The Lunar Circus

[Moon's Jester]

In anticipation of many more characters, only names and threads will be listed in the first post.

Black Dawn - Jonathan Parish
Expect the Unexpected (With Lamenting Quill) - Alexander Karov
TfE 2 - Downfall -- Felix Kalan and Myst

[Moon's Jester]

Character Sheet

General Information:
Name: Jonathan Parish
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Irish-American
Age: 24
Home Planet/Station: Charis, now on Pax
Specialty: Survival and Small Craft/EVA

General Appearance:
Height: 6' 3''
Weight: 196 lbs
Skin tone: Pale white
Eye Color: Storm grey
Hair Color: Pitch Black
Hair Style: Messy but short
Facial Hair: Varies between clean shaven and scraggly stubble

Face Structure:
General: Angular, but rough hewn with deep set eyes
Standout Features: Distinctive hook shaped nose, extensive scarring around the corners of his right eye, and two notches in the eyebrow above

Right Eye: Implanted in Jon's right eye is an illegal bionic developed by Vernex Co. It has a couple of functions, which include zooming, a highly illegal scope syncing ability (this is non-functional without the proper, highly expensive equipment), a greater clarity of vision, and a greater range of frequencies of light that are visible (superviolet to infrared). The eye is also extremely difficult to use constantly providing a greater amount of information than the brain can handle for long periods of time. Side effects include partial blindness of both eyes, painful eye strain, migraines, and even spatial disorientation similar to vertigo. It is also somewhat evident that the eye is non-standard and therefore possibly illegal, so he usually conceals it with an eye-patch. He wears tinted goggles or sunglasses if he needs to use it.

Piercing(s): (If none, omit from sheet)
-Left ear: Two thick gold loops on the top of the ear, one gold stud on the bottom.
-Right ear: One gold earring with an inset ruby, polished


Tattoo(s): (If none, omit from sheet)
-Arms: Twin Celtic infinity knots around each bicep. The number thirteen is emblazoned on his left deltoid in Roman numerals.
-Back: He has one small but complicated tattoo on the back of his right shoulder. A two-headed jester with a rod in one hand and a sword in the other is the forefront. The Jester sits upon Varrus, a distinctive volcano in the Charis system, and the top is framed by Earth's Moon.


Scar(s): (If none, omit from sheet)
Face: Extensive scarring around the corners of his right eye, extending from the bridge of his nose to his right temple in the form of thin horizontal lines.
Torso: There are scars on his back from being whipped several times
Arms: One thin three inch scar down his right bicep, covered by the tattoo
Legs: Faint surgical scars around his left calf.

Common Clothing:
- Head: He wears either sunglasses, tinted goggles, or an eye patch over his right eye.
- Torso: A battered brown leather jacket and a dark colored shirt of some kind
- Legs/Feet: Generally some kind of jeans or old army fatigues. Thin rubber soled shoes with rigid reinforcement around the toe and heel, black with black laces

Weapon(s) and Armour:
-The battered leather jacket is pretty decent for regular knives
- A set of steel rings that function as makeshift brass knuckles on his left hand.
- Neraxis Pistol
- Sky Rider Sniper Rifle

Miscellaneous Gear: (Add whatever you like, so long as it's believable.)
-Two wallets, one strapped on the inside of his thigh with most of his funds, the other in his pocket with enough money to buy meals for the day
- A set of battered and low quality lockpicks
- A battered multi-tool, commonly seen in use by ship's mechanics and engineers
-PCD strapped so the face is on the underside of his forearm.
- Two knee braces, a roll of ace bandages, and two rolls of medical tape
- An empty prescription bottle for stimulants
- One small flexible canteen, one quart
- One small shoulder bag
- One battered backpacking sleeping bag and pillow
- One sling-web hammock, useful in zero-g and under gravity.
- One pair of battered sunglasses
- One pair of 'smart' goggles, using a chemical matrix in the goggles that darken automatically in regards to the level of light; developed for welding.


Personality: Jon was once a vivacious, outgoing child with an easy charm, and sometimes, very rarely, that warmth can still be seen. After five years of slavery, and four years on the run, Jon has become understandably paranoid. He is cold and aloof towards others, showing the bare minimum of courtesy and respect. Jon tends to be cynical but sarcastic, using a dry but biting wit to loosen the tension.

Jon is a stubborn person, and has a code of honor that he tries to adhere to. It has been reduced from his father's honorable code of conduct into a few simple rules. The primary two are to live in a fashion that is worth living, and if you can't, to look death in the eye and kick it in the groin as you go. He takes a certain amount of pride in his ability to survive, pain tolerance, and emotional callousness. He is pretty narcissistic, and has a large temper with a slow fuse. He can also hold a grudge.


Background (The more descriptive the better): Jonathan Parish was born aboard an Earth cruiser, the Johnston, to his Commodore, then Captain, Joseph Parish and his wife Silvia. The Johnston was stationed in the Charis system, a headache for whatever power controls it. The system is famous for its vast reserves of rare and common mineral wealth, ores, and other valuable resources. The system then became infamous for pirates infesting the meteor belts. The inhabitants living on one of the nine planets or twenty-eight moons are not much easier to deal with than the inhabitants themselves. The posting in Charis was traditionally used by the Navy for two reasons: blood new captains, and as a punishment post. Joseph Parish was stationed there twice, once to be blooded, once to send his insubordinate and stubborn ass into exile.

Joseph managed to get along with the local Charisians, which is a feat no one else had managed to do in the last few decades. It was the beginning of a new local and naval legend; instead of brilliance or valor, Joseph Parish was legendary for one trait, and one trait only, being stubborn. Nagged, badgered and flattered into submission, the native authorities and local business leaders had no choice but to cooperate. Cooperation and good feelings were essential and effective in curbing rapacious local pirates. During his term as local commandant, Joseph fell in love and married a local woman. Jonathan was born during this time, and raised on the Charis Prime, the fifth planet, the only planet habitable without the need for self-contained colony systems.

However, 1.2 Earth norm gravity, and extremely hostile wildlife makes a life a bit more interesting. While a Kira might not have an issue with the planet, and indeed some happily colonized the place. Not even a Kira can survive on the rest of the planets, as the atmosphere is always unpalatable. Whether there isn't any, its toxic and corrosive, or frozen solid, and even if they could, the highest life-form on any of the planets is a particularly nasty bacterial sludge on Ares, the fourth planet, and that is the least of. Charis Prime might as well be paradise in comparison, if every member carrying a weapon, having to learn how to fall properly, and the necessity of carrying a gas mask for one of the rare but periodic cyanide gas storms. The moon above, Mons Hera was the only true naval fortress in the system, and keeps the local companies and pirates in check.

However, Jon and his sisters, a year older and three younger respectively, have toured the entire system. From the spectacular volcanic storms on Ares, to the frozen splendor of Rhemis. Using custom built environmental suits engineered and designed specifically for the harsh conditions, Jon and his sisters had some of the few child-sized hell suits, something that would prove useful later evading GDF patrols on Ares. Commodore Parish, to the delight of his children, and the horror of the shuttle pilots, spent some cherished family time teaching his kids how to take off and land on the horrible landscapes of the Charis's signature planets. Jon lived on Charis Prime for much of his early life, learning the standard military education and history.

Charis was one of the first human controlled systems to be attacked, and was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the war's history. During that time, Commodore Joseph Parish commanded a squadron of cruisers, and would eventually command the entire system defense. Military historians have many things to say about the entire conflict, but every one tends to separate it into three separate phases.

The first sections is naval battles fought outside the perimeter of the system, fighting pitched battles costly to both sides. It lasted between fourteen and sixteen months depending on the source, and was cost the most human ships, if not lives throughout the entire battle. The GDF lost their first fleet to invade Charis the Fourth Fleet happened upon the supply convoy for the invasion force. Quick thinking and fast communication with the rather large system defense fleet managed to encircle and annihilate the GDF fleet, suffering compartively light losses. It bought Charis an extra three months to build defenses and a squadron of dreadnaughts under Rear Admiral Vantz was detached to defend the Charis system and he commandeered the defense of the system. Whether it was from overconfidence or an effort to keep a navigable line to Earth, Vantz engaged the GDF fleet in two battles on the perimeter of the system losing both. Human naval losses quickly approached fifty percent. Vantz was among the fallen, and Commodore Parish took over as the system commander.

The Aradar rapidly transitioned into the second phase when the found out that the entire system was systematically mined and turned into a vast fortress filled with traps. This is generally called the Siege, and it lasted for twenty two months. The GDF tasted a Pyrrhic victory here, given that a blockade would have been sufficient to simply negate Charis' importance during the war. Despite an overwhelming military advantage, Commodore Parish turned the GDF victory from crushing to grudging. With no other option but to take a slow gradual approach to peel the away the numerous defenses, Parish used lightning raids to inflict damage on the vanguard while they toiled away disabling minefields, remote controlled weapons platforms, and even exploding asteroids missiles.

The last stage of Occupation could be used as a textbook of how to conduct a naval guerrilla war from both sides. Commodore Parish utilized pirate tricks and replenished losses with new comrades, former pirate ships. Even independent pirates flooded the system looking for a quick score due to GDF naval draw-down. The GDF had once again increase naval strength in the region to prevent rampant piracy. During the height of the Resistance, Joseph Parish had a bounty on his head of 50,000,000 credits. Despite the high reward, the native Charisians never sold him out.

Even the ground troops had it tough, their armor not designed to handle the extreme environments of the planets of Charis, although taking the habitable moons was accomplished in six months. Most of the resistance was formulated by prospectors outside the shielded cities, sabotaging shipments, and even ambushing the occasional over-extended patrol. Even Kira and Aradar elite troops had difficulties in finding the elusive local partisans, who stubbornly refused to fight in open combat if at all possible. Half the patrols failed before they began, with equipment inadequate to fight effectively in the local conditions. Like the humans before them, the GDF realized that Charis was a more deadly foe than anything on it.

Instead of wasting effort and manpower, the GDF changed to more effective strategies after three months of unsatisfactory results. The GDF exiled the Resistance, holding on the cities with a steel fist. Punitive retribution was used for attacks and if quotas for specific resources weren't met. Secondly, hired mercenaries were to scout out the resistances bases, with pay in accordance to performance after a mission. Few managed to claim a reward, but it was a more effective method of gathering intelligence. GDF losses dropped to a tolerable fraction from before, and freed up the elite troops to make precision strikes against concealed partisan bases.

The final gasp of system wide resistance was devastating one-two: the destruction of Earth, and then the loss of leadership by Commodore Parish. Tired and demoralized soldiers and partisans were ready to stop fighting and hammer out some kind of terms to end the brutality. Parish assumed that he and anyone officially related to the Resistance would be dealt with harshly, including their families. He made a deal with the local interstellar CEO of Vernex, a weapons manufacturer who imported heavily from Charis, to smuggle the affected civilians to the nearest neutral planet.

Vernex accepted the terms and the payment, shipping the civilians out on a few transport ships. Then, they sold Parish out to the GDF. The GDF pounced on the demoralized resistance and nearly annihilated them. At the same time Vernex was enslaved all the civilians for experimentation. Both the GDF and the resistance members are unclear on the ultimate fate of Commodore Parish and his flagship, the Johnston. There was no wreckage recovered that conclusively proved that it was destroyed, nor that Parish is dead. Drunks whisper legends that he is still around and fighting, while unreliable witnesses insist that their ship was attacked by legendary wraith. However, the GDF rescinded the bounty on Parish immediately afterward, demonstrating their opinion.

While the GDF holds ultimate authority over the system, it has used the precedent of Vernex to split up the planets and moons into partitioned territories for a price. The remaining resistance members were outraged and continue to conduct sporadic small scale material raids, and even rarer supply ship ambushes. It is hard to blame them, given the 58% reduction in civilian population from a census taken two years after the way. The GDF maintains a permanent naval presence, but only intervenes if the companies exploiting their given territory do not make the yearly tribute. Piracy is rampant in general area, and resentment to the GDF and corporations is widespread, if unorganized.

Vernex, a weapons manufacturer, acquired a biological research center three years prior during an acquisition made with another large conglomerate. Initially useless, the top executives made a gamble. In order to gain access to GDF grants, Vernex quietly hired a development team for experimental bionics and other weaponized biological implants. With the arrival of a quite profitable cartload of anonymous and disposable test subjects, Vernex began secretly testing illegal bionics, and slowly began feeling out GDF officials for R&D contracts.

The entire venture was a success, although not without some inherent risk. Managing to keep the knowledge quiet was fraught with difficulties, as while disposing of bodies was easy, explaining the amount of food for humans was not. Even with a high casualty rate, a shrinking population of 2000 still eats a lot. However, the biggest risk was the idea of one tick in middle management. He found great entertainment in watching the humans die, and arranged those slaves with combat implants to fight to the death in the name of 'research.' Jon killed his first sentient in these 'games,' tearing out the throat of a thirteen year old girl. The CNS implant was approved as successful and removed, along with his right eye.

When upper management found out, they quickly acted to remove the programs. Hiring mercenaries through a series of shell companies, they managed to vaguely implicate a number of other rival companies and 'liquidated' the section. In a series of 'miraculous' recoveries, numerous implant designs and specifications were 'recovered.' While the affair was shady enough to generate a round of heavy fines and raise suspicions, the entire mess was murky enough for the GDF to ultimately approve grants under observation. All test subjects were effectively erased from existence, even if a few managed to escape, having already been erased. Jon was labeled in this section and managed to stow away on a mercenary boat leaving the planet. He got caught, but the mercenaries dusted tracks fast just to be careful.

The mercenaries were none to happy with their stowaway and afraid to lose their bonus based on the no survivors condition. They bribed a warden to lock him up in a particularly nasty prison, which was also an arena to provide funds. It made use out of the criminals and no one cared given that is majority of the population were humans, or the worst scum of the galaxy. The mercenaries got their 'bonus,' a bullet to the back of the head by Vernex security tying up loose ends in the name of reprisal.

The next two years were not a happy time for Jon. The least dangerous part of being a gladiator was being on the sand. More prisoners died from assassinations in the shadowy cavern cells than on the figurative sand. Those who didn't fight, didn't eat. Jon 'served' the necessary two years according to his 'crime,' but given the unofficial nature of the whole arrangement, Jon has no official criminal record. Now wise enough to avoid attention and old enough to obtain grunt, Jon hopped from system to system, just staying under the radar. He became skilled with EVA and small craft maneuvers, perhaps a result of his blood. Pax is just the latest in a long line of stations to scrape a living from.

[Moon's Jester]

C.S. - [Under Construction]

General Information
Name- Alexander Karov
Age- 30
Race- Werewolf

[Moon's Jester]

Name: Felix Kalan
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Race: Tevren

Appearance: Felix is short for his race 6'. He does have broad shoulders and dense lean muscles developed from living outdoors and a passion for climbing. Due to years of hard work, he has abnormally large forearms, and extremely tough, callused hands and feet. Hazel eyes with flecks of gold sit lightly withing an angular face with prominent cheekbones, and a narrow nose. His natural silver hair is set in contrast with weathered light brown skin. His assorted scars stand out in pale relief in contrast to his tanned skin.

Arsenal:
-Golden Carrac war bow: It is four feet and five inches long, and tipped with a local metal alloy known as iced steel; also two thin bands of iced steel are banded at one third of the length. The wood itself is extremely stiff and needs to be warmed prior to being strung to prevent cracking or breaking. It makes a fair walking staff and can be used as a weapon without being strung. He has assorted arrows with tips, feathers and shafts stored seperately.
- Two bolos
- Two long hunting daggers, a small filet knife, and a razor
- One sling, and a pouch of round stones
- Assorted climbing gear: pitons, a pair of ice axes, crampons etc.
- Shadeling camouflage cloak
- Kharne

Bio: Felix was born in the Tevren Vales, a densely forested area famous for a expensive but fantastic lumber west of the Valley of Twilight. The forests are hidden by a massive mountain range that curves in a “U” towards the coast, making contact with the rest of the world difficult. Numerous reefs limit the the ports to three or four along the hundred miles of coast, and there are a few profitable if dangerous land caravans. He was born in one of the cities along the Aoan Mountain Range, but was raised as an orphan. He has no knowledge of what happened to his parents, and nor does he care.

Felix grew up on the street, and was inducted into a street gang that specialized in thievery. The gang leader in the beginning was kind in person, but emotionally manipulative. Derrick was a small man with great dreams or riches, and did not care who he hurt to get it. Small jobs eventually became larger, and eventually Derrick decided to steal from more than just merchants, and decided to raid noble houses. Felix and the other 'littles' were key in these schemes, from being look outs to climbing through small spaces and stealing. However, stealing from important people with children who can stay alert for only so long was not the brightest idea. He was caught and executed.

This did not stop the ambition of his second-in-command. Joseph used brutality as a measure of control, and was considerably more stupid. He decided to raid one of the most powerful religious orders, the shadow priests of Vellack. The attempted robbery never even made it past the walls, and the Shades, the military arm of the order, slaughtered everyone they found. Felix wasn't, and escaped into a tavern frequented by the outriders for caravans. An older man named James took pity on the poor kid and apprenticed him as an outrider... for a nominal fee. Compared to his prior experiences, taking 30% of his pay was generous. Three years later, James was killed in on the inevitable Darkling raids. Since then Felix has been making his way across the world, and recording everything in maps. A few trinkets from out of the way places have also made their way into this possesion.

Name: Myst
Age: Indeterminate
Gender: Male
Race: Aovren
Appearance: The soul gem inserted into the sword Kharne. It is a amber in color and a perfect sphere that fits comfortably in the palm of man's hand. The sword Kharne is made from a clear, wavy crystal that is similar in strength to diamond. The back of the blade is edged in black steel, as is the cross-guard and hilt. The pommel fits the soul gem perfectly, although the gem can be removed with a little essence and will. The blade casts almost no shadow at all.

Arsenal: Some misdirection and illusions and the ability to telepathically communicate. Kharne is a blade that devours essence, and is specifically designed to combat the terror of powerful Vellack shadow priests.

Bio: Myst has not revealed much of his life to his current wielder, other than the man imprisoned in the soul gem is ancient and predates much of the internal, religious, and racial strife that currently haunts the Tevren Vales. Myst was adopted by a man named Talen, who also adopted two other children, a girl named Sanae and her brother Sammael. All four became extremely influential and important during a period of time, the Hierocratic Wars. Myst became a skilled surgeon dedicated to helping people and even pioneered some long lost techniques using essence to heal others. However, it was his relationship with his adopted father that defined the rest of his life during the wars.

Talen became one of the first Archons of Vellack, and was champion for that faction. Both Myst and Sammael were captured and tortured. Sammael eventually escaped and killed his way free, but Myst was killed and forcibly turned into a lich. In a note of especially twisted irony, his phylactery was inset in the sword that killed him, Kharne, a sword made famous for killing adherents to Vellack. He doesn't speak of his time being enslaved during the wars, but at some point he was entombed separately from his body and his been living disembodied in the sword ever since.

Felix found Kharne and Myst fallen and forgotten in a chasm in the Anzen Mountains, and has carried the annoying ancient spirit ever since. Myst has not revealed why he was lost in the mountains either.

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