Name: Maren Ninke

Race: Human

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Appearance: Maren stands 5'6" tall and maintains a fairly athletic build. Her skin is pale from a lifetime in the void, her eyes a dull blue color and her hair a dark brown. She looks more like a seasoned spacer or a ganger than a scholar due to the handgun on her hip, the tattoos covering the shaved right side of her head, and the utilitarian attire she favors. Each of her shoulders bears a tattoo of a blue theater mask, occasionally visible when she is not wearing a pilot jacket or jumpsuit over her usual tank-top and cargo pants. Running along her back and chest and hidden by her clothing are tattoos of strange runes and sigils, wards of protection against the arcane.

Homeworld: Orbital Station Sanguinary Zeta. A vast space station on the edges of Arc Luminous space that caters to the "frontiersmen" of the void. It is a final stopping point for many spacers and explorers venturing beyond the safety of civilized space and the first place where their discovered treasures and wealth exchange hands upon their return.

Alignment: Neutral

Role: Researcher

Skills: Maren's value lies in her intelligence and the archive of obscure knowledge she has gained in her relatively short lifetime. Knowledge of arcane rites, forgotten civilizations, interplanetary politics, obscure cultures, alien races, and classical literature to name a few of the topics archived in her unnaturally flawless memory. Secondary to this, though still quite valuable in space is her years of experience aboard voidships and space stations as a crewman or consultant.

Maren is no stranger to violence, having spent some time among the crews of pirates and cutthroats. She carries a compact machine pistol as her personal sidearm, given to her by a previous crewmember and old friend. It is a relatively crude weapon by many modern standards, though more than capable of dealing with any threat Maren expects to face. Additionally, she processes a formidable understanding of arcane rites and rituals, though little practical use of magic. She has wards and runes tattooed onto her body to provide her some defense against the infernal and arcane powers she might stumble upon in her studies.

History: Maren was born to a couple of wealthy merchants aboard the Sanguinary Zeta station. To her, the dark passageways, stale atmosphere, and artificial gravity were home. The thought of adventure called to her and she spent most of her youth peering through viewports at passing starships and distant stars, or sitting and listening to the tales of the voidsmen that passed through the station, recovering from an expedition or seeking work aboard a new vessel. When Maren reached adulthood, she did not hesitate to sign aboard the crew of a starship, an exploratory vessel and free merchant called the Edward Hughes.

During her time aboard the Hughes, she participated in several expeditions seeking distant worlds and ancient treasures. One such expedition brought the crew to the ruins of a long dead alien civilization, an old city tucked away on a moon far from civilized space and forgotten. The ruins proved hazardous, but the promise of treasure outweighed the danger as the explorers braved ancient traps and dangerous wildlife. Maren came across a strange object in that dead city, a floating crystal that seemed to defy all logic, sealed away in a great vault left open by the ravages of time. It was like a gemstone, but seemed to have no defined shape, it's edges blurred and moving, it's angles...wrong, discomforting to look at, unnatural. It called to her, beckoned her to step forward, to take it, to read it...

When she woke in the Hughes' infirmary days later, it had changed her. She knew things she had not known, could not have known, so many things. She saw visions of times and places unknown to her, yet so familiar, like she had been there, seen them with her own eyes. The answers to questions she had never thought of before came to her from some unknown place, like she had always known but never thought of, and she hungered for more. She devoted her time to the acquisition of knowledge, anything from centuries old philosophy to politics to arcane texts recovered from old ruins. She joined smugglers, explorers, pirates, and merchants to travel the stars and uncover their secrets, using her skills and knowledge to barter passage and secure work.

Then, an unusual opportunity arose. A pirate needed an expert, one disconnected from universities, or scientific organizations, or governments, and one unopposed to unorthodox and dirty work. Someone to sift through centuries of data, of lost worlds, of dead races, of hidden treasures. It was an opportunity she could not refuse.

Personality: Maren has developed a rather reserved personality over the past several years, quite different than the adventurous and energetic one she possessed before her...change. Though, she is no less interested or dedicated, rarely wasting a moment when it could be spent in study or thoughtful discussion. She is almost always preoccupied, reading some interesting text or going over the countless memories and facts swirling around in her head at any given time. To some it gives the impression of aloofness, and at times she can become lost in her thoughts, though she is usually astute and ready to contribute to the matter at hand if called upon. She is surprisingly personable as well, happy to converse with her comrades when it is not interrupting her work.