previous relationships (all one of them). He's very confident but not cocky or arrogant, he just knows himself and is confident with himself, including his own limitations and that's something that deeply attracts her. The fact that they both start the relationship being very open with each other about about only looking for something casual means that right off the bat they're comfortable and not worrying about the relationship, which means that, combined with everything they all go through, they end up falling in love without realizing it until they're in it. She calls him Nikos and he teases her like "look at the big bad Sith Lord going all mushy" which she pretends to hate, but he knows that if she actually hated it he'd definitely figure that out fairly quickly (likely while choking to death).
Urtel Moran
He was her first real relationship. He was madly in love with her, and while she didn't feel half as strongly about him, she did have some genuine affection for him. She would deny even to herself that his death had any effect on her, but it does weigh on her occasionally.
