Peli Morore is the daughter of two prominent marine biologists, Dali and Beli Morore. They were researchers at an underwater laboratory, where Dali specialized in marine ecosystems while Beli pursued cetacean research.
It was while working here that they discovered that Beli was pregnant with their first child. They learned almost simultaneously that the child would be a girl and and that she had a rare and fatal genetic disorder that would impair the growth of her lungs. The fetus was otherwise developing normally, so they decided to try an experimental treatment that showed some promise for correcting the disorder.
The surgery was successful, but had surprising side effects, as did another pre-natal experience of Peli's: while in utero, both she and her mother were pulled into the extraplanar realm known only as the Room. Beli's entire mental landscape was upturned, inverted, and rotated by the experience; she left the Room as a mercenary capitalist driven to her research (into how to create amphibious human beings) purely out of greed for profits instead of a love for knowledge, a lifelong curiosity, and an intense kinship with cetaceans. Oddly, this pushed her into ever-greater dedication -- even obsession -- with her work and, perhaps less oddly, made her a poor mother figure for a little girl who could breathe underwater. No one can say what really happened to Peli at that time.
Dali somehow convinced Beli to keep Peli's ability secret rather than sell her as a performer or do research upon her; he wanted his daughter to have as normal a childhood as possible. Accordingly, she managed (somehow) to grow up to leave for university as a mostly-normal, well-adjusted young woman. Until her parents were killed in an attack by industrial saboteurs on their laboratory, that is. Saboteurs that were involved with some of Beli's more secretive dealings, no less!
Peli vowed to catch the criminals -- and succeeded, but only with the help and magnetic pull of the Room, into which she dragged the murderers, never to be seen again. In the process, the IST noticed her abilities; she joined their ranks immediately after graduation and is now a highly-respected member of IST Otheyo, where she does marine biology research.
Peli is arrogant, aggressive, intelligent, ruthless, callous, and utterly selfless. She takes the long view, often saying, "There are a dozen men sawing at the limbs of the tree of injustice for every one who is hacking at the roots." She believes that people with the desire to do good are often too gutless to put the ends above the means. She's determined not to make that mistake. She believes the end of the world is nigh and wants to make sure the next universe is a better, fairer one than this one. She believes the Room is a means to the end of achieving this goal, thinking it exists to make selfish bitches into practical saints (like herself).
Peli Morore wants the world to be a better place, a good, kind, decent world for people to live in. If she has to lie to people, or murder them, or violate the very core of their identity to make that happen, she will.
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