Iradae the Lawgiver

Iradae , sela (a.k.a. The Lawgiver)

If, for the love of the gods, you wish to challenge a droga, then you shall find a united Stenza army waiting for you.

— Iradae the Lawgiver

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Early Life and the Existential Threat

Little is known about Iradae's early life so it is assumed to belong to the standard pre-Unification category of "nasty, brutish, and possibly short." It is known that he learned how to fight from an early age, and that like Creyth after him, he would develop a general distaste for conflict. When he matured, the clans settled into a sort of armistice with each other that he suspected, based on his knowledge of their history, would one day be broken.
While he was a highly esteemed warrior and hunter for his clan, preparing steadily but with some reluctance for the next outbreak of war, something fell from the sky and crashed into the ice on the mountain face. He sent a team of seven to investigate, and two returned to the clan village panting and raving frantically about a "stone creature" that had somehow made their compatriots vanish into thin air. They were unable to provide further information, and sent to the village doctor for an examination. Iradae suspected an existential threat, and went to his clan elder to persuade him to call a meeting, inviting every elder and their top warriors. Most clans were represented in this meeting, with two hold-outs who believed the message to be some kind of trap or ruse. Iradae explained the threat to those present, with the help of one of the witnesses (the other still being too distressed to talk).
During this days-long meeting, the stone creature was spotted outside the settlement of one of the dissenting clans, killing many of its members, including children. The elder and his advisors realized the threat was very real and exactly as described, and sent an urgent warning to the other dissenting clan while fleeing toward the meeting site with all of its survivors.
The clan reached the meeting site within a day with their story, which Iradae heard, and he set to work. Members of another clan had been trying to devise experimental weaponry, and he asked for their input on the situation. Although the experimental weapons were worthless, even against organic targets, the scientists found that small pieces of food could be kept in the chamber for possibly indefinite periods, and this sparked the most ambitious engineering project until the discovery of subspace and work on an engine to travel through it.
Stasis was born.
While fending off the stone beast in a desperately devised strategy including periodic relocation and attempts to fire on it under various conditions (eyes closed being the most common), engineers went to work developing and testing both the stasis chamber and the device which would house it, maintaining internal conditions and monitoring its status. Everything they needed was huge and unwieldy, so discussions were underway concerning where to house it before settling on "space". Then came the matter of how to get it there.
Meanwhile, with the core stasis device finally ready after almost a year of work, Iradae met with the surviving generals. Thousands of Stenza had vanished in the effort against the stone menace, and thousands more were simply dead, necks cleanly broken. He learned that the soldiers had developed a watch routine in order to try and halt the creature's progress. While the rest of the structure was launched, and ultimately carefully completed in an orbit balanced carefully with the other two moons, Iradae ordered that the stasis chamber be brought in and set up. He then ordered the men on the current watch to physically place the statue inside and seal it off.
The chamber was sent into space to be integrated into the larger device (which would grow into a network of monitoring systems hooked up to an explosive core: if the chamber ever opens again, for any reason, the false moon is to blow up).

Leadership and Legacy

Word of Iradae's deed spread across the clans. Many even then claimed that he was a genius, though he insisted that due recognition go to the scientists and engineers who designed and built the device, the predecessor to the individual stasis chamber which would see use everywhere from trophy hunting to advanced medicine. (He is to this day credited with the invention of stasis, even though this isn't technically correct and it would drive him mad to explain this, were he still alive.)
The clan leaders met amongst themselves over what to do next. Much of the time was spent worrying about the prospect of the chamber breaking open, and what to do in that nightmare scenario. One of the younger warriors present at the trapping of the creature proposed that, for good measure, Iradae be nominated leader. If he could do it once, he could do it again or find a way to prevent "again" from happening.
Iradae accepted this nomination, seeing a means to ending any inter-clan strife that might occur in the future. Many clan leaders spoke out in fear of losing their clan autonomy to a unified "Stenza state". Hearing these concerns and factoring in his own, he met with some trusted friends and devised a series of rules by which the Stenza could now abide. The clan leaders argued certain specific points and helped shape them into the law of the land, which was then carved into two towering stone columns that became known as The Twin Pillars. Among its rules were how to settle conflicts between persons and clans, and how and when to choose a new leader.
The site of the meetings during those troubles, a tiny village known as Strares, would grow into the capital city of a great empire. Clans gradually settled into their new position in a unified government, as they were allowed to maintain traditional histories and celebrations. Peace was maintained through enforcement of the Pillars' rules, the periodic use of state-sponsored violence, and the integration of all clan forces into a single, loosely centralized army under the leader's direction. The empire spread unevenly over time until it encompassed whole star systems, but the question of whether a non-Stenza could become a citizen never cropped up......
Until Ta'zhen.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Iradae is most known for overseeing the invention and early development of stasis technology, and establishing the rules by which Stenza clans could govern themselves as part of a unified system.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

To protect his people from an invading threat, and to secure a lasting peace between the clans.

Species

The Stenza

Ethnicity

Northern Mountains Stenza

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Leader
Droghi
First of the Stenza

Professions

• Soldier

Previously Held Ranks & Titles

• Leader

Life

80 93 173 years old

Birthplace

Ice Flats

Pronouns

he/him

Gender

Male

Height

6'3"

Aligned Organization

The Nine Systems

Related Historical Events

• 1
  Iradae's Leadership