A Biography of Xena

Xena was raised as the daughter of Cyrene and Atrius.  Xena has said
     that her father and all of her brothers were killed in battle.
     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.  Certain events
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, which is in Greece.
She had a typical relationship with her brothers, and helped
her mother in the family tavern.  Xena's first love was Petracles.
They were betrothed, but Petracles abandoned 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 outcast by the village.

Despite this unjust act, Xena wanted to ensure the safety of her home, and so 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 love affair; she naively
believe they were an team, and allowed him to be ransomed.  Caesar returned to
recapture Xena and her men, and had them all crucified on a nearby beach.
Xena managed to survive, even after her legs had been broken.

Fortunately, Xena had made another friend during the Neapolitis campaign:
M'Lila, a stowaway slave of questionable origin.  M'Lila taught Xena to fight and to use acupressure (including
the 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 entirely 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 quickly became lovers and 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.  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 slowly made their way across
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 Battle of
Corinth against the Centaurs, over 10,000 warriors died.
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 was too much for Borias to handle so, he left her. He was killed shortly afterward. Borias' death
made her realize what a evil lady 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 lay eyes on him for over ten years.
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.
Xena almost died but recovered. She joined forces with Hercules to defeat her army.
With Hercules and Iolus, who had become her friends, she finally understood what the
 atrocities she committed had done to others and to herself, and she determined to
     redeem herself through noble acts for the rest of her life.

Xena then became a lone traveler, wandering from place to place, doing what good deeds she could.
Many people remembered how evil Xena had been in the past and wanted nothing to do with her.
While traveling through the village of Poteidaia, Xena helped thwart the efforts of the armies of Draco.
Here she meets a young girl named Gabrielle who seems to idolize Xena inspite of her past.
Gabrielle insisted on following Xena. Xena asked Gabrielle not to follow her but finally realizes
that Gabrielle is coming along whether she likes it or not!

Gabrielle continued the education of Xena on how to be a good person and the two became
loving best friends.  Xena and Gabrielle traveled together, helping others where they could
and continued spreading Xena's new reputation as a warrior against evil.

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