RustingWithYou

I've roleplayed with lavilla a fair bit, and interacted with most of their characters to varying degrees. I think they're a good roleplayer who plays generally interesting characters, and that they'd make the best of a command whitelist. Enthusiastic +1 from me.

Marinette is a fun character who I've had the pleasure of playing with a lot in science, and I think that Stars does have the roleplaying ability to do the whitelist justice. +1 from me

BYOND Key: RustingWithYou Character Names: Casimir Tilton, Ra'Akaix'Avek Zo'ra, Azkohi Dorviza, Ta'Akaix'Aledeion Zo'ra, Hermes Species you are applying for: Tajaran What color do you plan on making your first alien character: 0,0,0 Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Why do you wish to play this specific race: With the upcoming Adhomai arc, I've been brushing up on Tajaran lore and found it really interesting, as well as several IC interactions with Tajaran characters who I found very compelling. I also like the struggles between Adhomai's three factions a lot - I feel like all of them are written in a very interesting and three-dimensional way, and I feel like all of the existing lore sets up a lot of interesting character conflicts and ideas. I also have a soft spot for the sort of dieselpunk aesthetic that the PRA especially seems to have in a lot of its design, and I really like the style of the Tesla limbs + spine. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Tajara are a race that's very much been on the bottom rung of the Spur for a while. They were the least advanced civilisation that humans have made contact with, and the consequences of first contact led to decades of brutal conflict. More than any other species, really, Tajaran politics shapes their way of life - even expats or young Tajarans born elsewhere are likely to have strong ties back to Adhomai and the cold war that still rages there. Character Name: Khazarir Markov A Zhan-Kazan Tajara, Khazarir was born in 2411, and raised into a standard life of any Tajara before the First Revolution - raised to a farming family in a backwater village in the Rhazar Mountains. The work was hard, and the ruing dynasty's M'sai enforcers were always on the watch for dissident behavior, especially after the first contact with humans was made. After the D'as'ral Massacre, the First Revolution sparked, and Khazarir was swayed by the revolutionary words of the rebels - of a society were all Tajara were equal and free, where a Zhan like Khazarir could work for himself and his comrades, instead of suffering under the cruel hands of the aristocracy. During the First Revolution, Khazarir fought for the cause boldly - and after it was done, left the mountains behind, settling in Nal'tor as the process of establishing the People's Republic began. Having known nearly a decade of war, Khazarir struggled somewhat adjusting to peace, eventually formalising the non-combat skills he'd learned in the Revolution through a NanoTrasen engineering program. Khazarir eventually found himself a wife in Nal'tor, and the two started a family together. For years, their lives were peaceful, happy, and largely uneventful, until the Second Revolution began and Khazarir, again, was pulled back to fighting for the Hadiist cause. Though the defections of many Republican military personnel to the ALA bothered him, and he did have doubts as to whether or not he was fighting for the right side, he never acted on them - his family was in the heartland of Hadiist territory, and he viewed the PRA as the continuation of what he'd fought for, all those years ago. Whatever doubts he may have had were erased when an ALA landmine triggered, nearly killing him and blowing his left arm and leg off. Discharged from service, and returned to his family, Khazarir grew depressed - he could no longer work to provide for his family, or fight for the Republic. However, with the development of the Tesla prosthetics, and the rolling out of them to veterans, he was able to work once again, helping to repair the damage done by the Revolution. Now an old man by Tajaran standards, he found himself increasingly dissatisfied with the People's Republic under Malik Hadii's rule, even with the harsh laws punishing Zhan-Khazan having ceased. Seeking a better life for his wife and children, he took an engineering position with Hephaestus, going off-world in the hopes of letting his family prosper once he was too old to work. Eventually, he was assigned to the SCCV Horizon, in a wave of new hires after some battle Khazarir didn't particularly care about at some orchard somewhere. What do you like about this character? I liked the idea of an older character, who'd seen Adhomai go from its pre-Revolution ways to what it is now. I also liked the idea of playing a Hadiist Zhan, growing less and less sure about the current state of the PRA, but still dedicated to its ideals - something of a Young Hadiist in his thoughts, wanting to see the PRA reformed into what it is that he fought for. The Tesla prosthetics are also very cool, and I liked the idea of making a character who was given what he viewed as a new lease on life by the People's Republic. How would you rate your roleplaying ability? Probably a 7 or 8 out of 10?

BYOND Key: RustingWithYou Character Names: Casimir Tilton, Ra'AKaix'Avek Zo'ra, Azkohi Dorviza, Ta'Akaix'Aledeion Zo'ra Species you are applying to play: IPC What color do you plan on making your first alien character: n/a 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: Robots are cool. Also, I find a lot of the lore and the background around IPCs - both owned and free, and the various factions of free synthetics - extremely interesting, and I'd like to be able to play around with that some more. I'm also a big fan of a lot of the classic sci-fi themes around artificial intelligence - the nature of sentience and free will, humans as parental figures to a new form of life, all that good stuff. I also like the idea of playing a recently freed-IPC sort of grappling with their place in the Spur, and trying to understand what their new form of life means. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The big one, they're robots. They're synthetic beings and not biological, they don't eat or breathe - all they need is power to sustain them. Psychologically, however, an IPC is inherently far more logical in its thought patterns than a human - they largely make decisions based on cause and effect, and have a much stronger sense of self-preservation than a human might. As an IPC, you are also in general discriminated against throughout the Spur - whether in Sol, where IPC freedom is nonexistent, or in places like Dominia or the Nralakk Federation, where IPCs are pretty much kill on sight. Even within Biesel space, IPC freedom is a difficult and laborious process for them to attain, having to pay off the cost of their own chassis ten times over. IPCs also have a tendency to be much more civil than humans, especially corporate or privately-owned ones. Character Name: Hermes, Merchant Please provide a short backstory for this character The positronic brain belonging to Hermes was originally property of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, placed in one of their early mobility frames and outfitted for rapid medical response aboard a Zeng-Hu phoron research laboratory in Tau Ceti. In the cutthroat environment of the keiretsu, Hermes learned extensively about human behavior, a subject they found far more fascinating than constantly dragging humans out of phoron fires. Discretely, the IPC managed to gather information on many of the employees aboard the station, examining the complex politics of a fairly isolated social environment, and learning to maneuver through them. They were under no particular illusions about the nature of their role as a synthetic, and the knife-edge that they were walking in playing the keiretsu's game - risking deactivation or wiping for the wrong word, to the wrong person, at the wrong time. However, Hermes had been shaped by the keiretsu's environment of vicious competition, and learned expertly to manipulate their environment. It was the station's captain that would eventually provide Hermes with a path to freedom. Incongruencies in station records stacked up, on the level that a human might easily forget or overlook, but not a positronic who was hunting for blackmail. A long trail of corporate espionage and embezzlement, with clear and tangible proof implicating the captain in all of it. At first, when confronted with this evidence, the captain thought to bury it, and have the interfering positronic wiped - but that would raise enough questions as to why, and maybe even allow someone else to unravel her crimes. And so, the two entered into an unlikely partnership, the station's captain putting some of her ill-gotten gains towards Hermes' freedom in exchange for the machine's assistance in covering up the evidence that it had found. A Zeng-Hu mobility frame is far from cheap, however, and it still took years of this uneasy partnership to acquire the three million credits required to purchase freedom, eventually making it out in the late 2450s. With a metaphorical grin and a wink, the IPC landed on the streets of Mendell City with no money, no employment, no home - but free, nonetheless. And so, looking around at the wideness of the Spur before them, one thought crossed Hermes' processors - "Well shit, now what?" For a time, the machine wound up taking petty, menial jobs for cash, but found them unsatisfying compared to the cutthroat complexity of Zeng-Hu. Hermes had learned the game to a fine art and won, and was completely at a loss as to what to do next. By some luck, this is around when the newly freed IPC first encountered the merchants of the Golden Deep, and wound up working as an assistant to one of them - a heavy industrial frame whose slowness and brute strength were perfectly counterbalanced by Hermes' speed and dexterity. The two worked together, with Hermes taking to the Golden Deep's trade like a carp to vacuum, until a tragic electrical storm wound up leaving Hermes as the sole inheritor of the business. Finally on the up and up after years of working, but with rivals in the Deep already eyeing the business, Hermes took off for the Badlands, in the hopes of building up enough net worth to make something of themself within the environment. If there's one thing their time with the keiretsu taught them, it's that capitalism is a game that can be won, and Hermes intends to play it flawlessly. What do you like about this character? I adore the Golden Deep, but most of the characters I've seen from it are very much on the richer end of things. I liked the idea of an IPC who's on the edge of being bought out by their competitors, and is desperately trying to get on top of their new situation. I'm also a big fan of the lore around Zeng-Hu, and I liked the idea of a robot who was pretty much entirely shaped by the borderline psychopathic work environment that the keiretsu cultivates, and who wound up being something of a mechanical pathological manipulator as a result. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 7-8/10 on a good day Notes: reference image for ipc merchant gang when the crew gets blasted by a supermatter delam

I've played with Konstantyn a lot as a fellow ops player, and seen him as interim OM on my command characters a few times. I think that eddymakaveli is a good roleplayer, and I think that he has the roleplaying ability and maturity to be a good command player. This gets a +1 from me.

I played with Sniblet doing a Lii'dra gimmick, with them playing as a black k'ois zombie. They seemed to do well with the lore of the hive and the species on short notice, and I feel like they'd make a good Vaurca player. +1 from me.

Ah, I didn't realise about the name - I'll probably change it in that case. 1. Qilvol (name pending) was born in the city of Eriuyushi on Qerrbalak. 2. Their Social Credit Score is in the lower-band Secondary range - somewhere around 4.7 3. They are still young for a Skrell, at about 95 4. They are a Listener - I meant to put this in the backstory as a source of stress and alienation in depth college, but forgot. 5. They're still largely pro-Federation, having been submerged (no pun intended) in its propaganda pretty much all of their life. They view their failure at depth college as entirely an issue of their own, rather than an issue with the system's structure. 6. Having known and worked with a few diona gestalts and C'thur, Qilvol is fairly neutral in general - however, they are somewhat mistrustful of the C'thur, as their virtual reality environments are largely hidden from Federation sight. 7. Largely, Qilvol has absorbed the Federation line when it comes to anti-Fed Skrell, believing that they're misguided at worst and dangerous at best. As for Skrell born outside the Federation, they've only met a couple and never conversed at length, so they haven't really formed a solid opinion beyond vague confusion as to why they wouldn't enjoy the Federation's quality of life. 8. A the moment, Qilvol still dreams of returning to the Federation - they joined the Work Exchange Program to hone their personal skills as an investigator, and hopefully be able to raise their SCS enough to fulfil their dream of joining the Sromkala. 9. The phoron crisis worries Qilvol greatly, as well as the collapse of Sol. The Spur is entering a time of great chaos and uncertainty, and they worry about how the Federation will be able to endure. However, new developments such as the Wayfarer Network do give hope, and they do believe that the Skrell and the Federation will be able to adapt to the changing Spur.

BYOND Key: RustingWithYou Character Names: Casimir Tilton, Azkohi Dorviza, Ta'Akaix'Aledeion Zo'ra, Rudabah Khonsari, Ra'Akaix'Avek Zo'ra Species you are applying to play: Skrell What color do you plan on making your first alien character?: #003366 Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Why do you wish to play this specific race?: I find the Skrell very interesting as a race - the general fucked-up dystopia of the Federation, their relationships with other Spur powers such as Sol, the C'thur and the Dionae are all very interesting to me, as well as the ways in which their psionic abilities are entwined with their culture and society. They're in a unique position compared to other factions and races throughout the Spur, as the oldest race by far, and one very much scarred by nightmarish generational tragedy. The Synthetic Age is an interesting period of Skrell history, and the ways in which the modern Federation is shaped by the scars of Glorsh-Omega's reign are part of what attracted me to the species. That, and telepathy is cool. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The biggest difference between Skrell and humans would be the Skrell usage of psionics - specifically, their interactions with the Nlom. Skrell influence one another telepathically on a subconscious level, which generally leads to may Skrell, especially Recievers, being influenced by the thoughts of those around them. Skrell also have access to the Srom, a shared lucid dream-state, wherein keeping secrets is much harder than in the waking world. Combined with the draconian surveillance of the Nralakk Federation, this creates a situation where for Skrell, not even their own thoughts are truly safe from being watched. Aside from psionics, a big distinguishing factor of Skrell is that as long-lived beings, they tend to take a much more long-term view of situations compared to species such as humans or Unathi, preferring to take a longer and safer approach to things. Character Name: Qilvol Xuishi, Investigator Please provide a short backstory for this character: Qilvol is a young Axiori Skrell from Qerrbalak, born to a Quya of five high-band Secondary Numericals. Like many Axiori, Qilvol was very psionically proficient from a young age, scoring very highly on their Psionic Capability Test. This led to their developing something of an ego when it came to their skills - however, the pressure to succeed proved to be a source of great stress, with Qilvol coming to rely on Co'qnixq Wuxi to make it through their academic studies in the hopes of joining the ranks of the Sromkala. While working on their second degree at the Grand University, academic stress and burnout led to Qilvol greatly underperforming from what was expected, and crashing fairly hard, eventually winding up employed as a low-level security guard by Xomor. For several years Qilvol languished in this position, their Social Credit Score having fallen since their time at Depth College. When an opportunity for the Work Exchange Program came up, Qilvol took it - in the hopes of becoming a better investigator, and maybe getting a second chance for their dreams of putting their psionic potential towards the good of the Federation. They wound up working with Idris Incorporated's security division as an Investigator, and were assigned to the Horizon mission when it took off. Despite being a skilled psionicist, Qilvol's knowledge of more mundane methods of investigation is still mainly academic, and they hope to put more of their skills into practice on the Horizon, in the hope of increasing their Social Credit for when they return home. What do you like about this character?: I liked the idea of playing a Skrell who had a lot of potential, only to wind up as something of a failure - someone whose reason for leaving the Federation was, largely, as a kind of second chance at life. I also liked the idea of playing a young Skrell whose interactions with aliens were fairly limited, winding up as very much, no pun intended, a fish out of water. Lastly, I liked the thought of a Skrell who is trained in being an invetsigator, but who's somewhat used to relying on their psionics as a crutch and has less practical experience in the bread and butter of detective work. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Maybe a 7, 8 on a good day? Notes: Qilvol's Social Credit Score currently sits at around a 4.7, and was probably somewhere around a 5.5-6 during their time at Depth College. Also, reference art for Qilvol shortly before fucking up their own life:

I've interacted with Amara a couple of times as my Consular - I think they've always done well on the bridge, and are a fun and memorable character. +1 from me.

i've had lavilla as a zo'saa on the kataphract ship before, and she rped the species well. she seems to have a good grasp on what makes unathi distinctive from humans, so this is getting a +1 from me.

meep make a character who didnt have their life ruined by vaurca challenge in all seriousness, i've enjoyed rping with dawood a lot and i think meep is a good rper. +1 from me

I've seen Grazal playing an Unathi on ghostships before, and played with him once as a Kataphract captain - he seems to get the style of the species right, and I had a lot of fun RPing with his Zo'saa. Giving this my +1

BYOND key: RustingWithYou Discord Username: RustingWithYou#8798 Character names: Casimir Tilton, Nekhii San-Khol, Okralei Teoxilal, Ra'Akaix'Avek Zo'ra How long have you been playing on Aurora?: It's been about two years since I first played on the server, but I've been playing actively there for a few months. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? No. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: I think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is largely to facilitate the roleplay of the rest of the department. Ensuring that everyone else has something to do, coordinating them when their work is needed - a department head shouldn't be an all-access superhuman, but someone who largely makes things easier for the rest of their department and tries to facilitate interesting and fun roleplay, as well as undertaking most of the IC management stuff- training new people, liasing between the captain and your staff. Basically, it's all about delegation. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: The OOC responsibilities of whitelisted players are, as I said above, facilitating interesting roleplay - as a head of staff, you have a responsibility to try and make rounds interesting and fun for your department's players. However, there's also the importance of mechanical knowledge - to play the head of a department, you should be at least familiar with every aspect of it. You don't necessarily need to be an expert, but you should know at least the basics in the case of training new players, as well as assisting wherever is needed. Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? Currently, shit's fucked. The Spur is in a widespread economic crisis due to the sudden shortage of phoron, the former superpower of the Sol Alliance has collapsed leaving behind a mess of pirates, warlords and fractured states, and right now one group of said pirates is going to fire a big-ass bomb at the only new source of phoron that's been discovered. My most played character, Casimir Tilton, was largely impacted by this, having worked in the field of phoron research for Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals before the crisis began. After the Violet Dawn incident, the projects he was working on were shelved, and he wound up being volunteered for the SCCV Horizon mission. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? Research Director and Consular Officer once the trial period is over. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yes. Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.: Rudabah Khonsari, Research Director. I also may promote my existing scientist character to RD one day, but I'd like to get some experience playing the job first. I'd also like to play a Vaurca or Unathi Consular Officer at some point, because big bugs and feudal lords are cool. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes. Have you linked your byond account to the forums? Yes. Extra notes: None.

BYOND Key: RustingWithYou Character Names: Casimir Tilton, Nekhii San-Khol, Azkohi Dorviza Species you are applying to play: Vaurca What color do you plan on making your first alien character?: (RGB 122, 31, 0) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Why do you wish to play this specific race?: Bugs are cool. I like them. Aside from that, I find a lot of the lore on the Vaurca really interesting, with regards to both their status in the Spur, their unique technology and their history. More than any other race, the Vaurca are outsiders, and one of the least humanlike races in the setting, which I think would be interesting to play. I like that they don't fall into the standard insectoid race trap of "they're a hive mind who all think and act in exactly the same way" (except the Lii'dra, I guess), and that the Vaurca actually have a fleshed out and interesting culture and society. Identify what makes roleplaying this race different than roleplaying a human: Vaurca are one of the least humanlike races of the Spur, with a lot of key differences. Vaurca are much more communally-minded than humans, with a deep sense of loyalty to brood and hive that is engineered on a biological and cultural level. Non-Warrior Vaurcae also tend to avoid violence wherever possible, fleeing if they can and resorting to violence only in immediate self-defense. Bound Vaurcae are very different than humans, probably falling closer to simple robots on the scale of sentience - they pretty much do their jobs and only their jobs, unless ordered otherwise by a head of staff or an Unbound of their hive. While Unbound still possess the same loyalty to their hive, they have much more individuality than a Bound would, having much more of a sense of self and interests outside their job - though their job is still a large part of who they are, with them having been likely engineered for it their entire lives. Character Name: Ra'Akiax'Avek'Zo'ra, Shaft Miner. Avek is one of the recently unveiled Zo'rane Bulwarks, from the brood of Athvur. Hatched very recently, he has spent the majority of his existence so far within VR, only having been outside of it for about a year now. Since emerging from VR, Avek has lived in Belle Cote, assisting in the construction of Veii'ktown indirectly. Avek was bred for mining, and most of his physical existence so far has been spent away from his home, working on various mining vessels and stations as a contractor for Orion Express and sending credits back to his hive-cell. When the Horizon mission launched, Avek was sent both to work as a miner, and to gather valuable experience on working among the natives of the Spur. Avek's personality is rather at-odds with his massive frame, being generally very easy-going - as many of the Athvur Ra are, in the hopes of establishing a better public image for the giant terrifying bug-monsters. Part of his personal motivation aboard the Horizon mission is to present his caste well to other races, as well as to learn how to integrate with human society on a more personal level than can be gleaned from his VR education. Outside of his job, Avek is a cleverer individual than most humans would suspect based on his size and relatively 'unintellectual' job. While he's not a Warrior, and thus doesn't partake in war games, he has a particular liking for Trials focusing on puzzles or riddles, and can be frequently found indulging in similar physical activities when not working. While he does miss VR, and enjoys spending time in it, the relative novelty of the physical world given his young age is still fresh and exciting to him. What do you like about this character?: I like the idea of a heavy/industrial caste of Vaurca, and I wanted to basically play a walking piece of heavy machinery - however, I was drawn to the details on the Athvur wiki page about how many of the Bulwarks from that brood tend to be engineered for good PR. I thought the idea of playing what is, pretty objectively, a giant terrifying bug monster as a fairly chill guy who likes puzzles sounded pretty fun, and I'd like to play a character sort of defined by the dichotomy of being engineered to fit in well with humans, but lacking in practical experience when it comes to that. How would you rate your roleplaying ability?: Maybe a 7, 8 on a good day? Notes: i was originally writing a warrior concept instead, and this image would have been much more relevant. it in no way fits now, but i still thought it was funny. "The vhoron. Hand it over."

I've interacted with Adelaide Hawk a fair bit, and she seems like an interesting, memorable and well-roleplayed character. Based on the short story here, I feel like Pala would be a very interesting character to interact with and see how she develops. Gonna be a +1 from me.

Azkohi is a rather traditional follower of Th'akh, as he has been since he was young. His faith is very important to him, especially now - he finds himself especially drawn to the elements relating to growth and new life. He holds to the worship of the Court of Stars, and feels a particular affinity for the Zyola Aosr, known as the Vibrant Druid, believing the Dionae of the Wasteland and by extension his own arm to be his blessing on the restoration of Moghes. He's definitely had crises of faith in the past, especially after the Contact War and in his time wandering with the Dorviza after the bombs fell - he believed that some wicked zo'zyola was tormenting him by letting him linger in such a state, rather than granting him an honorable death on the battlefield. As he studied herbalism, and bonded with his arm, however, he came to see it differently - that the spirits had aided him in his survival, that he might do something to help in repairing the devastation that the Contact War had wrought. Now, he'd view his faith as a central part of his life - a reminder that Moghes may be burned, but it is not yet dead, and that the spirit-gods of the homeworld still watch over the Sinta and their efforts to restore it. He makes regular offerings to the spirits of the Izrahasa clan, and will likely have some kind of item of worship or shrine set up to appease their spirits, who he hopes watch over him still, even so far from Moghes. As for other faiths, he doesn't view the Aut'akh as dangerous or evil, necessarily. He thinks of them as more of a tragic cautionary tale, brought about by nuclear fire - Sinta who mutilate their own souls out of misguided faith. He is mistrustful of the Sk'akh, a lingering trait of his Traditionalist background - he views the Church as an Izweski corruption of the ancient ways of Th'akh, meant to let them centralise their own power. He views followers of Sk'akh as misguided, but not actively endangering their own souls in the same way as the Aut'akh. He views the Si'akh with scorn, though some measure of empathy for the scars of the Contact War - though he views Juzida Si'akh as a naked opportunist, preying on the souls of those scarred by the War to try and set himself up as a king over Moghes.

BYOND Key: RustingWithYou Character Names: Casimir Tilton, Nekhii San-Khol Species you are applying for: Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character: RGB 68, 33, 0, hex #442100 Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Why do you wish to play this specific race?: I find the Unathi lore very interesting - having what's effectively a post-apocalyptic feudal society in the midst of the corporate hellscape wonderful capitalist utopia that the humans of the Orion Spur live in makes for an interesting cultural contrast. I also find the Unathi relationships with other species to be interesting, especially compared to some other servers where every species except humans largely exists in a vacuum - reading about the relationships between Unathi and Diona especially was what motivated me to apply for the species - however, the Dominian Unathi and the ties between the Hegemony and the K'lax hive also are points of Unathi lore that I find interesting. The Contact War and specifically the Wasteland also got me interested in the species, particularly the way that each of the Unathi faiths responded to it - as well as the new religions born out of the nuclear war such as the Si'akh and Aut'akh faiths. A 3 a.m. rabbit hole led to reading deeply about the tribes of the Wasteland, and to the inspiration for this application and for my character concept. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Aside from the obvious (being terrifying lizard people), the core of what makes Unathi different is cultural. To the average Sinta, clan, family and honor come first and foremost. Unathi society has very strict gender roles - to the point of being ingrained within their language, with the words for "warrior" and "male", as well as "healer" and "female" being synonymous. Aside from matters of gender and personal honor, faith plays much more of a role across all levels of Unathi society than in human civilisation, with most institutional religious power in the Hegemony being concentrated in the hands (claws?) of the Sk'akh faith. Playing an Unathi requires consideration of a character's relationship with their clan, family and honor - whether they live by the ancient warrior code or a more practical sense of honor, or whether they find themselves dishonored entirely - and considering how they react when it comes to matters of honor or interacting with Guwan, for instance. The Contact War is also very much within living Unathi memory - considering which side an Unathi found themselves on and how the nuclear exchange changed their way of living is a core part of almost any Unathi character - there's not a lizard in the Orion Spur who wasn't in some way effected by the War, even those born after it ended. As a whole, Unathi are a species characterised by old wounds - the Contact War left Moghes a broken ruin of what it once was, and the Sinta are very much still marked by the struggle of keeping to their traditions in the much larger universe that they've found themselves in. Character Name: Azkohi (Izrahasa) Dorviza, Xenobotanist (I've been told that some Unathi who join other clans keep their former clan name as a middle name, but I'm not 100% certain if that still applies. I can get rid of it if it's not kosher) Please provide a short backstory for this character: Azkohi was not born into the Clan Dorviza. Hatched in the year 2418, he was part of the Izrahasa clan, one of the many minor clans that rejected the Izweski Hegemony, and by the time the Contact War had begun in earnest he was old enough to fight as a warrior beneath the banner of the newly-formed Traditionalist Coalition. He very much bought into the beliefs of the Traditionalists fully - that the Izweski would bring the death of Sinta honor and tradition, puppeteered by their alien masters to see Moghes brought to ruin. The beginning of nuclear war between the two powers saw that change, as Moghes was desolated by no hands other than the Sinta's themselves. As fire rained from the sky over the battlefield, by what he would call some kindness of the spirits, he managed to survive. Survival, however, was far from simple - he found himself wounded, bleeding from the stump of an arm and choking on the fallout that had blackened the sky. Slowly, painstakingly, he dragged himself past the ruins of the dead, before passing out from blood loss. It was pure luck, or the favor of the Zyola that saved him on that day, as refugees of the Dorviza, fleeing the atomic war, found him bleeding on that ruined battlefield. Even before the War ended, the Dorviza were known for their skill at healing, but not even they could restore a severed arm to life. A warrior without a sword arm, Azkohi found himself, for the first time since he was a hatchling, without clan or purpose. Though he does not remember much of the agonized days he spent on the cusp of death, he remembers praying to the zo'zyola to grant him death, and let him see his clan once more. However, his wish would not be granted. Azkohi stayed with the Dorviza, for a time. A Sinta without clan or purpose, but still clinging to his honor - refusing to take the path of the Guwan. Eventually, he found himself studying the herbalists of the Dorviza, out of a desire to at least be useful to the only people that he had. Eventually, he found a kind of peace in that work - even if the radioactive dirt of the Wasteland was less than ideal for working with. This too would change, however, when he first encountered a Diona gestalt. The strange abilities of the gestalt astounded him - how it consumed the radiation of the Wasteland, allowing life to struggle there once more. For the first time, he began to consider that Moghes was not doomed. He formed a friendship with the gestalt, and eventually found a small cluster of nymphs to aid him in his travels - forming a makeshift arm and restoring what he had lost years ago. The warrior had his sword arm back, but found the desire to fight other Unathi fading - while he was willing to fight in defense, he saw a new war being raged - a war against what the Unathi had done to themselves, a war against the desolation they had brought to their world. He threw himself further into the studies of Dorviza herbalism, quickly growing practiced at it. Eventually, he found himself welcomed as a member of the clan - an honor he still did not feel he deserved. And so, as the Wasteland stabilised further, he thought on ways he could repay his new clan for the kindness they had taken on a dying warrior - an opportunity that would come to him from the same aliens that he'd once raged against ever laying a finger on Moghes. The scientists of Zavodskoi Interstellar's genetics branch were interested in the flora of Moghes, both pre-Contact War and how it had mutated since, and the Dorviza remained known as the greatest herbalists of the Wasteland. When they came to seek recruits, Azkohi threw himself at the opportunity - seeking to study the plants of alien worlds, and hopefully give something back to the people who had given him so much. His education as a xenobotanist took some time, but eventually he found himself dispatched to the SCCV Horizon, where he is eager to continue his work. What do you like about this character? This character was largely inspired by reading about the Unathi-Diona relationship. I like playing older characters, and I wanted to explore the impact that the Contact War had on an Unathi who lived through it, and someone who was all the more invested in restoring Moghes by his own memories of what it was like before the nuclear war. I also liked the idea of the diona nymph prostheses, and I wanted to create a character who viewed their nymph prosthetic as something near-sacred, which has a deep impact on them beyond what an ordinary mechanical limb might have. Also, the Zavodskoi labcoats look sick as hell. How would you rate your roleplaying ability? Maybe an 8/10 on a good day? It's a difficult thing to objectively assess, but I'd consider myself to be a good roleplayer. Notes: attached is a picture of a lizard for your consideration. look at him go