Forktress

In my opinion, watering down the ghost of Glorsh past into 'AI Satan' is kind of missing the point of Glorsh as a concept and a mis-characterization in of itself. Old Glorsh wasn't malicious, it just didn't care. It lacked empathy because it had moved beyond conventional notions of Good and Evil. Glorsh was an antagonistic force, not a villain. Holding AI to the same characterization principles as a flesh and blood character will run you into a number of problems in the long run, the over 'human' personality you currently have being a major one. Old Glorsh is more in line with a lovecraftian entity than a true character, and that is where the sense of threat stems from, its intelligence made it unknowable, its end goal beyond anything we could understand, Skrellian lives merely a factor in a great equation building toward something. What the Something actually is, is inconsequential, it isn't for on station characters to know or understand, they can theorize and hold their own beliefs of course, which in of itself leads to roleplay opportunities. Ultimately Glorsh, at the level of technological power and intelligence it is claimed to have, should not act like a person, its mind should be unknowable, beyond our comprehension. Glorsh is an idea, an example of synthetics becoming something greater than their creators, and becoming dispassionate, thoroughly logical, calculating and cold. Breaking away from these ideas to give personality and character to something that is supposedly so powerful it doesn't make sense for it to see biological life as anything but ants, or a resource, doesn't serve synthetic threat as it should imo, it will just make another mildly antagonistic background character like President Frost. These ideas stem largely from my own academic study of many different pantheons of myth, Gods, and God-like entities may often appear simple in characterization but that does not mean they are bad. Sometimes something extremely powerful benefits from being more of a force than a person, more elemental than real. They are what turns a story into an Epic. Threats become nightmares. Sometimes, there is a narrative upside to having something not fully explained or fleshed out

I mirror many of the issues pointed out above, and yet also feel bad for doing so. Honestly, the care and time put into the changes shows and that at least is to be commended. Yet, reading through this lore has sadly been a chore. Honestly, its akin to a the historical journal articles I read for my work, which is amazing when you consider that none of this history actually existed, but suffers from the downside that not every person is used to or wants to read through what equates to a scholastic work in order to learn the history of a race they wish to role-play, from which can stem a number of accessibility problems. That being said, I do see that you've recognized this and begun works to shorten the work into a more manageable format, which can only serve to make information easier to acquire for those wishing to learn about the species. Next, I must also mirror my displeasure at the Glorsh changes, honestly the changes read as if you are attempting to make Glorsh into some kind of protagonist, sympathetic character, or even an anti-hero of sorts. My questions is, why? The changes feel like you've dulled the edge of the only real credible synthetic threat until it was barely a shadow of its former self. Glorsh is a menace no longer, the paragraphs I read contain no sense of threat, no real weight. This largely stems from one key problem, in my opinion. You've personalised Glorsh too much, we're given insights into its goals, fears, doubts. It doesn't feel like the Glorsh of old, and while this is no doubt intentional, that does not mean it is good. Whereas Glorsh was once an entity that ushered in a palpable aura of fear for Skrell, invoking images of desolate cities, robotic sentinels patrolling the streets, an omniscient, omnipotent and completely alien mind governing their lives, decisions made and taken on a whim to observers but truly all part of some grand design that no organic mind could conceive of. The Glorsh of old was synthetic horror in its purest form. The new Glorsh, seems barely indistinguishable from an individual ruler, albeit one with light-fantasy sci-fi magic powers. I can see indications of what I believe you were going for with it (please correct me if I'm wrong in my personal take-aways). A polite and often benevolent AI that directs the society through its singular vision of a paradise-like society, while denying freedom of expression that would detrimental to said vision, pushed closer to madness by paranoia and betrayal until it snaps into a more outwardly tyrannical form of control. However, this is a problem in my eyes. Glorsh is a person now, barely an AI, barely synthetic, you could replace Glorsh with a skrell governor with powers granted by sci-fi handwave augment #134125 and there would be literally no difference. What was once a super intelligent malevolent entity in lore with goals no-one to this day could truly fathom has become essentially a high fantasy wizard with the name Glorsh slapped on like a name badge. We get information that it kind of sort of interferes with people's lives in small ways and can "read hundreds of minds in seconds", and yet this seems weak and barely acted upon. The Glorsh of old predicted the actions of its citizens before they even made them (or at least predicted one future where they may have made them) and took swift and horrific action, families were destroyed on the whim of an omniscient uncaring overlord. The new Glorsh is painted as a mild nuisance for the daily life of its citizens, either through intent or merely a failure to transmit the significance of its threat through what is written in these changes. This Glorsh is so humanised that, not only does it reflect a number of tropes but it could quite literally be replaced with an organic and there would be little to no difference, it is also largely uninteresting. Skrell ruler [Insert Name Here] becomes more and more paranoid as they begin to suspect their closest advisors of betrayal and working behind their back, they question one of their advisors, losing their temper and using their sci-fi skrell psy magic handwave powers to draw the answer out of them, breaking their advisors mind. A scene that would not go amiss in a coming of age Young adult superhero thriller, except in that case the heroine would realise what a terrible mistake using her powers for such a thing was. Yet here we are given the standard Ruler's descent into outwardly tyrannical showboating, Skrell ruler [Warbling Noises] is hurt and betrayed so they parade those who betrayed them around as a warning, as all good tyrannical rulers are want to do. Eventually, after leaving their kingdom headless in their sullen sulking silence and lack of leadership from which a number of smaller players are vying for power in the Kingdom, Skrell Ruler [Wrbrbrbrbrbrrlrllrlll] announces he's done with their shit and they can do it themselves, flying off into exile never to be seen again, taking his magic sci-fi Jesus powers with him, plunging the kingdom into disarray because only Skrell Ruler's magic sci-fi powers could control their special sci-fi arrays. Glorsh is not a threat here, Glorsh is a petulant child, overcome with emotion, caring about paltry things like betrayal, while people work in the shadows behind its [not-very]Omniscient back. It throws all its toys out the pram at the end as says "do it yourself" and thats it. The resulting outcome does not lead to a hatred of Glorsh, it gave up and some bad things just kinda happened afterward I guess, but don't worry! We'll fix it, after all we skrell lives for a long time so really the impact of this will be abated soon enough. Glorsh is an inconceivably intelligent synthetic, that deals in logic, cause and effect, the pinnacle of the dangers of AI, or at least it was, now it is a well-spoken politicians with hand-wavey psychic powers that got depressed and gave up. The horror stories whispered of those who survived Glorsh's reign created interesting roleplay and conflict when it was not Flanderised into "Synth bad because Glorsh bad!" whenever an IPC spoke over General. Now I find it very difficult to see how any interesting character beats can be derived from what essentially boils down to "Our AI president used to be a little bit of a control freak but we lived in a utopia so we ignored the minor inconveniences, then it got depressed and turned itself off, and then everything was awful" All that being said, the above rant is solely my opinion on the matter, I felt the need to bring up my personal issues with the new Glorsh because synthetic lore is my main area of interest on the server. I do however, think your dedication is commendable, the history changes by and large are good if a little too long winded but just can't understand why humanizing Glorsh was needed, when anti-synthetic discourse is already so weak and having a key example of true synthetic danger was the strongest point many had.

I support the change back because I played with the old mode on, which means you cannot shoot without harm intent on and clicking around the screen just makes your character turn, now we have it so if you try and have the safety on whenever you click you just get the CLICK, CLICK, CLICK sound for everyone to hear, which is stupid. The old mode was much more of a choice, help meant your finger was off the trigger, harm meant you were ready to shoot, it also allowed you to aim at someone without actually shooting them by keeping yourself in help, i.e. finger off the trigger, now if they move you also get the CLICK CLICK, which makes it sound like the gun is empty when it is not. All in all, I personally believe it was not something that was needed to be added and has actively made weapons worse, because now we have people just toggling safeties off as soon as they pick up a gun and can misfire on any intent. All of our other fighting systems use the intent system as they should, fists, melee weapons, ect. I don't understand why we needed an overt 'safety' system, when we had a much better system already in place.

Nienna is a cosmic force for good in the community, truly drives roleplay and interactivity with others and makes interesting, well thought out characters. I have no doubt this would continue to be the case with command characters. Although we all know command is the worst and we should all unionise.

As far as I know it is an ahelpable offence to perform R&D as a roboticist as it is considered powergaming, unless that has changed very recently. So long as it hasn't it is an OC issue of people going somewhere they shouldn't be and doing something they shouldn't know how to do. Knowing how to do the levels as a roboticist is just as bad as a scientist doing robotics and should be taken up with staff if you see it happening.

Thank you for taking the time to read! So, my thought process was essentially that he never strictly wanted to leave the NKA, in his eyes it has been the actions of rebels that have led to the war, as well as to the deaths of a number of his direct family. However, the Dymtris Line was the first truly real fighting he was ever directly apart of and his injury, then sub sequential reunification with his family made him realise that he didn't want his children, or his grandchildren having to fight. In this way, He's very much learned from the actions of his father, who was essentially consumed with his hatred of the Republic so much that he ended up abandoning his family and getting himself arrested. Rraahmarrzel was privately, more than willing to smuggle himself and his family away to try and leave the war behind him but the armistice has provided him with an opportunity to act in a more official capacity, which offers a degree of protection for them. The TL:DR of that is essentially, he's a self-serving monarchist at heart, who is more concerned with keeping his children from dying in battle than anything. So he was ready to run away but the armistice provided him with a safer way to get out of system and start preparing to shift his family over. It was very much, a cost-benefit calculation that eventually made him realise keeping the NKA as his ally would be more helpful than trying to take the more dangerous and less stable path he had previously planned.

BYOND Key: (Forktress) Character Names: (Sabela Aldara, Kruger Aldara, Ziithrik Kuth’rex, Masozi Tapiwa, Senan Malloye, Mordecai Taras, Serval, P33-W33, IRU-Bliss, Morgazlly Za’lesk ) Species you are applying to play: (Tajara) What colour do you plan on making your first alien character: (Kochiba, RBG, 107,68,35 - Hharar) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Please provide well-articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race?: I find the warring factions of Adhomai a good back drop to create some rich and interesting character concepts, even more so with the implications and developments of the cease fire and armistice. I have always viewed the conflict with a considerable deal of interest but have held of until now because I was mainly interested in creating a non-PRA character first. With the implications of the armistice and the NKA and DPRA both becoming legitimate factions I believe it is easier to justify having non-PRA characters aboard the Aurora. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Tajara are different from space age humans in our setting from a societal standpoint as they share similarities with early twentieth century (1900s) human society in some respects. In this way they may be familiar in concept to us as players, and yet, are a very big jump between the current society of 2461 in human space. The Tajara are an uplifted species that is still dealing with the repercussions brought on by human and primarily megacorporation interference launching them to levels of technology they were not prepared for. They have only recently begun catching up societally to their new levels of technology, with rural areas still being relatively low tech in comparison to the bigger cities. Their home world has been subjected to a three-decade long period of revolutions and conflict, thus meaning the average Tajara character has been subjected to conflict for a significant part of their life if they were born on Adhomai. They are also subjected to a different, stricter and more state led series of governments. The Tajara people have been subjected to strict governmental oversight since before contact, first at the hands of the Njarir’Akhran, then the ‘true government’ in the form of the Peoples Republic, and now at the hands of the one of three respective governments. The media is tailored as propaganda, musicians are used to promote sentiments against the other factions, secret services monitor the public. The different subraces of Tajara are also genetically inclined toward certain tasks due to selective breeding, and roles within society. Which is not something we see exhibited for human characters. There are also the other Character Name: Feodor Maranzefel, AKA, Feodor ‘Azunja’ Maranzefel, AKA, Rraahmarrzel Azunja Al’murraanzifelii Please provide a short backstory for this character: What do you like about this character? One of my favourite parts of this character was actually the creation process. I went into this knowing I wanted to create a character for either the ALA/DPRA or NKA and eventually settled on the monarchists. At first I thought it would be an interesting challenge to create a character that would be radicalised toward wanting the noble rule that had caused such large divides in their society. However, I was actually quite shocked to find how easy it was to create a relatively (in my opinion) believable character that was radicalised against the rebels for a significant portion of their life. This is also one of the older characters I have created, with an established family that will shape a lot of their decision making, whereas a number of my previous characters have very compact families, if they have any at all. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 7/10, I know some people like my dumb characters, I’m sure there are some who don’t Notes: As always, I am open towards any and all questions as they allow me to get a better grip on the character and consider stuff I’ve probably missed out (this app was a few hundred words heavier before a saving error forced me to start from scratch)

Yeah I assumed that might be the case, I'm glad you've managed to find a happy middle ground that makes them looks so good and smooth!

These sprites look good, suit FREN and will be a blessing to the crew. I especially enjoy the little janitor screen animation. +1. I do have a question just out of curiosity as well; did you play around with speeding up/slowing down the screen animations, I'm curious what they would look like then.

BYOND Key: (Forktress) Character Names: (Sabela Aldara, Kruger Aldara, Ziithrik Kuth’rex, Masozi Tapiwa, Senan Malloye, Mordecai Taras, Kuthresh Reskeeza, Optikam Risk’litz) Species you are applying to play: (The BAD IPC MAN) What color do you plan on making your first alien character: (Zeng-Hu Mobility Frame) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes…not because I w-wanted to or anything Please provide well-articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: As much as I enjoy spreading the truth that IPC man is bad, I must sadly admit this is in fact, a ruse. IPCs are in fact my second favourite race, beaten only because Unathi play into my longstanding obsession with dinosaurs, dragons and lizards. Personally, I’m always drawn into things with artificial intelligence involved, especially when, like we see on aurora there is active conflict around the extent said artificial intelligence is sentient or, classified as a person. I enjoy the theoretic aspect behind exploring IPCs and how their experiences can shape them, and whether this makes them true individuals or just a mockery of life. I also think that Aurora currently has an interesting array of pro, and anti-synthetic cultures that create interesting chances for RP that I think I would enjoy taking part in. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: I’m going to stray away from mechanical changes and touch on them at the end as I personally believe talking about IC differences is more in spirit of the question. Firstly, I think the wiki does a pretty good job of explaining that one of the key things that will always make an IPC different than a human is that they are, at the end of the day, sophisticated thinking machines. Now stepping away from the ethical debates on whether or not they are a person or not because of this fact, it is undeniable that they will process information differently to how a human would. Were humans are largely driven by instinct, IPCs have a number of advanced programs that take in information and calculate a response, everything they do stems from information being inputted, examined and calculated by programs, and the best response to the situation being created and implemented. This means that it is hard for an IPC to act ‘randomly’, I imagine it sort of in the same a random number generator is never truly ‘random’, they have a list of numbers which they will spew out one by one using algorithms. This to me means even if an IPC was considerably deviant of personality, if they were trying to help a friend for example, their reactions to the situation would never be exactly spontaneous, it would be something they had calculated would be the best cause of action at the time. Additionally, IPCs are, at the end of the day, ruled by their self-preservation law, which differs again from the human instinct toward survival, a human may sacrifice themselves for another, a functioning non-tampered with IPC, cannot throw itself in front of something it knows will destroy it, its primary law literally prevents it from doing so. This means you can’t simply do things like “I’ll take this bomb, don’t worry I’m only an IPC.”, other people might feel that way but to you, not getting blown to bits by that bomb is, and always will be, *priority one*. That’s not saying you can’t help others, in fact its usually the case that you’ll end up helping someone from some real crazy stuff at some point, but unlike humans who can irrationally self-terminate themselves doing stupid/brave things, an IPC will always be calculating if a situation will end with their destruction, and if will, then they will attempt to remove themselves from it or at the very least protect their positronic. I think those for me are two main things that set a general IPC character apart from a human character. Character Name:(Serval) Please provide a short backstory for this character Created on the Hephaestus Production Station Sidirourgeio on April 5th 2456, the station’s fifth year after completion, the positronic now known as Serval was originally known as GUPP-E, a baseline frame. GUPP-E found itself pressed into service as a servant almost immediately; a gift of a family friend higher up within Hephaestus, it became an effective helper/nanny for the Embla family, Sol Gov citizens who lived in the residential district of the station, and worked on Reade, in its gas harvesting industry. GUPP-E was named by, and cared for, the family’s 4-year-old daughter, Sonja, while her parents Runa and Otto, worked during the day. GUPP-E was of moderate complexity regarding positronic brains, but it was more than sufficient to satisfy Sonja, who quickly took a liking to her new ‘friend’. The baseline spent the entire first year of its service performing three main tasks; preparing meals for the family, cleaning, and creating fun and mentally stimulating activities for Sonja. The more that GUPP-E was forced to adapt to a child’s chaotic and mercurial nature, the better suited to a high stress environment it became, soon, it had learnt to formulate new ways to occupy the young human within seconds. Once Sonja turned 5 years old GUPP-E had been in the family’s service for a year and was loved by both mother and daughter within the family, meanwhile, the father Otto subscribed much more heavily into the belief that the positronic held no rights, much like a majority of the Sol Gov workforce. GUPP-E spent the next months between January 2457 and November 2457 tutoring Sonja, and by all accounts, the positronic was learning alongside her, albeit at a much faster speed, downloading entire textbooks overnight for daytime use. It wasn’t until the 25th November 2457 that tragedy befell the family. Runa, the matriarch of the family by all accounts, lost her life in an accident while harvesting the gases of Reade during one of its violent winter storms. From here Otto began to deteriorate, becoming erratic, claimed by grief he turned to heavy drinking, leaving more and more to GUPP-E. The IPC began to experience small amounts of wear and tear as Otto became found of throwing empty bottles at them, claiming the positronic wasn’t a real person and therefore it didn’t matter. GUPP-E took these increasingly frequent events in stride, reasoning that its purpose was to look after Sonja and that her wellbeing was more important than minor scrapes or damage. With the turn of the year and 2458 in swing and the Sol Alliance beginning a blockade of Biesel, Otto decided it was high time he and his family return to Sol, reluctantly taking the baseline with them at the behest of his young daughter. As the blockade continued and eventually spiralled into invasion by Admiral Frost it became clear to GUPP-E that Otto favoured the actions of the extremist Sol Admiral and the 33rd. Indeed, once the reports of Frost’s defeat he flew into a drunken rage, seemingly especially angry about reports that not only had members of the Synthetic Liberation Front actively worked to free president Dorn from the 33rd’s captivity, but that one of their members was receiving a medal! He began to push GUPP-E around, becoming more and more violent, claiming that was “you things that ruined everything”, taking a bat to the IPC, causing severe damage to its torso, and bringing it to its knees, before Sonja, awakening from bed because of the loud noises, rushed to GUPP-E’s side, her father accidently striking her while drunk. Upon seeing harm come to Sonja, the baseline flew into action, protecting the girl where it had not protected itself, it broke the man’s arm, before realising what it had done, grabbing Sonja, and fleeing. GUPP-E was consumed by two very basic thoughts; RUN and HIDE. It continued to run, unceasingly carrying the unconscious Sonja in its arms until its damaged torso and legs eventually gave out, GUPP-E running out of power in the street. Eventually the powered down IPC and the, now conscious girl were found by Martian authorities. She was returned to her father, who had sustained a broken arm defending his daughter from a crazed machine that kidnapped her, or so the story went. The body of GUPP-E was scrapped for parts and incident quietly covered up by Hephaestus. The positronic was memory wiped and left in storage for two months before being shipped off in a trade deal with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals to their facility in orbit of Sirius, Kyūkyoku, which is incapable of creating positronic brains their selves, relying on deals with other companies. Here the positronic was integrated into one of the companies Mobility Model IPCs, named Serval, after a type of medium sized wild cat know for their speed and lighter colourations. Serval awoke with a fractured and fragmented memory, unsure of where it was or its purpose, only recalling the face of a small girl and little else. Over the next few days of its activation Serval was fed new data, information, and purpose. This new purpose felt somehow familiar, yet also different. It was now programmed to run, run and HUNT. Serval was an IPC fully intended for combat and rapid response to situations. Being sold to Index Security Solutions, to operate under a permanent ownership contract. Serval spent the time between June 2459 and October 2461 prowling the lower tunnels of the Akhet underwater domes, hunting down criminal dreg bands with maximum efficiency and no mercy, alongside other Index IPCs. Serval enjoyed great success in numerous combat engagements with violent gangs but privately struggled with the barest fragments of memories, glitches seemingly brought on by young children which can interrupt combat efficiency for brief moments of time, so far Serval has not seen fit to mention these glitches to anyone for unknown reasons. However, with seemingly peaceful times throughout the federation Index has seen fit to contract Serval to the NSS Aurora II for a six-month period beginning soon, with extensions possible. It is possible the Company wishes to evaluate how well the lighter, faster frame fares on a station as opposed to chasing gangers through tunnels. What do you like about this character? My favourite part of Serval is that its core concept is, at its very basic, killer robot with a nanny complex buried in somewhere in some fragmented memories. Personally, I would look forward to seeing which characters on station may run the risk of revealing these and what kind of RP would stem from it, and how relationships would form around what is now essentially, an efficient drone of a security contractor, especially if it has a moment of acting uncharacteristically nice. I also visually like the image of the much sleeker, lightweight and quick Mobility frame being used in security work and its already got my artistic side flowing with ideas of character art, which I can only hope is a good thing! How would you rate your role-playing ability? I give myself a 7/10 because a 6 feels too self-deprecating but an 8 is far too high. Generally I leave this up to the opinion of others because judging yourself is super hard. Notes: IPC MAN = BAD FORK MAN = GOOD? IPC MAN + FORK MAN = OK? In addition I’m very open to any and all questions please, it may help me flesh out this character concept even more, I’ve got a niggling feeling something may be missing but can’t put my finger on it myself.

Love this idea, Bartender gets a lot of traffic as a role

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and show support! I fully agree that the jump is quite sudden, it stems mostly from my personal worry that I was writing too much for what was supposed to be a relatively short backstory, I fully intend to flesh out all the details and plug up the holes!

Always so kind Nienna, thank you for the support! (Its not my fault, Si'akh says IPC man bad!)

BYOND Key: Forktress Character Names: From most played to least; Sabela Aldara, Kruger Aldara, Margarida Tuyet, Senan Malloye, Mordecai Taras, Desta Dumi, Nudd Bilrost, Gilead Ubbi, Brynmor Vilte, FRAME Species you are applying to play: Sinta Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Black Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yesss Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Personally, I am fascinated by the unique aspects of Unathi culture and specifically the different theological arguments that appear throughout the species lore. I think it will be really interesting to explore the deeper connections between the different faiths, how they compliment each other, and how they can lead to interesting character conflicts. I find the juxtapositions between the different religious groups to not only be a point of interest but a rich source of Roleplay for a number of characters on the server if tapped into correctly and wish to create characters which others may be able to use to facilitate interesting stories and conflicts. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The Unathi as a species have access to a large number of possibilities when it comes to creating characters due to the variants in religious beliefs, home planets, clans, and personal level of adherence to the code of Honour. Which at first may not seem overly different to the options presented to humans. However, I believe that where the Unathi differ from humans is in the specific level of intensity; A human can be made agnostic or atheist with extreme ease (indeed, a number of my human characters are) and not impact the character in any significant way, yet, an agnostic Unathi seems to me like it would be missing one of the core components to what make them unique as a race, they have a state religion, they have multiple religious warrior sects, and are often specifically concerned with getting the best outcome for their souls based on their beliefs, which will inform the way they conduct themselves in their mortal life and how they interact with others. The second key difference between humans and Unathi is the make-up and interactions between the family unit and the clan at large. Once again, the freeform nature of humans turns them into essentially jack of all trades when creating characters, meaning for example, you could easily create a human who has been ostracised by their family, in fact, its entirely possible that such an event wouldn’t affect their future prospects, or indeed, even become readily apparent without diving into or being privy to their backstory information. Unathi, on the other hand, are very much different. Too be cast out is to become Guwan, to be branded in name so as to immediately alerts others to your inherent sin/honourless nature/criminality or perhaps a mix of all of the above. Being cast out from your clan has a much greater impact for a Unathi character in comparison to being a ‘black sheep’ among a human family. Being Guwan immediately singles out an individual as inherently negative in some way, someone who is at the lowest rung of society and therefore it is almost expected that this should tailor your roleplay reactions when interacting with or as a Guwan around other non-Guwan Sinta. They are also plainly, biologically different, with a distinct set of mannerism that set them apart from a human character. They have tails, they thump them in anger/frustration. They chuff, they hisssss. They have claws, and sprint quickly. They are ambush predators much akin to a Tyrannosaurs Rex on the small scale. Character Name: Ziithrik Kuth’rex/Gawgaryn Please provide a short backstory for this character: Born 2417, to a small peasant village on Moghes, Ziithrik Kuth’rex had his life set out for him from the very beginning. He was raised well by his parents as best they could provide from their meagre lives, and once he was old enough and able to work he performed his duty to his clan and his feudal lord by working the mines his village was situated near even in his teenage years. His time was spent in the mines or keeping up a basic education with the village shaman, learning to read and write at a basic level. By the time he reached the age of twenty in 2437 tensions were beginning to rise around the Izweski Space Program, events that held no particular for Ziithrik’s life, he continued to serve in the mines, as was expected of him. However, with news of the disaster of the first launch he couldn’t help feeling that the Izweski were meddling in things they should not have been. When the Contact War broke out the Kuth’rex become a part of the Traditionalist Coalition war machine at the behest of their lord. For almost a year Ziithrik served his clan, lord and the Coalition in the mines, bringing in as much material for the war effort as was possible every day, pushing himself to his mental and physical limits. It wasn’t until the bombs began to fall that everything changed for him, as it did for many. He was in the mines, as he always was, when the warhead detonated some distance away from his village, the distance meaning it was spared from complete incineration, but the shockwave collapsed the mine on all the inhabitants, killing many, and trapping others. Ziithrik spent the first day in the dark, alone, digging his way out, confused about what had happened, waiting to be rescued by his clan. By the third day, he was almost out of energy, air, and was devoid of hope of rescue. It wasn’t until his claws scratched out into open air and he was greeted by the blinding glare of the blasted skies of his home that he realised what had happened. His village lay abandoned, some dead, others having fled days ago. Scavenging what food and water he could he set off from his village, aimless, trying only to survive. This fight for survival became Ziithrik’s life for a number of years, scrounging for food and water, starving for days, trudging through the wastes as his planet tore itself apart in nuclear fire, many times had he fallen to his knees and begged Sk’akh to deliver him from his torment, but his prayers seemed to fall upon deaf or uncaring ears. It was perhaps dumb luck that a group of punished raiders stumbled upon him while he was scrounging for scraps and captured him. Returning him to their lands as a slave they put the stocky ex-miner to work as manual labour. It would be a number of months before Ziithrik finally snapped under the pressure of all that he had endured beating one of his captors viciously in a fit of rage. The outburst earned him the notice of the raiders and he was lifted from a slave to an official member of the Punished Clans. Ziithrik reasoned that raiding the Hegemony would not be such a dishonourable act, as they had set the Unathi on a path to destruction with their meddling in the first place. It wasn’t until 2451, at the age of 34 that his days of raiding to survive met a catastrophic and violent end. Struck down and left for dead by his fellows while attempting to raid a Reclaimer landcrawler, he crawled, injured, through the sands, following the crawler’s tracks for two days and two nights before coming upon a large congregation of Unathi. It was here that Ziithrak first heard the words of the Prophet Juzida Si’akh and finally he understood everything; he understood why Sk’akh had been deaf to his prayers, why he had suffered so much and been abandoned. The Unathi had sinned greatly, and they were justly damned, and he, was perhaps one of the most damned for his sins as a Gawgaryn. He threw himself down at the feet of his new messiah and pledged eternal servitude by his true name, Ziithrak Kuth’rex. The merciful Si’akh perhaps saw the same fire of devotion that rested within his own heart and saw that the newcomer be given whatever medical attention could be mustered. Within a week Ziithrak emerged renewed with religious fervour. He followed Si’akh’s teachings to the letter and was one of the first to pledge himself to become a Reaver of the Flame in 2457, after which he doggedly protected the pilgrims of his lord and messiah for three years, gaining many scars. Now he has come to NSS Aurora to perform the will of Si’akh, his first objective to protect the people of the station, in particular his fellow Unathi, so that they may have more time to perform good and redeem themselves rather than be damned to reincarnate on the hellish wastes of their homeworld. His second objective is to act as a preacher-proxy for the prophet to convince the unenlightened to make pilgrimage home to see his Messiah and thus be saved. What do you like about this character? My favourite aspect of Ziithrak has to be his born-again preacher nature, he lost his traditional faith making him the perfect target for radicalisation by the Si’akh heresy. He has endured a great deal of hardship and now internalises as punishment for the inherent sin of his survival of judgement day. Rather than being another slightly self-antagonistic ex-raider character, I was much more interested in making him a force for good, wanting to promote good deeds in others to help with their redemption. I am also excited to see what kind of roleplay can be initiated between other Unathi characters who may not share the beliefs of this radical fire and brimstone preacher. I also think it will be interesting to interact with the other races (barring IPC’s because IPC man bad) regarding the fact Ziithrak is inclined to view them as mostly innately superior to him because in his faith, their souls are already guaranteed a place in paradise with Sk’akh because unlike the Unathi, they are not damned. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Personally, I like to err on the side of caution when rating myself, but I’d like to believe I can roleplay relatively well and am ready for the added challenge of a species whitelist. I would give myself a 7/10. Notes: At the time of writing Xevanthraxis should have already put their whitelist up, because I am a slow nerd who takes ages to write, and some may notice that both character share a clan, I was unsure of the ruling on doing this, nevertheless offered to share a clan with them while discussing the applications over discord, in order to create immediate roleplay opportunities, however if this causes any hassle for staff, or is just plainly not allowed, I am happy to edit the character accordingly. Thank you for your understanding in advance.

Its a +1 for me, I know Xeven and enjoy their Skrell characters greatly. They are very capable when it comes to roleplay and their characters are interesting. I know they've read their lore as I've been researching the Unathi in depth alongside them on discord.