| NAME: |
Taro, Child of Ash

| ALIAS(ES): |
N/A

| PLACE OF BIRTH: |
Planet VJDE-4J54-JH, Sector 37D

| SPECIES: |
Martrax

| D.O.B.: |
Summer

| AGE: |
Five Cycles

| SEX: |
Male

| APPEARANCE: |
Taro is a young Martrax in the prime state of his lifespan, a lean and ruthless predator. Taro, like all Martrax, is a quadruped, walking on four legs. His biology is similar to that of Earth felines, although much larger (reaching over six feet in length) and with distinct fur - short-haired, but light gray with a silver sheen, with a longer, darker mane. However, a Martrax's most distinctive feature is their tail - segmented, carapaced, and highly mobile, it ends in a vicious stinger.
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| ABILITIES: |
Taro possesses two extraordinary attributes that, while standard to his species, allow him to become something far greater than a simple feline predator on the strange planet of Earth - his psychic abilities, and his tail.

Taro's psychic abilities arise from his race's method of communication between both each other and themselves and other species. Incapable of verbal communication beyond basic, animalistic sounds, Martraxi instead 'talk' via implanting images, emotions, and intents into the minds of others, their 'speech' often abstract in nature but clear in message. This psychic is, by default, 'always-on', allowing quick response to threats to the pack or to a pack-member in danger - but on Earth, it allows Taro to feel the mind-states of those around him, allowing him to pinpoint those in trouble, those looking to cause trouble, and feel out the current emotional state of his surroundings.

Taro is also able to emit a powerful psychic 'shout'. Due to the innate lack of psychic talent in the average Homo Sapien, the human brain has not needed to learn the necessary abilities to filter, or outright block, psychic signals and messages in order to protect the psyche. Taro can use his own natural psychic nature to take advantage of this by emitting a sudden burst of a particular emotion or feeling, causing this broadcast to overwhelm any humans in the area and override their current mind-state for a few minutes.

Taro's tail, meanwhile, is strictly physical, and strictly offensive. Tough, strong, and mobile, it makes for a hefty club, and its stinger tip allows for many laceration- and/or impaling-related injuries to be suffered upon his opponents when Taro finds himself in the midst of combat - however, the stinger is also loaded with a potent, naturally-produced toxin that, upon injection, can cause severe paralysis and an intense, burning pain within minutes, if not seconds.

| SKILLS: |
Taro's own notable skills are, foremost, his talents for hunting, tracking, and surviving, as well as his physical aptitude - all necessities learnt during his years as part of his pack. A natural predator, Taro possesses keen hearing and night-vision (a result of eons of Martrax adaptation to their planet's long nights), as well as a considerable sense of smell. He's also brimming with trim, toned muscle, built for purpose and practicality entirely. Taro is agile, and smart in combat, not afraid to swipe at weaker targets first or to wear down a tougher opponent, and he holds no anxieties about using his claws, teeth, and tail all to the best of his ability.

| LIMITATIONS: |
While Taro is naturally a deadly predator thanks to the great tuning centuries or evolution provides, he is neither perfect, nor in his natural habitat. This is most obvious in how uncomfortable Taro finds him in the colder climate of Earth - his home planet, with its twin stars, is a constant bath of heat, causing the fur of the Martraxi to grow short and sleek. Earth, being further away from its sun, and having both a steady day/night cycle and more cold months than warm, is unsuited to Martrax life - and Taro finds his residence uncomfortable, his body often too cold to perform to its best standards.

Further unsuited to Taro's biology is Earth's own atmosphere - thinner in oxygen than his homeworld, Taro's muscles are partially starved of oxygen, putting his body under unusual strain to keep up in performance. As a result, Taro's strength and stamina are not true to their proper potential.

| WEAKNESSES: |
Taro's most potent enemy in his new life on planet Earth is, right now, the terrestrial microbial life - bacteria, viruses, fungi; anything alive that can enter Taro's bloodstream poses a major threat as his immune system encounters a completely new and completely alien attacker, with no existing way to defend itself - after Taro's first meal on Earth, he spent the next day weak and vomiting as his body rejected the foreign substances that naturally resided within the meat he'd consumed. Taro's body is slowly building resistances and creating antibodies, but right now, any microbes can cause serious illness.

Additionally, Taro's psychic abilities do not offer him solely boons - whilst a Human does not naturally possess any psychic powers and therefore no refinement or control of their incoming signals, they have also never had to refine their broadcasts, and as a result, are 'always-on' to Taro, who, still not familiar enough with this new pattern of psychic brain-waves, is unable to successfully and completely block them from his own mind. While this is manageable in a situation where numbers remain low or distance remains high, Taro can still be overwhelmed, causing a 'short' in his own psychic abilities, a debilitating migraine, and robbing him of his ability to focus on anything but ridding his mind of the invading signals.| ABILITIES: |
Taro possesses two extraordinary attributes that, while standard to his species, allow him to become something far greater than a simple feline predator on the strange planet of Earth - his psychic abilities, and his tail.

Taro's psychic abilities arise from his race's method of communication between both each other and themselves and other species. Incapable of verbal communication beyond basic, animalistic sounds, Martraxi instead 'talk' via implanting images, emotions, and intents into the minds of others, their 'speech' often abstract in nature but clear in message. This psychic is, by default, 'always-on', allowing quick response to threats to the pack or to a pack-member in danger - but on Earth, it allows Taro to feel the mind-states of those around him, allowing him to pinpoint those in trouble, those looking to cause trouble, and feel out the current emotional state of his surroundings.

Taro is also able to emit a powerful psychic 'shout'. Due to the innate lack of psychic talent in the average Homo Sapien, the human brain has not needed to learn the necessary abilities to filter, or outright block, psychic signals and messages in order to protect the psyche. Taro can use his own natural psychic nature to take advantage of this by emitting a sudden burst of a particular emotion or feeling, causing this broadcast to overwhelm any humans in the area and override their current mind-state for a few minutes.

Taro's tail, meanwhile, is strictly physical, and strictly offensive. Tough, strong, and mobile, it makes for a hefty club, and its stinger tip allows for many laceration- and/or impaling-related injuries to be suffered upon his opponents when Taro finds himself in the midst of combat - however, the stinger is also loaded with a potent, naturally-produced toxin that, upon injection, can cause severe paralysis and an intense, burning pain within minutes, if not seconds.

| SKILLS: |
Taro's own notable skills are, foremost, his talents for hunting, tracking, and surviving, as well as his physical aptitude - all necessities learnt during his years as part of his pack. A natural predator, Taro possesses keen hearing and night-vision (a result of eons of Martrax adaptation to their planet's long nights), as well as a considerable sense of smell. He's also brimming with trim, toned muscle, built for purpose and practicality entirely. Taro is agile, and smart in combat, not afraid to swipe at weaker targets first or to wear down a tougher opponent, and he holds no anxieties about using his claws, teeth, and tail all to the best of his ability.

| LIMITATIONS: |
While Taro is naturally a deadly predator thanks to the great tuning centuries or evolution provides, he is neither perfect, nor in his natural habitat. This is most obvious in how uncomfortable Taro finds him in the colder climate of Earth - his home planet, with its twin stars, is a constant bath of heat, causing the fur of the Martraxi to grow short and sleek. Earth, being further away from its sun, and having both a steady day/night cycle and more cold months than warm, is unsuited to Martrax life - and Taro finds his residence uncomfortable, his body often too cold to perform to its best standards.

Further unsuited to Taro's biology is Earth's own atmosphere - thinner in oxygen than his homeworld, Taro's muscles are partially starved of oxygen, putting his body under unusual strain to keep up in performance. As a result, Taro's strength and stamina are not true to their proper potential.

| WEAKNESSES: |
Taro's most potent enemy in his new life on planet Earth is, right now, the terrestrial microbial life - bacteria, viruses, fungi; anything alive that can enter Taro's bloodstream poses a major threat as his immune system encounters a completely new and completely alien attacker, with no existing way to defend itself - after Taro's first meal on Earth, he spent the next day weak and vomiting as his body rejected the foreign substances that naturally resided within the meat he'd consumed. Taro's body is slowly building resistances and creating antibodies, but right now, any microbes can cause serious illness.

Additionally, Taro's psychic abilities do not offer him solely boons - whilst a Human does not naturally possess any psychic powers and therefore no refinement or control of their incoming signals, they have also never had to refine their broadcasts, and as a result, are 'always-on' to Taro, who, still not familiar enough with this new pattern of psychic brain-waves, is unable to successfully and completely block them from his own mind. While this is manageable in a situation where numbers remain low or distance remains high, Taro can still be overwhelmed, causing a 'short' in his own psychic abilities, a debilitating migraine, and robbing him of his ability to focus on anything but ridding his mind of the invading signals.
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| WEAPONS: |
While Taro possesses no objects, his tail, teeth, and claws make ample weapons enough to allow him to hold his own in any close-quarters situation he cares to picture.

| TOOLS: |
N/A

| ATTIRE: |
Taro wears the fur he grows and nothing else - although, with the colder climate of Earth, he is beginning to understand the need for the various odd coverings Humans tend to throw over their bodies.
[hr]
| BACKSTORY: |
Taro was born as the Summer of his planet began its terrible peak, and the first leaves of the treetops began to catch the fire of the twin suns; Taro's first memory, clear in his mind, was that of great flames bursting from the branches of the trees around him and above him, his mother seizing him by his scruff in her jaw, his parents rushing towards the caves where the rest of their pack waited, the caves that would offer shelter from the fire that would soon engulf their world. The light was great, and the heat intense, but the caves held cooler air and soft shadows, and it was in those caves that Taro grew, suckling at his mother as the pack hibernated, surviving another summer cycle.

When his pack emerged, Taro was a young cub, a mewling infant no longer, instead growing larger and stronger, with the energy and rambunctious nature of a mischievous child. His first sight of his planet was that of an ash desert, the burnt remains of the jungle he was born in, vast swathes of speckled grays with shrubs and weeds still surviving, seeds from the great trees destroyed beginning to sprout and begin a new cycle. Taro was entranced, and in his play he stained his fur the colour of the ash; as he grew, his fur eventually mellowed from its newborn brown into the gray of how his planet had welcomed him, and thus Taro was dubbed a Child of Ash, like his father before him.

~
​
Taro aged for three cycles before the first sign of his Martrax maturity began to manifest - his tail's first secretions. A Martrax was never born with their venom, and only a rare few with a stinger at all; most had their barbs form as they tail grew, the chitinous carapace forming the distinctive wicked point as a Martrax reached two or three cycles, and only then would the glands, growing along with the cub, begin to manufacture the venom that would become their most potent weapon. Taro was excited when his secretions began, eager to enter the new phase of his life and become a true member of his pack - and his pack wasted no time in putting the newly mature Martrax to use.

Taro was quickly taught how to hunt; how to find prey and select a target, how to stalk the potential meal, how to get so close that you could hear its heartbeat, and how to remain so invisible that you wore the dark on your fur - and it was then and only then that Taro was taught how to strike. A silent whip, the slight sound of puncture and a whimper from the prey and then the toxin took hold, seizing up the meal's joints and stopping their heart, and then Taro would pounce and tear out the throat, blood dripping from his maw. His first kill was eaten heartily, sampled by the Alpha as per Martrax mandate, and only then shared with the rest of the pack.
​
~​

At four cycles, Taro did something no Martrax at his young age had ever done: he challenged his Alpha.

Bovay, Child of Fire, was an aging Martrax, old and ungraceful, alive for 26 cycles with seemingly only a few more to come; he had challenged his Alpha at ten cycles, and won a decisive victory, securing himself as new Alpha. His leadership had been fair and just, and as he aged, his decisions grew wiser and more tempered - but now Bovay grew too old, and his choices for his pack were becoming scattered and unnecessary. Taro saw the need for a new mind in his place, a Martrax stronger and less burdened by the decline of years, an Alpha that could lead his pack into its new generation, Taro's generation. Taro saw himself as that Alpha, and challenged Bovay.

The two fought for hours, and above them their planet's parent body floated across the sky like a watchful god. Eventually, Taro's claws found Bovay's already battered legs and Bovay yielded, surrendering the position of Alpha over to Taro. Taro was excited, but suddenly anxious; the pack waited on him, and he was now the one they looked to for guidance - and so began the rule of Taro, Child of Ash, Alpha of his pack.

His leadership was not unsatisfactory, but Taro was young, and it was plain to his pack. They did not question him, for he was Alpha, and Taro sought advice from the deposed Bovay, who told him that a firm leader was better than a liked one. Taro found this troubling, as he felt insecure in his hold as Alpha, but acted regardless - he moved his pack from their erstwhile home, setting up a new home some distance away, closer to one of his planet's coasts; while his pack was displeased with the unfamiliar territory, they were now further from a rival pack who they had been contesting hunting grounds with, and slowly Taro's pack began to realize that their new home was a positive change - with easy access to water to cool them, they could hunt longer into the Summer before delving below to hibernate in the coastal cave systems, and the oceanic life gave them a new source of food that no other pack could contest. Taro was accepted unanimously as Alpha, and all his worries of being challenged dissipated as his pack began a new, better life.

~​

Then Taro was abducted. A highly-advanced species from a neighbouring system had been observing the semi-sentient Martraxi for many cycles, and Taro's recent movements had interested them: such a young Martrax challenging the Alpha, winning, and then moving his entire pack to new territory - activity like this was unheard of by those who were aware of the Martrax, and the Martraxi themselves. An amoral sect desired further study of the Martrax and their culture, and devised an awful method of research.

They waited until the peak of the next Summer, when Taro led his pack into the coastal cave systems for their hibernation, and then enacted their plot, sending a ship down to brave the fire and the heat to abduct Taro as he and his pack slept and survived. Taro was placed into a research pod and put into stasis, and the abductors watched as his pack woke after the Fire with no Alpha, no leader. At first there was chaos - the stronger, older Martraxi of the pack immediately brawling for the position, before Bovay, still alive but dangerously weak, instated himself once again. In his final act, Bovay lead the pack to another, and entreated the Alpha that Bovay's pack merged with his, explaining his circumstances, the Alpha that was missing, his pack's past and his own. The Alpha accepted, and just like that, Taro's pack, Taro's family and legacy, was gone.

~
​
Stasis is a peculiar state of being. The body is frozen in time but still very much alive, heart beating and blood pumping and organs functioning but nothing aging, nothing dead. The mind dreams. A Martrax doesn't dream. A Martrax rarely sleeps, staying awake for most of the period they're not hibernating, taking perhaps five or six rests a cycle. Hibernation forces a shut-down, closes off even the Martraxi psychic waves. But stasis isn't hibernation, and Taro dreamed, psychic waves still active, still searching for another Martrax to connect to, searching for companionship and comfort. Taro's mind didn't find anything, but it still felt the activity of its pack from the planet below, however faintly. Taro dreamed of his pack spilling its own blood, of the return of the past, of a great movement - and then Taro dreamed of his pack fading away into nothing, enveloped and swallowed up by another, something similar but fundamentally different.

Taro woke up.

Alarms went off immediately. Stasis was not supposed to be breached from the inside. The ship went into security mode and Taro burst from his pod, angry and frightened and confused, lashing out at those who had taken him from his family and delivered him such dark dreams.

Somewhere in the fracas the ship sustained major damage, causing an overheat and subsequent malfunction in its hyperdrive systems. The ship flung itself furiously through space, ending up in a galaxy known to its local intelligent species as the 'Milky Way'. Taro, bathed in both his blood and his assailant's, tail dripping toxin from rapid, repeated use, had little time to brace himself for the impact as the ship's engines and hyperdrive failed completely, dropping the ship directly into the atmosphere of the planet 'Earth'. The ship crashed, and Taro spent the first three days on his new home wounded and unconscious amid rubble and debris, what was left of the ship resting in a smoking crater.​

~
​
Since Taro's destructive relocation, he's survived, hunting lesser life-forms alone, living on the side of Old Stone Mountain and avoiding being spotted by the local residents, odd two-legged creatures that he has seen in mighty abundance, and assumes to be the planet's dominant lifeform. While his lessons in early cycles about the value of silence and shadows have not gone unheeded, he has still be unable to completely escape notice - but, thankfully, he has been mistaken more than once for a similar beast that shares the territory of the mountain, and even when noticed as something rather more peculiar than the local wildlife, stories of 'manticores on the mountain' are rarely listened to.

The recent rain has interested Taro though, as has the psychic response from the mass population that lives below his mountain home. The wreckage of the ship he came in on is still there and still undiscovered, and Taro still wishes to return to his planet and restart his pack. Taro is still the Alpha, and he still holds his responsibilities.
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| HOME PLANET: |

Planet VJDE-4J54-JH, Sector 37D, is home to the Martrax race, who are the 'dominant species' of the planet, but with no real structured society, they are really little more than alpha predator.

VJDE is a satellite planet, its parent body a far larger planetary mass, scorched and dead. Its most distinctive feature is its twin stars, which it orbits in a figure-of-eight pattern along with its parent body. The near-constant light has given way to thick and verdant plant-life that covers most of VJDE's landmass, which, combined with the eternal heat, creates a lush rainforest. This light is only broken twice for each complete cycle of its orbit, when VJDE reaches one of the two farthest lateral points of its path, and its parent body comes between it and its two suns, causing a planet-wide period of darkness that lasts for 4-5 months before the eclipse is broken as VJDE continues its orbit.

While dark, and the closest VJDE gets to a 'winter', the planet still remains relatively warm. This heat ramps up as VJDE reaches the first of its two 'summers', the point in its orbit where it comes between both of its suns. The sheer heat of both stars combined causes mass bushfires planet-wide that burn away most of the larger plant-life, leaving only smaller weeds, shrubs, and the seeds of the larger trees left alive. Because of the danger of the fires, and the danger of the heat itself, most of the wildlife, including the dominant Martraxi, hibernate for the summer period, burrowing underground or delving into cave systems that offer shelter from the direct sunlight and slightly cooler temperatures, re-emerging when VJDE begins to pull away from one of the suns and temperatures fall again, allowing the plants to spring back to life and flourish through the ash-desert to create new forests, beginning another cycle.

~​

Martraxi are a quadrupedal feline race, similar in shape to terrestrial lions and tigers, but usually far larger, the smallest adult Martrax still reaching six feet in length and coming up to a human male's waist at least in height (from ground to foreleg shoulder). Their fur is often colourless, coming in varying shades of white, grey, and black, with long, sleek manes that are distinct in colour from the main coat.

All Martraxi have long, segmented, prehensile tails covered in a tough carapace that extends partially up the spine and back of the Martrax, which ends in a vicious stinger - sometimes split into two or three separate tips - that is loaded with a dose of highly toxic venom that can paralyze an unfortunate victim within minutes, if not seconds.

While Martraxi are not capable of speech, and any verbal communication is in the form of purrs, growls, roars, or chuffing, they are capable of psychic communication. Mostly achieved through imagery and emotion imprinted into another's mind, 'speech' in this manner is often abstract, and while there are no words 'broadcast', the intent of the message is clear. Martraxi are, by default, 'always on' to psychic communication, which allows quick response to threats or danger as well as ease of communication, but they are capable of blocking out psychic signals.

~​

While intelligent, and capable of communication (both inter- and intra-species), the Martrax do not live in a 'structured' society like the Homo Sapiens of Earth, or other celestial sentient beings. Instead, they live wild in the rainforests of their planet, in pack structures similar to those of terrestrial canines, despite their feline-like biology. A Martrax pack will consist of four or five 'bloodlines', families of Martraxi that fall into line under an 'Alpha'.

An 'Alpha' is defined by power alone - male or female, a Martrax only becomes Alpha of his or her pack when they challenge and depose the current Alpha. While challenges are a serious affair, they are not common, and Alphas can rule their 'pack' for several decades until challenged, at which point they will engage in a fair fight to defend their place - however, never to the death. A challenged Alpha will fight until one party yields: if deposed, an Alpha will be respected for his or her time as leader of the pack until their death by natural causes, and will be cared for by the new Alpha; if the challenger is defeated, they will be commended for their efforts, and welcomed to challenge once more when they grow stronger. Due to the 'no-kill' nature of an Alpha challenge, Martraxi will not use their tails in this kind of combat - indeed, to kill the challenger is to be deposed by default, and to kill the Alpha is to be ostracized by the rest of the pack.

The strict rules of combat in challenging an Alpha are mostly due to the long life-span and low birth-rate of a Martrax - a Martrax is a powerful predator late into their cycles, and a pack is stronger the more members it has. If a member were to be killed every challenge, a pack's number would dwindle quickly, and be forced into extinction shortly after. Martraxi mate for life, and produce perhaps only one or two offspring in their lives. Males and females share the burden of childcare equally until the cub is capable of sustaining themselves, and as hunting for food for the pack is often regarded as as much leisure as it is necessity, those who go is often rotated each hunt.

A pack will always fall respectfully in line beneath an Alpha who has proven themselves, and an Alpha needs only do it once to remain Alpha until challenged again - however, many Alphas rule fairly, concerned with the wellbeing of the pack as a whole, as a Martrax survives only as well as his or her pack does, and challengers rarely take on an Alpha unless they are prepared to shoulder the responsibilities.

Martraxi possess 'second names' in the form of descriptors that intend to mark their belonging to a particular generation, mostly decided by the general time of their birth but also influenced by the colour of their fur - for example, a Martrax born during one of their planet's nights will often grow to have darker fur, and will be dubbed a 'Child of Dark'. These second names are as close are Martraxi get to different races within their species, and packs usually consist of one or two families all from similar generations - it is rare to find a Child of Dark residing within the same pack as a Child of Fire.
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