The only son of miners on a remote planetoid called Pikora 317, tucked within the widest orbital ring of the gas giant Preluria in Near Space, Zemir spent his earliest days exposed to the harsh reality of life in a corporate labor colony. Determined to provide for their son, Zemir’s parents eked out their existence in the Freugan Salvage Company’s starmetal mines. The Solodans never went hungry, though the only delicacies young Zemir enjoyed were occasional tastes of citrus-chocolate pastries, sweet-milk custards, and savory meringues—gifts from the Freugan executives’ own ample stashes of treats imported from Absalom Station.

Velloro was adopted into a large ysoki family on the dusty planet of Akiton as an infant, never knowing another home—and never having much interest in finding one. His family were devout worshipers of Iomedae, goddess of justice and honorable battle, virtues the young lashunta gladly embraced. He spent his youth playing and scavenging among Akiton’s numerous wrecked starships with his many siblings. Time and again, Velloro proved a fierce protector of his family, whether extracting them from collapsed wreckage, fighting off rival scavengers, or otherwise putting himself between them and the many other dangers of their dying world.

The daughter of a renowned biotechnician and a respected priest of Talavet, Barsala Zharliska Sonari of House Ulanda grew up in Trillidiem, the arcology of bubble-shaped domes that floats above Bretheda’s northern pole. Her parents maintained a household in which discussion and debate were encouraged, with most dinnertime talks focused around the dichotomy between faith and science. Even at a young age, Barsala was included, her questions and opinions treated with respect. As a result, she found herself drawn to studying scientific disciplines, but focused on how they could help her neighbors and her community. Barsala witnessed the power of community early in her life when she lost her lowleft hand due to severe nerve damage sustained in a nasty fall and many of her family’s neighbors came together to help her get used to her new cybernetic prosthesis.

Raia Danviri was born and raised in the lashunta city-state of Komena, near the southern tip of the continent of Asana on Castrovel. Komena's proximity to the formian-inhabited continent of the Colonies has made it a center of military activity for millennia, but to the Danviris, it was a home filled with hope and promise. Raia's parents were diplomats, and devoted their lives to brokering a peace between the lashuntas and the formians, a goal that spanned decades. They taught their daughter the value of all sentient life, for even among creatures like the insectile formians, who were so unlike lashuntas and had been enemies for so long, one can find similarities like culture, society, and civilization. But even more important are the differences. The details that separate one species from another are not only what make them interesting, but also teach one new things, and inspire one to question and re-examine one's own assumptions and beliefs.

Thursday, July 19, 2017