Tangress

Class: Jedi Consular / Shadow Tank
Race: Cathar
Age: ~23
Alignment: Dark
Crew Skill: Biochem
Character Concept:
A troubled Jedi who struggles with anger and an obsession with power
Important Relationships:
- Dianiss
- Galadina
- Kendsel
(All were Padawans on Tython at the same time.)

Even as a child, Tangress had a bit of a chip on her shoulder, and was always feeling as though she had to prove herself time and again. By the time she was found by the Jedi, she was already a very angry young girl. This, along with the way she grew to enjoy physical combat, made her Jedi training all the more difficult.

Her struggles continued as she matured and better learned to use the abilities that her Force sensitivity granted her. By the time she became a Padawan, her drive to prove herself evolved into an obsession with understanding and extending her innate Force power so that she could be the best Jedi that the Order had ever seen.

But, unfortunately for her, this pride--bordering on arrogance--worked more against her than for her. Her Jedi masters were repeatedly warning her about her attitude, but that turned out to only be her 2nd biggest problem.

Her biggest problem was that she had the misfortune of being on Tython at the same time as several other highly-gifted Padawans whom she would come to resent. In all of her best attempts to excel, she would seem to always fall short of some other Padawan who outdid her in some way.

It began with becoming a Padawan: Tangress wanted--indeed, felt she deserved--to study under the tutelage of one of the Masters from the Jedi High Council. But the two Shadows who sat on the Council, Grandmaster Satele Shan and Master Annanya Yaya, ended up choosing others in her place (the Kiffar Padawan Shigar Konshi and the Mirialan Padawan Kendsel DeReyna, respectively).

Soon after, her drive to be the best at her combat training was overshadowed by another Padwan, the Miraluka Galadina. Tangress was every bit as dedicated to her own training as Galadina, but found herself jealous of the attention Dina received from "Padawan" Zedemm. In Zedemm, Tangress felt as though she'd found a kindred spirit--but she could never capture his attention the way Dina did, no matter how fierce a fighter she could become.

But the absolute worst was a human girl named Dianiss. Dianiss was exactly what Tangress aspired to be: incredibly powerful, with the eyes of all the Masters closely watching her because of it. But the more she tried to compete with Dianiss, the more she kept coming up short, and the more she grew to regard Dianiss with contempt and even a touch of hatred for the way things came so easily for her. (It didn't help that Dianiss' carefree attitudes about mating completely flew in the face of Tangress' own Cathar cultural mandate of choosing a single mate for life.)

Tangress' competitive nature even led her to experiment with "shortcuts" to give her an edge in her trials and training, feeding the growing seed of darkness inside her.

Though she would ultimately succeed in becoming a Jedi (and got quite a good laugh at Padawan Kendsel's well-deserved failure), she never really did fit in with the Jedi socially or culturally, nor even really think of herself as a Jedi.

Today, she still searches for purpose and meaning in life, and studies the use of the power of the Force as obsessively as ever.

Origin of the name:
A melding of the words "Tank" and "Tigress".
Origin of the Costume:
Tangress' "look" is deliberately a set of contrasts. Physically, she resembles a white tiger, despite the dark nature within. Similarly, she wears red sashes that appear rather revealing, despite the Cathar cultural tradition of a single mate for life.
Of course, she carries a Cathar Warstaff because, c'mon . . . that's pretty badass.
Plus, I once again created a tank who is a female with body type 1. Honestly, being small, quick, and agile seems to fit better with the feline motif than big and burly.
Trivia:
  • Tangress is my 11th character, and does mark a definite shift to where the girls outnumber the boys (7-to-4 or 6-to-4, depending on whether you want to count Galadina twice). When I create a Bounty Hunter, he'll be a male.
  • I've been asked more than once why I made a second Shadow tank. Four reasons:
1) I wanted to see the Consular story play out as a dark-side character. In fact, Tangress is my ONLY dark-side character on the Republic side. (I may do another Jedi Knight at some point for similar reasons.)
2) I wanted to have a second tank character on hand--much like I have two healer characters on hand in Dianiss and Kariharra. The guild is a little light on tanks, and I knew I could quickly get one up to speed by re-purposing some of Galadina's (and Zarvell's) hand-me-down gear.
3) I have the beginnings of another story idea, and Tangress fills a need there.
4) I really kind-of dig the Cathar Warstaff and wanted to create an appropriate character to use it (other than Jaesa Willsaam) and wanted to make a Cathar character.
  • Shigar Konshi comes from the novel Fatal Alliance, by Sean Williams, in which he is Satele Shan's Padawan.
  • Did you know? Reyeenaa also read Fatal Alliance, which features a character named Cinzia, after whom Synzia is named.
  • Tangress has not yet chosen a mate at this point in her life.