Helene

Biography

Helene was born the second child of a high-ranking Mandalorian family in Keldabe. Her clan was strongly patriarchal, headed by her grandfather, Andreas Van-Olo, with her father Agner set to become the clan leader after him. Helene’s older brother Anders, who was intended to be the heir after her father, had suffered a catastrophic accident at age nine that shattered both of his legs, preventing him from becoming the traditional warrior their parents desired. They had Helene to “replace” him as their heir. Although disappointed that she was a female, they raised her as the future head of household. Due both to the title she was set to claim one day and to their frustration with her being female, her clan brought her up harshly. She underwent very intense training for all of the skills she would need in order to inherit the family name, while at the same time being constantly reminded of their patriarchal values. This somewhat contradictory messaging (“you’re the next clan leader so you need to be better than everyone else, no excuses” vs “a woman’s place is supporting her husband in creating the next generation of warriors; women can’t compare to men on the battlefield”) meant Helene felt as if she could never stop working and training, but also made her feel out of place among other warriors, since her family had drilled into her that she needed to be the best warrior of her generation, but also that she should never have been fighting in the first place. This intense pressure made her an angry, precocious child who often spoke out of turn. This fiery attitude was quickly beaten out of her, though, and replaced by a flat, acidic demeanor.

When Helene was eleven, her father’s sister/her aunt, who the family had previously thought was infertile, gave birth to a pair of twins, surprising the whole clan. Unfortunately for Helene, one of these twins was a boy, providing the clan with a male heir. Her parents were furious— this meant that her aunt’s husband would be the next head of household after her grandfather, instead of her father, and their son the heir after her uncle. They pushed her even harder in her training, and immediately began trying for another child, hoping for a boy so that they could restore their status as heirs. It took them three years, but they managed to have another child, Aksel— a son. This meant Helene was no longer needed. As such, she was cast aside, and when she was fourteen, she was sent off to the Royal Academy of Government in Sundari, theoretically to further her education, but really to make connections for the family and find a future husband.

Although the Academy offered Helene some separation from her family, her duty had been so deeply drilled into her that she did not take advantage of it. If anything, it was the opposite— having been thrown to the side first in favor of her cousin, and then her younger brother, Helene was desperate to prove that she still had what it took to lead the clan. She put maximal effort into her classes, and did additional training beyond them. All of the work she had done as child gave her a headstart above her peers when it came to her studies and her combat training, but making connections proved somewhat harder— her family’s reputation as an elite but strictly patriarchal clan made others wary of her, considering this gender-based social structure was not the norm among Mandalorians. Still, she had a small ‘friend group’ of children from some of the few likeminded noble families. Although, calling them friends would be a bit of a stretch considering none of them particularly liked each other. Nevertheless, they felt compelled to align with each other due to their respective clans’ values. It was at this point, during her first year, that Kestrel came into the picture. The two were members of the same freshman class and both frequently found themselves up late training (albeit, for different reasons). After a few weeks of half-hearted antagonism, the two began to spar together frequently and bounce training ideas off of each other. This developed into a friendship as the school year went on.

During her second year at the Academy, Helene discovered that she was an exceptionally talented pilot— and that she /loved/ to fly. This was the first thing in her life that sparked any kind of passion in her, and she devoted herself completely to developing her flying skills. By the end of the year she was the top pilot in her class. She took this accolade home to her parents in the summer, expecting praise, but was met with disappointment— why was she focusing her efforts on skills she wouldn’t ever need? They demanded she focus on her negotiation, history, and other ‘soft’ skills, or they would pull her out of the school. She returned to school the next year angry and dejected. Now sixteen, Helene watched as her classmates began to flirt and get into relationships. This caused conflict in Helene— on one hand, she was very much a young woman with all the wants that came along with that, but on the other hand, getting into a relationship was exactly what her parents wanted her to do, and she wasn’t feeling particularly inclined to appease them. To make matters worse, it wasn’t potential future husbands that Helene was developing an interest in— but potential future wives. Obviously this was horrifying to Helene, who, despite her desire to act out, still desperately wanted to please her parents. As such, she repressed her feelings to the best of her ability, which only made her more and more frustrated. Eventually it became too much to ignore, which led to her seeking out a few of her female peers for tentative, mostly chaste encounters— and eventually Kestrel, who had become a good friend by that point. Her and Kestrel’s friendship boiled over into a casual situationship for the last few months of the school year. But the combination of Helene’s stress at having to return home for the summer making her unpleasant to be around, and Kestrel’s generally emotionally avoidant personality caused them to fight and ‘break up’ at the end of the year. This pattern continued for the next few years, with the two of them having casual on-again-off-again flings at various points.

Their friendship didn’t fully recover until towards the end of their fifth year, however, when tensions had started to brew over the growing rift between the New and Old Mandalorian factions. These conflicting ideologies divided the Academy in half. It started as simple back-and-forth debate about which side was more righteous, but, in typical Mandalorian fashion, quickly devolved into tribalism, with students of the opposing sides brawling frequently. Helene was obviously loyal to the traditional Mandalorian faction, as was Kestrel. The conflict drove them closer together, and their relationship turned from casual flings into serious, possibly slightly codependent commitment. Things took a turn for the worse during their final year however, when a pro-New Mandalorian student, after repeatedly arguing and brawling with Helene, outed her relationship with Kestrel to her parents in an attempt to get back at her. Helene was immediately pulled back home to face her parents’ wrath. After hours of screaming arguments she was officially kicked out and disowned. Unbeknownst to the Van-Olo clan, while these arguments were happening, the conflict between the two factions officially broke out into Civil War. While Helene was packing her things, a war party of New Mandalorians moved on her family compound— she left her room with her bags, only to go downstairs and find that her parents, brothers, grandfather, and aunt had all been killed. Her aunt’s husband Elzar was defending their twins, and Helene stepped in to assist, but caught him off guard— caught up in the battle-rush and the need to protect his children, he instinctively struck out at Helene, slashing her face open. Still, together the two were able to kill their remaining assailants, at which point Elzar fled with the twins, leaving Helene alone in the wreckage of her home. Kestrel, who had figured out what was going on by this point, tracked her to her home and brought her back to the Academy. By the time they returned there, however, it was open war. They fought their way through to the group of Old Mandalorian students and warriors, joining their ranks.

After three years of intense fighting, the Old Mandalorians were forced off the planet and exiled to Concordia. Helene and Kestrel made their way to Kestrel’s family home there, living in hiding there for a month as they recovered from various injuries. After they had healed up, the pair joined the fledgling Kyr’tsad effort to retake Mandalore from the pacifists. They remained in this group for another three years, operating on strike teams targeting New Mandalorian supply lines and government transports. Although this grew their skills, over time both of them started to become dissatisfied with the group— Helene because she didn’t think they were doing enough to retake their planet, and Kestrel because she felt like they were fighting just for the sake of fighting. Their marriage during their second year with the group, as well as their new friendship with brothers Kasey and Rio, who they had taken under their wing, forced them to seriously reevaluate their priorities. After a year of consideration, Helene and Kestrel, plus Kasey and Rio, broke off from Kyr’tsad to form their own mercenary group.

The group operates aboard the Kyr’yc Haal (Last Breath), captained by Helene, in the mid and outer rims. They were reasonably successful in their first few years, but earned a modest living, making enough to cover expenses with a little bit left over, but not building wealth. Over the years they developed a specialization in infiltration and extraction, and became well known as experts in this particular type of operation--- breaking into a place, grabbing someone or something, and getting out. This repuation allowed them to raise their prices and be more selective in which jobs they take. At present, with a decade and a half of independent contractor experience under their belts, they are considered an elite and well respected group.

With the Clone Wars starting and the Kyr'tsad growing more active, the group, especially Helene, have been considering rejoining the Kyr'tsad's efforts to retake Mandalore, but have not taken any action yet. It is a point of contention among the crew, with Helene and Rio in favor and Kestrel and Kasey opposed.