Sauscony Lahaylia Valdoria Skolia
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Sauscony Lahaylia Valdoria Skolia, also called Soz, is a Jagernaut Primary who later becomes Imperator in the Saga of the Skolian empire, a series of books by Catherine Asaro.
Soz is a Jagernaut, a top cybernetic warrior, and has many technical enhancements within her body, including a strengthened skeleton and a computer implant in her brain. She is at the same time a Rhon psion, a powerful telepath who can read emotions and even thoughts, and a member of the Ruby Dynasty, ruling family of the Skolian Imperialate.
Despite her being a psion, she has often problems to express her feelings. She is not very good with words and prefers action to talking. Though hard-edged, Soz has also a sensitive side, which she doesn't show very often, because she considers it a weakness. She can handle machines better than men, who are sometimes frightened by her cross manners.
Soz was born on the rustic planet Lyshriol as the sixth of ten children of the local Bard Eldrinson Valdoria and his wife Roca Skolia, a Ruby Dynasty heir. Since early childhood she showed huge interest in modern technology of her mother's people, especially that connected to military. At the age of 16 she applied for the Dieshan Military Academy (DMA) to fulfill her dream and become a Jagernaut. She was accepted – much to the displeasure of her father, who couldn’t understand why a girl would want to become a warrior, when she should be perfectly happy with finding a husband and running a household with many children.
Soz excelled in all subjects, military strategy or engineering being just a few of them. She graduated from the DMA in only two years and as her further career also proceeded with a rocket-like speed, she gained the rank of a Primary even before she was forty. She became the leader of Zabo Squadron and her stepbrother Kurj, the Imperator of Skolia was going to choose her to be his successor, picking her from three possible imperial heirs (the other two being her brothers Althor and Kelric). But she too had to deal with the difficulties of her job, when she due to her empaths mind experienced the deaths of enemies she killed. A capture during an undercover mission, when she was tortured and raped by an Aristo, also scarred her deeply.
Unlike her career, Soz's personal life wasn't very succesfull. Her first marriage to Jato Stormson ended with divorce after Soz got pregnant but lost the baby when she was injured during a space battle. Her second husband Hypron Luminar died because of an uncurable illness after only a few moths of marriage.
Soz meets her third husband Jaibriol Qox on the neutral Alied planet Delos. Jaibriol is like her a Rhon psion, but also a member of the Aristo Highton caste and heir to the enemy of Skolians, the Eubian Concord. They have to overcome many difficulties before they can come together and finally decide to fake their death and go to exile on an isolated planet, which they call Prizma. For 16 years they live a happy life and have four children.
When Kurj dies and Jaibriol is kidnapped by Eubians, Soz returns home to become the Imperator of the Skolian Imperialate. To rescue her husband and prevent Eubians from conquering Skolia she sends a fleet to Eube’s homeworld Glory, extending a conflict that will become known as the Radiance War. In the end of the war she and Jaibriol fake their death again to go back to exile and start a stable colony on Prizma together with their children, Soz’s brother Althor and a group of Jagernaut volunteers. Soz’s oldest son then becomes Emperor of Eube as Jaibriol III.
