The Rani's early life

The Rani's early life was the period in which she lived on Gallifrey before her exile.

Incarnation(s) of the Rani's early life

By one account, the Rani only had one incarnation in her youth, which she maintained into the Seventh Doctor's era through careful avoidance of regeneration. (PROSE: Time and the Rani ^[+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (novelisation)"]) By other accounts, the incarnation of the Sixth Doctor and Seventh Doctor's eras was the Rani's second incarnation. (PROSE: Dark Secrets of the Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["Dark Secrets of the Time Lords (feature)"], GAME: The Mark of the Rani ^[+]Loading...["The Mark of the Rani (game)"])

By another account, Ushas was one of the first members of the Deca to become a junior Time Lord and regenerate, meaning that she had at least two incarnations in her youth. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties ^[+]Loading...["Divided Loyalties (novel)"])

History

Childhood

The Rani was the same age as the Doctor, indicating she was born in the same year as the Doctor's birth. (TV: Time and the Rani)

As a Time Tot, she played hide and seek with the young Doctor, with the Ninth Doctor claiming that his skill at finding her "drove her nuts". (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)

Some accounts gave the Rani's original name on Gallifrey as "Ushas" (PROSE: Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords) while another stated that the Scrolls of Gallifrey gave her true name as simply "Rani": unlike the Doctor and the Master, who had already acquired their nicknames at the Academy, she was an exceptionally successful and well-behaved student. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey, A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) The three of them were contemporaries of Drax. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"])

Education

Like all Time Lords, Ushas was taken from her family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands. Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, Ushas was reported by one Time Lord historian to have been driven mad by what she saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)

One account suggested that at the Academy, Ushas belonged to the Deca, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) being their most intelligent member. (AUDIO: The Rani Elite) She and her nine friends from the Deca were part of the Prydonian Chapter and attended the Prydonian Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) In another, which agreed that she was the most skilled student of her group of friends, she belonged to the Patrex Chapter. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

She was taught by Azmael, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) Sendok, Borusa, Franilla, and Delox. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)

At the Academy, she was "good at everything", but at chemistry especially, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) with neurochemistry being her specialty. (PROSE: Time and the Rani) River Song suggested that the Doctor might have had a crush on the Rani at the Academy. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test) Mortimus once tried to ask Ushas out, but was so harshly rejected that he came to believe that she wasn't interested in dating at all. As a result, he was, to Magnus's amusement, oblivious to the affair which later developed between Magnus and Ushas. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)

Ushas was on an Academy research project when the Doctor was expelled from the Academy. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) The Doctor was invited to her 94th birthday party. (PROSE: The Death of Art) The Seventh Doctor and one of his future selves once reminisced about their graduation party, where the Rani was present with a giant mouse she'd created. (COMIC: Party Animals)

On the day that the Doctor left Gallifrey, Ushas and the Master were desperate to know where he went. When retired CIA agent Maris was hired to find the Doctor, they used a chronal mine to kidnap her. They interrogated Maris on the whereabouts of the Doctor and were displeased when she told them she didn't know. They were about to kill her when her employer extracted her from the area. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir)

Leaving Gallifrey

Main article: The Rani's exile from Gallifrey

The Rani was exiled from Gallifrey when some of her lab mice growing to an enormous size. The mice ate the Lord President Pandad IV's pet cat. They also bit the President himself, triggering a regeneration, (TV: The Mark of the Rani) and by one account also devouring Socra, Pandad's Chancellor, and a CIA agent. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) By the Scrolls of Gallifrey, this made her last of the trio she'd formed with the Doctor and the Master at the Academy to turn renegade and leave Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) By another account, however, her exile actually occurred a short time before the Prydonian Academy Revolution orchestrated by the Master, which formed the backdrop of the Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts ^[+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"], etc.)

Feeling that she would never be forgiven for the incident, Ushas opted out of Time Lord society, becoming a renegade. She took a TARDIS and settled on Miasimia Goria, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) under the name of "the Rani". (TV: The Mark of the Rani)