A Galaxy of Possibilities: Discussing Character Writing, Diversity, Star Wars and Fandom – Week 7: Alice Pyrrin

Alice Pyrrin, The Sith Empire
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Alice Pyrrin, born Di Scarra, is one of my two active Sith Masters. It is interesting that my earlier characters tend to be Force users while the most recent ones – and there are tons of them – are more often non-Force users. I like all as much, but I realized that recently when preparing this series. I was already writing the Sith character I’ll analyze next week – Baska Tankreyd, when I created Alice, so I wanted her to be different, as I like writing multiple characters within a faction, but them having different fields of expertise and interest is primordial for me, especially as Force users all have similar training in what they are required to learn to progress through the ranks at SWRPG.

Alice is a very enjoyable dark character to write. I have used the same claim since I created her, Rhona Mitra. Alice’s look and feel was also inspired from Mitra’s role in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. I eventually added Bastila Shan from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as a secondary claim, especially when came time for Alice to wield a dual-bladed lightsaber.

I like that Alice didn’t come to the Sith as a simple power hungry woman. She joined when she already was in her early thirties and had already been a warrior before coming to the Sith temple. She was born in a noble family, whose bloodline on Vjun goes back centuries before. The predatory brunette only had respect and admiration for her father, though the man died when she was a teenager. It only made her more willing to retrieve the family’s lands on their home world and she returned there in her early twenties, after having had gained education in politics, history and combat since her childhood.

Since the victory over her foes, she has remained the Viscountess in position on her family’s lands and ensured their prosperity and also their expansion. A hard leader, she has no patience or pity for people threatening what belongs to her or who are just in her way. This is why she killed her older brother during a spar when they were only teenagers, and later killed her first fiance and both husbands that followed. The only reason she didn’t kill her mother, whom she despised, was because she used her to lead the house whenever she wasn’t on Vjun. Yet, she never shed a tear when the older woman passed away.

A very dominant person, Alice easily rose through the ranks in the Sith Empire, forming an unlikely team with her unorthodox mentor. The situation turned out all the more ironic when she entered a relationship with one of his estranged sons. The younger Corellian man and her have had a volcanic bond since they first met, but their love saw them overcome difficulties of many kinds, from having to reconcile Alice training him in the Sith arts, to old spirits getting in the way and difficulties to have children. Seeing Alice realize that she did love him and be willing to admit when she messed up was huge challenges for her, and I still remember how entertaining it could be for me and the other writer involved. She still only cares for a very small handful of people, but she definitely found her match in her Corellian smuggler-turned-Sith husband.

Even before she became an actual Sith, Alice always had a great interest in their history, language and artifacts. That makes for compelling treasure hunts to write. Alice has found her place – along with her husband – as some kind of cleaners for the Sith Empire, in between their hunts for ancient items. She wouldn’t picture herself as anything else than a Sith and respects the Council, but she also likes her independence and isn’t tangled in much of the inner politics of the Sith. She is one of my most violent characters and it is important to me that this isn’t just because she is a Sith, that it goes back to her upbringing and her personality. I find it important that while a character is a good fit for a faction, that they aren’t solely defined by their allegiance.

Now that she is a Sith Master, Alice is still training not only her husband, but also another student as per her former mentor’s request. She expanded her knowledge by learning about Sith sorcery and later Sith alchemy, which are natural follow ups to her long time interest in regular alchemy and also herbalism. And against all odds and after having thought she might never become a mother, she welcomed triplets, two girls and one boy, who will likely be as much as a handful as both their parents.

• How does your character’s allegiance influence them?
• Does your character’s violent side show up in a specific way or is it a more general aspect of their personality?
• Do you think that science and magic/occultism can coexist?