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headandhand) wrote2019-05-26 04:04 pm
headandhand) wrote2019-05-26 04:04 pm
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Miranda Nero | Warhammer 40,000
Player name: Carolyn
Contact:
Referral: Ty
Current characters: n/a
THEM
Character Name: Miranda "Mira" Nero
Character Age: ??? Early 20s, probably
Canon: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (technically a canon AU now)
Canon Point: post-game
History/World:
The most important thing to understand about Warhammer 40k is this: It's an 80s heavy metal album cover. In space. Is it incredibly stupid to have chainsaw swords and Vikings in power armor riding giant wolves into battle? Yes. Yes, it is. But it's metal as hell, and that's what matters.
Anyway, here's the setting description straight from the books:
2nd Lieutenant ("LEF-tenant" tyvm) Miranda Nero, called "Mira" by everyone because I don't think the writers were paying attention, is from Cadia, a planet that's basically Ancient Sparta, if Sparta were one exit down the freeway from a literal portal to Hell. All Cadians are trained as soldiers from birth, conscripted into the military as young teenagers, and by adulthood, every Cadian qualifies as an elite shock trooper. Those who go on to join the Imperial Guard will likely never see Cadia again, but given how much of a hellhole it is, eh, no real loss. Mira's Guard regiment, the 203rd, was diverted from another assignment to defend the planet Graia from an invasion by Orks, who are big, green, none too bright, and way stronger and tougher than humans. It went very, very poorly, leaving Mira, likely the most junior officer in the regiment, as commander of what remained of the Imperial Guard on Graia.
At the beginning of the game [THE SHORT VERSION][THE TEDIOUSLY LONG VERSION] Mira and her surviving, outnumbered Guardsmen have been holding their position without reinforcements for two weeks and things are looking grim. This is where Captain Titus, the player character and commander of the Ultramarines Space Marine company that's been sent to relieve Graia, meets her. Mira spends some time infodumping and issuing increasingly difficult missions to him, like you do when you're a named NPC in this sort of game. Everything suddenly gets more dire and, long story short, demons everywhere, which is never a good scene. Titus more or less fixes it, drawing the Inquisition's attention by handling it too well, and by the end of the story Mira's ready to pick a fight with the Inquisition on his behalf. Titus quashes that, and she watches him fly off in Inquisitorial custody, never to be seen again, 'cause the game didn't get a sequel.
Personality:
Mira is a damned good officer, but at the start of the game, she's a victim of circumstance and her own high standards. As a Cadian, she's disciplined, self-sacrificing, and dutiful above all else, and her inability to accomplish the 203rd's mission is eating at her tremendously. The fact anyone survived at all, much less managed to hold out for over a week against the Orks' enormously greater numbers is a testament to how good an officer she is—even the Space Marines are impressed—but she feels like she failed. When her men are in earshot, she covers it with dry gallows humor, only letting the mask slip when it's just her and the Ultramarines. She doesn't outright apologize to Titus, but her guilt (and relief that someone's here to do what she can't) come through clearly when she's briefing him.
As the outlook for Graia and the 203rd improves, her mood improves with it, and more of her personality starts to show, revealing that she's unusually warm for an Imperial Guard officer. The entire regiment calls her by her nickname (to the point it seems like the Space Marines don't realize it's not her surname—all of which may be due to inconsistencies between script drafts, but it's funny so I'm going with it.) She has a teasing relationship with one of her enlisted men, and is unabashedly happy to discover he's survived a dangerous assignment. Later, when Titus's sergeant doesn't survive his dangerous assignment, she's equally unabashed to show her dismay. In neither case is she excessively demonstrative, nor does she let it interfere with her job, but she makes no attempt to hide that she has emotions. Late in the game, she also occasionally (and presumptuously) addresses Titus solely by name rather than using his rank or an honorific, because she's seen past his semi-divine status and started to like him as a person. (Just how much she likes him depends on how thirsty the section of fandom you're asking is.)
Bear in mind, "nice for the Imperial Guard" is a hell of qualifier—even in her early 20s, Mira's already got a decade of military experience and firmly believes it's not just her civic but her religious obligation to prosecute the Imperium's wars to the full extent of her ability, wherever she's assigned. Given how Cadian society is structured, the fact that she's an officer means she was probably born into the nobility, and she unquestioningly accepts the hierarchy of the Imperium as having been ordained by the God-Emperor. At its best, it gives her a firm sense of noblesse oblige, and at worst an unthinking and even ruthless high-handedness. She'll unhesitatingly put down a civilian revolt or send men on suicide missions...and maybe feel bad about it, but not as bad as she would for shirking her duty.
In keeping with her age and junior rank, Mira's a lead-from-the-front type, and a bit impulsive, neither of which is a great trait to have when you're literally the only officer left on the planet. She seems able to rein it in when she's in overall command, but once the Space Marines arrive and Mira's no longer the ranking Imperial, she starts turning up in places where she'd have been justified in sending an NCO or she doesn't really have any business being at all. The peak of this comes at the end of the game, where she appears to have talked her way past a bunch of Ultramarines she's never met in order to visit the injured Titus. She then proceeds, in some mixture of loyalty, courage, and sleep deprivation, to defy an Inquisitor who's standing ten feet away, generally a career- (and life-)limiting move, but since he's after Titus, she just gets used as leverage.
At her canon point, she's wrung out from being a lieutenant doing a general's job in a savage battle without enough troops, supplies, or experience, kept on her feet by pharmaceuticals and a sense of duty. Mira needs a vacation and a therapist, but what she's going to get is a long interview with the Inquisition. No sane person would be looking forward to that, but she's especially reluctant. Her faith in the Imperium's been rattled, as much as it's possible for a Cadian. She doesn't notice the brutal and systemic dysfunction any more than a fish notices the water, but the arrest on trumped-up charges of an Ultramarines Captain she likes and knows to be honorable is so egregious that even a lifetime of indoctrination can't squelch her awareness of the injustice...and there's absolutely no one she can talk to about it.
A final word Warhammer generally: There are no good guys. The best you can have are decent people working within an utterly broken system. Mira is about as worthwhile as it's possible to be in the setting, but that still makes her religiously and politically intolerant, a violent xenophobe, and a former child soldier who's now an officer in the army of a fascist, theocratic empire. She expects never to see her homeworld again and for her life to consist of battle after battle, watching her comrades die violently until she dies herself...and she thinks it's a noble calling. She's young and would have a chance of learning and growing if removed from that broken system, but as it is, she's thoroughly indoctrinated and pretty horrifying by modern standards.
Items:
Powers/skills:
Mira is a normal human who happens to be an elite soldier from a planet whose name is synonymous with war. Thanks to heredity, a punishing workout regimen, and the high caliber of science fiction medical care available to the nobility in Warhammer, she's almost obnoxiously fit and healthy. Cadians in general are especially apt with urban warfare but train for every imaginable theater, and Mira went through the equivalent of Ranger school as a preteen. She's extremely proficient in hand-to-hand, melee, and small arms, and has some training in everything from gunnery to grav-chute skydiving, though she's light infantry and a specialist would be better at any particular exotic military skill. As an officer, she's well albeit lopsidedly educated, an inspiring leader and a great tactician, above even the normal high Cadian standards (taking her age and inexperience into account.) She's cool under fire, disciplined as hell, and will die before she abandons her post.
And that's all she's good at. No Cadian expects any other career, and the thought of civilian life never even crossed Mira's mind. What's a non-hierarchical relationship? Sounds fake.
SAMPLE
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PERMISSIONS
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♦ FINAL NOTES:
1) We will kick off the game with an explosive event on June 17. Stay tuned for details!
2) The following were lost in transport to the city: the lasgun, power packs, and grenades. Mira's bracers survived but will only display extremely glitchy bits of an overly cheerful video. Her command vox also got a little fried on the way in, so it will only be able to pick up '80s synthpop covers of elevator music. Enjoy!
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