Celeste McNair

Celeste McNair is head of the Night Sisters. For a while, she was the personal bodyguard of Forgottenlord, but later showed preference to running the security for the entire Capitol Building of Forgottenlands, being by his side only on the odd time he left. However, the time they spent made them best friends. By the time the Angel of Light Operation was activated, she and Forgottenlord had chosen to take their friendship to the next level.

Celeste is a major character within the Forgotten Territories and one of the most prominent of the Night Sisters.

History

Early Childhood

Celeste McNair, the bastard daughter of a sex slave and her mother's owner, grew up knowing poverty. Her mother had been sold the moment she had been determined pregnant - or at least a sale was attempted. When no one would take her, Celeste's father abandoned his slave on the highway, several miles away from their city. He had hoped she would die, and then he could claim the compensation for her escape and subsequent death. He only got the money for the escape (though it was still enough for him to acquire a new slave, with whom he used the same plan and had more success).

Celeste spent her infancy on the streets. Many considered her situation to be impossible to survive, yet she seemed to be able to survive cold, hunger, and even the occasional violent episode. She learnt to dance and sing and became proficient enough at both to earn a small living as a street artist.

Recaptured

When Celeste was 14, the two were taken into custody in what Celeste would later claim were “bogus charges”. Once their identities were processed, the Police determined that Celeste’s mother was the escaped slave and correctly identified Celeste as the child her mother had been carrying at the time of her “escape”. This made Celeste officially a slave to her father, and the two were returned to his custody. When her father discovered that he not only would be receiving one of his former slaves but had a bonus of a daughter, he became truly happy – for him it was a dream come true. Celeste would later state:

“My mother might have provided sexual relief for him, but he saw me as a beautiful woman he truly wanted to rape. I was innocent, clean, young and pretty. He could not have bought such a slave. There was only one protection that existed for me: he wasn’t allowed to touch me until I was 16. However, those qualities he was willing to wait for, and in the interim, he had my mother to keep him satisfied. He could, however, make me watch.”

For two years, Celeste was forced to watch as her father raped her mother, normally more than once a day. Occasionally, she could persuade her father to allow her not to watch, but that merely meant that she had to listen to her mother's screams of terror and torture. It is suggested that this was the time when she started discovering her psychic powers which, while undeveloped at the time, kept her linked to the events that happened within the room.

It is unknown why, but Celeste had her 16th birthday and still hadn’t been touched by her father. In fact, it would be a whole month before he would decide it was finally time to turn his attention to her. Her mother, at the time, was pregnant again and well into her 5th month.

Mother's Love

One night, when everything had been put in place for yet another round, Celeste sat in the slave room, but she heard nothing; she sensed nothing. She knew (without understanding how she knew it) that that night was the night. According to Celeste, this knowledge made her extremely aware of what was happening in her father’s room.

Her mother tried to plead with her father to no avail. When he began to leave the room, she attacked him in a fruitless attempt to make him stop. This drove him into a fit of rage and he threw her against the wall. He beat multiple times, each one in the head. His undernourished slave wasn’t able to take the punishment and died, yet still he beat her.

Celeste sensed her death, and the emptiness it left. With emotions of rage, sorrow, love and despair all mixed together, she released a scream that pierced the night, a scream that didn't just echo through her mouth, but in ways she didn't understand. All she understood was that her mother had failed to protect her, her father had forever separated her from the closest person to her, and that she would soon meet the fate her mother met every night.

As she calmed down, she developed a level of resolve. She would not be the victim of her father; she would not meet her mother's fate. She prepared herself to fight her father, to prevent him from ever doing anything to her.

She needn't have bothered. If she had tried to sense what was going on around her, she would have realized that in that burst of emotion, she had sent a psychic wave that had knocked her father out - bursting blood vessels, causing multiple strokes and heart attacks, killing him.

The Sisterhood

Her release had also attracted others who were attuned to the psychic ways.

The Night Sisters came that night. While Celeste was not the most powerful potential sister that had ever attracted their interest, she was the first that they sensed through such a manner. Normally, padawans were found by passing through the crowd and sensing another psychic presence. The release was extraordinary for any level of psychic, but emotional releases were uncontrolled - or at least, not consciously controlled. Thus, most Night Sisters never allowed themselves to get to the point where such a powerful burst could occur.

Before officials had arrived to investigate the disappearance of Celeste’s father, they were gone. The people who inherited Celeste’s slavery decided it was not worth pursuing her and gave her an effective freedom. It is known that Police never identified any logical cause for the burst blood vessels and eventually declared it a fluke medical incident.

The Night Sisters were at their low point. They had been separated from their main master, Tristan Angel for three years and knew they could not return to the Nolak clans and seek out their other master. Tristan had never given them a leader and while the Elder’s had some level of authority, they had no true leadership. So, the Night Sisters had simply devoted themselves to expanding their numbers and finding their lost master.

Through the Ranks

Celeste excelled in her training. Within a month, she broke the record for fastest to take the Ceremony of Acceptance. Her guilt of not being able to protect her mother drove her to become particularly skilled in combat. She was given the battle rank of Night Sister Warrior within another month of becoming a member of the order – a record no one else came close to matching. With a degree of hesitancy, the Elders broke tradition and gave her the holy rank of Night Sister Priest, despite the fact that she hadn't completed the requirements. They had realized that despite the fact she had not been tested, she had to have mastered enough control of her abilities to excel so quickly to be equal to a Priest.

Celeste continued to train, but with the rank and right of Priest upon her, she slowed in her development and turned to other challenges. Some of the Elders suspected that this was because she was already equal to them and knew it. Others suspected she did not wish to become an Elder. Both were wrong. Recognizing the great honor that had been given to her by the breaking of tradition, she wished to repay the Collective. She expanded her knowledge of the psychic realm beyond what had been put in their literature and lessons. She broadened her horizons in ways that non-sisters can't even begin to imagine, let alone comprehend.

After nearly 6 months of this, she brought a large slew of new ideas and concepts to the order, including at least one method that was adopted as a tradition. The Collective was shocked and gave her the developer rank of Visionary.

Having now repaid the debt she felt she owed to the Collective, she resumed her training with the same level of passion that she had held before. However, this time the driving force was not her past, it was her future. In her time spent studying the psyche of the Collective, she had developed a bond with it that was greater than anything she had felt before. It drove her in the same way that all who developed the bond were driven. At this point, those that had tried to dive deeper than the mere presence and outward manner would have discovered that she was equal to the Elders. However, the Elders were so busy admiring their star pupil like a trophy that they failed to notice the greatness it had achieved.

Pushing the Boundaries

Two days before Celeste attained the battle rank of Blademaster, the Elders found their master within Aberdeen. Pausing only to test their pupils to see if any deserved to be advanced (Celeste, of course, passed), they set off to rejoin their master.

It was a long journey, and they had nothing but feet and their powers to use. However, Celeste was amongst a few who developed ways to hasten the journey. Celeste also invented two new rituals for journeys and a method for slumber that is used whenever a Night Sister is supposed to be on duty – allowing them to remain awake and attentive while their mind effectively slept, ready to be brought to full alertness if needed. Celeste was given the Developer rank of Angel Master - or Master of the ways of the Angel Fire.

The elders should have realized then, if not before, that their star pupil was one of them. Yet again, they were blind to what she was capable of. Some historians speculate on whether the group of Elders who suggested she didn't want to be one had won the leading line of thought within the order. Regardless, despite proving herself yet again and having developed as many methods to match all the Elders combined, she was still not promoted to an Elder.

However, Celeste felt no jealousy. She was a Night Sister. They had bestowed on her some of the greatest honors a Night Sister could ever hope for. She had moved through the ranks faster than any Night Sister before her. She was at peace, she was without her emotions, and she continued to quest through the Collective, the mist and beyond.

However, with it came questions about how the order functioned. It wasn't a challenge to them - she wasn't calling for changes. She was calling for evaluations. She was calling for them to think about how they operated. The Elders were surprised with these and often struggled to answer her questions.

In truth, many of their rituals were completely illogical for what they stood for. Many of their beliefs did not match what the Collective believed. It was the lasting legacy of the Angel Fire's hopes and attempts to shape them, but they were obsolete in her absence. The order, however, refused to drop any of the traditions for their allegiance was still to the Angel Fire; their master had not changed.

Celeste accepted that answer, but soon started asking more - this time about the nature of the Collective and the psychic realm. Unlike her previous expansions of thought, she did this one across the Collective, posing the puzzles for all to consider. Her results were less than wonderful, but they still answered many problems that she could not solve on her own.

However, while the Collective were only mildly aware of this, she knew that something was wrong with her. She was feeling glee at her continual dives at the borders of knowledge, and the edge of the Collective. She enjoyed the quest for further knowledge and always was thirsty for more. With it came the emotions of frustration, joy, anger and love. For the time, it only freed her mind to delve deeper into the realm of knowledge. Celeste’s training to be devoid of emotion was failing in the face of her quest for knowledge.

Meeting the Angel Fire

They came to Angel Fire. While the Collective's mood noticeably changed, it was that of those around them that was more noticeable. They were oppressed, and she could sense it in every soul they passed. It gave Celeste a sense of foreboding to meet the woman who would wish to submit these people to this life.

Eventually, they arrived in front of the Angel Fire. A shiver came across Celeste as she focused upon her new master. While there was a tang of surprise from the Angel Fire, but it was nothing compared to the waves of pure, unabated rage that flew off of her. Celeste could feel the years of anguish that Tristan had suffered. All of the other sisters bowed their heads in honor of the Angel Fire, Celeste could not move. She was paralyzed by the waves of anger, hatred, jealousy, rage, and bloodlust that washed over her, again and again and again. All she was able to do was start looking at those waves and try to understand what they meant.

In that moment, she understood more than any other Night Sister had ever understood. She learnt of the Angel Fire's past, and slowly followed the trail of everything that happened to her, everything that had shaped her into the monster that she had become. The 17 year old Celeste developed a degree of wisdom that few ever obtained and a kinship to the Angel Fire that not even Forgottenlord possessed. If she was not a master of her emotions and her powers, she would have released a psychic storm at that moment, venting everything that had washed over her in that moment - probably with the power of a nuclear bomb.

Regaining control, she too bowed in servitude, but not before the Angel Fire had noticed. However, while she heard her name uttered by one of the elders, the Angel Fire didn't seem interested in details or punishment. Celeste could not penetrate the evil within the woman to find out what she was thinking; even with her understanding, there was too much power in there. She would’ve needed the power of the Collective to process it, but she dared not release it across the Collective for few would have been able to muster the control she was employing. She knelt there and awaited her fate.

But nothing happened.

The New Leader

Celeste and the Elders were sent to visit Forgottenlord. He would be an equal master to their old one (she had tried to make him the sole master but the Elders wouldn't hear of it). Celeste didn't understand why she was being ordered to go, but she followed anyways. When they arrived in Forgotten City, she sensed something much different: happiness, friendliness, warmth. Finally, she was able to vent the evil she had felt in that desolate land.

Forgottenlord had apparently been briefed. He discussed with the Elders for a while before he turned his attention to Celeste. He asked her what she thought of the Night Sister order. She gave it a high praise, but as she spoke, she could sense that he didn't believe her. He ordered her to be truthful, and so she did.

She reiterated every question she had ever posed to the order and why she felt that the order could not sufficiently answer them. She could tell that he was happy about something. He turned to the Elders and told them they had made a good choice. Her confusion triggered a need for the Elders to explain.

While she had cut herself off from the Collective, guarding the evil she had inhaled, the Collective had been asked to pick a leader. She hadn't heard them ask the question, nor had she heard the answer - but the answer was unanimous and immediate. Celeste McNair was the new leader of the order and had been granted the holy rank of Elder.

Shock was the only word for it. She didn't even think herself worthy of this honor, but she had attained it, and only after slightly more than a year of service

Preferring the atmosphere of Forgottenlands over that of Angel Fire, she assigned herself immediately to Forgottenlord's personal bodyguard detail. She changed many of the traditions and added new ones. She continued to dive into the limits of their knowledge, only to come out with greater tools to work with. She encouraged thought and even, to some extent, passion. Eventually, she developed a method that allowed her to stand in the Angel Fire's presence without being overwhelmed. Her greatest invention, however, is considered to be the ability of Night Sisters to become invisible.

Yet, she doesn't often implement this ability. When she's in Forgottenlord's office, she implements it to great efficiency. However, she prefers to be visible and always at his shoulder when he makes speeches to the public at large.

Terrorist Attack in Dancing Bananland

While Celeste did not have much in terms of a direct effect in the Terrorist Attack, the incident drove a sharp division into the roles of their two primary masters. Forgottenlord had ordered an information blackout towards Tristan regarding the possibility of the attackers being Kane Clan forces. Tristan was at the Eramian Summit and thus her only point of contact was through the Night Sister Jane Allen. As such, the Collective became divided on how to approach the matter.

Celeste knew her loyalties remained with Forgottenlord, but she knew that to act on those loyalties automatically would do nothing for keeping the peace. Allen was particularly vigilant on the need to update Tristan, but the longer serving and more respected Elders such as Kelsey Thompson eventually shouted her down. Allen quickly found herself outnumbered and backed off, but not without making her disgust with the decision known. It would start a bitter rivalry between Celeste and Allen as they continued to dispute who the more important master was.

Celeste also played a minor role in the subjugation of Liz Paul but there was little of consequence from this event.

Ronalk’s Rampage

Celeste found herself guarding a man who almost never walked into a remotely interesting area. Indeed, he conducted almost all of his business from the confines of the Capitol building. As such, Celeste saw almost no action while others such as Jane and numerous others had found themselves in the middle of large fights, most notably the operations in Hekloslogravia and the two raids against Kane Clan forces but also a variety of smaller incidents and espionage events. Aside from the subjugation of Liz Paul, Celeste hadn’t even seen any action by the time of Nikki Ronalk’s assault on the Forgotten Council.

Despite having to go through the security teams at the front door and intercepting three Night Sisters just beyond them, Ronalk’s presence wasn’t broadcasted across the Collective until she was nearly outside the Forgotten Council’s doors. No explanation has ever been given as to why this security error occurred, but alas it did occur.

Regardless, when the alert did go out, Celeste had just enough time to run from her seat at the Forgotten Council to his side where she ended up taking a bullet for him. Numerous other Night Sisters also perished in the attack along with many of their charges.

In the aftermath of the attack, Celeste discovered that Forgottenlord had developed strong feelings for her, to the point that she had to order him to leave her when he refused to leave for a safe location. She would eventually drag herself to a secure room where she slipped into a healing trance.

The bullet was a specialized one. Celeste’s wound was not supposed to have been very major, but the fact that she had to slip into a healing trance showed that the wound was much more serious. A similar bullet wound to Alison Riben sent the Forgottenlands Prime Minister into a coma. The bullet was specially designed by Dancing Bananland which injected a chemical for the purpose of preventing clotting of the blood, making even minor injuries potentially deadly. In her healing trance, Celeste was able to purge the chemical from her body and was awake again within a couple of days. However, she refused to enter into a relationship with Forgottenlord and decided to pull herself off his personal detail and take up the job of security for the Capitol Building.

Her choice of not getting involved with Forgottenlord was due to numerous reasons including a concern about conflict of interest – the head of the Night Sisters dating one of their main masters would likely create animosity within the Collective. However, the true reason was not amongst those that she gave, and it would be many months before she would admit it to anyone: she still had not come to terms with her father’s intent. She still carried the scars of what he wanted to do and it made her afraid of becoming intimate with Forgottenlord.

Angel of Light Operation

The Angel of Light Operation was what Celeste would later call her greatest failing. The 4-month underground operation had, more than once, perked Celeste’s interest and she had often noted Jane Allen’s suspicious behavior. During this time, Jane became the only Night Sister to successfully guard a secret from multiple extraction attempts by other Night Sisters, let alone the most powerful of them all. Celeste also monitored Tristan’s activities closely and knew about most of her meetings with other members of those who were working on the operation. Tristan and Jane both knew that Celeste was investigating and had heavily guarded themselves against her attempts to pry by limiting their knowledge to the project and leaving trusted individuals in charge of the operation.

Despite knowing all of this, Celeste had nothing in terms of hard evidence. As such, she didn’t feel she had enough to bring the matter to Forgottenlord’s attention. She would later note guilt towards the matter.

Near the end of the operation, Tristan made her come to terms with her fears and encouraged her to pursue her feelings for Forgottenlord. The two would be a couple by the time the Operation was launched.

Positions Held

In reverse chronological order

• Head of Presidential Detail: external visits (current)
• Chief of Security: Forgottenlands Capitol Building
• Bodyguard of Forgottenlord
• Leader of the Night Sisters (current)
• Night Sister Elder (current)
• Night Sister Angel Master (current)
• Night Sister Blademaster (current)
• Night Sister Visionary
• Night Sister Preist
• Night Sister Warrior
• Night Sister (current)
• Night Sister Padawan

Persona and Character

Her age and lack of front-line experience makes her feel unworthy of leading the Night Sisters. Because she serves as the personal bodyguard to the one man who almost never leaves the borders of the Forgotten Territories, she has little opportunity to fill in this experience. This insecurity drives most of her methods. Her calm demeanor to her lengthy fear of pursuing a relationship with Forgottenlord to her handling of disputes within the collective all stem from being uneasy of the position.

Appearance

At 5'4", Celeste does not instantly look like a threat. Like all Night Sisters, her hair is long, though a dirty blond shade and she regularly changes style of - often several times a day and sometimes picking a style that seems to defy gravity. Her eyes are a natural fiery brown, but they have been known to vary from a dull blue to a sharp green at times. Some suspect it is the tasks she's doing at the psychic level that determines this.

She wears a full suit designed to shows as minimal skin as possible while at the same time give her as much range of motion as is possible. While this material still allows her nearly unlimited motion, she finds her clothing limiting and would prefer not wearing anything to allow greater flexibility

Important Relationships

Forgottenlord

The respect the two held for each other was instantaneous. Forgottenlord saw an intelligent woman looking to expand the knowledge base and question everything that was considered to be a given. Celeste saw a calm ruler that compared favorably to that of his sister. However, this developed into a friendship, in part due to the nature of her assignment. As his personal bodyguard, she often watched over his security within his own home – often resting in his living room where most of the exits were located. As such, they found themselves with plenty of opportunity to talk. Alienated and segregated from most of the rest of the world, they each found the other’s company as one of the few they could each be open with. They quickly became close friends. During Ronalk’s raid on the Forgotten Council, it was realized that this friendship had become much more than that, but they had agreed not to pursue such a relationship. They would later revisit and reverse their decision on the matter after the Angel of Light Operation

Tristan Angel

Celeste is one of the few that isn’t afraid of the Angel Fire. The understanding she had developed with the woman forged a bond between them. However, she was still uncomfortable working with the woman and is continually suspicious of her.

After Ronalk’s raid, Tristan started treating Celeste more like a family member than an employee. This approach did nothing to relieve Celeste’s tensions around the Angel Fire and actually made her even less comfortable with the elder woman.

Liz Paul

There are few that Celeste is as cautious with as with Liz. Heeding the concerns from the Aberdeen Regional Court, Celeste has assigned numerous Night Sisters to trail Liz no matter where she is. Celeste is continually suspicious of the Zerg Queen and is very cautious in her approach. The two often clash the odd time they actually meet one-another.

Jane Allen

If Celeste is Forgottenlord’s voice in the Collective, Jane is Tristan’s. Jane’s continual belief that Tristan is the true master coupled with her extensive history of military service (notably, under the Nolak Clans) and continually ending up in the middle of a fight, the two continually end up rivaling one another, often trying to fight for their respective preferred master’s position within the Collective and drumming up support. Celeste’s rank normally wins such debates, but the two remain fierce opponents. However, they are both aware of their primary responsibility and retain a level of respect for one another, knowing that their masters work together despite similarly opposing beliefs and histories.

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