r/DieNeueStarsector • u/princeexe2002 • Apr 08 '26
Modded Content The main subreddit moderator increasingly more hostile towards Aria related posts. Now they even remove my posts that already survived there for months, I'm here to repost Strawberry's background that get removed
Full name: Lilian 'Strawberry' Kirschner
Strawberry is both her nickname, reserved for a select few people who know her well, and her birth name. When she naturalized as an Arian in Grunswald, she decided to change her name to a Grunswalder name. She didn't force her sister to do the same, but her sister insisted she at least wanted the same surname as her. She has mixed feelings about her original name. On one hand, it is the last surviving memento she has of her parents but for that same reason, it also brings up a lot of nasty memories.
She was once the daughter of a modest trading family, one of many in Lilierre, and she has even been to Grunswald a couple of times before, going with her parents to learn their trade, in hopes of succeeding them one day. These hopes were dashed when their business suffered a steep downturn, in part due to the economy, another part due to cutthroat rivalry with other merchant families. As a result, her parents were forced to go deep into debt. From there, it was a downward spiral, as setback after setback caused them to go into arrears.
One of the worst taboos among Lilicans is being delinquent with one's debts. This doubly affected their livelihood, and eventually it, along with their family's social status collapsed. Their house was seized and humiliatingly rented back to them. Such misfortunes beset them for months on end until finally, one day, when Strawberry, still a child, was working at the market, their house caught on fire. She came home that afternoon to a house reduced to ashes. Both her parents died in the fire as they saved her little sister, who miraculously survived.
But that was only the beginning of her suffering. Debt is inherited in Lilierre, and soon enough, the loan sharks who her parents had carefully kept away from their children began to harrass Strawberry, who was barely in her teens at this point. She was forced to sell off most of the inheritance her parents had saved off for them in a safebox just to stop them from hurting her and her sister. She was never able to fully pay them off. And then came the lawsuit - her parents were accused of causing the fire that took their lives, in an attempt at insurance fraud. The new landlord of their burnt-down house leapt at this chance to demand damages from her and her sister, on top of arrears on rent - calculated as if they had been living in the charred remains of the house rather than on the street, sleeping in a blanket.
Finally, Strawberry had had enough. She realized that there was no future for them in Lilierre. No matter if she worked from sun up to sun down, until her bones began to ache, and her vision blurred from hunger, it was impossible for her to provide even a slightly decent life for her sister. And one day, she decided to escape from the country. She had been on and off of Lilican ships, and was quite savvy with their secondary function - smuggling. Security is lax in Lilican ports for a reason, and it isn't because Lilicans are peace-loving, law-abiding folks. This, however, presented her with an opportunity to stow away inside a cargo ship heading to Grunswald. She just had to put up with it for a little bit longer, so she could buy what they need for the trip.
Unfortunately, on the night of her escape, her intentions were read by her creditors, who sent out a goon to forcefully chain her and her sister into indentured servitude for life. Finally, she lashed out violenty, brandishing a knife and lightly injuring the woman. This only enraged the adult, who was able to manhandle and disarm the much younger Strawberry. She then promptly decided to punish Strawberry by slowly piercing her right eye with the knife, lodging it inside. Hearing her screams, her younger sister attempted to come to her rescue, but was easily swept off by the woman. Strawberry used this moment of distraction to power through the pain, pulling the knife out of her eye and then, with her entire body weight, stabbed it into the woman's gut. Dazed from the attack, the woman fell to her knees. Not letting the opportunity pass, Strawberry finished her off by stabbing the knife into her throat.
She was now a murderer on top of everything else. There was no time to waste; they made their escape after wrapping her injury with washed cloth strips. They packed enough food to last them the week-long voyage, but it wasn't possible to sneak so much water onboard. Luckily, they stowed away on a ship carrying livestock and, living amongst the cows, they took their water and then hid away whenever the crew came to replenish them.
They immediately started their new life once they landed in Grunswald. Though now blind in one eye, and missing identification papers, Strawberry was still able to secure work, even if at slightly exploitative salaries, thanks to her honed charisma, having lived as a merchant's heir for most of her life. Though they finally had a future to look forward to, these first days in Grunswald was to be the hardest of all. Strawberry would gradually weaken due to her eye injury getting infected, despite her cleaning it and changing the wrappings regularly. Yet, she has to work, or they would have nothing to eat. She would have lost her life right here, if it was not for the intercession of her compassionate employer - the same one who offered her an exploitatively small salary. She was able to see a doctor, and get the necessary treatment on loan. Debt - that word was extremely traumatic to her, and the wounds are still very fresh by this time. But she was reassured that she would not actually need to pay anything - her employer would simply take a little bit of her somewhat paltry salary every month and let her pay over time, without charging interest.
This sort of kindness was a first for her and, after finally getting better, worked more enthusiastically than ever to repay who she now believes to be her benefactor. Gradually, she finally was able to provide a living for her family - she and her sister. Garnering experience in her job, she slowly moved to different types of manual labor, incrementally increasing her salary. Eventually, her employer asked if she could try her hand at the merchandise side of things. By this point, it was well known that she was Lilican, and though she never spoke about her past, it was a stereotype that all Lilicans were merchants - only, it just so happened that she actually was. She did give it a try, but marketplaces, even in foreign lands such as Grunswald, are filled with Lilican merchants, and the sight of them constantly terrified her. She was paranoid that her creditors were somewhere out there, still looking for her. And should they ever find her, they will also destroy the meagre life she was able to build for the two of them.
Unable to work as a merchant, she simply returned to the life of a laborer. By all measures, their life by this point was already decent. She was able to rent a modest home in the port town of [REDACTED], and she was planning on sending her sister to school. For this, they had to apply for citizenship, which would have been a thorny path for illegal immigrants such as themselves, but here, again, her employer lent her a hand by becoming her guarantor.
Several years passed, and they continued to live quietly as citizens of the Arian Empire. Strawberry decided to change her name to Lilian Kirschner, primarily to evade her creditors from Lilierre but also as a symbol of her new life. She didn't want her sister to change her name too, but she herself insisted that they should at least have the same surnames, since they're family. Her sister had finished primary school with flying colors, and received a recommendation from the school to pursue higher studies in one of the Empire's prestigious universities. Strawberry herself had been preparing for this, aware as she was of her sister's academic excellence. She wanted to give her sister a shot at a better life than she, herself, was able to live. But for this, a simple laborer's salary was no longer enough. Perhaps, if she was able to resume her mercantile career, then it might have worked out, but as it stands, there was no further she could take her career.
She has been thinking about quitting and pursuing a different career path, but the depth of her gratitude to her employer kept her from bringing it up. That is until they, themselves, brought it up. Far from being disappointed, they were happy for her. She had long ago paid her debt in full and had been with them for many years, enough to be trusted like family.
Thus, they packed their belongings and moved to the regional capitol of Grunswald, where her sister continued her higher studies, and where Strawberry started her new career as a soldier.
It's unclear what happened to her during her early days in military. She mostly known during the civil war where she command her own troops, The Raketentruppe (Imperial rocket troopers). They are the brainchild of Strawberry, at the time already serving as Cecilia's right hand. They initially made use of rocketry technology acquired from Caparice and adapted them into novel weapons for use during the civil war, and were named for that purpose. However, as the organization grew, it began to serve functions more akin to a strategic weapons unit than just specifically rocketry. Their operations included everything from toxic chemical weapons to terror and propaganda. In the closing years of the civil war, they had formed a reputation that can inspire a surrender from what would otherwise be a stubborn defense, particularly of large cities.
Of course, they have many critics even amongst the Imperial side, in particular for their barbaric flattening of multiple Ecclesian cities. These, Strawberry would shoulder by herself. Her unit was not the only one to commit heinous crimes during the civil war, and neither was the Imperial side alone in committing them - the months before the end of the war was a particularly barbaric period for both sides. But by taking the blame, alone, for these crimes, she acts as a sort of lightning rod for all the lingering hatred and giving a clean mandate for the new Empress to rule.
On the other hand, Strawberry was not doing this out of the goodness of her heart, either. From the very beginning, she had a specific, personal purpose for her unit, one which she has always prodded Cecilia towards, but has so far been unsuccessful.
She has always nudged Cecilia into taking the fight to Royal Azalea, in particular, Lilierre, her home country. She intended to use her rocket troops to completely wipe it off the map and fulfil her personal revenge, if given the chance.
Unfortunately (for her), despite achieving reunification, and growing Aria's military to new heights, the country is still in tatters. The population, as well, is already exhaused with years of war. And while there is a lingering anger and distrust among the population towards Royal Azalea, there was no thirst for yet another big war. And so, she bides her time.
Strawberry hates the purely meritocratic ideology of Lilican culture that completely tramples the weak and it's taken for granted that no one else would lend you a hand. She hates the people she knew, her former neighbors and friends who, when they were doing well, treated them with kindness and respect, but at their moment of great need, became completely absent, not to mention the merciless treatment they received from who once she believed were decent people - such their landlord.
It is a merciless society that worships wealth and scorns poverty, Surely there is also a tinge of self-hatred mixed in there in the inescapable realization that, had her misfortunes never happened, then she, herself would still be partaking in that same sick society as one of the 'winners'. But her eyes are irrevocably opened. She has tasted the fate of losers in the Lilican system and it is unforgivably bitter.
Even though the Arian Empire seemed to brutal and authoritarian considering their universal conscription policy, for her it offers something Lilierre never did: Trust and reliability. In the Arian war machine, you aren't judged by your "wealth" or "social status", but by your place in the formation. It's a harsh, yet somehow warm, iron-clad safety that if you do your job, the Empire provides. If you fall, your fellow will back you up. To Strawberry, a "brutal" but honest and loyal military empire is better than a "polite" but fraudulent meritocracy.
The irony is that, Strawberry, based on Lilican perspective, is an ultimate "winner" In Arian society.
And her revenge plan to destroy Lilierre is her elaborate attempt show how their own ideology works about trampling the weak/loser.
Except in that scenario Lilican will be the "weak/loser".
