Rudra Tairen

• Race: Baneling
• Nationality: Baron, Crystal Dimension
• Appearance: 5`10", brown hair, brown eyes

History

Rudra Tairen was born into a family of Banelings, genetically altered mutants to be used by the Dark Gods as assassins againt their adversaries. Although her mother and father were two of the most powerful Banelings in the Dark Wrath service, their daughter did not act as a Baneling at all. While growing up, Rudra`s sanity remained intact (almost all Banelings suffer from insanity, which was controlled by the Dark Wrath), and she strived to live as a human instead of the dark creature she was.

At the age of 16, when the conflicts between the Dark Wrath and the developing Grand Army began to escalate into full scale war, Rudra approached a political strategist in Baron by the name of Surlent Trakad, who was quietly displeased at the turns his life was taking in remaining in Baron. She convinced him to fight against Baron from the inside by maintaining a spy service, which was later named OmniSent. Rudra continued to recruit dissatisfied residents of Dark Wrath territory, including a Dark Wrath general by the name of Roland Boderik, who acted as a father figure on to Rudra during her late teenage years. A complete espionage web was completed, which fed information straight to the Grand Army without detection.

It seemed that at the end of the Great War the OmniSent could retire its service until the unthinkable happened. The Celpo had been dispatched to hunt and destroy all traces of Dark Wrath weapons and personnel, and that included the Banelings. They eventually traced a path to Rudra herself, and captured her along with Surlent, Roland, and Roland`s family. They were immediately sent to the gallows, where only Roland`s family was hung to death, for the rest of them managed to break free. This began the OmniSent`s new cause. The Grand Army had grown to a tremendous size during the Great War, and instead of dismantling at the end of the war, the Army instead continued to overlook the establishment of a new alliance in the Web of Worlds as well as serve as a police and protector for the countries allied under it. To the remainder of the OmniSent it seemed clear, however, that the army had grown too big -- it was completely self governed and had no power checks in place. Rudra, Surlent, and Roland decided it was best for them to become that power check themselves.

Without a common enemy to face, war between Web nations quickly became a problem. The OmniSent hid in the shadows for a number of years during this period, recruiting members and gathering information, which it sold for a price. During this period the OmniSent had accumulated a great deal of wealth, but they were unable to show themselves without giving others a reason to notice them.

One agent the OmniSent had recruited was an old construction worker turned farmer by the name of Atrus Crant`za. Atrus, it seemed, had discovered a portable dimensional gate years ago while excavating the land that grew to became the Grand Army headquarters in Albrook. This gate lead to a new dimension, Aryth, of which the Web of Worlds had never seen or heard of. Rudra approached the leaders of the dimension and struck a deal. Rudra was now able to reveal the dimension of Aryth to the Web of Worlds in order to publicize the OmniSent and hopefully gain the people`s trust.

While doing this, the OmniSent came forward with a simple proclamation that seemed impossible to satisfy. They wanted to end government conspiracies. The theory was that, by disabling governments from keeping secrets from their people, the people would in turn be fully aware and educated of what their leaders were trying to do and what they were getting involved in. Rudra realized that while most world leaders attempted to put a noble face on war, many times wars were fought for reasons noneother than pride and stupidity, and by giving the public a greater understanding, such struggles could be avoided.

The policy was met with staunch resistance. While a few countries took the policy up, many simply snuffed at it, while others were publically outraged to the point where they waged high profile battles against the OmniSent code, claiming it was a usurping falsification. One very avid opponent of the policy was the then King of Guardia, Doan.

It was at this time that Roland launched an assassination attempt on King Doan underneath Rudra`s nose. When Rudra found out, she rushed to King Doan`s bedside and did her best to make amends, feeling heartfelt guilt that her own organization could turn so far into what she thought it had stood against. The even broke her spirit, and she became convinced that the OmniSent was a lost hope. On her jet during her return flight home, she was found missing, and presumed dead by Roland. Surlent was in turn put in charge of the organization.

Roland, spurred by an ever growing hatred of the Grand Army, turned the OmniSent into an anti-GA machine. It was during this time that Rudra, in fact still alive, took the part of two alter egos to try and get to the bottom of her problem. One personality was River Aurora, who Rudra used to get close to Generalissimo Celiose Cole of the Grand Army in order to, in a way, offer him insight on the dangers of the new OmniSent. The other personality was that of Bane, the last living Baneling, which Rudra had used to gain the trust of Roland by acting as his trusted assassin.

As Rudra found out during in disguise, Roland had been planning his coup against the Grand Army for quite some time, and slowly he began to reveal his hand. He had developed a deadly stealth weapon called the Cylinder, had managed to leash magic users from Aryth to use as weapons, and was abusing the OmniSent resources to put down small Grand Army territories one at a time.

Rudra finally put her own plan into action when Roland marched against the Grand Army headquarters. By inlisting the help of some of her more trusted friends (as well as coercing Dain Kordridge, president of Ticondera, with the help of Bane) she hatched a plan to lower the shield around OmniSent`s forces and render the army unconscious with a simple, nonlethal technology. The Grand Army made their own plan in self defense, however, and detonated a modified U-weapon underneath the army, annihilating it almost immediately after their defense was taken down.

The cost of lives for innocent magic-users trapped by the OmniSent was tremendously high, and Rudra took it to blame herself, as well as the millions of other deaths created by the Omnisent`s Rogue Operations. While she was still believed a martyr outside of Aryth, she took to working with the Arythians after the OmniSent conflict, trying to make amends for the destruction she caused the dimension by introducing them to the Web of Worlds and the OmniSent that would one day hold their leaders captive and march them to their doom. Her false death, which at this tiem was still believed outside of Aryth, was a secret that ate at her to no end.

Rudra remained in her River Aurora alter-ego for some time after the fall of the OmniSent. It was her plan to do what she could to rebuild Aryth, first by trying to lead them towards a path of controlled entry into the Web of Worlds. Elayne Crant`za was to become the new Verund Cenrum, and Rudra did what she could to try and grace the young woman with leadership abilities. Over this time, Rudra began to feel very ill, and her dreams were continually haunted by Bane, who had grown in confidence since been branded during the OmniSent conflict.

Rudra remained in Aryth long enough to give a "tour" of Aryth to her new friend Shana and her husband Celiose Cole. Rudra planned to reveal her true identity to Celiose Cole during this tour. However, her plan backfired when Celiose Cole figured out the riddle himself, and quickly grew angry at both Rudra and Shana for hiding the facts from him. That night, believing her marriage was in shambles, Shana ran off to the River Tyme in search of answers. Rudra and Celiose later discovered Shana`s disappearance, and Rudra, suspsecting where Shana might have gone, lead Celiose to the River Tyme. It was there that Rudra and Celiose narrowly saved Shana from being assassinated as she slept in the river. The next day, Celiose and Shana left for their home, and though Celiose and Rudra weren`t precisely on speaking terms, Celiose asked that Rudra return to the Web of Worlds and try to do something to quell the angers of the Leviathan War, a war between the fascists and the communists that broke out during the tour. Rudra fulfilled Celiose`s request, to a degree -- her speech was condemning instead of peacemaking, but it served as an announcement that Rudra Tairen had returned to the Web.

Over the course of the next few months, Rudra stumbled unproductively. She wrote out a 200 paged typed confession of her deeds and hiding during the period of the OmniSent conflict. After this, her illness became most severe, and she could not so much as sleep without the monster Baneling inside her haunting her dreams. Scared that Bane was preparing to take over her body, Rudra made a plan to take her own life and end the risk. Using a potent poison harvested from a midnight blossom in the Marabonian Flower Fields, Rudra injected herself with a mighty poison meant to kill her quickly and peacefully.

This was the opportunity Bane had been waiting for, and the devilish creature jumped on the chance. While Rudra slept, Bane was planning to heal the body and take it over. However, the flowers Rudra had used to make her poison had been earlier blessed by Ross Payvern, a magic user who had been visiting Aryth in hopes of discovering more of the source of his new, mysterious powers. Instead of taking over the body easily, both Rudra and Bane were thrown into a world born both of Rudra`s thoughts and of a mysterious future. Here, Rudra discovered Bane`s plan, and took her body back, all while dealing a crushing blow to the Baneling.

Feeling somewhat liberated, Rudra returned to the Web of Worlds and stood up to the role of CEO of the OmniNet, the information organization offshoot of the OmniSent that she had helped create many years ago. Here, she at last finds partial satisfaction, and makes plans to continue towards her goals from her standing as the leader of the most prominent information source in the Web.

Personality: Rudra`s personality is about as convuluted as one can get. She is a staunch pacifist and humanitarian, but also suffers from self confidence problems. Her pacifist views stem from her pessimistic and spiritualless outlook that life is ultimately godless and life itself is simply the result of mana, that nothingness ultiamtely awaits after death -- in accordance to these views, life is a precious, precious thing that simply should not be wasted on anything as foolish as war.

Despite her self doubts and lack of confidence, she passionately works towards what she believes in. She is an eloquent speaker with nearly unmatched charisma. Her stare alone is legendary, capable of silencing even the most headstrong of leaders in a single glare. She is a master diplomat, though those that get the short end of her stick claim that she can get a bit preachy at times. She is not pressed on by what she thinks she can do, but instead what she believes she must do.

Her Baneling blood has also caused problems for her. Inside Rudra`s mind is the baneling creature that she supressed even as a child, constantly chiding her and asking to get out. Rudra gave control of her body to the separate personality during the OmniSent struggle, but maintained control enough to get it back. Still, the black blood of the mutant Banelings flows in her blood, a constant reminder that she isn`t human. The baneling creature she was to become, who still goes by the moniker Bane, remains in her soul, always searching for the chance to get out.

Because of her alien blood, Rudra has long given up on love, despite the attractive body she has grown into. She has few friends, and even those she has she is willing to abandon in order to achieve what she feels is most important. A loner to the end, she takes it simply as what must be for one of her blood -- her loneliness does not really effect her one way or the other. Joy is not something she expects, nor even something she seeks. The guilt she feels over her past, however, tears at her constantly.

Other Information: Rudra`s name is based on the legend of a God who would wipe out old civilizations and species in order to make room for new ones. It was given to her by her mother and father who were also brother and sister.