## Statistics Galactic Age: ~22,000 Subjective Age: 553 Homeworld: [[The Violet Fleet]] Home Sector: [[The Sectors#Sundered Harmony (6)|Sundered Harmony]] Affinity Groups - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/Scientists]] - Seeking Genius - Has a hilariously large pile of money and nowhere to spend it - What is Science? (Wondermaking) - "Without an arch, is it really a triumph?" - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/Politicos]] - Bet ~~the~~ Someone Else's Farm - Spend an empire's worth of money to make *someone* a surprise contender You are the senior diplomat for [[The Violet Fleet|Violet Fleet]], a collection of the galaxy's most accomplished and famed warriors. For the last several subjective centuries, you've been responsible for forging alliances between your Fleet and the Voidsinger faith. Your significant success on that front, enabled by your close relationship with [[Singer Tarsus]], has recently (around 75 subjective years ago) resulted in your promotion. Now you're in charge of figuring out how to spend your peoples' unfathomable wealth. You want to make your money useful. Funding Tarsus has been tremendously successful, and you see no reason why that practice can't be extended. The more Violet Fleet helps to bring wonder and grandeur into the galaxy, the more powerful and influential you will become. As well, you want to better understand your own people and their history. Like most Fleetlings (those born to the fleet), you've spent your life receiving propaganda from the Fleet's Admiralty. While you still love your people as much as ever, you can't help but wonder about the truth. You've come to the [[Plague Council]] partially to support your friend Tarsus, but mostly because it's a gathering of the most powerful people in the entire sector. While your current role largely revolves around spending money, that expenditure is still in service of your peoples' diplomatic needs. There are very few opportunities to get access to this many significant individuals at once. Also, if you're really honest with yourself, you do have the stereotypical Violet Fleet love of superweapons. Myriadic Councils almost always end up declaring war on *someone*, and you want to be there to see the guns they build for this one. Maybe you'll even end up buying one for yourself. ## Goals 1. Find someone to sponsor, whether that be a political faction, art movement, or anything else, so long as that person is willing to publicly be affiliated with the Violet Fleet. 2. Convince the Myriadic Council to construct a grand superweapon for use in the war. Whichever war, there's always a war. 3. Use your wealth to mess with, or even upend, a power dynamic. ## Character Notes - This character has access to functionally unlimited wealth. Anything that can be accomplished with money, they can afford. Unfortunately, that wealth comes from a group that most of the galaxy regards as nothing more than chaotic raiders. While they have the money to buy whatever they can imagine, it'll be very difficult to find those willing to be publicly associated with that money. Will they work to redeem the reputation of [[The Violet Fleet|Violet Fleet]], or will they accept the opportunity to become a power broker in the galactic underworld? - This character has formed one close connection, with the Voidsinger who was assigned to them by a superior centuries ago. You've funded and fueled [[Singer Tarsus]]' rise, and formed a tight friendship in the process. In the course of this friendship, you have become a moderate power player in the church despite being only a lay member. Unfortunately, the Singers' faith is so massive and dispersed that they won't serve as a legitimizing factor. Will you prioritize friendships or progress during the coming council? - This character is in a strange information environment. They aren't aware that the galaxy at large regards their home fleet as nothing more than dangerous raiders, because Violet Fleet institutionally restricts that knowledge from its people. Instead, they're fed legends of glorious conquest and heroic victory. That misinformation is going to crumble almost instantly, leaving Ziz to decide. Does their loyalty to their people outweigh the realization of their ignominious place in the galaxy? ## Connections 1. [[Singer Po]] 1. "I don't like to talk about Singer Po. That said, here's what I think about Singer Po." 2. Po is old. Not Wend old, or anything, but pretty damn old. Unlike some of the other Voidsingers you know, Po is the type who really believes in the faith and its promises, and they've been around long enough for that belief to carry its own sort of weight. You first met them in your youth, when you were training under the last Diplomat for the Violet Fleet, and they've popped up again from time to time over the centuries. It's strange; even though they're judgmental in nearly all of the expected ways, and frankly very frustrating to try and pin down for a straight answer, you've always found Po's time worth sharing, and their perspectives worth hearing. More than that, some of their comments over the years suggest they know something about the origin of the Violet Fleet, information you and the other Fleetlings have been denied since birth. Why are you willing to trust what a near-stranger like Singer Po has to say about your own people? 2. [[Singer Tarsus]] 1. "Terribly stuffy. Bloodthirsty to the point of farce. The single best person I've ever met." 2. A few hundred subjective years ago, not long after you took your current post, you happened upon a rising star in the Voidsinger faith. "Tarsus-Scion-Tarsus" may have been (and still be) painfully hierarchical and a little bit obsessed with burning things down, but they're also beloved of their church and a strong contender for the next Holy Reflection. Ever since then, they've been attached to you as your "official liaison to the Voidsingers." You've funded and supported them for thousands of galactic years (subjective centuries) and you're absolutely certain this investment will pay dividends. What makes you so confident this Voidsinger is your meal ticket? 3. [[Holy Reflection]] 1. "Now that's power. Half-mad, extremely weird power, but power nonetheless." 2. If Po is old, the Holy Reflection is ancient almost beyond the point of description. The last rumor you heard put them at somewhere near eight million years old, a frankly ridiculous number which would make them older than some stars. Even with the greatest technology in the galaxy, most "immortals" only make it a couple hundred thousand years before they get bumped off in one squalid little war or another. Somehow, even while rising to the top of the pyramid of knives and broken glass which constitutes the Voidsinger faith, the Holy Reflection has made it dozens of times that. Somehow even stranger than their ridiculous life span, however, is that the Holy Reflection seems to have taken an interest in you. For centuries, they've popped up at events you were attending, and somehow each time you end up chatting with them. The topics have been mundane, everyday, but most of your fellow Fleetlings flatly refuse to believe you've met the Reflection once, let alone dozens of times now. While they've always been polite, and generally a little distant, just the fact that such a powerful individual knows your name is enough to astonish most strangers. Are you excited by the acquaintance, or worried? 4. [[Governor Vitoli]] 1. "If the Holy Reflection is half-mad, then Vitoli stole the other half so they could have three." 2. Governor Vitoli scares the shit out of you. Their wild prophecies wouldn't be so scary if they weren't so often true, but every time they've ever pronounced a catastrophe, they've been right. Even so, you don't really believe they're psychic. Much more likely, in your opinion, is that Vitoli is actually one of the galaxy's most successful and skillful spies. You believe that they spend most of their time collecting information from every source they can find, then figuring out how to dispense that information in just-cryptic-enough hints. The thing that makes them so scary is how, even after millennia of the "kooky psychic" act, no one has ever called them on it. Or at least, no one you've ever heard of. You've known Vitoli for most of your life, and they've always been a great source of intelligence, but to this very day you don't know what it takes to get on their bad side and find yourself receiving a "prophecy." Does your wariness of them outweigh their value, or do you choose to live on the knife's edge and maintain your acquaintance? ## Mechanics **Asset:** [[Kissing Rings]] You specialize in being liked by powerful people. That's your job, after all. Sure, there are those who would call what you do "kissing up," but you've never heard someone recommend kissing down. Whenever you're talking to a Governor, so long as you are polite and they have time, if you ask about their goals for their Holding they must answer you with at least a basic truth (e.g., I want to improve our defenses, I want to end our Alliance with Holding X, I want to build vast and trunkless legs of stone, etc.). **SPECIAL:** Wealth Beyond Wealth Any time you participate in an Endeavor or Negotiation, you may provide up to five of each resource type ([[Fuel]], [[Raw Materials]], or [[Refined Materials]]). However, each participant must vocally acknowledge the role of Violet Fleet for this benefit to take effect. Alternatively, you may give any character up to 3 of each resource type to do with as they please (direct the player to speak with the facilitator), this effect does not require public recognition. **Lien:** [[Living on Room Service]] A Diplomat doesn't go home. It isn't that you don't want to, it's that you're useless there. You struggle to engage with those from your home Holding, knowing that every second spent talking to them is a second wasted. The longer you spend talking to someone from your Holding, the less patience you have. If you go more than five minutes without interacting with someone outside your Holding, you become irritable and frustrated. After ten minutes, you will make any excuse to get away and meet someone not from home.