There are the people who appear to run things in the solar system and then there are the people who really run things. Chrisjen Avasarala, UN Deputy Undersecretary of Executive Administration, is one of the latter. A master politician, Chrisjen Avasarala achieved the third highest ranks in UN government without ever standing for election. Behind only Secretary-General Esteban Sorrento-Gillis and Undersecretary Sadavir Errenwright, she manipulates those in the highest seats of power through careful cultivation of relationships with the spouses, friends, and staff nearest to them. Avasarala is a long-time player in Earth politics, having served as the Treasurer of the Workers Provident Fund and district governor of the Maharashtra-Karnataka-Goa Communal Interest Zone prior to her work at the UN. She knows everyone, and anyone with sense in government circles knows her and her true level of influence.
 
It would be easy to mistake a tiny middle-eastern woman in her seventies, with long gray hair and dressed in a colorful traditional sari, as a kindly grandmother, and that’s just as Avasarala prefers it. Much of the time, she’s happy to sit in the background of meetings, quietly snacking on pistachios from her handbag, while she absorbs information and plans out the next moves of the UN government. It’s far easier to do with people focusing on popular figureheads and not paying any attention to the real levers of power. When questioned, she has been known to swear like a career Marine.