Coornan Rhyzali

Overview

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Coornan Rhyzali is the calculating patriarch of the Rhyzali family -- a deeply entrenched criminal syndicate that operates across much of the known galaxy. Though widely acknowledged as a crime family, the Rhyzali maintain a public façade of legitimate enterprise, shielding themselves from persecution through a network of legal investments, diplomatic relationships, and jurisdictions too distant or disinterested to enforce Galactic Authority law.
  His personal vessel, The Irid Axis, is a self-contained city that serves as his seat of power, housing vast living quarters, business suites, hangars, entertainment halls, and the families of many of his children. It stays mostly within the borderlands and fringe regions of space, where oversight is minimal and bribes go far.
  Coornan is full-blood Volengi and, at 126 years old, still considered to be in the prime of his life. His kind can live to around 300, and he carries himself with the confidence of a man who intends to use every year to further his empire.
 

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Father of a Dynasty

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The most well-known fact about Coornan Rhyzali is that he has dozens of children.
  At least four dozen by conservative counts, though the exact number is difficult to verify. His offspring span species, worlds, and roles, and he claims them all until he has reason not to. Among the Rhyzali, blood is loyalty, not biology.
  He does not see his children as liabilities or burdens but as assets. They are raised aboard the Irid Axis to be strategic, intelligent, and ruthlessly pragmatic, taught to seize opportunities, outwit competitors, and command respect. Some are gifted ships and sectors to oversee. Others are married off across the galaxy to secure alliances, extend influence, or embed the Rhyzali name in powerful local governments.
  Coornan’s favour is a coveted thing, and while he is capable of warmth and generosity, he is just as capable of casting off those who disappoint him. The most dangerous of his children are often the ones closest to his own ambition and are found to be entitled, perceptive, and willing to do what others won’t.
 

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Enterprise & Empire

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The Rhyzali Syndicate controls a broad constellation of both legal and illegal operations, many of which are woven so seamlessly together that prosecution becomes nearly impossible. Their public holdings include nightclubs, casinos, resorts, transport hubs, private security firms, and legitimate trade markets.
  Behind the scenes, Coornan’s reach extends into black market trade networks, including:

• illegal weapons and military surplus

• biomaterials and synthetic narcotics

• trafficked and genetically modified creatures

• rare or restricted alien flora and fauna

• hacked AI cores and memory chains

• exotic chemical substances

• slave markets, forced labour rings, and information extortion chains

  Every transaction is layered through shells and intermediaries. Coornan himself is never directly linked. He prefers to operate through handlers, enforcers, and company heads, many of whom are his own blood.
 

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The Games

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Among his many obsessions, Coornan is most drawn to gladiatorial games. He considers them the ultimate test of control, loyalty, and survival, and takes immense pleasure in cultivating his own fighters. Many of these individuals are slaves, bred, trained, or purchased for the sole purpose of competition.
  While he frequently attends high-profile legal tournaments in major cities for public visibility, his true passion lies in the unregulated bloodsports scattered across the galaxy. He is known to sponsor and attend underground matches hosted by criminal lords, exiled nobles, and warlords on fringe planets where death is the entertainment and winners are bought, not born.
  He does not host these matches aboard The Irid Axis, preferring the thrill of travelling to elite, often dangerous venues where his name commands fear.
 

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Persona & Legacy

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To the outsider, Coornan presents as polished, charismatic, and composed. He dresses well, speaks with care, and projects the image of a man who values tradition, diplomacy, and family. But behind his civility is a mind wired for survival and power. He is rarely provoked, but those who anger him are often erased quietly... Or made into public lessons to warn others.
  He dreams, quietly, of ruling the galaxy not just through shadow, but by title. Though it remains an unattainable fantasy for now, he covets the power and reverence held by the Eldri’an’i — an ancient people recently returned from the edge of extinction, once famed for their peace, technology, and mysticism.
  Where they are beloved, he is feared. Where they are remembered, he is merely obeyed.
  For now.