unathi [Accepted] Unathi Application 2: Electric Boogaloo | Lavillastrangiato

[La Villa Strangiato]

BYOND Key: lavillastrangiato

Character Names: Rei Patel, Adelaide Hawk, Gabriela Jacinto, Pala

Species you are applying to play: Unathi

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: #1F5F1F

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

Why do you wish to play this specific race: I like lizard people in fantasy and sci-fi because they look pretty cool. When it comes to Unathi, I like how badass they are with the whole martial culture, and heavy emphasis on HONOUR. I also think that their whole steampunk/post-apoc aesthetic cultivates a lot of great character concepts and ways in which a person from a life of more abundance might clash culturally with an Unathi.

I already have a character (Adelaide Hawk) who is a Martian whose home city was destroyed in the Violet Dawn, and I think it would be interesting as well to play a character who has a very different perspective on an apocalyptic event occurring in their homeland. I think there’d be interesting parallels to be drawn between a character who had a home-destroying tragedy happen later in their maturity, against a character who has had societal upheaval be a defining factor of their early life.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different from role-playing a Human: Unathi, at their core, are tradition-bound. Honour is given great emphasis in Sinta culture, with men being expected to be warriors, hunters, and providers. Women, however, are expected to remain healers and caretakers; so deeply ingrained are gender roles into their society that it is even tied to their etymology, with "male" being cognates with "warrior" and "female" being cognates with "healer". Most Unathi are deeply spiritual; almost all of them partake in ancestor worship, asking the spirits of their clan for guidance, protection, and wisdom.

The Contact War has served to drive a sharp wedge between many facets of Unathi society. Famine and scarcity are widespread outside of Izweski lands, leading many to flee their ancestral homesteads to seek refuge with the territories of the Hegemony, overtaxing its already stretched resources. With the ascension of the newest Hegemon (a figure not unlike an Emperor), Not’zar Izweski, many new edicts that challenge the old ways of Moghes have been put in place. The Hegemony has been trying to cultivate warm relations with humans, Skrell, Diona, and Vaurcae, but not all are satisfied with the Hegemon’s new openness and progressivism. Religious schisms, between the traditional Th’akh and the state religion of Sk’akh, have hardly diminished since the War. And new religions such as the death cult of Si’akh, the transspecism of the Aut’akh, and myriad other offshoots and cults, have done little to soothe the friction spreading across Moghes.

Physically, they are giant lizard people and are cold-blooded. They tend towards sluggishness to conserve their energy, meaning that one could describe their movements as slower and perhaps more deliberate-seeming than a human's movements would be. As they are very strong, they might consider other species to be weaker or make jokes about how Unathi are simply built different. They would do things like stare at an object of interest, sample the air with their tongue, flick their tail when agitated or curious, or bellow to intimidate. Ethanol-based alcohol is off-limits, but butanol serves the same effect. Also, an Unathi gets no nutrition from plants, only using them as little garnishes.

Character Name: Sesurka Sskedi

Sesurka Sskedi was born to clan Sskedi in 2434, in a small and unremarkable village focused on farming and trading their goods with various visitors. While her immediate family was only her father, mother, and sister, clan Sskedi was tightly-knit, and she grew up among many older cousins, aunts and uncles, and family friends.

The clan’s peace did not last forever. When the war broke out, many of clan Sskedi’s men joined the fight with the Traditionalist Coalition to act as soldiers, and several of its women joined as healers. News reached the village, now and then, that one of Sesurka’s cousins would never make it home. But most were still optimistic, believing that the foreign invaders and their alien masters would soon fall under the might of the Traditionalist Coalition.

Then the bombs dropped.

The remainders of the clan fled across the newly-spreading Wasteland, eventually coming to reside in the Oasis, close to the far larger clan Dorviza. While Sesurka and her sister, Azirka, remained largely unharmed, their father Ynuz had been half-blinded by the blast. Radiation poisoning and cancer had begun to afflict several others. Clan Sskedi desperately worked to maintain itself in the face of utter disaster, though many were beginning to despair that it was the end of the world. But when Sesurka was nearly an adult, news came from cousins that had finally returned from battle; the war was over, and the Coalition had lost.

Life, though it tried its best to return to normal, could never be “normal” again. Despite this, Sesurka took newfound comfort in the peace that seeding and restoring the land brought. She and Azirka became good friends with many Diona gestalts that absorbed the radiation from the ravaged land, and slowly, clan Sskedi could rebuild.

Despite all this, Sesurka longed for something more. The untouched stars in the skies of Moghes beckoned her, and she was utterly fascinated by the passing Reclaimer clans and their moving machines. If she felt a call, how could it not be the will of the ancestors that she strike out on her own? When she expressed her feelings to her family, they wasted no time in shutting her down; her father and mother reminded her that her place was at home, tending the land and eventually finding a husband. Sesurka balked at being forced to sacrifice her dreams for a life she didn’t want at this point, and after many family spats, left her homestead in a huff for Camp Integrity. As she left she tried to smooth things over by promising she’d return with fortunes to buy the revival of the Wasteland, but Ynuz angrily told her that he prophesied she would return in disgrace

So while Sesurka earned her piloting accreditation, she worked as a cargo technician for various Hephaestus vessels, enduring everything from sexism from male Unathi, to speciesism from other aliens. While she made few friends, particularly due to a withdrawn nature, she took solace in the depths of space, and mining finally felt like the life that suited her. But the final proclamation from her father never left her mind, even as she was transferred to work on the SCCV Horizon…

What do you like about this character?: I like playing characters who act as the comedic straight man, and who, while initially closed-off due to bad experiences, begin to slowly open up to others around them and display a greater emotional range (allowing for FIRE-FORGED BONDS). I also like playing women who don't conform to gender expectations and struggle to find their niche and personal peace because of it. I would also like to push myself to play a character with serious biases that notably affect how they see other species, and perhaps have the opportunity to grow beyond it.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?: Pretty good, a 7-8 out of 10.

Notes:

- Sesurka is Th'akh, and prays most often to Aosr and her ancestors, particularly Ylvitr Sskedi; a former guwandi who it is said found new meaning in life and miraculously healed his childhood illness by observing and working on the growth of plant life during his exile.

- Sesurka is a mix of conservative and progressive when it comes to gender roles and species acceptance. She is respectful of other female Unathi and the females of other species who choose to pursue careers other than healing and child-rearing, but she has no enmity to women who choose homemaking, so long as it is voluntary. Ironically, Sesurka has a private condescension towards males who choose more traditionally 'feminine' activities or forms of gender expression.

Edited December 28, 2022 by Haydizzle
Accepted!

[GrazalThruka]

+1, RPed a lot with Lavilla (including one time on the kataphract boat). Play the unathi well and also just RPs well.

[RustingWithYou]

i've had lavilla as a zo'saa on the kataphract ship before, and she rped the species well. she seems to have a good grasp on what makes unathi distinctive from humans, so this is getting a +1 from me.

[Scheveningen]

I endorse the applicant. They're a pretty good roleplayer and community member and I do feel like they can be trusted with this - as to whether the application is lore sound is a bit beyond me as I'm not terribly up to date on Unathi lore.

[eddymakaveli]

Playing with Lavilla on a kataphract ship really showed their stuff when it came to knowing unathi lore and being able to accurately roleplay the nuances of it. +1 from me.

[Haydizzle]

Hello, and thanks for putting the time into applying! The improvement here is very palpable, and I'm proud of you for committing and reapplying. I don't really see any reason to deny your app this time around, and I'm looking forward to hearing about Sskedi.

Application accepted. Feel free to send any questions you have to my deputies and I.