Q'orvha

Physical Appearance

Height		6-feet, 4-inches
Weight		198 lbs
Hair Color		White (dyed Jet Black)
Eye Color		Lavender
Physical Description		Q’orvha is a tall and statuesque example of a Klingon Warrioress. Her body is lean, athletic, and made up of a densely compacted muscles, allowing for a quick and agile “springiness” in her actions when needed. She is also “statuesque” however, in that her skin is pale white like crafter’s marble. Her natural hair colour is a stark white and her eyes are a deep lavender, the shade of Klingon blood. All of these are indicators of a birth defect with some significant cultural stigma associated with it, in Klingon Society: albinism. For this and other reasons, Q’orvha has traditionally kept her long and heavily dredded hair, dyed to a more typical Klingon black or reddish-brown. In the past, bronzing solutions were also applied to skin, but this practice has stopped in recent years, giving her a “ghost” like appearance even with the dye in her hair. Across the white canvas of her body are a collection of scars…some from battle, some from accidents, though most are done in patterns from ritualized scarification. These mark her former allegiances, to the Daughters of Gre’thor, to House Ruqh’vha, and even to her own crew when she went pirate. When the option is available, she tends to wear a full set of Klingon armour under her old Captain’s Robes, though any vestiges or designs that would indicate her old affiliations or house(s), have been defaced, ripped off, or removed. Even her d’k’tagh, the tri-bladed dagger that often symbolizes a klingon’s personal honour, has had it’s sigils crossed out quite effectively. Though she has (begrudgingly) adapted somewhat to Federation life and day-to-day Starfleet regulations against carrying around armaments in the open, Q’orvha still likes to keep herself at least minimally armed. Aside the from d’k’tagh which is allowed under the uniform dress regulations that allow for cultural ornamentation, the Daughter of Kortar utilizes a pair of “taqtlj”, Klingon battle-ready “long knives”…these have the benefit over a more traditional bat’leth or mek’leth as being more easilly concealable, less bulky, and easier to use in compact spaces. When deployed in the field as part of an away team, she favours a pair of klingon disruptor pistols, the use of which is alternated with the taqtlj knives. Especially when “raiding” (ie, search and seizure operations), she cuts a rather dramatic visage: her long robes and armour, with pistol in one hand and a long knife (or, rather, a short sword, really) in the other…gives her same profile as the more flamboyant pirates of Ancient Terra’s Golden Age of Sailing. At least, that’s how she would like to be deployed…often, when serving in a more traditional Starfleet role, she is limited to the standard T-2 Phaser and Tricorder loudout.

Family

Spouse		None on Record
Children		None on Record
Father		Unkown
Mother		Unknown
Brother(s)		See below.
Sister(s)		See below.
Other Family		The Daughter of Kortar is a former gin’tak (honoured adviser) of House Ruqvha, though that House was deposed, exiled, and believed destroyed by infighting and interhouse rivalries in 2385… She is also believed to have once been a member of the Daughters of Gre’thor, a monastic order of assassin- and duelist-nuns that disappeared in the 2360s during the shake up periods that saw Gowran ascend to power, a full scale Klingon Civil War, and Kahless return to the Imperial Throne.

Personality & Traits

General Overview		As one would expect of a Klingon Warrioress, Q’orvha is strong and physical both fit and durable. She has a savage elegance to movements and is fully ambidextrous, able to use both hands dominantly. Q’orvha’s greatest strength however, is her mind: She possesses an insatiable drive to learn, a capacity for logic, and a love of puzzles that is rare amongst Klingon Warriors. She approaches the art of killing, espionage, piracy, or engineering, all in a rather similar way: To her, all things in life can be seen as a logical problem…a puzzle to be solved with the correct leverage of knowledge, awareness, and occasional force (of both subtle and brute natures alike). This calculus only really changes in the variables applied and the methodologies used.
Strengths & Weaknesses		A former assassin and gin’tak, Q’orvha is paranoid by nature and also prone to manic bouts of obsession over details…this makes her an excellent technician and strategist, albeit a slightly less decisive one if she is not diverted from getting lost in said details. Q’orvha tends to fall short however, in the person skills department…even amongst other klingons, she is taciturn, cold, and generally stand-offish…social grace, outside of duelling etiquette and basic infiltration skills, was not a priority during her formative years and her time as Ruqvha’s silent operative and guardian didn’t do much to deter that tragectory. Q’orvha is an albino, and despite her various means of disguising that fact, still suffers from many of the symptoms and side effects of that condition: she is incredibly good in a close up gunfight, blazing away with dual disruptor pistols, because her long-range vision is rather poor…her eyes are rather sensitive to light, which is not usually that much a problem on the dour and poorly lit halls of a Klingon ship, but poses some challenges for adapting to the bright lights of a Starfleet vessel. She has also spent time in the past, convalescing after being treated for various radiation burns or skin cancers, which she is highly susceptible to…another reason she usually wears her commander’s robes with the hood up. Having served in a combat role since she was a mere child, Q’orvha has also acquired numerous combat and training-based injuries…and even with the built-in Klingon physiological redundancies, these have taken their toll over the decades. Despite her ambidexterity, Q’orvha tends to favour leading with her left-side in a fight, thanks to an injury to her right thigh that never healed quite right.
Ambitions		If Q’orvha was any other Klingon, the amount of dishonourable nihilism she lives with day-to-day would have led to ritual suicide long ago…but Q’orvha keeps on living, for reasons of her own. A warrioress with no lord or discernible cause, Q’orvha’s position is allegorical to that of the ancient and masterless Ronin of Ancient Terra’s Feudal-era Japan…especially the romanticized view of such mercenary warriors popularized in various holonovels and literature. There are signs however, that her monastic calm in the face of this nihilism, is starting to crack…and all it would take is a single opportunity to avail itself to her, for her take up a new cause and “liege lord”.
Hobbies & Interests		Given her bouts of obsessiveness, high attention to detail, and knack for solving puzzles, Q’orvha pursues a variety of activities. Physical and spiritual training and ritual of course, to keep her body and soul in shape, but to keep her mind sharp requires a more esoteric collection of interests. Texts on xenobiology, planetary survival guides, technical manuals, philosophical works, strategic reports…Q’orvha has always operated on the principle that knowledge is power. Fortunately for her, she’s also an avid bookworm.

Personal History

There is a monastery on Q’o’nos, in the “Spine of the Fehk’lhr” mountain range, where the Order of Rurh’vash’toq had made their home for more than a thousand years. This all-female order of Klingon Warrior-Nuns, known in the common parlance as “The Daughters of Gre’thor”, dedicate themselves two-fold: to their spiritual development as monks and adherents to an obscure sect of the wider Klingon faith; and also to their more material duties and function: as assassins with a most peculiar method of killing.

Instead of a knife in the dark (though such methods could be used for infiltrating to get to their target), the Daughters of Gre’thor would use infiltrate and stealth their way through their target’s layer of defences…and then announce themselves to their target and challenge them in the open to a mortal duel…often after manipulating the situation as such, so the target must accept or loose face.

If the target accepts, than their almost inevitable death in combat by the Daughter would be an honourable one and hence found (at least in public) agreeable to both the target’s house, and the Daughter’s shadowy patron for the hit (surprisingly enough, in more than half of the rare instances of a Daughter being employed, the patron was the target’s own house, in an attempt to restore honour after being disgraced by a cowardly family member).

If the target refused, than death was just as swift as the Daughter would cut them down for cowardice: their dishonour however, would be their own to take with them to the gates of Gre’thor (the mythical Klingon “hell”), and would stain not the house they had belonged to.

Payment for such things was rarely as base as monetary currency or credit: instead, access to a resource of some sort was more often the cost: raw materials for the Daughters’ monastic artisans, repairs for the old fortress abbeys and outposts, weapons…most importantly of all, female Klingon children…after all, it was rare that the isolated nuns would actually reproduce themselves.

It was by this method, that the albino Klingon baby who would become known as “Q’orvha”, gained entrance to the monastery. An unwanted mutant child, to pay for an unknown hit, upon a dishonoured target.

Growing up on the harsh tutelage and discipline of the Monastery priestesses, Q’orvha learned how to fight, how infiltrate, and how to beguile. She learned mediation, pain management, and underwent extensive conditioning training for her mind and body. Being a monastery, all this was balanced with surprisingly scholarly pursuits. Klingon “Theology”, philosophy, studying the dichotomy between Honour and Glory…as well as more technical skills: strategy and tactics, basic medicine and triage, survival training, botany, targ husbandry, exobiology (to know a thing is to know how to kill a thing)…and the area where Q’orvha quickly proved herself to adept with: technology and maintenance.

When not training, studying, or at rest, Q’orvha worked under an Abbess on maintenance duty, repairing and replacing the various utilities and systems throughout the monastery…an eclectic mix of technology acquired during various centuries and integrated (somewhat haphazardly at times) into the fortress monasteries, shrines, and outposts that the Daughters of Gre’thor held sway over.

Q’orvha proved to be a quick and adaptable learner, and soon ended up carrying out maintenance duties in the armouries and vehicle bays as well.

To gain a broader perspective, more technical experience, and to test out her infiltration skills, Q’orvha was entered into the Klingon Imperial Academy system under an assumed identity. She studied star-ship engineering, computer systems, and warp physics; before being signalled out for advanced training in intelligence gathering techniques, primarily because of her noted attention to details, quick memory, and displayed cunning.

This worked a little too well, as being noticed for Klingon Intelligence brought greater scrutiny, and after a month the contacts that Q’orvha maintained to the Daughters forced her to flunk out of the Intelligence training, and back into more mainstream areas of service. This actually a slightly bitter taste in her mouth, as Q’orvha had enjoyed the intelligence training (it reminded her of home), and the type of person selected to be a Klingon spook, was also the type of person who were generally more receptive to an albino in their ranks. Returning to the mainstream courses meant dealing with the standard cadets and instructors, who were far less tolerant of her “defect”.

Nevertheless, she graduated as a full warrior and served for 4 years on a Klingon cruiser as an Engineer before leaving the service to return to her life in the shadows of the Monastery, completing her training and ascending to being a full fledged Daughter of Gre’thor…a graduation ceremony that was only conducted after she completed her first contract: slaying the commander of the cruiser she had once been assigned to.

This mission itself was completed rather deftly, as Q’orvha knew the target, knew the ship, and still had access to working codes and security details for the ship’s system. She applied her technical know how to spirit herself onto the ship undetected, and then into the Commander’s quarters…where she ambushed the commander and forced a duel (she had also lain out several contingencies, such as using a dampening field to render disruptors useless and comms blocked).

The duel itself was brutal and quick, with the only snag in the execution coming from Q’orvha’s own bat’leth getting stuck in the ceiling bulkhead while trying to use a long downward strike. This was remedied by a switch to using her dagger, and the Commander was soon slain. A memento mori record was left to declare the nature of his death as being in honourable combat to wash away sins left on his house by his actions, and then Q’orvha utilized site-to-site transporters to make her escape, deploying a self-annihilating virus into the Cruiser’s computer banks to wipe any records of her visit beyond the memento mori.

Over the next few years, Q’orvha was deployed on many such kill missions throughout the Empire, and the work even started to become routine…until she was assigned to assassinate the head of House Ruq’vha, who had become indulgent and slothful. This was during the Klingon Civil War between Gowron and House Duras, and the Ruq’vha leader’s behaviour had brought shame and dishonour, resulting in a loss of face with both sides.

Q’orvha killed the head of the house with ease, but her attempts to return home to the Daughters of Gre’thor were foiled by the Daughters of Gre’thor no longer existing in any meaningful way.

While she had been working her way into Ruq’vha’s inner circles of power to close in on her target, the Civil War had reached the remote monasteries…and even the Daughters of Gre’thor had not proven immune to Imperial political scheming. Sides were drawn, and a quick war of shadow and terror had consumed the Daughters from the inside…what few survivors of this burtal conflict remained at the end, decided to disband the order: an honourable death for a group that had dishonoured themselves.

Q’orvha found herself essentially cut loose, in the middle of a war, still within the power-base of House Ruq’vha…and she had just killed their patriarch.

It took two days for the agents of House Ruq’vha to find her, and another three to take her down…surprisingly though, Q’orvha did not find herself killed in retaliation for her murderous act.

Instead, she was spared by the new patriarch who had taken his father’s place after the latter’s death. In the time since then, he had regained Ruq’vha lost honour and sided with Gowron to secure it and relief pressure on Ruq’vha holdings from one of the two sides in the conflict.

He was a young and forward thinking patriarch and spared Q’orvha’s life not out of an attempt to dishonour her for taking her alive, but because he had learned of the Daughter’s end: after all, he had been the one to request the hit out on his father. He instead offered Q’orvha a new opportunity to remake herself…this time as Q’orvha, gin’tak to House Ruq’vha.

A position of advisor and guardian, Q’orvha would bring her experience as a killer to safeguard House Ruq’vha itself against other killers. With Ruq’vha joining Gowron’s side, it had invited the shadowy knives of the Duras, who were not above such tactics that other Klingons would balk at.

Unsure what to do with herself, Q’orvha agreed and began to apply herself to the position of gin’tak with extreme efficiency and professionalism. She helped strengthen and fortify the house’s fleet and holdings, uncovered several assassination and spying plots, and at the apex of the combat, even participated in the fleet movements against House Duras from the command chair of a Bird of Prey.

After the civil war, Q’orvha carried out several operations to secure House Ruq’vha’s post-war position and standing within the Empire…including the securing of claims made on assets won from Duras-supporting houses, and the foiling of several resulting reprisal plots.

The result several years of relative quiet and peace for House Ruq’vha…though things heated up again, once the Dominion Crisis resulted in the Klingon Empire declaring war on the Cardassian Union. Q’orvha was given command of the QIb’Heh once again, and flew as part of the larger KDF formations during the initial invasion of Cardassian Space, splitting off after the main push to harry fleeing Cardassian vessels.

When the Klingon Empire made it’s push to secure the Bajoran Wormhole, the QIb’Heh participated in the attack on DS9, though it’s impact was neglible.

Afterwards, the QIb’Heh operated much like an ancient privateering vessel, targeting Cardassian shipping lanes, trade routes, and raiding economic targets.

When full scale war broke out between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, the QIb’HeH acted in much the same way…though of note, the QIb’HeH was credited with the disabling and capture of a cruiser, the Steamrunner-class USS Mercutio, after the QIb’HeH used a trick of warp physics to appear to be in two places at once. This cunning and devious victory earned the QIb’HeH and her commander, the moniker of “The Ghost of Gre’thor”…in part because Q’orvha had a momentary slip of memory and announced herself as “Commander Q’orhva, Daughter of Gre’thor” when she hailed the disabled Mercutio.

This was a significant prize for House Ruq’vha and the prisoners of war that resulted from the Mercutio’s surviving crew were used in negotiations for concessions from the Federation for House Ruq’vha’s interests…though these negotiations were cut short by the end of the war and the restoration of the Klingon-Federation alliance…at which point, the POWs were released back to the UFP as a sign of “good will”.

The end of the Klingon-Federation conflict also led to the reveal that General Martok had been replaced by a Changeling Founder. This resulted in Q’orvha being given a new mission from her House and a new role for Ruq’vha’s gin-tak: Protect the House and prevent infiltration via these insidious shape-shifting curs.

Q’orvha operated as an “inquisitor”, prosecuting blood screenings and carrying out investigations into any suspicious activity…it didn’t earn her many warm smiles from her adopted family, nor did it result in the detection of any changelings…but it did result in the discovery of suspicious Breen activity and execution of two House retainers for dishonourable conduct and treasonous actions against the Empire for personal gain.

The report of Breen activity was handed over to Klingon Intelligence, but bureaucratic shuffling and politics prevented it from being of any real use…the Breen joined the Dominion.

Q’orvha returned to the front-lines shortly thereafter, taking part in several fleet engagements as well pursuing independant operations as a raider. On no less than three separate occasions during the war, the QIb’HeH was assigned to work for Klingon Intelligence, and even ferry’d Starfleet Intelligence operatives behind enemy lines via cloaking device.

The QIb’HeH took part in the final battle of Cardassia that ended the Dominion War, scoring several kills on Jem’hadar Fighters and working with a Romulan warbird to take down a Breen battlecruiser. As the fighting moved to the planet itself, Q’orvha beamed down with a House Ruq’vha-led war-party, shadowing the house patriarch and acting as a “bodyguard in the dark”.

In the aftermath of the Dominion War, House Ruq’vha had collectively gained quite a glorious battle-record and the rewards that came with it…

…But had also gained the ire and envy of other houses who did not Ruq’vha rapid ascendancy from such a minor family to within striking distance of a high council seat.

Q’orvha spent the post-war years countering assassination attempts, serving as a second or champion in duels of honour, and getting her hands dirty in more political intrigue than she would have liked.

Eventually, a plot to assasinate the Patriach’s young child and heir was uncovered, and Q’orvha was given command of the QIb’HeH again, this time to hide the child-heir away while the truth of the plot was brought to light.

…This unfortunately, coincided with the Romii Supernova, which spread chaos across the Beta quadrant as the Romulan Star Empire reeled and bucked from the decapitation of it’s twin capitals. During the ripples that were felt in the Klingon Empire, where induvidual houses made opportunistic moves against the Romulan Borderworlds and the Great Houses were roused to political infighting over what the Empire’s official stance to this crisis would be, the daggers that were out for House Ruq’vha were drawn.

The records from this period are sketchy, but House Ruq’vha was accused of dishonourable actions taken against refugees from the Star Empire, surprisingly serious crimes in the Klingon Empire. This resulted in the dis-commendation and exile of the entire house from the Empire…and open season for rival houses to seize Ruq’vha territory and assets. Several members of the House committed ritual suicide rather than accept this dis-commendation…

Q’orvha and the QIb’HeH disappeared into the lawless area of space known as “The Triangle” during this time, leaving only a final report of failure in their mission: The Heir to House Ruq’vha had been killed.

Many considered Q’orvha and the QIb’HeH crew to have taken a similar suicidal path in the face of the dis-commendation and stripping of honour…or leave a bloody self-destructive trail of vengeance against the rival houses. Typical Klingon psychology would have all but demanded either course.

Instead, Q’orvha and the QIb’HeH reappeared within six months, attacking a transport vessel and securing a cargo-hold worth of resources and goods bound for a Yridian-run sub-space listening post. Q’orvha referred to herself when demanding the transport’s surrender, as “Daughter of Kortar” during this engagement, the first instance of such a moniker being used: Kortar was a mythological figure in Klingon religous stories: the first Klingon who was damned for killing his gods, to Shepard the souls of the dishonoured on a boat to Gre’thor.

Several follow up actions would be recorded to various authorities in the coming months, making it clear: The QIb’HeH had gone pirate.

Eventually, this spate of attacks would die down as the QIb’HeH established itself with various underground organizations and (relatively) more legitimate work would open up. Mercenary work, privateering actions (piracy with an employer), escorting transports and providing security against other pirates (sometimes little more than an extortion/protection racket), smuggling, and even slave trading.

In 2388, the QIb’HeH went quiet again and didn’t reappear until 2389, when it was discovered drifting into Federation space by the USS Ajax.

Q’orvha was the only survivor on board and swore a new gin’tak-esq “life-debt” oath to her rescuers, to serve in whatever capacity was required.

The granting of a provisional rank would follow, as her experiences and knowledge of the underworld groups and players that operate along the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan borders would be invaluable, as would her experiences in the long-term operations of small scout vessels and patrol escorts like the Ajax. She served as both First Officer and the Chief Engineer of the vessel for several tours, before disappearing again for several years after being summoned by Starfleet Intelligence. Details of what happened after the summons were murky and shrouded in rumour and secrecy alike, but the Ghost of Gre’thor would reappear again near the nebulous borders of the Romulan Free State on a Tarellian Dillithium Freighter that was being seized by agents of the Tal Shiar.

Q’orvha escaped capture by the old Stellar Imperial secret police, and returned to Federation space and back into active Starfleet service. This time, she was given a position with closer ties to Starfleet Intelligence, and assigned to the USS Aquarius with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, as a Strategic Operations officer and Mission Advisor, positions in which her history of operating in the shadowy no-man’s land of the Neutral Zone and more recently, the the fractured remains of the Romulan Star Empire itself, would be highly beneficial.