TheMaskedReader Posted February 12, 2022 Posted February 12, 2022 BYOND Key: TheMaskedReader Character Names: Amanda Rutherford - Himean Psychiatrist Species you are applying to play: Tajara What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Silver (RGB 192, 192, 192) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes, I have. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Tajara have always intrigued me, being a race that struggles with being uplifted before they would have naturally developed space travel, but yet maintaining so many internal divisions, unlike the uplifting of the Unathi. However, once I started to learn more about them, it was ultimately the core theme of struggle that caused me to want to play as them. Despite the horrific cost of the Revolutions, and despite the less than optimal outcomes, I feel as if Tajara are consistently characterized as always struggling, be it against the political structures they see as unjust or against the exploitation they face at the hands of the mega-corporations that utilize them as cheap labor, even if they are doomed to fail at achieving true justice and equality in said struggle. And, thus, I was drawn to the most doomed cause of them all: The dead-enders of of the Free Tajaran Council, which was the faction that really solidified my choice to seek to play as Tajara. The ideals of Kar'etrinkism are doomed to failure, this is apparent as soon as you read them. A community of ex-patriate Tajara living in a commune on Himeo, seeking to overthrow all three governments of Adhomai? It's an idea that is, at best, condemned to irrelevance, and at worst, will kill its adherents in a futile struggle they cannot win. However, it struck me as being the perfect sort of doomed cause that deserves to be explored and discussed in-game, which I haven't seen very often. So, exploring that concept is why I chose to seek this whitelist. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: While there are the obvious biological and cultural aspects, an under-stated aspect of Tajara I would argue makes them most different from a human is their connection to their past and to their history, as well as the sheer upheaval their entire society and culture has undergone repeatedly within the last several decades. With humans, there are centuries of history, and many planets have essentially stayed the same since they were settled. Adhomai has undergone two revolutions, seen the destruction of basically every polity that used to exist on it, and is currently making its way towards a hat trick on civil war, this time with a nuclear twist. There are so many historical factors to consider when playing a Tajara, because merely being born a year earlier or later could give you an entirely different perspective on everything to do with their character, which is something you rarely see with a human. With regards to so many of the cultural differences, all of those are rooted in Tajara history as well, such as the ethnic tensions having their roots in the past, and being equally affected and changed by the actions of the Adhomai polities in the present, even as the tensions shape and change those polities. Character Name: Galina Sarkis Please provide a short backstory for this character: Galina is a M'sai who was born into the Free Tajaran Council's commune on Himeo in the year 2435, raised in the communal environment by believers in the ideals of Kar’etrinkism. From them, she gained an ever-firm faith in the political ideals they taught her, even if other lessons didn't stick as much. As soon as she was able, she did what she saw as her duty and ran for election into the Adhomian Free Guard. Following her election, she wound up volunteering in the local Himean surface unit for additional training. After serving in both for several years, her mother, who had been a cartographer's scribe in the Duchy and now acted as a teacher and translator for the commune, asked Galina to follow in her footsteps after her current term of service had ended. She obliged, doing what she thought was her filial duty, and wound up pursuing a bachelor’s degree in translation as part of her learning process. Her time spent in broader Himean society wound up infusing her with a deep love of reading, a healthy curiosity, and skepticism she’d never felt before about the cultural aspects of Kar’etrinkism. She had served alongside Himeans, she had studied alongside them, she had seen their political system and its similarities to theirs, did she not have more in common with a Himean than those on Adhomai? What was on Adhomai but reactionaries, traitors to the revolution, and waves of endless blood that would drown the commune if they ever tried to retake their old home? What culture did they have that was worth reclaiming there, that could not be rebuilt without the bloodshed such total war would bring? The political heart of Kar’etrinkism itself, the values she had been raised to idolize, were alive and well in Himeo. Could they not be spread to the Tajaran people abroad, now scattered and far from home as exploited immigrants? Why should they venerate Adhomai, a planet stained with the blood of honest revolutionaries and sullied by reactionary tradition, when they could instead establish an entirely new state, a history free from the curse of nobility in its entirety? It is this dream for the future she believes in, not the revanchism of the Old Guard or, as she puts it, 'their failure to sufficiently discard such counter-revolutionary sentiment as imperialist ambitions counter to true Kar’etrinkist political thought'. Still a firm believer in the political system of Kar’etrinkism but with a disdain for Adhomai itself, this self-described ‘Himean Tajara’ has chosen to set out into the Spur aboard the Horizon as a librarian. She aims to seek out and take notes upon immigrant Tajara she meets, to collect evidence on the current degenerate state of Adhomai’s people and the need to evangelize on the truth of Kar’etrinkism to the hearts and minds of tajara while they are abroad, rather than pursuing a futile quest to reclaim mere land. What do you like about this character? I think probably the aspects I'm most looking forward to playing is a tajara who wishes to reject Adhomai almost entirely, for entirely political reasons. Many tajara feel strongly about Adhomai, positively or negatively, because they have strong personal experiences there, but Galina has never even seen the planet. She dislikes Adhomai because of what it represents to her, the decades of useless bloodshed in the service of outdated ideals, the place which violently rejected her community, and the home of the polities which would seek to repress her political beliefs, in service of what she sees as Hadiist propaganda, faux-democracy and militarist goons, or outright reactionary royalism. It's what she sees as the logical conclusion of the ideals she was raised to believe in. However, it's entirely possible that she might actually learn to appreciate Adhomai and its culture through her plans in seeking out and interviewing various immigrant tajara about it...or she may just learn to hate it more for what its done to her people, or she might find something else entirely. There's a lot of possibilities, which is fun! How would you rate your role-playing ability? I hope I manage to do a decent job of roleplaying. In terms of experience, I've been playing SS13 for the past five years, and I've been doing roleplay for longer than that, both in real life and online, which has definitely helped me get a better grasp of how to do character voice. Notes: So, these were some things I couldn't fit into Galina's backstory for length's sake, as well as for flow, so: While Galina's family has attempted to instill the values of the S'rand'marr faith in her, they were never able to do so as much as they had instilled the values of Kar'etrinkism. The association of the worship with conservatism on Adhomai in combination with her political views have only driven her further away. She remains functionally irreligious, however, she hopes to potentially reconnect with her cultural roots through a non-Adhomian source throughout her travels. Galina's infatuation with literature is contrary to traditional Tajaran Free Council thought on the matter. However, she considers those suspicions to be the Old Guard failing to sufficiently discard outdated Adhomian thought and prejudice, and thus crippling their ability to truly adapt to the new home they find themselves in. This cultural disagreement is part of what drove her decision to go on her journey, and she hopes that her writings will help break down some of the stigma within the more traditional youth. With regards to her views on Kar’etrinkism, she has an incredibly deep respect for the Tajara himself, even though she disagrees with his point of view at times. However, Kar’etrinkism itself is, for her, viewed separately from the Tajara who founded it, and his word alone is not the living gospel of the ideology. Instead, to her, Kar’etrinkism is following the political organization principles set forth during the revolution, and thus, can only spring from within the population, if with aid from more experienced theorists. Imposing Kar’etrinkism from the exterior, to her, would never be successful, as the people who make up the proposed democratic councils would only seek to re-impose the old power structures, as shown when the New Kingdom of Adhomai rose up in counter-revolution against the People's Republic of Adhomai. She is fluent in Siik'maas and Siik'tajr and speaks with a Northern Rasn'rr accent.
Alberyk Posted February 16, 2022 Posted February 16, 2022 On 12/02/2022 at 13:18, TheMaskedReader said: I think probably the aspects I'm most looking forward to playing is a tajara who wishes to reject Adhomai almost entirely, for entirely political reasons. This is kinda problematic. Because it is not very helpful when most of the species lore is focused on Adhomai and its interactions with the rest of the species. Even the council is focused on Adhomai in one way or another, either by still planning to go back to it or being influenced by the factions in the cold war (something that will be expanded in an update that is being worked on now). Even the Himean Front wants some kind of connection with Adhomai. We also must take in consideration that it is an entire community workig for the sole puporse of going back to Adhomai to reclaim it. I think that rejecting Adhomai here does not make much sense. I think the character would work better if more alligned with one of the current council factions.
TheMaskedReader Posted February 16, 2022 Author Posted February 16, 2022 43 minutes ago, Alberyk said: This is kinda problematic. Because it is not very helpful when most of the species lore is focused on Adhomai and its interactions with the rest of the species. Even the council is focused on Adhomai in one way or another, either by still planning to go back to it or being influenced by the factions in the cold war (something that will be expanded in an update that is being worked on now). Even the Himean Front wants some kind of connection with Adhomai. We also must take in consideration that it is an entire community workig for the sole puporse of going back to Adhomai to reclaim it. I think that rejecting Adhomai here does not make much sense. I think the character would work better if more alligned with one of the current council factions. This is a very valid point. As such, I've clarified the reasoning there to more accurately reflect what I intended with the character, replacing: "I think probably the aspects I'm most looking forward to playing is a tajara who wishes to reject Adhomai almost entirely, for entirely political reasons." with "I think probably the aspects I'm most looking forward to playing is a tajara who wishes to reject Adhomai nationalism almost entirely, for political reasons, while still having a deep investment in the cultural significance and people of Adhomai due to those same politics, and having to reconcile those two views into her worldview as a member of the Himean Front." I hope that conveys my meaning better, as well as makes a more interesting character, giving her a deeper connection with the direction which the lore is going.
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