John Briar

Brother John Briar was a Human lieutenant in the Solarii Brotherhood in the early 25^th Century, ranking lower in the cult's leadership than Father Matan and his top lieutenants, the Klingon brothers Vamdar, Durtlhor, and Nikora. (Star Trek Online: Valkyries)

History

Origins

Originally a survivor of a civilian starship crash on Yamatai, John Briar was recruited into the cult of the Solarii Brotherhood by Matan some time after 2398. Like most other Solarii recruits, he was inducted into the cult by first being imprisoned in the Pit as one of the "Unholy Ones," deprived food, water, and technology until the breakdown in his individuality and psyche left him vulnerable to cult brainwashing.

Some time later, John became one of Matan's lieutenants in the Solarii, entrusted with the leadership of hunting parties, and especially given authority over the operation of the old Dominion communications base on the Main Island. Despite this position of leadership, John did not wield any special weapons himself. He also showed a notable lack of piety toward Himiko, the supposed object of the cult's worship, and was overall atheistic in his personal beliefs. Nevertheless he followed Matan and the Solarii because he saw it as the only way to survive on Yamatai.

Downfall and Death

In 2407, John was the first to receive and relay reports of a Starfleet shuttle crash to Matan. He later brought a hunting party of his own to join Vamdar in attempting to track down and capture three of the crash survivors in the ruins of an ancient village. During the subsequent hunt through the ruins, John advised one of the members of his hunting party to simply kill any crash survivors they came across as this would be a more merciful end than capturing them and throwing them into the Pit, where the starvation-maddened Unholy Ones would eat them alive.

The next morning, after Vamdar was killed and a disastrous attempt to capture Lieutenant Carlin Agran resulted in the deaths of many of John's men, John opted to avoid Carlin, judging her to be more trouble than she was worth, and instead captured Mor and brought him to Matan, hoping to use the Ferengi's knowledge of archaeology and Japanese history and legend to distract from the failure to capture the other crash survivors.

Unfortunately for John, the communications base was raided and taken over by Commander Antori Drel and Carlin while John was away, resulting in more displeasure from Matan. In order to make up for these failures, John was first assigned to restore communications using the systems of a downed Romulan warbird in the Solarii shantytown. He was than assigned to lead one of three teams in an attempt to ambush the Starfleet survivors in an arid canyon. However, the ambush failed as it was staged too close to the Oni-controlled monastery, provoking them to attack the Solarii, wiping out all of the entire would-be ambush except for John. John struck a temporary truce with Starfleet crash survivors Carlin and Lieutenant Sam Hayashi, but ultimately betrayed them, beaming out at the last second and letting them fall into a chasm.

When Carlin and Sam survived the fall and managed to infiltrate the Solarii shantytown, John led a team to capture them, and while his team was again wiped out, he managed to survive and succeeded in recapturing Sam by beaming out of a fall at the last moment. John was the assigned to guard Sam and watch her while she was bathed and changed into a ritual kimono for the Ritual of Fire. Sam briefly attempted to win him over, but John remained steadfast in his commitment to the Solarii as the only way to survive. Sam then attempted to take John as a hostage, but Matan saw this as yet another failure on John's part and executed him on the spot. ("Survivors of Yamatai")