Valerian Draxus

Early Life

Valerian Draxus comes from the planet of Rhen Var, one of the most volatile and dangerous planets in the galaxy. He was born into the infamous Draxus family that ruled the planet for centuries. Valerian grew up only knowing the cold and the sheer will to survive. While his family was the most powerful on the planet, he did not grow up in a luxury apartment like people from Coruscant, but instead inside a citadel built into the side of a mountain. Their family could barely ensure the safe transportation of food and sometimes would starve for days because the transports would be lost to the storm. Valerian, though young wanted to change this and save his people from suffering. Though this was not an easy task, as the planet is currently in an ice age and has been for many generations. 

Paramilitary Career

Despite the strength of Rhen Var’s citadel civilization, life on the frozen world remained unforgiving. Entire settlements could disappear beneath storms, supply caravans could be lost in the glaciers, and survival was never guaranteed. Valerian’s father, recognizing both the dangers of the planet and the potential within his son, made a decision that would alter the course of Valerian’s life.

When Valerian reached the age of eighteen, a long-abandoned communications outpost on Rhen Var was finally restored to operation. For the first time in years, the planet was able to establish a reliable transmission link with the Galactic Republic and its member systems. Through this connection, Valerian’s father arranged something unprecedented for the young heir of House Draxus.

Valerian would depart aboard a transport vessel bound for Coruscant, the heart of the Republic and the center of galactic governance. The transition was staggering. For a man raised among frozen citadels and isolated settlements, Coruscant’s endless cityscape stretching across an entire planet felt like another universe entirely.

Upon arrival in the Senate District, Valerian met with senior officers of the Senate Guard, the elite force tasked with protecting the Galactic Senate and its dignitaries. His father had already secured the necessary arrangements, ensuring Valerian would have both employment and a place to live. The intention was clear: Valerian was to experience a life beyond the endless struggle of Rhen Var.

For the first time in his life, survival was not dictated by the weather.

Return to Rhen Var

At the age of twenty-five, after nearly seven years of service within the Senate Guard, Valerian received a message from Rhen Var that would change his life. His father, the ruling head of House Draxus and First Speaker of the Rhen Varrian Assembly, was dying.

Valerian immediately left Coruscant and returned to his frozen home world. The journey felt far different from the one he had taken years earlier. As a young man he had left Rhen Var seeking opportunity beyond its brutal climate. Now he returned knowing the future of his world would soon rest on his shoulders.

When he arrived at the citadel city of Cryost, the major noble houses had already begun gathering in anticipation of the transition of power.

Valerian was granted a final meeting with his father within the ancient citadel of House Draxus. The elder Draxus reminded him that ruling Rhen Var was never about power, it was about survival. Their civilization existed only because generations of leaders had endured hardship and placed their people above themselves.

Shortly after this meeting, his father passed away.

With his father's death, Valerian inherited House Draxus, the oldest noble family on Rhen Var. By tradition, the head of the house also became First Speaker of the Rhen Varrian Assembly, responsible for guiding the planet’s government and maintaining unity among the noble houses.

Despite his young age, Valerian moved quickly to stabilize the Assembly and reaffirm cooperation between the great houses of Rhen Var. His years observing politics within the Senate had given him a calm and disciplined approach to leadership.

Under his early rule, the planet’s security forces and citadel administration were strengthened, ensuring stability across Rhen Var’s scattered settlements.

Rise in Politics

Recognizing Valerian’s experience beyond their world, the Assembly later chose him to represent Rhen Var in the Galactic Senate. His return to Coruscant was symbolic. Years earlier, he had stood guard in the Senate halls as a young soldier. Now he returned as the official voice of his home world. Yet unlike many senators, Valerian never forgot the lessons of Rhen Var. On his world, survival had never been guaranteed. And it was now his responsibility to ensure it remained possible. Before he returned, he gave one last address to his people, to the planet. 

Notable Actions

Valerian has accomplished multiple notable actions throughout his tenure. All of his contributions are well known and well recognized.

Republic Sanctions & Embargo Act
Valerian Draxus introduced this act to economically isolate the Confederacy of Independent Systems and any entities found supporting it. The legislation prohibited trade, financial dealings, and material assistance to hostile separatist powers, while authorizing the seizure of assets belonging to those aiding the enemy.

Republic Economic Security Act
Draxus is responsible for the creation of this act to protect the integrity of the Republic’s financial system during wartime. It reinforced Republic authority over the issuance and legitimacy of Republic Credits while criminalizing acts such as counterfeiting, embezzlement, fraud, and other financial crimes deemed harmful to the state.

Food Reserve Establishment Act
In response to growing wartime instability and supply concerns, Draxus backed the creation of a strategic Republic food reserve. The act ensured that emergency food stockpiles would be maintained to support both civilian populations and military operations during shortages, sieges, or logistical disruptions.

The First Republic Fiscal Authorization Act
This act served as one of the Republic’s earliest wartime funding measures, authorizing large scale expenditures for government and military operations. It provided direct financial support to key institutions such as the Republic Navy while reinforcing the principle of fiscal oversight and accountability during the war.

Address to the People of Rhen Var

People of Rhen Var,

I speak to you today not merely as your First Speaker, nor only as your Senator in the Galactic Republic, but as one who was born among the same frozen mountains and citadels that shelter you now. Our world is not like the others of this galaxy.

We do not live in warm valleys or prosperous cities that stretch endlessly toward the horizon. We live upon a world where the cold is relentless, where storms bury entire settlements, and where survival itself has always demanded discipline and unity.

Yet despite this, we have endured.

For centuries, our ancestors carved fortress cities into the mountains. They built citadels strong enough to withstand the winter and tunnels deep enough to shelter our people beneath the ice. They did not do this because life on Rhen Var was easy.

They did it because survival required it.

And that lesson is one we must never forget.

Beyond our frozen skies, the galaxy grows increasingly unstable. Alliances shift, powers rise, and whispers of conflict spread from the Outer Rim to the Core itself. Many worlds still believe that peace will simply continue forever, that war is a relic of history.

But history teaches us otherwise.

Civilizations fall when they mistake comfort for security. They fall when leaders believe that hope alone will keep danger away.

Rhen Var has never made that mistake.

We are a people forged by hardship. We understand what it means to endure when others would collapse. The citadels that stand today were not built by dreamers, they were built by those who understood the reality of the dangers to come, the reality of what WAR does to people.

And so I say this to you now:

Whatever may unfold across the galaxy, Rhen Var will endure, Rhen Var will survive, Rhen Var will still EXIST.  We will remain vigilant. We will remain united. And we will continue to do what our ancestors did before us prepare for whatever may come. For generations our house has carried a simple truth, a truth that has guided our world through its darkest centuries: “Broken by the past, forged for the future.”

That is who we are. And that is who we will remain. People of Rhen Var, the galaxy may change, but our resolve will not. We endure.