The Valafar Vernacular; Feedback and Foreword thread. --
"The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story." - Ursula K. Le Guin. --
Hello!
This thread serves as both a point of reference and place for reader input concerning any characters, stories and other roleplay that I may be involved in. Below you'll find introductions and summaries of my characters and links to any stories to which they contribute. Beyond that, the thread will be left open and welcome to any feedback or input you may have; I happily welcome any and all constructive criticism, corrections, ideas, cries of motivational slander, et cetera.
If you're here, I hope that it's because you've read or been involved in some roleplay by or with me; in which case, thanks for taking the time. If you want to contact me more privately, I'm happy to pass on skype (or email) details by PM, or if that's too personal, my PM box itself is wide open.
I should add that this thread is not in-character; information here shouldn't be used for server interactions unless you know it through a different, relevant, source. Each character is still a work-in-progress, and I hope to evolve each and every one in time, both with stories and actual server encounters. Feel free to suggest roleplay opportunities if you think of any!
Alex, often simply Sarand to his colleagues, is a Bretonian civilian and contractor with Bretonia Mining and Fabrication, a BMM affiliated corporate interest in base construction and mineral extraction. With the company, he is based at Fortitudine, a space station situated in the Manchester system. A serious and hardworking man, he places the well-being of his crew beyond all else, and can frequently be found involved in mineral extraction in the Birmingham Ice Field.
Raised in Huntingdon on Planet Cambridge, Alex is the second son to a large, wealthy family. Always with the weight of expectation on his shoulders, he was driven to excel and persistently aimed high. In his youth, he excelled in his studies and following a degree in organic chemistry at a prestigious Cambridge university, he accepted a postgraduate research position as a fellow with the Cambridge Research Institute.
Through associates there he became a sympathizer to the Green Front movement coursing through Bretonia, which stood at odds with his future career prospects; already becoming a respected academic, his research and skills were in high demand by Bretonian corporate interests including, but not limited to, BMM. The decision of which future to pursue was made for him in 801 A.S. with the sudden and needless death of his youngest brother, Richard, at a Green Front rally turned sour.
Regretting his involvement with the movement, he went on to pursue a career with Cambridge Logistics & Mineral Concern, a company which refined his talents for many years before collapsing in 813 A.S. A tight financial situation then led him to become an independent freight pilot. This continued until recently, and he now flies Sirius as a contractor under BMF.
In-game vessels
BMF|Alexander.Sarand - - His Hegemon-class mining vessel, ambitiously dubbed the Barrier Jewel.
BMF|Alexander.Sarand. - - His second ship, a Bretonian Shire container transport used for company haulage. Named Elenia's Grace after his daughter.
Stories and Articles
BMF| Mining Application Complete. Tired of his years as a solo trade pilot, Sarand makes a successful application to Bretonia Mining and Fabrication and joins their ranks as a contractor.
BMF| Ore Delivery Contracting Ongoing. An example of Sarand's ore contract haulage, reported to BMF| administration on their dedicated channel.
The Tea & Pee Bar Ongoing. The famous bar of Fortitudine, wherein weary miners and allies rest and socialise with their fellows.
Cassie, as she's known to the extreme few in her life who she allows close enough, is a fierce and determined Corsair pilot. She is the heiress to the family holdings of the Dominique Estate, situated at the crest of Korakies Valley, beyond the northern tropics of Planet Crete. She prides herself on a moral compass which she considers somewhat "honorable"; While she will pirate, extort, pursue and prey on her targets to the last, she will do so solely for benefit. Slaughtering a transport full of thousands of passengers just "for the sake of" is far from her modus operandi, and she considers those who condone such acts as no better than the dirt beneath her boots.
At the head of la familia de Dominique stands Ginuva Leandro Dominique, her grandfather. A seasoned veteran who has proven his ruthlessness and ambition many times over in his youth, he has since retired his personal vessels and now manages family affairs from the Estate. Rising tensions with his son Cid - Cassie's father - which culminated in a failed in-house coup d'état led to the latter being assigned a long-standing surveillance task far behind enemy lines in Liberty, well out of sight and mind. Still a child, Cassie accompanied her father.
Raised under the false persona Jessica Sullivan, Cassie grew up with and later assisted her father in establishing a vast network of subterfuge and artifact smuggling within the core space before leaving to rejoin her brothers and sisters on Crete in 816 A.S. Prior to her departure, encounters with the Bretonian freelance Vale Waters eventually led to her establishing a falsified marriage between the two, bolstering her civilian alter-ego with Bretonian ties.
In-game vessels Pending
Stories and Articles
The Dance of the Silver Cassandra In progress, updates required. Beginning in 816 A.S., this story catalogs Cassie's return to Crete and the Corsairs after a childhood spent raised in Liberty. In the future, will potentially continue on to chronicle her in-game events and adventures.
Deliverance, I: Fire in the Eyes of Men In-progress/On hold. A side story following one of many assignments tasked to Cassie by la familia de Dominique. Does not follow server or other roleplay.
To: Silver-Cassandra Complete. A fellow Corsair acquaintance met while raiding enemy territory leaves an unexpected message for Cassie with a thug in one of Planet Crete's bars.
The Girls of Sirius Calendar Complete. Cassie "agrees" to pose for a calendar photo-shoot in exchange for an extortionate quantity of credits.
Michael Jay Feury- -[Wiki page] Bretonian Civilian Recipient of the Medal of the True Bretonian
Quote:
A young yet experienced freight captain, Feury - as he's commonly called - is a pleasant and cheerful man currently employed by Border World Exports. He can frequently be seen plying his trade across Bretonia, Liberty and Rheinland and seeks to earn himself a fortune with which to retire comfortably.
Born of New London, Michael is a childhood friend of the freelancer Vale Waters, although the two have not met in many years. The family name is perhaps best known through his father, Tell "Tuscan" Feury, an infamous bounty hunter ace deployed in the independent- and border-worlds. His mother is a retired operative of the same organisation, living out her days on New London.
Ever since he was young, Feury dreamed of travelling the depths of space in his own transport vessel, and come age sixteen he secured a menial job at one of New London's larger spaceports. While the initial work was tediously overlooking cargo trailers and guiding maintenance drones, he familiarized himself with the inner workings of the trade and at age twenty-two managed to purchase his own freight ship; a second hand B-27-E Clydesdale.
Looking skyward, he proved to be an able pilot and captain, successfully completing contract after contract and slowly earning his way. Before long, he traded his vessel for a more standard CT-39X Albatross large transport and, eventually, a series-DL Borderworlds Transport. His pride and joy, he named the vessel the Naiad, but found it short-lived.
Set upon by pirates in the Omega-3 system, he watched from a tumbling escape pod as his hard work and fortunes erupted in a flurry of plasma fire. Undeterred, however, he hurried a recovery and the following year submitted an application to Bowex, seeking the security and surety of the corporate sector.
In-game vessels
Bowex)Penrose - - The BES-Penrose, named for Roger Penrose, Feury's Shetland class Bretonian supertransport flying under Border World Exports colors.
Stories and Articles
Bowex Recruitment Terminal Complete. Following his devastation at the loss of the Naiad, Michael is determined to get back on his feet and return to the skies, now as part of a larger shipping conglomerate. This is his successful application to Border World Exports, one of Bretonia's oldest and most prestigious corporations.
Bowex InfoNet Ongoing. An example of Feury's reports to internal Bowex networks about his activities and encounters in the Penrose. Reflects in-game activity.
Communication to the Bretonian Police Authority Complete. Feury contacts the BPA constabulary to formally commend the fine work of one of their officers, witnessed first-hand while flying through New London. In a shocking reply, he is awarded the Medal of the True Bretonian by Chief Commissioner Marcus Wright of the BPA for his swift actions and support of the officers' work.
Ascending and Descending Ongoing. Third-person written logs of the Penrose, primarily from Feury's perspective but potentially representing and introducing any of his crew. Reflects in-game activity.
Known by many parties across Sirius by his pilot moniker Valafar, Vale is a freelancer and opportunist of no fixed cause who roams the sector in search of his next paycheck. Generally whimsical and easy-going, he has somewhat of a gambling addiction and a hearty distrust of anything Kusari.
Bretonian born and raised on New London by a single parent, Vale is a childhood friend to Michael Jay Feury. Previously an able and popular child, his life got turned around when his mother, a BPA agent, was reassigned to Planet Leeds in 805 A.S. Delinquency and carelessness caused his grades to suffer, and come adulthood a career in the military was one of few avenues yet available to him.
To his surprise he found an affinity for spaceship flight, quickly graduating from East Evelyn, an Armed Forces training academy, and taking to the skies to play his part in the oncoming Tau conflict between Bretonia and Kusari. In 816 AS, his mother became a war casualty and Vale rashly broke from his unit to investigate and pursue against orders, indirectly leading to the death of four Armed Forces wingmen and crushing his conscience. Unable to face the situation, he fled to Liberty and fell into bad company.
Here he encountered Jessica Sullivan, a civilian to whom he look an instant liking. The pair formed a solid friendship until Vale's past came to light, whereupon she aggressively pursued him to accept his actions and regain a semblance of self perception, revealing a number of her own secrets along the way. In return for bringing him about, and for a number of other favors - both monetary and life-saving - Vale granted the woman an odd request; and a false marriage was established between the pair. He returned to Bretonia to face court-martial and imprisonment for his actions, while his "wife", - a sham that exists only on paper - now Jessica Waters, disappeared to her own ends.
Emerging from his incarceration several years later in 819 A.S., Vale now has registered freelance papers and proceeds to earn his own way across the Sirius sector.
As an OOC note: Vale's record with the BAF would be visible to any Bretonian agent of the crown, be it BPA, BIS or BAF. Although he wouldn't be hostile to any, he would expect a certain level of distrust and aversion from them. Feel free to portray this attitude in-game with any characters that could, within reason, be aware.
In-game vessels
Faze|Vale.Waters - - Vale's primary Eagle very heavy fighter, retrofitted with Bretonian propulsion systems and armaments and flying under colours of the Faze Mercenary group.
Faze|Vale.Waters. - - Vale's secondary Roc bomber, retrofitted with Bretonian propulsion systems and flying under colours of the Faze Mercenary group.
Stories and Articles
Faze Mercenaries Recruitment Complete. Growing tired of solo work, Vale bites on the opportunity to join an organisation that boasts of its loyalty and respectability.
Barrier Gate Station - Office C7 - Floor 4 In-Progress. The in-character compliment to Vale's Faze recruitment. After submitting his information he arrives at Barrier Gate to meet and be formally enlisted into Faze.
Just wanted to swing by and give your stories a thumbs-up (that, and I'm a sucker for any mention of astrophysics). You've got quite a talent for putting words together, and it's great to see the effort you've put into creating your characters as real people, with personalities and histories and all the faults that go along with it.
There seems to be precious little encouragement floating around in this thread, so I'll just leave some here. Keep it up!
Hah, typical that the only reply this gets happens mere hours before a full update & overhaul of the page. But, thanks! That sort of feedback is exactly what encourages me to write here, and every word means such a lot. I intend to get back into updating, continuing and starting new stories as soon as possible.
As for astrophysics - hurray! I'm now a graduate in the subject, love it more than ever, and always open to interesting chats!
![[Image: bowexbar.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/1R6XD32v/bowexbar.jpg)
