Personal biography, as detailed by the candidate for use in imperial archives. Acquired shortly after last achievement of note.
Nyiss was born at the command of her master, Darth Kurzayon, who desired a pureblood child to be his legacy. A rare breed of legacy-hunting master, Kurzayon was arrogant enough to want a perfect child, but not so arrogant as to believe his own DNA had to be involved. As such, he acquired the genetic material of the Sith with the highest pureblood percentages in the Empire and, after having it very slightly altered to ensure certain traits would manifest, had it implanted into a Red Sith surrogate mother by the name of Enzia. She was a mere Sith Apprentice at the time.
Kurzayon was unwilling to risk his legacy developing any unfortunate side effects, as was known to happen with accelerated growth programs, thus his decision to have Nyiss mothered largely traditionally. By the time Enzia came to term, Kurzayon had assumed her as a personal apprentice - doting on her and promising her great power, even though no actual relationship was present between them.
When Nyiss was born, Kurzayon was incredibly pleased, however largely ignored her, uninterested in the powerless baby before him, valuing Nyiss at this stage only for her genetic traits and excellent physical form (for a baby). He allowed Enzia, together with a human nanny, to raise baby Nyiss largely uninterrupted for the first four years of her life, though he ensured that Nyiss was taught to read, write and reason as soon as she was mentally able to do so. Enzia’s training was largely neglected, Kurzayon losing interest in her fairly soon after she had completed the task he had set her - bearing Nyiss.
Enzia’s body and instinct did not, however, acknowledge that Nyiss was not of her blood. As such, she quickly found herself attached to Nyiss, believing herself Nyiss’ mother. This was a blessing for Kurzayon at first, as it kept her distracted while she was initially aiding in raising Nyiss. She was as good a Sith mother as she could be to young Nyiss. During this time, Nyiss led a fairly normal, if rather sheltered, life for a young Imperial girl, proving a quick and eager learner when she was eventually able to do so.
Shortly after her fourth birthday, Nyiss demonstrated her first use of the Force. It had been known she possessed it before this, being a species trait after all, but nonetheless the simple telekinetic pull of a piece of fruit towards her was significant to Darth Kurzayon. Following this, he took a much greater interest in his legacy project. First, he had Enzia removed from his employ, and ceased allowing her to raise Nyiss. Enzia was unhappy, but wise enough to realise her protests would fall on deaf ears, and possibly provoke more severe action against her, so despite her instinct, she went quietly.
Nyiss’ life changed drastically then. Darth Kurzayon began a harsh teaching and training program, abandoning many of his other apprentices in order to spend the most possible time personally tutoring the girl he only now called his ‘beautiful daughter.’
His training began with the Sith code, but he also began teaching her and drilling her in the use of the Force, even at this very early age. She was confused at the suddenness of the change in her life at first, and missed her mother dearly. However, both of these were eliminated soon enough… Kurzayon punished her with the Force every time she expressed feelings towards Enzia, as well as telling her that her mother had abandoned her in disgust. The confusion was soon forgotten as Nyiss began to explore—and enjoy—her newfound abilities.
For the next four years, Kurzayon ramped up his teaching of Sith philosophy and Force manipulation, leaving Nyiss no personal time, filling her life with study and harsh deadlines, that would always be enforced with painful punishments, though never any that would mar her appearance or harm her developing body. Always he called her ‘his beautiful daughter’ and claimed that she was perfect. Fortunately, though harsh, he was an effective teacher, and she learned much.
Throughout this, her feelings grew in a rather mixed way to the aged man who was her teacher and only father figure (though he never claimed to be her father directly). On one hand, she hated his punishments, and wished for freedom from his regimen of lessons. On the other hand, she very much enjoyed the feeling of power and success when she mastered something new, and loved him for teaching her. In the absence of her mother, she grew more attached to her Imperial nanny, the only remaining connection to that early part of her life. Though Kurzayon did not know for a time, near Nyiss’ eighth birthday the nanny told young Nyiss the truth of the situation with her mother. This led to some significant internal conflict for Nyiss, however she still feared Kurzayon and remembered his punishments whenever she had mentioned her mother earlier, and so, did not act.
On her eighth birthday, Kurzayon altered Nyiss’ training program. Though he had always ensured she stayed in shape, he now introduced physical training. It was light at first, and though slowly gaining in intensity, always remained remarkably soft compared to similar training at the Academy. Still paranoid of scarring his ‘beautiful daughter,’ Kurzayon ordered that even in failure, no weapon would strike his girl. Punishment for failing continued, but in his standard method - pain, but never injury.
In addition, he introduced her to science and archeology, and it was only now that she had the chance to leave the grand house she had otherwise been confined to, though only in excursions to dig sites with her master.
Nyiss took immediately to her scientific training, drinking in the knowledge rapaciously and elating in excursions that allowed her to see the world at last. She was slower on the uptake with the physical training, seeing minimal use for it, but putting effort into it to avoid painful punishment. Intensity of training and practice in the philosophical and Force based areas only increased in intensity to make up for the lost time to other subjects however, leaving young Nyiss with no time to form opinions or have strong feelings beyond her work.
This continued for three years, until Nyiss was eleven. At this age, she had a reasonable grasp of Sith martial arts and combat with a quarterstaff. Her grasp of Sith philosophy was significant, so much so that training had ramped down in this area. Her Force use was the match of many an Acolyte in the core areas, and she was beginning to study more complex powers. Her scientific knowledge was growing but still considered meager at best.
Kurzayon finally deigned to begin teaching her of the political world, while also demanding she create a lightsaber and begin to study lightsaber form. While he continued to teach these subjects personally, he also began to bring in outside help in the form of Imperial specialists. This was the first inkling Nyiss had that her master was not all-knowing, though this spark did not truly register for her yet.
Shortly following this further change in regimen, as her body began to mature, she was given leave to be taught by her nanny about the realities of womanhood. Learning of these things brought questions and curiosities into her mind that were decidedly not included in Kurzayon’s plan, though they would not become particularly important to Nyiss for several years yet.
Regardless, as Nyiss grew older and saw more of the outside world, resentment over her confinement and incredibly restricted lifestyle grew ever greater. The more she saw, the more she wanted. At first, harmless desires, occasionally even granted. Wanting to carry out her own archeological dig. Wanting the new height of Imperial fashion.
As time passed, she became more extreme in this regard. By thirteen, she wanted more - she wanted to watch combative displays, both between beasts and people. She wanted her own slaves. Most of all, she wanted to experiment with men.
Her political training had covered much, including the use of sexuality to achieve one's political goals. Thus she had an excuse to indulge her burning curiosity. She was denied all of these more extreme things however, including engaging in any politics at all. As is all too often the case, her desire for the things she was denied only grew. Her life remained ceaseless training and lessons, Kurzayon doing his best to ensure she never had time to plot. During this time, Kurzayon also had the nanny dismissed, seeing her as no longer necessary, and becoming paranoid of the bond Nyiss had shared with her. This only served to heighten Nyiss’ growing resentment.
Around the age of fifteen, many things came to a head. First, she was officially granted the rank of Apprentice. Her relentless training had paid off, her power growing far faster than the average Sith. With newfound recognition, came new influence, contacts and autonomy. Nyiss began to act in defiance of her master. Kurzayon was powerful, but age was beginning to overtake him. More and more, Nyiss’ lessons were carried out by his lackeys. Though he still denied her much of what she wanted, words that had been rule of law became progressively less firm.
Nyiss did not start small however. Mere weeks after her promotion, she contacted her mother - Enzia - and arranged for regular meetings. She was eager to see her mother, but had no real plan other than to spite Kurzayon. Enzia however, had been busy in her own right in the past eleven years. She had drastically increased her power, seizing the title of Lord and biding her time to wreak a just revenge on Kurzayon by reclaiming her daughter.
Unfortunately for all involved, nothing went as anyone had predicted. Enzia had never considered how different her daughter may be after so long and when they met once again, personalities proved to clash. Enzia sought to protect her daughter, while Nyiss realised she no longer wanted either the mother she remembered or the mother she had.
Though the reunion proved cold, they were nonetheless both Sith. Common hatred is a powerful bonding tool, and their shared hate of Kurzayon meant that while a true relationship was lacking, a professional relationship blossomed quickly Nyiss provided Enzia with many details of Kurzayon’s routine and capabilities, and in return, she was able to exploit Enzia’s network of contacts and subjects. At first, she used them for petty, personal reasons finally gaining many of the things she had desired so much.
Kurzayon was not blind to his daughters machinations however, and while he did not directly punish her, his agents began a shadow war with Enzia’s minions - kept away from Nyiss’ eyes by both parents.
Time passed and plots developed. By the time she was seventeen, Nyiss had discovered a new science — virology — which together with her Alchemy knowledge was providing her with results taking much of her focus. The shadow war between Enzia and Kurzayon grew more brazen, and as it did, the Inquisitors became unhappy. Before they could step in however, Enzia decided she would strike at Kurzayon directly. She stormed his grand house and engaged him in battle, confident that while he was theoretically the superior Sith, she was in her prime and driven by far more powerful emotions than her aging foe.
The battle was, by all accounts furious and long, but Nyiss was not there to see it - arriving back to the grand house only in time to witness her mother's destruction by Kurzayon’s hand. By this time, Nyiss cared little on a personal level for Enzia, though she still found herself affected by witnessing the death, experiencing feelings she did not quite know how to comprehend.
At the same time however, she saw the opportunities Enzia’s death opened to her. She acted quickly, stealing as much of her mother's network of influence as she could, even as she put the finishing touches on her latest science project. Three days following the battle, while Kurzayon was recovering, Nyiss poisoned him. Rather than kill him and risk investigation, she infected him with an incurable neural degradation disease, that would only manifest its effects slowly.
The disease reduced the already diminished Darth to a mere shadow, and for the next five years Nyiss put on the public face of doting on him in his age, even as she pilfered his libraries and vaults for knowledge and co-opted a great many of his servants. He died near her twenty-second birthday, of natural causes.
By now, Nyiss’ personal power was significant, she was already able to outmatch many an Apprentice in her manipulation of the Force and hold her own with a Lightsaber. Her influence was fairly sizeable too, with many elements of both of her parents networks incorporated into her own. Had she been a little more decisive, or planned beyond this moment, she might’ve been able to seize a lordship then and there.
Alas, for all her power, Nyiss lacked experience. She had not truly grasped how harsh the world she now set foot in was, or how much her master had protected her from the worst it had to offer. Now truly free, instead of forging ahead and expanding her power base even more, she fell into her vices, celebrating with many fine things, men and women. In her arrogance, she even trusted some of her lovers with valuable information, and within weeks, her power base had splintered, worn away to virtually nothing. Some had been taken by opportunistic Lords, others fallen under the control of Nyiss’ now ex-lovers and others still striking out on their own rather than following an apathetic and indulgent apprentice.
For her mistakes, Nyiss became the laughing stock of her peers and immediate superiors alike. She was, herself, devastated to see what she had acquired slip so easily and swiftly through her fingers. She tried, vainly to bring some of her former minions back into the fold, but this was futile. Only the most loyal of Enzia’s servants had stayed true to her, and even they kept a low profile regarding their loyalty. Nyiss had no choice but to bow to a new master.
For the next twelve and a half years, Nyiss served the aging Lord Amalayna as a faithful Sith Apprentice. Through this time, Nyiss plotted, but made little action against her Lord, knowing that she had to give her reputation time to fade. Instead, she began to, slowly, foster contacts amongst the Imperial branches that were less interested in Sith affairs, and less judging of their Lords pasts.
The early years under Amalayna were spent conducting archeology for the older Lord, who was obsessed with discovering some means of reversing aging. Nyiss found much in this time, exploring many ancient ruins at the behest of her master, but never finding what Amalayna wanted. At first she was regarded as a failure, for that was what her master painted her as, but in time word began to spread amongst Sith outside of Amalayna’s direct control that Nyiss was a capable archeologist.
Amalayna was not a kind Lord however, and over time, became jealous of Nyiss’ youthful beauty, and the ease with which, even shamed as she was, she was able to gain the attention of similarly attractive Sith. Amalayna suffered badly from dark side degradation, and as her jealousy grew, she demanded Nyiss beg for even the smallest of privileges.
With her pride already injured by her fall, this only served to inflame Nyiss’ ambition and fury. In her thirty-sixth year, tired of her Lord's treatment of her, she began to aggressively co-opt Amalayna’s network of influence, while also securing greater influence amongst the Imperial Navy and army.
The Empire openly prepared for war now, and Nyiss sought to avoid being caught up in it as a footsoldier. Amalayna was blind to her Apprentices actions however, for a rival had begun to attack her around the same time, and her jealousy had only grown with time. So strong was it, that she even began to treat Nyiss as a slave. Nyiss endured this by choice, feeding on the hate she and knowing that it helped keep her master blind to her actions.
However it would not be for long that she would endure such ignominy. Early in Nyiss’ thirty-seventh year, Amalayna found out that Nyiss had stolen the loyalty of just over half of her minions, and in a fit of rage, tried to destroy her. The ensuing battle saw Nyiss’ triumph over her master, proving without a doubt that her power was now worthy of Lordship. Amalayna was spared, as Sith law dictated she should be, but lost favor quickly after such a defeat.
Nyiss moved quickly this time, actively avoiding the mistakes she had made the last time power was in her grasp. She did not celebrate, but instead bound to her will those of Amalayna’s servants not already loyal to her and seized all of her former Lords holdings, before any of her rivals could.
Her actions earned her a Lordship at last.
She allowed herself only a single day of celebration before moving forward with her next plan. Though now a Lord, she wanted more. She knew war was coming and wanted to control her place in it. She wanted to acquire forbidden lore not so easily accessed on Dromund Kaas. Ultimately, she wanted to attain the lofty title of Darth and all the power and respect that came with it.
She secured personal tutors from the Imperial Army and Navy, in an effort to learn battle strategy and therefore place herself in the Imperial command structure instead of on the front line. Though the choice to employ non-Force sensitive tutors was somewhat controversial amongst her followers, she kept an iron grip on them and did not alter her decision, knowing full well the benefit of good personal tutoring.
In addition, while under Amalayna’s hand, her scientific studies had fallen by the wayside. She now took up the chance to continue them, with a particular focus on biological and chemical warfare. All was in aid of the war effort, for though she feared for her own life during the war, she otherwise supported it wholeheartedly.
She was forty-one when it eventually arrived. She had learned much and secured a solid position as a mind too valuable to risk on the battlefield lightly. She was not part of the initial strike against Korriban, however she was on the first wave of ships to land once the Republic had been driven out. As a noted archeologist and Lord with some sway, she was among the first to explore the ruins of the Sith Academy and the Valley of the Dark Lords. She was the first to examine the ruins of several ancient Sith cities. Her discoveries of artifacts mundane and mystical alike saw her heaped with accolades by her peers.
When the building effort at the Academy was nearing completion, she was among the first to have her very own complex built into the ancient red sands of the home of the Sith.
For four years she did not set foot off Korriban, having all of her research moved there and spending considerable amounts of time amongst the countless Sith ruins. She amassed many artifacts, but more importantly, she learned much. It was during this time that she acquired knowledge of an artifact of extreme power. One not on Korriban, forged by an ancient Sith and said to give to its wielder eternal youth. At forty-five, she was yet youthful by Pureblood standards. Yet, she had seen how age and dark side degradation had ravaged her father, and then her former lord. That memory sparked a fear that one day she would suffer a similar fate, and that it would be too late to do anything about it. That tiny, petty fear wormed its way to her heart and grew.
With age and ever growing degradation from the accumulation of power, she would no longer be renowned as one of the most beautiful Sith Lords in the Empire. She could not have that.
This, however, was also when the war caught up with her. She was required on the front lines, to command fleets and armies… And to test the first of her diabolical chemical weapons. She served as a scientist and general for a time, earning a reputation in the navy as efficient… and a reputation in the army as brutal and uncompromising. Three years of this, with occasional breaks to return to Korriban and investigate newly uncovered ruins, left her well regarded amongst the Sith. It was also time for the ravages of the dark side to begin appearing, ever so slightly, on her face.
Her paranoia grew, and she changed her direction rapidly in her forty-eighth year. Instead of leading for the Empire, she led for herself. She focused heavily on naval engagements, and soon gathered enough favor to have a number of ships seconded to her personal command on a permanent basis.
This was done in order to achieve a very specific goal. She wanted to stay young forever, and to do so, she would hunt an artifact to the ends of the galaxy. In her forty-ninth year, she finally had the resources and leads to locate the world the artifact was stored on, known only as HKZ-341. Records of her expedition are not publicly available, and only a few facts have been revealed. Nyiss was accompanied by a number of Sith, Nimm Deenia among them - one of the few to return. Nyiss also returned with one less Terminus class destroyer than she set out with, but the one that remained was loaded with all manner of artifacts.
It is clear to any looking upon Nyiss now that she succeeded in her goal and located the artifact that would secure her eternal youth. Many begged knowledge from her at the time, but she would speak not a word of the process of using it… Or of the price it exacted to grant her its boon. All around her saw that the experience had changed her though, and not just physically.
She was summoned by the Emperor following this. Many speculated she would not return... But return she did, now wearing the title of Darth.
Now nearly completely unbound from responsibility, she withdrew from the public eye for a time. Years passed before there is any further record of her activity. At fifty-six, she re-entered the public eye, returning to her position as a military commander and experimental weapons development specialist, only now the things she deployed were far more brutal, far more virulent and terrifying even to the Imperial military observers.
She continued in this role on and off for the remainder of the time between then and now, winning many battles, though occasionally losing some too. Few played the game against her in the arena of Sith politics. She was feared, partly for the mystery surrounding her expedition, partly for her ruthless prowess in the political arena. At the same time, only a few amongst her entourage were Sith. At first, many wanted to learn the secret of eternal youth from her, but she turned them all away. She saw no need to teach any other Sith how to use the Artifact, nor did she wish to perpetuate knowledge of it. It was one of the few things she owned that others of her stature coveted.
Rumor has it that, at the end of the war, Nyiss was present with a few choice lieutenants for the attack on the Jedi Temple. Though not part of Malgus’ initial force, she is claimed to have captured several Jedi and looted the Jedi archives during the short time before the Temple was demolished.
She disappeared for approximately three years or so following this, having taken her Jedi captives to the remote planet of Feena. There, she subjected them to many strange and horrific experiments and tortures. Most did not survive, but there was one notable success - Lea Rahn, formerly a Jedi, emerged as a Sith in both philosophy and physical form - the apotheosis of Nyiss’ experiments in applied alchemy.
Early in this relative isolation, she also survived an assassination attemptt by rogue Republic forces, though only barely.
In the last three years, Nyiss seems to have taken a more active and public role, returning to archeology and seeking to re-establish her position as one of the most prominent leaders of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge.
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