Elthen Dotrea

Species: Human
Homeworld: Dorno
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Position: Red Seven, Patriot Battle Fleet

Elthen Dotrea was the Crown Prince of Dorno, a small, little-known agrarian world in the Outer Rim Territories. Dorno enjoyed good relations with the Old Republic, who provided a small but much-needed annual aid package of technology and financial support. This allowed the people of Dorno to live in relative prosperity. However, with the dissolution of the Republic, and the rise of the Empire, these aid packages were stopped. This coincided with the year of the Great Drought, and Dorno fell into poverty.

Although Dorno has never been victim to Imperial aggression, and has to this day retained its autonomy, this negligence angered Elthen as soon as he was old enough to learn of it. Thus began his disillusionment with the glorious Empire. When his older cousin Serena, with whom he had shared so many dreams and aspirations, enrolled in the Imperial Navy, his anger increased ten-fold. With so much suffering on the world that he was to one day inherit, the inactive life of a pampered prince was no longer for him.

Aged just fourteen, he ran away from the palace, and hid on board a freighter – the Cold Fire - at the world's only spaceport – little more than a patch of dead grass blackened by starship exhaust overlooked by a small hut. The freighter's captain found him quickly, and, recognising the young prince and turning out to be a man of loose scruples, threatened to hold him to ransom. Elthen promised to work for the smuggler, named Jenis Donn, as payment for not betraying his escape. Jenis was a hard master, and this grated on Elthen's regal sensibilities. The threat of ransom and return to Dorno kept arising. The young prince could not bear the thought of having to return to the palace in shame, having done nothing productive for his homeworld. Elthen, by this time now seventeen and a lot less naοve, could see that he was in an untenable position.

One day, when he was complaining bitterly under his breath about the irony of having to clean the maintenance droids, opportunity sped in from the surrounding starfield. Donn, having turned from smuggling to all-out piracy, had attacked a transport somewhere in deep space. Hearing the sounds of a battle, Elthen rushed up to the cockpit to check the instrumentation and prepare for a retreat if Donn gave the order. To his surprise, Elthen saw that the transport's IFF transponder was transmitting a Rebel Alliance signal, and not the Imperial one he had become so familiar with. Elthen's surprise was nothing compared to Donn's, however, when he realised that the Rebel transport was not carrying droid parts, as he had thought, but a squad of commandos.

Donn rushed back onboard the Fire, disengaged the freighter from the Rebel transport and began his retreat. He ordered Elthen to man the defences, as he saw for the first time a squadron of Y-wings which had been escorting the transport. As ion cannon blasts traced a path along the Cold Fire's starboard flank, Elthen made his decision. He dropped the shields and hoped the commandos could catch Donn before the pirate put a blaster hole through Elthen's head. Fortunately, Donn was shocked and confused by his carelessness, and the Alliance commandos caught him quickly.

Elthen recounted his story to the commandos, and they agreed that they would take him back to the Alliance – pending an identity and loyalty check. Elthen's father confirmed his son's identity, and vouched for his loyalty to opposing the Empire but was furious that the prince had been so reckless, and consequently disowned him, passing the heritage of the throne to Elthen's inept brother, Dained.

Elthen was also told at this time about the Alliance's recent victory over the Empire at Endor. The destruction of the Death Star and the death of Emperor Palpatine didn't fill him with as much cheer as it did most of the newly free creatures of the galaxy. He persistently asked what would happen to his homeworld, pointing out the dire poverty situation there, but was met with what he considered excuses about 'priorities'. Nonetheless, Elthen decided to stay with the Alliance – helping to consolidate a new Republic that would be willing to aid Dorno.

Elthen Dotrea then had to choose exactly how he would help the Alliance. Despite his royal bloodline, he knew that the Alliance could ill afford to carry dead weight. He had no skills to speak of – he had been schooled in diplomacy back home, but never took to his lessons, always coming off a bit too arrogant. Being from a peaceful agrarian world, he had little combat skill, and his technical skills were stymied by hailing from a relatively low-tech world – and Donn's staunch refusal to explain anything to him. All he had was his experience serving on Donn's pirate ship, which, although patchy and lacking detail, made him certain that all he was really good for would be to pilot spacecraft. He underwent training in the piloting of an Alliance starfighters, and proved himself to his instructors – barely. To this day, he and the members of his squadron are fully aware that he is no ace – merely competent.

Socially, Elthen was never quite able to shake off the vestiges of his regal upbringing. Without fully realising it, he has a tendency to demand being treated as royalty, and views the orders of superior officers as counsel given to him by advisers. He can also never forget the plight of the impoverished people of Dorno, and is a staunch nationalist because of this.