Carlae Lo'Kee

Carlae Lo'Kee, an Initiated of Action!

Left to Right: Carlae, Xuunera, and Imojin

Hanster Lo'Kee giving a head rub to her cousin Carlae Lo'Kee for sending her on a dangerous mission! Her other cousin Imojin Lo'Kee and uncle Hubbaerrzo Lo'Kee watch this in dismay!

Carlae Lo'Kee (Negeémiliel, 2405 a.a.H. - ? a.a.H.)

Carlae Lo'Kee is a Drow Initiated to Negeé who was close to the intrigue and actions of agents of the Negeémi Senatorial Party just before the brief Negeémi Civil War of 2428 a.a.H. Indeed, she was an agent herself to the extent allowed of her youth.

(Picture to the Right: Carlae Lo'Kee and her younger sister Imojin in the Temple of Doom where their mother Xuunera Lo'Kee is headquartered. Circa 2450 a.a.H.)

Attributes

• Great Enthusiasm
• Sometimes Over-eager
• Skilled Fighter
• Not a very good actress
• Strong Spirit
• Impressionable
• Drow-Like Deal Maker
• Leadership
• Underestimates Danger
• Has the 'Lo'Kee' family face

History

Carlae came into the world loved

Birth

Controversy

Carlae was born in 2405, her mother was a promising officer named Xuunera Lo'Kee. Carlae's birth was marked by controversy as her mother had became pregnant and had her child at age 62 years old, a decade too soon by the Acolyte regulations of the Drow city state of Negeémiliel. Her mother had weathered considerable pressure from both her Acolyte superiors and her own mother App'rees Lo'Kee regarding this violation of the regulations. They had wanted her to abort her pregnancy, but Xuunera refused.

Xuunera refused to either abort or give up her child and the Acolyte officers reviewing the case let it go as Xuunera Lo'Kee had an otherwise nearly spotless record. Given the somewhat endemic and expected corruption in Drow societies, it is probable that App'rees Lo'Kee paid bribes as well.

Despite this difficulty, and perhaps because of the controversy, Xuunera would repeat her mistake with a second pregnancy four years later that she would also carry to term. This would be a second daughter named Imojin Lo'Kee. Again, excellent service and probably copious bribes covered for this problem, although it might have seemed rather flagrant at this point?

Speculation: Xuunera might have had a tricky time covering for this second pregnancy? She might have had to cover for it beyond the usual bribes? In any case, her mother App'rees Lo'Kee could never quite forgive Xuunera for this indiscretion, seeing it as behaving badly to get out from under her mother's thumb?

Family

Xuunera was unmarried until Carlae was ten years old (five years old in human equivalent bio-years), although her father, Hubbaerrzo was always there for Carlae and her sister. App'rees having little or nothing to do with her grandchildren, seeing them as tainted.

When Xuunera reached the minimal allowable Acolyte marriage age of 72 years old, she married Hubbaerrzo. This resulted in considerably more anger from App'rees who had come to outright hate the man.

Early

Hubbaerrzo is believed to have been an attentive father, and later, house husband. His two daughters, Carlae and Imojin getting much attention. He was fairly well educated for a male, and taught his two daughters a great deal before they were enrolled in the Academy.

Academy

Entry into the Academy

Carlae probably entered the Academy at age 10 years old, (five years old in human equivalent bio-years) as she was a strong girl. This would have been about the year of 2415 a.a.H.

Carlae's Performance

Very little in the way of specifics are known, but Carlae is known to have done very well in the Academy, and is considered a 'shoe in' potential student officer. Somewhat ironically, her mother Xuunera Lo'Kee worries about a potential indiscretion that might derail the rise of her promising eldest daughter.

Rise and ebb of the Mother

Carlae and her sister saw their mother a great deal when she was stationed in the capital city for a few years of 2422-2424 a.a.H. and enjoyed the knowledge that their mother was a respected captain who had served as an effective 'police chief' cracking down on the rising Cult of the Flower, and was then the Captain of the Guard of the Temple of Doom.

However, this was followed by disgrace and almost never seeing their mother after the assassination of the High Sorceress Khariel Baener by the Loranor assassin Jamal in 2424 a.a.H., in which their mother was given a series of 'punitive' faraway assignments. This would likely have had an effect on Carlae and her sister as their mother went from an almost heroic status from the recent war with the goblins of the Bloody Apple, to combatting the Cult of the Flower and defending the literal and spiritual heart of the city, to being an 'outcast'.

Maylara Maltree

Family Discord

In the end of 2427 a.a.H., the family got together as Xuunera came home to the capital from her station at a nearby outpost.

Speculation: Probably this leave had something to do with the ongoing Negeémi-Hebonnor War, Xuunera might have been called to the capital, or she might have come to politick for a role in the war and to improve her chances at redemption?

During this short stay, Carlae's parents were attacked and tied up in their bedroom. Xuunera would interrogate the house guards and would--apparently--calmly conclude that someone was trying to destroy her already marked career. This might be the case what with Xuunera Lo'Kee attempting to improve her opportunities due to the war?

It would seem that Xuunera might have still been a 'persona non-grata' as she would return to her station in the little outpost she had been assigned to. She would quickly return, having (convinced herself) that she had stumbled upon a dangerous foreign plot!

However, Xuunera would find that the enemy agent that seemed intent on making her life hell was really the escaped illegal slave Maylara Maltree. Maylara was bought at an illegal sale in the outpost (where Xuunera had been collecting bribes) and her own beloved husband Hubbaerrzo bought the busty slave as a sexual and emotional outlet. This was very embarrassing for Xuunera, although, fortunately, few knew of this. Although Carlae and Imojin would be aware of the general nature of the matter and that it had led to the separation of their parents.

Training the Prisoner

Maylara's life was spared because Xuunera Lo'Kee was grasping at any opportunity to turn this terrible debacle to her advantage. Hence, she never generally revealed that she ever found the mysterious agent, dubbed the 'False Priestess' for her having stolen and used the priestess hooded coat of Laeh'le Dahl'Arak. Instead, Captain Lo'Kee would periodically send her Acolyte soldiers to gates and around the city to supposedly look for this agent. This had the effect making the 'False Priestess' into a powerful urban legend, (also because the Guild of Backdoor Owners was also looking for her), but also made Captain Lo'Kee into ever more of laughingstock.

Maylara Maltree learns that she's no match for a strong Initiated! Carlae proves that her kick can strike down a tall adult

Xuunera Lo'Kee had a plan, however, of training Maylara into being an agent for the acolytes, and turning her loose as the False Priestess to gain intelligence about and incriminate various criminal groups. Mostly the bothersome Cult of the Flower was on Xuunera's mind, however, the Leg of the Spider of the High Council, Danieh'le Dahl'Arak redirected this general scheme so as Maylara would reveal treasonous activities between this cult and the Negeémi Populist Party, rivals to Dahl'Arak.

So, Xuunera Lo'Kee had to pretend to look for someone already in her custody, to do various administrative and law enforcement work, and to train Maylara to be a spy. Few persons were allowed to know of Maylara at first, so Xuunera made do with a close circle that included her daughters. Laeh'le Dahl'Arak helped with the training, so did Carlae and her sister Imojin when they were available.

Deal

May makes a deal with the Lo'Kee girls. Left to right: Maylara Maltree, Carlae Lo'Kee, and Imojin Lo'Kee

Carlae and Imojin would later make a deal with Maylara Maltree, whom their mother had turned into her spy in training, to get their parents back together again in exchange for a letter being sent to her parents in the Hebonnor mountain elf village of Gigfran Nyth. The two Initiated drowlings arranged for their cousin Hanster Lo'Kee to deliver the message, making it look like an official correspondence from their mother. Hence, Hanster Lo'Kee would deliver a letter that she thought was being delivered to mountain elf espionage agents.

Whether May originally had any idea or intention of bringing together the parents of these two drowlings is unknown. The father, and now the mother, were certainly her greatest tormentors. However, she did manage to play 'marriage counselor' and convinced Xuunera to bring Hubbaerrzo back home which would result in a slow reconciliation which was engineered by their two daughters.

Secret Agent

A Mission

It is unknown if the two Lo'Kee daughters were attending the Academy at this time. The Cult of the Flower had been kidnapping Initiated girls for many months or longer. Mothers were beginning to keep their children home at this time.

In any event, Maylara Maltree had joined the cult as an infiltration agent posing as an escaped slave. In order to get her to rise higher in the organization, Captain Lo'Kee decided to give her a successful mission, and have Maylara kidnap an initiated girl. As the cult seemed to have an ability to detect when an initiated was actually a decoy, Xuunera decided to ask Carlae to serve as the bait. This was to place TWO infiltration agents into the cult, and to lull Captain Lo'Kee's enemies into some complacency believing that they had neutralized the acolyte captain.

The Capture

Carlae bravely and gamely is prepared to go on her mission despite her mother Xuunera's last minute misgivings

Carlae Lo'Kee herself was quite pleased and excited about this opportunity even as her mother dreaded taking such a risk with her own daughter. So Carlae had a tracking spell placed upon her, and she walked on a prescribed route to the Academy in her uniform as an initiated, to be attacked and kidnapped by Maylara and Maylara's unwitting cult companions.

Carlae wanted to make things look 'realistic' and probably did so too much. She probably also wanted to fight some cultists that preyed on initiated girls and whom her mother had made a name for in combating. The initiated girl ably fought back, decking her mother's agent Maylara Maltree, and the cultist Chadie Maltree, and was nearly injured from behind by the terrified and frantic Musshil Kesalf. Carlae's spirited resistance nearly ruined the mission either if she'd been killed or had drove her attackers off. Maylara took the chance to use a stun spell on Carlae to end this resistance without anyone getting injured, fortunately, no one noticed.

Carlae Beaten

Carlae beaten by Akordia. Even so, her confidence reassured her fellow prisoners and while not being the most senior Initiated prisoner, they would look to her for leadership

Everything went quite well for the spies, Maylara and her unknowing cult companions got promoted, and Carlae got placed within a secret dungeon near the Temple of the Flower by the cultists. At least now, Captain Lo'Kee had learned where the captured girls were being held. Xuunera received a ransom demand for monetary and functional demands from the cult, and paid the ransom so as to keep Carlae safe and also to maintain the illusion that this was indeed a great capture of the daughter of an acolyte officer.

However, playing a frightened and helpless captive simply wasn't in Carlae's nature. Confident, exuberant about playing secret agent, and probably bored about being a captive, she would bait and actually fight the fanatics holding her prisoner! Ransom paid or not, this aroused the wrath of the dangerous Jabharil Sentry Akordia, who, along with some other Fanatics of Jabharil, beat Carlae up to punish her for being a troublesome prisoner. Fortunately, Carlae wasn't seriously injured by the beating.

Break Out

The beating got rid of Carlae's exuberance and caused her to coldly focus on the mission in a much more professional manner. Which was probably a good thing as Carlae had to wait for the right time and prepare the other prisoners for the breakout being engineered by Maylara. Despite her beating, Carlae was a great deal less frightened than captive initiated girls older than her. Of course, she had an advantage in knowing that help was on the way.

Maylara freed the girls from their cells, and left Carlae and the other girls to quietly take out two guards the level above. The freed initiated girls were to disguise themselves as children of Jabharil worshippers with Jabharil flower themed silk clothes that Maylara obtained for them, or fanatic uniforms for the older initiated girls taken from some of the downed guards.

Carlae was tempted to murder the unconscious Akordia but did not upon instruction by Maylara. The girls would succeed in removing the remaining guards and would meet Maylara outside in the street amidst a Jabharil spring festival that worked to cover their escape. The children gathered together and allow Maylara to lead them to Captain Lo'Kee's house, the older initiated disguised as Jabharil fanatics moving under cover.

The Jabharil Trio Left to right, Foreground: Numeda Tri'Se, Chadie Maltree, and Musshil Kesalf. Background: Slave Larylene, Carlae Lo'Kee, and Maylara Maltree. The two younger girls are unnamed

The Jabharil Trio

Unexpected Tail

The escaping children and Maylara, (and the slave Larylene), had been followed by three Jabharil Sentries who would soon be known collectively as the Jabharil Trio. Maylara herself had made her cousin Chadie Maltree suspicious just before the disguised children made their way to her. So Chadie had gotten her friend Musshil Kesalf and Kesalf's shift partner Numeda Tri'Se to trail her. These three would be detected and followed in their own right by the acolyte priestess Laeh'le Dahl'Arak. Laeh'le would confront and capture the three cultists.

The Actions of the Captain

Xuunera Lo'Kee had since found out from Hanster Lo'Kee about the letter that was sent out at the behest of Maylara. She feared that Maylara might well be some double agent, and also wanted to know what these three captives knew, so she interrogated and tortured them to learn what they knew. In as much as two of the three were the ones that had kidnapped Carlae, she decided to enslave them and give them as a gift to Priestess Laeh'le Dahl'Arak who had captured them, and have Carlae take a hand in training them. Xuunera's true motivations were an attempt to ingratiate herself to Danieh'le Dahl'Arak, mother of the capturing priestess, and to worry, motivate and control Maylara Maltree who had some attachment to some of the three.

Carlae--Little Mistress

Jabharil Trio as slaves in training of House Dahl'Arak. They are attending their acting mistress, Carlae Lo'Kee, oldest daughter of Captain Xuunera Lo'Kee

So, Carlae observed, and took advice from the slave trainer Bruh'la Sard (who was also a slave), and took her turn at training the three when Bruh'la Sard departed to return to her owner, House Dahl'Arak. Mostly, Carlae had the three perform everyday duties for her, although sometimes she chastised them or had youthful fun in using them as 'martial arts training dummies' and the like. Given the hostility of the Lo'Kee house head slave and other slaves, and the Acolytes within the house, serving under the girl that two of the three had kidnapped was frequently more of a refuge and a relief than a burden.

Thirty Hebonnor Slaves

Probably as a punishment for giving a gift of three hostile slaves to the daughter of Xuunera Lo'kee's superior, Danieh'le Dahl'Arak. A 'gift' that House Dahl'Arak largely paid for, Danieh'le would force Xuunera to buy thirty captured Hebonnor soldiers captured in the recent war. Beset with what to do with these unwanted slaves, the mother got some advice from her daughter which helped lead her to 'breaking' and training them as slave soldiers that would be used in taking over the Low Council in the Dahl'Arak Coup.

A Mother's Concerns

Carlae had taken something of a liking to Maylara Maltree as if she were something akin to a 'wildly foolish, but cool, big sister'. This annoyed the mother, Xuunera Lo'Kee as Maylara had used Xuunera's daughters to send a letter, an action that could be seen as treasonous given the war with the Hebonnor mountain elves, and the fact that it put the girls' cousin Hanster at risk. Also, of course, Xuunera had an abiding dislike for Maylara in that the young woman had been the sex slave of her husband, and Maylara liked to 'act out' against the ruffled captain as well.

Xuunera had instructed Carlae to learn from the slave trainer, Bruh'la Sard as it was meant to be something of an educational responsibility to learn slave craft. And perhaps a 'punishment' to listen to, and learn from a slave. Carlae had learned much from Bruh'la Sard, too enthusiastically for Xuunera's tastes, as she repeated back what she had learned. Carlae would be advised by her mother to keep her perspective.

The Civil War

Carlae and Imojin remained at home instead of attending the Academy for much of the year 2428 a.a.H. Obviously, her daughter being kidnapped was a good excuse to keep both her children at home even after Carlae was freed. More to the point, Xuunera could trust no one, in that Populist Acolytes might also kidnap or kill her own acolytes or children as the State spiraled into civil war. The Academy and its functions continued at this time, but at a greatly reduced rate for all the kidnappings, children remaining either at home or at the Academy full time, and personnel shuffles due to the Negeémi-Hebonnor War.

Carlae (and Imojin) had some time on their hands. They used it to try and keep up with their education, they helped Priestess Laeh'le Dahl'Arak with her code breaking, and Carlae worked at the three slaves assigned to her to train when she wasn't otherwise busy. What the noncombatant Lo'Kee family experienced or what Carlae herself did during the days of the actual civil war hasn't been revealed.

Current Status

Carlae Lo'Kee is believed to have returned to the Academy in 2429 a.a.H. upon the resolution of the aftermath of the Dahl'Arak Coup. She would probably have to work hard to make up for lost time during the previous year. Her mother, Xuunera Lo'Kee, would do what she can so as that Carlae's 'secret agent' mission and other activities might be included in her Academy record as achievements.

It might be expected that Carlae Lo'Kee had a bright future ahead of her, and might have become a student officer.

Later

Temple of Doom

Based on a few pictures and descriptions, it has been shown Carlae (and her sister Imojin) as young adult acolytes, conducting business in the Temple of Doom, where their mother might have her office as a minister of state security Presumably the daughters might often do business under their mother.

Academy

Carlae has been shown conducting training of Initiated girls on the Academy, (See Picture to the right) Such activities as instructors are common duties for young acolytes of proven and exacting skills.