SilverSZ Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) BYOND Key: SilverSZ Character Names: Alex Yiik is my highest RP character and should show my ability to roleplay to the extent required for this whitelist. The others are eh, fine enough. Species you are applying to play: Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Reddish-Brown, probably a rust-like colour. Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: No, I’m simply really good at guessing about lore details (I did) Why do you wish to play this specific race: Well my original intention was to wait out until the NBT fully released to come back and play Aurora again, given I was tired of my current characters and only really wanted to play the one I made for the NBT, as much as I haven’t been able to play any tests currently due to a hectic schedule. But then I started getting into occasional conversations about Unathi and their lore on the Relay ooc and actually found it quite interesting, deciding to take a look into the lore myself found out that yes, it was quite interesting for real and from there I decided to apply for the whitelist to play the character idea I came up with daydreaming during university lectures, additionally since this character would fine on the Aurora and moving to the NBT later, that fixes the previous mentioned issue. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Looking past the obvious such as appearance and lizardlike biology, Unathi as a species have various things that differentiate them from humans. One for example being their differing social gestures and their meanings, pointing at someone especially for a long time is a grave insult, staring at people as they talk is polite. And baring your neck is a sign of trust and respect equally as much as a way to surrender in a fight. In terms of their Society, Unathi have various aspects which are very alien to the norm of humans within the spur. Unathi of course have their own differing religion, such as Th’akh or Sk’akh which many Unathi have a deep and fanatical belief in and affect massive parts of their lives, something which will be touched on in my character idea more. Another cornerstone of Unathi society is the idea of Honour. Umathi take their honour extremely seriously, with different codes existing for different unathi based on their circumstances, however the unifying idea across Unathi society is the importance of maintaining honour and avoiding disgrace for the good of yourself and your clan. To finish, The structure of Unathi society is also very different to that of Human societies in the spur. Whilst there are humans that live in a feudal system similar to that of the Unathi. The difference in the Unathi feudal system is characterised by their class system, firmly placing people into a strata based on their birth and position in life, from the lowest guwan to warriors to the clergy and nobility at the top. The other feature I see as being most important to Unathi society is the prevalence and importance of Clans as a whole to them, the clan system forms the bedrock of their society and their honour code, being the most entrenched part of it, to the point that a Unathi exiled or without a clan is known as Guwan, and the lowest of the low on their social ladder. Clans permeated every aspect of a Sinta’s life, perhaps even more than their religion or honour. Character Name: Zezria Guwan Please provide a short backstory for this character: Born in 2432 to a peasant family in a village in the lands of a now dead kingdom that would become part of the Traditionalist Coalition just 5 years after her birth. Zezira was born as Zezira Orazi to a family of farmers. Her very young childhood prior to the contact war was nothing special compared to the normal experience of a peasant child during those times, life was not easy by any means and her family were particularly poor given the strata of society they belonged to, but life was at least peaceful as much as she can remember it being at the time, her parents followed the Th’akh faith, and it was the faith she also grew up with. However, as with the rest of Moghes this peace would hardly last, as the contact war began in 2437, Zezira’s father along with many of the adult aged men in the village were taken as Levy Soldiers to fight against the Izweski. Given Zezira was a 5 year old girl she was in no way involved in the war itself. But still remembers crying her eyes out seeing her father marched off along with the rest of the village, even if at the time she didn’t realise it would be the last time she ever saw him. September 5th, 2439 was a fateful day for all Unathi across the planet of Moghes, and out of all the days in Zezira’s life it might be the one burnt into her memory the most. Watching the mushroom clouds rise in the direction of the cities near her village for a week, terrified along the rest of her village by something entirely past what they could ever comprehend. Once the bombs stopped things seemed to calm down, until villagers started falling ill to something they didn’t know was radiation sickness, with villagers dying in their droves the rest were forced to flee in panic, Zezira continued with her Mother and some survivors of her clan until they too was claimed by the mysterious ailment. Whilst Zezira managed to survive, she was left alone in the world, and now as an Orphan, she was a Guwan, an outcast from what little of society remained. Left with a small amount of food and the clothes on her back, Zezira was forced to try and survive on her own in the growing wasteland. With villages empty, cities destroyed and natural food sources dwindling, Zezira’s only choice for survival was to fight, or more specifically in her case, steal. Starting by using her appearance as a young child to try and get some mercy, or at least make people let their guard down, she would try and wipe what little she could from camps or groups of survivors, clothes, food, weapons. Her skill at which developed over time. The most noticeable event of this period was when she was 11, she was caught stealing and attacked by the owner of the goods, a former traditionalist warrior, who slashed out her right eye before she fled, leaving her scarred and injured even if she survived for the time being. The just over decade ended up being the formative years for Zezira’s life, as she grew from a lost child to a skilled and determined thief, willing to do anything to survive with a knife in her hand a hole in her belly. As the deep wasteland fully developed, becoming the irradiated wasteland it now is, the nature of how Zezira lived changed, rather than stealing from random refugees or wanderers, lurking in settlements, stealing what she could and moving on became her preferred method of choice. However it was in one of these settlements in 2450 that she soon had a chance encounter with a large crowd of Unathi moving through, at the head of them a black unathi covered in scars, the famous preacher Juzida Si’akh. Lingering at the edge of the huge crowd that came out to see his sermon, Zezira found his words, delivered in a fiery manner touched her, even if she didn’t quite believe in it, plus, there was enough people with him they might not notice if some of their meat or water went missing. Trailing behind the procession for the next few months, Zezira continued to hear more of the preaching by Juzida and in time found herself agreeing and believing more and more with the man, taking time to learn about other sermons he had done. And soon enough found she believed in his words and in the Si’akh faith. It all made sense, for the things that happened to her to have happened she must have been damned, and in time she could find redemption through his words. Zezira made herself a part of his procession, stopping her thieving and criminal actions for a more simple life following Juzida, the next years up until 2457 would consist of her following and listening to his sermons, as well as doing her best to protect his procession, given Si’akh cared little as for the gender of a Unathi who could do their duty to the faith, and equally because due to her status as a Guwan there was little else she could do, still being looked down on by many of the other Si’akh followers. This changed however as the persecution of the Si’akh faith continued to occur, with even Assassinations against Juzida himself continuing as much as his divinity allowed him to survive them. Once the Reavers of the Flame were created, Zezira put herself forward to join them immediately, welding off her horns. As a Reaver Zezira found herself in one of the group's wasteland forts common for them to use as bases, her work consisting of protecting pilgrims from bandits and skirmishing with the Maraziite order. Her fellow Reavers granted her a begrudging tolerance, perhaps giving her the most comfortable living she had since she was a child. With water, raw meat and a safe place to sleep. She was left alone by her fellows, spending her time maintaining a crude gunpowder rifle, steel spear and knife for her future battles when she was not out fighting. The 5 years of her life spent as a Reaver were the first time she felt like she was truly serving something greater than herself, serving Si’akh by fighting the unbelievers who persecuted them and protecting the faithful. In 2462 however, after 5 years with the order. Zezira and some other Reavers were attacked by the Maraziite order when escorting some pilgrims. They were killed and she lost her right arm, cut off by a blade as she was left for dead, and would have been if not for one of the pilgrims managing to run away and return, bandaging her temporarily and taking her to a nearby outpost of the Dorvisa clan, who treated her enough so that she would not die. As soon as she could move and stand, now maimed past the ability to be a Reaver, she did the only thing she could think to do, travelling by herself through the wasteland in an act of madness, but a successful one, finding her way back to Juzida where she did the only thing she could think of, reciting his sermons from memory back to him, and asking to be made a fire priestess to continue to try and find redemption. Passing the rite required in the eyes of Juzida, she was made a fire priestess, and travelled the wasteland for a time preaching in much the same manner as he did, but soon began to realise that in her maimed state she could not truly last in the wasteland as she once did, and decided to instead seek to go off-world and flee into human space as many other Si’akh had done in search of salvation. Finding her way to a shuttleport and then off-world, eventually to Biesel and in the employ of NT as very much cheap labour serving as a chaplain. Zezira hopes that when she does die, she will have done enough to be redeemed. What do you like about this character? Well personally I think their backstory and character in general are pretty cool and badass, but obviously that’s just me liking edgy characters. But to talk more about the lore bits I like, I find the Unathi religions to be quite interesting and want to be able to explore them as a character and I think playing a Si’akh gives a very unique and interesting way to do it, as well as being a Guwan and Si’akh hopefully leading a quite unique, for a lack of a better way of saying it, experience with other Unathi characters and other characters in general. Additionally the wasteland is super interesting and the idea of playing as someone from it is also pretty awesome. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 9/10, I consider myself rather good at roleplaying in general. Edited February 9, 2022 by Haydizzle Accepted!
Captain Gecko Posted February 4, 2022 Posted February 4, 2022 Hey there! It seems that I'll be the lore-boy mostly handling your app for the time being, and it's pretty much the first time for me so bear with me! I didn't get to roleplay much with you, but the little that I could do with you was certainly enjoyable, thinking mainly of Volvalaad. You seem to be serious and into it, even putting aside roleplaying skills, which is cool... And that app itself is certainly interesting, I know I love Si’akh! Now that's out of the way, the real deal... The lore bits! 1) What's Zezria's Idea of honor, what is it, if she has any? Yes, her name is Guwan, and yes, she spent a good chunk of her life being a thief... Yet, she is still a Sinta, and honor is still something mostly ingrained in their mindset. Is Zezria looking for a way to cope with her actions? Or is it the opposite, and she sees herself with shame? And once again, what's her view on honor in general, does she even minds it (After all, it does happen that some Guwans/Guwandis simply just don't care about honor and such)? 2) Synthetics, AIs, what's her opinion of it? More importantly, how would she react to/act with them? Zezria will surely meet and face a good bunch of synthetics after all... This can extend to people with artificial prosthetics. 3) Does Zezria hold any kind of baggage from Moghes? Anything important to Zezria, something that still matters to this day to her, in Tau Ceti? 4) Zezria's opinion on other Sintas, depending on their origins, is there anything of note? I won't tell you to speak of ALL Unathi depending on their religion or origin because we'd be there forever (but if you're to the task, good luck), but rather, if there's anything noteworthy, the way she'd feel about one particular group or another? 5) Same as question (4) but for other species in general. Take your time. Didn't mention it yet, but so far, your app looks great enough to me!
SilverSZ Posted February 4, 2022 Author Posted February 4, 2022 (edited) Hi! Thank you for the questions, fortunately most of them were stuff I did consider but didn’t find the place to elaborate on in the backstory 1. Whilst indeed for her life before her religious revelation Zezira would have likely seen honour as merely a hindrance to her own survival. Her conversion to Si’akh and time spent learning the teachings of Juzida by heart would see her look on her past actions with far more shame than before. Si’akh preaches that the apocalypse came due to the innate wickedness of the species as as a whole and see sees her life before her religious conversion as her falling to her inner wickedness, and much of her time after, as a follower to Reaver to priestess is done in order to maybe find redemption enough to join Sk’akh once she does die. As for honour, I think that her time as a Reaver, amongst others who saw themselves as proud warriors of Si’akh would see her adopt a form of the warrior code, even if she is a former warrior now she sees the code as a good way of preventing her from slipping into her innate wickedness again. However due to her position in life the code would be slightly twisted from it’s usual tenants, whilst most would be the same the tenet of loyalty would be directed as loyalty towards Juzida and the tenets of Si’akh specifically, rather than the clan leader and lord they do not have. 2. Obviously, Si’akh teaches that metal is incapable of possessing a soul, making all forms of synthetic life in her eyes, soulless objects and tools. Cyborgification particularly would be something that disgusts her, seeing it as a method of destroying an individual's soul. But the cyborg itself would be seen as a machine like any other, the soul already been destroyed. In general I think she would interact with Synthetics with cold indifference, being soulless there is little reason in attempting to preach to them about Si’akh or its teachings, there is no soul to saved there. But equally, there is no point in admonishing a soulless machine for what it is, so I don’t really see her interacting with them in a particularly friendly way but she would still uphold her honour code in regards to her dealings with them, rather than seeking to simply attack them. Infact, she would be more aggressive, for lack of a better word, to those who utilise mechanical prosthetics and implants, for there it is not a soulless being, but someone choosing to deliberately maim and destroy their soul. The idea of doing so is something she could not comprehend and would advocate extremely heavily against, not just for Sinta but also all other species, as they too have souls that they are destroying. 3. In terms of current baggage. Obviously, she is strongly invested in the fate of Juzida and the other people of the Si’akh faith who chose to remain in the wasteland, praying for their safety everyday despite the harshness she knows they will experience, especially those she know still serve as Reavers. In terms of further away things, obviously like many Unathi she holds a lot of emotional baggage from both the contact war and her time spent in the wasteland. As mentioned in response to question 1 through her shame, the lingering fact that she knows she has that wickedness inside her that can come out at any time and do horrible things sticks with her to this day, as does the horror of the contact war, being left orphaned and having to see her own mother pass away due to it. A final thing is the fate of her father, because unlike her mother she doesn’t actually know if he is dead or alive, it’s entirely possible that like her, he managed to survive along with the rest of the men on Moghes, perhaps deserting in the chaos of the nuclear exchange or ending up captured by the hegemony. Despite it being a far away thing for her now, she wonders if one day she might be able to meet him again, and if he is alive, save his soul. 4. Well, starting with the biggest group of Unathi, the Hegemony. Zezira has mixed opinions on them as a whole. She was young enough that the contact war does not really hold any particular malice towards the Hegemony, in her mind both sides were wicked and at fault for the nuclear war that engulfed Moghes. And the Hegemony has done some good things that she agrees with such as no longer turning Orphans into Guwan. But then on the other side the Hegemony is the home of the Sk’akh faith and the Maraziite order, and as a whole is resistant or outright opposing the Si’akh faith, so whilst she doesn’t hold any particular prejudice against the Hegemony and it’s people she would see most as misguided or foolish for following the faiths they do. In general that is her view of most other religions, both Th’akh and Sk’akh. Misguided fools who do not see what that they must accept the teachings of Juzida and Si’akh in order to be saved, looking on their followers with a mixture of pity that they will not be able to join Sk’akh once they die, and in some cases anger for being implictly supportive of the suffering her faith endures, especially those who follow Sk’akh. But they are the ones she seeks to save through her actions and so she would happily seek them out and speak to them, though it would be a terse conversation. Obviously any fellow Si’akh would be met warmly by her, whilst she views the Au’takh as a disgusting faith that leads people astray to maim and destroy their soul, if there would be any Unathi she would treat with hostility it would be the Au’takh. As for the wasteland, she views them in a more negative light than the hegemony in most cases, given they would be the ones she had directly suffered under as a Guwan. Obviously her mission to preach and convert would come first but she would be more guarded and tense around those who hail from wasteland regions. The exception being those of Clan Dorvisa, given their role in saving her life, she holds an appreciation for their talents and gratitude for that action. A final thing to mention for Sinta is that Zezira would really hold not prejudice based on the caste system and gender expectations of Unathi, thanks to her own position and her faith, she sees all Unathi as equal in their damnation, so long as they follow Si’akh at least. (edit) Forgot to mention Dominian Unathi, given their abandonment of all Unathi religion and a general view of the lifestyle of Dominian nobles be very decadent compared to what is preached by Si'akh. Zezira would likely have more disdain for them than most other groups of Unathi save for the Au'takh. 5. Tajara, Humans and Skrell would likely elicit no particular response from Zezira, they are not damned as Sinta are and she would have been too young and too isolated to really care about events in the wider galaxy such as Ouerea and Gakal’zaal, mostly due to a lack of interaction she would simply have a neutral but cordial attitude towards these various species, looking more on them for their individual choices, such as those with robotic limbs. However as someone raised in the wasteland and who spent a long time travelling it, there are two species she would have reasonably had interactions with, Diona and Vaurca. For Diona she would have a positive view of them, given their peaceful and useful nature to many groups in the wasteland, she would be used to Vaurca, even with no particular reasons to be friendly with them, a couple of interactions with the queenless Mi’keutz scavengers of the wasteland would have shown her they are past their strange looks decent people, even if a little strange. Edited February 4, 2022 by SilverSZ
Captain Gecko Posted February 4, 2022 Posted February 4, 2022 6 hours ago, SilverSZ said: (pretty satisfactory responses) These are pretty satisfactory responses, I approve of this app totally!
Haydizzle Posted February 9, 2022 Posted February 9, 2022 -1 didn't put 10/10 for your roleplaying skills. Even ignoring the effort put into your application and responses, which alone are impressive, you show a really good understanding of the lore. I don't really have any questions or concerns about how you'd fair with the whitelist. Application accepted. Feel free to send any questions to myself or my deputies.
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