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[Character] Kumakatok

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Kumakatok:
Public information:
Certificate of Licet Libertas issued by Ministry of Internal Order, Sarum Prime
Certificate N0-83455/AF/INT/BAR-4-23-23XX/Chibi

Slave
Hereby Freed: Raphael, with permission to be known as Kumakatok.

Status: Gunnery Sergeant, 23 Recon Regiment "Askura", Imperial Marines. Capsuleer by Grace of God and with holy blessing of His Eminence the Abbot Palatine of Alkabsi IV, to whom Service is rendered.

Height: 209cm
Weight: 127 kg

Appearance: A huge, brawny man who moves quietly and with controlled power, sinuous and lithe. A visceral feeling of disciplined control crackles from his military bearing, so the instinctive trepidation initially provoked by his powerful frame and disconcertingly silent movement is swiftly replaced by a correspondingly inchoate feeling of security and protection.  For all his size, he seems to have the ability to fade out of notice even in the most brightly lit of rooms.

His hair is shaved very short, as black as his skin, and his eyes are ebon dark with a shadowy melancholy and rarely still. When his gaze focuses on a person, they feel suddenly like they may be the only person in the universe, but usually, he keeps his eyes downcast in an oddly submissive gesture. His hand, rarely offered without invitation, is dry and charismatically warm, thrumming with immense strength but disconcertingly gentle.

In civilian attire, the astute observer may notice his usual stillness may very occasionally be disturbed by an unconscious shift of position, as if ameliorating a discomfort. The knowledgable will identify this as the habit of a penitent, someone who wears a cilice for mortification.

Private Information (not known IC except for very few people that may have discovered some of these associations.)

Background: Born as part of a military breeding program for navy slave crew, his mother died in childbirth, as did seven other women during that terrible night of some notoriety. The tribal midwives had been terrified by a storm that night which had been tolling the death knell as tree branches struck upon the breeding pens, and had taken it as an evil omen, now proven apt. The later Abbey inquest concluded more prosaically that this recent pedigree of children were now simply too big and powerful for normal childbirth to take place safely, and the genetic matching algorithms adjusted accordingly.

The boy whose arrival had heralded these deaths was called Kumakatok* by the tribal elders in propitiation of the spirits, but his given slave name was Raphael 7.

The Abbey of the Purified Heart, fiercely loyal to the Sarum Family for generations, and a major supplier of genetically improved slaves as well as fine seafoods and a noted seaweed delicacy, was a religiously conservative environment that relied on teaching unquestioning faith to the young slaves as well as many children of the aristocracy** - the latter well segregated, of course, but still in proximity. Raphael grew up working the oceanic galleys and this built in him a strong sense of team and loyalty, as well as a massive physical frame.

He proved an unstintingly faithful slave, and with his physical prowess was soon given over to the military Marine program. He excelled in all manner of covert operations, with a clinical aptitude for dealing death and a swift planning intelligence much favoured by His Eminence the Abbot Palatine. Soon under the powerful holder’s influence and protection, Raphael was recommended to, and accepted by, the secretive Sandman*** program operated by the Abbey under the auspices of the MIO. This unit was dedicated to hunting down runaway slaves and terminating those for whom holders or judicial courts had ordered a capital sentence. Due to the nature of the intelligence required to search for and find runners, many of the Sandman missions were also counter-terrorist in nature, breaking up rebel cells, infiltrating Matari insurgent groups and so forth. All this was conducted under the front of a mainstream Marine unit, the 23rd Recon Regiment of the 95th Imperial Marine Division (known as the “Red and Golds”).

When the technology emerged for creating Alpha clones, the Imperial Navy implemented a wide ranging testing program to try and keep up with the Federation which had seen a significant upsurge in new capsuleers. Raphael was quickly identified as having “the right stuff” and with appropriate blessing of his holder, proposed for training. During this period, the Abbot Palatine discovered his tribal name from the background checks, and found it vastly amusing to rename him for his new career. (In the pidgin dialect of Brutor used by his slaves, the emphasis in the name is kuma-KAH-tok, but His Eminence enjoyed the ironic play of his first attempt, which rendered ku-MAK-atok, sounding rather like the rebellion’s old symbol of the khumaak. Having a retainer who hunted and killed runners and rebels named like their precious symbol rather tickled his sense of humour).

Notes:
* While developing the character, but still without a suitable name, I remembered a story I had heard when living in the Philippines. There, the Kumakatok is a three bodied spirit which visits the homes of the soon to die and knocks upon the door (very similar to the banshee of Ireland and probably some other cultures). With his background as a Sandman, the idea of being the embodiment of a death spirit sounded very apt, and the incidental resonance with the khumaak made for a rather nice backstory.

** I conceive of the Abbey as being rather like a Jesuit seminary or Islamic madrassa. Dedicated to moulding young minds into conservative faith that will in many cases, provide fanatical devotion.

*** The Sandman initiative is developed as an idea from this scriptural quote:
"For whosoever shall lay his life down for his Lord
He shall be taken into the arms of God
And forever consecrated will he be.
But whosoever shall turn from the light
And run in fear,
The Lord shall abandon him
And forever forsaken will he be."
The Scriptures, Amarr Askura 2:3


I wanted to explore some of the more conservative aspects of the Amarr culture without either going down the nobility route or the more prevalent 'liberal, let's apologise for slavery' kind of approach. I may be wrong, but having read the threads here and reflected, I consider the Amarr see slavery in enormously different terms to our own culture and much less as the slavery seen in the US and Europe in the nineteenth century, but more akin to the institution seen in ancient Rome. I think this latter gives it some more options for RP and nuanced development in conversation with other New Eden cultures. Well, I hope so anyway!

Please let me know if I've got any serious lore mistakes. I will be asking more questions!  :)

Kumakatok:
First couple of questions:

1) I've searched and not found anything. Has anyone laid claim to Alkabsi IV and done any world-building for that planet? I wouldn't want to step on any toes and its easy enough for me to choose somewhere else if it's already being developed.

2) I'm probably going to write an occasional blog to develop the fiction for Kumakatok. However, before I do the first story, may I ask how others have dealt with the minor irritation that not being able to choose your capsuleer graduating school (by faction) causes. Obviously, K was born and brought up in the Empire, but cannot avoid being graduated from a Minmatar school.

I have a couple of thoughts on this - the cheapest and nastiest workaround is that it's some sort of database error. Being a covert agent, I can work in a storyline of his faith and capability being tested by attending the RMS, but this is not very elegant. Before I commit, has anyone else tried to find an acceptable reasoning for starting in a school unaligned with what you would like your character to be?

Many thanks for your thoughts and advice.

Ché Biko:
I'd just avoid making claims about any planet in its totality. Just try to restrict your worldbuilding to a just a part of the planet, and you should be fine in most cases.

Karmilla Strife:
Seems like you have an interesting background! One of my alts is an Amarrian Minmatar and with that character I addressed the Republic school by saying 1) it was cheaper to get the capsuleer license there and 2) the character chose that school because she wanted to broaden her academic background. I think others have taken the path of having their character spend some time in the Republic including for their capsuleer education, and then they come back to the Empire. Since it's RMS you could always take some sort of "know your enemy" approach.

Arnulf Ogunkoya:

--- Quote from: Karmilla Strife on 06 May 2017, 10:45 ---Seems like you have an interesting background! One of my alts is an Amarrian Minmatar and with that character I addressed the Republic school by saying 1) it was cheaper to get the capsuleer license there and 2) the character chose that school because she wanted to broaden her academic background. I think others have taken the path of having their character spend some time in the Republic including for their capsuleer education, and then they come back to the Empire. Since it's RMS you could always take some sort of "know your enemy" approach.

--- End quote ---

Wot she sez.

Also. Getting your licence from the Republic & then running off to shoot people for the Empire is a wonderful catalyst for tribal loyalists to come looking for payback. The arguments might get a bit repetitive after a while though  :bash:. Not sure where you'd want to go with that.

You might have a point about Amarrian slavery. However even the Romans didn't have a problem with working prisoners to death on farms and in mines. Basically a slave is considered to be less than a person. That's the main thing that makes non slaving folk hate it, both IC and in reality. In my opinion anyway.

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