Dorian Michaels
New Member
[SIZE=11pt]Name: Tanon Niathal
Faction: Sith
Rank: Apprentice/Padawan
Species: Balmorran (Human)
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Height: 6’3
Weight: 188
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Skin: White (tanned)
Force-sensitive: Yes[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Strengths:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]---Intelligence: Niathal is extraordinarily intelligent; he has the equivalent of high-level degrees in several subjects, including—robotics/mechatronics, cybernetics, high-energy physics, computer programming, nanotechnology, metallurgy, and several kinds of engineering, among others (and a great functional knowledge of many other disciplines). His near-perfect eidetic memory assists him in this—Niathal can, with almost flawless accuracy, recall the contents of any diagram he has looked at or technical journal/manual that he has read.
---Adomopathy: Also known as ‘adoptive muscle memory’ or ‘photographic reflexes’; this ability, almost certainly a latent manifestation of Niathal’s Force sensitivity, can be best described as the capability to observe another person’s physical movements or actions once and then duplicate them at any point from then on, without practice, regardless of how complicated the movement is. This ability allows him to not only learn, but master almost any physical skill simply by observation—from physical stunts like varying kinds of sports, martial arts and acrobatics, to other abilities like archery, marksmanship and, with some extra work, even piloting.
Though this skill potentially means that Niathal could become a nigh-superhuman physical combatant, at this point in time, all Niathal has used his mimicking ability for has been, primarily, in his off hours; learning sleight-of-hand and other party tricks to impress women, becoming proficient at playing various musical instruments, becoming a galactic-class chef…and perfecting his smashball pitch.
Weaknesses: Though his ability of photographic reflexes is incredibly useful, it does have several limitations:
--One, Niathal can only duplicate physical actions that he actually witnesses (though he does not have to be physically present to do so, meaning holos work just fine).
--Two, he can only mimic physical actions that are within his physical abilities to perform (his Human biology limiting him from performing physical feats that certain alien species could perform ONLY due to their own unique capabilities).
--Three, Niathal’s copying ability applies ONLY to physical actions—the various powers granted by the Force are, at their core, mental powers; with no visible physical movements for him to mimic, this means that Niathal cannot copy actual Force powers the way he can physical skills, though with proper time and instruction, he would be able to learn them, same as any other Force-sensitive. (For an example, while he could duplicate the physical moves of even the most advanced lightsaber combat forms, he would not have the developed Force powers of even an apprentice Sith/Jedi Padawan, meaning that he would be extraordinarily unlikely able to fight anything beyond the most inexperienced of lightsaber users).
Biography:
Tanon Niathal was born into wealth and privilege on the heavy industrial world of Balmorra, as the sole heir to the vast business empire of Niathal Industries. A truly immense interstellar conglomerate, Niathal Industries had interests in things as diverse as clothing lines and consumer electronics to heavy industries like construction and mining, and everything between (though the company’s original focus, and its largest profit earner by far, even to the present day, is weapons manufacturing).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Selected specifically to take the reins of the family company once his father (Kir Niathal) stepped down as president/CEO of the company, Tanon learned from a very early age, and in great detail, the ins-and-outs of the corporate world in preparation for the role he would eventually assume. However, much to the irritation of his parents (in particular his father), their son never seemed to take any truly genuine interest in the path that they preferred their son’s life to take. In truth, the reason that Tanon put up with such pressuring at all was that, if nothing else, he wanted control of the family business to remain exactly there; in the family.
But, true to someone of his (overall) intellectual nature, Tanon would much rather prefer to dedicate the entirety of his time to another pursuit, one which he not only enjoyed greatly, but also showed an extraordinary talent for—working R&D on some of the more esoteric (and, very often, more challenging) projects at Niathal Industries. But, despite his parents being well aware of their son’s preferences career-wise (that of scientist, in lieu of corporate tycoon), the elder Niathals left Tanon to his own devices for two reasons:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]One-- genuine interest or no, Tanon (being the dutiful son that he was) was going along with the program they had set for him, educating himself on and mastering all the complex ways and intricacies of the world of business, quietly and with a minimum of fuss (though, unbeknownst to his parents, not without a not-inconsiderable amount of resentment on Tanon’s part, something he kept tightly repressed). And two-- their son’s involvement in several problematic projects, which had become hopelessly stalled prior to his participation, had ended up with said projects not only becoming successful, but also netting the parent corporation hundreds of millions of credits in profits. Such a windfall was something that any shrewd businessperson would take notice of, and whatever else you could have said about them, Kir and Natasi Niathal had *not* gotten to where they were by being ignorant of things which were good for business. (Good sense in parenting however, was unfortunately another thing entirely.)
But not all of Niathal’s life was solely divided between corporate maneuverings and scientific research (though Tanon would have been more than happy for it to be that way). Unfortunately for him, both his parents favored themselves high-class members of the ‘in crowd’; social climbers who basked in attention and thrived when under the scrutiny of the public eye. Even worse, they seemed determined to draw their son into the same lifestyle, much in the same way that they had already determined what career he was to take. To a person like Tanon --a slightly socially-awkward, generally introverted sort who preferred to keep his private life exactly that way, private-- that was about as preferable as being orally pleasured by a rabid rancor. Yet, like how he dealt with his parents’ meddling regarding his career, the younger Niathal dutifully pasted a smile on his face and showed himself at various red-carpet, hot-ticket events all around the Galaxy. And at every single one, regardless of who he was with (his parents, or, more commonly as he got older, some vapid young female that they had selected for him), the young Balmorran wished that he could be anywhere else; that something, anything, would come along and serve to pull him away from all this…inanity.
As the old saw goes, one should be careful what one wishes for—one just might get it.
She was the something, the anything; the shadowy, spectral, unearthly figure that Niathal would eventually come to title The Dark Woman.
Niathal first sensed her before he ever actually saw her—a presence that he felt clinging to him shortly after he awoke from sleep; a feeling that he was, or had been, watched. But soon it became more than that. Much more, much to Niathal’s great distress; what had been a lingering suspicion upon waking soon gave way to grim confirmation—Tanon began to very distinctly recall the contents of his dreams, and it was, indeed, of someone standing over his bed, staring down at him. A tall, statuesque, ghostly pale female dressed in a hooded black cloak, who would do nothing but stare at Niathal for (what seemed like) hours and hours on end. Hauntingly beautiful, but forever silent, doing nothing but watching—a stare that made Niathal feel like he was being penetrated to his very soul.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]The young man found himself scared by her, naturally, but also intrigued by her…what trick of his subconscious was causing this spectral figure to appear? The more and more frequent the woman’s appearance in his dreams was, the more and more the young Balmorran gave thought to her; what did she represent? What could the dreams mean? Certainly, he reasoned, they had to mean something to him—the dreams were too recurrent (and too consistent between repeated instances) to just be ascribed to random chance. The more and more Tanon mulled on it, the more and more fixated on it he became; it was a complete mystery to him, and to a scientific mind such as his, that was something that demanded solving. And yet, even as he gave more thought to the woman (even beginning to idly sketch detailed drawings of her in his spare time as a way to give true form to his dreams), he realized that there was no real reason to be as drawn to, as focused on the vision as he was…but for some reason, he simply could not get the woman out of his head. She was a mystery to him, and yet, Tanon could not get it out of his head that he knew this woman, that he had met her somewhere before, somehow. Such a feeling, when fueled by his native curiosity, only served to exacerbate the problem as time went on.
Niathal’s confusion regarding –and increasing obsession with—the Dark Woman only intensified once the dreams began becoming more intense; now, in addition to the visions of the Woman, he began hearing a voice—a deep, smoky, sandpaper-rough voice that raised hairs on the back of the young aristocrat’s neck and dragged a blade of ice up his spine, a voice that he would hear echo through his head even *long* after having awakened from the dream, a voice that would sound even when the lips of the one responsible for it never visibly moved.
“Come. Come to me. Come.”
Niathal’s fascination –which had grown to fixation and was rapidly approaching obsession—with the Dark Woman, whoever she may have been (subconscious manifestation? Figment of an overactive imagination?) was growing to consume his waking thoughts; his performance in other areas of life began to slip (seeming distracted and distant at board meetings or social functions, or making careless errors in his research), as he found himself thinking of her, even when he was consciously trying to focus on other things. She was becoming all he could think about, like it or not. Niathal mused that it was almost like being in love…only much more terrifying.
Naturally, such a thing became even harder when Tanon not only began to hear the Dark Woman in his mind while both asleep and awake, but actually see her as well; as in his dreams, a tall, pale, beautiful woman in a hooded black cloak, staring that piercing stare at him and whispering in his mind her repeated command that he come to her, despite Niathal not knowing where to find her, OR even indeed who she was at all. The combination of the dreams, the voices, and the hallucinations began to make Niathal wonder if he was going insane.
Maybe he was. Why else was he, in his head, now suddenly seeing visions of a planet –which, due to the very distinct shape of the landmasses, to say nothing of the fact of the gigantic web of orbital structures surrounding it, was almost certainly the shipbuilding nexus that was Kuat? He would see the planet, and then hear the Dark Woman’s voice repeat her command: Come. Come to me.
And yet… why was he, in defiance of all reason, rationality, or logic, feeling an almost instinctual need to go there?
He did not know—but he knew, somehow, some way, that there was only one way to find out, to get the answers, the reason behind the mental torture he had been going through over the past few months; somewhere on (or around) Kuat. [/SIZE]
Faction: Sith
Rank: Apprentice/Padawan
Species: Balmorran (Human)
Age: 25
Sex: Male
Height: 6’3
Weight: 188
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Skin: White (tanned)
Force-sensitive: Yes[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Strengths:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]---Intelligence: Niathal is extraordinarily intelligent; he has the equivalent of high-level degrees in several subjects, including—robotics/mechatronics, cybernetics, high-energy physics, computer programming, nanotechnology, metallurgy, and several kinds of engineering, among others (and a great functional knowledge of many other disciplines). His near-perfect eidetic memory assists him in this—Niathal can, with almost flawless accuracy, recall the contents of any diagram he has looked at or technical journal/manual that he has read.
---Adomopathy: Also known as ‘adoptive muscle memory’ or ‘photographic reflexes’; this ability, almost certainly a latent manifestation of Niathal’s Force sensitivity, can be best described as the capability to observe another person’s physical movements or actions once and then duplicate them at any point from then on, without practice, regardless of how complicated the movement is. This ability allows him to not only learn, but master almost any physical skill simply by observation—from physical stunts like varying kinds of sports, martial arts and acrobatics, to other abilities like archery, marksmanship and, with some extra work, even piloting.
Though this skill potentially means that Niathal could become a nigh-superhuman physical combatant, at this point in time, all Niathal has used his mimicking ability for has been, primarily, in his off hours; learning sleight-of-hand and other party tricks to impress women, becoming proficient at playing various musical instruments, becoming a galactic-class chef…and perfecting his smashball pitch.
Weaknesses: Though his ability of photographic reflexes is incredibly useful, it does have several limitations:
--One, Niathal can only duplicate physical actions that he actually witnesses (though he does not have to be physically present to do so, meaning holos work just fine).
--Two, he can only mimic physical actions that are within his physical abilities to perform (his Human biology limiting him from performing physical feats that certain alien species could perform ONLY due to their own unique capabilities).
--Three, Niathal’s copying ability applies ONLY to physical actions—the various powers granted by the Force are, at their core, mental powers; with no visible physical movements for him to mimic, this means that Niathal cannot copy actual Force powers the way he can physical skills, though with proper time and instruction, he would be able to learn them, same as any other Force-sensitive. (For an example, while he could duplicate the physical moves of even the most advanced lightsaber combat forms, he would not have the developed Force powers of even an apprentice Sith/Jedi Padawan, meaning that he would be extraordinarily unlikely able to fight anything beyond the most inexperienced of lightsaber users).
Biography:
Tanon Niathal was born into wealth and privilege on the heavy industrial world of Balmorra, as the sole heir to the vast business empire of Niathal Industries. A truly immense interstellar conglomerate, Niathal Industries had interests in things as diverse as clothing lines and consumer electronics to heavy industries like construction and mining, and everything between (though the company’s original focus, and its largest profit earner by far, even to the present day, is weapons manufacturing).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Selected specifically to take the reins of the family company once his father (Kir Niathal) stepped down as president/CEO of the company, Tanon learned from a very early age, and in great detail, the ins-and-outs of the corporate world in preparation for the role he would eventually assume. However, much to the irritation of his parents (in particular his father), their son never seemed to take any truly genuine interest in the path that they preferred their son’s life to take. In truth, the reason that Tanon put up with such pressuring at all was that, if nothing else, he wanted control of the family business to remain exactly there; in the family.
But, true to someone of his (overall) intellectual nature, Tanon would much rather prefer to dedicate the entirety of his time to another pursuit, one which he not only enjoyed greatly, but also showed an extraordinary talent for—working R&D on some of the more esoteric (and, very often, more challenging) projects at Niathal Industries. But, despite his parents being well aware of their son’s preferences career-wise (that of scientist, in lieu of corporate tycoon), the elder Niathals left Tanon to his own devices for two reasons:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]One-- genuine interest or no, Tanon (being the dutiful son that he was) was going along with the program they had set for him, educating himself on and mastering all the complex ways and intricacies of the world of business, quietly and with a minimum of fuss (though, unbeknownst to his parents, not without a not-inconsiderable amount of resentment on Tanon’s part, something he kept tightly repressed). And two-- their son’s involvement in several problematic projects, which had become hopelessly stalled prior to his participation, had ended up with said projects not only becoming successful, but also netting the parent corporation hundreds of millions of credits in profits. Such a windfall was something that any shrewd businessperson would take notice of, and whatever else you could have said about them, Kir and Natasi Niathal had *not* gotten to where they were by being ignorant of things which were good for business. (Good sense in parenting however, was unfortunately another thing entirely.)
But not all of Niathal’s life was solely divided between corporate maneuverings and scientific research (though Tanon would have been more than happy for it to be that way). Unfortunately for him, both his parents favored themselves high-class members of the ‘in crowd’; social climbers who basked in attention and thrived when under the scrutiny of the public eye. Even worse, they seemed determined to draw their son into the same lifestyle, much in the same way that they had already determined what career he was to take. To a person like Tanon --a slightly socially-awkward, generally introverted sort who preferred to keep his private life exactly that way, private-- that was about as preferable as being orally pleasured by a rabid rancor. Yet, like how he dealt with his parents’ meddling regarding his career, the younger Niathal dutifully pasted a smile on his face and showed himself at various red-carpet, hot-ticket events all around the Galaxy. And at every single one, regardless of who he was with (his parents, or, more commonly as he got older, some vapid young female that they had selected for him), the young Balmorran wished that he could be anywhere else; that something, anything, would come along and serve to pull him away from all this…inanity.
As the old saw goes, one should be careful what one wishes for—one just might get it.
She was the something, the anything; the shadowy, spectral, unearthly figure that Niathal would eventually come to title The Dark Woman.
Niathal first sensed her before he ever actually saw her—a presence that he felt clinging to him shortly after he awoke from sleep; a feeling that he was, or had been, watched. But soon it became more than that. Much more, much to Niathal’s great distress; what had been a lingering suspicion upon waking soon gave way to grim confirmation—Tanon began to very distinctly recall the contents of his dreams, and it was, indeed, of someone standing over his bed, staring down at him. A tall, statuesque, ghostly pale female dressed in a hooded black cloak, who would do nothing but stare at Niathal for (what seemed like) hours and hours on end. Hauntingly beautiful, but forever silent, doing nothing but watching—a stare that made Niathal feel like he was being penetrated to his very soul.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]The young man found himself scared by her, naturally, but also intrigued by her…what trick of his subconscious was causing this spectral figure to appear? The more and more frequent the woman’s appearance in his dreams was, the more and more the young Balmorran gave thought to her; what did she represent? What could the dreams mean? Certainly, he reasoned, they had to mean something to him—the dreams were too recurrent (and too consistent between repeated instances) to just be ascribed to random chance. The more and more Tanon mulled on it, the more and more fixated on it he became; it was a complete mystery to him, and to a scientific mind such as his, that was something that demanded solving. And yet, even as he gave more thought to the woman (even beginning to idly sketch detailed drawings of her in his spare time as a way to give true form to his dreams), he realized that there was no real reason to be as drawn to, as focused on the vision as he was…but for some reason, he simply could not get the woman out of his head. She was a mystery to him, and yet, Tanon could not get it out of his head that he knew this woman, that he had met her somewhere before, somehow. Such a feeling, when fueled by his native curiosity, only served to exacerbate the problem as time went on.
Niathal’s confusion regarding –and increasing obsession with—the Dark Woman only intensified once the dreams began becoming more intense; now, in addition to the visions of the Woman, he began hearing a voice—a deep, smoky, sandpaper-rough voice that raised hairs on the back of the young aristocrat’s neck and dragged a blade of ice up his spine, a voice that he would hear echo through his head even *long* after having awakened from the dream, a voice that would sound even when the lips of the one responsible for it never visibly moved.
“Come. Come to me. Come.”
Niathal’s fascination –which had grown to fixation and was rapidly approaching obsession—with the Dark Woman, whoever she may have been (subconscious manifestation? Figment of an overactive imagination?) was growing to consume his waking thoughts; his performance in other areas of life began to slip (seeming distracted and distant at board meetings or social functions, or making careless errors in his research), as he found himself thinking of her, even when he was consciously trying to focus on other things. She was becoming all he could think about, like it or not. Niathal mused that it was almost like being in love…only much more terrifying.
Naturally, such a thing became even harder when Tanon not only began to hear the Dark Woman in his mind while both asleep and awake, but actually see her as well; as in his dreams, a tall, pale, beautiful woman in a hooded black cloak, staring that piercing stare at him and whispering in his mind her repeated command that he come to her, despite Niathal not knowing where to find her, OR even indeed who she was at all. The combination of the dreams, the voices, and the hallucinations began to make Niathal wonder if he was going insane.
Maybe he was. Why else was he, in his head, now suddenly seeing visions of a planet –which, due to the very distinct shape of the landmasses, to say nothing of the fact of the gigantic web of orbital structures surrounding it, was almost certainly the shipbuilding nexus that was Kuat? He would see the planet, and then hear the Dark Woman’s voice repeat her command: Come. Come to me.
And yet… why was he, in defiance of all reason, rationality, or logic, feeling an almost instinctual need to go there?
He did not know—but he knew, somehow, some way, that there was only one way to find out, to get the answers, the reason behind the mental torture he had been going through over the past few months; somewhere on (or around) Kuat. [/SIZE]