#izvoshra

Balati yui Serket - Medic and Wife of Grievous

Name origins:  Balati is taken from Bēlet-balāṭi- one of the titles of Gula, the Sumerian goddess of medicine, and Serket, the Egyptian scorpion goddess who protects against poisons.

A lithe, bronze-scaled Kaleesh from the Kunbal Jungle, the medic of the Izvoshra was recruited to the Kolkpravis in 39 BBY.  Her clan's "inheritance" from the Bitthaevrian conflict was been a (solar powered) field datapad, originally belonging to a Jedi healer. It contained data on botany and chemistry, and Balati used it to compare to Kalee's native plant species and devise new healing slaves, potions, etc.  She also took note of what plants have natural insecticides, theorizing that if it works on little bugs, it might work on the big ones too. 

She tended to have a very practical attitude, not much in the way of bedside manner, and a tendency to tell her patients off for “stupid” injuries, not caring for rank or role in such situations.  In matters of medicine and healing, she ruled with an iron claw.  Despite her brash attitude (or more likely, because of it), Balati was good friends with Ronderu lij Kummar and Bentilais san Sk’ar, probably because of how much time she spends patching the two "melee" fighters' wounds, compared to "ranged DPS" Qymaen jai Sheelal.  Her friendship with Sk’ar soon developed into a crush on the strike force master, though she was uncharacteristically shy about telling him.  It was no secret to the other female members of the Izvoshra, blademaster Ronderu and huntress/scout Ahoshu kek De'vana, both of whom would tell Balati to stop being stupid and just jump the violet-scaled warrior already.     

When Ronderu died in battle in 37 BBY, Balati was almost as upset as Qymaen, and the two took comfort in each other, which resulted in Balati becoming gravid.  She became Grievous' first wife after Ronderu, laying two eggs -- her sons {who need names - they later marry another of my OCs, Ve'tani, Sk'ar's niece and future Khagan of the Kaleesh).  Balati tried to push aside her feelings for Sk'ar, thinking Grievous needed her more – for the good of not just her new lover and Khagan, but all of Kalee, or so she told herself.  Truthfully, she still loved Sk’ar, but knew both males were not the type to “share”.  She did love Grievous in her own way, understanding far more than his other wives that she will always be second to Ronderu’s memory, and not resenting him for it, but trying to give him at least a little relief to his grief.  Perhaps he understood, if only subconsciously, as he was also second in her heart. 

She and Grievous together invited sisters (Wives 2 and 3 – need names) to join their family, after rescuing the two from a village that had been almost completely destroyed by the Huk, except for a traditional village creche (a practice long-abandoned my most Kaleesh during the Huk War, given the insectoids' disgusting, quite literal taste for Kaleesh eggs). The sisters had been on hatchling-minding duty when the attack struck and fought tooth and claw for their charges, managing to save them and kill a pile of Huk, despite being untrained civilians. Polyamory is customary for Kaleesh, especially among those serving in the Kolkpravis -- to add to the marriage at least one non-combatant so that their hatchlings would be cared for in the event of their deaths, and the sisters proved to be perfect additions. 

For a time, things seem to be going well – the Huk have been pushed off Kalee entirely, and between the four of them, they had four hatchlings to keep them busy.  But Grievous knew that it was only a matter of time before the Huk returned, so he lead the Kolkpravis off-world, driving the Huk off of Abbaji Minor and Oben, and taking the fight to Torvarskl.

 In a panic as the Kaleesh start eyeing (planet) Huk itself, the Yam'rii cried to the Trade Federation, who use their connections in the corrupt Senate to manipulate the Republic into sending in the Jedi.  The Kaleesh fought back valiantly for a few weeks, suffering terrible losses in the Kolkpravis , until Balati lost a leg when a Jedi attacks her, despite her being a medic, trying to help another warrior.  Grievous, horrified at the thought of watching another lover die in front of him, surrendered, in order to spare hers and the other Izvoshra's lives.  With her injury, Balati was no longer able to assist on the front lines, but at least she could still be a medic, even if restricted to using crutches to get around with her stump of a leg.

Grievous didn't outright say anything, but Balati knew he blamed her for the war ending in such an anti-climatic way, and they argued, a lot.  Their marriage was not exactly a happy one from that point on, as Grievous was in a mood after the war ended for no longer having a "job", while Balati's skills as a medic were still in-demand, made worse when Grievous took wives 4-10 in quick succession, without consulting the existing ones like he was supposed to, mostly for political reasons, but also to try, not too subtly, to "kriff" his grief away.  They tended to bicker and fight more than anything else, which more often than not dissolved into angry sex (though no more eggs – a medic knows how to prevent such things when not wanted). 

In 28 BBY, the worst year of the post-ceasefire famine, the Intergalactic Banking Clan made its offer to Grievous -- work as their enforcer, and they will buy out Kalee's "debt", which will allow traders to come back to the system, alleviating the famine, and stop both the Huk raids, and the Republic's "inspections". Suspicious, but seeing no other choice, Grievous agreed, but asked for a "signing bonus" first, for the IGBC to give Balati an artificial leg, to replace the one the Jedi took. The IGBC agreed, and brought both Balati and Grievous to Muunilinst for the surgery (really to test how well Kaleesh will respond to cybernetics).  The new leg, and weeks together during transit and Balati’s recovery, went a long way towards fixing Grievous' and Balati's strained relationship, and she left Muunilinist with both her cybernetic leg, and once again gravid. Grievous stayed behind, and began his work for the IGBC. 

During Grievous’ four years of work for the IGBC, Balati at first had regular contact with her husband, but it started to become more and more rare as the Banking Clan slowly restricted his access to home, until he unexpectedly returned to Kalee – breaking his contract early with the Banking Clan when he heard about the Huk’s desecration of the Oben burial grounds – clearly breaking their terms of the ceasefire in a way that even the corrupt Republic couldn’t dispute.  Seizing the opportunity to finish what they started, Balati fully supported her husband when he rallied the other Izvoshra for a strike mission to Oben.

Balati was pulled from the wreckage of the Martyr by her old crush, Bentilais san Sk’ar, but her cybernetic leg had been torn from her body during the crash, ripping open her stump in the process.  She died of blood loss in Sk’ar’s arms, while whispering Qymaen’s name, hoping that in death, he had finally found peace.

Ahoshu kek De'vana -- the Huntress

Named for Ahoshu, an Akan (African) goddess of hunting who kills poachers, and Devana, the Slavic name for Diana/Artemis

The huntress and scout of the Izvoshra, from the mountain/boreal forest region west of Kaleea, who joined Qymaen and Ronderu around the same time as Sk'ar. She was knowledgeable about animals, their behaviour and habitats, geography, and acted as the Izvoshra's advance scout, reporting back to Qymaen Huk locations, types and numbers, helping him to plan his strategies. She playfully made fun of Sk'ar at first for being a "city boy" (since he's from Kaleea itself), and had a huge amount of respect for Ronderu, admiring her battle mask and her skill with her lig swords. Her preferred weapon was a bow, as she liked long-ranged weapons but considered rifles, like those used by her Khagan, to be too noisy. For close range combat she used a shoni spear, which doubled as a hiking stick.  She could often be found after a battle picking arrows out of dead Huk.  A western Kaleesh, De’vana, like fellow Westerner Sk’ar, had violet scales, though she often painted her exposed scales with green warpaint (which might have been partially made from Huk ichor), acting as camouflage in the forests she stalked. 

After Ronderu's death, she became frustrated at fellow Izvoshra Balati yui Serket, who she knew loved Sk'ar, yet married Grievous, thinking he "needed" her more, and called Balati out on her bullshit.

After the ceasefire, De’vana starts to realise just how damaged the Huk occupation had left Kalee’s environment.  Farmland had been burned, air and water polluted, and wild prey animal stocks depleted.  For a civilisation like the Kaleesh, where hunting and gathering still played a huge role in their food production, this was a major problem.  She proactively started replanting the razed forests, and protecting animals from the increasingly desperate population, acting as a hunt guide to minimize further damage, while still ensuring her people were fed.

In 30 BBY, two year after the ceasefire and the subsequent famine, the Huk, no longer content to just sit back and watch the Kaleesh suffer, begin their slavery raids again (calling it "reparation payments" to get around the Republic’s bureaucracy), only this time, the Kaleesh could not fight back (or at least they were not supposed to -- many did anyway, though they couldn't in the organized way they did before).  Huk raiders destroyed De’vana’s reforestation tree farms, and killed whole herds of animals just to leave them to rot and deprive the starving Kaleesh of another food source. 

De’vana went to Sk'ar for help (since Grievous was being watched).  The two Izvoshra gathered a small guerilla strike force, the kind Sk’ar specialised in, and start to fight back, successfully destroying several Huk raiding parties, only for Grievous to be forced by a Jedi "inspector" (at lightsaber-point) to stop them. It doesn't come to violence, but Grievous was disgusted at himself for even the thought of having to raise a weapon to his Izvoshra. The incident would become known as the "Izvoshra Rebellion", even though only two out of the eight were involved. 

De'vana was grateful for Sk'ar's assistance when no one else would, or could help her, and the two of them became mates. Though they never formally married, nor had any eggs, they were devoted to each other, for as long as De’vana lived.

She died in 24 BBY, along with the rest of the Izvoshra in the Crash of the Martyr, excepting Grievous and Sk'ar.  Badly burnt in the explosion of the shuttle, she was dead before the wreckage hit the water of the Jenuwaa Sea.