Elvira Falston

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Elvira Falston
Elviraregalgown04.jpg
Biographical Information
Race Human (Coruscanti)
Homeworld Coruscant
Mother Silestra Langer
Father Jordan Falston (Deceased)
Spouse None
Born Year -19 Day 157
Physical Description
Gender Female
Height 1.77 meters
Hair Color Blond
Eye Color Green
Political Information
Affiliation Galactic Empire
Title Baroness
Rank Bureau Chief
Positions Chief of Operations
Awards Elviraawards.png

Elvira Falston, also known by her Sith name Darth Surra, is an ambitious Coruscanti woman who has served in both the Imperial Army and Imperial Intelligence. She has held several positions throughout her career and is generally considered to be intelligent and competent but stubborn and zealous. She has served in the Empire for many years but rarely mingles with other Imperials, instead dedicating herself entirely to her work. An expert in galactic politics and intel, she has played a role in many operations and political events across the galaxy. Between the years 13 and 16, she was the driving force behind the writing and distribution of Imperial propaganda, having been involved in the writing process of every article released by the Empire. She currently holds a seat on the Council of the Order of the Sith, first as honourary member, later as Lord Inquisitor.

Biography

Daddy's Little Girl

Elvira Falston was born on Coruscant into a wealthy, conservative family. Her father was a businessman and her mother stayed at home to take care of her, their only child. She grew up in a stable and secure environment in one of the safest districts of the ecumenopolis, far away from the issues many Coruscanti children had to deal with on a daily basis. Business went well for Jordan Falston and the first to enjoy his success was his young daughter.

Always arriving at school dressed in the finest clothing, Elvira thoroughly enjoyed the jealous looks of the other children, gradually transforming into a spoiled child. Her father gave her everything she asked for and she quickly learned how to manipulate not only her loving father, but her friends as well. This behaviour continued in high school, where she collected a band of admirers around her and only associated with people from the highest layers of society.

A Turn for the Worse

In Year -3, at the age of sixteen, Elvira was called out of class one day. One of the teachers told her that she had to go home, explaining that her mother had something to tell her. Preparing several excuses to explain her bad results at school on the way home, Elvira was surprised to find her mother in tears. Her father's ship had malfunctioned and crashed as he was on his way to meet a business associate. Elvira's perfect world collapsed and in a matter of days, the spoiled brat became a reserved, asocial loner. She spent most of her time in her room and rarely had any social contact outside of school.

She began to take interest in the behaviour of those around her and quietly observed her schoolmates and teachers, attempting to read their behaviour and discover patterns in human psychology. It was also the year that Hiram Drayson seized control of the Galactic Republic and transformed it into the Galactic Empire. The Falston family was one of the first to pledge its allegiance to the new government, although it would not be until several years later that the new galactic superpower would have an actual impact on Elvira's life.

After graduating high school followed by a period of seclusion, Elvira went to the University of Coruscant and studied Imperial Law. During her time at the university, she came in contact with Imperial recruitment officers from the local garrison and decided to pay their office a visit, intrigued by the promise of stability and order, something lacking in her personal life ever since the loss of her father. But also out of interest for the handsome officer that had visited the university, hoping to catch another glimpse of him.

As the weeks went by, Elvira began to visit the garrison more often and began opening up again. Her new friends at the garrison allowed her to train with weapons in her spare time and while far from an expert, she proved to have some natural talent in combat. At the day of her graduation, Elvira walked up to her mother and informed her that she had decided to join the Empire's military forces.

A New Life in the New Order

Elvira stayed in a small room at the Imperial Academy where she studied under professor Galdarzz Aalon, one of the heads of the Academy. His dedication to the Empire and its ideology had a profound effect on the young woman, who was still fragile and susceptible to new ideas. Invigorated by her newfound purpose in life, Elvira graduated from the Academy and was assigned to the 2nd Imperial Legion, also known as the Hellhounds. She joined the Empire in a time of division and paranoia, shortly after the reunification with the New Imperial Order. Only having known the Empire under Emperor Vodo Bonias, Elvira was easily convinced to distrust the Charonists, whom she suspected of attempting to take control of the entire Empire.

The start of a military career

The ambitious new Private quickly caught the attention of the legion's Commanding Officer, Colonel Graeda L`Annan, who offered her the position of History Adjunct, which had not been filled for some time. Considering it an opportunity to prove herself, Elvira accepted and immediately initiated several projects, displaying her ambitious nature by attempting to expand the role she now held so she would have more responsibilities within the legion.

She rose through the ranks at a fast pace and earned several awards in the short time she had been with the Hellhounds. When the Colonel became a member of Army Command and was replaced by her Executive Officer, Lieutenant Gunther Rall, Elvira saw a chance to advance her military career once more. It wasn't long before she gained the favour of the new CO and when he needed a new Morale Adjunct to keep the legion in shape, Elvira was his first choice. Still retaining her old position, Elvira once more sought to expand her influence and developed the role of Morale Adjunct, traditionally a legion-bound position, into an Army-wide office made up of each legion's Morale Adjuncts.

A few days after her promotion to Master Sergeant, the retirement of Lieutenant Euna Miriel, Legion Adjutant, was announced. As could be expected, Lieutenant Rall turned to Elvira when seeking a successor, as she had been an advisor to him in an unoffical capacity for some time already. The new Legion Adjutant relinquished her other positions and became an official member of the legion's command staff. She performed admirably and brought many changes to the legion, including a mentoring program for new Privates and a restructuring of the legion into several squads that would eventually be reformed into brigades during the grand restructuring of the military in late Year 11.

The Hellhounds had earned a positive reputation and as part of the first and only Assault Force, they were often chosen to participate in highly classified and top priority operations. A Command Sergeant by now, Elvira participated in many operations, such as the famous liberation of M`buh from the New Republic and Operation Sneak Peak, a mission that went terribly wrong when the Imperial Army was forced to retreat when a volcano erupted and destroyed both the Imperial camp and the base of the guerilla fighters they were tasked with eliminating.

Breakdown

The 2nd Legion's progress came to a halt when Major Rall was forced to step down for several weeks due to health issues and his Executive Officer, Lieutenant Tremec Basir, revealed himself as a Sith Lord and left the Army to train at the Dark Temple of Korriban. The entire weight of running the Hellhounds fell on Elvira's shoulders and she slowly began to crack under the pressure. Were it not for General L`Annan herself stepping in as temporary CO, the legion would surely have fallen apart. Luckily, a replacement for Major Rall was soon found in the form of Lieutenant Michael Beckhart, an experienced officer who had just come out of retirement. He approached the exhausted Command Sergeant with the offer of making her his second-in-command, an offer she considered a reward for the heavy burdens she had carried and immediately accepted.

Elvira as a Command Sergeant

Tensions in the legion rose when only a day later, it was announced that Euna Miriel had returned to active service and would become Executive Officer instead, as was decided by Army Command. Despite having served under Miriel before, Elvira was filled with jealousy and frustration. She now considered Miriel an intruder who had stolen the position she felt entitled to. The opportunity to further realise her ambitions snatched away before her eyes in combination with the inability to earn her officer commission due to the structural flaws of the School of Officer and Command Studies began to leave visible marks on the legion's former rising star.

Beckhart succeeded in reviving the legion's morale and efficiency and managed to keep Elvira in check for a while, but secretly the Legion Adjutant had already made plans to leave the legion behind and pursue a new career elsewhere, working for Chief Daelis Stanov of Imperial Intelligence during her spare time. Major Rall returned earlier than expected and Beckhart willingly handed over command of the 2nd Legion to him once more. The return of the man she considered her friend and mentor soothed Elvira, but it would only delay the inevitable.

Only a few days after Rall's return, Elvira was contacted by Califf D`Troit, Commanding Officer of the 1st Legion. He explained to her that he had lost all members of his command staff and was in dire need of competent officers to take their place. He offered her the chance to become his Legion Adjutant and Elvira immediately saw a new opportunity to claim the post of Executive Officer after all. Out of sympathy for D`Troit and his legion, but secretly also driven by her jealousy, she accepted and was transferred to the Immortals. There, she prospered once more and helped turn the legion around.

One morning, Elvira awoke to a state of complete chaos on the Star Destroyer she was stationed on. A message was being broadcast by Grand Moff Orphaea Imperium on the intercoms. He had initiated a coup against the Emperor, seizing control of the Empire's wealth and sewing confusion on many planets under Imperial control, convincing them to support his cause. He demanded the abdication of Bonias and the crowning of his Executor and former leader of the NIO movement, Thomas Cherokee, as the new Emperor. Wishing to avoid a new long-lasting civil war and keep the Empire intact, the Emperor abdicated in favour of Cherokee, intending to double-cross Imperium and reclaim the Throne as soon as the peace had returned. The members of the Inner Circle, which included several Charonists, saw this as an opportunity to usher the Empire into a new age of prosperity and rallied behind Cherokee, who subsequently refused to enact Vodo's plan, becoming the first new Emperor in over six years.

One of the first acts of the new Emperor was to appoint his long-time friend and supporter, Lord Admiral Seele, as the new Military Commanding Officer. Large military reforms were announced and Califf and Elvira worked together to ensure the 1st Legion was prepared. Part of these reforms was the abolition of the School of Officer and Command Studies, allowing Elvira to at last be promoted to Second Lieutenant along with her official appointment to the position of Executive Officer. A change in the rank system automatically promoted her to the rank of First Lieutenant, but the damage had already been done after months of stress and disillusionment. Her new rank meant little to the otherwise so ambitious officer and she saw Lord Admiral Seele as nothing more than a Charonist destroying the Empire with unnecessary reforms, clashing with him on several occasions.

The commanders of the 1st Legion brought in Dragomir Kies to serve as Legion Adjutant and be trained by Elvira to replace her after she announced her intent to transfer to Imperial Intelligence, which had actively been recruiting active and competent officers from other branches ever since the agency was brought back to life by its new Director, Inwe Ventidius. After leading one last mission in the Imperial Army, Elvira officially retired from the military and began her civilian career.

Reinventing Oneself

Elvira was given a desk job with the Bureau of Analysis and signed on as a recruitment officer with the Imperial Centre of Recruitment. The civilian life allowed her to breathe again, but she had already been reduced to a shadow of her former self. She had clung to the Empire to fill the void in her life left by her father, but in her eyes the Imperial system had failed her. She went through a period of depression and neglected her job, getting caught in a series of abusive relationships and suffering from frequent mood swings. In an attempt to escape from a violent former lover, she even underwent surgery to change her appearance and dyed her hair black.

The new Agent Falston

Director Ventidius frequently reassigned her to new projects in an attempt to motivate her again but to no avail. Surprisingly, it was Lord Admiral Seele who saw potential in the burned out agent and frequently held lengthy discussions with her. His stories of the Empire under Charon before he was betrayed by the Sith and his plans for the future gave Elvira hope again and caused her to let go of her hate for the people she had once considered intruders and traitors.

Although still not returned to her full capacities, the young Imperial was making steady progress and was eventually transferred to the Bureau of Operations where she became the Chief of the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations. She helped rebuild the department and became involved in the recruiting of undercover agents for the Bureau. Gradually she took on more and more responsibilities and was the de facto head of the Bureau, although an actual promotion was not yet in sight. When her collegue in the Bureau of Analysis, Cameliar Mordent, was promoted to Bureau Chief, old feelings of jealousy briefly resurfaced. She managed to dispel her negative thoughts however and for the first time realised that through conquering her depression, she had grown into a stronger personality.

Ventidius had become wary of appointing a new Chief of Operations as the two previous people to hold the position had gone rogue. Seele, the man Elvira had begun to consider her mentor, pushed for her appointment to head of the Bureau and eventually she was granted official recognition as the new Bureau Chief. Under the guidance of the professional, organised Ventidius and the experienced Seele, the new supervisor of all covert activities of the Empire grew into a talented spymaster. She was instrumental in the expansion of the intel network of Imperial Intelligence and attracted many new sources all across the galaxy, including the criminal underworld. It is around this time she first came in contact with Ximaro Jix, leader of a swoop gang named the Dark Star Hellions. Through him she managed to bring in her first enemy officer, Juraki Takeda, who was involved in the management of illegal business fronts and credit laundering for several terrorists. It was after Takeda's execution that Elvira developed the strange habit of collecting blood samples from her victims, he becoming the first of her collection.

By now, every major enemy of the Empire had been infiltrated by undercover agents feeding intel to the Chief of Operations. Elvira began to develop an insatiable thirst for knowledge, desiring to know every little secret there was. She oversaw many succesful operations, including the retrieval of hundreds of stolen ships stored underneath the New Republic's planetary shields and the rooting out of several spies within the Empire. She personally led the operation to capture a New Republic Senator and Brigadier General, Ayy D`oria. Accompanied by a squad of stormtroopers, she boarded the Senator's ship, who was summarily placed under arrest. D`oria was executed a few days later after a speedy trial, the execution being performed by Elvira herself.

A young Sith Apprentice

It was around this time that an old acquaintance from her days in the Army resurfaced, the Sith Lord Tremec Basir. Ventidius had asked him to visit all her staff members one by one and investigate if they had any affinity with the Force. Both Bureau Chiefs were discovered to be Force Sensitive, but it was kept a secret by the Director. The Order of the Sith was led at that time by the Dark Lord who would come to be known as the Shamed One, a man who considered himself to be above the Emperor and saw the Sith as his personal army. Ventidius did not trust him and thus hid all Force Sensitives in Imperial Intelligence from him. It wasn't until the Shamed One was banished from the Empire and Darth Virsunas took his place as Dark Lord that Elvira was granted membership in the Order and became the apprentice of Lord Eric Jackson.

Jackson was known as a modest and calm Sith Lord who valued life and freedom over any philosophy that restricted said freedom, such as the teachings of the Jedi and certain Sith so obsessed with the nature of the Dark Side that they became slaves to it. He taught his apprentice the basics of the Force and lightsaber combat, but more importantly showed her that the Dark Side was far more complicated than many chose to believe. This set his inexperienced apprentice on a path of study and practice, honing her skills in combat and continuously expanding her knowledge and understanding of the Force.

Full Potential

When asked by the Select Commitee of COMPNOR to take over the Imperial Information Service after the previous Director's retirement, Elvira agreed. She began to redesign and restructure the entire department, only to have nearly all of her work undone when Seele presented her with the Throne's new vision on how the department should be reformed, forcing her to start all over. This once more put her at odds with Seele, considering giving up her new position only a week after receiving it. Eventually, she accepted the decision and reformed the IIS into what it is today.

The 20th Director of Imperial Intelligence

Meanwhile, a bounty hunter by the name of Fleur`De Rouge had risen to fame through several high-profile arrests. In year 14, the Gand succeeded in capturing the Chief of State of the New Republic, Cheda Quche and delivered him to the Empire. Elvira was one of the few people allowed to attend the execution on Day 60 of that year.

During a period Director Ventidius was unable to lead, Acting Directorship was granted to Elvira. She flourished in her new role and proved herself worthy of one day succeeding the woman that many considered one of the best Directors to ever lead Imperial Intelligence. When some time later Grand Vizier Jorus Taidan retired, Ventidius was deemed the best candidate to replace him. The Throne summoned Elvira to the Imperial Citadel on Coruscant, where they announced their intent to appoint her as the new Director of Imperial Intelligence.

Two weeks after becoming the new Director, she resigned from her position as head of the Imperial Information Service, having led the department for eight days short of a year. This allowed her to dedicate more time to her true passion. Inheriting experienced and competent command staff from Ventidius' tenture as Director, Elvira simply followed the path that had been laid out by her predecessor and brought few fundamental changes to the branch. Despite having been mentored by Ventidius and Seele, she was a lot more passionate and aggressive and this was reflected in the new goals set by Imperial Intelligence. The amount of arrests and executions performed by the agency increased significantly.

Due to her position of influence, Elvira was granted an honourary seat on the Sith Council. She took on the name of Darth Surra and concealed her identity as a Sith by disconnecting her personal identity from her new name. When the Lord Inquisitor, Cameliar Mordent, stepped down, Elvira was named as his successor in recognition of her service to the Order and experience in the field. This enabled her to use prospective members of the Order as field operatives to collect intel and carry out arrests and assassinations for her. After one such succesful operation, the Krath Lord Nomak Drome was delivered to the Inquisition. At last revealing herself as Darth Surra in the subsequent galaxy-wide announcement, the Sith Master beheaded the former second-in-command of the Krath Dynasty after rejecting his pleas for mercy. Claiming the Nova crystals found on his body, Surra used her developing skills in alchemy to infuse them with Drome's blood and dubbed them blood crystals, presenting one to each member of the Sith Council.

Darth Surra is born

Mere weeks later, Surra conspired to kidnap two Force Sensitives with a former member of the Raptor Pirates who wished to earn the right to train with the Sith. Luring the targets into a trap and swiftly subduing them, Sivad Nivram and former Jedi Master Jor El were brought before the Lord Inquisitor. Drawing ever closer to the Dark Side of the Force, Surra experimented on the two grey Jedi to further her understanding of the Force and Sith alchemy. She had always embraced the Dark Side, but never before had she considered it something to be studied in such great detail. When the two fallen Jedi were no longer of use to her, they were executed and their bodies disposed of.

Descent into Darkness

Despite personally overseeing many operations and remaining firmly in control of the largest intel network in the galaxy, Surra was rarely seen by other Imperials. Every Jedi, rebel or criminal captured by her agents allowed her to continue experimenting and increase her understanding of the Dark Side of the Force. The Director became more and more reclusive as time went on, delving deeper into the mysteries of the Force and working on new ways to wield it as a weapon. Eventually she realised she could no longer dedicate enough time to her duties and stepped down as Director of Imperial Intelligence. Despite this, she still remained closely affiliated with the agency as it enabled her to remain aware of everything that transpired in the rest of the galaxy. Word eventually reached her that Valkiry Fair, leader of a rebel organisation calling itself the Freedom Warriors, was attempting to establish a rival intel agency that would primarily target the Empire. Surra made contact with an old associate, the former Sith Jett Blackheart, to learn more. Blackheart had inserted himself in the rebel group and could provide Imperial Intelligence with the opportunity to cut this new agency down before it could grow. The plan turned out to be even more succesful than Surra had hoped, as Blackheart assassinated his superior, Wuma Uxal-Lumir, and provided Imperial Intelligence with access to the ship of Fair, resulting in his arrest and eventual execution at the hands of Surra. The Freedom Warriors movement crumbled and what little remained of it was reformed into a mercenary group.


Personality

Personality

Few seem capable of analysing Elvira's true personality. Many consider her to be cold and calculating, while some of the people closest to her have described her as feisty and zealous. She is extremely dedicated to the Imperial cause and harbours a deep hatred for all enemies of the Empire, traitors in particular. She is driven by her thirst for knowledge and thrives on conflict, appearing willing to deceive, manipulate and kill to achieve her goals.

While her position requires her to be coldhearted in order to make difficult decisions, she opens up to the few people she considers friends and shows genuine signs of emotional attachment to a select few. She is usually very withdrawn, observing others from afar without interfering. She rarely allows anyone to see her true self and adjusts her behaviour based on whom she is interacting with. She always behaves in a professional manner which is reflected in her demeanor and language.

Relationships

Ever since the death of her father, Elvira has had a tendency to look for mentors and father figures amongst her superiors. This included men such as Gunther Rall, Eric Jackson and Seele. Nevertheless she retains a very cynical view on others and refrains from idolizing anyone, even the Emperor. She is extremely wary of forming emotional attachment to anyone due to the abuse she suffered in the past.

Elvira has not had a partner ever since going through a series of destructive relationships. Despite having had many suitors vying for her affection, she rarely shows any romantic interest and when she does, it is typically based on rational reasons such as advancing her status in the galaxy through a partner of nobility or great political influence.