Atellus put a hand to his face as if pondering, but really he was trying to decide how he could spin 3 months of essentially banging his head against the wall of boredom. None of the people he had worked with were here, and beyond that, most sentinels were generally abroad on mission. This meant that barring support staff and high ranking officers, the sentinel compound was generally empty.
"Oh, well, you know. Keeping us with new drugs and new studies on each species' physiology. Working out, hitting the range. I've kept so busy that i haven't really had much time to explore solomon." after a pause he add a "sir" as an afterthought. Might as well appease the old goat. Especially since he was attempting to distract him from the bald face lie that he had been busy- in actuality he was itching to go back to the front. Without so much as a soul he was close to here, he had nothing really getting him out of the house so to speak.
And so before the monitor could inquire more, he tried to change that subject. "How about you, sir? Im sure they have been keeping you busy on the war front, huh?"
@Brocktree Since your character is already an officer/high ranking he'd also probably have served quite a lot too, so want discuss possible common history between our characters?
Aaaah the common civilian misconception.
A new officer is just an over paid private until proven otherwise. Both trooper and cornet in this case are entry level positions. Not that you can't have a veteran cornet! Just that the rank doesn't mean what you think it means.
- Location: Hyperion Base, Hyperion, Solomon System -
Atellus scowled. He and any other red blooded operator considered protocol beneath them- an archaic tradition reserved for grunts who needed its structure in their life. He couldn't decide on whether to chalk it up to Vel Astranos' age or being krai. As he sat, he settled on both. Out of habit and also to conceal his annoyance, he carefully mounted his field cap on his knee like it was also part of the conversation.
Name: Jakob Konyk Nobility: Yes; Eldest of the count of Armiansk on the crimea Sex: Male Race: Ukrainian Age: 19 Physical Description: 5'10" with a stocky, athletic frame. Has short black wavy hair, cut painstakingly at and above the ear befitting a noble. His face is heart shaped with a neither a prominent jaw nor chin. Has brown eyes that are just big enough to catch the light consistently through his spectacles. His shoulders are broad, but not necessarily strong. Rank: Cornet Magic-Rank:Magus Goals/Aspirations: He wishes to bring glory, honor, and prominence to house Konyk, and use those things to shape his slice of the world as he sees fit, in the image of enlightenment ideals. Personality: Soft spoken and friendly, jakob is a kind soul. He is studious and loves learning about everything, and is a big fan of enlightenment theory and philosophy. He is devout in his love of christ and tends toward the less appreciated virtues- temperance, humility, and charity spur him. He takes heart that through his own actions he can make an impact, and is thus not always a man of words. On the flip side, this does not make him great in front of crowds- his oratory and speaking can be lacking. In the face of hardship and violence, he is unflinching, believing truly that god is with him. Backstory: His family are Ukrainian nobility brought into the byzantine aristocracy as they were allowed to keep their titles and lands after the conquest of crimea. For their part, their rural county of the duchy of crimea is pious and peaceful, and that is reflected as well in his parents- kind, well educated nobles who, while spending a lot on books for country gentry- are rather humble in their estate.
Jakob is the eldest of four, and for most of his life, took almost entirely after his father- bookish, pious, with little interest in the rest of the world. He would have stayed that way, too, except for a young peasant boy with whom he became fast friends- Stefan Andrey. Both extremely intelligent, they would run around the county pretending to be adventuring imperial soldiers, and getting into the mischief children did.
When they came of age, stefan had convinced himself he was going to join the army. He talked with jakob of it every day, and soon jakob began to wonder if he too would not make a good soldier. Soon, however, stefan's whole family fell ill and died. Left with nothing, he headed south to enlist. Jakob left a week after, determined to join his friend. His parents sent him south with the money for travel and enough for a commission, as well as their anxiety and best wishes.
However, almost immediately after purchasing his commission, it became apparent that he had extremely potent drastikos. They sent him to the university right away- and were astonished by his progress. Something of a genius, he graduated with his magus from the university in only three years- almost unheard of. Conspicuously, however, was the lack of close friends or social network most young nobles left the college with- his focus on his studies and natural lack of social grace due to his rural upbringing left him out of most social circles. Finally joining the military, he is excited to try and find his friend Stefan, who he is sure was good enough to find his way into the dragoons.
Atellus visibly flinched- fortunately, no one was around to see it. He hated these neural implants; hated them worst of all and more than anything. On multiple occasions he had attempted to come up with ways to disable them- but to no avail. He pointedly fished out his hand held net interface and brought up the chat. He activated the comm and merely said "Right away sir."
All his grievances took the back burner to expectation. Without a doubt, he was going to finally be sent out on mission again- and he was ready. With practiced ease he made his way to his room and quickly got out of civvies and into duty uniform. He left his kit staged by the door where it always was, but he holstered the pistol he always carried in uniform- loaded but with no round in the chamber.
Within 15 minutes, he politely knocked on Vel Astrano's door and entered without waiting for acknowledgement. He fiddled with the vanguard sigil pinned to the side of his field cap as he came in, obviously anxious to hear what the sentinel monitor had to say. Skipping the formalities, he nodded deferentially. "Vel Astranos, what can i do for you this fine day?" he says this plainly, expectantly, but not unkindly- his normal disdain for the other species of the collective absent as usual around his fellow sentinels.
Yes. Recall that the vast majority of magic takes the form of physical "sigils", due to its complexity and exhaustive nature. So normally any form of magic in warfare takes the form of meticulously-created traps. You won't find an all-powerful mage slinging massive lightning bolts across the battlefield - even the Magister Maximus would be hard-pressed to use a minor working more than two or three times a day without the use of sigil-craft.
Typically a single regiment may have 1-3 mages of various ability in its ranks. Magic is uncommon even among the nobility, who are partially bred for magical-talent.
EDIT: While I'm not against it, they would have to lie about their age, and personally I'd prefer if the age of a character doesn't go below 14 without a really good/interesting reason.
@VoiD Someone has played a lot of sabers of infinity, huh? ;)
Your world intrigues me- if you're still accepting, ill have a char sheet up by the end of the day.
@VoiD hey what is the byzantine empire's major port for the middle east? Or is this a timeline where the Suez was completed early, allowing the aegean to be the heart of imperial naval power?