unathi [Accepted] Kermit's Unathi Application

[kermit]

BYOND Key: Sadkermit

Character Names: 

Loukas Tzannetakis, Captain

Hugh Oswald, Chief Medical Officer

Guusje van Willigen, Pharmacist

Faith Windsor, Pharmacist

Ka’Akaix’Lyrk C’thur, Scientist

+    a bunch of retired characters.

Species you are applying to play: Unathi

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: A grey, sandy-ish colour.

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I have.

Why do you wish to play this specific race:

Mostly because I’ve observed other unathi players lately, and started to become interested in why those characters may behave as they are, and what differences may arise. Having read the lore in its entirety and more in-depth than I have before, there’s a few characters I had in mind that may be fun to play on the station. Brutal, post-apocalyptic wastelands where everyone is at each other’s throats is also a setting I quite enjoy, not to say that the Untouched Lands don’t interest me either though, as they do.

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

Unathi are far more traditional and spiritual than humans. Honour and religion plays a far larger role in an unathi’s than in a human’s life, where traditional values such as honour and gender roles have been discarded, and where religion doesn’t have such an effect on one’s life. This affects what a character will value, which then affects how they behave and are roleplayed. Being in Tau Ceti where they’re exposed to a far more progressed society, and where unathi are a fairly recently enlightened species, this clash of values leads to a lot of roleplay that shouldn’t be ignored when playing an unathi.

The majority of unathi also have a far different upbringing to most humans. The Contact War has had a significant impact on those that are alive, having completely changed the environment of Moghes. This has led to a generational trauma within unathi society, with many lives changed and affected, and so roleplay as an unathi will usually account for this.

 

Character Name: Aorza Istar’ruzk

Please provide a short backstory for this character.

Born in 2418, Aorza Zruxksa experienced life on Moghes before the Contact War and before First Contact with the Orion Spur as we know it. Hailing from a small village not too far from Sahltyr, the Zruxksa’s hunted for a living, and weren’t fortunate enough to benefit from much of the technology available to those living in the cities, their area being rather against the industrialisation of unathi society who feared for the loss of the traditional way of life. The closest radio was that of the nearby villages, where young children - sometimes Aorza himself - would listen in to the news, then run house-to-house and to the various farms - only a few having moved on from hand ploughs - scattered around the countryside to disperse the news. Life was easy though, in comparison to what would come: basking in the sun after a day of hard work, hunting alongside his father during Versakh, receiving a simple schooling in a class of six friends - all formed many fond memories that Aorza would struggle to cling to.

Dedicated to helping his father hunt to make a living, selling meat and hides to a local guild in exchange for a small cut - which is then halved again to pay their dues to their lord - Aorza was unable to pursue his childish dream of becoming a warrior and fighting honourably in combat, adhering to the old warrior codes. The thrill of the hunt wasn’t enough, and Aorza wanted more of a challenge. This ambition was never followed through, and Aorza hunted alongside his father throughout his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. 

2433 came, and the children ran through the village screaming news from the village radio. Aorza heard the news from his mother: aliens, life on other planets - sapient life. No one believed it at first, and life carried on, but it all turned out to be true, and stirred up a lot of tension. Every day, the children flocked around the radio, and every day they’d bring more news of the alien benefactors; news of new technology, space travel, warm blooded mammalian aliens and magical amphibians. Gradually the news turned from excitement to disappointment, as these technologies, this capability for space travel, and these mammalian and amphibian aliens would never step foot in the kingdom Aorza resides in. All would be hoarded by the Izweski.

Tensions continued to rise. The lord petitioned more men to join the levy, offering greater incentives, and spouting the usual ‘fight to bring honour to your name’. With the incentives now great enough and trouble on the horizon, Aorza, aged 18, departed from his village with a fond farewell to his parents, and walked an hours journey to Sahltyr to join the lord’s city guard. After a year of training, after seeing the failure that was the first ISP space launch to Ouerea, and after seeing how the Izweski were leaving the rest of Moghes behind in it’s technological slipstream, the Contact War broke out. Fortunately for Aorza, though to his dismay, he was withheld from the brunt of the fighting, and remained on watch in Sahltyr. When the nuclear exchange began, the city was one of the targets on the Izweski’s list. Dragged from his patrol on the street, shoved into a building, and thrust into the basement, all Aorza could do was tremble with the earth, and scream with the wind.

Alongside 4 others in the basement, Aorza sat for several days, unsure what to do. Those that said ‘leave’ were unable to open the basement hatch - something above was pinning it down. Those that said ‘stay’ began to feel the crippling effects of starvation and insanity begin to take their choke-hold. One day, a rapping at the hatch alerted them, and it swung open. Aorza and only 2 others left the basement. Baptised by the radiation, deafened by the wailing of those grieving, and terrified by the fallout that had begun to cascade upon the city, he wrapped an undershirt around his face and immediately began to run to his village. He ran faster and further than he had ever ran before, rushing to meet his parents. Neither of them could be found. A small stack of rocks splashed with a drop of blood was made to signify their passing - a dwarf when compared against the blood-soaked rubble of buildings in the cities that have fallen - and he spoke some words, begging them to not be angered by the fact he could not find their bodies to prepare them for the spirit world.

After invoking the names of every ancestor of his he could remember for several days straight, a group passed through his village. Remnants of the Azarak Kingdom - already of old - who called themselves Gawgaryns, they all vowed to save those that survived the nuclear war - upon their honour, they swore, their ancestors be their witness. Aorza Gawgaryn walked with them through the waste, leaving his insignificant pile of rocks behind. A week later, they pillaged a homestead in the wasteland which refused to give them food to eat, the men butchered and the women and children left to starve. Resorting to banditry, the Gawgaryns made their presence known in the wastelands, and Aorza beside them - barely a warrior, just a cook and a field medic, humiliated by those who he relied upon for safety.

Years passed, and the Gawgaryn killed and saved, a balancing act of good and evil, honour and disgrace - a balancing act as he performed the mental gymnastics needed to see himself as a hero among heroes in the wasteland. He trudged through the heat with 23 others, brothers and sisters in-arms, gender roles cast aside, weapons kept close. His bandit cell rarely stopped, constantly on the move to avoid patrols of those loyal to the Izweski or simply protecting themselves from the Punished. In the thick of battle, Aorza would charge in, Dorviza medical supplies in his bag, a Queendom weapon in-hand, and armour dug up by Reclaimers donned. He'd raid many settlements with his group, ferry many unknowing and knowing unathi off-world. It would take Aorza 4 years to finally come to grips with the wasteland, 2 years more before he acknowledged how far he had fallen, and a further 4 years to accept it.

Eventually, he had finally had enough. His cell of 23, now whittled down to 14 over the many many years, was scouting around the various Oasis Clan territories, looking to spot a small caravan or lone wanderer. Instead, a giant sea of people was spotted - more than the eye could see. A writhing, twisting snake slithering through the sands of the wasteland. Aorza and the kin of his who shared his view abandoned the Gawgaryns and ran for the entourage of people, hands held high, weapons left behind. Enveloped into the mass of unathi and pushed to the front, Aorza approached a shambling old man - a walking stick in one hand, a book in the other. Juzida Si'akh stood before him. Aorza - a nervous wreck - knelt before him and told him of his dishonour and disgrace, told him of who he was and who he wished to be, how he spat on the spirits for cursing those who survived, how he'd do anything to make amends. Juzida reminded him he could still redeem himself in the eyes of the spirits who damned his soul to eternally fester on Moghes. He slept that night and, had he been a Sk’akh before, he may have woken a Si’akh Heretic, but the idea of the Great Spirit was unfathomable to him, and he remained stubborn in his Th'akh beliefs.

He remained with the entourage for a long while, offering his services as a warrior, and providing first-aid treatment to those who were wounded by Maraziite Order patrols. After waiting for several weeks to have another meeting with Juzida, he was pushed to the front and gave his farewell notice, he told the prophet of his plan to apologise to those he did harm to. With the spirits' blessings, he broke off from the entourage and made way towards the Oasis Clans. Entering through the gates, he had hoped to see a lord who he could beg for forgiveness, instead he was chased out of the gates, his head demanded upon the chopping block. Redemption already seemed like a short-lived and still-born dream.

Not knowing which sands the entourage crawled through now, Aorza Gawgaryn began trudging in the direction he believed they were heading: past Mudki and towards Yu'kal to preach. It took him several weeks - alone, blending in with the sand to avoid being spotted - to reach Queendom territory, and entering through the gate with an alias, he refreshed himself in a tavern. Aorza found no Si'akh entourage that day, only the cunning smiles of the criminal underground who offered passage off-world to wastelanders in exchange for a dangerous mission. Intrigued, and with no honour to lose, Aorza took the offer - he was to raid one last Reclaimer crawler and drop the scavenged riches off just outside of Res'karum, where transport was arranged for him to be taken off world. The deadline was his shuttle take-off time, should he miss it, he'd find no other way off world.

Aorza and a group of 9 others followed the Reclaimer crawler to the salvage site, waited for them to disembark, and ambushed them. It was just another ambush for Aorza, though he deliberately lagged behind to avoid the combat, refusing to draw his blade, and only aiding those of his team who received injuries. They loaded what they could into the back of a van and sped off towards Res'karum. The job done, Aorza sat in a new bar. Another sly smile entertained him, and led him towards the shuttle port. Thrown into the back of a cargo shuttle with several other to-be-immigrants, he was smuggled off of Moghes. Claiming asylum on the grounds of religious persecution, Aorza was granted stay on Biesel. 

Discarded into District 11, he only found more coy smiles. The ignorant smiles of aliens who had set Moghes ablaze, the friendly smiles of gangs looking for muscle, the promising smiles of factory owners looking for cheap labour. With another shot at redemption, Aorza chanced his luck with the Tau Ceti Foreign Legion who offered him an education, a chance to protect those who could not protect themselves, and, ultimately, citizenship. He was taught Ceti Basic, and how to act as a Combat Medic. He served for 3 years, beginning in 2459 and leaving in 2462 aged 45. He signed his citizenship papers under the name Aorza Istar'ruzk, refusing to associate with his previous names, hoping this new name marks a better chapter of his life. It took a while to begin to acclimatise to human space - he still hasn't - and now he's landed a job interview at NanoTrasen Corporation, a promising position aboard the NSS Aurora as a First Responder where personal development awaits. His interview is today, who knows what they'll think of him.

 

What do you like about this character?

I like the idea of a character whose entire vision of himself and morals in life have become twisted and contorted into something monstrous and undesirable, and how the immense guilt he feels drives him towards a fanatical devotion to redeeming himself: to make amends, and to appease the spirits who he has disgraced himself before. Whether he ever gets a chance to reforge himself into someone more honourable and respectable, or whether those around him constantly remind him of the wasteland creature he once was is yet to be known, and will be enjoyable to play. In the end, he's a symbol of how the Contact War has devastated Moghes and it's people.

Aorza is also an old unathi, who's spent most of his life in a wasteland. I'm sure he's also got plenty of small stories he can tell those in Medical while they all ogle the crew monitor, which'll be fun to come up with. That, as well as stories of his upbringing on Pre-Contact War Moghes, before everything hit the fan.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Since I started playing again this month after a fairly long break, I've only stuck with the characters and created new characters I feel like I can consistently play well - Lyrk and Tzannetakis being where I'm best, I'd say - and have benched those where my roleplay was more inconsistent or just not good in the first place. Because of that, my roleplay this month has already eclipsed where I was a year ago, and I even feel that since I began playing Lyrk, my roleplay has already improved beyond the point before my vaurca whitelist. I've definitely improved a significant amount and will always continue improving, as I always try to get feedback whenever and wherever possible, as ultimately this isn't a question for me to answer. It always feels weird putting a number on a scale, as I don't feel there is an upper limit to one's roleplaying ability, and people, including myself, tend to rate themselves too high because it's often times hard to believe you can improve at all beyond a certain point, and that you've finally hit your limit, when you haven't and can still always improve.

Notes:

The backstory is long, I know. If it's a problem, I can try squish it up a bit more or format it nicely with dropdown chapters - just say. Have a malted milk biscuit in the meantime for making it this far.

15/09/2021: Proof reading edits. Touched up the part about the pile of rocks dedicated to his lost parents by making some more explicit references to Th'akh lore.

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Haydizzle
Accepted

[Haydizzle]

This was a wonderful read! You make good use of imagery and locations and people in the lore, and on top of my experience with you as a roleplayer, I have no doubts in my mind that you will do wonderful things with the whitelist.

Application accepted. Feel free to approach my deputies and I with any questions you may have.