Tarma Sul
Tarma Sul is from the planet Malva, three quarters of the way across the Galaxy. And she is here because, quite frankly, she was going out of her mind with boredom on her home planet.
The Malvans and the War against the Elder Worm
The Malvans are an ancient race who once ruled the half of the Milky Way Galaxy opposite Earth, with a recorded history going back perhaps a million years. They reached heights of technology and science so advanced that even eons later it almost seems like magic to the races that currently travel between the stars. They were a noble and kind people in those long ago days. While they were ambitious by nature they largely tempered that ambition with compassion. As a whole they took little notice of lesser powers and peoples of their time, but maintained an attitude akin to Noblesse Oblige.
500,000 years ago the Elder Worm, servants of the Kings of Edom, brought chaos, death and worse in their war upon the Galaxy. Whole planets and sometimes even entire solar systems were lost to the shining darkness. The Malvans, hearing the calls for help, responded. They brought the full force of their science to bear with terrible purpose. Fleets of shining space warships burned the Worm from their strongholds and whole planets were shattered to rubble as the golden warriors of Malva made war on the darkness and drove them out of the Galaxy at large.
But though they won the war, the Worm cast a magical curse on them before going into hiding. The curse was subtle but inexorable. After the war, the Malvans, over many generations, lost their racial pride and "drive". They eventually became lazy and decadent, dependent on their super-advanced technology to maintain and repair itself.
Today, Malvans typically spend their near endless lives in pursuit of pleasure and entertainment, but rarely create anything themselves anymore. Slaves and robots perform all menial tasks.
But very rarely, a Malvan is born that has the spark to question their indolent existence. To resist or even slip out of the shackles of the ancient curse, even if they don't suspect its existance. Some rouse themselves to compete in the gladiatorial games for the Phazor - the ruler of Malva. And occasionally - just occasionally, a Malvan is born who aspires to something even more than that.
Personal History
Tarma is a rarity among her peers. She was born with a touch of the old ambition and wanderlust. A Malvan who actually wanted to DO something with her life beyond looking for the next entertainment. She took to the Gladiatorial games and became the finest competitor since Terala Shain. Defeating dozens of opponents and holding the championship for over a half a dozen years. But even that couldn't satisfy her. Something was missing in her life.
The artificial intelligences that ran the databases were still dutifully recording intelligence from various sources, such as Hzeel trading partners and captured Qularr signal encryption. Even if almost no Malvan currently expressed an interest, they still cataloged everything they learned.
One world intrigued her. Earth. If the sketchy data was to be believed, there were hundreds, if not thousands of super-powered natives on Earth. There were even hints that Ariax Thone,after he had been transformed into Firewing, and the Metal-clad Dorvalen Drogen Lar was said to have been seen there as well!
But she really wanted to explore Earth and see these "superheroes" for herself on Earth itself. With the help of her small sentient scout ship, the Argent Horizon, she set up a private, cloaked and shielded dwelling on the moon a few hundred miles from the Forum Malvanium with a transport station that can teleport her directly to Earth's surface and back.
When she used the transporter for her first visit, she arrived on Earth just in time to excitedly dive in to help stop the Qularr. Now THIS was exciting! This was something new! A whole new planet to explore. People to meet. Enemies to vanquish!
And the Terrans kept calling her a superhero herself! Tarma rather likes the idea, and she would hardly have believed it herself, but she thinks she might be getting to like helping people.
