The Empress' Service (Patreon)

FOR THE PURPOSES OF PATREON SNOOPS: WOOKIEES ARE SENTIENT ALIENS, NOT ANIMALS.

Wookiees recently became an option, so it was time to make a long-lingering tertiary OC of mine come to life (with some alterations).

Meet Sev - One of Empress Viola's Royal Guardsmen, though possibly the most unorthodox and least formal of the unit. Sev doesn't really communicate; he was bred in one of D'wamu's research secret facilities on a remote, frozen world in the far reaches of the Forsaken Star Cluster almost a hundred years ago. Genetically and physically experimented on by the scientists there both before and after birth, these experiments resulted in his white albino fur, larger than average hands, digits and claws, increased muscle mass, acuity, durability and virility - and having been kept effectively borderline feral for his entire "upbringing" with no social rearing, speech lessons or any other form of teaching.

After nearly a hundred years of captivity and amidst internal chaos around the time of Viola's uprising against D'wamu, the Wookiee broke free from his restraints and destroyed the isolated frozen facility while killing every living thing in the base. With no way off the planet and no ability to communicate or operate the equipment, the savage Wookiee remained trapped in the decaying facility for several months as environmental and life support systems started to break down. It was only after Viola had became Empress that she learned of the facility's existence and its unanswered distress call and went with her guards to investigate. While exploring the damaged facility she found the wounded and exhausted beast, and briefly confronted him before taking him back to Viola's personal stronghold on Renvar (though he had passed out and this made the task much easier).

When he awoke in more comfortable - and secure - surroundings, Viola began the process of trying to tame the savage Wookiee by showing kindness and care for his wounds. Since the Wookiee had never been taught how to speak his own language of Shyriiwook, and there were no remaining records of his existence, Viola dubbed him 'Sev' after the number '77' she found branded under the fur of his left pectoral, evidently having been his subject number. Their initial sessions were rocky to say the least, but eventually Viola's unusual patience and sympathy as one of D'wamu's other former mistreated playthings started to get through and the two began to form a strange kinship.

Despite not knowing how to verbally communicate, Viola found Sev to actually be very much capable of understanding Galactic Basic, which he had learned over many years by listening to the scientists who experimented on him. Though he could not speak it himself - Wookiees don't have the proper vocal chords to speak anything besides their native language - Sev would indicate understanding, approval and disapproval through simple nodding and shaking his head and guttural growls, grunts and snarls. He eventually came to understand what he was as a Wookiee, why he was different to the other humanoids who had been in the facility, and that Viola had killed the one responsible for his torment when she overthrew D'wamu. In addition, she had also been the one to free him from being trapped in the abandoned facility and had treated his wounds, fed him, and shown more kindness towards him than any other had before despite having had every chance to leave him to die. Feeling powerfully loyal to her before very long (in what she would later try to explain is the driving force behind what the Wookiee culture considers a Life Debt), Sev began to follow Viola very closely and rarely left her side unless instructed to and even then only to the extent that he was instructed to, as if by the letter. This arrangement had it's early hiccups, such as an incident wherein he tore the arm off one of Viola's stewards and beat him to death with it for insisting Sev move aside. It wasn't long before this situation prompted Viola to make him her personal bodyguard and a special member of her Royal Guards, giving him clearance from the other soldiers and servants in her service as well as the pseudo-authority to rip the arms off whomever tried to get in the way.

Though not everything has gone especially perfect; Sev is incredibly stubborn, paranoid, quick to flaring anger, dependant, and difficult to bring into public settings. His more animalistic tendencies have led to some to treat him as such (at their peril), and his inability to communicate have complicated some security matters where Viola has not been around to mediate. In addition, ever since making Sev her personal bodyguard there have persisted rumors among detractors that Sev sleeps in Viola's bedchambers like a hound at the foot of the bed. Though others insist that the Empress takes the Wookiee into her bed in a more primal way to sate her more impassioned needs. There has been one recorded incident wherein Sev has overheard these claims, after which he tore out the Ambassador's throat with his teeth and presented his head to Viola with its face still twisted in horror.