Kale Q/A

[Kale]

*thump thump SQUEEEEEEE*

I'd like to thank you all for coming here today. I've prepared a brief statement, after which you will be free to ask any questions you may have. Until then, I ask that you please hold your questions.

Over the past eight years, I have played a number of characters on SW-Fans. That number is somewhere between five and ten billion. I'm afraid I can't be more specific on that right now.

It has come to my attention that several other people with large casts of characters have begun question and answer threads about them. These threads serve to satisfy other RPers' curiosity while simultaneously giving the poster new things to think about in fleshing out their own characters.

Some may say that, by posting such a thread of my own, I am being derivative and uncreative. To those people, I can only say... uh... OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THAT THING OVER THERE?

Anyway, similar rules apply: you may ask about any of my characters, past, present, or future (though if you do that I'll really weirded out). Here is a list to jog your memory;

SW:
Kale
Rev Solomon
Tannis V'larr
Aris V'larr
Akasha Khan
Mdharra Ceergorra

X-Men:
Dragon
Taya Robbins
Aidan Fox
Jamie Morrian
Saladin
Zero

As a bonus, you may also ask about the Sikarrans (NOT Vulcans, nosiree) or Orryxians, as I need material for their wiki pages!

[Taataani Meorrrei]

What is Mdharra's backstory as far as the Fey'dann Uprisings? I'm assuming because of her station in the navy that she was a loyalist, or is she just really good at keeping her grievances hidden?

[Mdharra Ceergorra]

Mdharra's Nalaa'in mother saw many of their adolescent friends rise with the Egalitarianist rebels and end up slaughtered in the fields by Loyalist forces. Being a simple agrarian woman with conservative leanings and few ambitions, she raised her children with the conviction that life in the Pride is hard for peasant folk, but with dedication and loyalty to the Pride Mother you can scratch a living for yourself even in a place like Fey'dann. Mdharra quickly cottoned on to the philosophy that even the poor have duties within their society and has little patience for rebellion of any sort. However, she also holds a very dim view of the prejudices that trample down the contributions of brilliant Nalaa'in (like herself) or even males (like her husband). She views such prejudice as not so much morally outrageous but more myopic and stupid, like a ship's captain who refuses to adapt her tactics to new technology and scenarios.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

Does Akasha spit out furballs? Does she lick her fur for that matter?
Does she shed? (Very important, if she does, Tionne will have to buy a Furminator :lol )

What's Solomon's opinion on sexuality, since he's a priest?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If the Sikarrans are not the same as Vulcans, then what are the similarities between the two? Is it just looks, logic, and suppressing emotions?

[Akasha Khan]

Grooming is very important to Orryxians - in fact, it's practically a religious ritual, as they essentially worship themselves. A sonic shower will take care of most dirt and sweat and expelled hair. Otherwise, they'll bathe in water and brush themselves thoroughly. Licking themselves is a last resort. If they're unable to see to their own needs, then, yes, they will start shedding eventually.

Solomon believes that the ideal is monogamy within the sacred institution of marriage, but he also acknowledges that sentient species are diverse and there are some crazy reproductive methods out there, and that model doesn't hold for all species. It's not just the sex, it's what the lifestyle does to you and to your partner(s). Empty flings profane sexuality while fidelity ennobles it.

[Tannis V'larr]

Originally, Sikarrans were supposed to be closer to humans in appearance, but the temptation of using Zachary Quinto's Spock was too powerful to pass up. I'm also not planning to hit the "logical" button as often as Star Trek did. Logic merely implies ordered thinking within a system, which the Sikarrans take for granted. It does not imply values or goals.

Physically, Sikarrans have green, copper-based blood, but they do not have the superior strength. Their homeworld of Epsilon Eriani has lighter than standard gravity, and Sikarrans who leave home have to maintain an exercise regiment to keep their strength level within human norms.

Their mental discipline is meant not merely to suppress emotion and expand the intellect but also to partition the Sikarran brain into parallel cognitive centers that they can access, isolate, and aggregate at will. Their emotional responses are always there but are sequestered in some little sector of the brain away from everything else. Sikarrans are, however, uniquely vulnerable to alcohol, which impairs their ability to maintain these separations. Even a moderately buzzed Sikarran will be unable to suppress his or her emotions.

Politically, the Sikarrans are xenophobic and isolationist. They have developed a branch of crystal-based computing that is both extremely powerful and entirely incompatible with conventional electronics. They use this technology for elaborate simulations on an epic scale - for instance, simulating the life cycles of entire universes, or controlling the position of all atoms within a room. The Empire has explored the possibility of harnessing crystal-based computers for their own purposes, but even the few Sikarrans who have agreed to collaborate have been wholly unable to marry Sikarran technology to Imperial.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Tannis and Aris are brother and sister, yes?

How does each one feel about the other being on opposite sides of the targeting computer?

[Aris V'larr]

Tannis and Aris were close as Sikarran siblings go. They shared a powerful affinity for flight and for the contest of three-dimensional thinking in which combat pilots engage every time they fly. Their Sikarran parents allowed them to indulge in this interest, which most of their neighbors considered a frivolous and shameful fixation.

Sikarrans are, by rule, pacifists, but both Tannis and Aris came under the influence of the liberal philosophy that says peace sometimes must be won at the cost of violence. Against his father's wishes, Tannis made the decision to enroll in the Imperial Academy of Carida, hoping both to exercise his talents in the highest arena possible and to aid in ending a bloody civil war against the forces of anarchy and dissolution. Aris had told him she planned to follow him once she was of age. But the destruction of Alderaan intervened, fundamentally changing her perspective on what peace for the galaxy meant. She instead found passage to Dac and enrolled in the Rebel Alliance academy there.

Outwardly, both accept that the other has chosen in accordance with his or her conscience. They each expect no quarter from the other in combat; furthermore, the anonymity of flight combat virtually guarantees each could kill the other without even realizing it.

Inwardly, in that little partition dedicated to the emotions, the story is quite different. Tannis feels personally betrayed that Aris has turned her back on his principles when he has remained true. Aris is desperately afraid of killing her brother in an engagement. However, dwelling on these feelings will only compromise their effectiveness as fighter pilots, so they have buried them deep within their psyches.

[Dai]

What would Kale be like if he would've ended up at the Wheel?

[Kale]

Bringing Kale to the Wheel was going to be my attempt to re-establish his character in the pre-reset mold. He'd be uncertain, very much in need of guidance, slowly maturing and learning what his role in the galactic scheme of things needs to be.

The big plot arc I meant to develop with him was his search for his mother, whom he'd been dreaming about. Eventually he was going to steal a ship from the Wheel and go hunting a lead (with Wyl :cry), and he'd end up finding a shrine his mother had built to tie her spirit to the physical world so she could speak to him again. She would tell him that she never intended him to become a Jedi - that they had failed the galaxy, and the best thing for him to do is to go into hiding and become powerful enough to protect himself and whomever he chooses to love. He would then have to decide how strong his commitment to the Jedi really was.

I've abandoned this storyline because several attempts to get it going have failed, and I was just tired of writing Kale as the naive orphan boy. Now he's an interstellar con artist who uses the Force in just about as selfish a way as he could without going wholesale into the Dark Side (he knows enough to guard against that). He may still be persuaded to the Jedi cause, but it'll be a very different story - a new one, which is exactly what he needed.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

On the scale from one to ten, where one is Steve Urkel and ten is Jenna Jameson, how would you grade Tannis' sex life?

[Tannis V'larr]

I still need to hammer out the details of Sikarran sexuality, but I have an idea that, like Vulcans, they betroth their children from a very young age - say, around ten. However, no one was willing to commit their daughter to a defective half-breed.

Prospects in the Academy weren't much better, and Tannis has pretty much put the question the same place he keeps his emotions. The question is irrelevant to him. Consequently, he gets less than Urkel.

[Captain Untouchable]

You are a woman. The survival of the human race is in your hands.

Which of your characters would you permit to take you in a manly fashion, for the good of mankind?

[Kale]

Er... Hm. I'm not entirely sure whether the intent is to emphasize the potential for romantic attraction or who would be the most suitable father for a new race of humanity.

If it's the latter, I'd probably have to say Dragon, given his balanced perspective, his love of kids, and his excellent health, even though he is a mutant.

If it's the former... even if I'm a woman, you know I've got to go with Aris. :mneh

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

So we know about Sol's attempts to sync lightsabre combat with rhythmic Corellian poetry - did he ever try it with other stuff, like opera or whatever the popular style of music was at that point in time?

[Rev Solomon]

Actually, RCP was popular music at the time. I couldn't very well have said Rhythmic American Poetry, now, could I? ;)

[Dasquian Belargic]

In SW and MU, you have a feline female character. Is this just a coincidence?

[Kale]

I am teh Furry :cry

Anyway, seriously, I love felinoid races, even though it's one of the most overplayed tropes in science fiction. Cats are familiar and alien at the same time. Elevating them to sentient status while maintaining some of that feral edge makes a very fun base for a character. And, because I'm male, females of the species are naturally going to be more exotic from my perspective.

Taya is probably a big reason for my fixation. Pre-reset, I attempted a big epic story introducing a felinoid race called the Fyrokkians. The main character was going to be Arajah Ramanuja, but he ended up being pretty much stereotypical rarrr alien warrior guy. I was more interested in his sister, Tayadhara, who was going to be exiled for her Force sensitivity and end up at the Jedi Temple. That never happened, but I've since written several other incarnations of Taya, including her stint here as a mutant girl who transformed into a cat at adolescence, and a spot as my protagonist's sidekick in that novel I keep meaning to write.

Akasha's an extension of that - she's basically Taya's evil twin. The thing that sets them apart from other felinoids in my mind is that they're house cats. They're simultaneously the proud jungle predators that rule the night and the warm, fuzzy lump at our feet when we wake up in the morning. They're really not that complicated; they love comfort and happiness and hate pain, and they reciprocate whether they're treated well or badly. The difference between them is mostly in their experience - Akasha's been so badly burned by the universe that it will take a long time for her to ever trust it again. (I had a similar storyline planned for Taya in X-Men that I didn't get to write). But there's also a personality difference, as there always is between cats. Taya's the kitten that bowls over all the others in the box to see the new person, and Akasha's the one that waits in the corner to see what happens to her siblings first.