NekoMarbles Posted December 17, 2024 Posted December 17, 2024 (edited) BYOND Ckey: NekoMarbles Discord username: @enchantedcrocolisk Character names: Camilla DeWitt, Isabella Jeong, Richard O’Brien, Jonathan Moorland, Ayaka Sobu, IRU-Shepherd, Yun-Hee Sang Species you are applying to play: Tajara ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: Tortoiseshell (a mixture of about Ruddy/Black) Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: 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 species?: Tajara offer a truly beautiful, wide range of character-building possibilities, with the four Tajaran ethnicities, the species’ history, and their factions allowing you to mix and match into loads of different opportunities, with factors to consider in the realms of politics, religion, warfare, and to those of tajara-kind who left their home: a want to belong, the possibility for a better future, and homesickness for something so broken left back home. A lot of the themes surrounding the species, as well as some exceptional characters I have interacted with in the community, make the species ever so exciting to read about and play out. Plus, who doesn’t want to play a not-cat? What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Tajara have a variety of biological differences when compared to a human, many of which also introduce in-game mechanical differences, which one has to keep in mind. Tajara are covered in a layer of thick fur, which keeps them naturally insulated, but leaves them vulnerable to the heat. Their hands are clawed, which makes them unable to wear conventional gloves, but their scratches hurt harder than a human’s punch. Besides the biological and mechanical differences present in every Tajara, the species has four distinct ethnicities with their own biological inclinations, coat colours, and often - historically relevant personal history and culture. These differences often furthered systems of Tajaran power structure, as well as discrimination and oppression - This sentiment has not faded fully, even in the current day. Ethnic differences often dictate, or dictated, differences in the available education, predispositions for certain types of work, and shaped the precedent for a distaste for inter-ethnic relationships via selective breeding practices. Tajara often stereotype one another, with their biological differences often only furthering the spark of conflict alongside socioeconomic disparities - most obviously seen during the many Uprisings against the Njarir’Akhran nobility. The Tajara have a very difficult to grasp at first glance history, with a long historical struggle between the different social classes, most commonly those of the serf and the noble, and a large outside influence in the form of Humanity and the Nralakk Federation. The latter later became part of the motivation for the Third Protocol of the Luna Accords of Interstellar Law - that relating to Non-Interference in the development of uncontacted nations. Despite the interference of Humans in Tajaran affairs in recent history, Tajaran conflict had long been cause and effect of differences between the different ethnicities, classes and diaspora, which resulted in major differences in lifestyle and ideology between them. The most recent conflict, The Second Revolution (only ending in 2461, so five years ago in-world), and its consequences in the form of the recognition of the DPRA and NKA, gave birth to the three major factions we know today - each providing unique perspective to the political structure of the Tajaran homeworld, some more involved with the species’ past (such as the Monarchist ways of the Kingdom), and others more or less determined on advancing the common Tajara into a ‘better’ future - with varying meanings behind the word based on ideology and actions. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Mirka Khrusiya Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. Mirka Khrusiya was born in the city of Olska in the year 2443, in the (at that time) current territory of the People’s Republic of Adhomai, into a Njarir’Akhran family composed of a single, overworked Mother, Mirka herself, and a few years later - her younger brother, Khair. Her Njarir heritage was and remains to this day largely obscured, due to a lack of documentation and any exceptional amount of wealth to her name. This lack of genuine connection to any form of her Njarir ancestry during her formative years allowed for her to better attempt to connect with her peers, despite the challenges she soon faced due to her ethnicity. An exception to this would prove to come in the form of her childhood best friend, a young M’sai boy, the same age as her, with whom she would become inseparable. Despite Mirka’s nature, being prone to illness (which led to her initially struggling in her early education), her friend would always remain at her side, often visiting her in her home; In times when Mirka’s mother was absent due to work; the two, later three, would often play together at home under the watchful eye of one of their neighbours acting as a babysitter. In 2451, at the age of 8, Mirka watched the military parade in Nal’Tor on the home television set, her babysitter inattentively occupied with the younger child somewhere in the background. Mirka’s eyes lingered longer than usual, darting over the square screen, before the image was quickly cut out by the older Tajara. She did not quite understand then the importance of what had happened, but her caretaker’s panicked nature did more to upset her than what she saw, leaving the girl crying and confused. The twenty year period of Interwar peace had come to an end in an instant, and the worst was far yet to come. Mirka’s family initially held out in Olska through the beginning of the revolution. Her Mother’s wishes to hold out and attempt to survive despite the disruptive war effort never lasted long enough to bear fruit, as the development of the situation on Harr’masir meant an evacuation to a “safer” part of the planet under stricter control of the PRA was more beneficial. During the time of the Second Revolution, Mirka joined a local division of the PRA’s Youth Brigades, serving as a civilian courier and child informant, one of the loyal young Tajara serving as a prime example of the Party’s influence. Her family quickly settled in a village on the outskirts of Nal’Tor, where they stayed for the next couple of years through a large portion of the revolution. Mirka remembers this time with a strange degree of fondness, the time between the bloody war efforts spent enjoying her childlike innocence, and later - adolescent life. For the next 7 years, until 2458, Mirka continued in her dedicated work as a Brigadier, participating in political education efforts for young tajara not unlike herself, as well as more civil work - such as assisting in cleaning war-tattered streets and helping with the removal of rubble. On the 24th of November, 2458, when Mirka was 15, the People’s Republic was subjected to mass attacks from the ALA. Nal’Tor and its surrounding settlements were amongst the ones attacked by guerrilla forces, including the small village where the Khrusiyas were holding out. The last thing Mirka remembers from that time was running, holding her Mother by her hand as tight as she possibly could, weaving in and out of backyards and streets alike, as gunshots rang out around them. As she reached for the lock on the fence gate separating the two of them from the safety of the back alley and the family automobile, a single bullet struck at the ground near her feet, a last reminder of the threshold between her family’s life or death. The Khrusiya family piled into the rickety family automobile, and fled the burning village into central Nal’Tor with nothing but the clothes on their backs and miniscule amounts of belongings, where they again settled after the end of the week of bloodshed, first in a cheap motel, and later in a proper apartment on the second floor, surrounded by many neighbouring struggling families in their own right. Mirka’s Mother died of a contagious illness before the end of the Revolution, in late 2459. Mirka, as the only other adult in the household, had been taking the best possible care of her as she could, with the limited supplies, both that in terms of food and medicine, she was able to get her hands on. Yet, it had not been enough. Mirka herself had also contracted the unknown illness, yet was able to recover - left now with an incurable case of asthma. Mirka and her younger brother, Khair, were able to survive until the end of the Second Revolution, which ended in 2461 with the signing of the ceasefire, and later, the Armistice. Mirka and her brother would both remain citizens of the PRA following the Armistice of Shastar, continuing their sworn loyalty to the Hadiist Party. Taking the opportunity of the newly-gained moment of peace, Mirka quickly enrolled into medical school, soaring through her examinations. A need for better financial stability and higher quality of living, as well as guilt lingering after her Mother’s passing, both had heavy bearing on the young tajara’s choice of dedicating her future to the field of Medicine. During this time, Mirka more than before would pay attention to the political situation of her homeworld. Just as before, she had remained solemnly sworn to her loyalties with the PRA, now becoming more involved with anyone who could bring her closer to the Party, with high aims towards obtaining an official party membership in the far off future. She began to treat her relationships on a contractual, beneficiary basis, searching for ways in which the people she associated with could impact her social standing. Yet sometimes, you fail to look at the people you love most. Her brother, Khair, slowly began to drift away, distancing himself from Mirka over the last couple of years. Although not noticeable at first, his involvement in Adhomai’s nightlife, his demeanor, and the kinds of people he would find himself associating with would quickly reveal him as a closeted homosexual. Mirka was largely unaware of the people Khair was involved with, until she was introduced to his ‘partner’. Unnerved, yet vaguely accepting of Khair’s “condition”, Mirka did her best to protect Khair in terms of preserving the last that remained of her family. Over time, however, it became clear that something had changed, perhaps not only within Mirka, but Khair as well. The two found themselves often engaged in loud arguments that one could swear shook the apartment, with Khair’s temper running short. This would continue for the next year or so, until 2465. One unfortunate evening, during another one of Khair and Mirka’s heated arguments, his real motivations came to light. Khair intended to forge paperwork for himself and his lover, and defect off-world, in hopes of finding solace elsewhere, without prosecution. In Mirka’s mind, this admission was almost tied with treason. She had put in tireless, thankless work, all her life, to guarantee that the two of them could be safe, only for him to berate her for her loyalties and insist on abandoning what she had built. What their Mother had built before them. That night, for the first time, their argument had turned physical, with Khair instigating an altercation after hitting Mirka over the head with a kettle left on the stove nearby. By this point, however, she had had enough. Taking everything she could with her, Mirka left the apartment to stay at a friend’s house for the night, leaving Khair to sulk in his own share of sorrow. The next day, however, she did something she had never thought of doing in the entirety of her life. Mirka phoned the Police tipline, and reported Khair, informing the authorities of his plan, and of his ‘partner’. After Khair’s detainment by the authorities, and his enrollment into a psychiatric program meant to re-educate him, Mirka received a large amount of praise from those closer affiliated with the Party, yet the true impact of her actions was felt at home. Mirka returned home after a few days, with the apartment in disrepair due to the resistance during Khair’s arrest, as well as a subsequent search of the apartment, left to rot in the mess she had created. Mirka’s reputation within her own direct community was damaged - she no longer had the full trust of her neighbours, despite her rightful actions in the eyes of the Party. Over time, a lingering guilt consumed her, with the quiet stillness of her apartment nearly driving her mad. Khair’s absence meant the last of her family, as she had truly become alone now. After much deliberation, in late 2466, Khrusiya reached out toward her school, as well as Nanotrasen, for an opportunity to travel off-world under an employment contract to help further her in her study, while also swearing to upkeep with the traditional course of her exams through extra means. With her reputation as a model Republican citizen, and a Tajara with bright prospects in her chosen study field, Nanotrasen was quick to oblige, drafting an employment contract for Mirka to work under the position of a Medical Intern. Dropping everything she had worked so hard for back home, Mirka left her homeworld, in search of a place where she may no longer feel the heavy-weighing guilt and regret. The SCCV Horizon. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. The Second Revolution as well as the subsequent modern Cold War era on Adhomai are a key point of Mirka’s character. Mirka lives through the Second Revolution through ages eight to eighteen, first as a passive spectator of it, dependent on her Mother, and later as a volunteer and brigadier. Wartime defines the overwhelming majority of the life she remembers, and yet she finds her own ways to struggle against it and find ways to thrive. The Revolution brought forward grief and suffering for Mirka, as well as her family, and left her vulnerable to the world around her, especially so after the loss of her mother. The PRA’s work after the conclusion of the Second Revolution, and the young tajara’s want to return to the normal, made her ripe pickings for the Party’s heavily propagandised image of an equal Tajaran future. The PRA is and remains all that Mirka can cling onto for relative safety in the world, enticed by their unifying messaging, and supported in a mutually beneficial relationship between providing the Party undying support, reciprocated in the form of societal and workplace opportunity. The Cold War remains an inching threat on Adhomai and in Mirka’s life, with the DPRA’s nuclear developments in the last few years assuming a passive, almost looming, presence over Mirka’s already uncertain living situation. The general unrest and internal turmoil among the Tajara people boils over into Mirka’s personal life, as her only remaining family member contemplates finding dubiously legal ways off of the planet - resulting in further tension, and later confrontation and harsh consequences. Mirka feels a certain unease surrounding the situation of her home, and pushed forward by her deep-entrenched guilt, both play a large part in the reasoning for Mirka choosing to leave Adhomai and seek employment off-planet with Nanotrasen. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? Nanotrasen serves as an important keystone of not only Mirka’s future, but Adhomai’s development as a whole. Their controversial existence in Adhomai’s orbit is nowadays largely overshadowed by their close relationship to the PRA and the Party, which is more than enough to convince Mirka of their societal importance, due to Mirka’s heavily idealised image of the Hadiist ideology and the Party. Nanotrasen provides Mirka with a quick opportunity to escape her rough home situation, and get a breath of fresh air, while also supporting her dreams of pursuing a higher education in Medicine with a relevant workplace opportunity aboard the SCCV Horizon. Despite her poorly composed contract, and the corporation’s exploitative nature of the Tajara workforce, Mirka is naively trustful of the company, and is grateful for their presence in her life. Notes: I don't know how these keep getting longer Edited December 17, 2024 by NekoMarbles 2
YamiNoir Posted December 17, 2024 Posted December 17, 2024 (edited) +1 Words cannot describe the dedication this user has for Aurora. The character are always amazing and their activity is impressive. Would defiantly be a great addition to the Tajara front. Edited December 17, 2024 by YamiNoir 2
RatSlav Posted December 18, 2024 Posted December 18, 2024 +1 Incredible writing and amazing characters. 10/10 1
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