Davra Andraste

April 16, 2025
Davra Andraste
Davra, aged 24, on from the cover of Davra’s Endeavour

Name: Davra Andraste
Species: Sapiens
Birthplace: Metis
Birthdate: 415 IE

Davra Andraste is a teenage resistance fighter and gifted technician from Amargosa. Known for her brilliance, bravery, and sense of justice, she becomes a pivotal figure in the human resistance against the Gelt occupation.

Early Life
Davra was born on Metis and raised on Bromdar. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her father, Samuel Andraste, who became a single parent. Her early exposure to space life and off-world cultures shaped her adaptability and sharpened her technical talents.

Main Events

  • Gelt Invasion: Davra joins the resistance following the Gelt invasion of Amargosa. Her skills quickly elevate her importance within the movement.

  • Maglev Defense: She helps repel Lucius Kray’s forces aboard a maglev train during the early resistance efforts.

  • Journey to the Ban Ki-moon: Against orders, she joins JT Austin and Eric Yuwono on a mission to reach the downed Compact Navy vessel. They navigate occupied territory, evade Gelt patrols, and have mysterious encounters with possibly intelligent lycanths.

  • Saving Trixie and Facing Section 11: During the mission, Davra saves a Gelt prisoner named “Trixie” from attempted sexual assault by a fellow soldier. Though her actions are morally justified, they technically violate military protocol, forcing Suicide to convene a tribunal that nearly results in a Section 11 execution. Davra is ultimately exiled from Suicide’s team as punishment.

  • Suicide’s Counsel: In exile, Suicide speaks to Davra privately, showing a deep understanding of both Davra’s values and the burden of command. Though stern, Suicide’s words carry empathy, affirming Davra’s worth while acknowledging the cost of her defiance.

  • Gelt Captivity: Later, Davra is captured and held for three weeks aboard the Gelt colony transport over Lansdorp. Her time in captivity leaves her traumatized but more resolute than ever. This ordeal further matures her and deepens her hatred for the occupation.

  • Return to Founders’ Mine:
    • As Davra Andraste makes her way across the war-ravaged plains of Amargosa toward the Founders’ Mine, she witnesses one of the most harrowing moments of her journey: a lone human woman, unarmed, sits down in the middle of a Gelt platoon and activates an incendiary nanite load. The resulting blast kills the entire unit, leaving nothing behind but a crater. Davra watches from a distance, frozen by the realization that this person had become a weapon, sacrificing themselves with grim resolve.
    • After escaping with the Gelt widow Peteesh, Davra returns to the Founders’ Mine and immediately places herself under arrest for desertion and disobedience.
    • She is court-martialed by Colonel Diana Jovann and Major Quan Jiang, who sentence her but commute it due to her actions in capturing Peteesh.
  • Handler to Peteesh:
    • Davra is assigned to guard and interrogate Peteesh, forming a cautious but mutual bond with the Gelt woman.
    • She becomes the only human Peteesh trusts, navigating cross-species diplomacy and trauma with empathy and control.
    • She is helpless as she and Eric are found by Laral Farad and forced to watch him murder Peteesh.
    • This relationship puts her at odds with others—including Eric Yuwono—who cannot forgive the Gelt, regardless of individual actions.
  • Conflict and Emotion:
    • Davra reunites with Eric Yuwono in Riverside, but their shared trauma leads to a near-violent confrontation. Their relationship remains strained but ultimately forged in mutual survival.
  • Final Acts in Riverside:
    • Davra helps evacuate personnel after Riley’s warning about the fusion device, effectively saving dozens if not hundreds.
    • She chooses survival and mission over despair, helping Tyler Wat, Eric, and others to safety as Riverside falls.
  • Post-War:
    • Is brought into the Thulian Amortality Project due to radiation damage and incendiary nanite infection. Eric Yuwono joins her.

  • Joining the Navy

    Following the Liberation of Amargosa, Davra Andraste chose to join the Compact Navy, leaving behind the provisional society rebuilding the planet. She began her service as an officer candidate but, like her fellow recruits from Amargosa, was temporarily reduced to recruit status during initial training. She was initially assigned to the Challenger, one of the Navy’s veteran ships, for her first deployment. Though the Challenger departed Amargosa almost immediately, Davra quickly felt the emotional weight of leaving the world where she had fought and survived the occupation. During this period, she reflected on her past, her bond with Eric Yuwono, and her hopes for the future as a naval officer.

  • Incident aboard the Alyssa Carson

    After her initial assignment, Davra transferred with a group of recruits to the Alyssa Carson, an aging Metisian Planetary Defense ship pressed into Navy use. The Carson was fission-powered—an obsolete and dangerous design rarely seen outside isolated or low-budget operations. En route to Tian in the Helios System, the ship suffered a catastrophic reactor failure. With a full meltdown imminent and evacuation impossible before rescue could arrive, Davra volunteered to manually jettison the failing reactor.

    Drawing on her experience surviving the occupation of Amargosa and the regenerative effects of her Thulian rejuvenation treatment, Davra entered the irradiated compartment in an EVA suit and manually released the clamps holding the reactor in place. Despite suffering extreme radiation exposure and physical trauma, she successfully ejected the reactor before it could breach, saving the lives of everyone aboard. Davra was later transferred to the freighter Fukushima Maru for recovery, spending ten days unconscious while her body regenerated. She ultimately missed her original Officer Training School class but was reassigned to the next cycle, where she continued her naval career. Her actions during the incident earned her the quiet respect of many officers and fellow recruits.

Relationships

  • JT Austin: A close ally in the resistance. Davra and JT’s relationship is built on trust and mutual respect, tested during their defection from the Founders Mine and strengthened during missions.

  • Eric Yuwono: A strong partnership rooted in complementary skill sets and a shared sense of purpose. Eric’s feelings for Davra are hinted at but not overtly explored, though their bond is solid. The undergo amortality treatment together after the Liberation.

  • Suicide (Commander Cui Yun): Suicide acts as a commanding officer, mentor, and at times, a moral foil. Though Suicide exiles Davra for breaching protocol, she later offers candid counsel, acknowledging Davra’s idealism and growing leadership potential.

  • Tyler Wat: Davra distrusts Wat due to his ties to the forced polygamy movement on Goshen and his morally gray decisions. She sees him as a necessary evil in the fight against Kray.

  • Trixie: Davra saves Trixie from sexual assault, forming a bond of protection. Trixie’s trauma and Davra’s defense underscore her moral compass and the cost of standing up for others.

  • Ellie Nardino & Connor Duffy: During the Ban Ki-moon mission, Davra develops a working rapport with Ellie and Duffy, especially in technical tasks like rigging explosives in the maglev tunnel. After the Liberation of Amargosa, Davra and Duffy traveled together aboard the Challenger as they departed for their respective Compact Navy training assignments, continuing the close partnership they formed during the resistance.

  • Laral Peteesh: Upon her capture, Laral Farad gifts Davra to his wife, Peteesh, as a pet. At first, the Gelt woman is ignorant, which Davra finds humiliating, but after witnessing Farad rape her one night, Davra slowly gains her trust. The pair escape together, and Peteesh willingly submits to be her prisoner. Davra objects to using her as a peace offering, and witnesses her murder.

  • Cassandra – Initially part of a hostile group of Metisian recruits, Cassandra ultimately chose loyalty to her shipmates over peer pressure. She stood by Davra during and after the Alyssa Carson reactor incident, becoming one of her first true comrades-in-arms during her early naval career.

Author’s Notes:

Davra’s name is a combination of “Davora,” a variant on the name of the female Israelite judge Deborah in the Book of Judges, and “Andraste,” a pre-Celtic war goddess. The idea was to make her a combination of wise leader and warrior.

Her father, and later lover and eventual husband Eric Yuwono, both called her “Dabby” in private. Eventually, the other The Children of Amargosa call her that when she’s stressed.

She was originally envisioned as the group nerd, but the role has since spread out between Connor Duffy, Ellie Nardino, and, to a lesser extent, Tishla.

In the novel Davra's Endeavour, JT Austin says tells Davra, while he and Mitsuko are looked at as the fierce fighters of the group, she is the one in the Children of Amargosa he looks up to.

Appearances: The Children of Amargosa, Second Wave, Storming Amargosa, “Lady Starship Trooper“