Tajara Application (Charger10k)

[Charger10k]

BYOND KEY: Charger10k

Character Names:

- Honcho Khanna, Security Officer

- Triton Kessler, Anomalist

- Kanoa Tangaroa, Quartermaster

Species you are applying to play: Tajara

What color do you plan on making your first alien character?: Steel gray

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:

    Why not? Tajaran lore is very well-developed and frames a compelling narrative for any potential Tajaran character that I might play, regardless of origin. I enjoy creating new characters and getting the chance to brush up against lore that I haven’t previously explored, and I’ve sufficiently enjoyed my time reading through the material necessary to create a proper Tajara that I’m excited to begin playing one.

 

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

    Prior to First Contact with a spacefaring race, Tajaran society was governed by a smattering of monarchies, each similarly stratified and encouraging traditional religious and moral values. While republican revolutions have occurred in the past, conservative factions have maintained their chokehold over their people well into Adhomai’s industrial era.

    The Tajara of 2463, however, have much more to contend with than their ancestors even fifty years ago. Contact with humanity has exposed Adhomai to concepts and ideologies that had previously been suppressed by the ruling class or hadn’t been explored altogether. As three different regimes with their own plans for the future of Adhomai jostle with control, each individual must themselves tackle the bevy of questions brought on by the new Tajaran state of being. 

    Which system of government would best serve Adhomai? How should Tajara approach their relationship with megacorporations that can greatly improve their technology and standard of living at the price of their cultural heritage and values? Should traditional religious and political ideals be reevaluated in the face of new ideologies imported from abroad? Tajaran life has grown exponentially more complex over the past half-century and the core of playing Tajaran characters lies with how they attempt to answer these questions, among others.

 

Character Name: Yuri Mrra’gazir

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

    The Mrra’gazir family has inhabited Bar’jar since the Warring Kings Period, eking out a modest living from the ocean’s bounty. Despite the city changing hands dozens of times since its initial settlement, this family of Zhan-Khazan has maintained its lifestyle of simple living unmolested by local nobility. Ma’ta’ke, monarchy, and mackerel; these were the three truths of Bar’jar and paying close attention to each would guarantee local fisherfolk a peaceful, if not particularly plentiful, life by the sea.

    But it was under the People’s Republic of Adhomai that Yuri was born in 2437, the youngest of four children. His parents did their best to shelter him from the backwards Hadiist regime and its correspondingly decadent philosophy, refusing to enroll him in any of the Hadiist schools or youth clubs that had recently been organized in town. Atheism and social equality were passing fads, they claimed, and the status quo would return in time. Instead, Yuri spent the majority of his youth learning the family trade, leaving home before dawn each day to board a trawler and returning around dusk with nets full of fish and shellfish. 

    Years flew by in blissful monotony, Yuri gradually beginning to shoulder the burdens of familial tradition. He barely noticed when the New Kingdom of Adhomai laid claim to Bar’jar in 2450, although elder members of the family who could recall the pre-Hadiist Kingdom of Kaltir were overjoyed. Once more, a portrait of a king adorned their mantle, and blessings for the local nobility occupied their prayers. Untouched thus far by the Second Revolution and the carnage it wrought across Adhomai, the Mrra’gazirs’ ignorant bliss was interrupted by King Azunja’s 2453 conscription notice.

    At 16, Yuri was the only individual in his household yet to be married, making him the obvious choice for conscription. Like most recruits in his area, Yuri’s previous maritime experience landed him in the Royal Navy, bolstering His Majesty’s presence at sea. It was a jarring change for someone whose lifestyle had become so entrenched over the last decade and a half, but he learned to adjust. After all, military service wasn’t just an honorable path for local youth; it also offered up opportunities for education and on-the-job experience in a variety of useful trades.

    As a battery of spoken examinations would reveal, Yuri was in fact linguistically and quantitatively competent, if illiterate due to his upbringing. After six months of rigorous vocational training, along with supplemental literacy lessons in Siik’maas ensuring his ability to read technical manuals as necessary, he graduated as a qualified machinist in 2454.

    Life at sea returned Yuri to a routine that he was comfortable with, performing daily maintenance and quality assurance tasks and standing watch in the engine room aboard a light cruiser. In his free time, with little else to do besides drink and gamble, he opted instead to improve his reading abilities in the ship’s meager library. Most of the library’s contents were written in Ya’ssa, relegating Yuri to the Royalist propaganda, religious texts, and manuals written in Siik’mass for enlisted use. One notable exception was a pair of beginner’s textbooks for learning Delvahhi, which he periodically snuck to his bunk to read before lights-out. Previously only familiar with the few psalms and chants necessary for his household religious ceremonies, Yuri’s ability to both speak and read Delvahhi slowly began to blossom over time.

    He spent eight years in the Royal Navy, most of it at sea in pursuit of weaker Republican flotillas. Occasionally, Yuri’s ship would slip into drydock at Miran’mir for maintenance, although even then most of his time was spent assisting the land-based repair crews. Constantly reading and listening to the radio, he began to develop his own political beliefs, identifying as a conservative in opposition to the absolutist tendencies of his shipmates. The alien governments and megacorporations viewed with skepticism by most sailors were, in actuality, potential allies depending on how open-minded the central government acted towards them. With the PRA’s colonization of outlying planets and development of a strong stellar navy, it had never been more clear to Yuri that without external intervention, the NKA’s military would fall behind. 

    Following the Armistice of Shastar, Yuri was released from service along with many of his fellow conscripts, returning home to a family that he hadn’t seen in years. His siblings had long since moved on, developing households and their own maritime businesses in other parts of town. In their more advanced age, his parents had reduced the scale of their fishing routes and adjusted to the modest lifestyle they were now able to afford. Amohdan exiles started businesses of their own in competition with the established locals of Bar’jar, straining his family’s pocketbooks even further. It was clear to Yuri that his future at home was limited and in pursuit of new opportunities, he set up a WorkDay account at his local treasury office and began to apply for openings off-world that would make better use of his experience.

    After a few months of waiting, separating his time between assisting his parents at sea and interviewing with potential employers, Yuri landed a position with Hephaestus Industries as a maintenance engineer. Bidding his parents farewell, he packed the few belongings he had collected during his naval service and boarded a bus to the Kaltir shuttleport. His trip from Adhomai to Persepolis was a grueling one, being searched and harassed at three separate checkpoints by Republican customs agents, but afterwards it was a short bluespace jump from Persepolis to his duty station in Tau Ceti.

    Having worked for two years now in the Republic of Biesel, Yuri is still struggling to acclimate to his surroundings. Renting out an apartment in a House-controlled section of Little Adhomai, he still tries his best to maintain the traditions passed down through his family for millenia. His second bedroom has since been converted into a shrine to Mata’ke, Kraszar, and Minharrzka, with a portrait of Queen Azunja hanging prominently in his living room. On weekends, in lieu of purchasing meat at the market, Yuri drives to the coast of Severson’s Rift for a day of pier fishing. Despite viewing Hadiism and Al’mariism as backwards philosophies incompatible with the traditions that’ve guided Adhomai from pre-history to the present, he does his best to tolerate citizens of the other two Tajaran nations, although it’s been his experience that such patience generally isn’t reciprocated. His perspective on humanity is equally uninspired; human ingenuity is often overshadowed by decadent behavior and infighting that reveals them to be leagues behind Tajara culturally. In light of the failings of his Bieselite hosts, Yuri in equal measures keeps to his own and keeps to himself. Directing the focus of his efforts inwards allows Yuri to maintain his beliefs and expand his engineering know-how in hopes that he may one day return to his home kingdom and help develop the infrastructure necessary to bring Bar’jar into the 25th century.

 

What do you like about this character:

    I tend not to deviate too far from established local norms when developing my characters’ origins and Yuri is no exception. He’s a characteristically royalist tradesman, hard-working and devoted to the social institutions that surround him. Dependable if somewhat entrenched in his beliefs, Yuri provides an adequate jumping-off point for me to engage with Tajaran lore themes in a believable manner.

 

How would you rate your role-playing ability?:

    While there’s always room for improvement, I’d like to think that I’m competent enough to roleplay characters of widely varying backgrounds and personalities with only the occasional misstep.

[Alberyk]

Great application. It uses the lore and its elements well to create a compelling character. I do not think I have anything to ask.

 

Application accepted.