[Accepted] Herpetophilia's epic Unathi application

[Herpetophilia2]

BYOND Key: Herpetophilia

Character Names: Ian Peters, Ari Matz, Caleb Toe, Anton Vasiliev, Tori Deimos

Species you are applying to play: Unathi 

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Forest-ish Green

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: After playing a round or two as a Kataphract knight and interacting with multiple Unathi, I have decided that it's a very cool species that I would like to try out. Unathi lore stands out to me in certain ways and seems to be more in-depth than some other species. Their clan-based life and system appeals to me greatly and I believe that many role-play opportunities open up from it. What appeals to me about their religion is the amount and diversity of it and how it appears to be very mystic and mysterious.  

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Unathi are large, carnivorous lizards. They posess clawed feet and hands, and therefore cannot wear normal shoes and gloves. They are carnivorous, and their hunger will only be satisfied with meat. Being cold-blooded reptiles, Unathi are sensitive to cold but resistant to heat, and cold environments may even hurt them. Being emotional creatures, Unathi posess many ways to express those emotions using varied body language (i. e. tail thumping, chuffing, etc). Evolved from nomadic hunters, Unathi later settled down and formed a clan system, with their lives and culture revolving around it. Honor is a huge thing for Unathi, being so that they even created a code of honor (Warrior's Code.) It guides warriors to be loyal, righteous, brave, and merciful. This in turn makes warriors celebrated and revered in Unathi culture as the pillars of tradition and examples for all men, but not all have to follow their code. Women are mostly considered property and do not have as many rights or opportunities as males, but can still achieve a name for themselves if they try. 

Character Name: Suul Zat'Sleez (Now Suul Akhandi)

Please provide a short backstory for this character

Hatched in 2441 in a small town a couple of miles north of Skalamar, Suul was introduced into a life of poverty at a very young age because of the Contact War. With food scarce on markets, Suul's father, Athu Zat'Sleez was forced to hunt to survive. This soon proved ineffective and Suul's mother, Sila bypassed the gender norms and started helping her husband. While they hunted, they left Suul to the care of one of the Th'akh shamans in the town, Zusa Akhandi. Possessing a thirst for knowledge that could not be explained at his age, Suul learnt many lessons about life from the Akhandi instead of training to fight and hunt like his father wanted him to. In turn, his understanding of Th'akh and knowledge deepened. As the war slowly closed to an end and the IAC started providing food to the survivors, Suul's parents often started returning home only to find him intensely studying and reading religious texts at only the age of 8. 

With the war over, Suul spent his teenage years learning more and more of Th'akh and his ancestors. As his interest deepened in the holy teachings, it waned in his parents and the path that they have laid out for him to be a warrior. Athu was maddened at the thought of his son becoming a shaman when he had the body and soul of a fighter, but was eventually coerced into allowance by Zusa and his wife. At age 16, Suul bade his family goodbye and was welcomed into the Akhanzi Order as an acolyte Akhandi. As he grew up into an adult, the state of affairs between humanity, Skrell and Unathi was revealed to him. Being raised in the lands of the Hegemony and leading a peaceful yet lacking life so far, he had a neutral look on humanity and normally never heard anything bad about it other than the ramblings of old heretical fools. He spent his time further deepening his religious knowledge with Zusa.

In 2460, being 19 years old and a full adult, Suul was about to be pronounced a full shaman of the Th'akh faith by his temple when the dire news from the Elder Shaman Vuthix reached his town. The Mazariites of the Sa'akh were reaping the land of all Akhanzi temples. His one was thrown into a panic, as priests tried to scribble down as many sacred texts into copies that they could escape with or hide, but Zusa had other plans in mind. Knowing that the Mazariites probably wouldn't stop until every trace of Th'akh was ridden of in the area, he assigned a very important mission to Suul. With new opportunities opening up for Hegemony-dwelling Unathi in human space, Suul and Zusa were to escape from Moghes and to Tau Ceti to preserve and spread Th'akh. As the Maraziites reached their town, the young priest and his teacher boarded a shuttle belonging to a certain Ghusi Aska and departed to Tau Ceti, with most of the temple's funds and original religious texts in their hands. 

As Tau Ceti was on the other side of the Orion Spur, the journey was a long and tiresome, because the shuttle was very slow and badly built. However, it was small enough and was modified to be extremely hard to see using radars, and managed to get through the full month or so of travel without being noticed by a single pirate. Suul tried to occupy himself with reading and studying, but soon got bored of it because of the cramped and badly-lit conditions of the interior of the ship. Instead, he spent his time conversing with Aska and different bar patrons to learn the current state of the galaxy whenver they stopped somewhere to get supplies. After they finally arrived, using their money, Suul and Zusa managed to both get visitor visas and find the Akhanzi Library, led by Vuthix Akhandi, while taking Tau Ceti Basic classes meant for refugees. 

Suul realized that if he were to survive in this new environment, he would need to get a job. Being a weak and otherwise unskilled Unathi, he found out that the powerful human mega-corporation NanoTrasen was looking for all sorts of people, which included shamans and spiritual leaders to serve aboard their stations and ships for long-term missions. Using his knowledge of Th'akh and passable Basic, he managed to get a work visa and land a spot on the NSS Aurora, serving as a Th'akh shaman. To this day, Suul still studies and lives in the Library outside of his work hours while trying to adjust to his new way of life.

What do you like about this character? 

What stands out to me about Suul is his smarts and passion. Even though he was supposedly "meant" to be a warrior according to his parents, he never liked violence and took no interest in it, and instead pulled through that gender expectation and became a shaman, studying and preaching instead of fighting and killing. This made Suul into a compassionate and calm Unathi, praising words and knowledge over physical strength. However, he still holds true to basic Unathi ideals and culture about honor, like every good Th'akh faithful should.

How would you rate your role-playing ability? 

A solid 7/10 and improving, I think that I'm getting better at it by the day. With these new whitelists and roleplay opportunities, I am able to create more characters with more diverse behaviors and backstories, which are a great joy to me to flesh out and roleplay.

Notes: Again thanks to my bro DeadLantern for clarifying many different points about the lore and proofreading! ❤️

Edited December 16, 2019 by Marlon Phoenix

[VVipEdout]

A solid +1. It's always great to see people playing with some of the less used aspects of lore, like the Akhanzi Order, and even moreso when the concept is of an atypical sort, in this case a male Unathi character completely disinterested in becoming a warrior. It should be interesting to see how they mesh with (or cause friction against) Hegemony loyalists, alien characters, Aut'akh, Dominians or even the occasional Maraziite. Overall, the concept is rich and could be taken in a lot of directions.

[Wigglesworth Jones]

I've had some solid interactions with Herp over multiple characters, and I trust that they'd be able to make some good 'Nathi. I'll ask some questions, though.

 

What is their opinion on the other religions on Moghes? Sk'akh, Si'akh, Aut'akh, and the Tribunal if you count them.

How "traditional" of an unathi will he be? I see the statement that he holds true to Unathi ideals, I'm just wondering.

What job will he have?

 

[Herpetophilia2]

2 minutes ago, Wigglesworth Jones said:

I've had some solid interactions with Herp over multiple characters, and I trust that they'd be able to make some good 'Nathi. I'll ask some questions, though.

 

What is their opinion on the other religions on Moghes? Sk'akh, Si'akh, Aut'akh, and the Tribunal if you count them.

How "traditional" of an unathi will he be? I see the statement that he holds true to Unathi ideals, I'm just wondering.

What job will he have?

 

Hey, thanks for the feedback! To answer your questions:

1. Because he was never exactly introduced to Si'akh, Aut'akh and the Tribunal, Suul looks at them with a neutral eye but is curious to find out more about them. As for Sk'akh, he despises the Mazariite Order but does not blame the normal worshippers of the religion for the things that the Order has done.

2. I would say a 6 or 7 out of 10. This is because unlike most Unathi males, Suul never had the interest of being a warrior at heart. He values words and common sense over fighting, but still believes in honor. 

3. In the last paragraph of the story, I already covered this. Suul will be a religious leader (Shaman, Chaplain, Priest, call it whatever you want). A Th'akh Shaman to be precise. 

Your questions and criticism mean a lot to me. I hope these answers suit you.

[Wigglesworth Jones]

>tfw akhanzi doesn't like si'akh
Disgusting.

Jokes aside, these are solid responses. 
+1, praise Si'akh

[Warbidon]

+1 Maintiance adventures with anton was fun, and i like this guys lore knowledge.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Hmmm I really like your character concept here and you show that you have a good grasp of what the business of the Akhanzi are. The only small correction I will say is that the Order does not have priests, they are still shamans. But I don't think that should hold this up. With your app and positive feedback im happy to accept it!