Theresa Garner

Not much is known of Teresa Garner's life before she helped found the Ascendency, but her life since has been well documented.
Roughly 227 years after the Great Burn, Teresa and a number of other "Pre-Burns" left the ashes of Stockholm, Sweden and took to searching for any other human civilizations. Their group, numbering around fifty members, combed through the ruins and surrounding areas of all the great former cities. Promising care and aid, the Pre-Burns brought all of humanity out of the shadows and provided proper food, shelter, and health care. It is unknown exactly how many humans had lived prior to the Great Burn, but all there was nearly 500 million people when the search was called off.
The Pre-Burns were designated as such as they still had a keen understanding of the workings of the old technologies. With it, they stopped the ebb of humanity and brought with it a new golden age. With an understanding of the Higginson-Meiers Elements they, at a slow place to begin with, began to reclaim the planet. During this period, the truth of the Great Burn was slowly discovered and the failing of the nation states had become known to all. Humanity began to fear it's path moving forward and would have descended once again into anarchy if not for one person.
Teresa Garner had not been idle during this period. She was the defacto leader of the Pre-Burns and took steps to calm the survivors and reestablish order. Possessing a seemingly endless supply of patience, she was able to calm the populace, create a governmental body, and a new system of laws. During this time, the ruins were considered off limits and made as a reminder of what humanity could do to itself in the event that it repeat the mistakes of the past. It took nearly 100 years, but in the end, Teresa was able to unite the remnants of humanity into what would later be called the Terran Ascendency. Her posting as the first Governor of the Terran Ascendency was a foregone conclusion.
With an emphasis on space travel, Teresa pushed humanity towards the stars using The Elements to further these goals. With much of the Earth reclaimed, she sought to ensure humanities survival by placing colonies within the solar system in the event of another catastrophe. Luna and Mars were the first off world colonies created and terraforming sciences later made these locations habitable without the need of bio domes. Europa soon followed, but with the distance from Earth, further expansion was slowed. Mining operations began to take place over any body that orbited the Sun, but The Elements turned out to be rare.
About 250 years into Teresa's leadership of the Ascendency, a splinter group of humans, calling themselves the Truth Seekers, charged the leadership of the Ascendency of hiding information from the public. Specifically looking for information on who the Pre-Burns were prior to their reappearance, the Truth Seekers called for the reopening of the ruins to try and find additional records from before the Great Burn. Widely dismissed prior to this time period as conspiracy theorists, the Truth Seekers had gained enough power and political clout that debates began among the High Council to open the ruins for investigation. Teresa called on the Truth Seekers to meet with Admiral Roderick Simmons about gaining access.
Although the meeting between the leadership of the Truth Seekers and Admiral Simmons took place, an ambush of militant Seekers killed all participants, save the Admiral who was grievously injured. Teresa attempted to call for patience and an even hand, but the rest of the populace was up in arms and the Truth Seekers were forced to defend themselves. Within ten years, all known members of the Truth Seekers had to flee into hiding and the ruins remain closed to the present day. Since the days of the Seekers Rebellion, Earth and its colonies remained peaceful and there have been no new attempts to reopen the ruins.
Teresa has had many triumphs over her career, but trouble loomed on the horizon. With the completion of mining operations in the asteroid belt, it was looking more apparent that the solar system was almost out of the Higginson-Meiers elements. Research began into what would eventually become the Tunnel Drive and in the meantime, dreadnought class ships were commissioned to begin exploration with more conventional engines. With the discovery of the Tunnel Drive, these were quickly added to the designs of the dreadnought ships and Project Vanguard was enacted. All of humanities industries and colonies strove to complete the project as quickly as possible. The final ships for each of the six Vanguard fleets were completed just in time for the 400th year celebration of the start of the Terran Ascendency.
Now in her sunset years, it is believed that Teresa will step down shortly after her speech commemorating the launch of Project Vanguard. Her health in recent years has been declining and her public appearances have been getting more infrequent. Despite this, she still is a commanding presence and is venerated among the populous, known for her even-handed nature. As she is one of the handful of Pre-Burns still alive, her retirement will mark the end of an era at a time where humanity is entering the great unknown.

Current Location

Earth

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Caucasian

Year of Birth

327 PB 754 Years old

Birthplace

Vienna, Austria

Current Residence

Malmö, Sweden

Eyes

Brown

Hair

White

Height

5' 5"

Weight

160 lbs.

Aligned Organization

Terran Ascendency