Science fiction artists & writers - where our goal is to make our dreams your reality. (Even if only a virtual reality.)
The stories, and the characters & settings that make them...
Welcome to what might be considered the A Lifeform Detected SciFi Mystery fan page!
(Of course, if you prefer terms like mythology, bestiary, legendarium, lore-brary, or the like - take your pick!)
If you've already read & enjoyed the novels, but are curious about the stories or insights behind the characters or scenes, your wish is granted!
On the other hand, if you're new to the series & site, & it piques your curiosity to learn more, kudos! You'll be able to hit the ground running, having a gist of the character histories and setting contexts even before you dig in & devour the books.
While I do my best to find talented art that portrays my book content accurately, please understand that - as with all collectors - I'm very careful about effective presentation, in order to preserve excellent customer satisfaction. Since most of the characters, settings, and details in the stories are produced in my mind, quality images aren't always available on-hand. (And commissions can add up quickly...) Still, if there's ever an item missing that you'd love a little highlight about, I might be able to sniff around the workshop & see what we can find...
Message me and find out! (Just click that Contact Us link, and prepare for launch...)
*Please note: The A Lifeform Detected Scifi Mystery series is intended as an enjoyable epic mystery adventure for all readers - sci-fi purists or even casual passersby alike. All genres can be savory delights (and often overlap) - if the stories are written well!
As a reflection, commentary, and prediction of popular cultural nuances and effects common yesterday, today, & likely tomorrow- with themes familiar & engaging to people of most ages, cultures, social classes, educational levels, belief systems, and scientific or technical awareness - please consider these novels a hearty feast caringly & carefully prepared for mind, heart, & soul satisfaction!
This is NOT an AI-generated storyline or website. Pure inspiration - with roots drawing strength, ideas, feelings, & impressions from many talents, life experiences, and sources. (Note: Some of my artists claim to use AI; for those concerned about AI in art, feel free to take it up with them - personally, I'm proud to sign my name to my work, and give due credit where it's earned).
As a result, human factors sometimes rear their grazing heads in my stories. My deepest apologies for any errors, inconsistencies, or even offenses that may show up - in the books or on this website. They are certainly unintentional. As a collaborative, team-building community, S.D. Nightshade Publications invites all constructive feedback - what works, what doesn't, pros, cons, etc. As the consumer at this celebration, you play a vital role in its success!
You'll find a Contact Us link at the bottom of every page - please use it! I will gladly respond to any respectable message sent, asap.
Particularly, please note the series timeline! When my original website was deleted, and I had to reconstruct this one from scratch basically overnight, I quickly noticed a few "oopsies!" myself, between my story notes & the publications. You see, to expedite the dishes served at this feast, I prepare each novel with a PowerPoint Presentation, on which I can quickly jot notes, save images or links, & preserve story integrity with these ready-references. However, some of the stories consider several characters, settings, events, and details to keep track of. Book 5: Critical Mass, for example, had a PPP with 145 slides. That is a LOT of information for a human brain (and a single parent) to precisely integrate in 10 months! (And that's just one of six presentations.)
Even so, if you'll be gracious with me, I'll gladly return the favor!
In fact, due to complexities with the series timeline, I've prepared the following chart as a little "party favor" to expedite your journey. Happy adventuring, my friends!
Disclaimer & Fine Print
OFFICIAL TIMELINE
for the
A Lifeform Detected SciFi Mystery
series
2348 CE (Year 55-Hynor*) = Book 1: And Should We Die
2349 CE (Year 56-Hynor) = Book 2: The Tomb of Dur Kaetin (~ one year later)
2350 CE (Year 57-Hynor) = Book 3: Divided We Fall (~six months later)
2350 CE (Year 57-Hynor) = Book 4: The Hunter's Shadow (~one month later)
2352 CE (Year 59-Hynor) = Book 5: Critical Mass (~two years later)
2353 CE (Year 60-Hynor) = Book 6: Systems Offline (~6 months later)
* Note: One of the greatest insights I've ever heard about timelines involving multiple planets was actually published in 1843: "Is not the reckoning of God's time, angels' time, prophets' time, and mans' time according to the planet on which they reside?"
(- Joseph Smith, Ramus, Illinois). Even so, composing an accurate timeline for a series with this many worlds can get chaotic. Since Earth-based humans comprise my readers, but much of the events play out near the human colony on Hynor, I've included both references to clarify character POVs.
This website IS intellectual property conceived and constructed by S.D. Nightshade Publications, using Hostinger's Web Builder.
Please DO NOT borrow, steal, or quote elements from it without a crediting link to sdnightshade.com - or at very least mention the titles and artists I credited on every page. Thank you - hard work deserves due credit!
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Colony Ship Horizon" by TMC Deluxe.
"Every cherished memory in life grows from the right people in the right place at the right time. Everything less is a disappointment--and sometimes a nightmare." - Sgt. Avard Luesa
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Dr. Anston Ricks, PhD
Xenological Archeologist
1.88 m, 81.6 kg (6'2", 180 lbs).
Born: 2302 Akron, Ohio, USA.
Graduated: University of Toronto, 2328 (2320-2328).
- Xenological endorsement, 2330.
Married: 2323, Chenari Ariales.
- 2335 (divorced).
Career: Archaeologist (2330-2348).
- Professor of Archaeology, Columbia University, New York City (2333-2335).
- Declared emeritus status, 2335.
Significant Details: Met Rista Tanzen, a student in the school of Archeology at Columbia University, in 2333. Founded Rare Finds Consultations in 2340, in Toronto, Canada, with Dr. Ricks as archeologist and Miss Tanzen as office coordinator.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Gnosis Kamden" by Noiprox, "Earth 4K Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
"Now what's your story?..." Insatiably curios. Always analyzing connections, cause-effect relationships, the reasons behind why things are the way they are.
Prefers hunting for answers and artifacts to formal classroom rehearsals or family responsibilities.
Penchant for pretty, intelligent young women and buried secrets. Relishes puzzles - but not social intrigues.
Deeply cares for Rista Tanzen, but nervous to pull her too close again and lose her forever.
Fascinated by Princess Seleata, but as a distant admirer. Grateful for her opportunities and generosity, but anxious about her power and the dangers she represents. (In many ways, she reminds him too much of his ex - Chenari Ariales, a baroness in Manhattan if there ever was one.)
Aloof, sarcastic, vulnerable to cynicism. Disgusted by professional airs and any shade of hypocrisy.
Willing to work with a team - but more like a ship that visits ports on many islands. If a person proves sincerity to him, he'll go above and beyond to help them succeed.
"It all started with a puzzle. The pieces just didn't fit the frame. Sometimes you want to throw up your white flag and tell fate you've had enough. That's the irony of second chances. Other times you wish you could just rewrite the script and play it all over again. Like Rista and I, in a way. Huh; maybe it was just my destiny to work with shattered treasures."
Dr. Anston Ricks, xenoarcheologist, Akron, Ohio, Earth
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
And Should We Die - Preliminary analyst to connect archaeological artifacts and murals to the clear and present danger. A significant contributor to saving Earth. His good deeds in space, however, make the wrong enemies back home.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Strained encounter between Dr. Ricks & Rista Tanzen. He first meets Sokaski Turska. Bitter separation.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Taken into custody; due process forfeited. Incarcerated and interrogated. Freed by unorthodox means. Taken to an orgalin laboratory in forbidden territory to decipher an ancient puzzle-lock.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - A significant contributor to a preliminary puzzle as well as a major one.
Dr. Anston Ricks
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Rista Tanzen (age 32, as of 2349)
Secretarial Assistant to Dr. Ricks
1.7 m, 64 kg (5'8", 142 lbs).
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Tavern Barmaid" by Mathais Judias, "Earth 4K Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
"And just how would you like that?" Aims to please. Far more accommodating than assertive (pending due cause), she enjoys the success of the productions even without the limelight around the stage.
Prefers action to think-tanks or collaboration. Still, she's vividly aware that keys to success often only come by waiting, watching, and listening first.
Loves to see people happy, and recognizes her part in many of those achievements.
Deeply cares for Anston Ricks, who strikes her as one of the greatest "puzzles" she's ever met. Impressed by his intuition even more than his knowledge, and by his surprising kindness that often rises through his guarded skepticism, she finds him both irresistibly magnetizing but also unpredictably distracted.
Princess Seleata strikes her as a pampered royal with extraordinary powers, but also as a lost soul deeply neglected in her personal background. She feels a dual role to stay friends with her, but also mentor her in healing therapy for meaning and self-realization.
A strong advocate of teamwork, she wants every participant to feel important about their role and then prove their value to the successes that follow.
Rista Tanzen, secretarial assistant, Easton, Pennsylvania, Earth
Rista Tanzen
"Every time I want to yell at Ricks for all that's happened, he just stares back. Every memory floods back like it was yesterday, and I just wind up loving him all the more for making me a part of it. We'd never have gotten invited to the party in the first place without him. And now we're here - with stories nobody believes. I couldn't have done it without you, Grizzly Bear."
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
And Should We Die - Like clip and pistol, Miss Tanzen is the action that powers Dr. Ricks' effects. Logistics coordinator, communications hub, travel agent, student peer (with at least some idea about what he's talking about), & trusted confidant in good times and bad.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Significant contributor to Sgt. Luesa's access to & infiltration of Nol Kai Tam. Undercover mission enables widespread success of many efforts to save Ensa Caison. Attempt to recruit Dr. Ricks' aid leads to heated disagreement and (temporary) separation.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - N/A. See Entry: Sokaski Turska.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - N/A. See Entry: Sokaski Turska.
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Emilie Usara, Captain
Hynor Army, Armed Escort
Company
1.47 m, 52 kg (4'10", 115 lbs).
- Enlisted in the Hynor Amy following graduation.
- Enlisted in the officer training program in Year 40 (2333); lieutenant 42 (2335), captain 46 (2339).
- Distinguished combat record; multiple awards.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Spartan II Female 2" by Lord Hayabusa357, (high-fives to all you Halo fans out there!) , and "Desert Planet 06" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"The heart leads the mind. Conviction determines course, and safeguards success." As humanitarian as she is loyal, friends made are the best battles won.
Prefers goals and duties to indulgences and distractions. Annoyed by inconsistencies, laziness, and procrastination.
Penchant for successful endeavors. Admires people who face challenges and develop strategies and clever solutions.
Deeply cares for her soldiers - until Book 4, she never loses a soldier under her command.
Awestruck by Princess Seleata, but uncertain what to do with her new acquaintance. The more she learns, the more her curiosity grows, until she begins to question many of her former convictions.
Pleasant company, enjoys human camaraderie, so long as duties are met and honor preserved, she'll grant teambuilding free time.
Always a team-builder. Everybody comes equipped with a unique skill-set, and can offer something special to any mission. Also prone to stretch team members, she often grants people confidence at considerable personal risk.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
And Should We Die - Wrong place at the wrong time. During a recurring accounting meeting with Earth, she gets pulled in to the Korbai Inquiry (as "expendable military hardware"). She plays several significant roles in investigating the alien technology, risk-assessment, & threat-resolution. Gains trust and mild admiration of Princess Seleata. Becomes an iconic legend on Hynor.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Substantial game-changer on Havensite Heel. Resolves the immediate tafchas threat by both condemning known human outlaws (space pirates) and by turning their attention away from Earth, Hynor, or Havensite Heel. In a self-sacrificing effort to save her teammates and local citizens, she offers her life to satisfy the demands of the imminent planetary threat. See also Entry: Musari Unisa.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - N/A. See Entry: Musari Unisa.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - N/A. See Entry: Asitwa Siku.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - N/A. See Entry: Asitwa Siku.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Capt. Emilie Usara
Capt. Emilie Usara, Hynor Army, Armed Escort Company
"They told us messing around with it was a death-wish. It didn't take a genius to know the whole mission was was a disaster waiting to happen. But someone had to go - even when our own instincts warned us there'd be hell to pay. Funny thing about human curiosity is, once it digs in, you can justify just about anything."
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Princess Seleata Efenester
Heiress apparent of Socstura
Geldine
1.9 m, 92 kg (6'4", 203 lbs).
- Fled her homeworld when her parents, King Oco-Turono Efenester and Queen Rasha-kala Efenester, first insisted that she enroll in the Obligatory Preparations Temple to marry a man of their choosing since had never chosen one herself.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Witness the Awe-Inspiring Presence of" by DeviousToc and "Terran 09 Version 1" by Kevin Scheiman.
PERSONAL FILE
"Life forms webs of cycles. Energy drives each system - either to harmony and perpetuity, or to turmoil and destruction. I am here to create order from chaos."
Prefers her own dreams to social obligations - yet can't deny that she enjoys company (even from lessers).
Penchant for "bigger, better, badder" - as the humans say. Better is the workday of the promising, and yields its own rewards. Yesterday is nothing, so long as tomorrow bodes better.
Finds humans and similar groveling specimens bewildering, even a comedy to watch squabble over seeds and burrows. But for those few who find a way into her heart, she can't resist rewarding the faithful.
Among her people, she is a noteworthy eminence - but to whom much is given, much is required. Sometimes the cost ids simply too high.
Inevitably high-minded, but with obvious reasons. Among a race driven by competition for resources, (what a waste of time!), she's as disgusted as she is amused by humanity's (and their neighbors') fussing, sorrows, and even warring over scraps when they could unite and solve actual problems for unprecedented rewards.
So far out of her element, there's no such thing as a team. There are problems, and there are solutions. She is a problem solver - and sometimes as the garden grows, it needs to be weeded.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
And Should We Die - Princess Seleata is in trouble. A god-race by virtually every human definition, making friends - or enemies - with humans is as irrelevant to her as making friends with hamsters. When her plan to escape her parents' imperial obligations slides into a tailspin, it's all she can do to help the humans save their planet and flee from the gate that brought her here.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Against her warnings, a tenacious human visionary approaches her to ask a favor. Against her better judgment, Seleata grants the wish - and by so doing sparks the chain-reaction likely to scar the fate of human history forever.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Beggars always have friends. When word gets out that Seleata's "made a friend" (as if), more humans start crawling out of the woodwork to win the tafchas "life-bringer's" favor. But will even her godlike powers save Ensa Caison from looming destruction?
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Worst. Case. Scenario. What happens when you pity the vermin crawling around the forest, so you start feeding them until they produce a plague? What more if you go rogue and your betters find out what you've been up to? No good deed goes unpunished...
Book 5:
Critical Mass - The princess' court is in peril as enemies gather on every side. When war erupts against her servants, though, (since it's futile against her), Seleata finally rolls up her sleeves to unleash Hell on Hynor.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Princess Seleata Efenester
"Blame me? For your insolent maggots getting burned when they touch the fire? That's right, tuck your tails like the yapping dogs you are, and whimper back to your kennels on Earth before I level your cities to the ground."
Seleata, tafchas Princess of Socstura Geldine
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Sigard Holsford
Colonial Homesteader
1.9 m, 84 kg (6'3", 185 lbs).
Born: May 16, Year 7-Hynor (2300 CE) Overture Colony, Hynor.
Graduated: Year 25-Hynor (2318 CE) GSS-MS (General Studies School - Manufacturing Industrial Sector), Overture.
- Began apprenticeship in crafting-assembly Year 23-Hynor (2316 CE).
Married: July 1, Year 30-Hynor (2323 CE), Effie Damgaard Holsford.
Career: Crafter-assembly, Manufacturing Industrial Sector, Overture (Year 23-Hynor/232316 CE - 31-Hynor/2323 CE).
- Colonial homesteader, Holsford Homestead, Havensite Heel (Year 1-Havensite, Year 31-Hynor, 2323 CE).
Significant Details: Gifted with a robust Nordic work ethic, combined with trade training, when Effie clarified the exploitive nature of Overture's leadership, Sigard felt deeply betrayed. With no money to travel to another established human colony, he settled for a distance his shuttlecraft could handle, and within a year of marriage they began the Holsford Homestead on Havensite Heel. Despite every setback, they've raised a competent, capable family with four children.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Malcolm, Interpreter of the Prince" by Art by Morgan C Morgan, "Volcanic Planet 03 - Icon 5" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"You've got to make it happen." Stubborn, proud, and reserved, Sigard is careful in all he says and does - but he's willing to stand by every word that comes out of his mouth.
Prefers all kinds of assembly work - because those are the efforts that bear rewards.
Penchant for accomplishment. Every achievement he builds or repairs stands as its own proof of his valor and value. No bragging necessary.
Deeply cares for his family, despite believing that toughness breeds endurance to face every storm with courage. But determination must be tempered by love to win admiration. Obedience and initiative then follow naturally.
Fascinated by the buried compound literally in his back yard, after all he's faced, languished to overcome and build, its perfect soundness in construction, technology, efficiency - despite every complication - strikes him as a smug silent challenger wagging its head at his own feeble legacy.
To the point, but hospitable - if guests win his trust. Anybody who proves an honest achievement based on their own hard work and sharp wits will find Sigard's generous side - even if it leads to self-sacrifice on his own part.
Willing to work with a team - but he holds a high bar for every member of the group. He never holds others to a standard he's not willing to work for himself - but he despises hypocrisy, shoddy workmanship, and laziness.
"A soft life is for butter, cotton, and politicians. No dream was ever fashioned from blowing the dust of imagination around. It takes a man and a hammer to wrestle a homestead out of Hell, and a heart of iron to forge a man out of a son."
Sigard Holsford, colonist homesteader, Havensite Heel
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Protagonist. A catalyst to every action and event in the story. His work ethic compels his son Aidan to be down in the mine when he finds the wall. His reprimand for consulting with authorities on Hynor inspires Aidan to take the shuttle. His hospitality leads to the military actions that uncover the buried secret. His temperament spurs every action that produces significant results. Ultimately, his unyielding determination sparks the powder-keg that finally wins the day. And only his resolute stamina can keep he and the others going strong as they pick up the pieces and move on - even to the sequels that drive the entire rest of the series.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured, but mentioned. Sends his daughter to Gar Don Kin to escape the civil war's aftermath.
Sigard Holsford
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Aidan Holsford
Colonial Homesteader
1.88 m, 86 kg (6'2", 190 lbs)
Born: Year 4 (Havensite Heel; 2327 CE Earth) Holsford Homestead, Havensite Heel.
Graduated: N/A (homesteader apprenticeship)
- jack-of-all-trades (farming, ranching, mining, machining, etc.)
Married: Single (but has his eyes set on Hynor's opportunities).
Career: Homesteader (Year 4-26-Hynor; 2327-2349 CE).
Significant Details: Raised by Sigard and Effie Holsford on Havensite Heel, restricted to electronic communications with the human transnet, with seasonal visits to Overture Colony on Hynor. (Havensite Heel has abundant high-quality jade.) Eager to abandon the Holsford Homestead and join his sister Trina on Hynor.
PERSONAL FILE
"'The grass is always greener' was never truer than on Havensite Heel." Willing to work if only to get his parents off his case. Work that doesn't get yelled about is good enough.
Prefers time on the trans-net, where he can see how people actually should be living. Tolerates family time but cherishes alone-time - if only to with about the life he never had.
Penchant for flying shuttlecraft through Havensite Heel's terrifying atmosphere. Versatile; a master of improvisation.
Deeply cares for his family members, but he can't admit it without sentencing himself to life on the homestead.
Fascinated by the buried compound - even more than he is Hynor's treats and treasures. He can't imagine why his dad sees it only as a distraction and a threat.
Adolescent in his moods, visions, and expectations of life, he's prone to fall victim in confrontations.
Willing to work with a team - eager to prove himself to people who actually matter - but vulnerable to getting played, bulldozed, ignored, and hurt.
"We find the buried treasure people always dream of - on Havensite Heel of all places - and what does my Pa say? 'We need to bury it like all secrets, and never speak of it again.' Well, you'll have to bury me, too, if you think I'm just going to walk away."
Aidan Holsford, colonist homesteader, Havensite Heel
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Protagonist's elder son, current heir to their family's homestead. He loathes conditions on Havensite Heel, coveting the comforts promised by his sister Trina on Hynor. While mining one day, he finds an impenetrable metal wall. He mines around it, and learns that it belongs to an underground compound flourishing with life, health, and beauty found nowhere else across the planet. His father wants nothing to do with the mystery, so Aidan contacts scientific authorities on Hynor for help. The Minister of Science arranges a small team of capable expendables to offer whatever aid they can devise - for a cut of the profits. His father is outraged, fanning the flames of a consuming family feud that challenges Aidan's loyalties to family, duty, and honor.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Aidan Holsford
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "The Aviator" by Art by Morgan C Morgan, "Volcanic Planet 03 - Icon 5" by Schinyman.
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Sgt. Avard Luesa
Electrical Recon Squad, Armed
Escort Company, Hynor Army
1.8 m, 88 kg (6'0", 195 lbs)
Born: December 14, Year 24-Hynor (2317 CE) Overture, Hynor.
Graduated: Year 42-Hynor (2335 CE) GSS-EvD (General Studies School - Environmental District).
- Applied to the Hynor Army as soon as he graduated, Year 42-Hynor (2335 CE).
Married: Single (unwilling to face the thought of making promises he can't keep - like coming home after every armed-escort mission).
Career: Career soldier, Year 42-Hynor (2335-present).
- Applied to and completed the officer training program, Hynor Army, Years 46-52-Hynor (2339-2345 CE).
- Appointed sergeant of the Electrical Recon support squad under Capt. Emilie Usara to form a special forces unit for the Armed Escort Company, Year 52-Hynor (2345 CE).
Significant Details: A reliable asset to every contingent he's served with, Sgt. Luesa is strogly respected by almost every soldier who serves with him. A natural protector, he also senses civilian needs and is sympathetic to them, earning their respect. Although accomplished and certainly sensible, he's never pursued accolades with the vigor that could promote him to the highest ranks.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Untitled" by Ivizian Media, "Desert Planet 06" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"I'm here when you need me." As "average Joe" as they come, (in his opinion, anyway) Sgt. Luesa rarely highlights a stage, but he's always there for friends in need.
Prefers exploring to killing. While not a natural hunter, he's still gave for a hunt that leads to adventure! If blood needs to be shed, he'll guard any who need protection, but deep down inside he can't shake the feeling that life is sacred.
Penchant for unexpected surprises. He greatly enjoys understanding why things are the way they are - even if he lacks the depth of a philosopher or the genius of an inventor.
Deeply cares for his brothers and sisters in arms. Viewing them every bit as family as any blood relation, they've laughed together, cried together, bled together - and in most cases, survived together.
Fascinated by Princess Seleata, but deeply intimidated by her depths and transcendence. While he'd love to enjoy her as a sister from another mother, her mystique and cultural distance prevents him from ever truly connecting with her.
Loves working with teams. Call him a cheerleader, he definitely believes in team spirit, and he has an uncanny intuition for drawing out camaraderie in a group. A firm believer that morale is half the battle, he provokes and evokes enthusiasm no matter the assignment.
"Sure, you do what you're told in the military. But when I saw her, what they did to her - No, my head couldn't wrap around that for a second. It's strange; sometimes your heart calls out the orders, and then you just obey - whether you understand it or not. Some people say we're the masters of our fate. I never imagined what a powder-keg effect that attitude would have on my future."
Sgt. Luesa, Hynor Army, 4th Platoon Armed Escort Company
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - What covert op is complete without military support? Offering his soundboard to the chorus exploring ancient ruins, even while neither a scholar nor a tech prodigy, his broad roots naturally pull the group together as a team.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - An unexpected yet pivotal access hub between Dieter Guyson and the ruins he's drooling to loot, Sgt. Luesa not only protects him time and again from imminent blunders, but also offers a moral mirror to his shadowed conscience.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Deep undercover and drowning in ruins yet again, Sgt. Luesa's dynamic interplay buffers rough edges and highlights successes to turn distrust, distraction, and animosity into unprecedented promise.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - With the hidden treasure they've been searching for finally in view, Sgt. Luesa's underground need all the help they can get to secure their victory and avert civil war.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - The treasure they've been anticipating for years is finally opened - but nobody knows what to make of what they find inside. When endless surprises abstract, devious, and even intimidating crowd around them, daring the fleet to make their next move, Sgt. Luesa rises to each challenge - until he can no longer hide in the shadows.
Sgt. Avard Luesa
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Musari Unisa
BasketBringer pet-servant to
Princess Seleata
1.78 m, 77 kg (5'10", 170 lbs)
Born: classified
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage)
Married: Single (suitors have to meet her Mistress' approval)
Career: classified
- Indentured service to Princess Seleata, including supervision of all servant duties of her household.
Significant Details: When Capt. Emilie Usara met her match on assignment, she opted to use available resources. To meet tafchas fire with fire, Princess Seleata introduced her to Musari Unisa - a "BasketBringer" servant, true, but a most-trusted chief steward at that - with many tafchas powers of her own to turn many tables for friends.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Neo Tokyo Cyberpunk from Echoes of The Matrix" by LB42L8, "The Anomaly" by Art by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"Excellence is the only option." And since her Mistress happens to be tafchas royalty, "with flair" isn't an option - it's a given.
Prefers helping struggling friends on Hynor to waltzing around Princess Seleata's resorts. (Humans can be such pitiable creatures!)
Penchant for action, adventure, and surprises that test her wits and powers. While the tafchas tend to favor energy fields for solutions to their problems, Musari Unisa finds human explosives and gunships comically intriguing.
Deeply cares for the Hynor military she frequently crosses paths with. Fighting uphill battles wherever they turn, she can't help but offer a helping hand as needed in their struggles to build and improve their colony.
Despite the obligations of her calling, she simply adores her Mistress - despite knowing several ways to wrap even the princess around her nimble hand.
As a royal chief servant, she's necessarily suave in public, yet perceptive and attentive to meet her Mistress' needs.
The more the merrier! Musari Unisa much prefers joint-projects than solo service - both to overcome challenges easier and to celebrate victories all the sweeter!
"She warned me to stay away, from the very start. But how could someone supposedly so ruthless be so caring - even for her 'pets'? No, there was another side of her, one she kept tucked away deep inside. She needed me every bit as much as I needed her - and hot damn, am I glad I gave her another chance."
Musari Unisa, pet-servant BasketBringer to Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - N/A See Entry: Capt. Emilie Usara.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - When a tafchas scout comes sniffing around a covert operation, Mother Nature teaches him a lesson in humility. Special thanks to a friend of a friend, Musari Unisa stops by for a little "escort" duty of her own, and loosens the noose for the others in the process.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Adored by her own yet hunted into obscurity, where can Musari Unisa run without endangering every friend eager to help? Her "good deed" at Dur Kaetin led her Mistress' hunters on a wild goose chase - but the fun and games are over. When they track her down to collect overdue fees, she gets a first-hand lesson in Justice by Tafchas.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured. See Entry: Asitwa Siku.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured. See Entry: Asitwa Siku.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured. See Entry: Asitwa Siku.
Musari Unisa
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Dieter Guyson
Colonist, miner, opportunist
1.78 m, 77 kg (5'10", 185 lbs)
Born: April 28, 2305 CE .
Graduated: 2027 CE Penn State, Pennsylvania.
- BA in BS in Business Marketing.
Married: Single (open to prospects, but noncommittal).
Career: HR communications specialist for Keiser Marketing Firm in Wilmington, Delaware (2327-2331), travel agent in Orlando, Florida (2331-2336), real estate agent in Los Angeles, California (2337-23340), carxi driver in Newark, New Jersey (2340-23342).
- Moved to Ensa Caison in 2342 to escape outstanding loans, law suits, and alley-style collections. Found himself at the bottom of the well at the end of a dead-end road with no way out. Only works in mining to keep food on his plate and a roof over his head.
Significant Details: An easy-going smooth-talker and jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none through and through, Dieter "likes to keep his interests afloat". Wherever opportunities knock, he hurries off to investigate. Always certain his pot of gold is waiting at the end of the rainbow, he finds himself constantly praying for more rain.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 6752" by Javier Lluesma, "Earth 4K Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
"You want a hand with that? Let's talk duties, then I'll name my price."
Prefers surveying a scene before digging in for the prize. Confident, even courageous in his shining moments, but he's been enough to watch out for the dogs he pets - let alone feeds. After all, the minute you show people what you can do, they want to hold your best as your standard.
Penchant for lucrative opportunities - often to a fault. He'll definitely listen in on rumors, and even chase them if he can keep a low profile or plenty of bushes and shadows. Get him talking over dinner and drinks, and you'll wind up with a deal before you even know you agreed to one.
Deeply cares for friends, but trust can be...a little on the slippery side. After all, who ever agreed to a risky venture without a soft-sell? Still, he'll watch your back so long as you watch his.
The pet-servants are the perfect contradiction of best-friends and worst enemies. So long as they're on his side, he'll hang around for scraps. But the minute they say No, he's off like a shot. He'd never meet up with their princess, so long as she can read his thoughts.
Fairly smooth in public, greatly enjoys evenings at the pub. Problem is, he's developed a reputation as a scandal. It's not that he's greedy or covetous - fair share is fair share for those who do the digging for the buried treasures. But he's also as lucky to strike out and get into debt as to succeed on a decent haul, so people typically enjoy his company - from a distance.
Teams depend on the labor and risks. He doesn't trust anybody out of his sight, and the minute you get too much help, you're paying out your wins. Still, a good bet is a good bet, and he'll try just about anything - once.
"Ensa Caison - welcome to the picnic overrun by ants, the day at the beach when all the seagulls catch the flu. I swear, if I see one more rensa turn his nose up at me, I'll make a throw rug out of him."
Dieter Guyson, miner (and occasional swindler), Deep Gorge, Ensa Caison
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Protagonist. When he bribes friend Chams Lancerup from Earth to Ensa Caison, he had no idea he'd bring his sister Chalice. From a wealthy family and background, he knew it would be a risky venture no matter what (looting national relics usually is). But he'd underestimate just how high up in the clouds they could be for a rogue depot like the human colony Drasima. Somersaulting head-over-heels into deeper and deeper trouble, they're first arrested at the spaceport, then sentenced to the royal arena in the capital city for a Trial by Blood. Surviving that fiasco, he takes them to the forbidden ruins of Nikeltim to grease their palms with loot. However, militant rebels have already set up camp at the site - and are currently getting slaughtered by a tafchas hunter in search of Princess Seleata. Fortunately, they team up there with Sgt. Luesa, who helps them survive the "cleansing ritual". When they then meet one of the temple's ancient covenant-guardians, Owa Sitri, it's game over for plunder. Still, she has no problems with his looting the bandits' weapons and gear. Upon learning the true history of the ruined city, however, Dieter and the Lancerups are so dumbfounded by the opportunities knocking there that they toss their feeble penny-pinching scheme out the window. Dieter had followed a rumor - but he'd never imagined the actual treasure.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - City Planning procurement specialist aboard the Yew Kah Seyli.
Dieter Guyson
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Chalice Brigitta Lancerup
Financial adviser
1.7 m, 63.5 kg (5'7", 140 lbs).
Born: February 3, 2323 CE Baltimore, Maryland (mobile parenting; Chams was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 2317).
Graduated: 2340 CE Brookwood Academy; 2347 University of Pennsylvania (Master of Science in Finance - graduated a year early, both schools).
Married: Single (many offers - no takers).
Career: Del Sur Bonds & Trusts (2343-2347), Milford-Briggs Investments (2347-2357 CE)
- 2357 at Chams' insistence, she settled her affairs at work and at home for a leave of absence of up to one year.
Significant Details: Daughter and heiress of Eamon and Charlotte Lancerup. History of high-risk, high-wealth enterprises, buying and selling Fortune 500 businesses. Well-to-do, but precariously so. Chalice has always prided herself on her appearance, but living in so many large cities while not staying long enough to build strong friendships, she's learned to provide for and protect herself (most recently studying aikido martial arts).
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Royal Guardians of Kae Thulaz" by Mathias Judias, "Earth 4K Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
"What've you got, and what do you want for it? "Accustomed to finery (albeit fleeting finery, the way things go), Chalice always has an eye out for glitter, teasers, and opportunities.
Prefers a social lifestyle to study or analytics, but if a goal demands hours of focus or discipline - hey, it's a means to an end.
Penchant for entertainments - her own or others. Parties, venues, dining - good times with good company! She adores the limelight, and always wants to stand out - never to blend in. "Keep a low profile" has zero meaning to her (though she has been known to lay low when sedated).
Deeply cares for people's affections, and will share more with those who offer more. As with finances, it's all about balancing the bank, right? Loyalty can be rather fickle, she's learned - but only as wandering as human ethics in general.
She's awestruck by Princess Seleata's pet-servants, but while she covets so much about them, that style would simply never work for her. Allies more than friends, she admires them, even applauds their amazing accomplishments, but they're in a league of their own - she won't lose any sleep over it. (Or about never meeting their princess in person.)
When Chalice wants to juice up a party, she's all about charm! Whether winning fans, winning friends, winning applause, or even winning bloodthirsty alien queens to her side, Chalice just loves to work a crowd.
When it comes to teamwork, Chalice hopes for the best but expects the worst. The only person she can depend on is herself, but some tasks are menial, unworthy. Some are just annoying. Fine; let the rest of the team handle those - save the important tasks for her.
"Wait a minute - you're sending me to a bloodthirsty queen, just for standing up for myself? It's not my fault they're half-witted half-breeds who just inherited everything they brag about."
Chalice Lancerup, adventure-hungry opportunist (and occasional snob), Baltimore, Maryland, Earth
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Invited to Ensa Caison by her brother Chams, Chalice had no idea what they were getting into. She just trusted her brother, who trusted a friend. Charmed by the natives' cuteness, she sees them like little fox-teddy bears. When they bear their claws, though, she rolls up her sleeves and mops the floor with them. Sedated by a blow-dart, she wakes up near the royal capitol, where she flatters the ruthless queen - still condemned to the arena-style Trial by Blood, but gifted with a set of royal armor and two short swords. A blend of wit, charm, beauty, and lightning-fists and feet in combat, no matter the challenge, Chalice refuses to back down - even when the world is falling apart around her.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured. Friend of Takra like Chams, but they chose to stay on Earth and promote stronger humanitarian relations with humanity's foreign-relations with allied worlds and alien neighbors.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured. Friend of Takra with Chams, but they opted out of leaving home, family, and friends for a perilous mystery no one returned from (Aser Kun Fai).
Chalice Lancerup
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Owa Sitri
Guardian priestess of Nikeltim
1.3 m, 56.7 kg (4'3", 125 lbs).
Born: N/A (vastly different calendar concept; age: 24, so 2326 CE Nikeltim, Caitam Forest).
Graduated: N/A (16 monks of the Kindris Order trained her in all of her ethics, duties, competencies, and skills as a holy defender of the ancient city).
- Exceptional skill with a rensa-equivalent of a longsword.
Married: Single (would have married a fellow priest, except they were slaughtered).
Career: Guardian priestess of Nikeltim (lived and trained in the ruined city all her life).
- Lives in the Temple of Learning, Nikeltim (later learned that its original name means "the Laboratory of Life").
Significant Details: When the orgalins built the city of Nol Kai Tam on Ensa Caison (they called the planet Lep ur Dai, or "Rock-born Leaf"), the planet had an emerging biosphere, with seasonal temperate ecosystems. They established laboratories at the most desolate but viable points to begin rigorous terraforming experiments. Nol Kai Tam and Tur Kai Fin enjoyed swift success, but a native intelligent species, the rasa chen (rensa), migrated en mass to the markedly improving Caitam Forest around Nol Kai Tam. The orgalin scientists focused on local flora-fauna relations, were taken by them, and they began a series of experiments to genetically breed them into a more evolved, advanced sub-species, the tu-ress rasa chen (ancestors of the priest-guardians). Unfortunately, the Aser Kai Fun development led to emergency withdrawals from many orgalin worlds, leaving the tu-ress rasa chen rather abruptly to watch over their operations. Over the centuries of silence since, their descendants socially evolved into guardian-priest cults, who felt it their divine appountment to protect the laboratories.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Kitsune Fox Clan" by Mthias Judias, "Falucia Icon 4" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"My life for the gods." Devout to the core, Owa Sitri takes her covenant obligations straight from her heart, and although vastly outnumbered and underpowered, is willing to die to defend their nobility from hordes of scavengers.
Prefers any cause to protect Nikeltim and secure her covenant order to self-interests or trivial wanderings or pastimes.
Penchant for swordplay, action, and valor. She welcomes challenges of her skills, but not always challenges - time has proven that the wisdom of the gods and of other races often escapes her, leaving her confused and nervous about puzzles or mysteries. At least with swords, the sharp blade is obvious - and powerful.
Deeply cares for her fellow priests and their young, for without them, the Kindris Order will surely perish. Highly disciplined in their rites and responsibilities, Owa Sitri is always ready to teach, and delights to see enthusiasm bud and blossom among their young. The tafchas so far exceed her greatest fears that she calls them destroying angels. The thought of entering into the presence of Princess Seleata would scare the skin off Owa Sitri.
Guarded against all outsiders, Owa Sitri most certainly disdains visitors. With the near annihilation of her small enclave, the fears and warnings she was raised to believe have now been confirmed - in grizzliest horror. His distrust of strangers has never burned stronger, and its bonfire flames threaten to consume her, Nikeltim, and them, without a flicker of mercy.
When it comes to teams and teamwork, Owa Sitri lives up to her name: Blood Throat. There is the Kindred Order, and there is chaos. She will give and do anything, devotedly, for her people, but she is fiercely reprehensive to working with outsiders. You are either with us, or against us - there is no middle ground.
"For ages we've guarded the sacred treasures and secrets of the gods. When the bald-faces arrived, and defiled or home and shrine, we filled their graves with our own bodies. Such walking contradictions, hyoo-mans. Who could've imagined that our very destroyers could become our guardian angels?"
Owa Sitri, priestess of the Kindris Order (and occasional saint), Nikeltim temple, Ensa Caison
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - For over a thousand years, the Kindris Order was charged with defending the holy city of Nikeltim as guardian priests of the ancient gods who once lived there - and from whom her race was born. Centuries of crusades by their distant cousins has left the city in ruins, and their numbers precious few for so great a task. When human and tafchas battle erupts, with powers they'd never imagined, her 12 surviving guardians are slaughtered - she now remains alone to care for their orphaned children. When Sgt. Luesa arrives with Chams and Chalice, her vicious impulse for revenge is sparked - until the soldier speaks to her in the forbidden language of the gods. Persuaded that he indeed understands her long-absent deities, she's forced to set aside her prejudice and vengeance to learn the haunting truth - secrets even her holy order never understood until now.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Owa Sitri
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Sokaski Turska
RepairCrafter pet-servant to
Princess Seleata
1.8 m, 83.9 kg (5'11", 180 lbs).
Born: classified (age: 34).
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage).
Married: Single (suitors have to meet her Mistress' approval).
Career: classified.
- Indentured service to Princess Seleata, including detailed, royal-grade crafting and repair projects.
Significant Details: At first, she thought humanity was a tangled web of confusion, corruption, and rare bouts of surprising compassion. But time and experience taught Turska that humans are not "evil" - they're juvenile. A juvenile species - and few up them ever grow up beyond their own self-importance. From her Mistress' training, she's learned how to fix...pretty much any craftable thing, from broken shuttlecrafts to shattered garden pavers, from ancient computers to upgrades on military equipment while under fire. But when it comes to people, she's learned that many of them are perfectly satisfied as an outdated model.
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: ""Neo Tokyo Cyberpunk from Echoes of The Matrix" by LB42BL8, "The Anomaly" by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"Any project worth doing is worth doing right." Turska's a highly project-oriented servant - and motivator, to anybody she feels isn't pulling their due weight of the load.
Prefers working on projects that inspire people. If she can find the right fit for a build or a repair to a person in need, she greatly enjoys watching the curiosity, hope, and belief spark and spread within them, until, often, they join her to finish together.
Penchant for innovation, improvement, success! "Standard-issue" is a knee-jerk cringe reaction in her books. While not OCD enough to qualify as a perfectionist, she always watches for opportunities to turn good into better, or better into best.
Deeply cares for so-called "humanitarian" people and causes. (Humans aren't the only race that "cares".) Even if she's in the middle of something, if an opportunity to briefly encourage or help somebody else who's struggling comes up, she'll gladly offer.
Princess Seleata is the best thing that ever happened in her life. Vividly aware of her Mistress' strains and stresses - even when she's not vocal about it (usually the princess is too proud to admit when she needs help, even just a caring friend) - Turska is always on the lookout to bring honor to her name and build an ever-growing legacy Seleata can be proud of.
As a royal servant, Turska must always save face in public - but if she has to get bold or even aggressive in defending her Mistress or her cause, she won't hesitate to defend her.
Any kingdom has more projects than workers. Turska won't hesitate to rally loyal troops, but she won't waste time with half-hearts or liabilities. Anybody on Turska's team is amazed by what they accomplish, and grateful even despite hard work or challenging conditions.
"Of course I knew it would hurt him. I knew he'd never understand. I knew it would add one more wall between us. But some regrets you need to learn from. Others you need to just live with. I had to do it, either way. And it's made all the difference in both our worlds."
Sokaski Turska, pet-servant RepairCrafter for Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - N/A See Entry: Rista Tanzen.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - When Rista Tanzen learns that Nol Kai Tam and Tor Kai Fin hold the secrets of Ensa Caison's garden biosphere, as well as the catalyst of a power volatile enough to destroy the planet, she has to call on an old friend for help. Princess Seleata sends Sokaski Turska back to assess the damages, arrange repairs, and assemble work crews vital to save the planet and unlock the mysteries causing its destruction.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Turska's been busy since her Mistress summoned her. By aiding Musari Unisa and the Hynor Army's Armed Escort Company in their fight against bandits and space pirates, they're steadily gaining a reputation that some admire n- but some envy. Pulled into a public investigation for a serial assassin guild, she's got to perform the impossible - a cage that can subdue creatures as ferocious as the tafchas - and she needs it yesterday. As if that wasn't bad enough, when she learns that Rista Tanzen's revered guy-friend ("it's not like he's my boyfriend, exactly...") has been taken into custody, and is being held without due cause or course, she takes matters into her own hands to break him out of one of the worst prisons on Earth.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - When all hell breaks loose toward inevitable civil war, Turska find herself entrenched in the middle of it. Doing all in her power to protect her friends without killing her enemies in the process will require a whole new level of versatility in her weapons upgrades. At least when her Mistress arrives, she pulls out all the stops to save her people - no matter who gets burned in the process.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Serving as the planetary survey collaborator aboard the Yew Kah Seyli, Turska's again hurled into the thick of the fray, and has to improvise right and left against a whole new level of bizarre - and with no time to spare. ("Weren't these guys supposed to be our friends?")
Sokasku Turska
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Similwri Kawlin
Elite FriendGuard
(i.e., bodyguard) pet-servant
to Princess Seleata
1.9 m, 90.7 kg (6'3", 200 lbs).
Born: classified (Age: 29; 2321 CE).
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage).
Married: Single ("What - marry a human?").
Career: classified.
- Indentured service to Princess Seleata, with duties involving personal and property security. Currently employed coordinating protective support to the Hynor Army's Armed Escort Company.
Significant Details: Tafchas society is deeply hierarchical. Sex, class, function - their boundaries are highly defined on established worlds, but not always strictly enforced (depending on the leaders involved). Kawlin has been thoroughly trained in her similwri role and duties, but she still can't escape a seed of resentment that keeps her on constant edge. "It keeps me sharp," she insists, "and everybody else around me as well. Since when was that a bad thing?"
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Highly Detailed Beautiful Organic" by JohnnyRed777, "The Anomaly" by Art by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"Nobody gets away with anything on my shifts." Duty and honor are everything to Kawlin - some say, to a fault. Bad people prowl around the decent ones - always have, always will. It just takes a little spine and a lot of heart to sniff them out and dispatch them.
Prefers adrenaline-rush hunting to casual meandering any day. Since her Mistress enjoys luxury, socializing, and the high life, Kawlin is often sent to patrol or guard less secure properties (to keep them both happy).
Penchant for action, intensity, but more along the lines of defense and rescue than military assault. She adores a thorough search, even on a regular patrol, just to see what she missed on earlier passes.
Despite a few chips on her shoulder, she deeply cares for the Hynor military she "tends". While they're no match her skills, senses, or bio-fields, however, she still admires their courage and determination to protect their own.
Princess Seleata is her idol. Having saved her from a pit of death, she feels an insatiable need to satisfy a debt she can never repay.
As a royal bodyguard, she's obligated to present an admirable public face. But even with elite tafchas training, that's just not in the cards for Kawlin. Getting her to even smile without cause is a challenge. "What - you want me to crack my face open for you?"
Kawlin sees teams as packs - nobody can do a decent job without one. She feels a deep connection to everybody assigned to her team, even if they don't see eye to eye. So long as everybody backs up their words and assignments with action, she'll give every bit as much as she takes.
"Lock me up in a cage with broken plumbing for two weeks? Just for 'trespassing'? I've got a mission. I will complete it. We didn't have to be enemies. But, oh, sweet-cheeks, you've messed with the wrong girl this time. Now you've got some serious paybacks coming - and I aim to deliver..."
Similwri Kawlin, pet-servant bodyguard for Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Musari Unisa was never supposed to send soldiers to Ensa Caison. Two teams, two sites, a simple investigation for orgalin secrets - back by the weekend, right? While Sgt. Luesa teams up with Dieter, the Lancerups, and Owa Sitri to land a solid victory for Team 1, though, they get only radio silence from Team 2. With Sokaski Turska's help, they infiltrate the ruins, only to find their imprisoned comrades in arms near death. Calling on Princess Seleata for help, she sends Similwri Kawlin - her own bodyguard. While vengeance is swift and painful, however, they learn an even more terrifying truth in the cavern's depths. Can Kawlin's fierce strength, skill, and leadership win the moment - and get her friends out alive in time?
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured. She accompanied Princess Seleata aboard the Evergate - the first Point Destination ship to leave for Aser Kun Fai.
Similwri Kawlin
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Prescott Renstow
Special agent for Transcope
Investigations Agency,
Interstellar Homicide Specialist
1.78 m, 77 kg (5'10", 180 lbs).
Born: January 26, 2316 CE Halifax, Georgia, USA.
Graduated: 2340 MS in Criminal Justice, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance in 2342.
Married: Single (courting Mristen Bellens; see Systems Offline novel for additional details).
Career: Editor for McFeron Reports, Maryland (2337-2340 CE); Developmental Editor for Trascope Investigations Agency, Fairfax, Virginia, USA (2340-2342 CE), Field Agent (2342-2345 CE); Special Agent -Interstellar Investigations - Homicide (2345-2352).
Significant Details: To what extent can moral justification stem from domestic influence? As an organic species filled with genetic heritages we did not choose and often don't understand, to what degree are we genetically culpable for our actions? As a sexual species raised to self-awareness by parents with dissimilar and often divergent views and values, we're raised with confusion and contradiction all our lives - so again, to what degree can we honorably hold each other accountable for our actions? For SA Prescott Renstow, answers to these questions have plagued his mind since his earliest years. Raised in a home and family where justifications determined legitimacy, leading to both financial abundance and private misery, a career in criminal justice was inevitable - if only to settle the nauseating illness that he'd witnessed and endured.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 6464" by Javier Lluesma, "Earth 4K Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
"At the end of the day, I determine what goes into my reports - any report I submit is a reflection of me every bit as the suspects named in the record." As loyal as he naturally feels to his career, he answers to his conscience before he reports to anybody else. Any decision worth acting on has to square with his personal convictions first.
Prefers focus and understanding to speed and convictions during his cases. SA Renstow learns that too many people are accused and sentenced without understanding the full story first - and unlawful incarceration is stolen life.
Penchant for discovery, for understanding, for completing the whole puzzle - not just parts. "Good enough" doesn't exist in his vocabulary.
Deeply cares for honor - even more than justice. While determined to hold wrongdoers accountable to the law, he never feels vindictive against convicts. When he's lured into actions that defy his own rules and ethics, he learns that sometimes it's not so easy to discern what is "right" from what "needs to be done".
Deeply unsettled by the pet-servants powers, he's surprised to find that he can and does actually admire Princess Seleata - who by full honorable rights is a legislative heir, with legitimate authority over her loyal following.
Acting in full conscience to himself first, SA Renstow can easily face the public without a shadow of fear or insecurity. While perhaps not a "life of the party" like some, people can count on his solidarity in any storm, and his moral compass under any circumstances.
No one is a specialist over all sectors. Every participant in any worthwhile endeavor brings their expertise to the table. The more experts in a team, the more accurate the results.
"I'm used to seeing people at their worst - suspects, victims' loves ones, even the authorities from time to time. But I'd never imagined the fluency, the precision, the outright slaughter a team of cut-throats could inflict- against the best of the best, on planet after planet. But at least I had her by my side. To keep my wits, my sanity intact. Until I had to leave her to the hands of faith and fate and face my own demons."
SA Prescott Renstow, Transcope Investigations Agency, Clifton, Virginia, Earth
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Protagonist. En route to his first vacation in over a year, serial assassinations strike Earth. Due to the M.O. of the attacks, Special Agent Renstow is alerted as soon as he touches down on Stearsat. Within two days, the deaths spread to Hynor, and Renstow is pulled into active-status. His investigation on Hynor turns up rocks hiding all kinds of secrets - but the web gets sticker the deeper he digs. When he and Agent Bellens are themselves attacked during a stakeout, they realize they're in way over their heads - and it's too late to back out now. Deeper and deeper he digs, unable to discern friend from foe from perfect mystery. By the time he's buried in red herrings, someone's returned to pay him a visit. How can he survive against demons who can't be seen, hurt, or killed?
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Security resource tracker aboard the Yew Kah Seyli. Called in for an assessment following the disaster at Rockberg. [Details pending.]
Special Agent
Prescott Renstow
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Adil Wukesan
Memory Keeper to the
skywatchers at Dorfast
(Dur Faestin), Castis Majestic
1.93 m, 99.8kg (6'4", 220 lbs).
Born: N/A (Radically different calendar concepts. Estimated age: 56; circa 2296 CE).
Graduated: N/A (tribal mentoring).
Married: Sunarica, circa 2334 CE, Dorfast (Dur Faestin).
Career: Chosen as Memory Keep to Dorfast after decades of devoted care to the ancient ruins and artifacts.
- Until the Armed Escort Company arrives, with vast knowledge of orgalin history and culture, Wukesan never spoke orgalin. Attuned to sensing life, not ancient, broken technology, he could never learn their language to learn their full, true history. But he admired their legacy and accomplishments, and inferred as much as he could about their people from the treasures they left behind.
Significant Details: The skywatchers have hidden in orgalin ruins across Siltik (their name for Castis Majestic) for centuries. To prevent detection, they preserved small family-clans in many cities to prevent overcrowding, and restricted architectural additions beyond preservation and care for the ruins. While this sheltered focus has minimized their influence and social evolution, most of them have riveted to this reductionist lifestyle and scorned opulence and spread from races like the gensic. Learning to work with the land and weather instead of beating them into submission and destroying ecosystem balance, the skywatchers are fully confident about recovering from natural disasters.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 6458" by Javier Lluesma, [searching].
PERSONAL FILE
"Words are worthless - the echoes of desires. Truth beats, in the heart, the pulse. True life is action - and many are dead men walking."
Prefers any activity that helps his people in Dorfast (Dur Faestin) - particularly landscaping. As a fairly small clan in the vast and wild forest, there is always plenty to do to clear back the jungle, let alone optimize the grounds. The fastest way to Wukesan's heart is by helping his people.
Penchant for thriving life across the ancient city and surrounding forest. He truly sees Dorfast (Dur Faestin) as a crown jewel of the best in life - technology, space travel, metropolitan cities are cluttered distractions and disappointments.
Deeply cares for preserving the orgalin relics and ruins as lessons and inspirations for every skywatcher in his clan. Never too busy to hear them out, or too weary to team up and resolve their concerns.
He's perfectly alarmed at the thought of a tafchas princess like Seleata visiting. Once he learns her story, though, and realizes their parallel peril with royal Escorts buzzing about nearby star systems, he realizes they might have more in common than he'd ever imagined.
The skywatchers matter; little else truly does. Any more than clay in a sculptor's hands, anyway. Public events or holidays around Dur Faestin are highlights in his often heavy contemplation.
Every member of his clan is precious, and valuable. Just as a hand or a foot could never claim independence from one's body without soon dying, he reinforces his people's sense of unity, duty, obligation, and accomplishment every time he spreads his hands to the surrounding ancient city and surrounding jungle that they have repaired and preserved - when nature would've swallowed it whole ages ago.
"You have no business here. Your species is a pollution to the land, to life, a blight to our communities. You know you have no power over us, yet still you persist? Well, we shall have to do something about these buzzing flies at our feasts - no matter the cost."
Adil Wukesan, SkyWatcher and memory keeper of Dorfast, Castis Majestic
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - The tafchas species has remarkable natural power. For thousands of years they've been known for their remarkable social order. But do all tafchas see their accomplishments as admirable - as a living paradise? Or do some view it as inescapable bondage? When James Renstow travels to forbidden cities of the skywatchers, he learns that not everything is garden green or flourishing with health among the lifebringers. Some are in fact terrified of their cousins' return - and willing to do anything to prevent capture.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Adil Wukesan
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Tokwil
Cosikri guide to Camp Julican,
Castis Majestic
1.78 m, 77 kg (5'10", 170 lbs).
Born: N/A. (Radically different calendar system.) Age 24 (2326 CE) Camp Broad Fern, Castis Majestic.
Graduated: N/A Tribal culture, diverse apprenticeships.
Married: N/A (tribal custom).
Career: A guide to all cosikri in her tribe, and their guests. (Similar to a public-relations adviser to their chief.)
- Particularly skilled with herbalism.
Significant Details: Cosikri are a hybrid of natural-born tafchas and human parents. While they innately possess increased bio-fields beyond humans, they are never attuned like tafchas or their servants, which limits their natural powers. Viewed with pity and suspicion by their full-blooded parents, they are typically shunned - if not simply cast out. As a result, they form tribal camps of their own design and build, preserve peace when possible with herbal tonics and incenses, and, when needed, have become expert defenders with camouflage, stealth, bows, arrows, javelins, and spears. Primitive to many cultures, but enriching to all "neighbors" (civilized people) who enter their camps.
PERSONAL FILE
"Enjoy life! Enjoy friends! Enjoy all we have to offer! Relax from your travels and travails - at least for a few hours, and then we can talk about trade, concerns, or 'business'."
Prefers meeting and brightening all "neighbors'" visits - but on cosikri terms. We might share the jungle, but this is our home within it and we will preserve its inviting atmosphere no matter the cost.
Penchant for wanderlust, adventure, artistry and beautification. Delights in stories as much as herbs, and won't hesitate to combine the two for an unforgettable hour or two around the campfire.
Deeply cares for her tribe and each of its members. While generally gracious toward others, strangers or friends, she's as fast with a hunting dagger as she is with honeyed words.
She views tafchas and humans with equal disappointment - but not grudge. Rather, she views them as ignorant or shortsighted, too covetous of their own traditions to accommodate both valuable worlds.
As a guide to her tribe, appointed by her nature as well as deep personal desire, she does all she can as best she is able to make everybody feel welcome and enriched.
When it comes to teams, all are invited - even if not all can stay. So long as the party goes on, she won't interrupt it, and she'll accommodate every contribution that strengthens harmony.
"We share the blood of the tafchas and the culture of the humans - the best of both worlds. How many have languished in jealousy, in fear or contempt, and ignored the possibilities they could share - if they only learned how to live, laugh, and love."
Tokwil, cosikri guide, Camp Julican, Castis Majestic
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - When James Renstow and his matron hostesses yearn for new adventures, forbidden or not, he has no choice but to visit the nearest cosikri village - Camp Broad Fern. During his first visit with Ariseta, with his guard up and his suspicions high, he requests a flask of his own brew - and wakes up back home having missed the entire encounter. When he returns for his second trip, to Camp Julican, this time with Desonia, he accepts their traditional drink and the cosikri take him into full trust and fellowship. Unfortunately, when her father learns about his drug-indulgent escapade at the cosikri camp -behind Altfather Brightsun's back, no less - James loses every ounce of respect at the plantation - and is banished to the man-eating jungles that smother Castis Majestic. Uncertain where else to turn, at least he's made a few new friends...
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Tokwil
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 5991" by Javier Lluesma, [searching].
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Tolchasu Urdiwa
FineSenser pet-servant to
Princess Seleata; corporal in the Hynor Army,
1.7 m, 61.2 kg (5'7", 135 lbs).
Born: classified (Age: 26, circa Year 33-Hynor, 2326 CE).
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage).
Married: Single (open to prospects, but they are few, due to her telepathic senses).
Career: classified.
- Indentured service to Princess Seleata, with duties involving profound discernment with extraordinary senses. Currently employed handling tactical recon in the Hynor Army's Armed Escort Company.
Significant Details: When she reported to her parents and siblings that Ester Manquela had arranged for her to step-in and cross-train with the Hynor Army for a time, Carlos, Santali, Blanca, and Roccolo were guarded, but accommodating. Over the past two years, Urdiwa has won winning relationships with each of them. While they question their daughter's and sister's absence, they could hardly ask for a more sensitive and caring soldier-exchange to help and care for their family. When the offer for Friends of Takra was extended, they anxiously accepted, but are now firmly fixed in their decision.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 6829" by Javier Lluesma, "The Anomaly" by Art by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"'I don't understand'? You might be surprised just how well I do understand." A soldier by trade, Urdiwa faces a constant battle between duty and awareness. While protocols are set up assuming situations, she understands that not every situation is the same - and sometimes rules really do need to be broken.
Prefers helping people solve their own problems. While equipped with powers and abilities to "take care of business" the blunt way, she recognizes that for lasting change most people need to learn from personal experience - where it's fast or not, or hurts or not.
Penchant for probing into the beating hearts of secrets. The more mysterious, the tougher the shell to crack, all the sweeter the treasure once the safe is cracked!
Deeply cares for struggling people, because she realizes that so often, people create their own struggles. Eager to lend helping insight and a helping hand, she might serve the military, but she's not a slave or robot to it.
Deeply sympathetic to her Mistress' private pains, Urdiwa is still sensitive to her need for a courageous front - especially among her pet-servants. Understanding far more of the specifics behind the princess' antics, she's able to often provide more specific healing or optimism than most to bolster Seleata's drooping spirits.
Able to easily sense people's true struggles, intentions, and motives, Urdiwa is smooth as oil when navigating social circles and leaving people admiring her Mistress.
Teamwork is essential for success. While she can sense many things unseen or unsaid, for example, these abilities don't always generate solutions - especially not automatically. Only by teaming up with chastesis to heal, lurasepans to design, sokaskis to build, and haseltis to network can her intuitions and awareness be put to practical use and make rewarding differences in people's lives.
"Humans say 'desperate times call for desperate measures.' Desperate times are only for desperate people. If desperation comes from disconnected people, imagine what might happen to you - to your entire species - if you pooled your strengths to solve problems. No one can ascend to any throne in isolation."
Tolchasu Urdiwa, pet-servant FineSenser for Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Reeled in to a sealed trap on a sealed world during a sealed murder investigation, it couldn't get much hotter or deeper for Tolchasu Urdiwa.
With her FineSenser prowess, she very well might peel back the onion layers to its core - but at what cost? And worse still, what can she possibly do with this truth, once it is uncovered?
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Haselti Ekelesa's right hand and reality-check in guatanas, Tolchasu Urdiwa is once again enlisted - this time, under Capt. Jamirez' command aboard the Yew Kah Seyli. While Ekelesa takes care of the talking, Urdiwa probes shields and armors technological, organic, and psychological to find the truth Ekelesa can then share.
Tolchasu Urdiwa
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Haselti Ekelesa
ClearSpeak (communications
specialist) to Princess Seleata; Hynor Army sergeant; Point Destination lieutenant aboard the Yew Kah Seyli.
1.75 m, 68 kg (5'9", 150 lbs)
Born: classified (Age: 31; circa Year 26-Hynor, 2319 CE).
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage).
Married: Single (but open to the idea; suitors have to meet her Mistress' approval).
Career: classified
- Indentured service to Princess Seleata, with duties involving communications. Currently employed coordinating communications in the Hynor Army's Armed Escort Company.
Significant Details: Ekelesa can't help but admire the human soldiers in the Hynor Army. Anybody willing to mobilize and fight to defend building projects like a colony of 2 million on a desert planet hostile to their species is bound to raise eyebrows. Qualifying as a sergeant over the 3rd platoon's technical-support squad, she's proven herself as a heart-blood ally with many tafchas powers to boost successes across the Armed Escort Company. Commanding the admiration and loyalty of both the troops under her and those around her, she's one of the younger soldiers to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross at age 29.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 7004" by Javier Lluesma, "The Anomaly" by Art by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"Bring it on." A relentless taunter and teaser, Ekelesa wouldn't know the meaning of the term humble pie. No, for her spicy personality, she's got far more an appetite for cake and eat it too.
Prefers helping people over controlling them, even though the tafchas powers entrusted to her forms a constant temptation to take charge - by any means necessary.
Penchant for success - whether it's time for beers after-hours, innovating point-projection shatter-shields to protect inbound freighters, or talking friends into smart decisions or out of bad ones - Ekelesa just loves polish on her work.
Deeply cares for her brothers and sisters in the Hynor Army. Rejected by the family of Alessandra Steiner who she represents, she buries the resulting sense of loss and vulnerability with unusual devotion to anybody in her squad or platoon - though she's willing to spread her arms to invite others, too as the case may arise.
Mistress Seleata is the enduring mystery to both heart and mind, for Ekelesa. Endlessly fascinating beyond measure, Ekelesa certainly admires her - but doesn't really want to emulate her. Serve her - even bring honor to her name and fame? Certainly. But never "hang out" with her, or inject herself into her Mistress' inner circle or world. Some rocks are better left unturned.
As a symbol of her Mistress' nobility, Ekelesa holds herself with regal confidence in public - but her spicy core is rarely suave, and sarcastic rather than cordial.
When it comes to teamwork, Ekelesa is the networking hub. She loves to talk with people, never hesitates to speak her mind, and instinctively leaves a lasting impression - if not always the intended version...
"We were good. Everybody knew it. But we'd had no idea what all we were missing. Until Mistress showed us. Talk about upping your game. Big time. Never had a better record. Helps to be on the winning side. Only problem now is not flaying the humans alive when they push our buttons."
Haselti Ekelesa, pet-servant communications TurnSender for Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - One of Sa Renstow's first contacts with Princess Seleata's pet-servants, she's as defensive as she is cocky. However, as pressures tighten and surveillance crosses line after forbidden line, their true colors emerge - for better or worse.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Communications support on Hynor as the Point Destination fleet and crew amass with the Friends of Takra, and all hell boils over across Overture.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - A Point Destination lieutenant over the Surveillance Platoon, under Capt. Jamirez, aboard the Yew Kah Seyli, Haselti Ekelesa provides technical support for the exploratory colony - particularly eyes and ears in unexpected places.
Haselti Ekelesa
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "City II by Okwa.
Welcome to Stearsat!
Homeworld of the Carliyles, and an unforgettable world for the finest in resorts, entertainments, dining, commerce, and your dreams come true!
Rumored by some to be a human colony, the Carliyles view themselves as a distinct echelon in the evolution of the species. Discontent with the stifling burdens imposed by their Paleo-lithic distant relatives on Earth, the distinguished Carliyle family ventured out to the stars in search of a new home.
Using the revolutionary technology of their space-folding stardrives, they were able to reach destinations further than any any of their competitors, and - since finders keepers - they secured their presence first, proving yet again, first come, first served.
Since 2152 CE, they've spread their name, wealth, and influence across five worlds formerly beleaguered by war. Stepping in to resolve the tragedies, in true Carliyle fashion they finished off the strongest of the quarrelsome survivors, and gathered the devastated natives or colonists into treatment centers and hospitality colonies in order to spread their noble wings and power and introduce order, stability, and prosperity under Carliyle leadership in each society.
Accused by the envious to stand as watchful profiteers preying on the weak and vulnerable, the Carliyles challenge all such outcriers to show when in those worlds' histories, did they ever enjoy the luxuries now available to all who will reach and work for them?
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Temple Meditation Space" by Priestess of Light 777.
Behold, Castis Majestic!
A model of life, timelesss splendor, and endless promise.
Home and haven to the gensic, this glistening emerald in the cosmic crown is as exclusive as its residents. Genetic purists bred from the best in human potential, by 2128 CE public outcry against a super-race convinced them to leave Earth. Searching the stars for a more worthy planet and home, in 2166 CE they finally found the dream they'd longed for.
Enraptured by the planet's prolific biosphere, they realized that to establish homes, they'd need to clear forests, dry marshes, and canal rivers. But in so terraforming their claims, it was swiftly decided that this was most certainly not Earth - and its natural treasures needed to be preserved as much as possible.
Even so, the gensic families established plantation estates, with a manor standing as a capital home for the most established family, surrounded by a ring of fields with the service homes, and again by a ring of orchards before the jungle wilds loomed for endless kilometers in every direction.
Currently at 212 plantations, they've carefully guarded population sizes to prevent crowding, and limited technology to prevent urban metropolitan areas from destroying the natural charm.
The skywatchers were discovered in 2186. A reclusive, tribal species, the gensic at first traded with them, and some even mingled with them. But as soon as their first offspring were born, the skywatchers were dismayed by dramatic loss of their children's bio-fields, and the gensic majority felt these cosikri crossbreeds corrupted their genetic purity. As a result, all three races now live in isolation from one another (to preserve a general peace).
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Stargate Sacred Geometry 25" by Riverfox1.
The gensic weren't the first intelligent race on Castis Majestic. Within their first week of exploring its lush fruits and foliage under its Amazonian canopies, they discovered stone ruins clotted with mud and sagging with vines and ivy.
The skywatchers were soon discovered among many of these ruins, bristling with anxious glares. It was soon decided that these statues and shadows were forbidden territories - and whatever treasures they might hold weren't worth the toll to be paid to explore them.
But within the ruins of Dorfast, skywatcher Adil Wukesan entrusted these secrets to a most unexpected visitor from the distant stars - Luesa, a human fluent in the ancient orgalin language and culture, With his guiding eye and careful hands, the long dead and dark laboratory lit up for the first time in centuries - and bean spilling its secrets with an untold splendor.
By far the greatest surprise were the star-maps. Coded puzzles designed to test the intelligence, the cunning, the moral fortitude of any who dared trespass. The maps spoke of a world hidden from the unwise and unworthy, bearing the greatest treasure a gravedigger could uncover - the location of their long-buried treasure, Gar Don Kin.
Behind every transpheric sky-shield is a planet filled with surprises - and secrets...
Now entering: Dur Faestin, The Laboratory of Unlocking.
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Acavar Purillo
Tracker and Counselor for
Advocates for Despondents,
Burselis
1.8 m, 86.2 kg (5'11", 190 lbs).
Born: March 11, 2317 CE Saycom Colony, Burselis.
Graduated: 2325 CE Saycom General Studies School, Burselis; 2331 CE MACP (Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology) Saycom Institute of Higher Learning, Burselis.
- 2331 CE Mental Health Advocate certificate.
- 2332 CE CACREP license (Council of Adolescent Counseling & Related Educational Programs).
Married: Emarela Kistric 2338-2349 CE Saycom, Burselis.
- Divorced 2349 CE.
Career: 2331-2352 CE Advocates for Despondents
- Terminated allegiance to Burselis and employment with Advocates for Despondents in favor of joining the Point Destination colonization program in Osa Chu Riga, Gar Don Kin.
Significant Details: Right next to the Corsivant Divide, at the edge of established human space, Burselis is rather literally a "last resort," with little to offer or brag about. With low morale more common than not, and Acavar a natural optimist, his calling is a given to their emerging colony. Surrounded by far more neutral, third-party independent worlds and species than humans, a resourceful negotiator can come in handy - and when the call comes in that three missing children have turned up a distance beyond the border, Acavar Purillo makes a great option for a youth-in-custody collection as well as foreign relations.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Acavar Purillo" by Art by MorganCMorgan, "Korriban Infocard" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"Give a man a listening ear, and he'll give you his heart." When it comes to dreams, ideals, wealth, or accomplishments, Acavar's name rarely shows up on VIP lists. But he's convinced that what people really want, he can provide - a helping hand and a caring heart.
Prefers helping people with their personal struggles above any lesser distraction or pastime. If it's important to them, that's what makes things important to Acavar.
Penchant for making a difference in people's lives. Even if not the sharpest tool in the shed, Acavar believes the worst enemy is people's fears and insecurities. By searching out the power and potential within themselves, they can often solve their own problems.
Deeply cares for anybody who allows him to connect with their heart. The pains of life, growth, society, and stress leave us all beggars. Even if you don't know the best options for the best solutions, (who does?), just sharing the struggle with a trusted friend can keep lamps burning through the darkest nights.
Princess Seleata's power fires Acavar's creativity like little else could. With her army of pet-servants on-call, he knows it's show-time - and he does not disappoint.
A handful of sincerity is worth a library of guile. "Show people who you are and what you're about, and they'll follow - because the proof that follows sells itself, better than any hawker or silver-tongue."
Life is full of problems larger than any one person can handle. Teams are the solution. The trick is to lead with heart more than logic. More people will respond to passion than they ever have to speeches.
"They're just kids. Kids who've wandered off the path and gotten lost in the forest. So what if the ocean throws a wave - teach them how to swim. So what if the shadows growl at them - show them the path back to the city. All they need is a guide, a little warmth, a steady hand to lead them."
Acavar Purillo, at-risk youth counselor, Saycom Colony, Burselis
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Protagonist. When Acavar sets out on a routine collection of three missing children apprehended by the dal'lahn police on Setigo 2, he hardly bats an eyelid. But on their way back home to Burselis, when their ship's engines and guidance system fall offline for no clear reason, it's all he and the other counselors can do to land the ship in one piece. On a tropical world that looks like a blast-furnace from orbit, nothing is as it seems. Fighting for survival as well as to find or improvise a comm tower for rescue, it's clear their days are numbered - one way or the other. With far more options than caregivers, they set out in one body only to find themselves scattered to the winds and waves by nightfall. With little more than his wits, charm, and sincerity to work with, Acavar's wild adventure turns into a cut-and-gut adventure to solve a tangled mystery a thousand years overgrown - with branches reaching out as far as Hynor and Earth. On a do-or-die world where the natives are as likely to eat you as greet you, how can a soft-skin like Acavar Purillo turn the tables - for the future of the whole human race?
Book 6:
Systems Offline - City Planner resource-tracker. Between assignments, he also serves as a youth counselor - particularly to adolescents suffering from PTSD following the Point Destination evacuation on Hynor.
Acavar Purillo
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Abrigo Tansarm
Rogue, thief, loose end, good-
for-nothing - (take your pick)
1.8 m, 581.6 kg (5'11", 180 lbs).
Born: June 4, 2331 CE Deoban Mining Colony, Skyberm.
Graduated: Year 11 at Saycom General Studies School, Burselis, incomplete. Many missing credits on record. Presumed dropped-out.
Married: The Outlaw, 2352 Sepi Te Sa Limet, Gar Don Kin.
Career: N/A. Never completed an honest day's work.
- Lives on the streets, but he never considers himself homeless. He always knows how to find a soft-heart to let him (or he and Cas) stay the night. Or they bounce from motel to motel, depending on how much the fences "trade" him for his wares.
Significant Details: Orphaned at age 4 due to a mining explosion and collapse, he was shuttled from bleeding-heart to bleeding-heart from Skyberm to Hessfeld to Anicrom to Burselis between 2335 and 2345, and every placement a beggarly cover for government-assistance income. From abused to neglected, Abrigo's first 15 years of life convinced him to never expect anything good, reliable, or lasting. Certainly angry, but never connected enough to feel resent for his caregivers, Cas was his first solid reward with trust. Frightened but helplessly eager, he tries not to do anything that might chase her away - but some habits are hard to break.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "AI Art 0034" by Javier Lluesma, "Basalt Planet" by Art of Anrach.
PERSONAL FILE
"Take what you can get - then take off as fast as you can run."
Prefers hiding, running, and stealing to negotiating understanding, respect, or accomplishment in life. There are simply too many things that can go wrong - too many people who can let you down or betray you. Hiding and running are the only way to dodge the bullets and enjoy what you can get.
Penchant for finding hidden treasures - and if its the right pocket, purse, or wallet, all the better. Raised hearing tripe like "things can be replaced, people can't," fine; works for him. So he never kills people he fleeces.
Deeply cares for two things in life: loot, and Cas (though he's still trying to figure out the order on that decision). When they're separated in the city, he finally faces that decision head-on - and is perfectly surprised by the sincerity that that struggle generates.
Completely ignorant of Princess Seleata. He views the whole Point Destination fleet and crew as imminent danger. An embodiment of law and order taken to a whole new level. Still, big people tend to focus on big causes and problems, so as long as they mind their business, he can play nice, too.
Abrigo views the public as livestock on a farm - clueless grazers, abundant resources, with an occasional watchdog or two to watch out for. So long as they don't notice him, fine - he'll just take what he needs and run.
Teams are way to risky for Abrigo. Trust is like ice - it can hold just long enough for you to let down your guard, then you crash into the lake beneath it and flounder for survival. He far prefers keeping his talents fast and fleeting - no commitment means no disappointment.
"What the hell do I owe you? For getting my butt kicked around at the mining colony? For getting tossed into boys-homes and the system's juvie for making my way in this screwed up life? Nobody ever gave me nothing. I've always had to stand on my own. And if you want to take me back to that 'life', one of us is going to wind up eating dirt in an early grave."
Abrigo Tansarm, youth-in-custody, Deoban Mining Colony, Skyberm
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Life on the run is a given for Abrigo. The only person he could ever depend on for anything good, he's become a sprint-shadow - either scampering for cover or hiding and waiting until whatever bully catches up to him. When Acavar's team of social twerkers shows up on Setigo 2 to retrieve him from the police station, it's certainly no surprise - and no cause for concern either. Just another hurdle in his obstacle course. When they crash land on Gar Don Kin's living miracle, though, all bets are off. Adventure turns to chaos, and chaos all to quickly explodes into disaster - and opportunity. But finally granted the freedom he's always hoped for, what should he do with it? (Especially this much of it?) When the needles of fate finally pierce he and his girlfriend - and then tug them in opposite directions - how the hell is he supposed to fix a nightmare this far beyond his typical toolkit of tricks and tirades?
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Abrigo Tansarm
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Cpl. Bietrichs Haller
Resource Terrain Mapping
Squad, Planetary Surveillance
Company, Hynor Army
1.52 m, 52 kg (5'0", 115 lbs).
Born: July 19, Year 37-Hynor (2330 CE) Overture, Hynor.
Graduated: Year 55-Hynor (2348 CE) GSS-MS (General Studies School-Manufacturing Industrial Sector); immediately applied to the Hynor Army.
Married: Single (recently completed boot camp & preliminary officer training as a corporal).
Career: Applied to the Hynor Army enlistment program in Year 55-Hynor (2348 CE); graduated from boot camp in Year 57-Hynor (2350 CE); immediately applied to the preliminary officer training program; completed the program in Year 59-Hynor (2352 CE)
- Appointed corporal status in the Resource Terrain Mapping Squad of the Planetary Surveillance Company.
Significant Details: When Capt. Emilie Usara met her match on assignment, she opted to use available resources. To meet tafchas fire with fire, Princess Seleata introduced her to Musari Unisa - a "BasketBringer" servant, true, but a most-trusted chief steward at that - with many tafchas powers of her own to turn many tables for friends.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Special Forces Girl" by Girls of Midjourney, "Desert Planet 06" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
"Life's tough; sometimes you've got to be tough back." Although little more than a child herself, Bietrichs knows in her heart when things feel right - or off. The challenge is, trusting those feelings without making mistakes.
Prefers offering a supportive shoulder and helping people to competing, dominating, or killing. Concerned that compassion may be a symptom of weakness.
Penchant for adventure, interesting surprises, and surprising people who still see her a child tripping over her own feet.
Deeply cares for her family and the Hynor military - to the point that it digs her heart and gut deeply when claws of betrayal gash her - from those she's loved and helped so faithfully.
Completely ignorant of Princess Seleata, when she's finally brought face-to-face with this icon of "capital threats to Overture", she's splayed raw and open to the soul as she reconsiders everything she thought she knew.
Eager to please to gain favor and respect, but still young and learning, she hates stumbling over her own feet - and is ripely embarrassed about how often she does it.
She counts on the strength of her teams, having witnessed how weak or at least vulnerable people can be without solid reinforcement. The rude awakening there is, while this interdependence builds confidence, its betrayals can wound all the deeper - and with a numbing stupor that leaves her more vulnerable than ever.
"'They're not like us.' 'They're different - even strange.' 'They might hurt us.' 'We need stand at full alert, just in case they become a threat.' The whispers turned into grumbling, then the grumbling turned into growls. Now the whole city is erupting like a volcano - causing the very problems they feared all along. I used to be able to keep it cool, keep my distance. But now they're hot on my heels - with assault rifles."
Cpl. Bietrichs Haller, Hynor Army, Resource Terrain Mapping Squad
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - With new leadership and new political agendas in play, Cpl. Haller is reassigned as a surveillance operative against her own brothers and sisters in arms. The moral conflict between her duty and her conscience (and which reeks of institutional discrimination) twists and tightens as she learns not only what the Armed Escort Company was hiding - but why. When her brother and sister are brought to challenge her beliefs and her loyalties, the knot in her stomach grows relentless. When what amounts to a miraculous healing for her parents follows, and her younger brother betrays the family - and lands her in jail - "Trixie" finally has to face her fears, and her convictions, to decide whose side she's really willing to defend. Her choice, ultimately, surprises all of them - including the tafchas Princess Seleata herself.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Cpl. Bietrichs "Trixie" Haller
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Herald Jiset Yewku
Herald of the Valkyries of
Night Howl, Gar Don Kin
1.52 m, 38 kg (5'0", 85 lbs) (flight-capable).
Born: N/A (radically different calendaring system; age: 23, circa 2329 CE) Osa Chu Riga, Gar Don Kin.
Graduated: N/A (tribal mentoring).
- A quick study in gymnastics and acrobatics, she was quickly selected as one of the Chosen for Sepi Te Sa Limet. Awarded herald status for the Valkyries of Night Howl at age 15 (circa 2321).
Married: Single (but always open to prospects).
Career: N/A. One of the Chosen for the Grand Stage of Shorelines, Sepi Te Sa Limet, she's since been exiled to Night Howl with the rest of the Valkyries.
- She continues her service as herald, calling all public meetings or celebrations in their city, and often leading excursions into the wilds to find lost or injured travelers.
Significant Details: Though remarkably lightweight for blade-wielding warriors, the Valkyries have unusual strength of bone and sinew to allow them fighting advantages on the ground or in the air. Coupled with meticulous swords, axes, halberds, spears, and javelins, they can be a surprise force to be reckoned with. With the thick tropical forest environment surrounding Night Howl, many of their sentries are posted to watch in silence from the treetops, or when called as escorts through known dangerous areas.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Character 0673" by Grimwald's AI Fantasy, "Basalt Planet" by Art of Anrach.
PERSONAL FILE
"True nobility is an ageless trait - but only proven through action." Claims are but blown wind. Deeds - and better yet motives behind deeds - determine whether any action is justifiable, let alone admirable.
Prefers surveillance roles during battle over actual engagement. As one of the smaller-framed Valkyries, she is rather vulnerable by nature. But she's adapted her size and strength for agility and dexterity, and if a challenger picks a fight, they may very well not know what hit them.
Penchant for rescues, both to meet and anchor new friends and for the peace and conviction of her own conscience. Life in exile can weigh heavily on her spirits in the quiet of certain nights; but a good rescue or safe escort patrol is every bit as satisfying as an evening of mead and campfires with her friends.
Deeply cares for her fellow Chosen, as well as close friends. Truth be told, she's a very caring person in general, and views even perfect strangers as admirers to be won.
Completely ignorant of Princess Seleata. When she witnesses the Point Destination fleet and crew, she's perfectly dumbfounded. Are they gods? From what heavens? Though certainly a fan of their charismatic nobility, they are so vastly disconnected from any hero, legend, or mythology she's ever heard of that she can't quite trust her senses about them. Unfortunately, this creates a bit of distance - but of respect, not fear.
Jiset just adores being a highlight in a crowd - not necessarily the limelight (that would be vain) - but certainly a life of the party. On a world as marvelous as Gar Don Kin, after all, why not celebrate its abundance of life with those you love and enjoy?
Teams are a given in her books. No life lives in isolation - but rather, in communities, entire ecosystems, with every part contributing to the whole. Why should it be any different for the Valkyries?
"Such storytellers, these humans! People traveling on ships between the stars? Entire civilizations bustling about on other worlds? At first I thought they were jesting, perhaps desperate for an audience. But they're willing to risk life and limb, no matter the cost, to return home. Well, they won't do it alone if we have anything to say about it."
Herald Jiset Yewku, Valkyries of Nighthowl, Gar Don Kin
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - In Night Howl, the shadows of the ancient ruins still chant their endless legends. The power, the grace, the courage, the valor of the past lives, breathes - and now even flies. As a Valkyrie of Night Howl, one of the Chosen selected from the masses across the assembly, she was not only invited as a guest, but hailed as Jiset, the very Herald of the defenders of the mystical forest. Trained, sculpted, perfected as a fierce and fearless sky-knight, as well as the charming voice of their calls to arms as well as to triumphant feasts, Jiset is quite literally a living legend. But what's this strolling up the path? Wingless wafers of man and boy, with not a scrap of armor or blade to defend them? And they intend to reach salvation in civilization? Can she believe a word they speak? And far more daunting still, can she answer their call and their quest, to escort them safely to the forbidden city - and risk all she's earned and become?
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
Herald Jiset Yewku
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Asitwa Siku
ShadowFlare to Princess Seleata
1.55 m, 47.6kg (5'1", 105 lbs).
Born: classified. (Age: undisclosed; estimated age: 36, circa 2316 CE).
Graduated: N/A (royal tutelage).
Married: Single (prospects are just as likely to die on their first date).
Career: classified.
- Rescued from cyber-enhanced enslavement, Princess Seleata devoted her bio-power, technology, and tireless therapy to her rehabilitation. Still a fine-tuned tool for infiltration, espionage, and point-target executions, Asitwa Siku has now been assigned as Seleata's ShadowFlare for just such emergency roles.
Significant Details: Nearly killed during a skirmish on Castis Majestic, the Armed Escort Company contingent weren't sure just what they'd found in the aftermath. Emergency-transferred to Princess Seleata for assessment, the princess learned that Asitwa Siku had not only been attuned, but nearly reprogrammed, hardly able to make a conscientious decision on her own. Taking her under her wing as a bit of an experiment as well as a personal conviction to retain her moral decency, she has since trained and rehabilitated the beleaguered victim into an intelligent, compassionate, near-sentient lifeform again. Asitwa Siku, on the other hand, now endears Princess Seleata as her dawning sun following every dark-night, tafchas-style PTSD relapse.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Witness the Awe-Inspiring Presence" by DeviousToc, "The Anomaly" by Art by MorganCMorgan.
PERSONAL FILE
"There is no escape." Surrounded by a thousand faces - and a death for every one of them. No matter where she turns, Asitwa Siku faces threats of certain harm. The only way to prevent it is to outwit or defeat them first.
Prefers swift, clean pounce-kills to violence that spreads collateral damage. The last thing anybody needs is another mess to clean up - let alone evidence to track her.
Penchant for successful missions. The instant an action-prompt triggers in her cerebroplex, it's all she can do to endure its call, its pull, its energy, until she can confirm mission accomplished.
Deeply cares for the Hynor military, for reasons she can't understand. She also feels a profound, inexplicable sensitivity to civilian bystanders who might get caught up on the wrong side of a bio-field discharge. In a universe of chaos and corruption, she feels that she and her Mistress are two potent anchors in the storm.
Princess Seleata is everything to her. Firm but never abusive, direct yet also considerate, creative beyond innovative, and an artist of unprecedented beauty even while hidden, alone, and hunted, Asitwa Siku feels an almost sisterly affection for her - yet could never compare herself to a Mistress of Seleata's stature and legacy.
As a royal chief ally more than servant, she's independent enough to avoid the public whenever possible, yet won't hesitate to defend her Mistress' honor, person, property, or causes. While it's possible, even recommended to present a laudable face around town, Asitwa Siku would rather tend to the princess' foyer than face the quibbling inanity of the masses and trigger a reflex.
Teamwork has its place, and its valued members - but they rarely involve Asitwa Siku. While known to be compassionate, even sympathetic to wounded underdogs fighting for sense in all the insanity, Asitwa Siku always prefers to settle scores her own way - with or without any outside assistance.
"Life can be such a fragile construct. So dynamic. So versatile. In many cases, so elegant. Yet with the touch of a blade, muscle can cleave. With a sudden pressure shift, bones can break. With the right electrical charge, nerves can choke, hearts can stop, and brains can die. How comforting to know that those with the power to kill so easily can restore life - and to whatever degree they see appropriate to the occasion."
Asitwa Siku, ShadowFlare for Princess Seleata
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - classified
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Caught in a labyrinth of shadows, with twists and turns compelling her to conflict wherever she goes, Asitwa Siku has died and gone to hell. Search as she might for help, for healing, for the light of day to once again clear the nightmare around (and within) her, she's never imagined herself so alone, so disconnected from hope, promise, and belonging. When the chase turns to combat, and Sgt. Luesa and Similwran Weylanishey arrive on the scene, will their wits and strengths combined secure her release - and even more, her sanity?
Book 5:
Critical Mass - If the similwrans are Princess Seleata's bodyguards, Asitwa Siku now stands as her captain of the guard. Exceeding all competition in hand-to-hand combat, her technical prowess is nearly as impressive - but she is one among many, and limited in her outreach with the princess under constant threat. A mentor and safekeep to many soldiers, like Cpl. Haller, her participation might be small, but her influence is exponential.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured. Accompanied her Mistress aboard the Evergate.
Asitwa Siku
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
The Outlaw
Guide-star of The Outlaw on
the Grand Stage of Shorelines,
Gar Don Kin
1.55 m, 54.4 kg (5'1", 120 lbs).
Born: January 9, 2333 CE, Arugen 4 Mining Colony.
Graduated: Incomplete - reported AWOL in her 11th year at Saycom General Studies School, Burselis, but is missing several academic credits.
Married: 2352, Abrigo Tansarm, Sepi Te Sa Limet, Gar Don Kin. No children.
Career: N/A (lives on the run; no committed employment on record)
- Currently retired to her private resort city, Breakwater, on Gar Don Kin, due to her participation in The Outlaw on the Grand Stage of Shorelines.
Significant Details: Raised in a dysfunctional family on a dead-end mining colony, life has rarely smiled on The Outlaw. Kicked around from planet to planet, "foster-imposter to foster-imposter" (as she calls it), a deep and enduring bitterness lies caged deep in her gut - but not necessarily her soul. Able to see bright horizons even beyond stormy skies thanks to Abrigo Tansarm, many claim they're a do-mess-tic couple, destined to failure, but she doesn't believe so. Not after all they've been through together. While not an anchor of stability, she still finds Abrigo her lifejacket in the typhoon, fixed tightly to her and buoyant to keep her head above water. Come what may, fate has finally smiled on them both, and she's definitely going to enjoy it as long as it lasts.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Midjourney 6826" by Javier Lluesma, "Basalt Planet" by Art of Anrach.
PERSONAL FILE
"Take what you can get." Why the bad rap with low-hanging fruit? Better than breaking her neck stretching for the canopy. So long as the fruit is sweet, who cares where it came from?
Prefers any opportunity that brings she and Abrigo together in fond warmth. While she believes he loves her and is devoted to her, her heart needs constant reminders that he...well, sometimes offers (or agrees to).
Penchant for adventure, for entertainment, particularly for blunders. Life can be too strict and too stiff far too often; lighthearted comedy is a powerful lifter amid all that deadweight.
Deeply cares for Abrigo, who's been her reliable constant for four years (and a little longer, while they were still getting to know each other). Everybody else is dust in the wind.
Almost completely ignorant of Princess Seleata, she and Abrigo are certainly not Friend of Taska material. Vague allies, perhaps, and duly grateful, but by no means devotees. Such a figure would certainly disgust if not intimidate her, as an authority-figure with godly powers.
Jealous but from a distance, she earned her title as The Outlaw. Always on the outside looking in, she found she could never count on anybody to meet her needs - they were far too preoccupied with their own. While she certainly enjoys a vibrant social life, it's rare for her to "fit in" with anybody but the misfits.
Strongly doubtful about teams. Willing to be a team player, if they'll respect her, but they'll need to approach her - she won't waste her time and emotions searching them out only to be rejected, yet again.
"I've lived my whole life on the run. You have to learn quickly, to survive Arugen 4, Burselis, Setigo 2. And definitely here on Gar Don Kin. But nothing prepared me for the Sky City, Sepi Te Sa Limet. It was supposed to be the stuff of legends, some Shangri-La pipe dream. Until I saw it. Until my life depended on it. And now thousands will never forget it."
The Outlaw, The Grand Stage of Shorelines, Sepi Te Sa Limet
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Stranded on an alien planet following a crash, the last thing she expected was a "brighter tomorrow". Struggling to survive wild bamboo forest, her captors' antics, downpours and typhoons, let alone the clawed and fanged wildlife, she was certain early death had tracked her down and was just playing with its food before her bitter end. When she found the city, though, far from being treated like something a cat dragged in, she was in fact celebrated as a precious prize for the first time in her life. Escorted into the local entertainment lord's palace, she soon found herself tumbling head over heels into an insane opportunity - to tell her story, in its full, living color and emotion - on the Grand Stage of Shorelines in the sky city. Can she do it? Can she face her past, her fears, her insecurities, and not only embody and express them to an audience of thousands, but even tower above them and crush them to robotic powder as The Outlaw?
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Not featured.
The Outlaw
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Sea Stead Farm" by Ka-Pow96,
Buried along the coast between forest and sea, Seagate glistens as a royal crown.
Watching over marine mysteries and woodland wonders, its sleepless towers and bedrock pillars stand sentinel against any intruders - from land, sea, or air.
Terraforming a tropical paradise from a radioactive rock takes time, effort, and coordination. Se Qui Te - the laboratory the Sirens now call Seagate, their manor and home - once stood as a marine monitor for its orgalin designers. Responsible to inject hyperfusions of transmetalitic energy from the radioactive atmosphere into the rocks around the region, vast trains of cometary debris loaded with water ice once channeled from gates perched at hot-spots around the solar system. Once the near-molten heated rocks melted the incoming ice chunks, they flowed to fill the dry basins and formed the planet's broad but fairly shallow oceans.
Once Se Qui Te and its coordinating cities and platforms regulated the hydrosphere, it switched gears to focus on marine life and a healthy ecosystem between the ocean and the emerging forest.
Today, its roles are entirely regulatory, and automated, since the planet can pretty well take care of itself. The sirens have no idea just what legendary significance their home played in the history of the entire planet.
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Conservatory" by Art by Morgan C Morgan.
The beehive of Osa Chu Rega, where every worthy silk, suit, or furnishing is fabricated...
Witness the power, grace, and glory of Mooncrest - home of the Faelights and manor of the Vales of Feasting!
Standing proud and unyielding against age, erosion, and plunder, this ancient orgalin wonder perches on a mesita between the Asi Pi Squ and Ga Laso Rivers.
Designed as a craft-plex beyond the walls of Osa Chu Riga, this breadbasket of resources formed a natural hub for local resources as well as imports, to provide any material comfort the residents of the capital city could desire.
Claimed, cleared, and at least marginally revived by the Faelights following their Graduation and exile, the Assembly gathered in the city ruins still frequent its fields and factories for food, clothing, and furnishings for their homes.
This inspiring image was provided courtesy of: "Vimana" 000 by Low Thunders.
Unforgettable stories in an untouchable venue.
Welcome to Sepi Te Sa Limet, home of the Grand Stage of Shorelines!
Any who wish to visit the grand capital, Osa Chu Rega, must first pass the searching eye of Sepi Te Sa Limet. An opulent city in the sky, and an engineering marvel for cultures of any age or evolution, this gilded community's towers monitor the skies for any object large enough to risk a harmful impact.
Linked to defensive platforms in towers and cities around the globe, the gravimetric pressures and energies created by its gravimetric fields and the planet's natural gravity provide all the power the system needs to create a virtually impenetrable sky-grid shield and automated defense system.
But within this gilded diadem are workshops, where cloths and wares of the finest grades and splendors beckon every guest prominent enough to be invited to come, and see just how incredible life can get - when you literally have it all.
With the Grand Stage of Shorelines at its heart and core, only the finest talents are Chosen to entertain, to teach, to remember the glories - and perils - of life, relations, and ages never to be forgotten.
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Risanna Cancham
Collections Agent for Infinity
Interrogations & Collections, Stearsat
1.7 m, 52 kg (5'6", 130 lbs)
1.7 m, 43 kg (1.7 m, 94 lbs) (post-op)
Born: October 28, 2325, Florishire, Stearsat.
Graduated: 2330-2343 Bourdhan's Salons Academy (with honors), St. Laurenceton, Stearsat.
2343-2347 Converse Academy of Criminal Justice (with honors), Hamblin, Stearsat.
Married: Single ("suitored but single")
[sealed file: March 7, 2354, Beaming Dawn, Jade Castle].
Career: 2347-2349 investigations agent for Tomlin Securities; dismissed on administrative leave for excessive use of force resulting in the death of a suspect.
2349-2353 collections agent for Infinity Interrogations & Collections.
Significant Details: Born to a prosperous couple with entrepreneurial heritages both, Chansome and Lasailles Cancham in 2325, Risanna was joined in 2327 by her brother, Jorshac. With background and incomes from her father's off-world exploits company, The Treasury Trades & Commissions, and her mother's hospitality company, Elegantz Resorts and Diversions, the Cancham family was destined for greatness. However, at age 12 (2337), a competing interest, Dregsturm Craftforge, chose to cripple their competition, and set a bomb at a traffic stop that destroyed their vehicle, killed both parents, and critically injured her brother, who died at the hospital that night. Risanna, who was pouting when scolded by her mother for a poor assignment grade at school, defiantly unfastened her safety belt and even pulled her seat forward to access their rear hatch compartment to hide from her mother. When the blast destroyed the front of the car, she was not injured, and fled the burning wreckage in a panic that led her to a nearby alley. The safeguard spotter responsible to complete the assignment followed her, and, astounded by her beauty, taught her a different lesson his own way, and left her for dead. By so doing, he filled her with a glowering rage that led her to her career and an insatiable sense of vigilante vendetta.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Angel Guardian Cyborg" by Art ML30, "Terran 05 Orbit" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
Exploitation is a given. Anybody who says otherwise is from a lower tax bracket. The trick is to keep your eyes open, to watch for others' strengths and weaknesses. That way, even if you make a mistake, you know how to win them back with forgiveness.
Prefers handling things herself rather than delegating duties. While she might not be the strongest, the smartest, or even the best armed in a contest, she can be surprisingly elusive - and effective.
Penchant for playing people. Not always manipulative, just alert for opportunities knocking. Or in need of a quick fix - for better or worse.
Deeply cares for friends. The loss of her family at a young age has left her more vulnerable than she'd ever admit - and it brings out a passionate zeal that can shift like the weather.
Completely ignorant of Princess Seleata until she's brought up to speed about the Friends of Takra on Gar Don Kin. Unfortunately, she also shows up after the Seleata has left on her voyage to the Great Beyond, so she only gets to secretly wonder about and occasionally envy her.
Always ready to shy away from praise graciously. And when the ball does drop in her court, she owns it, deeply. At least, until the fire of her second wind kicks in, and she comes back with a vengeance.
Teams can be useful - for distractions, for backup, for cannon fodder with she takes care of business. The right teams are also great for drinks and laughs with after a stinging triumph.
"You try to prepare. But fate always knows its cards better than you. You've got to live by your wits. When that fails, in shadows. And if you ever find yourself running out of shadows, you better hope you've got a blade left to do the talking for you."
Risanna Cancham, Communications optimizer, Yew Kah Seyli
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - An orphan from organized crime on Stearsat, Risanna has devoted her life to private securities. A white-collar mercenary with unusual skills and access to bend laws in her sponsors' favor, she's devoted to collecting debts. But when her best friend goes missing, Risanna is brought face to face with her darkest fears - the driving question of just how far she'll go, just how many lies she'll tell, just how many throats she'll spare (or slit), in order to get the answers she needs. A silver-tongued serpent in an orgalin body, she simply will not stop until she learns who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Diplomat Ree Sah Nah
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Jamirez Arban Rolson
Planetary Surveillance Guide (and
military Captain) of the Yew Kah Seyli
and her Point Destination crew from
Hero's Challenge, Osa Chu Riga, Gar Don Kin
1.93 m, 100 kg (6'4", 220 lbs)
Born: September 16, 2317, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, Earth.
Graduated: 2335, Ben Roster Military Academy, Maryland.
2338, Alliance for Human Interests (AHI) Dept. of Defense Officer Placement Program, Mount Vernon, New York, USA.
Married: 2336; Divorced, 2340. No children. Often teased as "most valuable candidate".
Career: 2338-2340, private; 2340-2342, corporal; 2342-2345, sergeant; 2345-2348, lieutenant.
- 2348, appointed lieutenant colonel and assigned as the AHI Xenological Contacts Specialist to the Hynor Army under Capt. Kyle Jefferson (Loyalist) - with specific instructions to evaluate the "local color" (delegate pet-servants) and verify if their blood was "truly red".
- At the end of 2352, during Operation: Red Harvest, Rolson severed ties with his Loyalist sponsors and fled with the Point Destination fleet, viewing himself as "a guardian of the Friends of Takra".
- 2353, upon reaching Gar Don Kin, Rolson was field-appointed the rank of captain, and later chosen by the orgalin virtual intelligence colony trainers from a body of 12 candidates as the Planetary Surveillance Guide to the Hero's Challenge colony.
Significant Details: While technically "Guide Rolson" by the orgalin records verified on the Hero's Challenge database, his extensive military history wins his heart to the title of "Captain Rolson," despite orgalin tradition. However, the points of their training, coupled with personal life lessons witnessed and experienced on Hynor, has reinforced a sense of evaluative judgment and unorthodox flexibility as a self-sworn guardian to the Friends of Takra. This distinction distinguishes him from many of his peers in the Point Destination fleet, and carries with it rare experimental opportunities and risks he's still evaluating during their voyage to the Great Beyond (Esu Pa Mai).
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "00063-421018049" by Nijamoocow, "Earth-4K-Stock" by Hameed.
PERSONAL FILE
There's always an agenda. If there's intelligence, there's motives - and too many of them are ulterior. So watch your back. Don't take it personal. Just let them know where you stand - and don't take any shit from people who say otherwise.
Prefers exploring to conquering, and sees life in the military as an opportunity more than an obligation. He knows how he likes his bread buttered - but if someone wants to add a little jam , garlic, or honey, he'll sample a bite - or two.
Penchant for adventure, interesting people, and solid support he can rely on. He builds builders, then sends them to work to get things done.
Deeply cares for his teams. Accustomed to constantly shifting groups, whether it's family, school, the military - whoever's on his team will get the best he's got to back them.
First learns about Seleata from the pet-servants on Hynor. Personally, he can't stand her. Way too cocky - and powerful. But he deeply appreciates and values her pet-servants.
Eager to get the job done right - no matter how many attempts it takes to square things away, he knows how to clean house and win respect.
Teams are essential for success. No one "has it all." Those who work alongside you get to know you, and once you convince them you're a good friend to have, they'll work double-duty to make your life all the better.
"They say the future hasn't been written. That there's still hope, even in the unknown. You know with all you've been through that there are some crazy - and amazing - journeys out there just waiting. Sometimes you just need to sit down, buckle up, and prepare for the ride of your life."
Capt. Rolson Jamirez, Planetary Survey guide, Yew Kah Seyli
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - An Earth-sponsored human liaison emergency-transferred to Loyalist command on Hynor - to assess the delegate 'pet-servant' threat. But Rolson comes to his own conclusions during the Red Harvest, and escapes Hynor with Point Destination and the Friends of Takra before the tafchas interrogations begin. At Hero's Challenge, Gar Don Kin, he devours the orgalin legacy, and is field-appointed captain of the Yew Kah Seyli. As the Planetary Survey guide to his colony, 505 refugees from every skillset, background, family arrangement, and psychological stability are now looking to him - to protect, provide, and heal the full battery of wounds, prayers, and dreams they carry with them.
Capt. Rolson Jamirez
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Viveca Holsford
Homesteader, Havensite Heel
Youngest daughter of Sigard and Eiffa Holsford, colonist homesteaders on Hynor's neighboring world, the atmospherically volatile planet Havensite Heel.
1.63 m, 63.5 kg (5'4", 140 lbs)
Born: May 19, 2335, Holsford Homestead, Havensite Heel.
Graduated: N/A (family apprenticeships in general agriculture, mining, smelting, manufacturing, and equipment repairs). No formal certificate of completion until she completed the Agricultural freehand training schedule at Hero's Challenge to join the Yew Kah Seyli crew in 2353.
Married: Single (the Holsford family was the only family on Havensite Heel throughout her life; online friendships were the extent of her social atmosphere).
Career: Homesteader. (see entry for Graduated.)
Significant Details: Fearing for his family's well-being during the tafchas-interrogations following Hynor's Red Harvest, Sigard encouraged his wife and daughter to flee with the Friends of Takra. When Eiffa insisted he join them, he refused, claiming he'd given his life and sons to Havensite Heel, and he had no intentions of dying anywhere else. Eiffa chose to stay with him, and they sent Viveca alone to follow the Point Destination fleet.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "From Minimalism to Metaphysical" by LB42L8, "Volcanic Planet 03 - Icon 05" by Schinyman.
PERSONAL FILE
Life's what you make of it. No farm ever grew by itself. No mine ever dug itself. No machine ever invented itself. Whatever you do, wherever you go, you're the one who makes it happen.
Prefers active experience, whether it's field research, exploring, or even hanging out with friends. Life's always better when you actually experience it.
Penchant for friends, for encouragement, for support. Adores having the Yew Kah Seyli crew around her, after so many years in virtual isolation on the family homestead.
Deeply cares for her family and the Friends of Takra. Virtually an orphan, she's desperate for connection, for belonging, for meaning she hopes to find through Risanna.
While she never understood Princess Seleata beyond Musari Unisa's mysterious "Mistress," she was one of the first people to witness the pet-servants in action, so she naturally admires and gravitates toward them when the opportunity arrives to accompany them.
Eager to enjoy life, she hates wasted work with little recognition, or praise, or reward. Growing up on a nightmare world where intense work and little praise was offered, she dreamed of leaving home for greener pastures. But now that the door has not only swung open but also kicked her out into the unknown, she's not so sure it's what she always wanted.
Having been raised on a steady diet of duty, she's accustomed to flying independent - though as part of a team where every member carries impressive loads. So while teams are needed to get the job done, it's not always clear how the pieces connect.
"People can be heartless. When they see you as just some dumb kid, they rarely see you for who you're going to become. Maybe I was some dirt cutter on a ball of rock, hidden in the background. But my Pa always said it's the secrets hidden inside each seed that makes each of them valuable."
Viveca Holsford, Agricultural Free-hand, Yew Kah Seyli
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - The youngest child and sibling of the Holsford family, she grew up on Havensite Heel, and loathed every minute of it. Adores her mother, envies her sister Trina who "escaped" to Hynor, endures Aidan's teasings, but happy to work with Olav. (Minor character.)
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - Desperate to evade the tafchas interrogations, Sigard and Eiffa send their youngest on their family shuttle with only a riddle and a prayer to guide her way. Teaming up with Agent Risanna Cancham, against every obstacle they make their way to the Friends of Takra at Hero's Challenge. It's all downhill from here, destination: unknown obscurity. Until Viveca and her military friend find the abandoned settlement. And their vehicles try to kill them. And they open the door on a Pandora's Box that simply will not let them go.
Viveca Holsford
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Hysaikin
Elite smith and armorer (armored-personnel tailor and jeweler), Keen-Forge Division, House of Safewalls, Cor Du Lai
1.78 m, 86.18 kg (5'10", 190 lbs)
Born: N/A (radically different calendar system; age: 23, circa 2330 CE) Stone Bulwark, Cor Du Lai.
Graduated: N/A (parental apprenticeship until her parents were KIA; selected for regent smithing at age 14 due to her parents' reputation and a friend in parliament).
Married: Single (political and social instability have kept her extremely busy all her life; aboard the Yew Kah Seyli, however, she's gradually letting her guard down).
Career: N/A (see note to Graduated).
Significant Details: When Capt. Emilie Usara met her match on assignment, she opted to use available resources. To meet tafchas fire with fire, Princess Seleata introduced her to Musari Unisa - a "BasketBringer" servant, true, but a most-trusted chief steward at that - with many tafchas powers of her own to turn many tables for friends.
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Species Hravglon II" by Art by MorganCMorgan, "Hynek - The Alien Territory" by Rean Jodriguez.
PERSONAL FILE
I'm essential to my clan's safety. As a jeweler and an armorer of deflective plating, I need them every bit as much as they need me. Landed Reicipen is what the humans call "visionary" - the keetch either envy him or mock him. While I agree that his views can be...extraordinary, he's a decent man, and a respected leader, worthy of my talents and devotion.
Prefers any activity that advances Reicipen's domain. Whether toiling in the mines, forging weapons or armor, or standing at his side during public rallies, she's amazed at his fearless devotion to the dream of just what the keetch can become.
Penchant for success, for accomplishment, for pride in her work, and for worthy friends. In a world where war can be declared at any time and from anywhere, success determines life - for her whole clan.
Deeply cares for the ideals Reicipen embodies. Families on war-torn Frostfire are familiar with loss and danger. But Hysaikin agrees with Reicipen and later with the humans - there's nothing more valuable worth defending than those you love.
Oblivious to Princess Seleata, she's mystified by the pet-servants, but struggles to understand their magics. Are they real? Are they tricksters? So long as they defend her friends and honor, that's all that really matters.
Eager to defend her honorable people and friends, she's devoted to health, strength, prosperity, and camaraderie. When she finds that the humans abound in both wealth, innovation, defense, and enjoyments, she casts her vote full-heartedly in their favor.
Teams are vital for survival. Butting heads only creates headaches. Whatever it takes to make a team unite and bind, Hysaikin will espouse and defend.
"You might think you know the world around you. You might even believe it's safe, comfortable, beautiful. But other creatures lurk in the dark. With terrible powers. And sometimes they unleash those powers, without warning - and turn your dream world into a nightmare overnight."
Hysaikin, keetch armorer, Cor Du Lai
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - When the Yew Kah Seyli knocks on the door at Frostfire, Landed Reicipen answers. But only with armorer Hysaiken and his entourage at his back does he ever dare to meet these visitors from the stars. And when fate throws them a volcanic-level wild card, only the strength and stability of his devout can help him stand to meet the challenge - without fear or flinching.
Hysaikin
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT
Taril Etri
Records Archivist for Clan Hesakir,
Shu Siti Kahn
2.03 m, 81.65 kg (6'8"", 180 lbs)
Born: N/A (radically different calendar system; age: 26, circa 2327 CE) Mechanized Resistance Division, Shu Siti Kahn.
Graduated: N/A (clan apprenticeship under Historian Guide Turem Luvis)
- As the apex student in the training program, Taril Etri was chosen as the archivist successor to Guide Turem Luvis (circa 2345 CE).
Married: Widowed (husband killed in action while serving in a military infiltration run through the Thistlebane, circa 2348).
Career: N/A (see note to Graduated entry)
Significant Details: Natural orgalins tend to be larger in build than humans, but share a similar mass to be flightworthy. Having grown up under constant threat of Watchful Gardener domination, Taril Etri found herself helplessly intrigued by what could have caused such animosity between two visibly complex and accomplished races. A threat so intimidating to persuade her fully capable people to prefer burrows to open wilderness on the surface. Serious gaps and fractures in their records abound, so her hunger for answers, for clarity, for stability, drives her enthusiasm in the Shu Siti Kahn historical archives. Meeting a living orgalin from their distant past in Ree Sah Nah is more than she could've ever imagined.
PERSONAL FILE
Enchanted by the archives Clan Hesakir has collected over the years, Taril Etry dreams of the days when the orgalins could spread their wings and fly without fear. While some tease or even ridicule her about living in the past or dreaming while awake, she can't deny the fire that burns deeply within her as she reads the journals and histories.
Prefers time alone in the locked archives, museums, and vaults, just studying, imagining, what life must've been like. When possible, sharing these treasures with trusted friends or mentors leads to thrilling insights - and hopes for a brighter future.
Penchant for discovery, for hope - even in days long forgotten or dreams long scorned as unattainable.
Deeply cares for her war-beleaguered people. The Garden Trellis stands as a terrifying threat. But she believes Salient Somachun's promises - that their caverns are mere incubators, nurseries for her people. Deep below Shu Siti Kahn's rugged deserts and scattered patches of thriving forest, they are not victims cowering in fear, but young dragons destined to one day spread their great wings and fly free and powerful once more.
Completely ignorant of Princess Seleata and the pet-servants, who she views as costumed entertainers for Ree Sah Nah's amusements. Of course, as a living ancestor, Ree Sah Nah herself is an entirely different story...
Eager to regain her clan's lost glory, she firmly believes that the key to unlocking their promising future lies hidden in the secrets of the past. Only those willing to seek out these secrets will ever stand to see the day of their redemption revived.
Teams can be as cumbersome as they are necessary nuisances. No one could survive, let alone thrive alone, but she finds the tedium of daily routines and hollow obligations a bore and a distraction from what really matters. One trusted friend can prove far more valuable than an entire city of citizens.
"I know the people you're talking about. But you'll never find them. Only their bones, buried across countless worlds among countless stars. And if you really want to know the truth, get ready to join them. Or much, much worse.."
Taril Etri, Clan Hesakir emissary, Shu Siti Kahn
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A LIFEFORM DETECTED
Book 1:
A Lifeform Detected - Not featured.
Book 2:
The Tomb of Dur Kaetin - Not featured.
Book 3:
Divided We Fall - Not featured.
Book 4:
The Hunter's Shadow - Not featured.
Book 5:
Critical Mass - Not featured.
Book 6:
Systems Offline - All her life, Taril Etry has lived in fear. Of conquest. Of domination. Of the entire annihilation of her broken, buried clan. But she's also been raised on the stories, the stories of a time, long forgotten, when her people - or at least their ancestors - once roamed the surface and the skies, without fear, without heavy arms and battalions. So when a ship straight out of the oldest texts appears in orbit, with a crew both foreign and familiar, fluent in the ancient rites, dialect, and stories, has her childhood dream finally arrived? Or is it simply too good to be true?
Taril Etri
These inspiring images were provided courtesy of: "Fairy Angel Who Cares" by GeezerGun, "Taris Icon 01b" by Schinyman.
Lumber Yard: Toolbox for the Sections Under Construction
fan details - height, weight, stats, idiosyncrasies,
start with book link, buy now; box for character/setting traits/details, & a box for other fan stuff (?)
