TGW Tajara re-application

[TheGreyWolf]

BYOND Ckey: TheGreyWolf

Discord username: TheGreyWolf

Character names: Sofia Zeil

Species you are applying to play: Tajara

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General Whitelist Requirements 

What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: I aim for #9E9A9A, with some variation for body markings

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?: 

The amount of possible character concepts, alongside the amount of lore that Tajara have and which can be used to make various characters, such as the three nations, the differences in the nation and more, as well as the complexity of their lore due to so much happening in a short time. Their religion lore also interest me, both the raskariim as is evident below, but also the more normal faiths such as ma'take and S'rendarr and Messa.

What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: 

A large variety of things is what together make them different. The biggest things I would say is their society, with the three nations on their home planet and the revolution that affected every tajara from there in some way, and the now cold war. This gives them so much to work with, both when making characters and when interacting with other tajara or even humans. A NKA taj would be used to different things than a PRA or DPRA taj, and would be more likely to react differently, or at least form different opinions just based on that. And that hardly accounts for all the variety their backstory could then also cause as a result of the revolution.

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Character Application

Character Name: Tulkir Zarkiirran

Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. 

Early Life (0-17 years)

 Tulkir was born on the island of Amohda around 2442, near the coast. Her father worked in a warehouse, while her mother took care of rations for a local garrison. The first part of her life was relatively stable, until the start of the second revolution began to stir up trouble in 2449, when she was around 7 years old, with her parents now getting involved in the war effort due to their work. This got worse again when the monarchists got involved, creating a three-way problem on Amohda and would eventually be part of the chaos that got her parents killed a year later. Though she never learned of the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, she began to realize it as they did not return home one day.

It first got to her that she was not seeing them again, when a group of guerrilla soldiers found her, and they took her with them to help ferry supplies. She was lucky enough as well as hiding enough to avoid getting into combat with them, though at times it was close as she hid from the war around her. It was partially through the guerilla group that she was first indoctrinated into the DPRA way of thinking, learning of the faults of the PRA and NKA, and with the latter dragging the island into further chaos, her hatred of them were firmly set, as only the DPRA seemed to have a chance to keep the island in check, if that.

Military Service (18-25 years)

 After going through another six years of the war, barely surviving at times, starving at others and overall just trying to get by, the ceasefire with the NKA was finally signed. There was still the war with the PRA, but this gave a much needed breathing room and gave her the first time where she had to pick her own way, after the guerrilla group she was with disbanded to join the proper army. With little knowledge of what else to do, she did the same and was assigned to work at a military warehouse/depot, primarily being tasked with helping out with logistics until the armistice was signed a year later, which let her finally breathe free. 

At this point, her resentment of the war was firmly cemented in her mind. Despite what she would say when it came up among her fellow soldiers, she would carry on her hatred that she was caught in the middle of it, even as she believed that the DPRA had done what was necessary. A thought she kept carrying with her during her work, that the very army she joined is what was meant to hold together the country against the growing instability. For her, the uniform was the stability needed.

A year later again, in 2462, the Amohdan Junta attempted to secede, and war was once more coming near. This time, it was even closer to her as she realized that between the Junta rebelling and the eventual response the rest of the DPRA would give, she would be stuck right between them as a part of the military, just as she thought it was calming down. It was wrong, sure, but she had trouble even comprehending why the junta would want to secede from the very thing that helped keep the stability of their country, and she could only come to the conclusion that the weakness of the civilian government was the reason she was now stuck in this situation, even against all that they were fixing.

As she became more desperate to find a way out of the consequences from taking either side, she was given an offer by a group, a simple one at that: Take a few packages they had, and let them go on a few supply trucks, no questions asked. In return, they would make her problems fade to nothing. 

Despite not knowing who they were, she took them up on the offer as it was the best shot. The packages went out like a charm, and when she returned the next day she found instructions. Times to not be around, when a set of supplies should go or be rerouted. It continued, but once the attempted secession failed and the junta leader replaced, she found herself almost free of the consequences and back to her work, though not quite as well regarded anymore by the few who were still left at her warehouse. Issues which soon would be solved in similar manners. A few deliveries out, some going missing, a few things from the warehouse to go elsewhere and the paperwork changed to fit, sometimes even new packages with the deliveries or to be dropped off on the route. She never questioned it, even as the military checkpoints got heavier and she barely managed to avoid suspicion at times. But the trouble? That stopped. The coworkers changed, a suspicious soldier being reassigned, even some hard to get medicine for when she sustained an injury. It all went smoothly away like it never was, and all for things nobody would ever miss. 

Over time, she did slowly begin to realize that the group she was working with were not just random nobodies. That they had led her through the conflict safely already marked that, but even then it was too unusual for her to overlook. It wasn’t just a random rebel group, so much she could figure out for sure, and over the years it slowly began to dawn on her that they might be one of the cults that she would only hear whispers about.

Post-Military (25 years old)

This lasted until 2467, when her luck finally ran out. When an unexpected audit appeared, where she previously had warnings before, she was surprised by this one, and they had their own numbers to go by. The others began to get questioned, soldiers escorted coworkers and there was talk of serious consequences. Escaping the island would be near impossible as it was, especially if they began searching for her, so once more she had to pray. One group had gotten her out of similar trouble before, so surely they could again? Just one last thing: a package to leave in the warehouse, they said. Once it was done, a letter to a waiting ship. She didn’t understand, as nothing before was a letter, but she did it anyway. She soon learned it was passage to Crevus and an ID card. Whatever her former name was, it didn't matter anymore. She was now Tulkir Zarkiirran, a recently hired employee of Orion Express on her way to work on the SCCV Horizon, far away from Amohda. 

The change took some time for her to get used to. Most of which was spent going to Crevus, and after she left Crevus for her new place of employment, reminding herself of her new name. There was still the short time she was in Crevus between the two events. Her employment in theory secured, but waiting for the departure time.With several days to spend and only with the belongings she had on her as she fled, she had to fend for herself as she tried to navigate the streets and avoid drawing the attention of the gangs. 

She eventually managed to find a group of other ALA soldiers on leave, and mixed herself into the group as she got used to the place. It was hardly something that made her feel safe, particularly now that she was on the run, but it beat blindly walking the streets and trying to avoid trouble with the gangs, and eased her up as she began to get more familiar with interacting with other species, humans in particular. She did however find a brief comradeship with her fellow soldiers, as she remained a supporter of Nated like her fellows.

As she followed the other soldiers around the city, to bars and elsewhere, she began to notice patterns throughout it. The same signs she had noticed on the group that had helped her, and that she had been taught to follow when she wanted to get in contact with them. They were of course infrequent, but just also barely enough that began to get a sense of them, which she followed, managing to drag a couple of her fellows with her to not rouse much suspicion. Eventually she found her way to the Lock, a night club, and with what little she knew, she managed to get inside. By the time she left that night, she didn’t have a shred of doubt in her mind anymore. The only group she could consistently rely on were them, the raskariim cult, not the army, nor the government be it a junta or civilian. As far as she cared, this was the better path to walk along as she departed for her shuttle off-world.

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 tajaran revolution would be what affected her the most, with events such as the attempted secession being a large part of what made her into what she was and put her foot in the doorstep of both a cult and the way she managed to get out of there. On the wider scale the phoron scarcity and the creation of Orion Express is what permits the opportunity for her, though it is also what requires her to be dedicated to her job, so that she is not replaced by more eager employees.

How does your character view the megacorporation they work for?

She has mixed opinions of the megacorps. Orion, for whom she works, she is mainly neutral unlike with the other corporations, due to its newer existence and them giving her the chance to be employed so that she could get away from Adhomai. For the rest, she tends to be more negative, particularly towards zavod and the PMCG due to their weapon & mercenary status.

[sebkillerDK]

I've known grey for a long time by now.
I can in general attest to his skills as a roleplayer. Both from playing with him in the ss13 community, and in other games like ttrpg's we've played.

Now, as for the character here. I think they sound interesting, and have a decent chunk of room to develop as a person. They give me the survivor vibe, of a perhaps at the current time, rough around the edges kinda personality, that with time could grow into something more. ~~Fits perfectly into ops half criminals the lot of them~~ Jokes aside. i foresee this character probably getting into a drunken barfight at some point. 
Overall solid +1 from me based on past experiences with this person