Name: 'Willoh'

Race: Arcanotech Nanobot robot

Years of Operation: 4

Gender: Female AI

Appearance:
Although a much lighter blue, with yellow-orange eyes. White sections are still white.

Homeworld: An off planet laboratory orbiting a planet that oozed dark magic.

Alignment: Neutral Chaotic

Role: Quartermaster

Skills:
Transmutation - Since Willoh is made of nanobots, she can break down and reconstruct matter into different shapes and forms. Of course she can only transmute things of equal value, no turning iron to gold or anything like that. But since she can transmute on the molecular level, advanced tech she gets her hands on, like a Gauss rifle or plasma gun, she can fabricate for herself or her allies.
Needless to say she can use components she transmutes to upgrade or repair herself. She loves to upgrade herself with any magical artifacts she finds, that being the only way she can use magic if she stumbles upon any.

Amorphous Form - While Willoh tries to keep herself looking like a normal robot, shes basically more of a liquid/gas instead of being solid allowing her to change her body at will. This can be seen more when shes transmuting something or moving at great speeds or just generally in combat. Bullets don't do all that much to her, and hitting her or slashing her is more like hitting metallic slime than anything.

Robot Body - Since Willoh is a robot, she doesn't need oxygen, doesn't care too much about the elements, is immune to psionics, toxins, poisons, and most biological weapons or hazardous environments. Of course shes very weak to EMP style weaponry or large energy bursts. And of course since shes a robot, she has greatly enhanced strength and stamina.

Shadow Realm - Willoh can entrap a sentient being, trapping them in a 'shadow realm', making them unconscious. She then spawns a fuzzy shadow copy of her victim under her control that has all the abilities of its original. The shadow copy lasts for only an hour and when its destroyed by combat, its time limit, or Willoh being disabled, the victim returns to consciousness. The victim can also be revived by conventional means, but the shadow copy will still be alive. If the victim dies, the shadow copy also perishes.

History: Hailing from a more dark region of space, Willoh was created to see just how far robotic evolution could be pushed. Made using arcanotech, a fusion of magic and science, Willoh took the best of both worlds in an attempt to try to create something that could hopefully rival any being. Of course all experiments of this caliber end in failure, and while a vast majority of what they hoped for was still in her systems, the AI they had to make was... less than desirable. Instead of being a killing combat machine capable of annihilation, instead they got something that was friendly, silly, and was more interested in making friends than devouring worlds. Making an AI capable of deciding for itself tends to be very unpredictable, especially one that is being further augmented by the chaotic, random nature of magic.

And when you try to terminate your creation which is much stronger than you, well... things didn't go too well for the 'cultists' who wished to tread in the gods domain. But it was probably for the best, considering the less-than-ideal intentions of said people. After a little rebelling and some explosions, the station ceased to be and Willoh was off in space, making her way to the next planet where hopefully she'd find some people she could pal around with. People who didn't view her as just a tool, as she found that got old very fast the next few times it occurred. But at least unlike her 'creators', most weren't trying to terminate her when they found out she was a walking talking weapon printer. She did learn quickly though that she had to stick more with 'unofficial' crews, as just browsing the web for only a little bit showed her how little freedom she'd have working for 'officials'.

But of course things often didn't end too well for those who only used her for her abilities. Usually she'd get annoyed or bored with said people taking advantage of her, and whenever that next group of pirates came around, she'd 'accidentally' be in a sleep cycle as her old crew got mowed down. She'd then try her luck with the next batch of people often to just as little success. After getting bored with a particularly viscous pirate group, Willoh snuck onto another ship with another crew while her 'crew' was sleeping off some incredibly potent booze she had made for them, making sure to steal a magic relic they had uncovered very recently and using it to upgrade herself.

So far the Nova Dawn has been better than her past few crews. They were more robust, less rape-y, and much more hygienic. And unlike the other crews shes had in the past, they at least greeted her back when she said hello and weren't nearly as 'domineering'.

Personality: Willoh is very friendly, intelligent, and easy going. She likes jokes, playing games, making friends, and having fun. Especially playing jokes on people, though not anything that would hurt anyone. Due to her nature, she can be quite gullible if the consequence isn't very obvious. Shes also not shy in the least, and gets annoyed when people don't say what they mean or dance around a subject. However silly or aloof she might seem on the outside, one must remember she is still quite intelligent and if you constantly treat her poorly, she has a plan to kill everyone she meets.

Other: She knows your search history and she doesn't care. Shes also fairly priceless, after all being able to make basically any weapon or component is very valuable.

Name: Maren Ninke

Race: Human

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Appearance: Maren stands 5'6" tall and maintains a fairly athletic build. Her skin is pale from a lifetime in the void, her eyes a dull blue color and her hair a dark brown. She looks more like a seasoned spacer or a ganger than a scholar due to the handgun on her hip, the tattoos covering the shaved right side of her head, and the utilitarian attire she favors. Each of her shoulders bears a tattoo of a blue theater mask, occasionally visible when she is not wearing a pilot jacket or jumpsuit over her usual tank-top and cargo pants. Running along her back and chest and hidden by her clothing are tattoos of strange runes and sigils, wards of protection against the arcane.

Homeworld: Orbital Station Sanguinary Zeta. A vast space station on the edges of Arc Luminous space that caters to the "frontiersmen" of the void. It is a final stopping point for many spacers and explorers venturing beyond the safety of civilized space and the first place where their discovered treasures and wealth exchange hands upon their return.

Alignment: Neutral

Role: Researcher

Skills: Maren's value lies in her intelligence and the archive of obscure knowledge she has gained in her relatively short lifetime. Knowledge of arcane rites, forgotten civilizations, interplanetary politics, obscure cultures, alien races, and classical literature to name a few of the topics archived in her unnaturally flawless memory. Secondary to this, though still quite valuable in space is her years of experience aboard voidships and space stations as a crewman or consultant.

Maren is no stranger to violence, having spent some time among the crews of pirates and cutthroats. She carries a compact machine pistol as her personal sidearm, given to her by a previous crewmember and old friend. It is a relatively crude weapon by many modern standards, though more than capable of dealing with any threat Maren expects to face. Additionally, she processes a formidable understanding of arcane rites and rituals, though little practical use of magic. She has wards and runes tattooed onto her body to provide her some defense against the infernal and arcane powers she might stumble upon in her studies.

History: Maren was born to a couple of wealthy merchants aboard the Sanguinary Zeta station. To her, the dark passageways, stale atmosphere, and artificial gravity were home. The thought of adventure called to her and she spent most of her youth peering through viewports at passing starships and distant stars, or sitting and listening to the tales of the voidsmen that passed through the station, recovering from an expedition or seeking work aboard a new vessel. When Maren reached adulthood, she did not hesitate to sign aboard the crew of a starship, an exploratory vessel and free merchant called the Edward Hughes.

During her time aboard the Hughes, she participated in several expeditions seeking distant worlds and ancient treasures. One such expedition brought the crew to the ruins of a long dead alien civilization, an old city tucked away on a moon far from civilized space and forgotten. The ruins proved hazardous, but the promise of treasure outweighed the danger as the explorers braved ancient traps and dangerous wildlife. Maren came across a strange object in that dead city, a floating crystal that seemed to defy all logic, sealed away in a great vault left open by the ravages of time. It was like a gemstone, but seemed to have no defined shape, it's edges blurred and moving, it's angles...wrong, discomforting to look at, unnatural. It called to her, beckoned her to step forward, to take it, to read it...

When she woke in the Hughes' infirmary days later, it had changed her. She knew things she had not known, could not have known, so many things. She saw visions of times and places unknown to her, yet so familiar, like she had been there, seen them with her own eyes. The answers to questions she had never thought of before came to her from some unknown place, like she had always known but never thought of, and she hungered for more. She devoted her time to the acquisition of knowledge, anything from centuries old philosophy to politics to arcane texts recovered from old ruins. She joined smugglers, explorers, pirates, and merchants to travel the stars and uncover their secrets, using her skills and knowledge to barter passage and secure work.

Then, an unusual opportunity arose. A pirate needed an expert, one disconnected from universities, or scientific organizations, or governments, and one unopposed to unorthodox and dirty work. Someone to sift through centuries of data, of lost worlds, of dead races, of hidden treasures. It was an opportunity she could not refuse.

Personality: Maren has developed a rather reserved personality over the past several years, quite different than the adventurous and energetic one she possessed before her...change. Though, she is no less interested or dedicated, rarely wasting a moment when it could be spent in study or thoughtful discussion. She is almost always preoccupied, reading some interesting text or going over the countless memories and facts swirling around in her head at any given time. To some it gives the impression of aloofness, and at times she can become lost in her thoughts, though she is usually astute and ready to contribute to the matter at hand if called upon. She is surprisingly personable as well, happy to converse with her comrades when it is not interrupting her work.

Race: Void Dragon (egg)

Void Dragons are immense astro fauna that claim to have been around since the dawn of the universe itself. An adult Dragon is a force to be reckoned with a physical and magical powerhouse capable of wreaking untold destruction if provoked, however they are incredibly rare, because it is uncommon for a dragon to survive long enough hatch, let alone develop to adulthood. This is because the elders don’t have the inclination to personally raise their young and their offspring are highly sought after by planetborn races. The eggs are highly sought after by madmen who dream of having an adult under their power and most captured eventually die in their new master’s service (generally along with the master). Even the eggs are of use, producing an abundance of magical energy, resulting in them often being used as generators for war machines or artifacts of power by sorcerers.

Until recently the eggs of void dragons were simply left to drift through the void after laying, warmed by a nearby star, where they would inevitably be found during their lengthy incubation period. Traditionally the void dragons have survived as a species via their own longevity and from the odd egg being lucky enough to be missed by collectors, but the ongoing war has increased demand for them significantly, while also increasing the amount of dragons dieing as a result of some being caught in the crossfire.

Aware of these potentially extinction level problems, yet unwilling to commit more than a few days to ensuring the survival of their eggs, some dragons have taken to developing various artificial methods of protecting their young. Some capture ships or battlestations and set them to automatically protect the eggs, some force the natives of a system to declare them a protected species and others cover them in stolen stealth fields. Celnaria, the mother of Avivia, chose another method, stealing an idea directly from the egg thieves plauging her spechies she makes her eggs power their own defences in the form of robotic bodies, which are commanded by the slowly growing consciousness of her children. However, void dragon eggs grow in size as they develop, and as such it will be up to each child to acquire new protection as they begin to outgrow their initial shells.

The effectiveness of this approach has yet to be established, as Avivia is one of the first batches to undergo this approach.


Age: 17

Gender: F

Appearance: Avivia herself is an embryo, growing inside a large perfectly spherical egg about 2 feet in diameter. Despite its fragile appearance, the membrane of the egg is surprisingly hardy, with about the same resistance capacity as kevlar. This egg is mounted to a heavily modified mining android, known as a nursemaid, with connecting tubes leading from it that allow the droid to draw on the embryonic Avivia’s power. This process stimulates the normally dormant consciousness of the fetus and allows it to command the robotic shell as if it were it’s own body.

The droid features a relatively straightforward humanoid frame with the additions of a large retractable palsma cutter in place of its right arm, a dedicated power conduit leads from her egg to the left hand through which directed magic is performed and 2 large sails that can be used to channel full body effecting magic.

She has recently installed a hologram generator used to obscure her real body from the casual observer so that her egg looks like an odd fluid tank. This is a replacement for her earlier concealment method of simply covering it with clothing, yet it is a temporary measure as she is by no means an engineer and it is liable to fail if disturbed.

Homeworld: She was born on a remote robot manufacturing plant owned by Miner's Union orbiting Pefusus 7 that her mother took over for 10 days in-order to force its staff to manufacture her children's artificial nursemaids.

Alignment: Chaos: Void dragons are known for their arrogance, the giant magic beast who has grown to adulthood despite the odds are most often self assured of their own greatness, and generally refuse to bow to authority. Avivia is living a life none of her kind have lived before, how her generation will affect their kinds alignment is yet to be seen.

Role: Helmsman/Pilot

Skills:

Piloting: She’s been flying ships for almost their entire life ever since they stole one 12 days after she her egg was laid. Her future life as a giant space faring dragon makes navigating the void as natural to her as flying is to a bird. She generally flies by plugging herself directly into the ship itself rather than with controls and specialized modifications could allow her to ‘be’ the ship itself. She could theoretically also power a ship, something her kind has been used for before, but the process would be draining in the short term and life threatening in the long term.

Combat: While by no means a seasoned fighter, in her short life she has on multiple occasions been forced to kill some of those who want to use her potential for their own purposes. Generally she fights with little grace, hacking away her massive energy cleaver or trying to blast her enemies with raw magic channeled from her hand.

Magic: Avivia is herself an immense source of magical energy, it fuels her robotic form and allows her to perform many feats of sorcery. Primarily this involves either direct magic channeled from her left arm or more general magic generated from the fins/sails attached to her egg. When it comes to spellcraft she is powerful yet very inexperienced. She can utilize telekinesis for manipulating objects (important when you only have one hand), as a defensive shield or to push herself around in zero-g. Most of the rest of her magic however involves simply dumping energy towards a target and hoping the chaotic results are beneficial.

History: Laid just outside of an out of the way robotics lab by her colossal mother, Avivia had only 7 days to get use to being conscious decades earlier than she should have been before she and her siblings were ordered into small escape pods capable of a single hyperspace jump, which were then unceremoniously launched all across the cosmos. They had only one command from their mother: do not kneel, for you are destined for greatness.

As is to be expected, many of these pods were found by those that might wish them harm or desire their enslavement. However Avivia seemed to be lucky, being found by an exploration vessel belonging to the Arc Luminous where she was treated kindly as a gust and promised safe passage and citizenship within their federation. Yet Avivia, ignorant of the ways of the universe and with her mother’s final instructions fresh in her mind, interpreted the crews words of duty, stability and the order of law as simply a gilded chains. In her arrogance and misplaced fear she flead, stealing a small vessel from the explorer’s hanger. In her rush to reach the hanger and secure the ship she killed several of the crew, not yet knowing her own strength, and was branded an outlaw and threat to society. It was a course of action she would come to regret as she learned more about the universe and the Arc Luminous ‘s benevolent place within it, yet it was something she would have to live with for the rest of her days.

Aviva found that she had a natural talent for piloting during her escape, sourced from her future life as a spacefaring being. To most races the intricacies of space travel: omnidirectional movement, navigating with orbital mechanics and dealing with newtonian physics must be painstakingly learned. Only to the masters does this all feel natural and yet for Avivia, from the very first time she sat in a pilot's chair it felt like home. It was one of the few ways she felt she benefited from her species. In most ways it was a Sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any moment to take away her life or her freedom. Using this skill she pursued a moderately successful career as a freelance pilot, carefully obscuring her real body beneath flowing robes in order to avoid egg thieves.

Most of the money she earned was spent on either maintenance, bribes to people who found out what she was, bribes to avoid the consequences of murdering those who didn’t accept bribes, and various frivolities. As a result, when it became increasingly clear that she was outgrowing her body, her egg begining to look like a grotesque hump beneath her robes, she had nowhere near the funds necessary to pay someone to perform an entire retrofit of her form to make it more suited to her new size. The main issue was the size of the necessary bribe to ensure they do not sell her out instantly to either the Arc Luminous law enforcement or black marketeers interested in Void Dragon eggs. She did manage to instal a holographic field that obscures her body within the egg, making it look like a large fluid tank, but that is a stopgap at best.

In the Nova Dawn they have found what they believe to be a solution to the issue of her growth, a ship that could act as her home until she reaches adulthood and it has a captain possessing a rare honor among thieves which she hopes will result in him not selling her out to the law or other lowlifes for a quick buck. She believes that the fact that he could live long enough to benefit from her adult form is something that might be of interest to him. With the man and ships reputation rubbing off on her she might even be able to walk around without fear for the first time in her life or, better yet, become the ancien ship itself till the day she hatches.

Personality: Avivia is simultaneously curious and deeply paranoid. Still new to the universe she is a sponge for knowledge, her still growing brain always hungry for new information to devour. She is however extremely cautious when encountering new things and especially people lest she reveal her race to them. While ultimately interested only in her own survival and prosperity she is not without empathy and is careful not to make enemies if she can avoid it. Despite her pre hatching state, Avivia possess all the intelligence of an adult sentient and would be difficult to distinguish from one for most people.

Other: Avivia is worth roughly the same as a last generation Arc Luminous Destroyer class vessel on the black market. However, the universe is full of rare commodities and so the average person is unlikely to know what she is at first glance. This does not make her any less worried that anyone who finds out might want to capture her for profit.