Very little is known about the early life of Siran of Emesh, one of the companions of Hadrian Marlowe from his time as a myrmidon in Borosevo. A plebeian and lowborn, what information we have on her comes from an arrest report and summary judgement made by the urban prefect’s office, dated ISD 16166.03.22, two years before Lord Marlowe’s arrival on Emesh, when Siran would have been aged 22 standard years, which lists her occupation as shopkeeper. The arrest report notes that a family member paid to prevent her receiving the forehead tattoo that would have marked her crime (set to a sum of 25 gold hurasams), suggesting that she came from some wealth, as the lower caste measures such things, and indeed careful examination of the census data from Emesh at the time indicates that her father, likely a merchant called Sador, was the owner of several clothiers in Borosevo.

Siran’s crime was murder of the first kind: premeditated and violent. For this, she was sentenced to death by ordeal, and was expected to live out her sentence in the Borosevo Colosso. Her victim was one Zaran Dossa, a patrician of minor rank, with whom it is believed Siran had relations. In her arrest report, Siran accuses Dossa of sexual assault, expressing no remorse for her actions, going so far as to say the man “Got what was coming to him.” (This historian notes that formal charges were never made against Dossa by Siran or her family). Siran attacked Dossa in his White District home. Per the prefect’s report, Siran beat Dossa to death with a brick taken from the Dossa family garden, striking Dossa in the head many times. She was still present at the scene when Dossa’s mother returned to the family’s abode, kneeling beside Dossa’s body. Lady Dossa reports Siran was crying, her hands covered in Dossa’s blood.

Siran’s sentence was commuted by Dame Raine Smythe under the Emergency Impressment Act in ISD 16172, at the request of Hadrian Marlowe, who suggested that she be among those myrmidons attached to the Vorgossos expedition. Her history of violent crime nearly prevented her inclusion, but it was argued that the presence of Imperial felons on the crew would serve to further camouflage the official nature of the Red Company, and she was permitted to depart Emesh with the crew.