@danime91: Not the GM, but the Ak'chtket sound very, extremely broken as a species.

That you wanted to do the whole, "ant colony, queens that create tons of offspring and dominate by numbers" angle is one thing; but that you also made them seven feet tall behemoths with natural metal armor is ridiculous.

And yes I get that they don't currently do that now, but the potential for them to do that is still there.

Also I'd say that if you're going to have two species in your nation, you shouldn't have them have almost identical names. While reading the history and other stuff, I kept having to double check which species you were referring to.

On another note, from the impressions given about the plant parasite species, it doesn't seem like they would be capable of peacefully coexisting with anyone else; it sounded like they would be naturally hostile towards any potential host.

edited 22nd Apr '17 1:19:10 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

I figure I can always make them shorter if that's a problem. Also, their carapaces, I tried to balance it out by making it so that, while good at deflecting low caliber projectiles and energy weapons, they are relatively thin and crumple under a hard impact, with a high chance of being a debilitating injury, so any decent military-grade weapon can take them out.

Sorry for the confusion with the names, but the plant species don't have a name for themselves, the name was something the bugs gave them when they were uplifted, which is why they sound similar. I can always change them to make them more distinct.

And yes, they are hostile to the host. They are a parasite species, after all. They literally burrow into the host's brain and eat all the parts that control higher function, leaving only the parts needed for controlling automatic bodily functions. The only reason they are able to coexist with the bugs at all is that they are provided hosts that are pretty much brain-dead already. Having a ready supply of bodies as well as a safe environment to raise the flowering state members of their species is a pretty good deal for them. Unlike other plants which produce many seeds each pollination, they can only produce one. So having a safe, reliable host for each seed is a pretty big deal for them.

edited 22nd Apr '17 2:32:18 AM by danime91

Saying they're relatively thin and crumple easily under hard impacts now seems to be in direct contradiction of the signup, in which you describe their carapace as, "incredibly sturdy".

And as for the plants, I meant that it seems like they would be literally incapable of peaceful coexistence. Your signup directly says, "Once the seed is pollinated and ready to be implanted, the chk'ertk attacks a potential host, subduing it and inflicting a wound to its head." The wording makes it sound like this is something they just do; nothing implies that this was only previous natural behavior and/or something they consciously decide to do, or otherwise indicates that they wouldn't try to pull this nowadays on anyone who happened to be nearby. Attacking a mindless Ak'chtket worker in Chk'Trrket Union space might not matter since they're like borderline sapient, but if one of these plants went to live somewhere else and did that to a normal, sapient citizen, it would be dealt with like assault with intent to murder.

Just for clarification, what I'm getting at is that if these were not the impressions you meant to give, then you worded your signup poorly, in my opinion.

edited 22nd Apr '17 3:09:05 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Made changes to the Establsihment to make them less violent and removed Slave AI, replacing them with far more placid labor A.I.s which don't control organisms and merely facilitate industry.

To clarify a bit on what the Establishment is supposed to be like, it's supposed to be like a former military power with a bad reputation trying to recover from losses and a new, peaceful regime, who want to have a new start as something better. Anyway, hope the changes help!

Oh I see. What you're saying is that the wording made it ambiguous as to whether the planting was an instinctual behavior rather than a purposeful action. That can be clarified easily enough. Anyway, it was something they did out of necessity to preserve their sapience, rather than some xenomorph facehugger-esque instinct. The could just as easily plant their seeds in the ground and just let them grow to flowering state, but the resulting plant would have no sapience and just be a normal plant.

Also, yeah, seems like I'll have to rewrite the portion on ak'chtket carapace. What I pictured was that it originally evolved in order to protect them from predators and dying in cave-ins, so while it's sturdy and good against large general impacts, it doesn't hold up well to concentrated force. The difference between getting hit with a hammer vs getting hit with a pickaxe, basically. I suppose rather than "crumple" I should go with "pierced", or "shattered"?

I'll go make changes and clarifications after Parable finishes reading it. I don't want to cause confusion by going and editing it when they might be in the middle of reading.

edited 22nd Apr '17 9:10:34 AM by danime91

This is meant to be a relatively unimportant and minor NPC race. This has also been in the works for a while, so any resemblance to any other factions is coincidental.

---

Name

• Civilization: the Kan’drian Enclave
• Species: the Is’kan-dar (pronounced Iss-KAHN-darr).
• Planet: Kan’dria.

Biology

Generations ago, the Is’kan-dar were a race of terrestrial molluscs with three sinuous tentacles for legs and a pair of prehensile, sucker-tipped arms like those of a squid capable of fine manipulation. Their leathery hides retained moisture, allowing them to move about freely on land without drying out. They had keen senses of sight, taste and touch, and possessed large eyes and a sharp, chitinous beak. Highly complex chromatophores allowed them to change colour and blend in with their surroundings, both for disguise and for communication.

A critical event in their history forced the Is’kan-dar to undergo extensive cybernetic modification in order to survive their radically-altered environment. Generations of such modifications have made their species more mechanical than organic, and today the Is’kan-dar could easily be mistaken for robots at a glance. They have degenerated into an organic nucleus housed within a robotic shell, which retains their overall anatomy but is more rigid: a bulbous cephalothorax with two large photoreceptors and two short arms ending in tridactyl hands sits atop a gimbal waist, and locomotion is provided by three segmented legs. The shell is air-tight and radiation-proof, providing excellent protection against the now-toxic environment of their homeworld, but it will not stop anything but the lowest caliber bullets; it is a highly-advanced hazmat suit, not body armor.

Successive generations of Is’kan-dar have had to don their shells at progressively earlier stages of their life cycle, making reproduction difficult. To ensure the continued survival of their species, they have taken to scanning their own brains with high-intensity x-rays, creating highly-detailed maps of their neural architecture which they then used as the basis for fully sapient artificial intelligences that could think and feel as they do. These A.I.s were then uploaded into shells of their own, and are considered Is’kan-dar in their own right. The surviving organic Is’kan-dar are known as the First Generation, while their android “progeny” are the Second Generation: while the Second Generation will inevitably supplant the First at some point, for the time being the two groups coexist peacefully.

The average lifespan for a cybernetic or android Is’kan-dar is 90 standard years. The average height and weight are 1.65 meters (5’4”) and 136kg (300 lbs), respectively.

History

For millennia, the Is’kan-dar developed much like any other denizens of a terrestrial world in terms of society. They had tribes and nations, they waged war, they struggled for control of their planet’s resources, and they paid little heed to the state of their environment. At the apex of their glory, their civilization was not dissimilar from that of Earth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Then came the Catastrophe: a large meteorite struck Kan’dria, hitting a waste-processing facility built over a volatile gas pocket. The resulting explosion released billions of tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere, while also irradiating the soil and poisoning the oceans. Roughly 90% of the planet’s native flora and fauna would perish in the ensuing nuclear winter, and extinction became a sudden and very real possibility for the Is’kan-dar.

Ordinary hazmat suits proved ineffective at protecting them from the hostile new environment, and what fallout shelters existed were ill-equipped to house the Is’kan-dar population. To survive, the nations of Kan’dria pooled their resources and enacted a radical initiative to convert a small percentage of the population into cyborgs. Riots and looting broke out over the right to be chosen, and society teetered on the brink of collapse; but eventually, a sense of resignation settled over the looters, and the transition occurred relatively peacefully. These million converts would live, while the rest of the organic Is’kan-dar slowly died out.

Several generations passed, and the survivors found their situation worsening as they were forced to convert their children at progressively younger ages. It was then, in the year 525, that representatives of the Pact arrived in orbit above Kan’dria and offered them a deal: in exchange for becoming a client state under Pact supervision, they would provide the Is’kan-dar with the resources and financial backing needed to begin the long process of rehabilitating their planet’s biosphere. With no other visible alternative, the Is’kan-dar accepted, and organized themselves into a new government known as the Kan’drian Enclave.

Government

Having begun as a Third State within the Pact, the Kan’drian Enclave closely mimics the structure of its benefactor’s government. Its leadership takes the form of an elected congress led by a Secretary General. Congressbeings represent various small communities scattered across Kan’dria’s surface and an archipelago of orbital habitats. A Pact overseer would sit in on all sessions of the congress and had the authority to veto any major legislation they might try to pass.

With the Pact having withdrawn their support in the wake of the war, the Kan’drian Congress is struggling not to panic as they try to reform their government to function better without Pact oversight. There has been some talk of going from a representative democracy to a direct one, taking advantage of their cybernetic nature and wireless communication technologies to let all citizens vote on issues instantly and simultaneously while sophisticated computer networks tally the results; however, this is unlikely to be implemented any time soon.

Territory and Population

The Kan’drian Enclave is one of the galaxy’s smaller nations, consisting solely of the terrestrial planet Kan’dria in the Dol system. The Is’kan-dar population is but a fraction of what it was before the Catastrophe: a mere thirty million Is’kan-dar are alive today, 51% of which are Second Generation androids. These millions are split between small communities on the planet’s surface, and a number of orbital habitats known as the Exclaves.

Military

The Is’Kan-dar have never had a strong military. While they do possess a small fleet of corvettes to protect their homeworld, they chiefly depended on the Pact for military support. The loss of their protection is one of several reasons why the Kan’drian Enclave seeks the help of the Galactic Congress.

During the war, the Is’kan-dar avoided direct fighting and served mostly in auxiliary capacities such as engineers, mechanics, or medics, primarily due to the shortcomings of their cybernetic shells. Nevertheless, some of them chose to fight on the frontlines and modified their shells with thick armour plating and shoulder-mounted kinetic weapons.

Of the 30 million Is’kan-dar alive today, perhaps 4%—or 1.4 million—serve in Kan’dria’s meagre planetary defense force.

Infrastructure

Much of Kan’dria’s old infrastructure was destroyed or rendered inoperable when the Catastrophe struck. Since then, the descendants of the original survivors have managed to restore portions of what they used to have, and even exceed it in some areas.

On Kan’dria, cities are built within hermetically-sealed domes in areas that have been painstakingly cleansed of pollutants and radiation. Food takes the form of nutrient pastes derived from hydroponically-cultivated plants and vat-grown flesh cultures. Homes have large charging cradles rather than beds.

In orbit, the Exclaves are cylindrical space stations that can house up to one thousand Is’kan-dar. They use large solar panels to collect energy from the sun, and use centrifugal rotation to simulate gravity. A shuttle service ferries passengers to and from the surface. A larger station called Kolar Spaceport previously served as the Pact embassy and continues to act as the home base for Kan’dria’s planetary defense fleet.

To the Is’kan-dar, the most important industry is their Environmental Rehabilitation Initiative. They have sunk trillions of hours and billions of credits into the construction of immense collection facilities and the breeding of specialized cybernetic organisms to remove contaminants from the environment. These creatures “eat” the contaminants, which are then extracted when they return to the collection facilities. The contaminants are then transported to disposal stations in far orbit, where they are loaded into mass drivers and shot into the sun. Such an initiative is only possible through foreign financial aid, and it will certainly grind to a halt without a new source of funding.

Culture

Before the Catastrophe, the Is’kan-dar had a rich culture: they appreciated the visual arts, they had extensive bodies of nature literature, they had various religious faiths and complex bodies of philosophy. Much of this was lost when the Catastrophe occurred, and while archaeologists and scholars do try to recover fragments of their old culture whenever they can, the Kan’drian Congress would rather sink funding into the Environmental Rehabilitation Initiative instead. Nevertheless, a few Is’kan-dar manage to keep the old arts alive. Landscape paintings have become popular of late, as they allow younger generations to see how Kan’dria used to be and help them appreciate what was lost.

The Kan’drian entertainment industry is a meagre thing. The Enclave Congress considered the time and effort it would take to train actors and record shows a frivolous, unnecessary expenditure, and they preferred to import media from other Pact worlds in order to save money. With the dissolution of the Pact, this arrangement may no longer be feasible and the Kan’drian entertainment industry may get some much-needed funding.

Trivia

• The Kan’drian Enclave’s flag is a brown diamond, quartered into quadrants of different shades, on a purple background.
• The front of an Is’kan-dar’s shell’s cephalothorax is covered with a grid of LED lights that light up in response to the Is’kan-dar’s emotions. This is meant to mimic how their ability to change colour played an important role in language and communication.
• Their cybernetic shells are meant to faintly resemble Robo from Chrono Trigger.

edited 23rd Apr '17 4:32:27 PM by SullenFrog

The Danse Macabre Codex

Keplar: You are approved. Welcome to the Galaxy. Do you need a recap of what has been going on?

Danime: You're mostly good. Hive bug aliens aren't something we haven't seen before, but what actually stood out to me was that you made the queens more than glorified baby factories who run everything by default. Kudos for bringing something different from the norm. The height thing does concern me though the last issue from this post not being adressed concerns me more. It is necessary for approval that the Chk'ertk are incapable of making other sentient species their hosts.

Going by the biology section, queen ak'chtket can lay dozens of eggs of what will become worker ak'chtket that can become vessels for chk'ertk on a daily basis. I think you can see why I can't approve a nation whose population duodecuples (That's a word. Huh. I learned something new today.) daily.

One last thing, it says the ak'chket discovered the chk'ertk in the early 500's and kept them secret till the Final War. A hundred year secret ally and military build up seriously stretches the suspension of disbelief. I don't have an issue with them keeping the Pact in the dark, but there needs to be a much shorter time frame.

Also, congrats, you're the only PC state coming from the ex-Pact. Everyone else loves space ship bosses,

Sullen: Approved.

Parable: Thanks! A recap would be appreciated, yes. Also, how would be the best way to introduce myself at this point?

Alrighty. Due to some erratic real life situations on my end, the game hasn't progressed much, but that will be changing. You and danime are coming in at the right time.

On the Politics side, the Galactic Congress has met and dispersed for the day. There was talk of economic sanctions against the old empires that went nowhere, but the main debate was over arms reduction and non-aggression pacts between the states present. That almost went nowhere too, but they did manage to get a committee formed which will study the issues more with each other and then offer a concrete proposal on the matter for the Congress to take up. Your delegate(s) should be leaving the congress hall right now. I suggest talking with the other players to see if you can establish some ties between your characters and theirs. That should help with character creation and you can jump in faster once your characters are approved.

On the refugee side, everyone is in the Sol System and they've just moved from a claustrophobic waiting room to a marginally less crowded space ship whose holding area has become a refugee camp. Everyone just found a place on the ground to sleep, they're hungry, and the sprinklers just went off for no good reason, so you're wet too. Nobody knows anybody here, so just find a reason to talk to the others once your character is approved and things will pick up from there.

edited 23rd Apr '17 7:41:41 PM by Parable

Alright, was planning on going in and making changes after you've read it. Will probably shorten their heights to around 5 feet. Also, I guess I made the time frame on the chk'ertk project as long as it was in order to make them more completely integrated into ak'chtket society, but I suppose I could halve the time on that and still make it workable, with them solidifying relations during the years of the Final War with some lingering tensions. The military build-up will be shortened to have occurred a few decades after that.

Also, I forgot to put it in when I first posted it, but the chk'ertk can normally only use species native to Umurask as hosts. Them being able to use ak'chtket workers was equal parts coincidental compatibility and years of genetic engineering and modification (the early attempts resulted in the chk'ertk dying of metal poisoning due to high metal content in the ak'chtkets' blood). They cannot make hosts of other non-native species without extensive gene-modding to make them compatible. And while a queen can lay up to a dozen worker eggs a day, chk'ertk can only produce one seed a year, and then only the parasite form can. The flowering form are solely responsible for pollination, they don't produce seeds. So that limits population growth.

EDIT: Went in and made the necessary changes, along with a few grammar and quality-of-life type corrections here and there. Will start working on characters.

edited 23rd Apr '17 9:25:32 PM by danime91

Alright cool. You're almost good to go.

We still got the reproduction problem though. I really cannot accept a species that multiplies at such a ferocious speed, even if they are workers. We already had to rework a species that produced six offspring per litter, so naturally something that totally dwarfs that is a no-go.

Hmm, how about making it so that the workers have very short lifespans, only a year or two, then their brains just shut down and they die. When a chk'ertk uses one as a host, it basically eats and replaces the brain, so it bypasses that problem and lives to whatever number of years I'll decide chk'ertk can live to. That way the worker population has a pretty high turnover rate. I could also tune down the egg laying rate to months rather than days. Also due to aforementioned short lifespan problem, using workers in most jobs has become unpopular and the birth rate for them remains pretty low.

edited 24th Apr '17 12:50:07 AM by danime91

That sounds good. Okay, welcome to the Galaxy! This post is for you as well.

edited 24th Apr '17 7:31:31 AM by Parable

Alright here are the bios for my ambassador and adventurer.

First, here's my ambassador.

• Name:
  • Title: Tk'chiksazzt Tak zt Cht Sasaket^translation Representative (someone with the authority to speak for) the High and Low Council, or just Council Representative or Sasaket
  • Formal: Graceful Stream
  • Personal: Vzz'kachek Sh'hrzet Znn'tak^format Vzz'kachek is her home hive, Sh'hrzat her mother, and Znn'tak her given name
• Age: 42 standard years/48 shells
• Sex: Queen
• Appearance: Somewhat short at 135cm (53in) tall, with a slender body covered in a shining carapace that is golden in color, marbled with silver. She has finely etched pentagonal spirals marked on the shoulders of her upper arms, each whorl representing one shell. On each of her forearms is painted the tribal knotwork pattern representing Vzz'kachek, her home hive, though some of the intricacies are lost due to being partially painted in ultraviolet pigments. Other patterns denoting her past positions and achievements are etched and painted on her thorax and abdomenal carapace in blue, black, green, and ultraviolet, turning her body into a living history for those who care to decipher its meaning.
  She wears a coppery medallion stamped with the marks of the High and Low Councils, denoting her current authority as Sasaket. It was fashioned from her carapace from her previous molting (one of the downsides of replacing your skin on a yearly basis). She wears a white silk cloth wrapped around her waist, which drapes down between her four legs like a sort of loincloth.
• History: Znn'tak hatched in NR 618, 15 years before the Final War, and was still a nymph when the ak'chtket rebellion against the Pact began. Her mother, Sh'hrzat, was a matriarch and the leader of the council of Vzz'kachek, one of the largest hives of the Kz'hantk megacity.
  Upon reaching adulthood and completing her education, Znn'tak worked in management for a mining consortium, one of many established in Vzz'kachek. She later was assigned to join the uplift teams going to Umurask to establish ties with the chk'ertk homeworld, where she was tasked with leading a team conducting geological surveys and scouting out possible development for hives and mining outposts.
  During her time on Umurask, Znn'tak exemplified herself in interspecies relations, negotiating with the newly uplifted chk'ertk. Upon the completion of her survey mission, she returned to Tersek and was elected to the High Council for her services. When the time came to send a delegation to the Galactic Congress, her experience in working with the chk'ertk made her the prime candidate to lead their newly formed diplomatic corps.
• Credentials:
  • Related to head councilor of Vzz'kachek, one of the largest and most influential hives on Tersek
  • Production and personnel manager for a global (soon interplanetary) mining conglomerate (6 years)
  • Established diplomatic relations with chk'ertk on Umurask (4 years)
  • Member of the Tersek High Council (8 years)
  • Chosen to head the formation of the new diplomatic corps (2 years)
    

And here is my adventurer

• Name:
  • Formal: Peace in Victory
  • Personal: Zzk'trket Kt'chirna Zzk'vrit
• Age: 56 standard years/64 shells
• Sex: Drone
• Appearance: Above average height for an ak'chtket at 170cm (67in), a lanky body covered in a dull, metallic grey carapace (if their only metal intake comes from supplements, this is more or less the color they become). His two left arms and left front foreleg are cybernetic, and are a brighter, shinier chrome. His carapace is almost devoid of hive symbols or other decorations, except for a pattern of spiraling flames painted on his two cybernetic forearms.
  He wears a toolbelt around his waist, with many pockets for carrying various components and tools.
• History: Zzk'vrit was hatched in NR 602, and grew up during the Pact occupation. He studied cybernetics and went on to become a researcher, studying new applications and possible technological improvements. The discovery of the chk'ertk was fascinating to him, and he was closely involved in the initial uplift experiments. He longed to be able to see and study what other alien species existed in the universe, but strict Pact regulations on space travel meant he would probably never get the chance. He was old enough to know ak'chtket who remembered the days before First Contact, and between their talk of the old days and his own thirst for discovery, his desire for freedom grew.
  When discontent groups began making plans for rebellion, some of his coworkers were involved, and they invited him. He eagerly joined, and was an active collaborator, participating in meetings, formulating plans, and aiding in diverting materials and supplies for the covert buildup of military equipment.
  Zzk'vrit did not play much of a central role when the rebellion actually began. In fact, he was incapacitated rather early on by an explosion that, while it did not kill him, irreparably damaged his left arms and part of his left front leg. By the time he recovered and was fitted with some temporary cybernetics, he was only able to participate in a few cleanup operations at the tail-end of the rebellion. Not that he terribly minded. War wasn't to his taste.
  After the rebellion, Zzk'vrit returned to his old job, where there was a boom in the cybernetics industry due to the need to outfit all those who were critically injured. When they began recruiting for uplift teams to go to Umurask, he jumped at the chance to be able to explore an alien planet. He spent several years there discovering, cataloging, and studying new species.
  Upon returning home, Zzk'vrit discovered that he was unsatisfied with simply returning to his old life. Having had a taste of discovery, of exploring alien worlds, he decided that he wanted to see more. So when a refugee ship loaded with passengers looking for a new home passed by, he saw it as his chance to explore and meet species from all over the galaxy.
• Skills/Occupation:
  • Cyberbiologist: A scientist and technician in the field of cybernetic biology, Zzk'vrit is skilled in figuring out organic-machine interfaces and in maintaining his own cybernetic limbs, and is always curious to study new species and new machines.
  • Technician: This extends to having some expertise in mechanics and circuitry. Give him enough time and the right tools and he could figure out how to fix or jury-rig almost anything. Heck, just give him more time and he won't even need the tools, he'll just make some.
  • Freedom Fighter: Having fought in the Ak'chtket Rebellion, he has a passing amount of familiarity with warfare, enough to not get in the way during an engagement. He is also a decent shot with his rifle, though he is loath to use it.
• Items/Possessions:
  • Cybermechanic toolkit: A set of tools used for fixing and maintaining cybernetics, it can also be used for more general machinery and other devices.
  • Ak'chtket infantry weapon: The standard weapon used by ak'chtket infantry is basically an automatic rail nail-gun that launches 6-inch tungsten-steel stakes at high velocity. The range is not all that high, only about 300 meters, as it was primarily developed and used for close-quarters tunnel combat. Zzk'vrit kept his old one from the rebellion and has several magazines for it.
• Trivia: Zzk'vrit also carries around his old carapace. He was quite fond of his old patterns and is hoping to eventually find someone that could replicate them on him.

edited 25th Apr '17 9:44:39 AM by danime91

Name: Darok Vye; Consul Vye (Formal), Vye (Informal)

Age: As the Fernites still use human standard years, he is 42 years old.

Sex: Male.

Appearance: Like all Fernites, he is tall, around 6'7. His skin is pale to the point of near absolute whiteness, in contrast to his pitch black hair, eyes, and blood. His features are rigid yet smooth, hard but unscarred (due to surgeries, mostly). His lower jaw, however, has been replaced with a dark grey bionic replacement, as is the front part of his throat. He speaks with a voice modulator installed inside himself, instead. His hair is cut short, nearly shaven. His right eye is also a modification capable of recording and playing back events to himself, not to mention holding data and information for future use.

 He wears a white, skin-tight uniform that tapers to a dark green around the extremities and bears former military medals on the front in various colors. On his left shoulder, he wears a short cape, bright red with gold designs. 

History: Vye was born and bred on Fernes I, in the largest and first city, Solden. He was the son of two military officers, leaving him little choice for his future career. He was educated at the most prestigious of formal academies, Bastion Joneston, and served his first military tour on a frontier planet called Dexixik,  pacifying the native species.

 It was at the age of 33, after three more tours, he became the first ambassador in a long time for the Fernites when, as an officer, he successfully negotiated the surrender of a Dagrite rebellion on the second most populous planet of the Establishment. The leadership, impressed, immediately motioned for a new diplomacy sector of the military to be opened, with him at the head. The motion passed. He began spreading his more pacifistic ways almost immediately, seeding the beginnings of the coup that would come later. Eventually, when the coup did happen, he turned down a leadership position, choosing to remain an ambassador.

Credentials:

•Served four military tours •First ambassador in the Establishment in over a century •Helped lead regime overthrow in the Establishment •Prestigious upbringing and education

---

Adventurer will be up soon.

Danime, your diplomat is accepted. Your adventure is mostly good, but the part about him leaving home because of the Galactic Congress confuses me. That's a political gathering, it doesn't really have anything to do with him.

Kepler, your first character is accepted.

I wasn't really sure whether the refugee ship thing was widely advertised, and I assumed if it was, it was announced along with the Galactic Congress meeting. Either way, he saw it as a good chance to meet new species and possibly explore the galaxy.

Ah. The refugee ship is just one of many than have been going around the galaxy for the past few years shuffling people about as borders and life situations get mixed up. Most people are leaving their old worlds because their homes are gone or unsustainable, or the new political leaders don't jive with them. The congress is a much more recent establishment.

edited 25th Apr '17 9:34:30 AM by Parable

Gotcha, I'll make it so that he hopped on a passing refugee ship heading to Sol in hopes of seeing more of the galaxy, then.

Okay, consider yourself approved then. Both your characters are in, so you can start posting as soon as you want.

Adventurer

Name: Den Hatchett

Age: 29 in human and Fernite standard years.

Sex: Male.

Appearance: For a Fernite, he is short, around 6'3, and very pale. His left arm is a bionic replacement, much stronger than a regular one. His left eye is a dark grey, another replacement. His hair is a shaggy dark black, but he has a dyed streak through the middle, a bright pink.

He wears a simple v-neck t-shirt, one that shimmers through different colors of the rainbow slowly, one of his favorite possessions. He tends to wear a bright pink bandanna around his neck.

History: He lived a cushy life for the first fifteen or so years, before being entered in a military school. This was when his first pacifistic tendencies surfaced, and he became a bit of an outcast, the Fernite version of a hippie in a militaristic society. He left the academy after two years, and at the age of 20, he left the city of Solden, instead living on the outskirt city of Caxir. Then, at 25, he left the Fernite systems altogether, tired of the slow change in the Establishment's ways.

Accepted.

Finally got Cinder's sign up sheet done. I'll get the revised ones for Azunn and Erruan finished... eventually.

---

• Name: Cinder Rachem Starill

• Titles: Embassy Chief of Staff. She also held the rank of Aqossmarrokir^note Chief Master Officer, abbreviated AOM. Addressed as "Chief of Staff Cinder" or "Aqossmarrokir Cinder" formally.

• Age: 36

• Sex: Female

Appearance:

Unusually tall for a Kellsaran at just under 8', Cinder is covered in white fur, an unnatural colour for kell. Her Mark covers her upper back. In terms of build, she is fit - kell don't bulk up like many other races, however, meaning this is not obvious to an observer. She usually wears a bodysuit and loose robe/coat. The robe is cut low at the back to reveal her mark. Her bodysuit, however, is not low cut. The rear of her chestplate has cutouts to allow the rack mount points of her Mark to protrude through the bodysuit and robe cutouts. Her voice is quiet, even when she raises her voice. It's also unusually clear and smooth without any of the modulation that Kell vocoders typically apply. Her mask and chestplate have a purple upper half and a tessellated yellow triangle patterned lower half with a black border.◊ However for some special occasions such as official events she wears a chestplate with the Kellsaran/EKS flag.◊

Personality:

Passive, gentle, and softly spoken, Cinder goes against many stereotypes of the Sirian Army, but falls squarely in the middle of the stereotypes of CBRN personnel. She leads by consent rather than command. Despite maintaining personal distance with Embassy staff members, she still directs them with a warm informality. She is not very social, but when interacting with others, accords them the utmost respect and understanding.

Cinder is plagued by an inferiority complex fed by a perfect storm of personal circumstances. She avoids talking about her decorated past whenever possible, and especially dislikes discussing her quite prestigious Mark. Despite her Mark, service history, and branch* - or perhaps because of them - Cinder feels she has no possible way to live up to the standards set by those around her.

Because of this, and the distance at which she holds most people, Cinder has few true friends. She would need quite a bit of prodding to leave her shell and discuss her personal lives with others. Fortunately she’s in the right place; she’s more likely to open up around alien races, as they wouldn’t understand or hold her to the standards she feels she is imprisoned by amongst her own kind.

History:

Born on Kellsara in the Chirric arcology to middle class parents, Rachem led a mostly unremarkable life as a child. From a young age she expressed an interest in helping others and protecting them. She would stand up against bullies in school and help treat other kids' injuries, as well as helping out with odd jobs around the community. Her parents - and other adults - assumed that as she got older she would attend the Kenaal medical academy, which was sited in the Chirric arcology. Rachem rankled under their efforts to push her toward that path.

As a teenager she found herself wishing for adventure. A fortuitous appearance by some CBRN Squadron personnel and recruiters as she came of age sealed the deal. When she told her parents, they were both shocked and angered. They had imagined their daughter becoming a doctor, not getting involved in something that could result in her being seriously maimed or injured. A major argument followed, and on the spur of the moment Rachem decided to join regardless. She was forced to leave home early as a result. Although her parents later accepted her choice after she returned home from one of her tours of duty, they never did forgive her. Some small part of her still feels guilty that she failed to live up to their hopes; this is the origin of her inferiority complex.

When she joined the CBRN Squadrons, Rachem went through a battery of chemical and nanite based treatments to help her in her new role. This incidentally turned her fur white, like all CBRN Squadron members. She had a successful career, being known among her colleagues as brave and a lifesaver. This in turn fed her feelings of inferiority: there was no possible way that she could live up to the idealised image people were building of her as a CBRN Squadron member, and no number of objections seemed to deter people.

It was during a fateful mission in the Unification War to secure a stockpile of chemical weapons that she gained her Mark. During a long and arduous battle, the chemical weapons were deployed. Unfortunately both Rachem and one of her closest friends suffered severe damage to their armour that compromised their suits, leaving them vulnerable to the weapons. Acting quickly, she attempted to save her friend. She suffered serious injuries, including to her lungs. Both survived, though not without help from the rest of her squad. Thereafter she received her Markname: Rachem became Cinder.

She continued to fight until the end of the Unification War. Once the conflict ended, her CBRN Squadron's staff decided that her temperament meant she would better serve her nation elsewhere. They told her to report for duty at the reformed SU's diplomatic service. Although she still wanted to work on the frontlines, Cinder relented after it became clear that the decision was final. Now she finds herself trying to protect her people's future, while struggling with the unrealistic expectations placed upon her.

Mark:

Her Mark's quite extensive, consisting of her upper back and chest cavity. Externally, the entirety of her upper back plus the sides of her ribcage are cybernetic. Although it reaches up to her shoulders, it does not go over them. On the surface, the black, iridescent metallic Mark covers the sides of her ribcage, her entire upper back, and reaches up to (but doesn't come over) her shoulders. Internally her lungs and voicebox have been replaced with cybernetics, though her heart is still organic. Her artificial lungs, upper spine, and heart are encased in an armoured container.

Her Mark lets her breathe underwater and dive a deeper than normal. It also features a twinned rack that hardware can connect to, such as an underwater manoeuvring unit. These racks are two subdued handle-like fins starting at the top of each shoulderblade that stretch the length of her Mark. There is also an alternative breathing system installed in her Mark. Although she would need to remove her robes, Cinder can turn off her natural breathing and instead draw air through special intakes at the base of her neck (covered by flaps in her bodysuit) that go through her lungs and vent out at the side/rear of her Mark. If one of her lung units should fail, she can survive and remain conscious, though she could no longer breathe underwater or use the alternate breathing system, and would be extremely exhausted.

Gear and Credentials:

Cinder has a secure commlink and datapad, just like Azunn. Her chemical and nanite treatments mean that she is slightly more resistant to the sorts of threats a CBRN soldier would face, though the object is merely giving extra time to don protective equipment and assist others. If she were to expose herself to a toxin unprotected she would die just like anyone else.

Though Cinder is not a diplomat, she nonetheless brings some valuable skills to the table. She is a skilled and proven leader well suited to her role thanks to her temperament, and she can help secure the embassy against extreme threats.

---

*The common perception of the CBRN Squadrons is one of quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) awe; its members are treated almost like angels or valkyries. This is in part due to the enormous burden of protecting the soldiers from unconventional threats, and the incredible forces they would wield should the time come to deploy them offensively. The bigger, more practical reason is that they are so rare, such a small part of the overall SA structure. To help convey the regard with which CBRN troops are held, some common myths and legends about them follow:

• It is impossible for CBRN troops to become drunk, and they are immune to all temptations of the flesh.
• CBRN members only appear to those pure of heart. In fact, anyone who has had a disciplinary action in the last year cannot see them, and if your record is squeaky clean they might even make eye contact.
• New CBRN Squadron members spring from the aether, fully formed by the gestalt subconsciousness of all existing CBRN soldiers
• CBRN troopers hold the cure to all ills, and live in harmony with all things.
• If one is searching for a CBRN trooper, they will never find them; one must wait for CBRN to come to them
• The unworthy can be struck down with just a glance from a CBRN soldier.
• One fervently wishes to see CBRN enlisted personnel. CBRN officers one never wishes to see again.
• CBRN knows how to do your job better than you do, no matter what your job is
• CBRN troops are the reincarnations of dead heroes
• CBRN soldiers are akin to prophets of old, their very appearance an omen of good or ill.
• A CBRN soldier can give their life to resurrect the worthy fallen
• Special Forces like to brag, for they’ve earned the right. CBRN never brags, for they have no need.
• A CBRN soldier always knows the most fair and equitable solution to any personal dispute. They don’t, however, enjoy meddling in such trivial affairs of mortals.
• A CBRN trooper can restore the virginity of any they touch.
• Rather than connecting to their nervous system like normal powered armour, CBRN troops’ armour is telepathically linked to their mind, which exists on an entirely different plane of existence.

edited 27th Jun '17 1:03:55 PM by Flanker66

Locking you up on radar since '09

Holy... man those are some bloody good ones, I'll try to make one as well if S Us are still open.

"One may feel fear in the face of danger so long as one banishes fear when danger actually arrives"

Flanker: Accepted.

New guy: We're always open!