APPEARANCE◢The young Asari commando has feminine facial features, with high cheekbones and full lips. Her eyes are a striking shade, near violet in their coloration. This gives Keslia an especially piercing gaze. She has a set of red facial markings above her eyes and dotting the sides of her head. Her figure is sleek and slim, more akin to a runner's body than a weight lifter's. She does have wiry muscle definition from constant exercise and field combat. Her bust is on the smaller side, while her hips are somewhat shapely. She's lacking in any scarring on her face, though on her body is a different tale. Several scars mark her complexion, mostly notably several healed cuts on her right ribcage and left shoulder. Another distinguishable mark is a healed burn wound above her left breast. She possesses no tattoos or piercings.
MOTIVATIONS AND OUTLOOK◢Keslia is a survivor, like many on the battlefields across the galaxy she has seen the true horrors of war. Her homeworld demolished and obliterated, family slaughtered, friends cut down before her eyes and her people turned into Reaper engineered freaks. She is often haunted by recent visions of the war, insomnia a too frequent enemy for the young Asari. As she is often unable to fall asleep at night due to haunting night terrors of the battles lost. Its evident by peering into her eyes that she is tormented by the past, as many are, but her own internal conflicts strike painfully deep. She does not speak of the things that haunt her, keeping it pent up out of fear of being judged or seen as weak. In her worst moments thoughts of self destruction ripple their way into her thoughts, beckoning to take her own life and end the internal suffering that refuses to leave her. She does her best to beat back all of this spiraling negativity with some hope for the future, but with the current state of life around her she is beginning to question if such hope is even worth keeping.
Her exterior is cold and unflinching, another bit brought on by the demons which haunt her inside. She rarely begins conversations, nor answers anything beyond the most simple, concise of wordings. Keslia finds herself shorter tempered than before, if met with idiocy or incompetence its not beyond her to lash out in frustration. Inner pressures boiling over. Though most the time she is more unemotional than anything else, finding it difficult to put much care in many things in her life. She rarely smiles or laughs, but when she does its very noticeable. The biotic flinches and cringes at physical touch, often keeping her space more evident from people than others. In social situations she'll often push to withdraw herself from them. She is not a cruel person though, simply so battered by horrors that they've essentially broken her. She does hold care in her heart for others, but most of those she cared for are either dead or missing from her life. She has a soft spot for children in her heart, as well as animals. Lia has been so stricken by tragedy that she finds it incredibly difficult to even think of opening up to others, or trying to trust people. She'd be endlessly terrified they too would die or disappear, then blame herself.
The Asari is chiefly motivated by returning to her homeworld and helping her people. If it were her choice the most important decision would be to fix the relays, allowing her and her people to return home as well as the other races. Keslia holds little regard for Earth, and little care for the Citadel. She never spent much time on the space station and sees the human homeworld as utterly alien and primitive compared to Thessia.
BACKGROUND◢Keslia was born on the Asari homeworld of Thessia, the youngest of three sisters. Her father was Deius Fauslius, a proud Turian soldier. Her mother, Miarlia was a nurse when she met Deius. The two settled down together on Thessia and had three children, Riena, Vaedra and Keslia. Lia's childhood was not that out of the ordinary from other Asari, her family was comfortably middle class and she was a shy, but sweet young girl. Her father was a strict, but caring parent to his and Miarlia's daughters. A fiesty, devoted warrior in his younger years this seemed to rub off more on Keslia's two older sisters than the youngest child. Nevertheless he never lacked in showering Keslia with fatherly love. Lia would have never guessed she would end up one day taking up arms like her father did in his youth. Her mind seemed to be shifted towards a more peaceful future. Deius would pass away peacefully while Keslia was in her sixties, the tough Turian given a proper military funeral. Their father's passing would affect each of the daughters deeply, and be the catalyst for Keslia's decision to become an Asari commando, to make her father proud from beyond the grave. A shocking decision to her family considering her docile nature.
Still early in her maidenhood the young Lia was thrown into a new world of intense Asari military life. To become a proficient commando an Asari has to dedicate decades to training both the mind and body. She was separated from her family for twenty five years, a microcosm in the long lived race's lifespan but still a difficult adjustment. Nevertheless Keslia refused to show any weakness or allow herself to fail, even as she screamed at endlessly and run until she collapsed on the ground in a heap. She had dedicated herself to this, to making her father proud and continuing the proud military legacy which he'd always spoken so fondly of. She was molded from a gentle minded young lady into a fearsome warrior, devoting countless hours to perfecting the Asari martial arts and her biotic powers. Keslia was not the most physically imposing fighter, so extra emphasis was placed on her biotics. She couldn't blast enemies away with a shotgun but she could send them flying with her powers.
Once her training was deemed complete and Keslia passed the rigorous testing she was officially deemed worthy of bearing the title of Asari commando. Now a changed woman, she felt an intense wave of accomplishment overflowing her. Lia could feel her father smiling down upon her, but her duty had only just begun. She would then be sent right into field work, paired with a small group of four other commandos serving the Asari Republics. Her early combat operations often pit her against the truly vile scum of the galaxy such as slavers, raiders and terrorists. Field work was a far cry from the intense training but she fought with sheer determination. Her squadmates became like family to her, as they often tackled intensely complex situation which threw them against larger forces. The backbone of the Asari commandos was guerilla warfare, highly detailed tactics which allowed them to take down greater numbers with precision. For decades she did this in various worlds across the galaxy, striking against the wretched wherever command sent them. When one of Lia's fellow huntresses fell in battle she let herself cry for the first time since her father's death, as the wave of emotion overcame her and shook her to the core she only came out with deeper resolve.
The Reaper War is when things once more changed for the hardened commando. The rogue spectre Saren's betrayal sent shockwaves through the galaxy, as did his assault on the Citadel. The revered Asari Matriarch Benezia aligning herself with the turian sent further rattles through the Asari Republic. Keslia's unit had been far from the Citadel when the conflict occured, still focused on wiping out criminal forces which stood against the Asari. As the Reapers arrived to the galaxy her squad's missions changed drastically. The Reapers were a foe unlike any other opponent in the galaxy. The towering war machines which could obliterate entire cities and take on entire fleets, the sound of their laser cannons firing echoing within her mind on repeat. Even more terrifying may have been their reanimated ground forces which required a far different approach than a 'living' target. The twisted, horrific monstrosities were far more frightening to face down than any outlaw in past operations. Keslia and her commando unit were recalled to Thessia, a particularly personal mission for many Asari as their home planet was besieged by the Reaper forces.
The image of the landscape of her homeworld forever changed by the Reaper onslaught was burnt into her brain. Once towering skyscrapers brought to the ground in rubble, corpses lining seemingly every inch of the city streets, the forests and plains ablaze in flames as the horrifying machines assault did not spare those on the outskirts. It became near impossible for Keslia to even sleep, shaken awake with night terrors as the war invaded her subconscious. For some time her squad operated on the besieged world, often disconnected from the broader Asari military as they executed hit and run missions against the enemy forces. These included raids on Reaper processing centers, where civilians were detained before horrifically turned into husks. No matter how many of these operations here team undertook they never seemed to be doing enough.
The Reapers were unlike any enemy, their ground forces did not require sleep or eating, they had no concern for their own safety and were unaffected by mounting allied loses. They simply marched on forward slaughtering any who came in their path. She'd witnessed horrors which only seemed to grow worse with each passing day. If not for her intense training and psychological condition it was certain she would have broken and given up all hope of fighting the foe. Her squad's tactics grew more desperate, often resulting in explosive assaults. Her 'sisters' fell more and more around her, new faces rotated in often did not last long either. The entire conflict was only the start of Keslia's internal terrors.
During her time in this battle she had received little information regarding the whereabouts of her mother and two older sisters. The Reapers were eerily effective at cutting off communications and tearing apart families. Though Keslia did later receive word that her mother and Vaedra were slain by Reaper forces, her older sister trying to protect their mother as the enemy chased them through the streets. These two deaths simply piled on the harrowing depression ripping at Keslia's soul. She'd lost so many friends and family that she'd started to become numb to it all. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of her eldest sister, Riena were still unknown. Riena had gone on to become a doctor, likely on an Asari world somewhere helping the injured, beaten masses. She made a vow to link back up with her, when this war ended. Though she questioned if it truly ever would end or if she would survive long enough to witness an end.
As the situation on Thessia grew more and more hopeless Keslia and her team were pulled from the Asari homeworld. Much to the dismay of her and her fellow commandos. They wanted to keep fighting to save their home, instead their focus shifted towards the human homeworld of Earth, the unlikely center of the war. Word spread of the Crucible's creation, a tool which was said to defeat the Reapers and bring an end to the galaxy spanning conflict. Lia truthfully believed such a thing was impossible, so beaten and bruised by it all. Her squad's focus on Earth was similar to that on Thessia, guerilla operations against Reaper held centers. She held no care for the human homeworld yet fought without question in hopes of ending the war.
Upon the Crucible's activation the Asari huntress found herself stranded in the Sol system alongside many of her kind. The relay had been severely damaged by the firing of the Crucible. They were essentially stuck on the devastated human homeworld, refugees of the final battle of the war. She has spent much of the month since then trying to collect her mind and compose her frantic, fleeting sanity. A wave of relief had overcome her when the war finally ended, but an even more intense wave of unknowing concern had rippled through her. She had no way to return home.