Star Wars: Dawn of the New Republic Character Application

Screen Name: Edgeworth

Character you wish to play: Rear Admiral Talon Rake

Race: Human

Faction: Imperial Remnant, Loyal to Ysanne Isard

Background: Talon began his military career in the closing years of the Galactic Civil War and shortly after the battle of Yavin. He was following in the proud military tradition of his family by going into the Empire’s service, an Empire he still believes is the legitimate government. The young officer performed well despite the Empire’s declining fortunes. However, he had some degree of difficulty in distinguishing himself from the set of other, competing, talented officers. His lucky break came disguised as an utter disaster when, shortly after the battle of Endor, the ship he was on became involved in a calamitous engagement with a far superior Republic vessel. The skill of the ship’s captain led to the destruction of the Republic ship. However, the Imperial vessel was heavily damaged in the fight and lost all power to her engines. Unable to sustain orbit the vessel plummeted towards the planet below and crashed, causing further damage to the already crippled vessel and wounding or killing several crew members in addition to the fire fight.

One such casualty was the Captain himself, who was alive but incapacitated, as well as the second in command, who was killed outright. Taking control of the situation Talon assembled what remained of the crew and made the ship as defensible as possible. There he was able to hold his position against repeated Republic attacks though a combination of cunning tactics, brinksmanship and hard fighting. Eventually Imperial vessels came to rescue the surviving crew and, having distinguished himself, Talon’s career really began to take off. 

Given command of a ship he was assigned to safeguard a seemingly secure area of Imperial space. He had however, been put there by Imperial Intelligence as they believed the local Moff may be either corrupt or treacherous. Talon was not informed of the scheme as Imperial Intelligence believed he would operate best in ignorance. However, a member of Imperial Intelligence was secretly placed aboard his ship to guide Talon towards making the right decisions as well as ensure Talon did not become treacherous himself. Not only did Talon manage to prevent the Moff’s attempted defection to the Republic but he also discovered the identity of the spy aboard his own ship. Though Talon was less than pleased to be spied on his loyalty and skill were established and he was used on increasingly highly valued and highly classified missions. 

Though he was never a member of Imperial Intelligence he gained a reputation, both inside and outside of the Remnant, as an effective and dependable commander, known for getting results and lightning raids. Eventually he started to receive missions from Ysanne Isard herself, after which he gained the nickname “the dagger of Ysanne.” In time Talon ended up being one of her more trusted and well used tools, even going so far as to promote him out of the role of leading small squadrons of ships and actually give him command over a portion of her fleet. This was partly because Talon was a gifted military commander, and whilst he was no Thrawn he was better than Ysanne herself who had a poor head for war but a good one for intelligence and politics. But it was largely because he had absolutely no intention of taking her job. It took two years of working under her for Ysanne to believe it but she eventually saw that the man was not going to try and overthrow her, as such he became a reliable constant in a world of intrigue and betrayal. 

His privileged position allowed him to influence Ysanne in a few key areas, most notably he persuaded her to authorise the construction of three experimental vessels that Talon believed could change the face of war. These were the dagger class ships, named for Talon’s own nickname. They were slightly longer but narrower than Imperial II class cruisers and shared a similar basic shape, but the similarities ended there. The Dagger class was far more specialist than the workhorse of the Empire, this had advantages but it involved sacrifices as well. Aside from a few shuttles the Dagger class had no spaceships of its own, no fighters or bombers. It also had a significantly reduced stormtrooper contingent, with enough men to repel boarding actions or mount boarding actions of their own, even fight small battles. But they could not garrison worlds and they lacked almost all of the heavy equipment found on more standard star destroyers, such as ATSTs. Crew conditions were also cramped, with hot bunking common place for all but relatively senior officers. 

However, all of this freed up space, space which was chiefly used for massive power generation which in turn fuelled more powerful shields, sensor bafflers and interdictors, more powerful engines at both sub light and hyperspace speeds, and a whole new breed of gun. There was not a single conventional turbo laser to be found on the whole vessel. Instead the guns were divided into two broad classes. A large number of point defence guns were still present, with some extra power put to them to make them more effective at dealing with fighter craft at close range, as well as incoming missiles and torpedoes as was their original function. The real revolution came in what Talon called capitol guns. Akin to the great turrets once found on naval ships in the distant past turbo laser technology had been adapted and radically redesigned to make the monumental turrets possible. These things had a surprising turning speed given their size, far greater range and greater power, but a much lower fire rate. They were designed to fight ship to ship battles in a different way but were very expensive to make, hence their extremely limited production run until their capability has been proven in battle. 

So, with powerful ships at his disposal, rank and considerably autonomy Talon has now set about trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of his ships as well as serve Imperial interests in general and more specifically aid Ysanne if she requires it. 

Character Class: Soldier 

Items: Talon has the same equipment as most Imperial officers, generally he can be found in his uniform with various code cylinders and his E11 blaster. Whilst not standard issue he also usually has a small blade secreted about his person. Of course, he has access to the armoury and all the equipment which lies within including a special request for several suits of ATAT commanders armour for use by non stormtrooper officers when conducting dangerous missions. 

His most dangerous assets however, are his ships which are as follows.
3x Dagger Class Battle Cruiser
6x Imperial II Class Star Destroyer
6x Victory II Class Star Destroyer
Assorted lesser escort and light duty ships. 

These ships will rarely all be deployed together and when compared to Ysanne’s entire fleet they make up only a small, but noticeable, proportion. He has the authority to requisition more ships and will often assume a command role should he be called back to Ysanne’s fleet to direct larger actions, the above however, reflects his permanent autonomous command. 

Character Personality: Talon Rake is a man from the old universe, a universe that probably never really existed in anything but slanted history books and romantic memories of a time gone. If he was asked how to describe himself he would simply say “I am an Imperial Officer.” With the unspoken addition of all that implies. He believes in the officer class and the behaviour of the model officer. Loyal, brave, dedicated, calm, hardworking, talented, honest and fair but firm, obedient and commanding. He is, or at least tries to be, everything the propaganda videos would have you believe. 

He believes in the legitimacy of Imperial Rule and see’s the New Republic as little more than an Illegal usurper. Furthermore, he sees Ysanne Isard as the legitimate ruler of the Empire as he is both unaware of the true extent of her illegal activates to seize power and the fact he can trace her power through the Moffs and legislature, giving her technical superiority over Grand Admiral Thrawn, whom Talon admires and respects immensely. He will follow the chain of command absolutely, unless he believes his commander is somehow acting illegally. The thing most likely to prize him away from Ysanne is an argument based on law. His belief in the law is the centre of his character and the prime motive behind many of his choices in life. 

Of course, he is only a human and not without flaws. He is not known to forgive those who abuse his trust and will persecute those who break deals and agreements with him to an almost ridiculous extent. His singular focus on completing his assigned mission means he is willing to accept loss of life. Not only in his own crew, though he will go to lengths to avoid it if possible, but also amongst bystanders and civilian populations. Again, he tries to avoid needless civilian deaths but he will not let such a loss of life stop him from completing his mission. He also fight against the Republic with the ferocious, indignant and prosecutorial air of a man who genuinely believes he is fighting an evil, an evil that must be stamped out. Furthermore, Imperial law both permits and compels certain, morally distasteful actions and whilst he does not relish in these tasks he will carry them out as necessary. 

Finally the man is somewhat arrogant and does not suffer fools lightly. He is not blinded by his ego, he knows men such as Thrawn are his tactical superiors. But he also knows he is better than most and will not tolerate those of lesser rank displaying incompetence around him. Worryingly, he has even criticised those superior to him for their mistakes or bad plans and whilst he would always obey an order he might try to dissuade them from foolish courses of action. Many believed this would lead to his death on one occasion when he plainly but respectfully advised Ysanne Isard against her planned course of action, cautioning her that it would lead to military disaster. He survived the encounter but Ysanne did not heed his warnings, leading to the very defeat he predicted. Since then he has continued to advise Ysanne, undeterred by her previous dissatisfaction and relying on the fact he was proved right before to lend credit to his words. When confronted by her directly about his attitude he simply said. “I serve you poorly by telling you want you want to hear. I tell you what you need to hear.” To this day he is not entirely sure if he will regret those words, but he still draws breath and he is consulted more often than before. 
Character Alignment: Walking the line

Do you know how to post pictures on the RPG Boards: 
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Sample Post (write a sample post that is at least 4 paragraphs long and containing at least 3 lines of dialogue or meet the RPG Advanced guidelines of 12 lines): 

So he had it, at last. He had his ships, he had his daggers, daggers he would soon drive deep into the New Republic. At least that was his plan, but he knew the execution would be somewhat more difficult. He took some time to walk about his flagship, a vessel he had controversially named the Ysanne, after his benefactor who had given him these vessels. It was a gesture of respect and gratitude but the fact he had used her first name struck some as being too familiar. Still, Talon had ignored those voices, such naysayers rarely achieved anything worth mentioning. For the moment he walked his ship’s halls, visited her nocks and crannies, her major organs and saw to her health and wellbeing before finally arriving at the centre of it all. Her very mind, the bridge. 

Once there he again, walked about with both hands behind his back and a long, easy stride. He looked every one of his bridge staff in the eye, giving nods, greetings and knowing smiles as needed. He became familiar with every station, every aspect of this room before walking over to the main viewing windows and staring out not just into space but into the future as well. After a few minutes a voice appeared from behind Talon. 

“Admiral, all ships are reporting in as fully loaded and ready.” It was a familiar voice to Talon, it was the voice of his long serving second officer, a man named Yullish Dagor. Without turning around Talon nodded his head and remained silent for a moment before saying in an easy but confident tone. 

“Very good, no need to tip the Rebels as to our hand just yet. Form a vexalation, the Yssane, two Victory II vessels and two Imperial II class cruisers. We will proceed at Imperial II class normal travel speed to Sernpidal. The rest of the flotilla will proceed to their holding location some distance from Bastion.” Upon hearing this Yullish clicked his heels in obedience and gave a slight nod of his head. 

“Yes sir!” And with that he turned on his heel and was away, off to carry out Talon’s orders. Talon meanwhile continued gazing into space as if there was more there than just ships, planets and stars. So began this next chapter in his career. So began the process of bringing more worlds back under the rightful rule of the Empire. So began the process of rebuilding a military ready to shake the stars. The road to a fresh victory began here! … so it began.

((Obviously I have assumed certain things for the above, such as key characters being alive. If any of that doesn't fit let me know and I will adjust accordingly))