Zeleese

I recently started playing again and found these character bios helpful in remembering who my characters were, so I thought I'd make one for my new character.
Name Inspiration: I hit the random button until I found one I didn't hate
Class: Sith Inquisitor 
Advanced Class: Sorcerer 
Spec: Corruption
Alignment (traditional): Lawful Evil
Alignment (game): Mostly Dark Side
Romance: None yet

Zeleese is a mix of The Dragon, Noble Demon, and Affably Evil. She respects her superiors and is always polite, which displeases Khem Val greatly. She takes pride in being Darth Zash's go-to girl and always gets the job done. Her politeness extends to most people working for The Empire, but rarely it's enemies. She tries not to be rude but she can get a little short with someone who is clearly incompetent. They're all on the same side after all so there's no reason to get really nasty. She has no problem killing or torturing her enemies to further the Empire's goals but she does have a merciful side and will occasionally let people live if they no longer pose a threat or end someone's suffering once they are no longer useful. She has both a prideful and humble side.

Siobhan

Name Inspiration: Found on a Baby Name website. Gaelic in origin, pronounced Shivawn.
Class: Imperial Agent
Advanced Class: Sniper
Spec: Marksmanship
Alignment (traditional): Lawful Neutral 
Alignment (game): Neutral
Romance: Every mother-effin' body

Although I couldn't find an exact match, Siobhan most closely resembles the Judge, Jury, and Executioner trope. Her loyalty lies with the Empire, but not necessarily it's representatives. She has no qualms about going against orders if she feels her superiors are using her to advance their own agendas rather than the Empire's. She is not a fan of needless killing as she believes those left alive could prove useful in the future. However, it is better they "disappear" than help the enemy. She prefers to go about her business secretly and silently, and looks down upon the showy nature of Bounty Hunters. When possible she uses guile rather than force to further her goals as it's often less messy. She is not above using her sexuality to her advantage, with seduction kept near the top of her bag of tricks. She often infiltrates new surroundings by effortlessly conforming to others' expectations, and thus easily earns their trust. Everyone thinks she works for them and that's the way she likes it.

Siobhan didn't actually evolve until I started playing her. Unlike Tamsin and Jaliyah I didn't want to be restricted by light side or dark side on my IA. I have actually turned off the ability to see which choices lead to points on one side or the other to prevent me from using that as a crutch. I was surprised how easily I was able to figure out who she was as I had such a difficult time with Tamsin.

Jaliyah I

Name Inspiration: Don't Remember
Class: Sith Inquisitor
Advanced Class: Sorcerer
Spec: Lightning
Alignment (traditional): Chaotic Evil
Alignment (game): Dark Side
Romance: None, for now


Jaliyah is a mix between the Woobie, Destroyer of Words and the Omnicidal Maniac (with of course a dash of the Evil Sorcerer). Like all Sith Inquisitors she was once a slave, and she has never really gotten over that. Even now as a Sith people still look down on her as she is not a Pureblood. By turning all that hate and misery into power she has truly been freed by the force. 

As a girl she was frightened by lightning. She once saw a whole village burn to the ground thanks to lightning's raw energy. After realizing she was force sensitive lightning became a symbol of power that she must bend to her will. It is now her that is responsible for burning down villages, with lightning merely being a conduit. Let the slavers fear her and her new found abilities as she once feared them. 

She is very quick to point out when someone is not giving her the respect her new station deserves, and also to correct anyone who disrespects slaves in general. She feels most tasks she is given are beneath her, but she does them anyway as they offer an opportunity to hone her skills. Killing is not something she does as a job, for the good of the Empire, or out of some obligation - she simply enjoys it. 

Jaliyah is the first character I decided to play after the game was announced. I am very found of lightning and usually play classes that have it as an ability. Jaliyah being my default name for a few years now, I thought it only proper to give it to her. My Republic main shares the name which is why I refer to her as Jaliyah I. 

I knew I wanted to play a straight up evil character, and who better than a Sith? I knew I would most likely not play a Warrior as I'm not a fan of melee classes so the Inquisitor won by default. Once I learned the beginnings of the SI story it was quite easy to come up with the rest of her background and an explanation for her evil nature. 

Tamsin

Name Inspiration: The fantasy novel Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
Class: Bounty Hunter
Advanced Class: Mercenary
Spec: Bodyguard
Alignment (traditional): Chaotic Good
Alignment (game): Light Side
Romance: Torian Cadera, Mandolorian

Tamsin is your typical Hot Blooded Hero. She is passionate about what she does, but does not take lives for the fun of it. She sees bounty hunting as her own personal form of justice that is above the law. Sometimes she even lets her bounties go if she thinks they deserve to live. She's more likely to freeze her target than kill them outright (unless she thinks those who hired her have a worse fate than death in mind). She always takes the life of Trandoshans however, as she believes it is more cruel to rob them of their jagannath points. She can be very snarky and occasionally cheesy when it comes to conversation choices. Her bark is truly worse than her bite. Although she is passionate and talks a big talk she often falters when it's time to do the dirty work.

Tamsin was one of the hardest characters for me to come up with. I knew from the beginning I wanted to roll a Light Side character, and through process of elimination it would probably be my bounty hunter. It was quite difficult for me to reconcile the Light Side choices with the bounty hunter profession as I'm not used to thinking of them as the good guys. Eventually she just sort of evolved on her own, as certain conversation choices felt more in line with her morality choices than others.

View more screenshots of Tamsin on my Google+ page!

Character Bios

One of the many things I love about SWTOR is that it feels like an RPG. In past MMOs I never bothered to really develop any of my characters. I only rarely delved into the land of role-playing so there wasn't a need. Although I had many alts they all seemed to have the same story, and a similar personality. They would visit the same old haunts and participated in the same kind of activities. They were more like an extension of myself than fictional characters. With SWTOR, all that changed.

Thanks to the morality system I was forced to make a choice - who would this character be? Would she be neutral evil, would she be chaotic good, perhaps lawful neutral? Thanks to the conversation options each character began to develop a unique voice. I started to wonder why each character made the decisions she did. Since in most instances they would make choices (both alignment and flavor wise) I would never make, they started turning into true fictional beings rather than an extension of myself.

As such I believe it is fitting to write a short biography for each of them, explaining why they make the choices they do. I intend to stick to a M-W-F posting schedule, so you should see the first one this afternoon and then the next on the 11th.