Marc Miller's Traveller Character Sheet

Sir Misha Ravanos

(Gavin Romig-Koch)

Homeworld

Difficulty Codes

Skill Cap

Space and Related Skills

Other Vehicle Skills

Social Skills

Academic Skills

Miscellaneous Skills

Military Skills

Weapon and Fighting Skills

Psionics

Weapons and Armor

Possessions

History

Background Links

T4-Style Career

Common and Background Skills

Academic Record

Term One

Term Two

Term Three

Term Four

Term Five

Term Six

Term Seven

Mustering Out

Background Notes

The Jehrig

The Jherig is a small flying reptile (like a small dragon) about the size of a parrot.  It has the intelligence of a dog, but a reptillian personalty.  It knows various commands, but only does them when it wants to (so what would be a "command" to a dog, is a "suggestion/request" to a Jherig).

It has claws and teeth (as well as wings), and can fight reasonably well, but does so only when it feels theatened.  It will not attack on command, but it has occationally fought by my side, or at least warned me when it saw a danger I didn't (by digging it's claws harder into my shoulder).

Jherigs (like many of the animals on my home world) are psionic, but not powerfully so.  It can read thoughts/emotions from the minds around it, and if it understands them, can act on them.  It can often sense an attacker (and sometimes will warn me).  It can also read  "suggestions/requests" directly from my mind.  It knows the  "suggestions/requests" for "watch my back", "scout out ahead",  "give me some privacy", "get me that (little thing I'm looking at)", "lookout/hide/fly".  Of course, I'm not psyonic, so I have no idea what things it says back, except from the look in his eyes.

The Homeworld

{Editorial: I don't have a good name for this world, nor for the two "races" that populate.  I'll work on this}

[MJW: It's almost certainly Lickta (1307 Foreven; 0507 Minim)]

My homeworld is wet, lightly populated, and relatively early and exotic in it's evolution.  The politics are balkanized into contenents, and though there have been wars in the past, the population is so thin that contact between contenents is rare.

My homeworld is off the "space-lanes", is not strategically placed, and is generally unknown, so traders, generals, fortune seekers, and vacationers tend to ignore us.

Their are two "races" of humans on my world: the Highborne and the Lowborne.  There has been almost no interbreeding between these peoples since they met almost 4000 years ago.

The stereotypical Highborne is tall, thin, with pointed features, and black hair, highly educated, and frail.  The stereotypical Lowborne is the opposite, though, as in most cases, the stereotype isn't reality, and the two peoples have much more in common than they are willing to admit.  I am of the Lowborne.  The Highborne came to our world, and conquered it 4000 years ago.  The two peoples now live amongst each other in peace.

The Lowborne came to this world way too long ago to remember, and most Lowborne believe we've always been here.  By the time the Highborne arrived we had lost most of our technology, no one knows why, but some among the Highborne are begining to suspect.

Our world is a mix of high tech, and low tech.  High rises, and huge spires, and little cottages, and country churches.  The Lowborne do the low tech jobs: mostly farming, hunting, and low tech crafts and shopkeepers.  We live on farms, or in the wilds, or in small villages, or in the shops surrounding the highrises of the Highborne.

The Highborne handle the high tech stuff, though in fact they tend to avoid the appearance of "technology".  They read real books, walk (or sometimes ride horses), ....

The big secret is that my homeworld is highly psionic.  Many of the animals have psionic powers, and even some of the plants. All Highborne are slighly psionic, and tend to use psionics to communicate with their machines, their pets, and each other over long distances.  Actual "psionic powers" are still rare among the Highborne, but they do exist, and don't have to be hidden on our world.

Among the Lowborne the "psionic powers" are more concentrated.  A few "witch doctors" have amazing powers, but no one thinks of  these as psionic.  Instead these "witch doctors" believe they invoke the spirits around them, and their powers tend to manifest themselves in ways that bear out this belief.  Most Lowborne don't seem to have psionic powers, but whether that is actual lack of ability, or just a fear of being called a "witch", or worst being called a "Highborne", is unknown.  It is illegal for a Lowborne to use "psionic powers" like the Highborne, but no self respecting Lowborne would do so anyway - which explains the whole "witch doctor" thing.  Those among the Highborne who think about these things think that something in the atmosphere, or food, or water, acts as a mild psionic drug.  After thousands of years it's become part of our genes.

[One theory is that the Psionic Institute is a very secret,  very powerful, group, either on, or perhaps within the governments on my Homeworld.  MJW has a theory of his own.]

The system is called Lickta, and it's further out of the way than you can imagine. It's in the Minim subsector of Foreven, and is member of the three-world Arabellan Constituencies. The Highborne retain control of the technology they brought from Arabell.

The only real oddity is it's tidally locked to the star, so (almost) everyone will be living in the comfortable twilight area, although closer to the bright side than the dark. The primary star is a white dwarf, and there's a secondary which is a dull red dwarf. One very large moon orbits Lickta every two days, providing the equivalent of a night when it eclipses the primary star. A large gas giant, with four moderate-sized moons, occupies the next orbit out, while the secondary (with two close gas giants of its own) orbits next furthest. The skies on Lickta will be spectacular. The whole system would fit within the orbit of Venus.

As for how he ended up here, he would have probably made his way through the outer edges of the Zhodani Consulate, ending up eventually in Querion and Vilis subsectors of Spinward Marches, where there are all sorts of interesting jobs to be done. The Zho's themselves were probably his first offworld employer, and no doubt provided passage to the Querion - Vilis area to do some job where they didn't want to get their hands dirty. From then on though, the opportunites for employment abounded, and it was almost immediately that his employers tended to come from the Imperium side of the neutral zone rather than the more ethical Zho's. From there, as they say, the rest is history...

More Background Notes

For myself, I've not created a character yet (perhaps this weekend), but I've got an idea of where I want to go with him. He was born poor, and of the wrong ethnic origin for the area. He was raised by his hardworking single mother, with occasional help from his uncle, a witch in an ancient, nearly dead, animistic religion. From them he gained a strong sense of right and wrong, but never hesitated to break the law, or hurt someone when it was necessary. He started as a thug working for the protection buisness (in an area where these things are not a total fraud), and worked his way up to area boss. At that point he had some free time, and began to do random sensitive jobs for nobility, and eventually found himself smack in the middle of the very high class, very dangerous world of inter-system politics. He has never been "one of them", but his honor, willingness, and ability have made him contacts, friends, and enemies at every level of society.

Lately, Misha Ravanos has been wondering out loud to the Jehrig that befriended him long ago, "what next".... The little reptile probably knows, but it isn't telling.