Amne Zailyn

Amne Zailyn
Biographical Information
Race	Hapan
Homeworld	Alderaan
Mother	Lydia Zailyn
Spouse	Édouard Ruellan (m. Y4–Y10; his death) Euna Miriel (m. Y15–Y17; divorced)
Children	Elias Ruellan (b. Y5) Hélène Miriel (b. Y15)
Physical Description
Gender	Female
Political Information
Affiliation
Prior Affiliation	Empire-in-Exile (Year 15 - 16) Galactic Empire (Year 11 - 15)

Amne Zailyn, a Hapan of noble descent, began her military career in the Imperial Army of the Galactic Empire as a young widowed mother. She distinguished herself as the commanding officer of the 5th Brigade and was highly decorated after her meritorious service on Derra IV. Amne served as an officer of Army Command from Year 14 to 15, during which time she apprenticed herself to Darth Sigyn to learn the ways of the Force. Perhaps unusually, she was trained to Sith Knight of the Order of the Sith without stepping foot in a Sith academy. Amne became repulsed by the dark side and abandoned her master to support the Empire-in-Exile led by Orphaea Imperium, which she considered to be her only chance at an Empire not controlled by the Sith.

Biography

Early life

Amne was born in Year -12 on Alderaan to Lydia Zailyn, an acclaimed flutist. Her grandmother, Isaline Zailyn, was a high-ranking Draconian Army officer who, after the surrender of the Draconian Union in Year -27, was among the nobles who fled the Phoenix Revolution and set up exile courts led by surviving claimants to the Hapan throne. Isaline was welcomed into the homes of her brothers and sisters who, along with their extravagant dowries, had been married into noble families in various sectors after the death of Princess Da'tan Pal'durath in Year -61. Due to her reluctance to marry or take a consort, it was expected that Isaline would adopt one of her nieces or grandnieces as her heiress. However, within a few months, it became clear that she was indeed with child. She would not disclose the identity of the father and, early in Year -26, she gave birth to her daughter Lydia on Alderaan. Isaline dedicated herself to working with the Refugee Relief Movement, using her considerable funds to relocate Hapan refugees to peaceful, refined worlds throughout the Republic. Over the years, Lydia performed as a child prodigy with a gift for playing the Alderaanian flute.

Amne spent her earliest years traveling with Lydia under the care of a nanny, then a governess, as she performed throughout the Republic, though she was given to the care of her grandmother when the time came for her to attend the Alderaan Select Academy for Young Ladies. Out of a desire to reconcile with her extended family after Isaline's death in Year 0, Lydia sent the twelve-year-old Amne to Procopia to stay with relatives. When Amne developed a mutual affection with her distant cousin, Édouard Ruellan, their parents arranged a betrothal. With her marriage agreement in place, Amne accompanied the Ruellans to Coruscant in Year 3 when they were invited to the Imperial Court as per tradition. Amne and Édouard were married upon their return to Procopia in Year 4; their son was born near the end of the following year. Amne was widowed in Year 10 after six years of marriage. Motivated by Cherokee's ascension to the Imperial throne in Year 11, Amne decided to enlist in the Imperial Army. Her son, aged 5, remained in Tapani as his grandparents' heir.

Military career

"Amne Zailyn — the capable and ambitious commander of the 5th Brigade, whose lasting contributions to that unit and to the Legion cannot be tidily summarized."

— Brigadier General David Terrio

Amne was promoted to Master Sergeant upon her completion of basic training at the Imperial Academy and assigned to serve in the 1st Imperial Legion. Amne was assigned to the Sabres and sent to scout for any signs of rebel bases or hostile armies. The Sabres found and captured a number of hostiles that had established hidden bases throughout the system and retook some occupied Imperial buildings. The Immortals took it upon themselves to map their assigned sectors, marking potential microjump points and updating the political maps of the planets. They were commended with special recognition upon the conclusion of Operation Blitz, after the inspection of 4 systems with 30 planets in total. Early in Year 12, Amne was temporarily pulled from her assignment and asked to pose as an escort for Daelis Stanov, an Imperial Intelligence agent undercover as a wealthy businessman offering to sell Imperial supplies to a warlord of Garos. Amne and another escort, Euna Miriel, were assigned to protect computer specialist Thalia Brando as she stole information from the warlord's files. While working together, Amne and Euna developed feelings for one another. Though their relationship was often interrupted by their military duties, Amne and Euna found ways to communicate with each other.

Amne as a scout trooper

With the creation of brigades, Amne served as the commander of the 4th Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Brigade until she was reassigned to the Corporate Sector to serve as the executive officer of the 5th Brigade. She was soon awarded an MID, a testament to her seamless integration into the reconnaissance brigade. When her commanding officer, Deryk Ysenm, had to take an extended leave of absence for medical reasons, Amne succeeded him as the commanding officer of the 5th Brigade and resolved to follow his example to the best of her ability. It was during this time that she came to work closely with those in her Sector Command, including David Terrio, Agramon Kane, Eric Jackson and Everard de Montfort.

During the 2nd Legion's deployment for Operation Sovereign Canopy, Amne was invested with the authority to command and direct all active Imperial forces on Derra IV in the absence of Lieutenant Colonel Kane. She was awarded a letter of commendation for her efforts, and she was promoted to Major in recognition of her time served and the exemplary nature of that service, both as commander of the 5th Brigade and of the joint forces on Derra IV. By the end of the deployment, Amne was engaged to a pregnant Euna. Soon after the 5th Brigade's return to the Corporate Sector, Amne underwent training for the Army Signals Corps. Once her transfer was approved in Year 15, Amne — by this time, High Colonel Zailyn — relinquished command of the 5th Brigade to Major Bailley Zion during a change of command ceremony. High Colonel Kane commended her for being an exemplary Imperial officer and awarded her the Imperial Activity Medal for her "dedication and modest service to the 5th Brigade" during her 21 months as commander. Amne married Euna in a private ceremony near the turn of the year, four months before the birth of their daughter Hélène in Corellia.

Sith training

It was around this time that Eric Jackson used Amne's connection to Hélène to make a stunning revelation: Amne was attuned to the Force. Jackson, who served as the Lord Steward of the Order of the Sith, offered to train her. Amne, wary of Force users, accepted his offer after being convinced that learning to use the Force was the best way to protect herself and her family from those who would manipulate or otherwise harm them. With the approval of the Sith Council, Amne became the apprentice of Darth Sigyn.

Amne learned in her first lesson with Sigyn that the Sith and Jedi Orders were splinters of the Je'daii Order, the ancient organization of the Tythans who studied the light and dark sides of the Force, named Ashla and Bogan for the two moons of Tython, and believed that using both sides in equal measure was essential to maintaining balance in the Force. Her master maintained that the Sith Order reflected this ancient belief and thus had a greater understanding of the Force, unlike the Jedi Order which forbade the study and use of the dark side. Sigyn granted her the use of his personal library, where she was able to read the literature, history and philosophy of various Force traditions. Amne came to an understanding of the Force that was informed by her deeply held religious beliefs. Amne believed that the Tythans had limited themselves by centering their understanding of the Force on the study of their planet Tython and its moons, Ashla and Bogan, and that their approach was no more universal than the Nightsisters' magic-based understanding of the Force. Though Sigyn did not see the importance of studying the nature of the Force, he respected Amne's interest and suggested that she serve the Trayus Institute as a Sith Knight. She strongly considered this as she learned that the head of the Institute, Darth Draxes, was none other than her old acquaintance Daelis Stanov.

One of their last assignments as master and apprentice was on a diplomatic mission to Dathomir. The witches had specifically requested to see Darth Sigyn on the basis of his reputation as a moderate and diplomatic Sith Lord so as to learn more about their respective Force traditions. Sigyn accepted their invitation for the sake of his apprentice as he himself had little to no interest in the subtleties and intricacies of Force philosophy. The mission started off well but went awry when Sigyn and his secretary Alita were kidnapped by a rogue witch who did not approve of the Sith Lord's presence on their planet. Amne and the rest of the witches went to rescue them, and Alita was mortally wounded in the process. Amne, who had rushed to Alita's side, was able to bring her back from the brink of death. Sigyn, however, had gone into a rage and decapitated the rogue witch—and held her head in his hands to sustain her life so he could go on psychically torturing her. Amne, terrified by this raw display of the dark side by her master, inadvertently used her powers to temporarily sever Sigyn's connection to the Force. Sigyn collapsed without the Force to sustain his wounds and the witch died. Upon his recovery, Sigyn granted Amne the rank of Sith Knight out of acknowledgement of his defeat at her hands.

Imperial Mission

This proved to be the beginning of the end of her mentorship as she became all the more repulsed by the dark side, which she came to see as a perversion of the Force. She knew that any other master would not have accepted her powerful use of the light side as a testament that she had been forged into a Sith Knight, and having seen what Sigyn had done under the dark side's influence Amne wanted nothing to do with it. The stresses of Amne's training with Darth Sigyn, combined with early motherhood, put a strain on her marriage to Euna. Despite Amne's insistence, Euna refused to take Hélène away from Korriban as she preferred to stay nearer to her wife and did not fear the effects of the dark side as Amne did. When Amne finally came to oppose an Empire controlled by the Sith and fled in support of the Empire-in-Exile, Euna could not understand her wife's change of heart and chose to stay behind. They had been married, at this point, for only nine months.

They did not see or otherwise communicate with each other for another five months. Their reunion at a party hosted by Kilian Delmarco of Crepan Entertainment Studios was orchestrated by Amne's former master, Darth Sigyn, though it did not go as well as he planned. Amne and Euna had a heart-to-heart in the observatory of the MTC Destiny Pillar, and Amne remained resolute that their differences were irreconcilable. Amne served Euna with divorce papers, though Euna did not read them until after Amne had left the party.

Euna did not sign them, so they remained married. They achieved a reconciliation of sorts when Euna, retired from Imperial service, came to find Amne after the crumble of the Empire-in-Exile. Amne had stayed where she was, working for the communities served by the now-defunct Imperial Mission by caring for refugees, the mentally ill, orphaned children, the elderly, and the dying. Euna, with Hélène in tow, quietly began working with Amne and the former Missionaries and even reached out among her contacts to secure additional funding for the needs of the communities. Amne and Euna reconnected, though their relationship was far different from what it had been. Euna convinced Amne that she could continue to support the communities from afar and that she could best serve the galaxy elsewhere, so Amne, confident that she was leaving the communities in capable hands, finally left with Euna.

After a visit to the B`omarr Monastery, Amne and Euna shared one last moment of intimacy before they began arguing about shared custody of Hélène. They eventually came up with a written custody agreement stipulating that Amne would receive a minimum of 12 weeks of unrestricted access to Hélène every year until she was of school age, at which point they would have to amend the agreement, and that if Euna would be traveling without Hélène for a period of one week or more that Amne be asked before anyone else to take care of their daughter. With that agreement in place, their divorce was finalized in the second month of Year 17.

Powers and abilities

Amne's natural talents lie with Control,​ accessing her inner Force to better utilize the powers of her own body.​ She also shows talent in Sense, sensing the Force that binds and connects all things. As an apprentice, she sometimes received vague impressions of the Force, feeling uneasy due to an unseen situation or an unconscious sense of powerful emanations of the dark side. ​With those to whom she is close, she can sense when they are injured or in distress. With training, she learned to extend her senses through the Force to gain an awareness of her surroundings. She is by far the weakest in Alter, or changing the distribution and nature of the Force in her environment.

Service record

Moff of the Imperial Mission, Empire-in-Exile
Preceded By: Position Created	Amne Zailyn Y15D260 - Y16D127	Succeeded By: Position Abolished

Army Signals Officer, Galactic Empire
Preceded By: Draco Creed	Amne Zailyn Y14D307 - Y15D260	Succeeded By: Navarro de Molay

2nd Legion Signals Officer, Galactic Empire
Preceded By: Mikal Blak	Amne Zailyn Y15D143 - Y15D260	Succeeded By: Nikai Tonnak

5th Brigade Commanding Officer, Galactic Empire
Preceded By: Deryk Ysenm	Amne Zailyn Y13D336 - Y15D143	Succeeded By: Bailley Zion

5th Brigade Executive Officer, Galactic Empire
Preceded By: Tec Vaan	Amne Zailyn Y13D259 - Y13D336	Succeeded By: Wyatt Gabriel