Biographic Information
Character Name: Botiza Po Tulan
Alias(es): Bo/Pearl
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Classification: Human
Affiliation(s): Lunarian Faith
Birthplace: Celeste 7
Ethnicity: Dusun Malaysian
Physical Characteristic
Appearance:
Height: 174cm
Weight: 62kg
Colors:
- Hair: Black
- Eye: Brown
- Skin: Malaysian heritage
Aesthetics or Distinguishing Features:
Description:
She has long straight black hair that comes down her back and her Malaysian heritage is clear from her facial structure. She is typically seen in her robes of office but otherwise wears fairly typical clothes in line with her fashion tastes.
Who is Bo?
Personality: She is a good person, not always a nice person, but she does want what is better for people, as befits her position as the leader of a congregation.
Her upbringing has coloured her outlook on life and whilst not holding the strong eugenicist views of her father, her goal is the betterment of her species. She laments the evolutionary drag that cybernetics are causing and it saddens her as she watches the younger generations grow up then immediately exchange their biological gifts for technology commodities.
She dislikes cybernetics passionately, she sees them like a disease gnawing away at what it means to be human. She does not however dislike users of cybernetics, in a very similar way that a doctor will hate a disease but not a patient. Sometimes her pious nature and disdain for cybernetics can give them the impression they are unwelcome. She does try to avoid it but it is an unfortunate side effect.
She is an honest person but is also a pragmatist. There is a rule of no violence or open criminality in the church and it is mostly respected. She turns a blind eye to clandestine meetings and the odd discreet transaction that might take place as allowing those little indulgences keeps her in the good graces of the people with the power to stop more egregious offences. And when a gang leader comes to her for confession to gain some divine forgiveness, then her confidence helps her to keep her protected position within society and allows her to protect those of her flock.
Her hands are not clean but her soul is and she will reserve violence and even the occasional contracted hit for those whose continued existence is to the genuine detriment of society.
Flaws:
Technophobe - She prefers to avoid using too much technology as she feels it is contrary to the natural and spiritual development of humanity. This puts her at a disadvantage versus those with less qualms and means she is only functionally tech literate but lacks proper fluency.
Bound by faith - She cannot be seen to be in breach of the faith she preaches so sometimes she can be a little easy to predict and box into a corner with certain situations.
Advantages
GATTACA - She was a designer baby. She is not genetically engineered in any way to make her super human but she has the best genetics her parents could produce and still call her theirs. Her immune system is strong, she has no physical abnormalities or unusual weaknesses, she is smart and she is ageing beautifully.
Protected - She holds the confession and trust of powerful and dangerous individuals. She won’t leverage this herself but people generally know that to cause her harm or disrespect her would have negative consequences for the individual.
Skills:
Languages - Fluent in English, Chinese, Malay, Dusun, some French and some Latin
Martial arts - If she isn’t going to rely on tech she had better be able to rely on her body. She is a Cikgu (teacher) of Pencak Silat. She hopes at some point to return to earth to be granted the rank of Guru but she feels it is unlikely she will be able to take the extended leave from her position.
Possessions: She has the usual trappings of her role. She has plenty of money, enough to live an affluent lifestyle but lives fairly modestly. She has several weapons from her martial arts
Cybernetics:
She has a spine mounted neuroport that was installed when she was a child but she hasn’t used if for years
History
Origin
Bo’s parents were native to Sabah in Malaysia, part of the Dusun ethnic group. Her mother was an environmental biologist and her father was a noted eugenicist who made his name helping the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia resolve a genetic crisis that was threatening their future stability.
The pair moved to the moon hoping to lend their skills to the new colony. Her to helping with mass production of foodstuffs and him to hopefully put the new colony onto a path of genetic strength to enable them to survive this new, harsh environment. His policies, while intended to improve the stability of the colony proved widely controversial. He was eventually forced to step down from public office after a failed small scale implementation. Publicly it was declared that it was for reasons of wishing to spend more time with his newborn baby girl Botiza.
With her parent’s professions it was no suprise that they took no chances and Botiza was the result of a rigorous and expensive genetic screening and selection process. She is entirely natural, every gene she had came from either her mother or father, but reproductive scientists cherry picked the best parts from both to eliminate risk of her being genetically weak.
Childhood
Her childhood was privileged, her mother made good money and whilst not longer welcome in public office her father still made money as a public speaker and by consulting on family planning and genetic clinics on Celeste 7 and on Earth.
Her association with her father’s views did cause her trouble at school and she would regularly be pushed to the outside. She did understand the reasons behind her father’s views as she watched her peers struggle with various health problems, but not agree with his delivery, that humans could better themselves by ensuring their best qualities were passed down. But the labelling of people with “inferior qualities” as lesser people didnt sit right with her.
She spent her late childhood looking more deeply into the philosophical debate around eugenics and in the course of her studying she discovered the church. They were pro-human, hoping to push forward with the best parts of her species and turning away from the deliberate destruction of humanity by cybernetics. But they also looked out for those parts of society who didn’t have the sort of privilege that she was accustomed to, they wished to make humanity better for all of its members.
Teenage years
At fourteen, much to the dismay of her parents she decided she would finish her school studies as planned but then immediately seek to be put on the path of being ordained as a minister of the Lunarian Faith. There was little they could do to force the issue as she had developed her father’s stubbornness of conviction, so they let it happen, just hoping that it would just be a phase and she would lose interest.
Life as a priest
She was ordained when she was 23, there was very few other ministers to serve the growing Lunar community so she was promoted quickly and easily, taking a senior position within the church when she was in her mid thirties. She has her own prominent church located in the central district of Celeste 7 and is an influential member of her church. Her upbringing has caused her to lean further into her human-purist mentality and she has taken the church along with her. Several run-ins with gangsters when she was a junior cleric have taught her pragmatism and where she needs to draw flexible lines in the sand.
She has recently begun to encounter strange things, people with “powers” she is gathering tidbits of information. She believes she is seeing the next stage of human evolution but she does not have enough information or proof that something is happening to begin publicly celebrating it. She doesn’t even know if what she is seeing is definitely worth celebrating. But she will see, and she is a friendly ear for people struggling with changes in their reality.
There are rumours that she was involved in the death of a man who was running a drug outreach program as a method of entrapping women into trafficking. There is no evidence that this is true, although she did want it to happen and was pleased when it did.
Good, not nice.
Purpose
Story Purpose:
She is a spiritual figure running a church loosely based on christianity but with a looser attachment to monotheism. The following tenets are key.
- Pro Lunar Supremacy and independence from Earth
- Celebration and promotion of human purity
- Cybernetics are reversing human progression
- Humans are on the verge of great gifts, we only need to grasp them
- Church is a sanctified place where all should feel safe regardless of who they are.
Stats
Stats: Optional stats for rolls, assign 3, 2, or 1 to the following (with no duplicates)
- Muscle: 1 - She is athletic and a martial artist. She doesn’t look it but she can hold her own in a fight. That being said, she has none of the modifications to bring her up tk the strength or combat prowess of many of the Celeste 7 inhabitants
- Grit: 2 - Most of her grit is derived from her stubborness and fierce determination. She is brave and unflinching. But shes still an unmodified human.
- Savvy: 3 - She is street smart and pragmatic with enough knowledge of those around her and charisma to abuse said knowledge to her advantage. And the fact that people know she wont puts her in an even better position.