Caithlin t'Leiya

Name Caithlin t'Leiya

Position Civilian Director

Second Position Lawyer

Basic Info
Personality
History

Character Information

Gender		Female
Species		Romulan
Age		93
Sexuality		Bisexual

Physical Appearance

Height		1.8m (5'9")
Weight		74 kgs (163 lbs)
Hair Color		Black
Eye Color		Black/Brown
Physical Description		A fairly average height for a Romulan female, with a fit, athletic figure and long hair that is often pinned up with long inlaid hairpins that conceal tiny daggers, but which when let down loose reaches halfway down her back.

Family

Spouse		V'Lan (deceased in space combat in 2387)
Children		Daughter Arenn & Son Telek (10 year old twins)
Father		Amarik (deceased in the supernova in 2387)
Mother		Ethara (deceased in the supernova in 2387)
Brother(s)		Maiek (82, location/status unknown since 2389), Khaev (deceased in 2388 at age 69)
Sister(s)		Aliereth (100), Laiae (deceased in the Dominion War in 2375 at age 45), Selieke (deceased in the Dominion War in 2375 at age 32)
Other Family		Brother-in-law Tal; nieces Kalahaiea (Kali) (45), Ieliene (15), Devora (13), and Raikael (11). Previously possessed a large extended family; however many were deceased in the supernova incident, or in infighting that followed; and some are otherwise estranged from her (and her from them) due to political differences in the aftermath, or actions they took to survive the nova which she disapproves of.

Personality & Traits

General Overview		A witty but sometimes weary Romulan in (somewhat self)-exile after the fall of the Empire, who has been carving out an existence now within Federation space as a lawyer while raising young twins, and is seeking a stable, quiet home for what little remains of her family.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Intelligent and witty, with strong convictions but a sense of nuance; capable of using methods appropriate to the situation, whether that be logical or emotional persuasion, fiery rhetoric and hard stances, or subterfuge and compromise. Unfortunately, can sometimes have a bit of a temper. A quick learner good at adapting...But sometimes frustrated and forlorn by just how far she has now had to adapt.
Ambitions		Ideally, to rid the galaxy of idiots; but the Federation has, as she has discovered, a wide variety of laws against such things. To try to make some sort of life for what little is left of her house and family, away from both the ruins of her own society, which no longer welcomes her for the most part, and the many in the Federation who do not do so, either.
Hobbies & Interests		Caithlin enjoys running, fencing, swimming and diving, ceramics, and, since coming to Federation space and being introduced to such, bicycling. She is apt to read widely, in part in an attempt to gather as much information as possible on a wide variety of topics and issues, as you never know when it might come in handy. Similarly, she is a keen observer and files anything and everything she can glean away, following the advice of her grandmother who taught her from early childhood that you never know what information might later turn out to help save your life.

Personal History

Born the second-eldest child of the heir-apparent of a Romulan noble house with definite, if carefully expressed and guarded, reservations about the Tal'Shiar; Caithlin was extremely close in childhood to her older sister (and closest agemate among her siblings) Aliereth. When Aliereth and her husband chose to leave the Empire as a protest (albeit a highly ineffective one) against the ever-growing power of the Tal Shiar, Caithlin, though disagreeing with the action, assisted her sister with covertly acquiring the funds and contacts necessary to make the arduous journey out of the Empire at the height of its isolation, knowing it almost certain the two would never meet again. As the next eldest, she then had to take up her older sister's place in the line of succession. She served as an officer in the military for several decades as a legal advisor, including as part of liaison staff to allied forces during their mutual war against the Dominion, before leaving to assist her father in the Senate, where he had taken his mother's place after her death in Shinzon's attempted coup.

When the nature of the threat of the impending supernova to not just Romulus but many of the core worlds of the Empire became inevitable, Caithlin's father, unlike many other senators who fled to save themselves while abandoning their people as a whole, felt it would be an irredeemable stain on the honor of his house to do so, and stayed to face death with his people...But sent his pregnant heir on what he told her was a "fact finding" mission to a world outside of the projected path. Surrounded by the destruction and deaths of so many of her people and many of her own family, Caithlin soon had other problems as well to confront, as the Empire all too quickly fractured in the absence of the core worlds and the central government. Surviving senators, and surviving heirs and replacements such as Caithlin herself, temporarily reconstituted the central governing bodies of the Empire, but the new Senate was even more fractious than the old one, beset not just by the fault lines now exposed in the Empire and the dire issues which faced them, but by recriminations and disagreements over the ways in which some members of the body (or their predecessors) had or had not addressed the threat beforehand. Caithlin developed a bit of a reputation during this period when she challenged and killed in duels no less than eight fellow senators who had been members of the body prior to the nova and had, she felt, irredeemably disgraced themselves by failing to address the threat save for arranging for their own personal survival.

These actions likely played a part in her gaining a seat on the Continuing Committee shortly thereafter; possibly in the hopes of some of her fellows that it would occupy her too much to continue such things...A guess that was undoubtedly correct: Numerous new Praetors of the Empire rose and fell in quick succession, and the Continuing Committee was scarcely any less volatile than the Senate overall, leaving it scrambling constantly to manage the chaos in the Senate, the appointment of new leaders, and the even greater chaos and threats in and to the Empire overall.

Unfortunately, all such efforts accomplished nothing more than to delay the inevitable; and the Empire fell within scantly more than three years of the nova. Though Caithlin attempted to continue to survive with her young children in this aftermath, the situation only got worse as those shattered pieces that had begot civil war continued to more effectively reorganize themselves into smaller breakaway states. Unsafe in the Free State due to her family's known disdain of the Tal'Shiar, rather unwelcome in the Republic due to her previous place in the higher echelons of society, and desperate for safety for her children, in mid-2390 she did what would have been unthinkable to her even five years before, and followed the journey her sister had taken 40 years ago into Federation space. The reunion between the two was both euphoric and despairing: In the end, the pair were reunited against all odds and all expectations; but only because both were now effectively in exile.

Caithlin found herself not necessarily very welcome to many in the Federation, either; but proved a quick study (if downright frustrated by what she considers the bizarre nature of much of it) in converting her former training as a Romulan legal intercessor and advisor to passing the Federation bar exam and beginning work by early 2392 as the local equivalent: A lawyer, specializing in civil cases, estate planning, legal advice, and corporate, organizational, and contract law. Most recently, she did a variety of work for the Bray Foundation; and events collided for the two sisters once more when, tired of the attention her family had drawn on Earth, she looked to relocate to a world outside the core worlds of the Federation, and chose the Haumea Colony on the suggestion of family friend Gunnar Arnason and the availability of a more permanent job with the Bray Foundation, feeling it might be an appropriate place far from the scrutiny and threats of life for those like them in either the center of the Federation or the remains of the Empire.