Sata T'Loak
From FABT
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Born: |
17 February 2170 CE |
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Died: |
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Species: |
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Gender: |
Feminine (Mono) |
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Height: |
6.4ft |
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Eyes: |
Blue |
| Political and military information | |
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Affiliation: |
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Equipment: |
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Command(s): |
Omega Free Army |
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Rank(s): |
Enforcer |
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Era: |
Milky Way Galaxy |
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Battle(s): |
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- "Omega has spent too long being a litany of bloodshed, anarchy and chaos, a place of fear and for the strong to prey on the weak. It is lawless, and only scum ever saw that as progress. I plan for more. I see more than just this floating hunk of rock in space with some structures strapped to it. I see through the blood, the ash, the stench, the hunger, the chaos...I see potential. I see what could be, not what is. That's why I should lead this station to a new beginning. Why I think it needs to change. Why Omega...must become Alpha."
- — Sata T'Loak giving her speech before the House of Omega that leads to the dissolution of the Omega Republic in 2221 CE.
Matriarch Sata T'Loak (alias: Liselle), and known by her codename Widow during her time in the OFA, was a former insurrectionist general who commanded the Omega Free Army during the Insurrection of Omega and Third War for Omega, the former Prime Minister of the Galactic Sanctum and President of the Alpha Republic, a member of the New Normandy Squad and a colonel in the Asari Expeditionary Force in the Andromeda Galaxy. Born on Omega to the pirate queen of Omega and her paramour, one of her turian enforcers, Sata in the midst of a domestic conflict ensuing between her parents, with the dark world of her mother's crime empire clashing with the strong sense of morality and justice that dominated her father: Nyreen, despite loving her daughter, was scared her identity was being consumed in an effort to become like Aria, and in the end, only two years after Sata was born, Nyreen would disappear and leave Aria to raise their daughter alone, although in reality Nyreen never left the station and simply went to ground, later re-emerging to take control of the Talons cartel. With the absence of Nyreen in her life, Sata was left to be raised by Aria alone who, wanting to teach her daughter how to survive in the wider galaxy, began introducing Sata to her syndicate and its larger operations, helping hone her nascent biotic powers from a young age and teaching her basic survival and other life skills to help her survive the relentless and merciless world of the Terminus Systems: as such, Sata matured mentally a lot faster than most asari, most of whom were still considered children at the age of 100, whereas Sata had learned how to handle a gun, how to use her biotics, the weak points of every species in the galaxy and how to kill them, and more by the age of 10. At the age of 12, Aria considered her old enough to involve Sata in her larger organization, sending her on drug and gun-running operations and, in some cases, allowing her to take command, wanting to nurture the leadership potential that seemed to come naturally to Sata. Unbeknownst to Aria, Nyreen had reached out to Sata only a few years after she disappeared without Aria's knowledge, and while Sata was initially bitter towards Nyreen for leaving her, Nyreen eventually started visiting her daughter in secret, teaching her things even Aria had not, including everything Aria specifically did not tell her, such as bestowing a strong sense of justice and morality with her daughter, not wanting to become consumed by the dangerous world of Aria's crime empire like she nearly had. This broiled a deep conflict within Sata, divided between loyalty to her mother and inheriting her father's morality. Ultimately, Sata would combine the teachings of both parents, but never told Aria of her secret meetings with her father, often casting off suspicion with excuses of hanging out with friends or wanting to be alone. Despite this, Sata's deepening dedication to justice and care for those around her led to her eventual refusal to participate any further in Aria's organization, culminating in an argument with her mother that deeply soured their relationship.
As Sata became more capable, she started wandering the streets of Omega without bodyguards or informing her mother where she had gone, using the alias "Liselle" whenever she was out in order to avoid being recognized and to keep herself safe from Aria's enemies: whenever she was discovered however, Sata proved more than capable of handling herself, killing any would-be abductors or assassins. The relationship with her mother only continued to sour over the years as she gravitated further towards her father's side, using her spare time on the streets to search the streets for criminal activities to break up, essentially becoming a low-level street vigilante. Nyreen, worried that Sata was going to get herself hurt (but still proud of her daughter) asked Sata to stop in their next meeting, confusing the asari and causing her to lash out, killing a group of Blue Suns the next day, although she narrowly escaped retaliation when Aria's syndicate stepped in to protect her. This conflict of competing ideologies would continue right up to 2185 CE, right before the Cerberus invasion of Omega. When several mercenary organizations united in an attempt to depose Aria T'Loak, laying siege to Afterlife, Sata was quickly secured by Aria's syndicate and taken to her secret bunker in the Tuhi District to be held safely and away from the fighting. Ultimately Sata would take no part in the conflict, only being reunited with her mother when she, and the rest of her remaining loyalists, were forced to flee the station into exile after Cerberus' successful takeover. Sata would join Aria on the Citadel, remaining there as the pirate queen began plotting her campaign to retake Omega. Sata would take up dancing lessons at this time at Purgatory, although this was mostly to kill the time, as Aria barely allowed her out of her sight and she could no longer contact her father due to the civilian communications blackout on the station. Six months later, when the Reaper War broke out, Sata managed to elude the men Aria assigned to watch her and visited the refugee camp, devastated by what she saw and beginning to volunteer as an aid worker, even resorting to stealing supplies and equipment meant for Aria's operations so she could give it to the camp workers, something which Aria noticed but let slide. During a meeting with Commander Shepard, Aria invited Sata to meet him, and the resulting conversation proved illuminating for Sata, who, aside from being attracted to him, also greatly respected his morals and beliefs, believing they mirrored much of what her father had taught her. Over a month later, Sata would be assigned to command a battalion of the Omega Liberation Front when it finally launched its campaign to liberate Omega. Sata would participate in several battles, happy when she was finally reunited with her father. Throughout the conflict, Aria and Nyreen butted heads on military strategy, the latter wanting to preserve civilian lives while the former was willing to sacrifice as many lives possible in order to defeat Petrovsky. Sata sided with her father, often taking her side in arguments with Aria, and in many cases even refused to follow orders that would have resulted in civilian casualties, especially during the final offensive on Afterlife. This infuriated Aria, further driving a wedge between not just herself and her daughter, but her and Nyreen, who she saw as "corrupting" their daughter and making her weak. Towards the end of the conflict, Commander Shepard and many high-ranking members of the Talons, such as Walter Pike, began strongly considering supporting Nyreen as the new Ruler of Omega to replace Aria when the war was over, something which Sata was not made aware of, but strongly suspected, with Aria totally unaware of the plot to betray her. It ultimately proved fruitless, as Nyreen would sacrifice her life to protect a group of civilians from adjutants in the final stages of the assault on Afterlife. Nyreen's death gutted Sata, who wanted more time with her father and believed she represented the best possible chance for a brighter future for Omega. Believing Aria's reign needed to be stopped, Sata continued plotting with Walter Pike behind the scenes, and even as the Reaper War continued and Sata accompanied Aria to many battles across the galaxy, including the final battle on Earth, she kept in contact with Walter Pike, who believed Sata needed to overthrow her mother and become the woman Nyreen wanted her to be.
Following the Reaper War and her return to Omega, Sata bore witness to a radical change in Aria. Deeply affected by Nyreen's death, Aria laid the foundations for the Omega Republic, ending lawlessness on Omega and introducing a new order to the station: while Sata was initially surprised and proud of her mother for honoring Nyreen's memory, she quickly saw that Aria's view for Omega was much more twisted, believing in a future where Omega would become an interstellar empire, rather than the prosperous, safe utopia free of Omega's ruinous lawlessness of the past Nyreen had actually envisioned. As Omega's military began to expand and seek conquest, with Aria's reign ever more tyrannical than it had ever been before, using the Talons as a blunt instrument for instilling fear and order among the population, Sata once again conspired with Pike to overthrow her mother, this time believing in the necessity of it and accepting that she would need to step up to the plate and become the leader Nyreen wanted her to be for Omega's people: while she still loved her mother, she had become too dangerous to be left in power, and needed to be stopped. This led to the OFA insurrection, with the formation of the Omega Free Army in the commencement of insurrectionist operations against the Omega military and the forces loyal to Aria, with Sata directing them to engage in acts of sabotage, assassination and espionage: Sata's operations became more and more effective as time went on, but the entire time Aria was left unaware that her own daughter was the leader of the OFA, known to the Aria's intelligence by the codename "Widow" as her identity was a carefully maintained secret. In 2214 CE, with the reintroduction of the Raloi Federation onto the galactic scene, Sata sent Pike to Turvess with a message from her with the purpose of securing an alliance with the Federation, hoping to begin a new era of prosperity between their peoples that could only be achieved with Aria out of the picture. When the alliance was secured, Sata's OFA and the Federation declared war on the Omega Republic, officially beginning the Third War for Omega. The conflict finally ended in 2221 CE with Aria's defeat, with Sata finally revealing her identity to Aria when she opened the doors to Afterlife, allowing her forces to storm the building. Given a choice between surrender or death, Aria chose to fight, and Sata dueled her mother on the exact same spot that Aria had gloated over a defeated Petrovsky decades before, and stood over the defeated Khurdok Chaggu centuries before that. Despite Aria's previous combat experience, she was rusty and out of practice, whereas Sata had actively been fighting for years, and so she eventually bested her mother, executing her at the steps to her own couch. Following Aria's death, Sata would found the Alpha Republic, renaming Omega to "Alpha" and dawning in a new era for the station, one in which she would be named both President of Alpha and Prime Minister of the Sanctum, becoming head of state for both the Alpha Republic and the Galactic Sanctum, and one of the most powerful women in the galaxy.
Under her leadership, Alpha thrived, with Sata ensuring the manifestation of her father's dream for the station, engaging in a massive modernization program that saw the station brought into the 23rd Century, its facilities rebuilt, its population booming, and law and order maintained without the added cost of tyranny, creating a democratic government elected by the people, for the people. Maintaining the military Aria had established before her, this too was modernized under Sata, with a ultramodern fleet of warships and a well-equipped army. Relations with the Raloi Federation were maintained and improved, giving them partner-status in the Sanctum. Refugees fleeing the destruction of the New Council after the Post-Apocalyptic War were welcomed into Sanctum space, Sata ensuring they were given every avenue to quickly earn Sanctum citizenship, and turning them into productive members of her new society. Her vision of the Sanctum as the last bastion of democracy in the galaxy, an encapsulation of the vision Shepard had for a united galaxy and a bulwark against the totalitarian and fascist ideologies of its Dominion and Covenant neighbours, was made its core principle, and Sata would remain dedicated to this for the decades she spent in power. She would ultimately be the first and only prime minister of the Sanctum and President of Alpha, surviving through the Terra-Rannochian and Dominion civil wars, witnessing the collapse of both the Dominion and Covenant, and the rise of the Unified Galactic Republics. Invited to attend the Virmire Accords, she was left impressed by the terms and, believing the UGR was everything Shepard had believed in, she agreed to sign, effecting the dissolution of the Sanctum and Alpha Republic in 2254 CE. This of course led to her resignation as president and prime minister, and shortly thereafter she retired from politics altogether. She would sign up to join the New Normandy Squad, an ad-hoc successor to the old Normandy Squad led by Shepard's son, Thane'Shepard, with the purpose of travelling to the Andromeda Galaxy to make contact with the seemingly lost Andromeda Initiative, and she departed with them aboard the UMWS Normandy in 2274 CE, going into cryo sleep. 600 years later, upon arrival in the Andromeda galaxy, Sata would later fight in the Second Heleus War and Great Precursor War, the latter of which where she suffered substantial injuries that led to the loss of an arm and her left eye: while she would have the arm cloned and replaced, she did not have her lost eye replaced, believing it "looked cool". After the war, she would leave the New Normandy Squad to be made a colonel in the Asari Expeditionary Force that accompanied the Grand Andromeda Expeditionary Fleet, to which she served for ninety years. After leaving the Expeditionary Force, she returned to the Milky Way Galaxy to begin a family, having married another asari during her time as colonel and wanting to start a life with her, doing so at the (in asari years) very young age of 146. In 3482 CE at the age of 712, Sata conducted a pilgrimage to the ravaged homeworld of Thessia, a tradition in asari culture that had emerged in the decades following the Thessian Fallout in which asari who have reached their Matriarch stage visit the homeworld and stay there for a month as a rite of passage, and Sata would ultimately return from the experience. Sata would die of natural causes at the age of 1,010 in 3926 CE during a sixth pilgrimage she was conducting to Thessia, wanting to see it for the last time before she died.