## Statistics Galactic Age: ~12,000,000 Subjective Age: ~35,000 Homeworld: [[Rina's Holdfast]] Home Sector: [[The Sectors#Sundered Harmony (6)|Sundered Harmony]] Affinity Groups - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/Politicos]] - Bet ~~the~~ Someone Else's Farm - "Information is money is power, keep 1 & 2 flowing, and 3 will come" - [[Past Projects/The Plague Lords/Affinity Groups/Agents]] - Money & Negotiations You are a Speculator, an expert in connecting those with resources to those who need financing. You've been around for millions of years, though you've spent most of that time traveling at relativistic speeds and dropping into the normal time stream for only a few millennia at a time. For that entire, titanic span, you've been working in service of Rina's Holdfast, your Holding of origin. Unlike most who reach ages like yours, you've not grown jaded. You still care for your Holding and your people, and you still seek to better their lot, but you're far less casual about using bloodshed and catastrophe to get your way than many others. You want to keep the game afoot. So many of the spies and agents working these days are far too intense. They regard espionage and information brokerage as a matter of life and death. It is, of course, but that's no reason to be so grumpy about the whole thing. You always seek to keep your Holding safe and secure, but your second (and almost as important) goal is to ensure that information and money keep changing hands. Even if it weakens your position, you'd rather see spycraft in general flourish. You've come to the [[Plague Council]] because you suspect it will be an historic event, and because you know that some other members of your Holding will be in attendance. While you care little for the war between the [[Celestial Empire]] and the [[Plague Lords]], or the wars between [[House Orman]] and everyone else, you've made a habit of keeping the Holdfast out of such things over the years while reaping profit wherever possible. That's beside the exciting fact that this event will be full of powerful people with deadly secrets. ## Goals 1. Discover and spread as many secrets about money, negotiations, and deals as you can. Characters of interest: 1. [[Diplomat Ziz]] 2. [[Engineer Crispi]] 3. [[Governor Biru]] 4. [[Patron Duobi]] 2. Find a source of investment income and convince them to fund your speculation. 3. Ensure Rina's Holdfast grows in power and influence without being swept up in any of the incipient wars. ## Character Notes - With very few exceptions, this is one of the oldest characters in play. Though they've only experienced a tiny fraction of the number of years their galactic age might suggest, that span is still longer than nearly anyone else can boast. How do they relate to people born literally millions of years after most of their loved ones died of old age? - Mahlah has spent millions of years (and tens of thousands of subjective years) in service to Rina's Holdfast, and is one of the only people alive who knows that it was named for the [[Wyrdsmith]], a member of the [[Wend]], [[Celestial Empress|Her Majesty's]] dreaded immortal servants. The Holdfast is a tiny fragment of the strange, impossible edifice which was once the Wyrdsmith's fortress, and the site of the most successful rebellions in the galaxy's history (The [[Forgeglow Rebellion]]). After eons spent protecting the Holding, does Mahlah still believe in its original revolutionary ethos, or have practical survival interests won out? - As an agent, a major part of this character's function is to gather and spread secrets. You're well-known as a great source of intelligence, which means that some people work very hard to keep their secrets out of your hands. Your list of people of interest will be a good place to start, but you'll want to prove that it's better to be in your good books than out of your books altogether. - Though you aren't wealthy in and of yourself, you are able to turn wealth into power more efficiently than almost anyone else (see Asset, below). Financiers and those with big dreams will prove useful connections as you look for sources of intelligence, so long as you're an effective go-between. ## Connections 1. [[Bureaucrat Micelle]] 1. "Surely, the mushroom thing is a cover. Right? ...Right?" 2. Micelle is your favorite enigma. They're ancient, old in a way almost no one ever gets. In galactic years, they're only about as old as the High Seats (and much, much younger than you), but in terms of the number of years they've actually *experienced*? Well, there's a reason the same Bureaucrats' names show up over and over again in the archives. You first met Micelle when they were a fresh-faced Junior Bureaucrat, not a hair over five hundred. After that first meeting, you spent a few subjective millennia traveling at near-light-speed. When you dropped back into the normal timestream, Micelle was a senior bureaucrat nearing fifty thousand subjective years of age; far older than yourself. When you next saw them after that, they were a Principal Bureaucrat legendary around the galaxy for their obsession with mushrooms. Each time you've met, the conversations have been fascinating. Micelle is a great source of information, though they only seem to be halfway paying attention to any topic other than mushrooms. As useful as you've found them, you can't help but be suspicious of any Bureaucrat who reaches such a remarkable age, especially one who's so visibly idiosyncratic. Can you figure out Micelle's real objectives, or are you chasing shadows? 2. [[Harbinger Wilde]] 1. "A song, a story, and a salvo. These are the things Wilde carries." 2. Harbinger Wilde is the infamously irreverent warspeaker for [[Sateen Kaari]] ("Sah-teen Kah-ree"). They're known for starting vicious fights and singing raucous songs on the sidelines while the violence rages. You've run into them a few times in recent years, starting something like forty or fifty galactic millennia ago. Each time, you've watched them incite riots, break up friendships, and generally wreak havoc with words. What most other people *haven't* noticed, however, was that Wilde's animus was always more calculated than it appeared. Each time they caused a pointless war, one of Sateen Kaari's enemies suffered as a result. Each time they broke up a friendship, along came one of the Kaarite ruling family to offer a sympathetic ear. Wilde is, in your opinion, one of the galaxy's finest working social masterminds. Unfortunately, they're also in service of another Holding. While Rina's Holdfast and the Kaarites aren't enemies, neither are you on especially warm terms. Will your professional respect for Wilde be enough to spark a real friendship, or will the high stakes and pressure drive conflict between the two of you -and, as a result, your Holdings? 3. [[Operator Signus]] 1. "However Micelle feels about mushrooms, Signus feels about mech suits... Do I just have weird friends?" 2. Hailing from the same Holding as Wilde, Signus is to war making what Wilde is to shit-talking. Ever since the first time you met them, a bit under a hundred thousand galactic years ago, Signus has piloted a succession of increasingly large, increasingly lethal mech suits. When you last saw them, their suit was around fifty meters tall and capable of soloing most planets. Somewhat famously, those mechs were deployed in service of [[House Orman]] during [[The Sundering of Harmony]], breaking some of the Sector's most reputed and feared armies. These days, it appears they're looking for a new war worthy of their equipment. Given their affiliation with Wilde, you're confident they'll find that war soon enough. The two of you have run into each other a fair few times now; do you find Signus a charmingly straightforward soldier-type, or a frustratingly blunt instrument? 4. [[Singer Tarsus]] 1. "Never trust true believers. They change their minds for the strangest reasons." 2. Tarsus just never seems to get into the swing of things. They've been wildly successful within the Voidsinger faith, and you have nothing but admiration for how many bodies they've buried along the way, but they just take everything too seriously. You pass them useful gossip about an arms deal and they love you like family. You pass someone else a tidbit on the Singers' monopolizing rare metals, and they try to kill you. You only met them a few subjective months (around 1300 galactic years) ago, but so far you strongly doubt they're going to be around for long. Are you trying to build a better relationship, or helping to bring about the crash? ## Mechanics **Asset:** [[Staking Claims|Staking Claims]] Being a good [[Speculator]] isn't just about having a huge pile of currency to invest. That's certainly going to make it a lot easier, but if you don't have the knack for predicting trends, you're likely to blow an awful lot of that money before you get lucky. No, you're a good Speculator because you're good at picking the right trends and giving them the support they need to grow. Any time you're involved in a [[Negotiation]], you can spend Resource Assets ([[Raw Materials]], [[Refined Materials]], [[Fuel]]) to add to your side's advantages on a one-for-one basis. You do not start play with these resources and must acquire them through trade, theft, force, or some other means. **Lien:** [[Stuck in the Zeitgeist With You|Stuck in the Zeitgeist With You]] A [[Speculator]] isn't quite as attached to market activity as, say, a [[Merchant]], but they still spend a great deal of time monitoring and responding to trends. Of course, in order to monitor and respond to trends, one must be aware of them. Any time you find out about a [[Negotiation]] involving your [[GiC Holding]] in which you were not a participant, you must expend one Resource [[Asset]] of your choice without effect. If you have no Resource Assets, this Lien has no effect.