Alyra
Learn all about my Twi’lek Spice Lord, Madame Alyra, and her backstory on Coruscant. Also including stats for the Edge of the Empire TTRPG if you’d like to use her as an NPC in your tabletop games!
Character Highlights
Owner of the Kyber Rose Cantina
Alyra is the owner and proprieter of one of the most luxurious and exclusive cantinas on Corucant. It’s a place that caters to the rich and powerful, with expensive food/drink, nightly entertainment, and a chance to connect with some of the most influential people in the galaxy in an informal setting.
Alyra sits at the top of that food chain – overseeing her cantina from her balcony, stepping away only when it’s time for a private meeting.
Criminal Spice Lord
The Cantina is, of course, just a front for Alyra’s other business. Alyra is the head of a large criminal operation on Coruscant, dealing heavily in the spice trade. She oversees countless backroom deals. All of her staff – her bouncers, bartenders, even the dancers and entertainers, are secretly trained to be spies, assassins, bodyguards. Those who are in the know, know that The Kyber Rose is one of the safest places on Coruscant – as long as Alyra likes you.
Cut throat and in control
Alyra got to the top of the food chain using two methods: being patient, and being ruthless. With her network of contacts and spies, she is always in the know, and always ready to use that information to get what she wants.
Half the diplomats in her cantina are there because they owe her a debt, or a favor. The Coruscanti Police are on her payroll. Several gangs take their orders from her people. Those who know the name ‘Alyra’ are generally afraid to make a move against her. They don’t want to risk the wrath she would bring down on them in retaliation.
She’s clever, she’s observant, and she works tirelessly to stay one step ahead of the game.
Biography
It’s a story told across the galaxy, really.
Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Girl gets pregnant. Boy leaves girl.
Girl works the bar at a local cantina for a spice lord, and has to do so with her baby under the counter for most shifts since she has no other place to be. Child, an unusually calm pink-skinned girl with too-sharp eyes and too-keen ears, grows and learns that there is power in the loose tongues of others.
Years later, when girl dies and leaves an awkward and now-homeless teenager behind, Child decides she’s never going to be at anyone else’s beck and call ever again.
It’s a messy business, running a spice ring under the cover of a cantina. But the spice lord finds that a certain young twi’lek – gangly and unsightly but quick and clever – always has the right information he needs at the right time.
It’s a story told across the galaxy, really, though most often in whispers.
Spice lord comes to depend on teen. Teen becomes spice lord’s right hand confidante, and eventually right hand woman. Woman’s word becomes as good as law.
And years later, when spice lord declines sharply in health and mental faculties and fades rapidly into the dark of the night, there’s no power grab. There’s no struggle. Alyra has been running the cantina for years at this point, and everyone knows it. Everyone knows the price of crossing her is … steep. Insurmountable. Her dancers and singers are spies, grifters, thieves, and assassins, and through them, she knows everything and everyone around her. The spice sells, and the Cantina flourishes.
She takes care of her own, her dancers and staff, and takes what she wants from those outside the walls of her cantina.
She is the one for whom others are at the beck and call of, and she is good at it.
Kyber Rose Cantina
The Kyber Rose Cantina is one of the classiest stops on Coruscant. Catering to the rich and powerful diplomats and senators who appreciate the club’s exclusive nature and discreet staff. It is seated near the top of one of Coruscant’s many spires, overlooking the Senate building many kilometers in the distance.
The cantina comes with nightly entertainment from dancers and singers and stage performances. Each performer is carefully chosen by Alyra herself, and many of them are on Alyra’s permanent payroll.
The cantina is, of course, a front of Alyra’s criminal spice ring and information trade. And all those senators coming in and out have come to rely on The Kyber Rose to give them a steady supply of both.
Roleplay Tips & Guidelines
Using Alyra in your RPG campaigns
There’s a lot of nuance to a character like Alyra that can be a bit hard to convey in a short biography page like this. She’s powerful… but not like how most characters are. ‘Powerful’ to most characters means the ability to fight off an army. Alyra’s never so much as fired a blaster with her own hand before.
But it’s because she doesn’t need to. She has an ‘army’ of her own. Countless gangs, smugglers, bounty hunters… even the local police will all answer her call. But here’s some things to keep in mind about Alyra if you want to use her as an NPC:
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- She is not the sort of person who feels the need to be honest with everyone about everything… but she’s also not the sort of person who will go back on her word. If she’s agreed to something with you… you can be sure she’ll deliver. Granted, if she discovers you weren’t honest with her… or you’ve put her organization in a tight spot… she WILL prioritize her own people over yours without hesitation.
- While Alyra views most of the galaxy as pawns to be manipulated… if she has personally hired someone as staff, she will move mountains for them, no questions asked. She is immensely loyal to her staff, and in turn they are loyal to her. Any one of them would take a blaster bolt for her.
- While Alyra has her hands in several criminal activities, she abhors the galactic slave trade. Several of her staff were people she freed from servitude and promptly offered a job. It is perhaps her biggest soft spot; she will afford quite a bit of generosity to a slave or ex-slave without asking for nearly as much in return.
- A good reference point for Alyra’s dealings and schemes would probably be either Kingpin from Daredevil, or Fish Mooney from Gotham. She’s very sophisticated, enjoys luxury… she deals with rich and powerful people all day, and ensures that her wardrobe puts even all of them to shame. She’s clever, and has built a network of criminal connections that allows her to stay one step ahead of everyone else.
- She also has a rather thick Twi’lek (a.k.a. French) accent.
Ideas for Using Alyra in Roleplay
Giving the crew a job
If your team doesn’t mind some work of a less-than-legal variety, Alyra is always looking for people to run jobs for her. This could come in the form of meeting with one of her men for a smaller job… or if your crew has a bit of a reputation for good work, she might even meet you personally to discuss a more delicate operation. And whether it’s money or favor you’re after, Alyra rewards jobs well done generously.
Request help from Alyra
If your crew is in a tight spot and needs something – funding, information, some assistance dealing with a problem… you can always go to Alyra and see if she’ll hear you out. Alyra’s known for helping people when they need it… but be warned, she’s also known for making sure her investment in you is worth something to her. And sometimes, the cost for her help can be very high. Not always in money, either. Sometimes she’ll have a task for you. One she will insist you can’t refuse.
A place to meet up
The Kyber Rose Cantina features a very discreet, exclusive VIP section for its most valued patrons, but there is a part of the cantina open to public entry. It doesn’t have as great view of the stage, but that’s probably fine. Plenty of open tables to meet with a contact and discuss business. Just be aware… Alyra’s staff is always listening for juicy secrets.
Getting on her bad side
Having Alyra as an antagonist of sorts is always an option, of course! Not that she’d ever fight you personally… but if you were to upset her operation or make a move against her… she’d find ways to make your life very difficult.
For one, most locals won’t help you if they know you’ve crossed Alyra. Best case scenario, they’d be too afraid to get mixed up in it and killed. Worst case scenario… they’re loyal to her and will turn on you.
Second, while she wouldn’t throw her own people at you (she values them to much) she would absolutely manipulate local gangs and even the cops to try and “eliminate the problem.” So plenty of goons to fight, potentially keeping you on the run.
She might also hire some bounty hunters to come after you. Great opportunity to use some named characters out there. Heck, she might even hire Rio to come take you out, if you wanted to use two of my characters.
NPC Sheet for Alyra
