From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
                    A Short Biography of Xena   
      
      
   Xena was raised as the daughter of Cyrene and Atrius. In the HTLJ episode   
   THE WARRIOR PRINCESS [HTLJ #09], Xena tells Iolaus that her father and "all   
   three" of her brothers were killed in battle. However, it appears that she   
   really has only two brothers: Toris, her older brother, and Lyceus, the   
   youngest of the three. Xena believed that her (supposed) father, Atrius,   
   abandoned the family when Xena was young, but later learned that Cyrene   
   killed him to prevent him from murdering Xena. Events recounted in THE   
   FURIES [#47] suggest that Ares, the God of War may be her true father.   
      
   Xena had a fairly routine early life. She was born and raised in Amphipolis,   
   a fairly large village in Thrace. She had a typically boisterous   
   relationship with her brothers (remember the towel fight in DEATH MASK?),   
   and probably helped her mother in the family tavern. Xena's first love was   
   Petracles. They were betrothed, but Petracles left her to take up the life   
   of a warlord. This second abandonment by an important man in her life left   
   Xena with a certain bitterness toward men, and a distaste for close   
   relationships in general.   
      
   Xena's life changed when Amphipolis was attacked by the warlord Cortese when   
   Xena was about seventeen. Since no one else would stand up to the raiders,   
   Xena and her younger brother Lyceus gathered an army. They defeated the   
   raiders, but Lyceus and many of the villagers were killed in the process.   
   Xena was blamed for their deaths and was ostracized.   
      
       Despite this unjust act, Xena wanted to ensure the safety of her home,   
   and so built an army and conquered the surrounding lands. At one point, she   
   took to the sea. During her conquest of Neapolitis, she took Julius Caesar,   
   then a young and ambitious Roman officer, hostage. They had a torrid affair;   
   she naïvely believe they were an "unstoppable team," and allowed him to be   
   ransomed. Caesar returned to recapture Xena and her men, and had them all   
   crucified on a nearby beach.    He also had Xena's legs broken.   
      
       Fortunately, Xena had made another acquaintance during the Neapolitis   
   campaign: M'Lila, a stowaway slave of mysterious origin. M'Lila taught Xena   
   to fight and to use acupressure (including the infamous nerve pinch).   
   Knowing that Xena was somehow important in the greater scheme of things,   
   M'Lila risked her life to rescue her from the cross, and took her to the   
   healer Niklio. They were found by Roman soldiers, who killed M'Lila. In that   
   instant, Xena suffered a psychotic breakdown, and metamorphosed into Dark   
   Xena, whose "purpose in life [was] death."   
      
       Xena gave in completely to her dark side, fighting solely for bloodlust   
   and the love of power. She made her way to Central Asia, where she joined   
   forces with the Russian warrior Borias. The two, who quickly became lovers,   
   terrorized the region until Xena angered Borias by alienating the powerful   
   Chinese families Ming and Lao. Xena retaliated by kidnapping Ming Tzu's   
   young son, Ming T'ien. Xena ransomed the boy, and was captured with Borias's   
   help. Lao Ma, the beautiful matriarch of the Lao family, saved Xena from   
   certain death at Ming Tzu's hands, and set about awakening Xena's soul as   
   well as healing her crippled legs. She was successful only to an extent;   
   Xena's spiritual growth stalled when Borias re-entered her life. She   
   murdered Ming Tzu, and angered Lao Ma by suggesting they kill Ming T'ien as   
   well. (Lao Ma was Ming T'ien's mother.)   
      
        After the incident with Ming, Xena and Borias gradually made their way   
   across the steppes of Central Asia. Near the home of the Siberian Amazons,   
   Xena met an evil shaman named Alti, who, in exchange for Xena's help in   
   destroying the Amazons, made Xena the "Destroyer of Nations." By this time,   
   she was pregnant. During the ensuing Battle of Corinth against the Centaurs,   
   over 10,000 warriors died. (This battle has not yet been spelled out in   
   detail within the show; the information comes courtesy of producer/writer   
   Steven L. Sears.) Xena had become everything she had fought against in   
   Amphipolis.   
      
       Sometime around the time of the Battle of Corinth, Xena became obsessed   
   with possessing the Ixion Stone, a talisman which would give her the power   
   of the Evil Centaur. This became too much for Borias, who left her. (He was   
   killed shortly afterward.) Borias's death made her realize what a monster   
   she'd become, and after giving birth, she gave her child to the Centaurs to   
   raise. She didn't want her son to become like her, or to know what kind of   
   person his mother was. She didn't set eyes on him for over a decade. Her   
   son, Solon, never knew that she was his mother.   
      
       What happened to Xena in the next few years is largely unknown. We know   
   that she met up with Boadiccea, Queen of Britannia, and betrayed her.   
      
       Several years later, Xena attempted to destroy Hercules by turning his   
   best friend, Iolaus, against him. Shortly afterward, she instinctively   
   rescued an infant from death at the hands of her army. Sensing weakness in   
   her, her men mutinied, and forced her to pass through a brutal gauntlet.   
   With the help of Hercules, who had become her friend, she finally understood   
   what her acts had done to others and to herself, and determined to redeem   
   herself through noble acts. It is at this point that the series begins.   
      
   Xena has had many adventures since this point, which have been chronicled   
   elsewhere. She has died several times, been reincarnated at least twice, and   
   was inadvertently put on ice for twenty-five years. The last event prevented   
   her from raising her daughter, Eve, and indirectly brought about the   
   Twilight of the Greek Gods.   
      
   Not long after this cataclysmic event, Xena and Gabrielle journeyed to Japan   
   to help an old friend. There, Xena learned that she had inadvertently been   
   the cause of a fire which had killed 20,000 people. To vanquish their   
   tormentor and to release them, she sacrificed herself in battle, an   
   honorable death for a warrior princess. Gabrielle had Xena's body cremated,   
   and carries her ashes wherever she goes. Xena's spirit is never far away.   
      
       To use her own words, Xena has many skills. She possesses a potent   
   combination of charisma, agility, acrobatics, martial arts and deadly   
   acupressure training. She has mastered many weapons, but is best known for   
   her Chakram, a razor-sharp disc which she throws with amazing skill. All in   
   all, Xena is not a woman to be trifled with!   
      
                           [ Bio from Whoosh! ]   
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)