-STG – STG – STG-

STG Report on the Matriarch of the T'Shora :

Master Agent Valgra to the STG Master

As requested, I've put together an initial briefing document covering everything we currently know about Uressa T'Shora.

I am somewhat confused by the request, as I understand it comes not from the SIX but rather the Wheel Mystics. Most of the write-ups we do are on hostile forces, those likely to interfere with or be the subject of an STG operation or strike. That the League of Zero is involved in the investigation (however tangentially) is highly unusual. As is the security classification.

(Addendum: A separate version of this report, without the header or speculative commentary, is attached for you to forward to the Wheel Mystics.

That being said, Uressa T'Shora is perhaps worthy of such a file – the sheer aura of friendship and, for lack of a more professional word, 'goodness' blinds many to the fact that she is in fact a very powerful biotic, a shrewd businessperson, and a rather deft political figure. There are also a high number of anomalous situations and facts bout Uressa, raising questions I am unable to provide answers to at this time.

Investigation is ongoing (under condition Salarais-White, with disposable agents). An update will be issued once we acquire additional data.

By necessity, this document is not all inclusive with details, but instead provides high-order information that can be queried in depth at a later time. Sub-files on her political and economic stances and votes on the Subcommittee on Sentient Rights may be found (49380-XX-SCSR CC3 through CC19), they are not touched on in this file.

Per instruction, this file is classified Salarais-White, the highest possible classification and only the seventh such file since the origination of the first Special Task Order given by Dalatrass Shiron herself. As such, only the SIX, yourself, and those both you and the SIX agree upon have viewing permission – disposable agents were used in all data gathering and upon acceptance of the report I will undergo chemical wipe to remove my own knowledge of this information.

All information on the Uressa T'Shora is based on four sources: existing military and Temple of Athame records, eye-witness accounts, reports from direct STG observation, and accumulated scans and examinations. The bulk of the accounts is from eye-witness accounts, as Uressa has not been active in a military sense in over four centuries. The bulk of the STG accounts comes from League of Zero observation teams and cannot be vetted for accuracy.

Uressa T'Shora is held to be the most beautiful asari ever born, and is famed for her compassion, curiosity, stubborn refusal to use less than salubrious means to achieve her goals, and above all else her desire for unity and peace. Among the Thirty her stance and the manner in which she behaves stands out, and instead of the expected censure and reprisals one would expect, most of the Thirty tend to act in a manner that can only be described as guilty and apologetic around her. Rather than engage in the typical behavior of an asari, she strives constantly for a state of behavior best described as altruistic love... which is, it hardly needs to be said, the norm.

The manner in which she is treated and how she acts raise more questions than we have been able to answer. In particular, despite the usual infighting among the Thirty, not a single attempt has been made to unseat her or even challenge her demands by the Council of Matriarchs, which is almost unheard of. The ongoing interest of the League of Zero into her activities raises additional red flags - we do not maintain control over them and they act only in cases of absolute and dire threat, which is about the last thing Uressa presents.

Our initial belief - that she was maintain a cover and was in some way secretly using her persona for some personal gain - simply cannot be proven. Despite intense investigation, we cannot find even a single time she has acted in a manner that could be called 'evil' or 'selfish' in over a thousand years of life, and she has given away more of her wealth than any other asari in history.

-STG – STG – STG-

URESSA SIELVIA T'SHORA, FIRST-BORNE OF THE HOUSE OF T'SHORA VANKARION

Overview:

Formal Titles: High Matriarch of House T'Shora Vankairion, Priestess of the Setting Sun (sixth-level position). Formerly Priestess of Fallen Stars, replaced by Matriarch Trellani.

Nicknames: The Light of Athame

Race: Asari. Genetically, of the Thirty. No known upgrades.

Age and sex: One thousand two hundred and fifteen years. Asari monogender. Two children, both with children of their own.

Wealth: Staggering. House T'Shora is only second in strength to House T'Armal, and actually owns more land and colonies. Uressa is the CEO of the High Serrice Council Manufactory Combine, and her estimated wealth is between fifteen and twenty billion credits.

Psychological Summary: Extremely complex. The modeling we have is somewhat assumptive, but fits all known data points. Keep in mind, however, that this may not be fully accurate, since it does not explain some unusual behaviors.

Uressa appears to fit into the Compassionate/Righteous quadrant of altruistic personalities, and is in fact the only person that is a major figure of note on the galactic political scene to have such an outlook. Unlike some, Uressa generally appears to be kind and compassionate by nature, although fully capable of violence when defending those weak and in need of help. Slavers, especially those who prey on children, are one of the few things that can incite her into a raging fury.

From observations, she seems to prize unity that is for the sake of peace, charity, compassion and learning. She is extremely mentally stable – the loss of her first bondmate did not affect her as deeply as some other asari – and has a remarkably steady temper. Uressa values all life and refuses to categorize or assign hate to any living sentient - even beings such as vorcha and batarians are given the benefit of the doubt. The only antipathy she has shown towards anything is geth, due to their attempted genocide of the quarian people and cooperation with Saren and Benezia.

Military Summary: Trained as a priestess from childhood, and spent three centuries in the temple before leaving to take up a position in the Asari navy, where she operated for another century. Returned to take up the arts of a full war-priestess, eventually shelving that to take command of the House upon the death of her mother.

While it has been centuries since she last had to fight, there is enough old footage of her activity in the Second Krogan Rebellions to indicate she is a handful, very skilled with a warp sword and with biotic strength near-unto that of Benezia T'Soni and Thana Vathan.

Employment: Matriarch of House T'Shora, CEO of Serrice Council. Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Sentient Rights.

Significant Family: Two younger sisters, several other family members. Two daughters, offspring with Kaalan Fedorian (turian bondmate, deceased). Current bondmate Vhela T'Shora, seventh cousin from the Lesser House (childhood friend). Related by three bondings to House Vathan. Seven grand children, nine great grandchildren, four further removed.

Overall Threat Rating: Sieltar-Seven , low overall threat. If engaged in hostilities and angered, Black-Collapse Four.

Historical Notes: While the history of any given matriarch is by nature long, Uressa has lived an singularly uninteresting life for the most part, although with a very high number of anomalies. The overall trend is actually rather boring, and a great deal of material is skipped over simply because there is no value in documenting her various altruistic actions (nor is there enough space in the file format to do so - she has saved the lives of literally millions of poor and downtrodden people, slaves, and averted at least six wars.)

As stated, there are anomalies in her history. She was the eldest of several daughters of the ruling House Matriarch, and at birth rather than being presented directly to the House she was taken to the Temple of Athame for almost a week. The usual presentation did occur later on in the following week, but the divergence is notable due to the oddity of it.

Based on League of Zero reports, another anomaly was that she was entered into the Temple of Athame for training at the age of thirty five – barely out of childhood. Her mentor was Ghaensa T'Vaal, another asari noted for her compassion, who died shortly after Uressa completed her initial training. (Note: Ghanesa had much the same reputation as Uressa currently does and held many of the same beliefs. There appears to be some sort of linage of this strange behavior and deference by others of the Thirty – it is not confined to any one House and seemingly passes from one to another via mentorship – we are still investigating.) According to what records we have obtained, she excelled at the training and was stronger in biotics at the young age of sixty than some fully grown matrons.

She was ordained as an under priestess upon finishing her mentorship, and she seemingly disappeared for almost six years following this, although House T'Shora did not seem alarmed and no acts were made to replace her as house chatelaine. Upon her reappearance she was immediately confirmed as a low-ranking but full priestess without the usual trials. This was highly unusual and yet was greeted as normal by the asari. Much of her time, even at this early age, was spent on aiding poor clanless and providing medical or mental care.

She spent a great deal of her time away from her family, not participating in many house events, and was not particularly social in terms of asari parties or gatherings. While she was seemingly devoted to the Temple and a fine priestess, she left the temple after three hundred years to take up assisting her mother with running the House. She was instrumental in formalizing and funding several support services for the clanless.

Shortly after she began working with her mother, she was also tapped (for unknown reasons, yet again) to do various analytical work for the asari Republican Navy. While most of her time was spent in various command centers on Thessia itself, she did travel some via warships. Her analytical role (mostly logistical and involvement in the navy's relief and rescue functions) certainly fits her character but is another anomaly, as most of the Thirty who deign to participate in the military do so in a leadership based role, not mere analysis.

She bonded with a member of the Fedorian family, and had two daughters. This appears to have been a fairly loving relationship, as she spent some time actually living with the Fedorian family on Palavan (rare for a member of the Thirty). The Palavanus invited her to their private moon, which she accepted, and she was very popular in the more demure and uptight turian high culture, but she spent a good amount of money and effort on aiding the poor of Palaven as well.

For about a century she was quite busy - she split her time between her family on Thessia, living with her bondmate on Palaven, and working quietly on ship systems planning and relief planning for the Republican Navy. During all of this she was quiet and seemed focused on attracting very little attention from anyone – again, rather unusual for the stated heir to the Second House.

Once her children left home and shortly after the death of her first bondmate in an tower collapse during a groundquake, Uressa returned home. She re-entered the temple and rose up the ranks fairly quickly, and was instrumental in prodding the Temple into providing shelter and food for displaced turians during the Facinus Outbreak.

Additionally, she was summoned to a meeting of the Council of Matriarchs and after a sealed session, took an apprentice that shocked much of the social circles of the Thirty - Aleema T'Armal. The first-born daughter of Thana T'Armal, Aleema trained with Uressa for almost a decade, before Aleema was summarily and suddenly removed from her tutelage and placed in private educational classes – this is the only time we can find where Uressa was denied something. (Note: Not long after Aleema was targeted by her mother, see STG Files (Aria, Aethyta, Thana) for additional details.)

This lead to a shouting argument according to rumor, between Uressa and Thana, and while we have no details it is worth noting that several hundred members of House T'Armal left after this event to follow Uressa, and Thana was formally stripped of her Temple rank. The fallout of this event, namely the rise of Aria, was commented on by the Wheel Priests at the time as a branch point.

(It is curious to attempt to surmise what might have been – would Aleema have ended up much as Uressa has, heir to the most powerful of the Houses of the Thirty? Was Thana's refusal somehow in defiance of some ancient asari law? We have not been able to find the answers... nor why Aleema was chosen for whatever the mentorship was for in the first place. All parties are remarkably tight-lipped. although it must be pointed out that later in life Uressa was the only one of the Thirty ever allowed to freely visit Omega.)

Uressa was uncharacteristically angry for almost a decade afterwards, and as such gladly participated in the containment of Warlord Vrug in the Second Krogan Rebellions, leading a contingent of war-priestesses in the fighting in the Setara Nebula and on Mraksis III. She was involved in the surrender of the krogan clans involved in the fighting and was the primary reason why economic sanctions and CDEM terms were not made more harsh, although she was unable to prevent the execution of the warlords involved, despite her strong protests that blood would bring nothing more but vengeance.

Uressa returned home again and rose steadily through the ranks of the Temple of Athame once more until she held the third-highest rank. Several things happened at this time to vault her into the public awareness. First, her mother, the Matriarch Calessia, fell ill in her advanced age. Second, Benezia T'Soni began pushing her protege, Trellani, forward, even making vague suggestions of adopting her into the house.

Rather than split her attentions, Uressa – in a surprisingly unselfish move – voluntarily surrendered her position as Priestess of the Fallen Stars, taking a much lower rank and returning home to aid her mother. She spent six years attempting to comfort Calessia before the former died peacefully, at which time she took up the position of House Matriarch. Usually the adoption of a new Matriarch is something of a large event, without outsized parties, grand declarations of intent, and the like. Uressa's coronation was very, very quiet, and her only action was to immediately bond with her closest childhood friend, a distant cousin from the Lesser House.

Up until this point House T'Shora had a reputation as being somewhat ruthless, cold and generally given over to raucous parties (the Vabo were frequent guests) Uressa set out to act in a rather forceful manner – in the course of a year she expended over a billion credits on enhancing medical care and housing for the poor on Thessia and outlying colonies, built seventeen hospitals, threw her political weight and might behind several matriarchal movements designed to decrease the abuse of quarian indentured servants on Ilium, and a host of other measures. All of this reshaped the House somewhat - while certainly still a bit wild in some things, many younger house members try to emulate their Matriarch, and the House as a whole has become famed for being willing to champion the rights of the clanless.

Over the next two centuries, Uressa continued to act in a quietly dignified manner, openly becoming the voice of the Council of Matriarchs to the Citadel and engaging in repeated diplomacy with turian separatists, krogan insurgents, and even Aria. She expressed no fear in doing so, even when surrounded by those who had threatened to kill her, and demonstrated an uncanny knack for finding a peaceful solution to otherwise intractable problems.

By the time of the Relay 314 incident, Uressa's fame had grown, as had the appreciation of many inside and outside asari space. While the asari clanless deferred and feared most of the Thirty, they literally worshiped Uressa, and billions of them hold the position she is Athame returned (which she hotly denies). Most of the Thirty were quietly wary of her, as she would not tolerate cruelty nor abuse in her votes on the Council.

Her acts on the Subcommittee of Sentient Rights has proven a thorn in the side of the STG repeatedly, yet at the same time she was influential in defusing the Venth Crisis when rogue STG units attempted a coup of the SIX, managing to talk down the insane Agent Calith and his cohorts.

Uressa was one of the most horrified by the patchy and gruesome video content of the human's Message, a plea for help as they were on the brink of racial extermination at the hands of the turians. Seeing a group of beings close to asari, Uressa stormed into the Council of Matriarchs and demanded command of the asari fleet. When Matriarch Vuon tried to gainsay her she flung the older asari out of the hall by biotic strength alone, according to rumor.

Uressa's intervention at Sol was a daring movement, as she opened a sealed relay against Council orders to take a shortcut and risked open war with the Hierarchy. Her forcing of the issue resulted in a staggering loss of face for the Primarch, who was shortly thereafter challenged and killed by Praetor Fedorian.

Humanity, as a result, saw her as a savior, while the Citadel Council reeled at the reactions. Rather than engage in political action or taking advantage of the weakened humanity, she instead toured the planet, poured billions of credits into aiding the nascent Systems Alliance get on its feet, and was critical in the establishment of the current asari-human alliance and the transfer of a great amount of the asari technical base to the humans.

Since the Relay 314 incident, Uressa has not changed – the bulk of her time is still occupied in aiding the downtrodden and weak. She has dabbled in art, music, and literature, and is a patron of, in recent months, the resurgent Quarian people. Recently, she has begun mentoring a very young daughter of Matriarch Balansi T'Koro, much as she was mentored by Ghanesa. By all reports, Selica T'Koro is a staggeringly beautiful young asari with much of the same outlook at Uressa.

Motivations:

It is nearly impossible to divine Uressa's motives, unless one takes her statements at face value. She publicly proclaims that she does not wish to live in a galaxy that endorses suffering, enthrones betrayal, and praises bloody war and cruelty. As this flies directly in the face of almost all known governments, logic would dictate she would be either powerless or simply feigning this stance.

However, based on her actions, the expenditure of billions upon billions of credits, and the growing number of beings – asari, humans, krogan, quarians, turians, even some salarians – that literally worship her, it is a dangerous surmise to assume she is not truthful.

The idea of using decency and kindness as a baseline to interact with the rest of the galaxy is on its face naive and foolish, but appears to be working.

Secondary motivations are the protection of her House and the attempt, however hopeless, to reform asari society. We are not yet sure why her often radical demands and changes to asari law are met with grudging but somehow guilty assent from the Thirty, nor why not a single member of the Thirty has EVER challenged one of her demands (save the issue of Aleema).

A possible tertiary motivation is passing along a line of teaching, presumably something to do with how there is a string of asari who act with decency and compassion since the salarian people have known the asari and, if historical records are correct, all the way back prior to the War of the Queens.

Organizations and Affiliations:

Aside from House Matriarch and Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Sentient Rights, Uressa is also CEO of the Serrice Council, a manufactory combine. The Serrice Council is unusual in that it mostly employs the clanless, and pays extremely well. Since she has taken control they have shifted their focus from weapons of war to survival supplies, water purification systems, mobile hospital field units, and other items used in the care of refugees and the relief of devastated areas.

Uressa is also highly active in several refugee resettlement efforts and is awarded honorary ambassador status with humans, quarians, and the volus.

Tactics:

As a generally peaceful figure, Uressa does not like fighting and hates to kill. She will often attempt to engage in dialogue and even when threatened directly will disregard her own safety in attempting to find a peaceful solution.

That being said, when the lives of innocents (especially children of any species) are threatened or killed in front of her, she becomes surprisingly vicious.

In all footage we have of her, Uressa is blindingly fast and possesses almost supernatural agility and accuracy, such as diving between the blades of two krogan warlords to decapitate both with a single arc slash from her warp-sword, or pulling a wounded child out of a collapsing building with a single pull and a simultaneous use of a singularity to pull debris out of the path of the child. Even among the Thirty Uressa is feared for her biotic power, having been one of three to stand at the side of Thana Vathan and use biotics to stop a powerful tidal wave on Thessia.

Uressa does not use any weapons aside from her warp sword, although she underwent rudimentary training in such.

Specific Tactical Methods, Ground Combat:

Long range: At long range, historical footage shows her unleashing flare after flare, literally detonating an entire battlefield from almost a mile away in biotic fire. She will combine the flares with the variant of flare known as Stormcall – she was able to destroy most of an armored column during the Second Krogan Rebellions single-handedly with this power. She will also use the singularity variant Mace of Athame to wreck vehicles, airships and gunships.

It is worth noting that her barriers are strong enough to deflect almost everything up to heavy anti-material or anti-tank weaponry, and that she has been known to use Channel to turn aside plasma and energy blasts. Sniping is ineffective, recommend heavy use of explosives.

Medium range: She prefers to stay at long range, but if closed with shifts her focus to defense, using singularities and the blade variant Storm of Wrath to literally butcher anything foolish enough to get within line of sight range. Very few attackers will be quick enough to avoid these attacks, and she usually backstops this with a Wall of Athame to prevent suppressive fire.

Unlike most asari war-priestesses, Uressa will utilize the kanquess to attempt to reopen range back to long if possible.

Short range: While Uressa is a very powerful melee combatant, she seemingly does not like to kill at short range. If forced into short range combat, she will usually combine a direct killing warp-sword strike with a spear kanquess and the use of the singularity variant Athame's Fury to literally kill everything in the area aside from herself.

If engaged in warp-sword combat she tends to attempt disarming moves rather than kill moves, although again if she is enraged by the slaughter of innocents she will go for the kill.

Warning Advisory: Uressa T'Shora is usually able to be talked down from any fight. That being said, the only time STG units are likely to encounter her is if they are tasked with doing something to asari that she is unlikely to find acceptable.

Uressa's anger when she is exposed to atrocity is fearsome and she is unlikely to back down or accept surrender from those who have engaged in such. As she is a full war-priestess with the capability of 'ripping' memories from minds, STG units forced into combat with her are to engage Protocol Nineteen (manual detonation, ocular flash-bangs and cortex bombs) rather than attempt combat, as victory is highly unlikely.

Notable Allies:

Uressa is beloved by billions of sentient beings, and scores of other powerful figures. Her closest allies would be her own House, followed by a group of Priestesses of Athame called the Memory that devotes themselves to her every command.

All of the Houses of the Thirty (even T'Armal) appear to, on some level, defer to her rare demands, an anomaly we have as yet been unable to explain.

Uressa is friendly with many of the turian leadership figures, including Primarch Fedorian. She has engaged in diplomacy and visited many times with the High Lords of Sol and the quarian Admiralty and is one of the very few people who can engage the CDEM commander Jona Sederis in conversation without resulting in violence.

Uressa has even visited Omega to attempt to resolve issues with Aria. While not successful, she was not harmed and even that vile place did not appear immune to her presence, as a kidnap attempt was actually thwarted by the notoriously amoral Blood Pack of all parties. Aria has publically stated that Uressa is not to be harmed inside her area of control. (More tellingly, Aria has killed well over twenty attempts at harming Uressa, including several by P.) Conversely, Uressa is the only voice in the Council of Matriarchs suggesting they should simply deal with Aria as a ruler, not a criminal.

Uressa has been a supporter of the Resurgency Movement on Tuchanka under Urdnot Wrex, has championed the volus to be allowed on the Citadel Council, and is the primary ambassador for Council dealings with the Hanar Ascendancy.

Uressa has a vast number of personal supporters, including thousands of human knights who swore a vow of debt after her salvation of Sol, an entire krogan clan, and no less than five asari clanless colonies.

Notable Enemies:

The only known enemy she has is P., who has tried to have her killed three times. She has engaged him personally in combat in one of these attempts, severely injuring him and flinging him from atop a star-scraper, but he somehow survived.

P.'s antipathy for her, unlike his usual bombastic statements, has never been explained – STG contacts who have lines of communication with his Daughters indicate the mere mention of his name sends him into raging furies, but with no explanations of why. Conversely, mention of P. to Uressa invokes almost disdainful amusement.

When questioned as to the nature of their conflict Uressa has flatly refused to answer, simply stating that he is a 'sickness' upon the stars and should be exterminated along with his offspring, a rather harsh statement from her.

Physical Abilities:

A note on Uressa's beauty is not amiss here, as it has left humans, asari, and quarians left literally stunned when exposed to it. Salarians and turians are not so affected, but drell appear to be.

Uressa is taller than every known asari, and despite a slender build is, even at her great age, possessed of a vitality akin to that of a maiden. She is not heavily muscled but every muscle on her body is outlined and well defined.

Uressa is extremely fast and agile, as well as graceful. (I know this sounds somewhat overly appreciative. However, there are no other words to describe it, and most observers agree with the assessment.)

Other than that, she displays no anomalous features, although she seems to be much more flexible and agile than most matriarchs, who tend to become slower and stiffer as they age.

Mental and Psychological Notes:

Uressa's IQ was measured at 137 on the asari/human scale, highly intelligent but not genius level. She has professed amusement at such tests, saying intellect is more about how one acts than answering questions.

Her psychology appears very stable, no doubt enhanced by the fact that she is a fanatical believer in peace and the adoration of billions. She tends towards calmness, reflection and is a multi-linear long-term thinker, focusing more on end causes and future results than the here and now.

While she can be baited and angered through deliberate atrocity delivered to the helpless, she does not lose control of her temper and is quite aware most times when she is being lured. The fact that she will engage anyway in an attempt to save the ones being hurt is a reflection of her own supreme self-confidence.

Her bondmate, Vhela, was a childhood confidante and they were most likely sexually active even when maidens. They spent time apart to have children with alien mates, but after the death of their bond-mates reunited. Vhela is probably Uressa's single point of weakness – however, she is extremely heavily guarded (a trio of outcast Remembrance Dancers, a krogan who owes a life-debt, and an entire group of war-priestesses) and thus is not a viable target.

Biotic Abilities:

Uressa's biotic powers are quite literally spectacular – there is little question that if she had wanted to, she could have risen to the position of High Solarch. As stated in her combat section she prefers very large scale siege biotics and can throw these out without tiring for an extended period of time.

She has created a number of small biotic abilities for use in making various artworks, variations of smear and warp for the most part, to allow reshaping of metal or stone. These could be turned into attack routines if pressed – at least once she has killed an attempted assassin by melting his helmet into his face, suffocating him with molten metal.

Political and Social Notes:

Uressa ultimately believes that only through understanding each other and the abandonment of power politics that peace will ever be achievable. She categorically refuses to engage in the use of traditional shadow-work, and has made strong statements against the use of assassination and black-ops groups to harm other species.

Unlike almost all other asari, Uressa does not see the asari people as 'superior' nor does she suggest anyone should defer to them. Rather she presents the proper place of the asari as 'big sister', being a supporter and enabler of other races to rise to the same state as the asari. This is (as you can expect) hotly denied and balked at by most of the Thirty, yet they have done nothing to stop her from spreading her beliefs.

Uressa does not engage in most traditional social games of the Thirty, refuses most sexual encounters with her peers, and spends most of her time working on charities, refugee relief, and diplomacy. She has stated multiple times that if people are willing to die for something, then simply ignoring the cause will never solve the problem, and has been a key figure in attempting to defuse tensions with turian separatists.

Uressa is particularly defensive of humanity and has repeatedly warned against trying to destabilize their government. She was also approving of the Exodus movement to have disaffected asari join the Systems Alliance (unlike the rest of the Thirty) and has been a major player in regulating human settlement in asari space to avoid humans being exploited.

Warnings:

The following advisories are considered mandatory reading.

Combat with Uressa is currently forbidden due to anomalies and Wheel Priest advisory: There are simply too many unanswered questions with T'Shora to risk combat and the Wheel Priests have seen the utter ruination of the Salarian Union if STG attempts assassination. As Uressa's goals do not directly conflict with ours, the strongest recommendation is to simply avoid contact.