Tanaquil Cassia Pulchra

Tanaquil Cassia Pulchra is the current Maxima of the Felinae Felices crime syndicate. Taking the position following her disgracing of the previous Maxima, Lucia Iunia Tacita, Pulchra opened the Felinae up for business with the Res Nostra, formerly a rival syndicate of the Felinae.

Family and early life

Initially, it was unknown to the Mechyrdian public, outside the Felinae Felices, whom Pulchra was related to. In 254 UC (2894 AD), during Pulchra's trial for tax fraud, isotope evidence pointed to her home being somewhere in the northern part of the Štarkihet sector of Mechyrdia. The DNA testing Pulchra went through proved inconclusive at first, until the Wrenciów family in the NM-1304 system in that region volunteered to test themselves, citing that Maria Wrenciówa recognized the Maxima on the telecast, and the DNA matched.

Tanaquil Cassia Pulchra was born Hilda Marianówca Wrenciówa in 222 UC (2862 AD); her parents were Friðurix and Maria, the heads of the Wrenciów merchant family and the owners of a system-wide uranium mine across NM-1304 within northern Štarkihet.

Friðurix and Maria recall that Hilda had gone radio silent during her first year at the Durobrivae-Institut für Hochtechnologie in western Texandria. The Institute had a strong mafia presence, especially of the Felinae Felices, and so Friðurix and Maria speculate that Hilda was offered a chance to join the Felinae Felices, and she accepted.

Career in the Felinae Felices

Like most interstellar crime syndicates, such as the Res Nostra and the Chevaliers, the Felinae Felices are a secretive organization, with their operations unknown to much of the Mechyrdian public.

First time in the public eye

Pulchra's first time in the public eye was during the 251 UC (2891 AD) Raid of Caephor Secundus, a planet within the Ferthlon sector. Caephor Secundus was where researcher Eiríkr Vadímsson had finally cracked the code of the Tiwaz Tauri Dyson Swarm, and was about to give it to the Mechyrdian military. However, he sent the invitation unencrypted, and so the Diadochi raided his laboratory to try to steal control of Tiwaz Tauri for themselves.

Felinae Felices forces under then-Ducissa Tanaquil Cassia Pulchra fended off the Diadochi attack, and then kidnapped Vadímsson in order to random him to them for money and legal leniency. The Mechyrdian government refused, resulting in Pulchra executing Vadímsson and feeding him to her lieutenant, Gaia Ulpia Drusilla Lupata.

Drusilla was able to learn the unlocking key that Vadímsson had discovered, due to her genetic modifications as a Feles Lupata and thus her ability to learn others' memories by eating their brains. Pulchra and Drusilla kept the secret for themselves, potentially plotting a hostile takeover of Tiwaz Tauri from the Mechyrdian Navy.

Overthrow of Lucia Iunia Tacita

After the 252 UC (2892 AD) destruction of the Res Nostra's void fleet by the Mechyrdian Navy, Pulchra discovered that then-Maxima Lucia Iunia Tacita had given information to Mechyrdian law enforcement about the location and vulnerabilities of the Res Nostra fleet. Tacita attempted to justify her actions by claiming that she had taken out a major rival to the Felinae Felices, and granted the Felinae greater leniency from Mechyrdian law, but Pulchra was able to oust Tacita successfully, since, by cooperating with the Mechyrdian Navy, Tacita betrayed the entire organized crime underworld.

Alliance with the Res Nostra

Pulchra, now Maxima, offered to rebuild the Res Nostra's fleet with the Felinae's homebuilt ships, with superior technology to what the Res Nostra had before. This offer came at the cost of forming an alliance between the Felinae Felices and the Res Nostra. The various bosses of the Res Nostra's familiae came together and largely agreed to this alliance.

The Felinae Felices had then formed alliances with other organized crime syndicates, such as the Res Nostra's other allies in the Corsairs' Commune and the Frankish Order, and even in distant parts of the galaxy such as the Isarnareyksk "Brutherheyd" mafia.

Trial for tax fraud

In 254 UC (2894 AD), Mechyrdian law enforcement believed that they finally found a charge that will stick, in their hunt for Tanaquil Cassia Pulchra: tax fraud. During Pulchra's months-long stint in jail, the police collected DNA samples, isotope samples, and even had their Tylan psykhers attempt to probe Pulchra's mind to no avail. Ultimately, it turned out that the errors in filing had incidentally resulted in a net profit for the Mechyrdian government, and so Pulchra was acquitted and issued a refund of hundreds of millions of thrones.

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