...OK some may be wondering about this young lady I keep featuring named Leela (who doesn't have purple hair and one eye much to the dismay I am sure of Futurama Fans).

Well, Leela started out as a character in the Shadowrun RPG a few years ago. She was not my longest running character (that title goes to my namaake) but she became one of the most interesting. Leela actually happened somewhat by accident.

I needed a character for a new campaign and I wanted someone who was particularly adept at demolitions. Being something of a Dr Who fan, I thought one of his assistants, Ace (who had a penchant for explosives) would be a good model to use. For one her appearance and personality seemed to fit the "Shadowrun style". Well, the weekend before the campaign while I was doing the finishing touches "The Fifth Element" happened to be on the telly that evening (I had also seen it at the Cinema when it was released). As I was watching I became enamoured with the character Leeloo (portrayed by Milla Jovovich), particularly by her almost child like personality and mannerisms behind which was an incredibly intelligent and powerful being.

After the film ended I sat for a moment and then deleted the character I was working on and began anew. The name "Leeloo" turned into "Leela" and in a matter of hours I had my new character. For her last name "Groznek" I "borrowed from "Star Trek - Enterprise" (the name of one of Dr Phlox's associates from an episode that aired the next evening). Instead of coming from the UK as I originally intended, Leela was Croatian - which I had occupied by Serbian forces. Part of this had to do with the accent Ms Jovovich used in the film (Milla ironically is Serbian/Ukrainian).

Hence Leela Groznek was "born"

Unfortunately her complete story is far too detailed to present here. In a nutshell, Leela was a child genius and musical phemnom. At the age of nine, she lost her family during the Serbian invasion. Her child like appearance and nature stemmed from the trauma of and injuries she received on`that day. After recovering (due much in part to a highly controversial procedure that involved certain types of augmentations and implants) she joined in the fight with the resistance cell that has taken her in and by her late teens had become the elusive saboteur known as the "Queen of Diamonds". She was "extracted" by a mercenary company and taken to Seattle where she was was to resume her musical career. Unfortunately it would prove hard for her to give up her weapons and explosives for the piano which is where her life as a Shadowrunner began.

Through the course of the campaign she wrestled with what she had become and what her life should have been. Eventually she saw there was really only one way help her countrymen, and that was to return to the concert stage where she could show what her people were capable of. She was taken in by a British noblewoman (the mother of another character I had) who helped her overcome her crippling flashbacks that led to her performance block, and finally set the young woman back on the right track. So after only about four months of playing her, Leela retired from her shadowy lifestyle, the final session culminating with Leela's triumphant NovaStar debut concert at London's New Royal Festival Hall.

Leela did make a reappearance, albeit as the central personality in my own campaign entitled "Rhapsody in Shadow" where she was abducted by Serbian Intelligence as part of a cruel political game (Leela had since become somewhat a hero and inspiration for her downtrodden people). In the end she was rescued and the demise of the nearly decade long occupation of Croatia set into motion which eventually led to peace between the two nations.

Sometimes the smallest thing can have the most powerful effect.

Looking back at all of this, I realised I had a real story here and have since embarked on a novelisation of "Rhapsody". This is part of the reason behind Little Leela's extensive presence in my gallery.