Name: Altaris ca'Menron
Age: 419 Sulvrier years, approximately 574 Earth years
Birthday: 42th day of Coronal, 392nd day of the Sulvrier year
Gender: Agender, closed-communication / devotedly nurturing / willfully leading
Species: Sulvriss
Career: Chancellor of Starlight Observation Station [NPC]
Appearance Description:
Personality Description: Altaris is a reserved individual that is completely dedicated to its work and maintaining his rate of productivity. To those unused to its drive, it can be a very demanding taskmaster. As a closed-communication Sulvriss, it is used to working alone and using introspection to better handle everyday tasks. It is very passionate in assuring that others are taken care of, despite its solitary nature and often imposing presence. Though Altaris can easily speak to other species through telepathy -a skill that is practically required of offworld Sulvriss- it usually simply designs not to unless necessary as many who approach it with their issues sometimes tend to answer their own questions after speaking at length on their own. In times of need, it is normally the first person to take charge of the situation and remains calm under pressure. Somewhat annoyingly to its allies, it has a tendency to make plans, act on them, and then not tell them until the very last moment. It normally does well enough on its own but on the rare occasions of failure, most everybody around it is taken off guard as they scramble to fix the issue.
For a person who acts aloof, Altaris is actually very good with people and gauging their moods. It is secretive but honest and sometimes even just a little whimsical. To put things into prospective, it's idea for boosting the station's economy was to start a company for touring stars in Orion's Belt. It was a side project that was started up in just a week.
Species Abilities: The Sulvriss are a psychic species, with five percent of their total population naturally gifted with foresight and roughly thirty percent capable of teleporting distances of at least ten feet. Twenty percent of the population has no telepathic abilities at all. In every Sulvriss's natural last ten years of life, their abilities will gradually dwindle down to nothing.
Most Sulvriss specialize in a specific field. There are healers of all varieties, transporters, guardians, and seers, to name a few examples. Altaris is considered to be a scout due to its prowess in both teleportation and astral projection.
Multipresence
Altaris is capable of a form of astral projection that lets it be both aware and in control of its physical body as well as every projection that it has released. Each projection is a continuous drain on Altaris's energy and any abilities that they use are weakened by approximately twenty-five percent, more if the distance between the physical body and the project is greater than about the size of a city block. Projections can be destroyed but will not harm Altaris, though they will leave it dazed for a few minutes due to backlash. Any mind or soul targeting spells used on the projections will also affect Altaris itself.
Due to its power, Altaris is able to maintain up to five of these projections at once, though the fifth one will be at merely twenty-three-point-seven percent of its typical power. Maintaining five at once will also normally be effective for only a few hours before the weakest is forcibly dispelled. Maintaining a single projection may allow Altaris to be in two different star systems at once, though surely not the entire length of the galaxy. Every projection must make its own way to whichever destination Altaris has in mind.
Shielding
As a powerful psychic, Altaris has strong mental defenses and is also able to produce physical shields out of pure force. Assuming it has no projections released, one of its shields is capable of withstanding moderate fire from a spacecraft -assuming no other shields are raised and the size itself would be relatively small. An issue with Altaris's shielding abilities, however, is that they are geared towards rejecting different forms of powers and energy rather than physical matter. For example, heat, lightning, and raw magical power would be blocked. However, things such as bullets or simply bricks would pass through.
Telekinesis
This is the part of Altaris's power that focuses on physical matter. It is capable of lifting up to one ton's worth of material via telekinesis. Its range is five hundred feet.
Telepathy
Like all Sulvriss, Altaris is a telepath capable of conversing to others via universal mental language. Its telepathy works as a two way line and both parties must be specifically directing their thoughts towards each other to be heard. This is often a moderate obstacle towards people who meet Altaris for the first time, as concentrating their thoughts towards it can be a difficult task.
Teleportation
Altaris is capable of teleporting both itself and others across long distances, though only to places that it has been to before. The location must be relatively stationary or, rather, on a stable and mostly steady orbit. Assuming that it travels with under five hundred pounds of matter, Altaris can travel roughly seven miles per second through teleportation. Anything more would lengthen the time it would take to move that distance.
Personal Ability: When In Doubt - Just shoot it. In case there is anything negating its psychic powers, Altaris will simply unload a plasma gun into the face of whatever being is threatening it. The gun can be fired ten times before it must cool down for five minutes. The plasma is capable of vaporizing nearly anything it hits. However, Altaris is not that exceptional of a marksman so unless the target is at close range, it will most likely take several tries to actually make a hit.
Biography: Sulvrier is a new member of the Confederation for Milky Way Species, having joined only in 1989, almost a decade before Glendin did. The planet, however, was contacted by other species as far back as twenty-thousand years ago, by the ancestors of modern day Grells. The interaction was unfortunately hostile, resulting in the destruction of Sulvrier's five moons and laying waste to the largest Motherwood forest on the planet. The Sulvriss soon turned back the invaders and drove them off the planet. Being many thousands of years behind producing their own spacecrafts, however, they were unable to reach other to other species that might have been less hostile.
As the ancient Grell Empire declined some time after, records of the invasion were left behind on previously conquered and now discarded worlds. On Grell itself, the records were either destroyed or lost. Knowledge of the Sulvriss became lost as the new ruling oligarchy sealed away all knowledge of space so that their people could first concentrate on rebuilding their own planet. It was fourteen thousand years later when the knowledge was discovered again, undecipherable, and eventually the modern Grells rediscovered the mechanics of space-travel themselves. It was another few centuries after that when the Grells discovered scholars who still studied the ancient Grell languages on the planet of Lazarin, a former holding of the empire which had been fully colonized and rebelled for its independence before the fall.
Finally, in approximately 3000B.C., the Grells once again landed on Sulvrier, as a tentative pilgrimage to visit the places that their ancestors had savaged in the past. Though tensions held throughout that first visit as well as the dozen which followed after, by 1000B.C., the two planets were in good relations. When Grell finally joined the Confederation, the Sulvriss were hesitant in making the commitment and so declined the invitation, though they continued to profess alliance with the Grells.
Altaris ca'Menron was born in the 1440's A.D. It was the second spawn of a pod of three and the only one to emerge. Its two almost-siblings were reabsorbed by the Motherwood Menron, which stood far in Sulvrier's south. It was this time that the Sulvriss began creating spacial technologies on their own. Though the species was wise in its own way, the very lack of appropriate materials and understanding made it impossible for it to completely revert to space-faring by itself. It was only through the intervention of the relatively advanced Grells which allowed the Sulvriss to truly became a galactic force. By the mid 1700's, Altaris had mastered its abilities to a degree where it seemed only logical for it to explore other planets. In 1768, it made its first voyage to Grell and from there, the planet of Lor.
In 1785, however, it was forced to return to Sulvrier because of poor health. Accompanying it was the Glendine researcher Arin whom it had met on Grell. This was the first Glendine to ever set foot on Sulvrier. Over the next decades, the pair devised ways for Sulvriss to reside in on other planets for long periods of time without ill effects. Their experiments lead to the development of vaccines which supplemented the fragile Sulvriss immune system and also the discovery of medicines tailored specifically to Sulvriss biology, which seemed miraculous in comparison to the cures that various Sulvriss abroad had tried for their inevitable bouts of illness.
Unfortunately, the Glendine lifespan was far shorter than the Sulvriss'. Already in his mid-life at the time of their meeting, Arin died of old age on Sulvrier in 1921, at the age of 281. Restless, Altaris left the planet ten years later, traveling from planet to planet alone until it heard news of the Akchovians having made contact with a strange species on a planet called Earth. Though the news only slightly interested it at first, it began to slowly hear rumors of the powers that the people there held, as well as the fact that it was not just a single species but many living in relative albeit oblivious harmony. Thus, with a guide from the original Akchovian landing party, Altaris arrived on Manta Carlos in late winter of 1979, just after Cordelia Moor put an end to the Rhaggorian Revolt.
In order to best study the Terrans, Altaris simply approached Starlight Academy and made its intentions perfectly clear. After a meeting with Moor, it then proceeded to spend the next five years on Manta Carlos, ghosting from class to class. Mostly, however, it pestered the staff with questions. Specifically, it pestered Moor with questions as she was obviously the most qualified to deal with issues such as why the island continued to hide its existence from the typical Terran population while it dealt with extraterrestrial visitors on a regular basis. It was from these discussions that Altaris heard of the Starlight Observation Station project.
At the beginning of the sixth year, Altaris released a projection to report back to the Motherwood keepers, to persuade them into finally joining the Confederation as the chance to be part of a full, monitored galactic-scale exchange proved to be more and more alluring. After several years of consideration, the Sulvriss finally did so. In order to make the vision of Starlight Observation Station into a reality, Altaris then directed a projection to the planet of Glendin. Having gained an understanding of Glendine ideology from its time with Arin, Altaris was able to convince the Glendine queen to accept the Confederation's long-maintained invitation.
When Starlight Station was completed in 2016, Altaris was nominated to be its chancellor, as a non-Terran being with some of the most experience with dealing with Manta Carlos. It was also the only one available to take the position.
Additional Information: These are the ten Sulvriss seasons, each of which are fifty days long: Dawn, Twilight, Morning, Noon, Evening, Dusk, Night, Coronal, Midnight, Auroral. What most species think of as times of the day are literally what their seasons are. Sulvriss days are measured by how long it takes for a Motherwood to put out a single pod that may or may not produce Sulvriss young in the future. This period is approximately twenty-five hours. Surnames are given based off of the season that the Sulvriss was born into as well as the Motherwood that they were born from. The seasonal prefixes are, respectively: al', im', ri', o', ven', ul', n', ca', mid', and au'.
Age: 419 Sulvrier years, approximately 574 Earth years
Birthday: 42th day of Coronal, 392nd day of the Sulvrier year
Gender: Agender, closed-communication / devotedly nurturing / willfully leading
Species: Sulvriss
Career: Chancellor of Starlight Observation Station [NPC]
Appearance Description:
The Sulvriss are a humanoid species from the planet of Sulvrier beyond Baade's Window in the Milky Way. Generally standing between six to seven feet in height, the Sulvriss evolved in an environment with more oxygen and weaker gravitation fields than Earth. They lack feet and instead have long legs that end in points, which make it easier to travel in the loomy sediment covering their planet. The Sulvriss do occasionally use soft, shoe-like sheathes to cover their leg points while on planet but those who travel to other worlds often must don better reinforced shoes as a necessity. Usually made of some sort of stiff material or even metal, these offworld shoes often times resemble hooves. They have two to six arms depending on the season they were born in. Rarely, a Sulvriss may be born with none at all.
The Sulvriss homeworld exists in a star-rich system consisting of a large number of blue stragglers and interstellar dust. It derives light from the variety of relatively bright stars that surround it as its own sun is a faint white dwarf. As a result, the Sulvriss are adapted to low light conditions but also perceive a greater range of colors than humans do. Their bone structure is surprisingly strong but flexible. However, in comparison to other species, their lungs are quite weak. They often experience troubles with verbal communication because Sulvriss ears are tuned to very low frequencies. What seems like a slight whisper to a human is the equivalent of enraged, unrestrained shrieking to a Sulvriss. Thus, Sulvriss who leave the planet also must come prepared with sound dampeners and special breathing devices.
Skin pigmentation on Sulvriss is varied but often come in pale hues. The most common of these are variations of blue, green, and yellow that would easily burn in the light of Earth's harsh sun. Their blood is milky white and therefore, they do not blush. Eye colors include white, grey, silver, and black. The Sulvriss do not grow hair and are androgynous in appearance. All Sulvriss lack reproductive organs because they are born from Motherwoods, which are ghostly trees grown from the remains of their ancient ancestors. The average Sulvriss lifespan is approximately seven to eight hundred years. As their planet rarely is exposed to viruses, Sulvriss immune systems are delicate.
Though there is only one sex, Sulvriss culture has many gender identities based on a combination of how an individual expresses themself, what they wish of themself, and how they perceive themself in connection with the world. After having made contact with multi-sexed species, the Sulvriss bemusedly took on common gendered words to make it easier for aliens to understand. For example, members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully grounded gender are "females." But members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully wandering gender are "males" and members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully leading gender are agender. Though it is often hard to tell "male" and "female" genders apart, agender individuals are normally distinguished by leadership and mediation traits. Furthermore, there is a distinction between "it" and "they" in terms of application. "It" is not seen as dehumanizing and is freely used with agender individuals. "They" in comparison is used almost exclusively for children under two hundred years of age who have not yet decided on a gender and are thus considered to be "many voiced."
The Sulvriss homeworld exists in a star-rich system consisting of a large number of blue stragglers and interstellar dust. It derives light from the variety of relatively bright stars that surround it as its own sun is a faint white dwarf. As a result, the Sulvriss are adapted to low light conditions but also perceive a greater range of colors than humans do. Their bone structure is surprisingly strong but flexible. However, in comparison to other species, their lungs are quite weak. They often experience troubles with verbal communication because Sulvriss ears are tuned to very low frequencies. What seems like a slight whisper to a human is the equivalent of enraged, unrestrained shrieking to a Sulvriss. Thus, Sulvriss who leave the planet also must come prepared with sound dampeners and special breathing devices.
Skin pigmentation on Sulvriss is varied but often come in pale hues. The most common of these are variations of blue, green, and yellow that would easily burn in the light of Earth's harsh sun. Their blood is milky white and therefore, they do not blush. Eye colors include white, grey, silver, and black. The Sulvriss do not grow hair and are androgynous in appearance. All Sulvriss lack reproductive organs because they are born from Motherwoods, which are ghostly trees grown from the remains of their ancient ancestors. The average Sulvriss lifespan is approximately seven to eight hundred years. As their planet rarely is exposed to viruses, Sulvriss immune systems are delicate.
Though there is only one sex, Sulvriss culture has many gender identities based on a combination of how an individual expresses themself, what they wish of themself, and how they perceive themself in connection with the world. After having made contact with multi-sexed species, the Sulvriss bemusedly took on common gendered words to make it easier for aliens to understand. For example, members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully grounded gender are "females." But members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully wandering gender are "males" and members of the open-communication, creatively productive, willfully leading gender are agender. Though it is often hard to tell "male" and "female" genders apart, agender individuals are normally distinguished by leadership and mediation traits. Furthermore, there is a distinction between "it" and "they" in terms of application. "It" is not seen as dehumanizing and is freely used with agender individuals. "They" in comparison is used almost exclusively for children under two hundred years of age who have not yet decided on a gender and are thus considered to be "many voiced."
Altaris is six feet and six inches tall with very pale green skin and white eyes, though its habit of veiling itself offworld often conceals this. It is a rare armless Sulvriss, which is compensated for with powerful psychic abilities. In order to remain healthy in alien atmospheres, it dons heavy dark-grey robes with a hood to shield its eyes from harsh lights and wears a clear breathing device over its mouth and nose. Rather than walk, it frequently levitates itself slightly above the ground and wears soft shoes normally reserved for use on Sulvrier. Its sound dampeners are completely hidden and filter sounds over a certain Hertz to a level that is more gentle to listen to.
Personality Description: Altaris is a reserved individual that is completely dedicated to its work and maintaining his rate of productivity. To those unused to its drive, it can be a very demanding taskmaster. As a closed-communication Sulvriss, it is used to working alone and using introspection to better handle everyday tasks. It is very passionate in assuring that others are taken care of, despite its solitary nature and often imposing presence. Though Altaris can easily speak to other species through telepathy -a skill that is practically required of offworld Sulvriss- it usually simply designs not to unless necessary as many who approach it with their issues sometimes tend to answer their own questions after speaking at length on their own. In times of need, it is normally the first person to take charge of the situation and remains calm under pressure. Somewhat annoyingly to its allies, it has a tendency to make plans, act on them, and then not tell them until the very last moment. It normally does well enough on its own but on the rare occasions of failure, most everybody around it is taken off guard as they scramble to fix the issue.
For a person who acts aloof, Altaris is actually very good with people and gauging their moods. It is secretive but honest and sometimes even just a little whimsical. To put things into prospective, it's idea for boosting the station's economy was to start a company for touring stars in Orion's Belt. It was a side project that was started up in just a week.
Species Abilities: The Sulvriss are a psychic species, with five percent of their total population naturally gifted with foresight and roughly thirty percent capable of teleporting distances of at least ten feet. Twenty percent of the population has no telepathic abilities at all. In every Sulvriss's natural last ten years of life, their abilities will gradually dwindle down to nothing.
Most Sulvriss specialize in a specific field. There are healers of all varieties, transporters, guardians, and seers, to name a few examples. Altaris is considered to be a scout due to its prowess in both teleportation and astral projection.
Multipresence
Altaris is capable of a form of astral projection that lets it be both aware and in control of its physical body as well as every projection that it has released. Each projection is a continuous drain on Altaris's energy and any abilities that they use are weakened by approximately twenty-five percent, more if the distance between the physical body and the project is greater than about the size of a city block. Projections can be destroyed but will not harm Altaris, though they will leave it dazed for a few minutes due to backlash. Any mind or soul targeting spells used on the projections will also affect Altaris itself.
Due to its power, Altaris is able to maintain up to five of these projections at once, though the fifth one will be at merely twenty-three-point-seven percent of its typical power. Maintaining five at once will also normally be effective for only a few hours before the weakest is forcibly dispelled. Maintaining a single projection may allow Altaris to be in two different star systems at once, though surely not the entire length of the galaxy. Every projection must make its own way to whichever destination Altaris has in mind.
Shielding
As a powerful psychic, Altaris has strong mental defenses and is also able to produce physical shields out of pure force. Assuming it has no projections released, one of its shields is capable of withstanding moderate fire from a spacecraft -assuming no other shields are raised and the size itself would be relatively small. An issue with Altaris's shielding abilities, however, is that they are geared towards rejecting different forms of powers and energy rather than physical matter. For example, heat, lightning, and raw magical power would be blocked. However, things such as bullets or simply bricks would pass through.
Telekinesis
This is the part of Altaris's power that focuses on physical matter. It is capable of lifting up to one ton's worth of material via telekinesis. Its range is five hundred feet.
Telepathy
Like all Sulvriss, Altaris is a telepath capable of conversing to others via universal mental language. Its telepathy works as a two way line and both parties must be specifically directing their thoughts towards each other to be heard. This is often a moderate obstacle towards people who meet Altaris for the first time, as concentrating their thoughts towards it can be a difficult task.
Teleportation
Altaris is capable of teleporting both itself and others across long distances, though only to places that it has been to before. The location must be relatively stationary or, rather, on a stable and mostly steady orbit. Assuming that it travels with under five hundred pounds of matter, Altaris can travel roughly seven miles per second through teleportation. Anything more would lengthen the time it would take to move that distance.
Personal Ability: When In Doubt - Just shoot it. In case there is anything negating its psychic powers, Altaris will simply unload a plasma gun into the face of whatever being is threatening it. The gun can be fired ten times before it must cool down for five minutes. The plasma is capable of vaporizing nearly anything it hits. However, Altaris is not that exceptional of a marksman so unless the target is at close range, it will most likely take several tries to actually make a hit.
Biography: Sulvrier is a new member of the Confederation for Milky Way Species, having joined only in 1989, almost a decade before Glendin did. The planet, however, was contacted by other species as far back as twenty-thousand years ago, by the ancestors of modern day Grells. The interaction was unfortunately hostile, resulting in the destruction of Sulvrier's five moons and laying waste to the largest Motherwood forest on the planet. The Sulvriss soon turned back the invaders and drove them off the planet. Being many thousands of years behind producing their own spacecrafts, however, they were unable to reach other to other species that might have been less hostile.
As the ancient Grell Empire declined some time after, records of the invasion were left behind on previously conquered and now discarded worlds. On Grell itself, the records were either destroyed or lost. Knowledge of the Sulvriss became lost as the new ruling oligarchy sealed away all knowledge of space so that their people could first concentrate on rebuilding their own planet. It was fourteen thousand years later when the knowledge was discovered again, undecipherable, and eventually the modern Grells rediscovered the mechanics of space-travel themselves. It was another few centuries after that when the Grells discovered scholars who still studied the ancient Grell languages on the planet of Lazarin, a former holding of the empire which had been fully colonized and rebelled for its independence before the fall.
Finally, in approximately 3000B.C., the Grells once again landed on Sulvrier, as a tentative pilgrimage to visit the places that their ancestors had savaged in the past. Though tensions held throughout that first visit as well as the dozen which followed after, by 1000B.C., the two planets were in good relations. When Grell finally joined the Confederation, the Sulvriss were hesitant in making the commitment and so declined the invitation, though they continued to profess alliance with the Grells.
Altaris ca'Menron was born in the 1440's A.D. It was the second spawn of a pod of three and the only one to emerge. Its two almost-siblings were reabsorbed by the Motherwood Menron, which stood far in Sulvrier's south. It was this time that the Sulvriss began creating spacial technologies on their own. Though the species was wise in its own way, the very lack of appropriate materials and understanding made it impossible for it to completely revert to space-faring by itself. It was only through the intervention of the relatively advanced Grells which allowed the Sulvriss to truly became a galactic force. By the mid 1700's, Altaris had mastered its abilities to a degree where it seemed only logical for it to explore other planets. In 1768, it made its first voyage to Grell and from there, the planet of Lor.
In 1785, however, it was forced to return to Sulvrier because of poor health. Accompanying it was the Glendine researcher Arin whom it had met on Grell. This was the first Glendine to ever set foot on Sulvrier. Over the next decades, the pair devised ways for Sulvriss to reside in on other planets for long periods of time without ill effects. Their experiments lead to the development of vaccines which supplemented the fragile Sulvriss immune system and also the discovery of medicines tailored specifically to Sulvriss biology, which seemed miraculous in comparison to the cures that various Sulvriss abroad had tried for their inevitable bouts of illness.
Unfortunately, the Glendine lifespan was far shorter than the Sulvriss'. Already in his mid-life at the time of their meeting, Arin died of old age on Sulvrier in 1921, at the age of 281. Restless, Altaris left the planet ten years later, traveling from planet to planet alone until it heard news of the Akchovians having made contact with a strange species on a planet called Earth. Though the news only slightly interested it at first, it began to slowly hear rumors of the powers that the people there held, as well as the fact that it was not just a single species but many living in relative albeit oblivious harmony. Thus, with a guide from the original Akchovian landing party, Altaris arrived on Manta Carlos in late winter of 1979, just after Cordelia Moor put an end to the Rhaggorian Revolt.
In order to best study the Terrans, Altaris simply approached Starlight Academy and made its intentions perfectly clear. After a meeting with Moor, it then proceeded to spend the next five years on Manta Carlos, ghosting from class to class. Mostly, however, it pestered the staff with questions. Specifically, it pestered Moor with questions as she was obviously the most qualified to deal with issues such as why the island continued to hide its existence from the typical Terran population while it dealt with extraterrestrial visitors on a regular basis. It was from these discussions that Altaris heard of the Starlight Observation Station project.
At the beginning of the sixth year, Altaris released a projection to report back to the Motherwood keepers, to persuade them into finally joining the Confederation as the chance to be part of a full, monitored galactic-scale exchange proved to be more and more alluring. After several years of consideration, the Sulvriss finally did so. In order to make the vision of Starlight Observation Station into a reality, Altaris then directed a projection to the planet of Glendin. Having gained an understanding of Glendine ideology from its time with Arin, Altaris was able to convince the Glendine queen to accept the Confederation's long-maintained invitation.
When Starlight Station was completed in 2016, Altaris was nominated to be its chancellor, as a non-Terran being with some of the most experience with dealing with Manta Carlos. It was also the only one available to take the position.
Additional Information: These are the ten Sulvriss seasons, each of which are fifty days long: Dawn, Twilight, Morning, Noon, Evening, Dusk, Night, Coronal, Midnight, Auroral. What most species think of as times of the day are literally what their seasons are. Sulvriss days are measured by how long it takes for a Motherwood to put out a single pod that may or may not produce Sulvriss young in the future. This period is approximately twenty-five hours. Surnames are given based off of the season that the Sulvriss was born into as well as the Motherwood that they were born from. The seasonal prefixes are, respectively: al', im', ri', o', ven', ul', n', ca', mid', and au'.