This article contains out-of-character (OOC) information. Some details presented here are not publicly available in-character (IC).
Cassandra Conway (April 20th, 1897 - May 11th, 1933) was an Elysian-born soldier and former espionage operative who served as the only director of the clandestine Private Military Contractor MAJESTY. Before her split from the Unity State, Conway had worked as a spy and training instructor in the service of the Office of Naval Intelligence of the Unity State, as well as the Military Intelligence Service of the United States of Elysia. A militaristic Gestaltist, she has organized and funded the assassination of multiple foreign government officials, most notably the assassination of General Gyula of the Republic of Genosa, as well as the attempted assassination of Colonel George Elwood of the Unity State.
Ultimately she and her organization came down following a joint assault by Elysian and Nichirian Special Forces. She was captured during the raid, leading to the remaining personnel of MAJESTY scattering in a panic or surrendering to the allied forces. She was convicted of terrorism and treason on multiple counts and was sentenced to death in a military court. She was executed via firing squad on the 11th of May, 1933.
Early Life
Little is known of Conway’s early life. However, what is known is that she was born on the 20th of April 1897 to unknown Eirish-Elysian parents. She was quickly abandoned and given to the Threepwood orphanage in Metro Regima. She had very few friends, with her closest longtime companion being a teddy bear she received when she turned 3, named Honey. She enrolled in the orphanage's primary school, reportedly struggling to learn to read but excelling in the arts.
Emmerich Institute
At 8 years old, she was unknowingly recruited into the Elysian government’s secret training program in the Emmerich Institute, where she would undergo years of training and experimentation under the government-assigned team of doctors and scientists. During her time in the institute, she met and befriended a young boy named Michael. The two would be close friends until 1915, when, during the final test required for recruitment into the Military Intelligence Service, Conway would be forced to end his life to gain her spot in the agency. From her arrival at the institute onward, her official name on government documents was simply CC-01, from which she derived her current full name.
The most major of the experiments performed on her was one involving an experimental cocktail of drugs known only as Nausol. She was subject to being administered this mix ever since her first day in the institute, the side effects of which caused her to become horrifically addicted to the substance. While the drug itself increased reflex responsiveness and sensory awareness, withdrawal symptoms include nausea, loss of consciousness, migraines, and severe anxiety episodes. A major side-effect of this substance is the dyeing of the eyes into a vibrant light blue. The experiments on Conway paved the way for further recruitment of so-called “chemically augmented” agents from the general populace.
Service with MIS
Following her transfer from the Institute into the service of the Military Intelligence Service in Nexus, Conway was immediately tasked with a small counterterrorism force to monitor groups with sympathies towards Hollosend. Her performance in tracking and putting down these groups earned her great favor among the MIS leadership, who quickly assigned her to Operation Alexandria following the end of the Great War in Elysia.
Earliest known photograph featuring Conway, pictured center-right, wearing a trenchcoat. Veynach, Arlbern, circa 1917.
She, along with multiple other operatives, was responsible for the theft of a large number of Albernian intelligence documents detailing the assignments of their operatives around the globe. During this operation, she would come into contact with agents Goro Kurotowa and Emilie Langley, two other intelligence operatives who would become her close confidants and political allies.
During the Years of Oppression, as well as the ensuing Elysian Civil War, Conway would find her place in the conflict playing the role of a double agent for the Revolutionary Guard, an act which gave her enough leverage to squeeze out a Protectorate Pardon for both Kurotowa and Langley after the founding of the Unity State and the Starfell trials that lasted for 3 months afterwards. She would spend a brief time organizing the informant network used by the Unity State for the better part of the Reconstruction Period, until in early 1923, when she was transferred into the service of the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Special Reconnaissance Service No. 12, commonly known as MAJESTY.
Career with MAJESTY
Conway’s first years in the service of MAJESTY were primarily spent conducting counterterrorism operations within the country against any remaining partisan cells loyal to the Stone administration, and monitoring political discourse within nations bordering Elysia for the duration of the reconstruction period. Having gained a great deal of influence and fame for her mysterious nature and track record of successful operations, Conway quickly soared through the ranks of the ONI, eventually being appointed as the agency’s Head of Ground Operations in 1924.
Having gained the attention of the Supreme Protector, Conway was approached with an offer to join his personal, global, clandestine organization, Daedalus, to further the cause of Gestaltism worldwide.
From this point onward, she became increasingly interested in politics, especially in Gestaltist theory from her time with Daedalus. She began formulating her own set of beliefs based on the tenets of Gestaltism, growing to despise the Unity State for treating her much as the United States had. She came to despise Daedalus soon after her new ideas on Gestaltism were seen by the other members of the organization as revisionist and too warlike.
She began gathering allies within the agency, slowly accruing loyal operatives until the entirety of MAJESTY was practically under her thumb. Her plans eventually came to a head in January of 1928, when, during a negotiation between a delegation including her and several other members of MAJESTY and Nichirin regarding Elysia’s part in the findings inside Imperial Site H-041 “Malkuth”, Conway attempted to blackmail the Nichirian delegation for the information. As a consequence, Emilie Langley, a close confidant of Conway’s and a close friend of Kurotowa, attempted to leak sensitive information regarding Conway’s plans with MAJESTY to the Shogunate’s Chief Liaison Officer, Akane Shikinami-Hoffmann; however, she was quickly assassinated by a Hezhouan mercenary masquerading as a Daedalus operative that Conway had paid off.
In the aftermath of this incident, MAJESTY operatives began disappearing from both Elysia and around the world as a part of Conway’s larger plan. She soon disappeared by faking her death on February 3rd, regrouping with her followers within Shivon to build her organization into a “vanguard of Militaristic Gestaltism”, assuming leadership of the organization as its director. She quickly began ordering assassination contracts on persons most likely to reveal the existence of the organization to nations hostile to her cause, including the attempted assassination of Colonel George Elwood at the Elysian Embassy in Shinkeisei, as well as the bombing of General Gyula.