Cayce Phariah Urriah was a female human, force adept ex-criminal, Mandalorian who held several positions of relative importance to the Empire and Republic. Holding both the title Empress' Hand to one of Krayt's defecting sith and Queen of the Black Sun across the years, she was known as both a friend and ally to the Republic in the year 220 ABY.
History
Early life
Cayce Urriah was supposedly[1] born in 188 ABY to a penniless Tailor named Tdoh'd Urriah and an out of work ex-prostitute, Cyl'drin Phariah on the planet Keyorin. Cayce's childhood was rather un-unique, she spent most of her time helping her father with menial tasks, especially after her mother ran off with a smuggler named Karlesh Jade. While her father had little talent for his career, he managed to scrape by and support himself and his daughter for many years. However, when Cayce was eleven, her father was bankrupted by a swindling rodian businessman who had convinced him to invest money he did not have in a 'guaranteed' investment. The money came from Krinor Svalt, a small time Aqualish loanshark.
When her father was unable to pay him back, Cayce was used against him - kidnapped on her way home from school, she was tied up and held by a gang of thugs. Her father was unable to pay the ransom, and the constabulary on Keyorin was taking bribes from just about every small time gang to not interfere. Without any other options, Tdoh'd called upon the Black Dog Company - a mercenary company whom his great-grandfather had co-founded beneath the banner of a wider criminal organization, one that had run in their family, that Tdoh'd had tried to escape from the shadow of.
The Black Dogs didn't feel much loyalty to that bloodline, as they'd extracted themselves and gained independence before Tdoh'd was even born. However, out of a heavy conscience, they took the job, pro-bono. Cayce was extracted from the clutches of Svalt, who received a crate in the mail of the bodies of his men. This created a ripple in the Keyorin underworld, and a preoccupation with romanticizing violence inside of Cayce.
Teenage years
She no longer wanted to be a tailor - she wanted to be a mercenary. Unfortunately, due to the bankruptcy, Cayce and her father were worse off than before, and they scraped through for another six years, before Cayce left in the middle of the night. Being the type to do what must be done, despite the odds and ramifications, she left Keyorin aboard a Trandoshan slave ship, taking the duty of maid to the ship's captain, Borss Zskhan, for two credits a week. Little more than a slave herself, she had only taken the job to get off-world. In the month she had spent aboard, she became compassionate for the plight of the slaves aboard the ship, and befriended many of the innocents who were fated to become property to the criminal elite.
After the ship docked in Nar Shaddaa, so did she. Sending most of her pay to her father in Keyorin, she sought more lucrative work. And she found it, in the Puppet Parlor, a cybernetic brothel where the girls were implanted with personality jacks, input devices that would allow the 'john' to pick what his lady of the evening would be like, by slotting them with a microchip. The girl would go to sleep, and wake up when her shift ended - a little sore, perhaps, but lacking any memories of the act.
Cayce worked the Puppet Parlor for three years, eventually leaving with all of her funds saved up -- she had stopped sending them to her father a month after arrival to the Parlor, after receiving a notice from home that stated the death of her father due to a repulsor lift accident. With the money in her pocket, she sunk into the darkest corners of the city, finding a black clinic, where they would make her stronger, faster, better.
She spent a month straight under the knife, her funds fading like sand through open fingers, as the doctors enhanced her nervous system, augmenting her muscles, her brain, making her a killing machine. When she stood up for the first time since, she was renewed, each muscle was taught and ready to engage in combat at a split second, from zero to mach 5. Her mind was given a cyborg implant that allowed her to calculate the odds of a combat situation before it happened, given the speed, positioning, and arms of those nearby, allowing her to isolate and take down the most dangerous combatants first.
The last of her credits went to a complete melanin replacement, so her former clients wouldn't recognize her, if they were to run into her, a hover bike, and a wardrobe of black leather garments. And, she returned to Keyorin, heading home to the smuggler's world.
Early career
Her first job since coming up from the knife was only one that lasted two months, she took a job with the constabulary, becoming a 'beat cop'. This was merely to pay her rent, while she waited. Eventually it happened the Black Dog Company drifted into town. She met, for the second time, with the man who would change her life, Morgan Blackhand, commander of the company. This time, it was in a seedy bar in the darker corners of the capital city, she swaggered up to his table, and demanded a job, peering at him from behind black sunglasses.
Morgan laughed -- he recognized her, but saw the changes well enough, both emotional intensity and physical changes. He declined, politely enough, but Cayce refused that, and a brawl ensued. Swinging for his face, she overshot, and sent a bottle flying for a nearby Rodian thug, who lunged at Morgan, assuming it him. Cayce took the Rodian down in a scissor kick, and then quickly disabled the following six of his fellow gang members with a series of disabling hits. Morgan was impressed with her maneuvers, and decided to accept her offer, and so she became a Private member of the Black Dog Company, a puppy.
A week later, the Black Dog split into its four regiments, Morgan's platoon leaving to complete a mission on Coruscant, Captain Schasha's platoon heading to Yavin to investigate rumored treasure, Captain Vistaani's platoon taking a job on Bastion, and Cayce's platoon, headed up by Captain Alyx, left for the Caluula Space Station. Cayce spent a week there, where her team was hired to purge a rebellious insurrection against the local governing body. The mission was a successful one, and her team met up with Morgan's on Tatooine, to take a job of turning back bandits raiding the town of Mos Entha. When the four platoons officially met up next on Keyorin, there were only two left - Captains Vistaani and Schasha had been slain in their tasks, and so their platoons were brought into Alyx and Morgan's.
Alyx died not much longer, captured by the corrupt Imperial Senator on Aduba-4, she was found once Cayce's platoon had made the raid to capture the Senator, in pieces. The mission was successful, and Cayce was unanimously nominated to Captain of the platoon. The next mission Cayce ran was the slaying of Vharga the Hutt, and the dissemination of his criminal empire on Arami. A bit over her head, Morgan came to assist and the mission was successful.
Morgan and Cayce gradually became romantically involved, and their two platoons merged into one, with him as Commander, and her as his right hand woman. The company traveled on for another five years, pillaging and assisting as paid by their employers, until a faithful day that Cayce remembered with pure spite.
The Black Dog had been called down to Chateuse VII]], the backer for that mission being a company executive for a corporation that held major interest on the world. The citizens had gathered into gangs in order to force out the corporation, and the Black Dog Company was paid to end the attacks upon the company. Nobody could have known how bad it would turn out to be. Amid their first mission on Chateuse VII, Cayce's team stayed with the backer, acting as protection, while Morgan's was sent out to stop the violence. However, the backer was with the citizens, and it had been an attempt to weaken the company. Cayce was captured, cuffed to a chair, and forced to watch as the backer's men slew her team, and then the video footage live, as Morgan's team was drawn down upon. She watched with tears in her eyes as Morgan was pulled apart by grasping hands of dozens of citizens.
Only five of the Black Dog Company, save for herself survived the combat, and they did manage to free her in a midnight daring raid upon the backer's compound, and escaped the planet in a stolen freighter. Broken, distraught, and unable to cope, Cayce disbanded the remnants of the Black Dogs, and went her own way, drifting the galaxy for a number of years, with only Morgan's recovered slugthrower pistols as remembrance.
Drifter era and Imperial service
Penniless, she took the most violent jobs she was capable of finding, assassin work, bounty hunting, even worked with a few slavers before she truly returned to her senses, at least somewhat, a number of years later.
And so, she ended up on Kashyyyk. Coming around to the trauma in her soul, she walked directly into a battle scene, when she had been looking for a quiet meditation spot. As the battle raged around the platforms, she saw Jedi and rebel troopers engaging in fire with Sith and stormtroopers. Picking whatever side appeared to be winning, she fired upon a number of stormtroopers with reckless abandon, and ended up assisting the New Republic troopers with interrogating a pair of Imperial prisoners. That was until she noticed Nathaniel, a downed stormtrooper, found on a lower platform. Walking over to hastle him, her whim indicated she should ask about employment from him.
A day later she was in the office of Empress Rayn, a Sith who had defected from Krayt's armada, and had re-founded an Imperial remnant on Coruscant at the time. She was offered the title of Empress' Hand, seeing as how due to her grief and strife she was malleable and had a previously undetected connection to the Force. Cayce was taught Force masteries at the foot of the Empress, and acted as her personal arbiter, spy, assassin, and commander. The stormtroopers took time to warm up to her, but after she had hung a couple for disregarding her orders, they began to show her respect.
Cayce served the Empress for a time, spying upon the Jedi and entering Kashyyyk to watch the Rebels' moves. There, she met Jedi Knight Owyn Graves, who reminded her, at least in form of Morgan, her former lover. After several failed attempts at seduction she merely contented herself to watching him quietly, spending most of her free time on Kashyyyk, much to the chagrin of the Republic and the New Order of the Jedi, who met there. And while she was frequently able to walk unmolested, she was often forced to hand over her weapons, or chased out by Republic swat team members.
Despite being an Imperial, she saw what she was doing as right - She believed that Rayn upheld the freedom and power of the people of the galaxy, partially due to the lies of the Sith, partially due to her own lies. And so she did frequently end combat between the Republic soldiers and her own, sending her men home - only engaging or assisting in combat when demanded by the Empress.
Amid this time she had both formed the Walkers in Darkness, a group of Imperial loyalists who served as her elite soldiers beneath the Empress, talons to her 'hand'. Finding four skilled men and women to fit the task. 'Mister Smirk', also known as Logan, a Sith assassin whose loyalty to her was above that of his to the Empress. The 'puppies', two Amaran lovers who served her as well.
Also, in this time, she had taken up a base in the sewers of Coruscant, where the walkers met. This was penetrated by Christopher Novastar, Owyn Graves' Jedi Padawan who had openly wished violence on her in the past. He found her in her lair, and approached her about how he had felt good in her, and knew she could be redeemed. She thought it was touching, but krayt excrement. She dismissed him, saying she would consider his thoughts. Over the next week, Chris would prove himself to her, saving her life even when attacked or captured by overzealous Republic soldiers.
The fundamental change came when she was summoned to the palace of Empress Rayn, an assassin had broken in, and Cayce was required to assist dispatch him. Previously wounded due to injuries from that evening, she called upon the only Jedi she trusted, Chris and Owyn. The two showed up and assisted with dispatching the assassin - however, this caused a panic in the Empress. Accusing Cayce of being a traitor, despite that they'd been called to help, the Empress demanded that Cayce kill her friends.
In a torn attempt at serving her mistress, Cayce drew the stolen saber of a Jedi she had kidnapped, and lunged at Chris, shouting "Run!" but unable to stop herself - she was quickly dispatched by Zephan, a long eared Jedi Padawan whom had come along. Dying on the Empress' floor, with the Empress telepathically screaming 'Traitor' in her ear, she was dragged off by the Jedi, and brought to a bacta tank after a run across the grounds.
She was healed, and with that last failure, her eyes were opened. She handed the Empress her resignation and escaped to Nar Shaddaa with Chris, Zephan, and Larcen, an Amaran Republic soldier. They hid low in the Refugee Sector for a week, before emerging to meet with Mass Questi, a Republic general, to make arrangements.
Black Sun Queen
Cayce gave herself to the Republic, and was given the duty of founding its Black Ops department, with Chris, Zephan, and Larcen. They purchased a suite, overlooking the city center, and Cayce got in touch with one of the contacts - Thorrn Gilvrak, a Black Sun vigo. She paid to use the Black Sun as her cover, and founded a chapter out of the office there. However, word traveled to Coruscant, and within a week, there were stormtroopers shooting at her windows at three am. The Republic was very untrusting of her motives, and would not supply any assistance to her, and in the end she said "Screw it."
Cayce became the Black Sun. After a chance meeting with Alissa Reeves, Senator of Nar Shaddaa, the two woman hit it off immediately, and began to plot. The astromech droid that Cayce had received, R4-XQ, was a hand-me-down from Black Sun boss to Black Sun boss. He had been active since the time of the Clone Wars, with no memory wipes. A quirky droid to be sure, intelligent, and cayce realized - with hundreds of years of dirt on thousands of people. She got XQ a vocabulator. Not just a vocabulator, but an entire tear-down. He was added with two more CPUs, one containing the persona and systems of an HK droid, the second containing the software for a financial assistant droid, which would come into play with her plot. Grateful for his newfound ability to speak common, and think clearly, XQ remained loyal to Cayce, and whispered dark truths into her ears - information used to blackmail, destroy, execute, or ruin hundreds of Black Sun executives and Vigos.
And so Cayce and Alissa met in a dark room in Alissa's mansion, XQ tapped into the financial grid of Nar Shaddaa, sending a custom cooked up virus to slice into the stock exchange. Within seconds, thousands of credits had been transferred between accounts, and within minutes, billions. And by the end of an hour, Cayce Urriah and Alissa Mitra were the wealthiest women on the planet, and R4-XQ was potentially the most advanced droid, having the metrics of the entire banking system localized within his third processor.
Cayce made her coup d'etat - using the droid's dark whispers to overthrow the Black Sun. Those who she had dirt on killed those she did not, and she slew the Lord of the Black Sun, Alexandiir Typhon in ritual combat. Giving her sole remaining loyalist, Mister Smirk, the title of Vigo, as well as XQ, whom she had given legal rights as a sentient within Nar Shaddaa with her new influence.
Acquisitions
Over the next few days, Cayce appeared at a number of board meetings across the planet, she took claim of their businesses after she exposed herself as their majority shareholder, and setting them up as shell companies from which to run the Black Sun. Within the end of those days, many of the smaller criminal guilds within Nar had been cannibalized into the Black Sun, or bought out, or ran out of town by Cayce's loyalists.
Her next move was to meet Yamato ((Yamato Kamiya)) and Shadow ((Holly Raesha)), a pair of Republic loyalist mercenaries who she purchased, along with their group the Silent Fighters as her envoys to the Republic - giving them the job of taking whatever jobs they were asked by Mass. Yamato eventually worked his way up to Vigo status, with Shadow below him as an Executive.
Returning to Coruscant, Cayce met with Empress Rayn, and the following conversation was had:
Cayce Urriah: Now, you will leave me be. I am as powerful as you, and Nar Shaddaa is mine.
Cayce Urriah: Neutrality agreement, perhaps?
Empress Rayn: You are so like a Sith.... in so many ways...
Cayce Urriah:I will never be a Sith.. But I will always be a woman of power. So.. shall we meet, and shake hands, for the news cameras?
And they did - officially forging Nar Shaddaa and the Black Sun as a public neutral party - shaking hands with the Imperials, but secretly funding the rebellion as well.
Disappearance
Cayce disapeared for a time, after leaving the Black Sun in the hands of her three Vigos, she slipped off to regions unknown. Her bank accounts were drained, transfered to secret locations to wait for her another time. The Jedi, whom she had just joined as an official member of the NOJ, had no idea where her whereabouts were, and her city, Ralltiir, went silent. The only sign of her exit was an utter deathlike quiet, and changes in the Black Sun.
A month later, a suspicious character began hanging around Ruusan, a male Cathar began prowling around the city, asking questions. It became clear that the male, Micheru Mathys, was a cousin in the crime family they were decended from. He bothered a few people she was known to associate with about her location, stating that she hadn't checked in with the family in weeks.
It turned out that Cayce had heard of a figure who took over the Black Sun, Klugga the Hutt, and her contacts ominously had stated that he was looking for her. So she had fled into the outter rim, traveling in the guise of a mercenary.
For six months, she was under the employ of a revolutionary on the planet Toydaria, serving in a shadow war between the Hutt kajidic that was putting pressure on the people of Toydaria. Cayce was the only survivor on her side, and refused to even mention what happened, having compartmentalized it within her memories. She returned, and quit the Jedi, still a padawan, and went to Mos Eisley to find this Klugga. She found that the Black Sun had prospered in her absense, and was both shocked and amazed. Spending time in the tavern, she met up with several of Klugga's men and re-joined the family she had reformed.
Black Sun & Beskar
The Black Sun was welcoming of her, and her return bolstered it's ranks in mass. New ships and armor were created for the soldiers of the crime family, and they began to spread their influence once more. Colder in her lack of ability to finish her Jedi training, she ruled with an iron grip and a stern demeanor. After a series of missions, she reclaimed her title of Queen and became business partners with Klugga.
This went on for months, as she ruled over the southern end of the galaxy from her offices in Mos Eisley and Coruscant. Until, that is, she once more ran into Myles Shysa - aka Garion. Garion was a Mandalorian she had employed previously, and he returned with her help, breaking a bond to the sith, and went independant with her assistance. Cayce fell for him and to better understand him accepted the path of a Mandalorian.
Her training as a Mando'ad was harsh, with both initial disdain and insult from others. She attempted to balance both the Black Sun and Clan Shysa, as well as learning the ways of the Mandalorians. After proving herself to many of the Mandalorians of Manda'yaim, she came to be an alor'ad of the Shysa clan.
Her final proof of loyalty to her new people was when she resigned from the Black Sun once more, to defend her people.
Shysa to Kata
Cayce ran with the clan Shysa, Myles' clan for months, until she was elevated to the rank of Alor, co-running it with Myles. However, she received damage from a battle against a pair of sith, and was forced to return to Kamino to rebuild her body, this took a month, and when she returned the clan was gone. Myles had disapeared and the clan fell apart.
And so she rebuilt it, tracking down Kad and Hort, her best men, she called back numerous Mando'ade who had gone wandering, and reformed Shysa. Months passed, and Shysa became a power once more - aiding the other clans with intel and growing large. Cayce managed to use her wealth to secure the Hutt Palace in the Dune Sea on Tatooine, and redubbed it Terach Bral, the pitiless fortress. Along with four other clans, she co-formed the United Mando'ade - a union of allied clans that was ruled by a council.
The union held strong for several months, but eventually crumbled - Adun, alor of Beskar Buy'ce aliit proclaimed war on A'denla Kad Soccoras, the Mand'alor of the Dxun clans, for killing his unborn child. He was promptly promoted to the union's Mand'alor, and went to war. This was contested by several clans, and even those who had promoted him to Mand'alor began to disagree. Cayce met Adun on the forest floor of Kashyyk and they began to fight savagely, in the end, Cayce lost as Adun's helmet used the force to nearly cause her to have a fatal anyurism, and her left leg was torn off at the knee.
Aether challenged Adun, and a day before the final showdown, he stepped down. Cayce promptly left the Union, as did Koss' Ne'tra'orar aliit. A week later Cayce proposed to Aether and the two were married in a small ceremony with friends and a few wedding crashers. Several things changed about Cayce's clan in that short period - she began preparing to leave Tatooine, bought property on Zonama Sekot, and proclaimed her clan nomadic.
Kata began to wander the wilds of many worlds, and Cayce formed a homestead / laboratory on Zonama Sekot. Her resolve was then, never to be under another group or figure's thumb, and became vehemently against organized politics among united clans, going so far as to threaten violence to anyone that considered telling her to change her ideology.
The story of Cayce does continue, as the tale goes on, however..
Personality and traits
Cayce was vicious, but caring, predatory but mothering. It depended upon who and how those around her were. She would happily hack limbs off of enemies if she felt she had to, to protect a child or a loved one. She ruthlessly weeded out, and burned out nearly all of the slavery rings on Nar Shaddaa in her first week at power, and was seen as a savior figure, as her efforts through legal extensions to clean up the Refugee Sector - which gave jobs and better lives to those that couldn't.
Cayce was also sarcastic, sometimes silly if she was well enough, but had dangerous moments of angry outbursts. Prone to kicking in teeth when she didn't get what she wanted, but what she wanted tended to be in the favor of multiple parties, and usually had some beneficial effect on the innocents of her world.
Superstitions
Cayce's ancestors came from a clandestine familial based criminal organization. That organization, while small, was prevalent through the worlds that they had come from. Tdoh'd, Cayce's father, had left for Keyorin at age 12 with his father, who had decided he had no intent on keeping up the family business. The crime family passed rank from father to daughter to son, changing gender of the patriarch or matriarch of that family each generation, and the superstitions that come with the organization were so deeply embedded in the Urriah family bloodline that they stuck with her father, and thus, her.
Middle Fingers - Cayce refused to deal with any being that is missing a middle finger, as that was considered an indication of them being deceptive.
Hair/Nail Clippings - Cayce meticulously burnt her nail and hair clippings, due to the belief that they could be used against you in ritual arts.
Red Eyes - Any entity with crimson eyes was automatically suspect of being hostile, this was another irrational superstition passed down. Funny enough, it often was found true in the case of Sith.
Fears
Cayce had several phobias, none too harsh, but was enough to make her life complicated.
Sleeping in a bed - This was a carry over from her days as an assassin. She often stated, "When you make enemies, you don't let people know where you sleep." She feared that if she was comfortable, she'd be easily snuck up on. She tended to sleep in coffin sized hidden chambers in places you'd never expect her, or in graveyards.
Betrayal - Her worst fear was always being turned on by everyone. She had a hard time being betrayed, and even though it was almost a given in her business, she tended to bond quickly and trust for life.
Physical description
Cayce was wired, enough so that she could kill you before she was aware it had happened. She popped suppressive pills every few hours, which winded down her nervous system in times of idleness, or she was prone to uncontrollable spasms of movement - her body was conditioned to moving at high speed with flashlike reflexes and instant decision making, instinctual knowledge of friend or foe.
In the first months after being wired, she nearly killed a lover who had kissed her neck while she was asleep - the man still needed fourteen stitches and had a broken nose. It turned out, the wires didn't stop working when you're asleep. The drugs also made her a slight bit irritable, not that anyone would notice.
R4-XQ
XQ, aka Exque, was not only Cayce's best friend, but also her assistant. He was never far, if she was wandering a planet alone, always within a quick whistle to be called. He was a unique droid, and had been modified to include a smuggler's bay in his front leg, an antenna, radar, and visual advanced sensory package in his dome, and a number of unique toys that were unknown as of this writing.
He was both loved and hated by many citizens, Jedi, and Imperials. He had been called 'a steaming pile of junk' by Sith, whom he mockingly replied "Nice face. Remember: 1. Retract saber blade. 2: Scratch nose." - The droid had a random insult generator custom programmed by Cayce.
He was quite sensitive, and has so much of a personality that he would argue with people, often against Cayce's will, as seen below:
Roger Chemistry: They start getting quirky, first. Oh, it's cute, maybe. But it can cause a lot of problems. They start losing and corrupting files, altering behavior patterns. Pretty soon, they're wandering around babbling incoherently.
R4-XQ: Anyhow, 'Bunny', how about we remove YOUR brain, run it through a smoothie maker, strain out everything, shape it back together like dough, and re-slap it into your cavernous head? Would YOU be less quirky?
As a vigo of the Black Sun, few gave him trouble within the limits of Nar Shaddaa, but there had been attempts on his 'life' by Sith, such as Senator Neo Sion's guard, who had thrown a saber at him, and attempted to confiscate him, but in XQ's own words:
"Cortosis shell, bahbeh. - R4-XQ"
He also spent some time with Micheru Mathys, cousin to Cayce Urriah, after she disappeared, assisting with finding his lost Mistress.
Trivia
R4-XQ's outer carapace was made of:
- 60% Cortosis
- 40% Awesomium ((the most awesome metal in the known galaxy))
Behind the scenes
Cayce is played in Galactic Unity sims, as well as non-afiliated ones, such as Little Mos Eisley.