unathi [ACCEPTED] Unathi Application (Charger10k)

[Charger10k]

BYOND KEY: Charger10k

Character Names:

- Honcho Khanna, Security Officer

- Triton Kessler, Anomalist

- Kanoa Tangaroa, Quartermaster

Species you are applying to play: Unathi

What color do you plan on making your first alien character?: Sand-colored

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’ve really enjoyed how Unathi lore has developed over the past two years or so and the current state of the Unathi race provides a ton of engaging concepts for rp. Reading over the lore to prepare my application has been a neat experience, and each of the factions and religious sects is well fleshed out. The Unathi honor system and caste-based social structure provides a guiding hand for potential characters, shaping them into numerous fun directions.

 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human:

 

    Putting aside their physiological differences as cold-blooded, carnivorous reptilians, the way Unathi society has developed over time differs greatly from humanity. Despite a technological level on par with 21st-century Earth, Moghes hasn’t experienced the same decline in traditional, hierarchical government and gradual erosion of religious authority that Earth had. Unathi politics is centered around conflict between the Hegemony and Traditionalist factions, although Unathi can be found as pirates, unaffiliated wasteland wanderers, or Dominian nobility.

 

    Despite one specific faction being labeled as the “Traditionalists”, all Unathi societies are nonetheless fairly traditional by human standards. The familial Clan system determines one’s social status, vocational opportunities, and marriage prospects, and religious oddballs like Aut’akhs are shunned by their more traditional counterparts. The economy isn’t controlled by megacorporations but instead by a network of guilds with various noble patronages, who enforce monopolies and tariffs to ensure their personal financial gain.

 

Character Name: Koth Ze’vaan

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

 

    Since the days of the Second Hegemony, the Skalamar-based Ze’vaan Clan has provided its botanical expertise to the nobility to a marginal degree of success. While boasting little in the way of physical holdings, Ze’vaan agriculturists sustained themselves by managing the herb gardens, xuizi patches, and berry orchards of prominent landholders, for a reasonable fee. This income was sufficient to afford the Ze’vaans several modest housing complexes within Skalamar, although the Ze’vaan Clan was never truly prominent in local politics until first contact with humanity in 2433. The Moghresian Exchange, while introducing humanity to a variety of Unathi crops, also brought human cash crops such as tea and tobacco to the Hegemony, and ambitious, young nobles capitalized on the opportunity to transform their underdeveloped properties into plantations for fad human produce. 

 

    It was under these fortuitous circumstances that Koth Ze’vaan was born in late 2433, as the Ze’vaan Clan was beginning to aggressively develop its client properties for human agriculture. The sixth (and youngest) child of his father Sk’rath and the only member of his clutch, Koth spent the first six years of his life being doted on by one of the clan’s several handmaidens, even being enrolled in his district’s primary academy at four to begin formal education. Unfortunately, the brief agricultural boom powering the Ze’vaan Clan’s newfound success left as quickly as it arrived during the nuclear exchanges of 2439. Many outlying properties were reduced to ash, and as fallout spread across the planet, more and more land receded from arability. Economic decline during the next decade of war certainly didn’t assist, as surviving clans began cutting corners to maintain their livelihood. Garnishes, sauces, jams, butanolic beverages, and fine teas were luxuries the majority of Hegemonic Unathi found themselves unable to afford like they used to, and the Ze’vaans couldn’t find customers for the produce they were able to harvest from their remaining managed properties. This also led to a severe loss of clientele, as the nobility began converting their orchards and plantations into residential complexes for the influx of refugees from the Wasteland.

 

    Koth’s post-nuclear upbringing was considerably less comfortable than it was prior, as tutors and servants were laid off, and the clan’s urban properties were sold and consolidated. Now sharing quarters with his two brothers, Koth proved himself to be a quiet and studious child, achieving high marks throughout the local primary and secondary academies until the age of 16, where, following in the footsteps of centuries of Ze’vaans before him, he enrolled in the West Skalamar Scientific Institute to study agricultural and biological science. Completing his apprenticeship in 2453, it took another six years of intense study at the expense of any other competing priorities to become a Master Agronomist, with his “masterpiece” consisting of a crop rotation proposal for xuizi cacti in fallout-affected areas.

 

    Unfortunately, the agricultural sector hadn’t improved during Koth’s period of study, and as desertification continued to corrupt arable land, vocational opportunities declined in kind. For a few years, several start-up projects in the Untouched Lands failed due to climate change, squatters, or lack of demand for produce. Challenged to find stable, well-paying employment, Koth set his sights off-world, and after speaking with a NanoTrasen recruiter, applied for and received permission from his lord to move off-world to become a xenobotanical researcher in Tau Ceti.

 

    For this Master Agronomist, working as a salaryman is a means to an end. Building up a résumé and a proper savings account through work with NT, he maintains his membership with the Kasavakh Leaf Guild in hopes that he can eventually start an agricultural business of his own. While the results of his corporate research remain the property of NanoTrasen, the tea breeding and mixing that he performs in his home garden is Koth’s to own the fruits of. In addition, Koth’s fourth cousin Krel’tass, the Ze’vaan clan leader, is finalizing a list of candidates for an arranged marriage for Koth, which would likely entail a brief return to Moghes for a traditional marriage prior to taking his wife back to Tau Ceti. 

 

    Will life in the Tau Ceti system erode Koth’s fine religious sensibilities? Perhaps, although that process began far before his emigration from Moghes. Although he was raised Sk’akh like the vast majority of Skalamarians and does his best to adhere to the customs of his youth, Koth is a guildsman at heart. Haughty, avaricious, and pedantic like his forefathers, Koth was raised in a household where Sk’akh tradition was followed more to retain social standing than anything else. Indeed, there had been slight friction between the Ze’vaan Clan and Sk’akh clergy for decades due to the former’s occupation genetically altering crops to increase yield, decrease grow time, and improve climate adaptability. While this wasn’t a taboo on par with gene-boosting a hatchling, the Ze’vaans’ casual attitude taken towards genetic modification in general proved disdainful to many a local priest, and since then, efforts have been undertaken by the Clan to otherwise fit in with their Sk’akh brethren. It’s Koth’s hope that his own external Sk’akh sensibilities will placate both the spirits and his Unathi counterparts in Biesel.

 

What do you like about this character:

 

    Koth interests me because he serves an archetypal role that’s been rehashed in a variety of iterations throughout history: The middle-class entrepreneur whose accumulated wealth without high social standing challenges the traditions and social hierarchy of his society. While Koth himself isn’t one of those wealthy few, his upbringing as part of one of those families provides a lot of opportunity to fill that cultural role. I recall it being mentioned before that the core of the Unathi lore is religious conflict, but as opposed to the more obvious external conflicts between different belief systems, I think it’d be intriguing to play a character whose spiritual battle is largely internal, challenging himself both to maintain his religious standing among other Sk’akh Unathi and reevaluate his own beliefs, considering they’ve been neglected for so long to pursue his ambitions.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?:

 

    I do my best, although like most mortals, I’m not perfect. Thus far, my style has received more praise than complaint, so I’ll take that as a sign that my role-playing ability is sufficient to not prevent me from earning and keeping a whitelist.

Edited April 17, 2021 by Haydizzle

[Shenaanigans]

Hey there! This is a very thorough and well thought out application and I'm very intrigued by the information you've laid out on how an agricultural based Clan was effected by first contact and the nuclear exchange. It makes for an interesting character background that synergizes well with lore, so great job there. I really only have a few questions for you:

1. You've mentioned how Koth is generally only "faithful" to Sk'akh for the sake of appearances, so how does this effect his view on other traditional concepts that most Unathi observe? Things like hostility toward the heretical religions (Si'akh and Aut'akh), support of rigid gender roles, and obligation to serve one's elders/lord over yourself.
2. How have Koth's experiences with non-Unathi merchants been so far? There tends to be a bit of culture shock for Unathi who begin working with races that don't hold to their same concept of "honor" which might forbid lying, backstabbing, and other business savvy practices, so I'm curious to know if he's had those same difficulties or been better able to adapt due to his temperament.
3. What are Koth's general opinions toward Wastelanders and Dominians?

[Charger10k]

1. I’ll begin by clarifying that Koth isn’t internally a hardline atheist or a follower of some esoteric cult, he’s more the Unathi equivalent of those closet agnostics that only attend mass during major holidays and funerals, or when their Christian parents are in town. He’s not opposed to Sk’akh, his Sk’akh upbringing just didn’t stick too well. That being said, Koth still supports traditional gender roles and social stratification. Self-interested at his core, and a member of a class that benefits from the status quo, he has everything to lose from “freeing” the market. Allowing females to easily join male-dominated professions would increase competition, and as a potential future noble himself should his entrepreneurial pursuits take off, maintaining feudalism and the obligations therein keeps his opportunity for ennoblement available. The guild system is itself the manifestation of traditional Unathi values played out over generations, and for the successful guildsman, it pays to perpetuate that system. On the subject of heretics like the Aut’akh, Koth considers them disruptive influences on the status quo and political suicide to interact with closely, so he avoids both public and private associations with them. He hasn’t yet been put in a position where refusing to associate with a heretic would lose him future financial opportunities, and how he’d respond to such a situation is something I’d rather leave open-ended to explore when that time comes.

 

2. There’s certainly been a learning curve for Koth to overcome in terms of dealing with humans economically. During his first few inventory orders and shipping contracts, he’s been blinded several times by “shortages” and fees that weren’t necessarily mentioned in the initial agreements. It’s made Koth wary of dealing with humans, and he rarely takes their business offerings at face value, but being able to navigate the human marketplace is a skill no budding entrepreneur can afford not to pick up. The human proclivity towards gossip and hearsay has actually worked to his benefit, as he’s able to listen to his human counterparts talk shop without offering much information in return. This sort of passive intelligence-gathering has saved him time and money by notifying him of price fluctuations, new trade routes, and other market factors he might otherwise not have been aware of, especially considering that some Solarian financial newspapers/magazines are only printed in Sol Common.

 

3. By and large, Koth views Wastelanders as a nuisance to be avoided when possible. Traditionalist enclaves tend to attack Hegemonic caravans as often as they trade with them, and the influx of Wastelander refugees into the Hegemony has driven property prices skyward. The typically impoverished clans of the Wasteland don’t possess valuable marriage alliances or trade opportunities, so they’re of little use to a guildsman trying to get ahead. Koth bears Wastelanders no ill will, he’d just prefer that they remain back home where they “belong”. This extends to Dominians as well, as the Empire offers few trade opportunities for non-Dominian Unathi while simultaneously paying ships to plunder Hegemonic colonies. Due to the Solarian collapse and increasing attacks by pirates and raiders, Koth prefers to avoid the Imperial Route and any interaction with Dominian ships altogether, and instead sends his goods to human markets through Elyra and the Persepolis-Tau Ceti Gate.

[Haydizzle]

Sorry for the late reply! Should you apply for any species whitelists and there is no decision made within three days, feel free to spam the species dev or lore master.

Anyway, the application itself is very well written. You show an excellent understanding of the themes of the lore and how factions play off each other, and your own ad lib/improv for things that are not expressly stated (like the Moghresian Exchange) shows good experience with roleplay. I hope you apply for other species as I feel you would make good use of their themes as well.

Application accepted! Feel free to contact my deputies and I for any questions or concerns.