Samira Kernher (Character)
| Name | Samira Kernher |
| Gender | Female |
| Race |  |
| Bloodline |  |
| Father | Ansar Kernher |
| Mother | Ranaa Oniken |
| Siblings | Aaminah Kernher (sister)<br\>Mikal Kernher (brother) |
| Extended Family | Astera Zandraki (cousin) |
| Date of Birth | 87.12.08 |
| Place of Birth | Sertene-Nauon, Casern, Thebeka III, Domain, Amarr Empire |
| Height | 1.67m (5'6") |
| Weight | 51 kg (112 lbs) |
| Licensed | 115.01.27 (28) |
| Corporation | Praetorian Auxiliary Force |
| Affiliation |  |
Samira Kernher is a Sebiestor capsuleer and former slave who has chosen to remain loyal to the Amarr Empire. Quiet and withdrawn, she keeps a distance from both baseliner and capsuleer society. Nevertheless, her choice to stay in the Empire despite being released from slavery has resulted in both praise from Amarr, who believe that Kernher is an example of successful Reclaiming, and derision from Minmatar, who consider Kernher a traitor unworthy of the marks she used to wear.
Early life and work in the Amarr Empire, 88-107
Childhood and education
Kernher was born in servitude to the Casern Family on the planet of Thebeka III, at the edge of the Ardishapur half of the Domain region of the Amarr Empire. Though not a true oceanic planet, Thebeka III had only very few land masses with the majority clumped together at the poles. Kernher and her family lived in the slave district of Nauon in the city of Sertene on the continent of Casern. Casern was situated at the equator and so was known for very warm temperatures.
Kernher and her family were owned by Lord Eyron Casern, the Holder of Casern, but for all practical purposes they belonged to Lord Casern's niece and the Custodian of Sertene, Aara Casern, by Custodial Servitude Contract. Kernher's father, Ansar, worked as head technician for Aara and had previously been in Lord Casern's maintenance staff. Kernher's mother, Ranaa, was an accounting manager for the Holder of Thebeka, and had met Ansar during business conferences between their masters. Ranaa was bought by Lord Casern after asking for permission from the two nobles to marry Ansar.
Kernher was the youngest of three children, born shortly after her family had been contracted to Aara. Kernher had a positive relationship with her siblings, but she regularly butted heads with her brother, Mikal. Mikal, who strongly opposed the slavery of the Minmatar, did not understand how his younger sister could be taken in so fully by the Amarr faith. Mikal argued that they should take pride in their heritage, but Kernher came to despise that heritage.
Kernher was allowed relative freedom for her first seven years, though she was given extensive education from both slave and Amarr lecturers. These lessons established fundamental principles that Kernher would carry for the rest of her life, and included traditional religious education and training in proper manners and etiquette. Foremost among the lessons that Kernher received was that the Amarr were God's Chosen, blessed with bringing his message to the rest of the universe. Very little information was provided of the world outside of Ardishapur space during these lessons, and even less about the world beyond the Empire's borders. It would not be until many years later that Kernher would begin to learn that the societies beyond the Empire were anything more than primitive faithless in need of guidance.
As a child, Kernher had something of a wild streak that was encouraged by her siblings. Though she paid attention during her lessons, she had a habit of wandering when she wasn't watched, and toying with objects that weren't hers. She was routinely disciplined for these transgressions, though this only encouraged her to better hide her activities.
The high status of Kernher's parents--11th generation and favored--provided her and her siblings better opportunities than many other slaves in the Empire. While Kernher did work as a domestic servant at Aara's estate in the early evenings and weekends, she was also enrolled in an Amarrian school to continue her education into her teenage years. Despite the good prospects for her future, Kernher had a difficult time in the school. As a Minmatar and a slave she was a focal point for discrimination by some of the other students, all of whom came from commoner families and some with worse fortunes than Kernher's relatively pampered upbringing. This had a formative effect on her personality and resulted in Kernher shutting herself inside instead of retaliating against the bullying. Validated by her religious education, she ended up internalizing the attacks.
Kernher's brother, meanwhile, took a more hostile response and was suspended from school on several occasions. After a particularly violent encounter with another student he was flogged and dismissed entirely, contracted out instead as an apprentice to a construction company in the city. Only Kernher and her sister actually managed to finish school, though Aaminah performed much better as Kernher frequently skipped school to avoid bullying.
Kernher found few friends during her time at the school. She fell in mostly with other slave children and the odd commoner willing to associate with them. Few of these relations persisted past graduation, and none remained by the time Kernher's family moved to the Republic. These early relations did however introduce Kernher to boosters, and this would be a problem that would follow her for many years to come.
Higher education and emancipation
Kernher was sent to higher education at a college in the city of Dabara shortly after finishing her primary schooling. She was temporarily contracted to Morad Casern, a cousin of Aara Casern and the Custodian of Dabara, for the duration of her stay, and she lived in a dormitory in the city's slave district. Kernher preferred to focus on natural sciences when she was given options on courses, though she had little choice as to her general degree. Similar to her time in primary schooling, Kernher was given custodial work during the majority of her free hours. Her place of work was an office owned by Morad Casern, a cousin of Aara Casern. Morad took an interest in Kernher, who had developed into an attractive young woman by this time, but his religious beliefs regarding class and ethnic separation convinced him to suppress his desires. He did, however, endeavor to treat Kernher well and gave her many free hours to study along with a gold-coated personal datapad as a gift. Kernher ended up becoming enamored with Morad and even longed for his intimacy, though it never came. The datapad she came to treasure, and she took it with her wherever she went.
Emperor Heideran VII passed away in YC105 from his long battle with Turit disease, triggering sorrow across the Empire. Kernher had attended several local vigils held by slave clergy of the Salvation Church of Blessed Servitude when news had spread of Heideran's falling health, and she set up a small memorial in her dormitory after his death. During the Succession Trials in the next few weeks, Kernher expressed support for Heir Idonis Ardishapur and was saddened by his loss and subsequent ritual suicide.
Kernher was pushed through an accelerated two year school-to-work program at Dabara College that ended with an apprenticeship at a thermoionic desalination plant owned by the Casern Family. The plant was one of many in Thebeka's water industry, which worked to provide potable water to many worlds and stations within Domain and the greater Amarr Empire.
Kernher would have little time to actually work at the plant, however, as her family was released shortly after her graduation. In the pattern of Emperor Doriam II's slave emancipations, and in recognition of their long generations of service, Lord Casern was encouraged to free the Kernher bloodline. He was strongly opposed on this by Aara, who argued that she had put a significant investment into the Kernher children's educations which would not be returned if they were released. She demanded compensation or a delay of the emancipation until they had made up the cost. Morad, due to his affections for Kernher, eventually settled the dispute himself by paying the education expenses out of his own pocket.
The release came as a surprise to the children, though Ansar and Ranaa had been hearing plans for it for some time before. The two had been considering moving out of the Empire, reasoning that they would have an easier time starting fresh somewhere where they were not discriminated against. They had initially considered moving to the Federation, where they believed they had some relatives already, but Mikal made a strong argument for moving to the Republic. Samira alone expressed a desire to stay in the Empire, believing moving to be both frightening and sinful, though Aaminah took her side out of sympathy.
The decision was made for the Kernhers in early June of YC107. After Omir Sarikusa's Blood Raiders released an Insorum prototype over Mabnen I and triggered a slave uprising, riots broke out across the Empire as Amarr mobs took out their fear on slave districts. Though Sertene-Nauon was largely unaffected by the rioting due to Thebeka being a deep core world and one where Vitoc was only rarely used, the panic helped Mikal convince his parents that the family would be better off in the Republic.
Settling in the Minmatar Republic, 107-115
Life and work on Rens
[...]
Republic University
[...]
Pod pilot, 115-present
PIE career
[...]
Appearance
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Tattoos
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Personality
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Family
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Faith
Kernher's faith is very strong, though much of it is the result of heavy indoctrination during her youth. She gives very little thought to her beliefs, and sees them as right because she has been taught that they are right. Though she does argue theology, it almost always revolves around spiritual matters rather than consideration of factual elements.
As a former slave, Kernher adheres to the teachings of the Salvation Church of Blessed Servitude. As a result, her beliefs revolve around submission, and so she views it as a positive and noble tradition. Ambition and desire, on the other hand, are things she views as an evil. Kernher is also a firm believer in the power of salvation, and in its necessity for the "lesser races" (such as herself) who, according to Amarr faith, turned from God hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Cloning
Kernher has regularly expressed a severe hatred of cloning, first noted in an academic essay she wrote on the subject while attending Republic University's capsuleer program. In that essay Kernher remarked on the fallacy of defining hard cloning as a transfer of consciousness, though her paper received a poor grade from her Minmatar instructors for citing Amarrian Scripture as a scientific source. Since becoming a capsuleer, Kernher has become noticeably more hostile on the subject of cloning and she has frequently claimed it to be the most abominable invention in recent history. She believes that it drives capsuleers to throw away their lives, and the lives of their crew, on frivolous, destructive, greedy, and suicidal endeavors such as the Empyrean War, which is often referred to as the Pendulum War for its tendency to swing control back and forth with no meaningful or lasting conclusion.
Kernher's own existence as a clone has been observed to be a source of great discomfort, with her frequently claiming that the real Samira Kernher died the day her capsule was destroyed and that the person she is now is a soulless abomination. This belief has its roots in her Amarrian faith, where many adherents view clones as nothing more than empty shells.
Political positions
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Awards and decorations
| PIE military decorations | |
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Sword of God |
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Admiral's Prize |
| PIE Service Medals | |
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24th Imperial Crusade Campaign Medal |
| File:1ys ribbon.png | One Year Service Medal |
