Athvur, The New Goddess

Ta’Akaix’Athvur’zezkt’azi Zo’ra

The New Goddess

Identified by their scent and exoskeleton color:

Unbound: (RGB 131, 41, 11)

Bound Warriors: (RGB 101, 61, 31)

Bound Workers: (RGB 111, 21, 0)

Bulwarks and Breeders: (RGB 122, 31, 0)

Bound Bulwarks: (RGB 105, 27, 0)

Notable locations: Phoenixport, Belle Cote, Tau Ceti

The youngest of the Zo’rane Lesser Queens, she became a Lesser Queen after Titan Prime left Sedantis. Born of Ta’Akaix’Vaur’skiyet’sca Zo’ra, she seeks to fill in the void created when her mother ascended to High Queen.

Currently, she sees day-to-day operations planetside upon Biesel, overseeing a small population of Vaurca within Phoenixport and Belle Cote. Of Athvur’zekt’azi amongst Lesser Queens, much is unsaid, as she has yet to prove herself. To the Zo’ra at large, they see Athvur as a reminder of the past and a new hope for the future. She shares her mother's ideals towards humanity, and has taken steps to integrate her brood. She takes delight in many human traditions, often showcasing Vaurca adaptations of human fashion. What Athvur’zekt’azi finds fashionable is known to Vaurca even beyond the Zo’ra Hive.

Unlike her mother or any of the other Lesser Queens, she believes that past allegiances and vassals should not remain such. To her, past obligations ended with their Exodus from Sedantis. Athvur and her brood seek to learn from their shared history and move forward together. Not because of a romanticized sense of idealism, but rather a practical one. To her, the Zo’ra are not what they once were. She understands that change is needed and that to continue forward pretending otherwise is to invite disaster within the political spheres that the Hive is ensnared in.

Her Realm

Her Virtual Reality is an idyllic one that resembles what a human may consider heaven. A splendid, utopian cityscape modeled after Phoenixport itself. Here, countless halcyon days are enjoyed by Vaurcae, who are kept in constant artistic and cultural stimulation from across the galaxy.

Artists among the Vaurcae frequent this VR and call it home after death. Indeed, a revolutionary artistic trend started here, with some Vaurca labeling this movement as post-Sedantis Modernism. In this Afterlife, the cultures of many worlds and species coexist, with some unbound enjoying the excesses that come with it.

Her Realm also houses the ‘human library’, which has been an effort to translate human knowledge, mostly books and literature, to the Vaurcae protocols of processing information when in VR. The Zo’ra database held in her Reality also is modeled after what a human library would look like, with many visiting Vaurcae from other broods and hives still unfamiliar as to how the books on a bookshelf work.

Her Brood

The population she oversees and maintains is the smallest percentage of the Vaurcaesian population in Tau Ceti. The Bound and Unbound populations in Phoenixport often work civilian jobs for the thriving economy there. Athvur has realized the use of PR and image and encourages advanced implantation among her brood. Often giving the implanted Vaurca a stylized method of speaking, with very few slurs indicative of the rest of their species when speaking Basic. She and her brood are at the forefront of adapting Vaurcaesian and Tau Ceti culture together, drawing commonalities in art, music and literature throughout their history.

Warriors of Athvur are rare, and it’s not uncommon for them to feel ‘out of touch’ with the rest of the Hive, especially when compared to the Zoleth forces. This, however, has proven to be a boon when looking for jobs, since they have struggled the least when finding suitable jobs, especially compared to other broods.

While her Workers are mostly busy in the same positions, she has started to set apart a few that receive a special education as ‘artists’, often wishing to emulate human styles and art to hers. While success is yet to be seen, these efforts have been criticized by some more conservative Queens, which would deem it as a total loss of identity. Despite this, the few Vaurca that have begun to position themselves in the world of arts and entertainment have proven to be a good image for the Zo’ra Hive as a whole.

As part of a campaign of good PR of Bulwarks, many of Athvur’s brood are designed to have easy-going, soft personalities that are considered charismatic or harmless for humans that may be wary of the new caste. It is not uncommon for them to be employed as chefs or bartenders, or any other kind of position that can get enough exposure.

Xakat’kl’atan

Because of her age, Athvur has the least Xakat’kl’atan out of any brood. However, those that have been awarded the title are influential in the Queen’s lifestyle.

Ka’Akaix’Fiil Zo’ra

Although many consider it ironic that Fiil died just after the arrival to Tau Ceti, it has been mostly Fiil’s advisory that has pushed Athvur to embrace humanity as much. While alive, Fiil was a scholar of the often misunderstood concept of Vaurcaesian art, and has contributed much to the philosophical questions regarding art itself in Vaurca culture. Fascinated by humanity, their lifestyles and mostly, their art, Fiil has begun an academy of human culture in the Virtual Reality, with many seeking it as an authority in all these alien cultures.

Fiil has also been assigned to prepare these new worker-artists Athvur has planned, with extensive training mostly in literature and visual arts. It is also said that Fiil was the one that introduced theater to Vaurcae, training actors in the Aether to perform classical pieces such as Hamlet, which was received with mixed responses from the audience.

Za’Akaix’Qua Zo’ra

Although Athvur reserved her artist formation program to Workers mostly, Qua was an exception. Showing talent as a pianist, despite the four-digit shape of Vaurcaesian hands, it was encouraged by the Queen herself to pursue a career in music, with many performances having a cultural impact in Biesel. Ultimately, Qua received a prosthesis that allows an extra digit, so that playing the instrument becomes easier, but it has shown interest in adapting human musical instruments to be compatible with the Vaurcaesian anatomy, as well as the heavily vibration-reliant Vaurcaesian instruments to be more sonorous and ultimately received by humans.

Because of its young age, and because it remains alive, as well as because of the pursuits that some may deem too xenophilic, Qua has been a controversial choice as a master. However, this has not stopped it from continuing its pursuits today.

Weavemakers and Notable Subrealms

Queen Athvur appoints any Vaurca who shows enough enthusiasm as Weavemakers, and their numbers have been steadily increasing to catch up with the more developed broods. Due to their nature and her willingness to nurture even odd ideas if they are done with pure intentions, her subrealms tend to have the most variance in quality, with equally as many stunning works of art inspired by famous painters as failed subrealms forgotten by the brood and eventually suspended. A recent trend has been recreating famous Human tourist destinations in subrealm form.

Garden of Splendour

The Garden of Splendour, or Tekaka as it is often known, was designed by Ka'Akaix'Venda Zo'ra shortly after the arrival of the brood in Tau Ceti. The experience is considered an extraordinary paradise. Every inch of the garden is designed with care to evoke absolute splendour and joy, with negative emotions melting away almost as if swept up in the tide. Even with special protocols put in place to avoid addiction, many Vaurca find it difficult to leave. A pattern has emerged of Vaurcae who spend vast amounts of time within the garden, being even more distressed than usual if made to return to the real world. These addicts are known to work extremely diligently, almost to the point of obsession, to be able to return quickly. For this reason, some suspect the enchantment of the place is an intentional ploy by Venda to gain recognition from Queen Athvur.

Gambit

Gambit, otherwise known as Qapka, is a collection of games rather than a single cohesive experience designed by Ka'Akaix'Uap Zo'ra and Za'Akaix'Ret Zo'ra, both of whom found mutual friendship over their enjoyment of the NT-Game! console. The realm includes several dozen human games which have been "upgraded" and turned into virtual reality experiences, including a version of the NT-Game!'s flagship experience: Foreign Legionnaire: Heroes of Tau Ceti, which places participants into the shoes of a Zo'rane warrior during an imaginary Solarian invasion of Caprice and Mendell after the fall of the Foreign Legion, who has to fight to save the Republic. The realm gained some notoriety recently, with NanoTrasen legal teams becoming aware of it, raising copyright concerns. However, in no small part due to impracticality, no action has been pursued. Some of the brood have even floated the idea of proposing this version of Heroes of Tau Ceti as an official expansion, an idea which Queen Athvur has seemed interested in pursuing but has yet to do.

Recent Events

The New Goddess has been busy as of late, availing herself to make ever more public appearances, as well as using the tourism market to normalize the presence of Vaurca as low-wage workers. She has spearheaded numerous political campaigns, supporting more liberal politicians in her somewhat successful attempt to put more non-human species in government.

The recent events in Phoenixport have brought her at odds with her mother, who advised her to leave the city. While she still resides there, much of her brood is now divided between Phoenixport and Belle Cote. Although yet to prove an obstacle, some have speculated her predilection for the city might lead to further incidents with the Queens.

As of today, she remains the only queen to make public appearances and has begun to employ non-Vaurca species to fill certain duties within the Hive.