Steam Name: Alexander02
Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:59574716
Steam Profile Link: http://steamcommunity.com/id/HideYourVirginEyes/
Rp Experience: On Garry's Mod, probably around 3 years, I believe. Includes most iterations of Mass Effect RP, beginning with LunarNature, and a whole bunch of HL2RP and other sci-fi stuff.
Tell me a (3) cool Mass Effect Fact(s): The salarians are able to choose their child’s sex by deciding whether or not to fertilise their egg, and they operate on a strict breeding system that causes only 10% of the population to be female. Galactic Standard time is also rather different from Earth time: There are 20 hours in a day with 100 minutes per hour, with every minute having 100 seconds, and with every second being half as long as an Earth second. So, each GST day is... 27 hours, 46 minutes and 5 seconds long, I think?
Character Name: Omega Tuhi Ly-Tarith Arahto
[On the topic of Lystheni names - Their naming structure is similar to that of a non-exile salarian’s, albeit with some components removed and a slight change. Their name still includes the planet and city of birth, although the “National/High Clan allegiance” and “District” sections have been removed and they are legally obligated to modify their clan names to include either “Ly” as a prefix, if the name ends in a consonant, or “Ni” as a suffix, if it ends in a vowel.
Their names follow the pattern of: Planet of birth, City of birth, Ly-Clan or Clan-Ni, and their Personal name.]
Species: Salarian
Sex: Female
Age: 17
What can your character do for our ship? (Muscle, Maintenance, Triggerman,
Comedic Act, etc.): Arahto considers herself a rather silver-tongued individual, and thus she’d probably be best suited to a negotiator on the ship [i.e. Negotiating for better prices, to get out of a situation where persuasion is an option, etc]
Character Equipment•Polaris IV Omni-tool -Arahto has the Polaris IV Omni-tool, a piece of equipment that, while not overtly expensive or powerful, is certainly more than capable of fulfilling her needs. (Those needs being: Use the extranet, talk to people and listen to music.)
•A wardrobe full of clothes -Arahto likes clothes. A lot. She likes colourful clothes, dark clothes, tight clothes, baggy clothes. One could go so far as to say that these clothes are some of her most valued possessions on the ship.
Personality Type: INTJ
Moral Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, “Free Spirit”
Strengths•
Quick-Witted - Arahto is, or at least likes to consider herself, a rather quick-witted and intelligent individual. She is certainly not of super-salarian intellect, but it is most likely somewhat above average for humans.
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Materialistic - She likes shiny things. Despite growing up in Omega, where poverty is pretty much a guarantee, Arahto quite enjoys having money, flashy clothes and just being comfortable in general.
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Social Poise - Again, despite growing up in Omega, Arahto is quite knowledgeable and capable of maneuvering a social event due to years of learning from her mother. She seems to consider herself somewhat like a politician. This is certainly useful, considering her occupation.
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Karma, Karma Chameleon - When debating with people or just hanging, Arahto tends to adopt some of the other person’s vocal mannerisms or, at the very least, try to mirror some of their body language as subtly as she can.
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What a bender! - Arahto, being an individual of a race comprised mainly of cartilaginous materials, is a rather flexible individual. Her bones take that little bit more pressure to break, although not by much, and she is capable of some rather agile feats.
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Patient - Arahto, while generally seeming to be a rather intolerant person that dislikes waiting, is more than capable of suffering idiots for a certain amount of time. After all, she used to work in politics - It’s inevitable that there’ll be a few idiots. She is also completely fine with waiting for a long time, as long as she is absolutely certain that she will get something out of it.
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Liar, Liar - Arahto is a rather good liar. She is certainly not perfect, but is usually quite capable of fooling some schmucks for a short while.
Weaknesses•
Outcaste - Being a Lystheni, Arahto is often distrusted or just plainly ignored by most other C-Space salarians or the salarian government in general. Technically, she is not even supposed to be in C-Space at all. Most salarians would be able to recognise that she is Lystheni, and understand what that even means in the first place, but the distinction would be difficult for other races for notice and the term would most likely not mean anything to them.
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I’m not racist, but… - Arahto has a slight contempt of some other alien races and doesn’t try to hide it most of the time. Races that she dislikes are generally the more ‘unclean’ or dumber races such as: Krogan, vorcha, quarians and batarians. Along with this, she holds a disliking of the Salarian Union due to their work with the Lystheni’s exile.
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Mercurial - Arahto, due to being a salarian, is capable of processing emotions quicker and dealing with them more efficiently. However, this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel them. To the contrary, she has been known to feel emotions much stronger than usual and can switch moods at a moment’s notice. This may be a rather unfortunate amalgamation of her natural Lystheni aggression and the salarian proficiency for swift mental processing.
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Squishy - Naturally, being a salarian, physical strength isn’t exactly her strong suit (Although, being Lystheni, she has a slight advantage over most salarians). She has learned to be fast and smart to survive over 10 seconds in a physical fight, but a couple of shots would most likely take her down.
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No Filter - When Arahto has a thought during a conversation, she says it. It doesn’t matter how offensive or insulting it may be, she will spew out whatever garbage floods her mind, with absolutely no issue with using uncouth language. She knows that she should think about what she’s saying before she actually says it, but she doesn’t really care much. It’s certainly earned her a few beatings in the past. She is capable of controlling herself, however, in a more formal or professional situation.
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Confrontational - Arahto, being a Lystheni and raised on Omega, is naturally a rather confrontational and aggressive individual. Due to her being a salarian and knowing full well that she probably couldn’t last in a fight against people of other species, this aggressive and confrontational nature usually comes out during debates or arguments.
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What are these alien things? - Concerning aliens, Arahto only really knows the basics of their culture, with the occasional nugget of knowledge that she found on the extranet or by talking with people. She will often be faced with the dilemma of “Should I ask what this thing is and seem unintelligent or pretend that I know and be completely lost?” when conversing with members of other races.
Character Backstory a.ka. how or why are you here (One paragraph minimum, be creative!):- Lystheni History:
WARNING - Headcanons Imminent
To understand the origins of the Lystheni ‘offshoot’ of salarian, one must first go back in time to the dawn of the Citadel Council in the year 710 BCE, or 1210 GS(Galactic Standard), around 10 years after first contact with the Turians was made and Humans weren’t even close to achieving spaceflight. The Lystheni were originally a collection of unified clans from the southernmost continent of Sur’kesh - A large cluster of swampy islands connected by natural land bridges in a formation somewhat resembling a spoked wheel. The Lystheni were a swamp-dwelling group that, despite having very limited contact with them, had a society similar to mainland salarians - It was a matriarchal society, although they had drastically different rules on egg fertilization 40% of eggs were fertilized, meaning just less than half of the population was female, and slightly more emphasis on physical ability. They still valued mental abilities to roughly the same degree as mainlanders, of course, but they also held a respect for physical abilities. This respect for physical abilities most likely stemmed from their swampy habitat; The scarcity of (edible) plants forced the Lystheni tribe to gather food through either acting as scavengers, taking the scraps of meat from a larger animal’s kill, or become a hunting-based society. The former would be difficult to survive on, due to the higher metabolism of the salarians, so they opted to do the latter. They preyed mainly on smaller creatures - Birds, snakes, lizards, insects, etc. - independently, although occasionally grouped together in order to take down larger alligator-like creatures. They adapted to become stronger than the mainland salarians, albeit only slightly, in order to better handle the hunter lifestyle that their habitat had forced them into. Even before the salarians achieved spaceflight, the Lystheni were known for being aggressive and more confrontational than most salarians. They often fought skirmishes and, on two occasions in their pre-eezo age, a full-scale war with the mainlanders. They only barely survived a total clan-wide wipeout due to their superior strength and the lack of powerful technology on either side, as well as their knowledge of the swampy marshes and their skill at traversing it. Shortly before the salarians achieved spaceflight, the Salarian Union managed to convince the Lystheni’s clan leaders to agree to a peace treaty. Even with their differences in terms of aggression and strength, and the grudges held on both sides towards the other, the two maintained an uneasy peace.
When the Lystheni first grudgingly became a part of the Salarian Union, they were expected to fit the Union’s regulations, including those concerning breeding and fertilization, and they did. They restricted themselves from fertilizing 40% of their eggs to only fertilizing 10% at a time with, admittedly, a small bit of difficulty. The Lystheni were also working on a side-project at the time of the Krogan rebellions, however: Genetic modification. They hadn’t forgotten the wars with the mainlanders in the past, nor the defeats they had suffered in those wars. Nor had they neglected to notice how physically outmatched they were compared to the rest of the galactic community. They were trying to improve themselves - Strength, reflexes, eyesight, mental capacity, etc - in order to create the salarian equivalent of a supersoldier. Imagine, a salarian with the strength of a turian, the longevity of the asari and the regenerative abilities of a krogan. Of course, this was a difficult long-term goal… And there was one other problem: Genetic modification was a teeny-tiny little bit illegal in C-Space. Along with this, there was another issue: To pump out the genetically modified salarians, they’d need far more females than they were currently producing- and the females also couldn’t go into another clans’ ownership - so they began steadily increasing the number of eggs that they fertilised. To understand why the increasing amount of females in the Lystheni clans’ possession would have threatened the Union, one must have a decent grasp of salarian politics. A lot of the politics were family-based, and females were the main driving point of this. More often than not, wars have been stopped with a clan signing away a percentage of their females to another clan for breeding and political ties. This is why the Lystheni having the most females would’ve been an issue for the Union: Eventually, the females would breed with other Lystheni clan males, and thus produce more females. Wait long enough and, without Union intervention, the cycle would have continued and Lystheni could have eventually achieved a monopoly on the breeding contract front. This would give the other clans no option but to ally themselves with the Lystheni by signing away their sons in order to continue their family’s bloodline. The Union began to get suspicious as rumours of genetic modification began to arise and, after launching a cautionary investigation, they found the source of the rumours. They learned about the Lystheni’s ‘pet project’ and their blatant disregard for the rule about egg fertilization and, after confirming that this was the work of the Lystheni government and not a group of salarians, almost immediately launched an attack. The attack followed the same pattern that all salarian battles do: Fast, quiet and without warning. The Lystheni had been suspecting an attack, however, and put up as best a fight as they could go. The Union had the upper hand on numbers and weaponry, so they flattened the Lystheni project without too many losses. They did offer an ultimatum, however, to the remaining Lystheni: Either their clan would be decimated, or they would be quietly exiled from C-Space for their blatant disregard for salarian breeding regulations and the Council’s laws on genetic engineering. The Lystheni, of course, chose the latter. What’s the point in dying now, when you could simply set up shop on another planet somewhere? The Lystheni were exiled from C-Space permanently after a clan-wide migration period into the Terminus Systems. They flooded Omega with such speed that it could’ve, and most likely was, mistaken for an invasion until they saw that the majority of the Lystheni were unarmed and in civilian gear. For the past 1470 years, the Lystheni have been thriving in these lawless communities. Many of the more paranoid citizens spout rumours about “8 feet tall salarians with robot limbs”. These are all extremely exaggerated, of course, but there is a hint of truth to them. After moving to the Terminus Systems, the Lystheni have continued their work with genetic modification and continued to replenish the female population to pre-Union levels (To roughly 40/60, that is, as opposed to 10/90). Meanwhile, the Union erased any formal records of the Lystheni wars and changed the term ‘Lystheni’ to mean something resembling the human words ‘exile’ or ‘clanless’. Technically, this means that any salarian that has been exiled from their clan, or simply weren’t born into one, is considered a Lystheni. However, the progeny of the original Lystheni still thrive and can generally be found in positions of power in the criminal rings of Omega. The general populace of the salarians most likely know of the Lystheni, although they’re construed somewhat as villains or their story is used as a helpful story about morality and respect due to their disregard for everything that the Union stood for - Examples of what families ought not do.
Summary/TL;DR•The Lystheni were a slightly hardier breed of salarian from the swampy southern continent of Sur’kesh
•They were known for being more aggressive and confrontational than mainlanders
•Along with this, they were known for having different rules on breeding and egg fertilization: 40% of eggs were fertilised, generally, causing the male-to-female ratio to be more balanced than the mainland clans. They were still a matriarchal society, however, like the mainlanders.
•The Lystheni government became interested in genetic modification and trans-salarianism around 710 CE. They needed to pump out the genetically modified Lystheni children as fast as they could, however, and thus decided to raise the number of females as high as they could without the Union getting suspicious. The Union inevitably caught wind of this and, when they found out that the Lystheni were breaking two rules by returning to their (Totally barbaric) historic practice of fertilising over 10% of the eggs and practicing genetic modification, exiled them to the Terminus Systems.
•The Lystheni migrated to Omega, where they set up shop and returned to their genetic-fiddling ways.
•The genetic modification has caused them to become slightly larger still than mainland salarians, although they’re still not on-par with humans in terms with strength.
OKAY, ENOUGH OF ALL THIS WORLDBUILDING. Let’s actually start the character’s backstory (Even though I’ll probably sprinkle some worldbuilding in here too).Arahto was born in the Tuhi district of Omega, an area known for being relatively quiet and marginally more family-friendly when compared to other areas of Omega, to a family of Lystheni salarians. Her birth was the product of a (successful) attempt to unite two clans of Lystheni salarians: Her mother’s clan, the Ly-Tarith, and her father’s clan, the Karra-Ni. Her birth wasn’t exactly as special as it would have been for the average salarian family - Lystheni families were notorious for fertilizing more of their eggs, resulting in a more balanced female-to-male ratio than non-exiled salarian clans (40%, roughly, as opposed to a non-exile’s 10% female population) - And, even though the Lystheni still followed the matriarchal society set in place by the Salarian Union, the large amount of females and smaller population of Lystheni in general meant that not all females were capable of becoming high-ranking politicians (Most Lystheni political positions mirrored that of the Salarian Union, with their own set of Dalatrasses). As such, most of them lived normal lives. Even though many of them didn’t become politicians in the long run, a lot of them featured politics as a substantial part of their lives. After all, the right to breed was restricted by a long series of negotiations and breeding contracts conducted by both parties, the female and the male’s clan - Without these restrictions, the Lystheni population could spiral out of control - and due to this, many female Lystheni learned how to conduct themselves in a political environment and many became drawn to (or repelled from) the political lifestyle due to this. Arahto was one of the ones that was drawn to this lifestyle over her childhood of watching various older clan members getting involved in these types of events, becoming nigh obsessed with the prospect of becoming a Dalatrass in her earlier years. As she grew into her teenage years, however, she became disillusioned with the type of life that salarian politics involved: one laden with plots and espionage. A life that she liked far more than the boring life of sitting in a stuffy room and chatting to some other clan’s leaders, which is what she originally envisioned the politician’s life to be.
Growing up on Omega was difficult for a salarian, of course - You’re the member of what is generally considered to be the physically weakest race, and your appearance makes you easy to pick out in a crowd as “That lanky toad with horns”. Fortunately, her clan fit comfortably in between middle-class and high-class in terms of their financial situation, or at least the closest equivalent in Omega, and the Lystheni females certainly held some more value over male children in the eyes of their parents (Although not to the same extent as mainstream salarian society). This meant that her education and care as a child were some of the best that one could find on Omega - while it certainly wasn’t best by galactic standards, it wasn’t exactly bad either - and with the added teachings of the Ly-Tarith and Karra-Ni clan’s tutors, she grew up to be a rather intelligent individual. Her familial situation was rather average: Her mother, who was a relatively well-known politician within the Lystheni community, her father, who was a chef working in a hotel, a clutch-full of siblings and various other members of her clan. She was pretty typical for a Lystheni child - A bookworm that loved learning and challenging herself, mentally and physically. During her formative years (~13 years old, approx.), Arahto’s mother volunteered to tutor her and her sister in the art of politics, a duty that most Lystheni mothers took on with any daughters that were willing to learn. They still attended school as normal, of course, but also spent a large portion of their free time with their mother learning the valuable skills that one would need if they aspired to become a politician (Public speaking, persuasion, judging others, etc). She and her sisters were rather fast learners, and within a year their mother had deemed them ready to go into the world of politics - Not fully, of course, simply in easier, more inconsequential negotiations with supervision from her mother as well as practices with other Lystheni females, and occasionally males, in the same position as her.
When Arahto reached the age of 15, after a year of practicing with other Lystheni children and mock-negotiations with other clans, her mother decided that she was ready to go into the world of Lystheni politics proper. She wouldn’t be in charge of her clan, of course - Her and her sister would act as ladies-in-waiting to their mother and, when she was unable to attend and reschedule, act as substitutes in clan-related negotiations. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, though, many Lystheni mothers did the same thing with their own daughters. Arahto and her sister were somewhat competitive in their attempts to attain their mother’s affection - They knew that only one of them would be able to fill her position when she passed, and they were both determined to be the chosen one. The other one would either become the winning sister’s assistant, or go on to another profession entirely afterwards. The election of the next Ly-Tarith Dalatrass was not purely up to the previous Dalatrass, however, it was also determined by a vote amongst the Lystheni clans.
When their mother did eventually die however, the position of clan matriarch did not go to Arahto but instead to her sister, Soral Ly-Tarith. Arahto wasn’t /too/ bitter about this outcome, though, she’d been expecting it for quite a long time and had prepared herself for it. She spent two years working as her sister’s assistant - It was the closest she’d probably get to being a proper politician - performing the same duties as she did for her mother, albeit with one less helping hand. The siblings were not at all antagonistic towards one another after the choice, both were simply contented in their own jobs. Her sister was, overall, a competent Dalatrass, fortunately - If she wasn’t, the clan would most likely be unable to sustain itself for too long. After two years of working as an assistant to your sister/Dalatrass, however, things begin to get slightly stale. She wanted a job that still included some form of challenge (In the intellectual sense), but was also rather social and exciting. Something that was familiar, but still different. That was when she heard about a certain passing smuggling ship owned by the Yoshida Syndicate.. And it was recruiting! This would be perfect! She could put her negotiation skills to use while exploring and meeting new people. She signed up for a spot as the crew’s negotiator as soon as she could. Whether she got accepted or not… Who knows? Not me.
[There. Terribad backstory finished. Leave any suggestions/corrections/issues in the replies. Thanks for readin'!]