"The Outcasts my Path led me to had a saying...Let me translate it for you: 'If you fall off a cliff, grab the roots and do not ask if they belong to a weed or a noble rose bush.' You are the root I grabbed, elantach. Because I fell off a cliff. My homeworld is gone, my kin are either dead or hiding no one knows where. By joining forces with you, I may be able to nurture a seedling of the truth I so deeply yearn for."
- —Yrliet Lanaevyss to the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius
Yrliet Lanaevyss, an Asuryani Ranger of Craftworld Crudarach who walks the Path of the Outcast and has formed a rare alliance with a Rogue Trader of House von Valancius.
Yrliet Lanaevyss is an Asuryani Ranger of Craftworld Crudarach who walks the Path of the Outcast in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus and for her own reasons forged a partnership with the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius.
Many Terran centuries ago, on its quest to conquer the stars, Mankind escaped the bounds of the Sol System to spread across the galaxy and bring the Emperor's word and will to its darkest reaches. But Humans weren't the only ones to have found a home among the void. They encountered a multitude of intelligent alien species: villainous, enigmatic, and monstrous threats, all of which threatened Mankind's survival. "Xenos" was the High Gothic term used to describe these enemies of Humanity, and the Imperium's deadly struggle against them has continued to this day, with no end in sight.
Loyal servants of the Emperor are prohibited from conducting any manner of business with aliens or their foul technologies, as the vigilant Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos mercilessly stamp out heresy in all its forms. And even the basest of underhive rabble have been taught since the day they were born that the alien is to be exterminated on sight. However, every rule has its exceptions. Rogue Traders are among the few servants of the Emperor who are permitted to interact with xenos, do business with them, and even tolerate aliens as part of their crew so that they may be used for the Imperium's benefit. Yrliet Lanaevyss may be about to become one such xenos.
Yrliet is a proud Craftworld Aeldari whose ancestors made journeying through the star-studded darkness their eternal calling. The children of Asuryan spend their long lives walking different Paths and perfecting their understanding of their own special calling, so that they may better fulfill their role in Aeldari society. Yrliet had been living on her planet-sized starship, known as a craftworld, for solar decades: long enough for her to grow restless and decide that her new Path was to take her to faraway and unfamiliar places.
Having chosen to walk the Path of the Outcast, Yrliet left the enormous craftworld that her kin called home. She sought to blaze her own trail in a universe that would otherwise lie beyond the reach of Aeldari society, and she followed that desire to distant stars. However, new insights and experiences sometimes come at great cost -- as Yrliet is about to discover.
As the darkest hour comes, Yrliet's and the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius' paths cross and intertwine -- and only the God-Emperor knows what this meeting of a xenos and a Human lord will lead to.
History[]
Many are the intelligent alien species that Mankind shares the Milky Way Galaxy with, but few are those whom they might call a friend or ally. Each one is perfidious in their machinations. Covetous of what Humanity has achieved and all too eager to resort to the violent end of many good, innocent lives to steal that which they can never have. But few are more capable of matching Humanity in wits and ability as the Aeldari are, whether they be of the kindreds of the Drukhari, Exodites, Harlequins or Craftworlders, the last of which is the kindred from which Yrliet Lanaevyss hails.
She is an Outcast, fallen into the depths of her chosen Path -- one of the countless trails her kind might travel to find their purpose in life and to remain free of the clutches of Slaanesh upon their soul.
In pursuit of her Path, Yrliet has drifted far afield of her void-faring home, Craftworld Crudarach, so she might find insights and answers to whatever problems might come to call upon her people. She has moved out into a universe where her people are unwelcome, unwanted and often hunted. yet Yrliet seeks to always be improving, always bettering herself so she might be up to whatever task is set before her. And this journey out into the distant stars has, like so many of her kind, brought her into the boundless territory of the Imperium of Man.
But there is always a cost to knowledge that might one day save untold lives, and we are often unprepared to pay for it. The price of living apart from your kin is that when tragedy befalls them, you are among the last to learn of their piteous fate -- Yrliet Lanaevyss is no exception.
From beyond the eddies and gravitic riptides trawled by the continent-sized voidship she once called home, an omen descended upon her. One that plagued her dreams and haunted her every waking moment. But when she went to find her home, her people, she found an absence that rattled her to her very core like an empty building with its doors caught in the wind. Her people had vanished and, with them, their home craftworld. So she then set out to find them, to find the fate of her people and their ancestral home. But her search brought her far, estranged from kith and kin, and left her near-stranded with what remained of the trail she'd been following on the Agri-world of Janus, a shining gem amid the crowning jewels of the von Valancius Protectorate in the Koronus Expanse.
Once there, Yrliet entered the employ of the world's planetary governor, Vistenza Vyatt -- who claimed the Aeldari was a "mutant" so as to avoid trampling upon the Imperial Creed's prohibition of dealing with xenos -- and renewed her search. She made use of the rebellion facing Janus and its governing body to further her investigation. And it is during this act of assistance that she encountered the penultimate thread of her fate -- the newly crowned Rogue Trader of the von Valancius dynasty.
Having become well-versed in the art of the kill, Yrliet has spent many Terran millennia perfecting her ability to bring death to her foes at great distances. Yrliet specialises in single-target, high-precision damage courtesy of her Ranger Rifle that takes advantage of every weakness identified by her superhuman perception. She analyzes the field and her enemy before then hunting them down, treating everything confronting her as a hunter would their chosen prey.
Personality[]
It is a unique individual who tries to pursue a member of another intelligent species, even more so when they lie square in the uncanny valley of what conventional Human beauty or attraction might dictate. But Rogue Traders have seldom been counted among the norm. They also are among those who fraternise with xenos most often, whether it is to do trade or diplomacy or engage in Imperial-sanctioned purgation efforts. So it is not uncommon for feelings some might consider heretical to develop for the likes of those less repugnant xenos one might encounter out amid the stars.
Such pursuits might be reciprocated by Yrliet, whether they are made by a Human man or a woman, as the Aeldari rarely make any distinction between the gender of those they partner with.
Those who fall beyond the realm of Mankind do not adhere to the kinds of ideals or schools of thought that define Imperial life. Whether their moral outlook is illogical to the sensibilities of Mankind or that they lack anything Humanity might recognise as guiding ideologies is uncertain. But what is certain is that the likes of Yrliet subscribe to no conviction or form of belief that Humanity might recognise or understand, and therefore she is beyond any classification of beliefs that the Inquisition might make, save perhaps for an equal hatred of the forces of Chaos.