Elise Maschenny was born to Sage Maschenny and An Ten De Zara on Altam II orbital station. When she was a toddler, Sage and An were transferred to a remote NanoTrasen outpost in orbit around a planet on the fringes of civilized space where she spent the rest of her childhood. When the station fell under attack, Sage shielded her from an explosion and fell into a coma as a result. By the time he awoke, Elise had become a young adult and An had long since passed away from a local epidemic. Elise, having become both an alcoholic and the victim of a crippling sleeving desensetization disorder, was not able to support the both of them, and so they moved into her living space; a studio-style room on the station.

It was over the following years that their bleak, overworked lifestyles melded with their intimate proximity, and the unique sense of safety Elise felt with her father grew into a fierce codependent love. Elise wore her father down with her carnal feelings for over a year before he caved along their trip back to their race's cradle world. It was there that Elise and Sage met Tess and Lear to form the nucleus of their crew.

Elise is blunt, analytical, and irreverent. She often prefers to ignore propriety if she feels that it would advance the issue at hand, and will only refrain making a joke or insult if it is at another's expense. Due to her alcoholism and resleeving syndrome, she is extremely reckless to the point of injury and even suicide when she believes a cloning machine to be available, and spirals in chronic anxiety attacks over mundane happenings otherwise. Despite this, she is an extremely competent reactor, electrical, and atmospherics engineer capable of quickly reconciling and solving issues before they happen and in emergency situations.