Katriel was born in Liendel Village in Sehalda, one of eight children. Her childhood was a fairly typical one for the time and place in which she grew up, and she spent her time helping her parents with their farmland and learning what she could from the village teachers. Her father was a member of the Sehaldan Alliance and often shared his politics with his children, with the result that Katriel grew up with a firm belief in justice and the ideals put forth in the colonists' charter. She was not a rebellious child, and accepted her likely future in Liendel, hoping to someday marry and manage her own farm.
This changed when Katriel was sixteen, and soldiers from Valtesh came to their village, claiming that her family was concealing the true yield of their land in order to avoid taxation, and more, that her father was trading energy credits on the black market. Katriel flatly denied knowledge of this, but it didn't matter - after searching her home, they confronted her father in the fields and took him away to the capital. Katriel never saw him again.
The next year, when the Sehaldan Liberation Militia was formed, Katriel travelled to a neighbouring village to sign up without a second thought. She knew that she had to fight for justice, to stop those in power thinking they could do what they liked to those without. At first she was refused, on the grounds that they weren't about to accept women, but she returned the next day with four other girls from her community, and together they demanded to be given a fair chance. If they weren't, Katriel said, she'd go right to the founders of the movement and demand to know why.
Reluctantly, the girls were admitted, and Katriel spent the next year in preparation for a war against an enemy with superior numbers and weaponry, with only the knowledge that she fought for what was right to sustain her. It was difficult, but in time Katriel grew to excel, and by the time the war was officially declared, her commander - strike leader, in the militia parlance - had no qualms at all about sending Katriel along on border raids and targeted operations.
At the same time, life became harder. Trade outside of Sehalda was even further restricted, and the Valteshan military organized retaliatory strikes, meaning that Katriel and her comrades had to defend their own homes as well as striking at the enemy. During a period when their numbers were particularly stretched, Katriel herself was appointed as the strike leader for Liendel Village.
To this day, she's convinced it was, initially, a propaganda stunt, particularly after she discovered a printed pamphlet containing an image of her standing in a field with some of the village children, captioned: 'Little Mother of the Revolution' and detailing her appointment. Katriel didn't care about the reasons, though, it was an opportunity, and she did her best to protect Liendel and take down key Valteshan resources.
It was a time of increasing desperation, and Katriel's tactics reflected that, dedicated as she was to her cause. Before the war was out, she had organized the village teenagers too young to officially join them into a group of message runners and support workers, and set fire to numerous targets across the border, including fields in the dry season. Stories about Liendel's uncompromising female leader spread across Sehalda, not all of them true, and Katriel found herself beset with those who sought to join her, in particular. More women were appointed as strike leaders across the region, and she was held up as an exemplar and a trailblazer. This wasn't enough, however, to warrant further promotion, out of village and into central leadership, and Katriel has her own ideas about why this was so.
Katriel II
Katriel was born in Liendel Village in Sehalda, one of eight children. Her childhood was a fairly typical one for the time and place in which she grew up, and she spent her time helping her parents with their farmland and learning what she could from the village teachers. Her father was a member of the Sehaldan Alliance and often shared his politics with his children, with the result that Katriel grew up with a firm belief in justice and the ideals put forth in the colonists' charter. She was not a rebellious child, and accepted her likely future in Liendel, hoping to someday marry and manage her own farm.
This changed when Katriel was sixteen, and soldiers from Valtesh came to their village, claiming that her family was concealing the true yield of their land in order to avoid taxation, and more, that her father was trading energy credits on the black market. Katriel flatly denied knowledge of this, but it didn't matter - after searching her home, they confronted her father in the fields and took him away to the capital. Katriel never saw him again.
The next year, when the Sehaldan Liberation Militia was formed, Katriel travelled to a neighbouring village to sign up without a second thought. She knew that she had to fight for justice, to stop those in power thinking they could do what they liked to those without. At first she was refused, on the grounds that they weren't about to accept women, but she returned the next day with four other girls from her community, and together they demanded to be given a fair chance. If they weren't, Katriel said, she'd go right to the founders of the movement and demand to know why.
Reluctantly, the girls were admitted, and Katriel spent the next year in preparation for a war against an enemy with superior numbers and weaponry, with only the knowledge that she fought for what was right to sustain her. It was difficult, but in time Katriel grew to excel, and by the time the war was officially declared, her commander - strike leader, in the militia parlance - had no qualms at all about sending Katriel along on border raids and targeted operations.
At the same time, life became harder. Trade outside of Sehalda was even further restricted, and the Valteshan military organized retaliatory strikes, meaning that Katriel and her comrades had to defend their own homes as well as striking at the enemy. During a period when their numbers were particularly stretched, Katriel herself was appointed as the strike leader for Liendel Village.
To this day, she's convinced it was, initially, a propaganda stunt, particularly after she discovered a printed pamphlet containing an image of her standing in a field with some of the village children, captioned: 'Little Mother of the Revolution' and detailing her appointment. Katriel didn't care about the reasons, though, it was an opportunity, and she did her best to protect Liendel and take down key Valteshan resources.
It was a time of increasing desperation, and Katriel's tactics reflected that, dedicated as she was to her cause. Before the war was out, she had organized the village teenagers too young to officially join them into a group of message runners and support workers, and set fire to numerous targets across the border, including fields in the dry season. Stories about Liendel's uncompromising female leader spread across Sehalda, not all of them true, and Katriel found herself beset with those who sought to join her, in particular. More women were appointed as strike leaders across the region, and she was held up as an exemplar and a trailblazer. This wasn't enough, however, to warrant further promotion, out of village and into central leadership, and Katriel has her own ideas about why this was so.