Name: Ceasar Luna Age: 38 Gender: Male Ethnicity/ Nationality: Iberian/ Portuguese Appearance: Ceasar has a hooked nose cliffed above a set of rosy, sneering lips. His eyes are more narrow slits than anything, almond-shaped windows to his black soul. He is short, delicate, flamboyant, and balding. He wears bold colors and fancy hats to cover his shiny head. Notes: Creepster --- Name: Leonard Comstock Age: 42 Gender: Male Ethnicity/Nationality: Anglo-European/ English Appearance: Leonard has rough skin and rough features, somehow evened out by his mannerisms and inflections. His skin has been darkened by his travels on the high sea and beyond. He sports a nice sized brown beard and moustache. His medium length curly hair is topped by a cavaliers hat most of the time. He wears just about what you’d expect a pirate to wear, satin shirt under a russet leather coat. Sashes, and belts, and buckles adorn his outfit, which is topped off by the leather gloves and boots, and the feather in his hat. He is about average height with a well-built frame. Notes: You’ll always see him with a saber and his flintlock rifle. Both of which are exquisitely made and seem to be exotic. Beside this, Leonard radiates the aura of a well-traveled man. --- Name: Epunamun {E-Poo-NA-MOON} Age: 34 Gender: Male Ethnicity/Nationality: Mapuche/ Inca Appearance: Epu has dark bronze skin, it glistens brilliantly in the moonlight. His hair is a sold black and is only broken by short white strands every once in a while. The very end of his hair would reach his lower back were he to let it go. Instead he generally keeps it in a bun and ponytail, or braids, or knots. He has a sharp nose, almost like a beak, but it’s width gives it a structural aesthetic value. His lips are full and low set, very much like his eyes. A widows peak crowns his features lovingly. He is a toned, muscled giant standing next to most Europeans; but to be fair, he hasn’t visited Russia or Germany yet. He has tattoos about his body, some on his arms, others on his leg, even one on his neck, behind his ear. He’s taken to wearing proper shirts and pants but refuses any of the other accoutrements, usually leaving his shirts unbuttoned. Notes: A former Incan warrior, who helped his people repel and ultimately crush the Spainiard occupation (with a little help from Emillio), Epu is a rather stern man. He’s spent his whole life either learning how to kill or killing. Traveling with Emillio has allowed him to open his mind to other things in life, but shrugging off dark shadows such as that is a hard task on it’s own.

> Name: Esra Gad El Rab > > Age: 22 > > Gender: Female > > Birthplace: Tafilet, Morocco > > Religious Affiliation: Muslim > > Secular Affiliation: House of Alaoui > > Level of education: attended many classes and lectures at her mosque in Tafilet & Rabat; > trained as a healer > > Social status: middle class (in Morocco) > > Occupation: midwife & healer, mother & wife > > Appearance: It’s a joke between Othman, her husband, and Esra that she is the better looking of the two. One because it is not hard to look more attractive than her club-footed husband who also sports drooping eyes and poor teeth. Two because Esra isn’t horribly attractive herself. She has too many freckles on her face and her bottom lip is too fat to be considered “pouty.” Her eyebrows are thick (almost identical to Othman’s) and her small nose is almost as wide as it is long. As a child, she couldn’t wait to wear a hajib because of scar behind her left ear that left a large bald spot. Othman helps comb out her black hair at night. She’s got the type of body babies like to bury their faces into; soft and warm and fleshy. Othman says this is her most attractive feature (even more so than her green eyes). > > Personality: Esra doesn’t like to be interrupted. Even when dealing with her four children, she becomes frustrated if cut off when speaking or forced to stop a chore before she was finished. She appreciates routine as any healer would who has had to deal with the results of a break in routine (a dead mother or a maimed child). She might admit that she likes stories too much. But she also might begin to tell a story about why she likes stories so much. She likes broken, lopsided things more than perfect, smooth things. After getting something new, she likes to knick or tear it. Othman hates her tendency to stare at a person’s knees as she talks to them. When on a ship, she brings along her own spices and ingredients to cook with. She never asks if this okay to use the kitchen. But if brought food from the cook, she will eat it all and give thanks for their generosity. She won’t let her children or husband have any of it. > > Skill set: Familiar with oils & tonics & herbs for aliments; she’s assisted with the occasional surgery; sewing, cleaning, cooking, & the general know-all of mothering. > > Languages: Arabic (fluent) & Berber (fluent) > > Bio: Tafilalt is no place to grow-up. Rabat was no place to have a family either. But both places are home to Esra. Her father did her best to shield his family from the anarchy of Tafilalt. He balanced the books of several date palm merchants for a small commission when traders came through the Shara either west towards the Barbary pirates or east towards the Algerians (though Sultan Ali Cherif and his son Sultan ibn Sharif attempted to turn the cluster of ruins and anarchy into something resembling its previous glory over three hundred years ago). The job is appropriate to a man who is as flavorful as khobz. His employers could be Shi’a Muslims or Jews and he’d get along just fine with his bent back and down cast eyes. Omar never knew how to handle his children, though, even the boys. He would squint at them as if he’s not entirely sure what they were doing in his household each meal time he came home. > > Her mother, however, knew just exactly how to handle the mischievous boys and the catty girls. Three older brothers and three younger sisters set Esra in the middle. For five years she assumed the position of the one and only little sister. When her sisters came along she was confused by the amount of attention they received and dumbfounded by the responsibilities now attributed to her because she became the eldest daughter. For the thirteen years she lived in Tafilalt with her family, she didn’t have a good relationship with her sisters and often fought with them. > > She married her cousin, Othman, when she was fourteen and he was twenty. She only met him a handful of times, but she enjoyed how he hobbled around already with a cane he carved himself. He had a good voice for storytelling. Esra knows this is what led her to fall in love with him. Othman explained to her on their trip from Tafilalt to Rabat after their wedding that he was a carpenter. A simple carpenter who was contracted by Barbary pirates to make repairs to their ships. Esra explained to Othman that her father was a banker for date palm farmers. A simple banker who’s money was made off the backs of slaves. > > If she wasn’t living with Othman’s father and two wives she was on the ships with Othman. Esra’s first child was born in the cabin of a ship with a French name and a Captain who wasn’t Muslim, but respected the religion nonetheless. She was there to accompany the Captain’s wife (a Spanish woman that wore too much lace) as they journeyed into the Mediterranean to sell European slaves along the Algerian and Tunis coast. Often as the only woman on a ship she learned how to take care of herself (how to wrap rolled ankle or what helped her stomach during bad waves). That translated over to her time on land as well when she started working at Rabat’s hospitals in the women’s ward. > > With her four children either strapped to her back or toddling after her, Esra became proficient in healing and child birth on and off the sea. Despite her time in questionable company, Esra never knew real danger. Her births were always smooth. Her children always strong. Othman temper is fair and the Captain’s of the ships she was on respected Othman’s work so much that they and the crew never harassed her. > > During her travels along the coast collecting slaves for the Ottoman empire or illegal goods for whoever had deep pockets at the time, not once had she ever stepped foot on foreign soil. She always stayed in her family’s cabin until the cargo was loaded and they were out to sea again. It wasn’t until Portugal 1666 that she got off a ship when docked. Little dingies brought them to the shore of Sintra. They were supposed to dock in Lisboa. She wished the Captain stuck to his plan. > > Notes: Although she is a healer, she primarily took care of women due to gender segregation as outlined in the Qur’an.

> Name: Shahid > > Age: Seven > > Gender: Male > > Ethnicity/Nationality: Egyptian > > Appearance/Notes: Seven years old and big boned like his father, Othman, but in truth he's a bit ashamed to look like his crippled father. He will not be spindly and tall like Uncle Mohamed, one of mother's brothers. He knows already he will be the squat man that knows everything about everyone in town and sews the secrets and whispers into his clothes. It will give him power, this knowledge. At least, that is what Captain Sharkas promises him after dinner as the men smoke their pipes or drink their alcohol. > > "And once that happens, my friend," the Captain said many times, "I'll make you a permanent member of my crew." He would sometimes wink after saying that or add, "Just like your father and mother." > > Seven years old and his idol is a pirate captain who names his boats after apocalyptic suras in the Qur'an. So he began by learning the languages Al-Qari’a's crew. Berber is the most common. Even when on land with his grandparents in Rabat, Berber is more spoken than Arabic. Next Arabic and Spanish and French. To his mother's horror, he began learning English by reading a Bible the quartermaster keeps as his pillow. Captain Sharkas began tutoring him in Portuguese in the months leading up to their trip north to Sintra. In attempts to further his language skills he would eavesdrop on conversations. His father doesn't know about this. Shahid thinks not even the Captain knows, the things this seven year old has heard. > > But he's squat and tubby and has a tendency to look dazed and laugh like he's not always sure what he's laughing at, so why would anyone pay much attention to him? Only his mother stares down at him when he comes back from long spells away from his brothers who he was supposed to be watching. Esra never says anything though, she just tells him to wash and prepare for prayers or that she needs help tidying their family's cabin because the baby in her tummy is making her back ache too much to bend over. > Name: Samy & Ahmad > > Age: 3 > > Ethnicity/Nationality: Egyptian > > Appearance/Notes: TBD > Name: Deena > > Age: 12 months > > Ethnicity/Nationality: Egyptian > >Appearance/Notes: TBD