Tara was born Hotara Iaka Quin in the kingdom of Universiles on the planet Tas’und’eash. She is the younger sister of King Eli I.
Hotara spent most of her childhood in the court of the Dinay Empire and grew up under the rule of Empress Ana Lucia Roya.
Hotara considered Ana Lucia’s granddaughter, Micaela, to be one of her closest friends. The princess of Solumino, Tasya Hessmanster, was also a sister to her.
Hotara’s brother organized an arranged marriage between his sister and the prince of Munda, Manden Walt. She was not keen on the idea.
When Empress Micaela of Dinay went to war against her husband, Imperator Anekris Praymer of the Tyre Star Cluster, Manden and Hotara stayed out of it. After half of the Volocio royals had died in the war, they regretted the decision to not join and help.
Micaela died shortly afterwards, furthering added to their list of regrets. Hotara and Manden heard rumors of Anekris Praymer coming back into power so they returned to the Tyre Star Cluster to investigate and eventually help the Federation.
Hotara followed a young family with small children as they fled the Dominion and eventually settled on Earth. When the parents were murdered, she swooped in to raise the children. The older son, Niklaryn, was immediately placed in the Daer Academy while she raised the daughter, Rei.
She settled in the little town of Ballarat and it was obvious to the locals that she came from another planet – but has yet to disclose the location where in the Tyre Star Cluster. It’s obvious to everyone that she is an outsider because she has brilliant violet eyes – a shade not found in the star cluster.
Ballarat is a stopping place for pilgrims on the way to the holy city of Escalante.
Hotara distills her own liquor – Coronta – from a flower of the same name from Tas’und’eash, which her brother Eli provides for her.
She claimed that whoever killed Rei’s parents is still looking for her and goes out of her way to protect her foster daughter. She never revealed the identity of her hunter to Rei because she wanted to give her foster daughter as much of a normal life as possible.
When they are not working at Coronta Bar – Hotara spends her time training Rei in the art of staff fighting as well as whatever bits of knowledge the school system of Ballarat lack. She knows she is unpopular because she is unmarried and a female business owner – a notion she finds laughably archaic. However, she knows that despite their criminal backgrounds – the people of Ballarat have a very traditionalist view of family. Or their idea of tradition – as Hotara always reminds them.
She never approved of Rei’s relationships with the boys in the village, but she recognizes that Rei needs to learn these experiences for her herself.
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