Helena Draeven Varn

Pragmatic, evidence-driven, intolerant of equivocation. Will give a person one chance to make a coherent argument; will not give a second. Respects competence above virtually all other virtues. Distrusts both the Children of St. Chlodomer (whom she considers theological zealots making her city harder to police) and the Salt-Drowned Choir (whom she does not yet fully understand but whose effects on the missing-persons rolls have grown undeniable). Her distrust of the Choir grows with each new piece of evidence the HPs can present. She is capable of warmth and even of friendship, but she does not offer either to people she has not yet professionally evaluated.

Helena Draeven Varn

Marshal of the Harbor Watch of Seahaven in office 2106 NC to present

     2065 NC -
     44 years old
     Helena Draeven Varn. Medium Human Female.

Overview

Marshal of the Harbor Watch and one of the three authorities of Seahaven, a career Neptaran marine officer in her sixth year of civil command. She is competent, disciplined, obsessed with the safety of the city, and currently in open political conflict with both the Eparch (Varro) and the Citadel Commander (Komnenos) over jurisdiction during the developing crisis. Helena is the HPs' strongest potential institutional ally — but only if they treat the Watch with respect and recognize her authority. Cross her and she will move against the HPs as quickly as she would move against the Choir.

Description

Tall and lean, with the weathered skin of fifteen years at sea. Her hair is iron-grey, cut short, never longer than the regulation field length she set herself a decade ago. She has a long pale scar running from her left temple to her jaw: the legacy of a boarding action against pirates in 2098 NC, which she does not discuss. She moves with the controlled economy of someone who has been a soldier long enough that it has become her natural posture. Her eyes are pale grey and watchful. Her uniform is always immaculate; her hands are not, because she works.

Background

Helena Varn was born to a middle-class merchant family in the Freecity of Neptaris and joined the marines at seventeen against her father's wishes. She served fifteen years at sea, including the 2098 NC anti-piracy actions in the Maroshan Sea where she earned both her facial scar and her first command. Reassigned to Seahaven's nascent Harbor Watch in 2106 NC, she has held the office of Marshal for six years. Her marriage ended in 2104 NC; she has not spoken of it. She has one adult son, a Guild of Navigators apprentice currently serving a posting in distant Aescalapea. Her three known obsessions are the safety of the city, the integrity of her command, and the proper subordination of civilian authority to military necessity in time of crisis. The third has put her into open conflict with both Eparch Varro (whose civilian instincts she finds dangerously slow) and Navarch Komnenos (whose preference for the open sea over street security she finds dangerously narrow). The current power struggle among the three authorities is, from her perspective, primarily a problem of two men who have not yet realized they are working for her, and the day they do realize will not be a pleasant one for them.