Thundy's Unathi Whitelist

[Thundy]

BYOND Key: Thundy

Character Names: Charlie Dove, Fel'siti Rummka'nen, Mel Hanford, etc...

Species you are applying to play: Unathi

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Darker, perhaps a dark brown or even black, not sure yet.

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

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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 specific race:

I have been wanting to play Unathi for a while but didn't think I had a very good idea up until now. I love the lore surrounding Unathi and wanted a whitelist to further my RP on station. I have usually stuck to peace keeping roles and I hope that I can change that with this character.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

Unathi have a completely different history to humans as well as being physically different and having a culture focused on honor and respect. There is a community of Unathi aboard this station that seem to have a good time of it without me and I, personally, want in.

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Character Name: Khaw Elsani

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs

Khaw was Gah'ren's number two man. He was counted on for everything and had earned the trust of the clan for many years, fighting for their turf and keeping the peace. When a neighboring clan had a hit out on one of Gar'ren's cousins, Khaw went with him to settle the matter and helped him clean up the bodies after the fight. He had killed the daughter of his friend when she had run off with someone without Gah'ren's permission and had wrapped her body in chains and tossed him out of a spacecraft at his request. So when Gah'ren stepped down from his position after the third hospital visit, it was only right that Khaw step up and become the new boss of the clan, even above Gah'ren's own son.

Khaw took a wife, had three children and began ruling over his family and clan with an iron fist. Any show of disloyalty was met with his wrath. His clan dealt mostly in illegal buy and sell of weapons and resources and occasionally slaves, but Khaw knew that in order to expand his reach and better his family, he would have to find a way to exploit the mega corporations and with Nano Transen in control of the main deposits of Plasma, Khaw decided what must be done.

Establishing himself as a miner and quickly coming up to speed with the newer technologies, he arranged to have himself employed by Nano Transen aboard the NSS Aurora, hoping to establish himself and eventually have his family come aboard.

What do you like about this character?

He is an Unathi mob-boss and I love it. He should be really fun to RP. Like I said, I haven't got any mean characters yet and am anxious to see what comes of him.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I have definately improved from playing here. 7/10? I have a lot to learn but I'm not a bald anymore. I'm just not!

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Notes:

My sister was trying to get me to watch the Soprano's and I was inspired.

[Majora]

It seems like the stereotype of Unathi being aggressive is being upheld once again here, not that it is a negative thing it's just from what I've seen to be done a lot. There's a whole bunch of Unathi on the station already to the point where their population is almost starting to rival the human population from what I've seen. I haven't really seen you roleplay before but I'll say that it seems like a reasonably solid application though I cannot give disapproval or approval.

[Thundy]

It seems like the stereotype of Unathi being aggressive is being upheld once again here, not that it is a negative thing it's just from what I've seen to be done a lot. There's a whole bunch of Unathi on the station already to the point where their population is almost starting to rival the human population from what I've seen. I haven't really seen you roleplay before but I'll say that it seems like a reasonably solid application though I cannot give disapproval or approval.

Can I get feedback other then "You're doing what everyone else does" and "I haven't seen you role play so I can't judge you" please?

[Majora]

If you wish me to not include the stereotype or not seeing you roleplay which is more of constructive criticism, I'll say that an Unathi miner is something more new than Unathi security, and I guess we don't have any "mob-boss" unathi either.

[Five-Oh]

I find it questionable that you went ahead and created an already well established character, as in a highly respected and feared a mob-boss. That usually creates a number of issues. Such as one player wanting to dictate the course of events, due to expectations that're based on their characters predefined past. To me, it's basically on par to players creating the typical run of the mill ex-military hero type characters and their usual anticipations of other players and their characters trembling in fear or admiration.

My point is, I'd much prefer if players earn their character's reputation through their actual actions, especially if it's as significant as is the case with yours. I'm gonna go ahead in presuming that you won't go around parading your character's past and present status, but it still irks me.

As for your notion of how fun it might be to play a mean character? Bear in mind that he won't be the first big meanie to come aboard, on the contrary; he'll be one of many, some of them irrationally mean, meaning you'll likely face off with characters that are, at the very least, equal in terms of badassery and spirit. It's usually then when people realize that the concept isn't as entertaining as it first seemed and instead turns out to be somewhat stale without a cast of supporting characters that'll play into the idea behind your character - players usually don't enjoy the passive, dominated role, so don't keep your hopes up in that respect.

Summarizing my thoughts:

- roll a character that isn't as predefined and established as the one you listed. Criminal is perfectly fine, but maybe one that isn't at the very top of the food chain.

- mean isn't necessarily good or innovative. Tony Soprano didn't consider himself evil, the fact that so many people could relate to him on many levels enforces that notion. If anything, he's a regular dude, who's done some very bad things. There are many facets to characters, people are rarely just outright mean, bad or evil, whatever you wanna call.

As is, I'd probably not sign off on this. Not for a lack of roleplaying skills (they're sufficient) or effort, but for the bio and the concept of the character.

[Thundy]

I think there is a difference between what you're saying and what I'm hoping to portray in this character. You're assuming that this character will have the respect and fear from people that he has never met, which isn't true at all. Khaw will be outside his clan and will have to work his way up in the systems of Aurora in the same way he worked his way up to second in command back home. If I were to have others RP his family, I would expect them to fear and respect him, due to him being the head of the clan. Not so on Aurora.

You are right about Tony Soprano, however, he does a lot of things that are incredibly "anti-social" (beating someone to death because they killed a racehorse he had a connection with) and that is more what I mean by "mean." I have many ideas about this character, but I didn't want to put them all in my application less I change my mind about the details later.

Am I making sense at all?

[Five-Oh]

My assumption is, that your character's past will highly influence the way you portray him towards others. The assumption's based on past experience with people who've set their mind on roleplaying characters that have such a vast amount of experience and command respect to such a degree, despite not having done anything towards earning either. Like I pointed out, I don't necessarily expect you to be that naive in how you portray your character to others, but the bio alone is a red flag extraordinaire.

Furthermore, a character such as yours, one that's so pre-defined by his past, is likely to collide egos with others. And there's simply an abundance of (mean spirited) egos on this station, egos that for the most part also seem to be sourced from events that haven't actually taken place in-game, but instead in the imagination of players. I'm not a fan of that, and I'd go as far as arguing that it's generally frowned upon to introduce a new character with such a background. The rough equivalent of that would be for me to create a character, who's been in a military unit, rose to the top, commanded the respect of his entire unit, wiped out foes left & right and then signed up for duty on the Aurora, fitting in rather nicely with all the other characters that have a surprisingly similar background. Either way, they don't necessarily fit in well with the remainder of the crew and that's something to take into account as well.

I see what you're saying in regards to Tony, but I've been meaning to get at 2 major points; mean doesn't equate to interesting or innovative (which you've kinda covered) and more importantly, Tony only worked as a character because he was the story's main protagonist (not in the literal sense, but you get what I mean). There's no such thing on multiplayer RP sessions and if people don't take that into consideration when they roll their characters, they're fixing to create a nasty imbalance and issues. Like how many times have we endured through some hotshot character's reciting their jaw-droppingly amazing past and held back from either a.) walking the fuck off to avoid the cringes or b.) challenged the story to the end of a childish argument? Usually a fairly common thing on just about any free-form RP platform.

In any case, you're absolutely making sense, I just don't really agree with your view on things. That said, it's your application and your character. If you feel you're onto something, I'll reserve further (constructive) criticism until after I've seen you utilize your character ingame. Best of luck!

[Thundy]

I understand your concerns. If I am accepted, I hope I can prove you wrong. I appreciate the criticism.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

It would be really hypocritical of me to have a criminal background itself be a point against you, because I run the server's first and I think still only crime family, lol. But it's still worthy of pausing for thought and reflecting on how your character will portray themselves, with this background. I mean, cargo is already almost exclusively 'former pirates' and 'former smugglers' anyway, I don't think he'd stand out too much.

But! The concern that he will come in demanding and expecting respect is also something worthy of thought. One thing about Unathi is that while they can be headstrong, they are supposed to strive to keep an honourable name for themselves. They might have this common theme of not understanding why they're wrong, but there's still the expectation that they believe they're doing the right thing. A subversion of this can be great, but the main goal of Khaw being to severely undermine Nanotrasen and control the plasma... It's something that we really have to pause and think about, because the possible drawbacks are troublesome.

Life on Moghes, especially outside the Hegemon lands, is extremely feudal and I'm accepting of darker backgrounds. But being a secret revolutionary with expectations of continuing to be treated with respect is something that immediately starting out with may be a difficult juggle. (Also, Unathi clans generally didn't have spaceships, so dump your bodies in the desert. )

I think that if we agree for Khaw to 'tone down' a little bit, so that he could feasibly get along with his co-workers without getting hissy at not being treated like a nobleman, and that you won't try to take antagonistic actions when not an antag, that I would be willing to trust you and give you a whitelist and see how you do with it.

[Thundy]

I know how to play this game. From what I've seen, people think that I'll either try and blow the station up while laughing hysterically or that I will sit around smoking a cigar saying "if only you knew about my life back on moghes..."

Neither of these things are what I want for this character. Mafia bosses don't go around murdering nameless people, they kill to gain power, for a political move or to keep their family and extended family in line. If Khaw does kill people, my plan would be for it to be off station (barring being antag) not when he suddenly decides he doesn't like someone. I want him to be realistic and realised. I have many ideas for him which, as I said, I don't want to reveal, less I change my mind.

Tldr, he's not a senseless killing machine.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I'll go ahead and accsssssept this application.