BYOND Key: TheGreyWolf
Character Names: Arnet Norstone, Sofia Zeil
Species you are applying to play: Tajara
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: My plan is a M’sai with wheat colored fur.
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 their lore interesting and the intertwinement of the three governments particularly curious. I think the potential for small conflicts between taj from the different factions is great but also with how different each of them are, there are a lot of options on what to do and work with.
Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Well, beyond what I wrote above there is how recent all of their troubles are and how new they are to space in general. There is also how that as a separate race their views of humans and things humans do are different, not just culturally but also that their opinions of the megacorps are most likely heavily influenced by where they live and their past. Beyond that with the difference between the ethnicities which is only again further influenced by their country, it provides great tools for RPing something that feels unique and different from humans.
Character Name: Kathira El-Hashem
Please provide a short backstory for this character.
2437-2455
Kathira is a commoner born to royalist parents in 2437, in the period between the first and second revolution. Growing up wasn’t easy, as her father quit working for Kaltir’s law enforcement a few years after her birth when he was finally fed up with working for what he considered the brutal regime that the PRA were running which forced him to take other jobs in between, but being an m’sai it proved harder to accomplish than otherwise with the lingering opinions that he was working for the PRA in one way or another. This was again not helped by his former work as a law enforcer which many his former friends remembered very well.
This caused no shortage of problems in her childhood as her family just barely managed to scrape by until the second revolution in 2450 when her father was quick to join the uprising and soon after the military. It was particularly in these early years immediately before and after the outbreak of the second revolution that Kathira’s thoughts about the PRA set like concrete, and likewise with the ALA (later DPRA) which she hardly saw as any different. In her mind, the problems only occured because of them and because of the brutality they showed when they were let in peacefully. She only became more resolute over the next few years as the fighting waged on, until in 2453, when news arrived. Her mother was informed that Kathira’s father had died on the frontline.
The years passed by, the fighting continued between the factions. Kathira sunk more into herself during this time to cope with the loss of her father and found comfort in the worship of S’rendarr and in particular Messa for whom she prayed to for guidance and felt a kinship with what she represents. At one point she entertained the thought of becoming a Sun Daughter, but she quickly realised she would never find peace among them and instead she began to look forward.
2456-2463
She started at Kaltir Law Academy in 2456 with the aim to step in her father’s footsteps and become a cop. She was lucky, as despite her family’s poor status she was sponsored by one of the local aristocrats whom she later learned from her mother, that her father once helped him out when her father was still a part of the police. She would never finish that path however, as during one of the training scenarios she was paired up with one of her classmates, a Zhan-Khazan known for being rough during training and when they were doing the exercise, he managed to accidentally break Kathira’s leg.
Her leg never healed properly after the episode as a result of poor treatment of the injury and she had to face the realisation that becoming a cop was no longer an option. She thought about her future again now that her plans had been forcefully changed and again the thoughts of the Parivara came to her, but again she dismissed it, slower than the last time. It would take far more than a permanent limp and chronic pain for her to stop now, so if her main plan was not possible, she would take the second best: She changed her courses and took up forensic science, a job where she could still matter even with her injuries. It didn’t get easier as some of her classmates had different opinions on if a m’sai belonged as a forensic while others accepted it as part of their role as law enforcement.
She was still studying the day the parliament was bombed and as to anyone else, it was a shocking day to her. That an attack in the capital and on the king himself was even possible underlined just how vulnerable anyone could be to attacks from the PRA and DPRA on Ahdomai, and she began to think about her options once again. It became brighter when the armistice was signed, but even then she had little intention of staying on Ahdomai and instead it gave her a way to leave once she finished her studies, which she finally did in 2462 at the age of 25. She took her time before she in the end signed up with Nanotrasen.
What do you like about this character?
A lot of things really but if I should pick out a few it would be the potential interactions she can have with others, from not agreeing with the belief of the other factions to her support of NKA nobles. Another point is the way she supports the king (now queen) despite many things that are lacking and the hardships. In a way, it feels believable to me that she can support them still.
How would you rate your role-playing ability?
I believe myself to be okay at RPing my characters through text & actions but have slightly more difficulty in portraying them using emotes. Despite that hindrance I consider myself able to RP my characters correctly and usually as I envision them on creation.
Notes: