Part A
Player Information

Real Name: *** *******
Age: **
E-mail: Tanis@worldnat.att.net
Characters played elsewhere: Tanis (BSSM)
RP on Net: approximately 10 months
RP IRL: 7 years (including extensive campaigns in the following systems.  AD&D
(Dragonlance, Planescape, Forgotten Realms, and Spelljammer) Star Wars, Battletech,
and Storyteller (Vampire and just starting up a Mage the Ascension game IRL)

Part B
Character Information

Character I am applying for: Princess Mars

Descriptions (part A Silver Millennium Desc's)


1. Formal (as used in the Manga)

For some reason the Princess is in her most formal outfit and is completely
made up for some occasion. Her hair is superbly brushed and cascades down
her back, stopping just below her waist; it is easy to see the purple shine
in it. In fact, her hair is even shinier and more beautiful then normal,
and helps bring out the purplish black in her eyes. She has small black
studs in her ears and has a golden necklace around her neck. Hanging on the
necklace there is a teardrop-shaped pendant, with a jewel in it that shines
with the red of a ruby. Just above the necklace she has a red ribbon tied
around her neck in a neat bow at the back

This is her favorite dress for the more formal events that come with the
position of a princess. The dress is mostly red but has a slightly lighter
strip that is almost, but not quite, pink running down the front from the
neckline to just above the knee. The strip is made of a pleated piece which
gives the impression that it is made of many separate pieces of fabric. The
dress has straps that go over the shoulders and attach to the neckline,
which gradually curves down to reveal just a small bit of cleavage in the
middle. Although the dress is form-fitting over most of her body, it flares
out at her knees to slightly wider then shoulder width and covers the red
high heel shoes which complete the outfit.

2. Sailor Fuku

Sailor Mars is about five feet four inches tall. Her hair is raven black,
though it sometimes shimmers with shades of purple when the light hits it
just right. Her eyes are also purplish black. She is wearing the
traditional outfit of the Senshi of Mars. The uniform is in the same sailor
fuku style that has been worn since the great exodus and the founding of
the Silver Millennium. The uniform consists of a tight white body suit and
a very short red pleated skirt that stops slightly above mid thigh, with a
large red bow attached to the back. The outfit is adorned with a large
purple bow over her chest, fastened with a red circle clasp. From the
clasp, a red scarf with a white line running around the edge of it flows
over her shoulders and ends in a horizontal line a little less than a
quarter of the way down her back . She is wearing white gloves with red
bands at the elbows. To complete the outfit, she has a golden tiara with a
red stone at the middle of the forehead, a red choker around her neck,
star-shaped earrings that dangle just below her earlobes and red high
heels.

3. Training outfit

Princess Mars is wearing the outfit she uses for training in combat with or
without weapons. The outfit is a simple red karate outfit -- a pair of
loose red pants with a drawstring to fasten them, and a matching top. The
top of the outfit is a loose wrap-around red shirt with long sleeves and
four tie strips (2 on the left side, 2 on the right) where it overlaps,
forming a small V in the middle. Around her waist she wears a wide red belt
tied in a elaborate knot, with two six-inch segments hanging from the knot.
On one of these segments is an embroidered silver symbol of Mars. She is
also wearing simple sandals. Her hair is pulled into a tight braid and
wrapped around her head to keep it out of her eyes and to prevent any
opponents from using it as a handhold. The handle of a small dagger and its
sheath are clearly strapped to the inside of her right wrist.

Character traits and flaws

Traits:

Spiritual: As is standard of Martian nobility, Princess Mars was put
through the training of a priestess in addition to her other schooling. She
took to the training with ease and started devoting some of her own free
time to it, resulting in a very spiritual nature.

Danger Sense: Due to the spiritual nature of Mars, most Martians have a
"sixth sense" about danger. However, because she is royalty (and therefore
has access to magical powers), and as a result of her priestly training,
Princess Mars's sense has been refined to the point where she can sometimes
even see the danger approaching days in advance through visions.

Survival: Part of the priestly training included long solitary pilgrimages
from shrine to shrine from which not even the royalty were exempt. As soon
as she was old enough, Princess Mars started undertaking many of these
pilgramages and, as a result, has developed excellent survival skills.
(These skills are only applicable to desert environments like Mars,
however.)

Honorable: Mars being the "honorable warlike" place it is, Princess Mars
has the standard Martian honor drilled into her. Also being the
princess/senshi/representative and in some ways the very embodiment of the
planet, she is held to a even higher standard, a standard which she has
always been able to uphold. Because of this she takes her oath of service
and protection to Queen Selenity EXTREMELY seriously. In fact, in her mind,
if anything were to happen to the Queen and she did not at least try to
stop it, it would be a tragic dishonor to not only her but to all of Mars.

Armed Combat: Through the years she has had a wide amount of training in
several weapons, including:  swords, pole arms, blunt weapons (clubs and
the like), and spears. However she is most comfortable (and most
proficient/deadly) with a dagger. As has been stated, for a Martian to not
carry a weapon is like someone from another planet strutting around naked.
For years the Princess has carried a small dagger strapped to either her
wrist, inner ankle, or -- when she tries to hide it -- on her inner thigh.

Hand to Hand (unarmed) Combat: Through the priesthood, Princess Mars also
had some remedial training in unarmed combat. However, most of it was
"Shadow Fighting" routines; that is, using a pre-defined set of moves
against a imaginary enemy as a means of focusing or relaxing the mind.
Because of that, she is only slightly better then the average Martian in
unarmed combat.

Hunting/Archery: This is a subset of the survival trait (see above). During
the long pilgrimages Princess Mars taught herself how to shoot a self-made
bow to kill some of the wild animals that are on Mars (I had to explain the
flame sniper attack she will get somehow, although she won't get it until
the DISTANT future).

Remedial Magic Skills (specifically Fire): After her recent arrival to the
Moon and her formal training as a senshi began, she has begun to learn how
to use some of the magic skills that she inherited as royalty. So far (as
it was with all the previous senshis of Mars) she has a natural aptitude
for fire-based attacks, and with extreme concentration (about 40 seconds
worth) she has been able to pull off a full fledged Fire soul, although she
can pull off smaller tricks (sparks, lighting candles, "palms of flame"
etc.) at will.

Flaws

Emotionally Closed: The years of solitary training -- including the
pilgrimages, the hours of meditation, and more -- that she went through as
a child robbed her of the time a "normal" person would have used to make
friends, have fun, find a first love, etc. This lack of experience around
other people has left her somewhat closed emotionally, and she rarely lets
her real feelings shine through. She just feels more comfortable to keep
them in or express them in a hostile manner. That is not to say she does
not have feelings (she is a long way from being Spock).

Culture Shock: She has found changing her ways from the semi-hostile
environment of Mars, where a insult is a perfectly acceptable form of
complement, to the polite, formal, and cordial environment of the Moon a
difficult transition at best. She is somewhat uncomfortable with some of
the formalities and rarely attends balls and the like unless she has to --
such as when Queen or Princess Selenity is there (she has vowed to protect
them after all), or she is asked by a Kawaii guy : )

Confrontational: Martians are not known for their diplomatic skills, and
Princess Mars is no exception. Whether it is socially acceptable or not,
she will almost always cut through any and all formalities and get right
the heart of the matter. In the polite culture of the Moon court this is
frowned upon. Furthermore, if she believes she is totally right, beware if
you do not agree with her. She has fought duels of truth on several
occasions (see part C: Additional Information for Information on Martian
Formal duels) over arguments and she has won them all.

Slightly Racist: Because of all the time she has spent training and
learning, she has not had much contact with people from other planets.
Despite the priests' and her parents' teachings, she has formed some
stereotypical views about people from other planets. Specifically, she
thinks that even though Venusians make up most of the armies of the Silver
Millennium, they are too soft to have a real impact on any fighting and it
is the Martians that will have to come in and save the day (of course she
will be proven very VERY wrong : ).

Perfectionist: Knowing the responsibilities that she would face, her
parents pushed her hard as a child. As a result, she has to be the best at
everything and drives herself hard to be the best -- especially at combat,
as this is what she feels will be most useful in the immediate future with
her job to protect Selenity.


Princess Mars' Background

During the reign of Queen Mars the 9th, the time came for the Queen to have
a daughter and fulfill the traditional role of the first daughter of
royalty -- that is, to become a Senshi and eventually Queen. However,
having a daughter proved to be easier said then done.  After many tries and
one miscarriage, the Queen and King turned to both the science of
Mercurians and the Magic of the Ginzushou. The Mercurians could find no
medical reasons the Queen had failed.  Queen Selenity did what she could
with the crystal (which even she admitted was not much without risking harm
to Queen Mars).  After all this the best that anyone could come up with was
"keep trying." Another six months passed and still no word from the Queen.
There were whispers around the royal court that perhaps the Queen was
sterile and could not have a child. No one seemed to know what this would
mean for the dynasty, for on all other planets there had always been a
daughter. Adoption was out of the question, as the powers needed to become
a Senshi where handed down from natural mother to daughter. It was to
everyone's great relief that, on July 8 Queen Mars made the announcement
that she had finally become pregnant and was expecting in early to
mid-April.

(OOC note: All the Senshi of the past were approximately the same age.
Queen Selenity the 1st knew that a large age difference might cause
friction between the Senshi. So she and all the other Queens since have
used the Ginzushou to suppress the reproductive systems of all the Queens
of all the other planets until she and all the other queens where ready.
Queen Mars wanted to have a child early and when Queen Selenity tried to
"help" her all she really did was make the Ginzushou shine a little
brighter.)

Nine months later, on April 17, the first daughter of Queen Mars was born.

Within a hour of the delivery, the sign of Mars flared out in light on her
forehead, confirming the continuation of the Martian Dynasty. Within a few
days, the child was named Arielle and her mother presented her to a
jubilant planet. A month after that, she and Arielle traveled to the Moon
for formal recognition from (a very pregnant) Queen Selenity.

The first few years of Arielle's life were just like any other baby's.  She
played and cried, acting like any other baby. In her first month, Washi
Faia was assigned to be her nanny. Washi would become Arielle's friend and
confidante throughout her entire life, right up to the point when she had
to leave for the Moon for Senshi Training. As is standard fare for the
first daughter, her mental and physical development where faster then
normal for a average person; she was walking at 10 months, and doing VERY
rudimental reading by 2 3/4 years old.

When Arielle was 4, her mother and father decided to try to give Arielle a
normal childhood. They had her grow her hair long (since no one had really
seen her since her birth) in order to disguise her, and after making some
false records with Washi posing as her mother and saying her father was
dead, enrolled her at a local public school. She was, however, immediately
put into an accelerated program -- after all, they couldn't hide her
intelligence. (She was smart, but nowhere near a Mercurian or anything like
that). To complete the illusion, they bought a house near the palace, and
made a tunnel from the palace to the house, where Washi took Arielle to
school every day and took her after she picked her up at school.

For about a year the deception went well, although some of the kids where
jealous of how easily most of the lessons came to her. Then disaster
struck: One of the older kids accidentally dropped a experiment he was
working on in science class and caused a fire which spread quickly
throughout the school. The fire spread so fast that most of the students
couldn't escape the building. Trapped, Arielle used a sub-conscience
manification of her powers, the symbol of Mars appeared on her forehead,
and with a bright flash of light the fire was gone. Everyone knew exactly
who she was now, and the Queen pulled her out of the school, not only for
her own safety, but because she knew that both the kids and teachers would
never treat her the same after discovering she was royalty.

Now 6 years old, all Arielle really had was some private tutors and Washi.
Having lost all of her friends over the course of several years, Arielle
started to retreat into her own private shell, and she became temperamental
and closed off to everyone -- even Washi. The court tried to bring her out
of it. They even invited some of her old friends to the palace, but she
would have none of it. By her 10th birthday, and with it her formal
priestly training coming up, they knew that they needed to do something.

On her 10th birthday, when her priestly training was to start, everyone was
expecting the worst. To their surprise, Arielle took to it naturally,
almost using it as a substitute for friends. After a few months of
training, she all but demanded her mother to ask the head priest to up the
training to the full version, from the watered-down version that royalty
were usually put through. The Queen reluctantly agreed on a compromise,
with the conditions that her normal studies and physical/combat training
would not be affected, and that she would stay at the palace, not the
monastery (as is the tradition).

For the next three years Arielle spent more and more time away from the
royal court and more time at the temples. She continued taking to the
priesthood extremely well, taking a record 6 pilgrimages for someone her
age. Even the head priest said he couldn't remember a student with such a
desire to learn about their ways, and said publicly that perhaps Arielle
could be the first queen to be a more then a ceremonial head of the
religion. This last comment enraged The True Faith, a small but fanatical
conservative group within TOOM, (see part C #1 The Order Of Mars) that
already thought that the royalty had too much control over the order, and
that most of the planet had drifted away from the values upon which their
ancestors had founded Mars.  And so they hatched a plan......

The Coup

They struck when Arielle was 14 and a half and the plan was incredibly
simple. The True Faith snuck into the Olympus mons reactor and sabotaged
one of the lava tubes, causing it to break and spew over an old and
sparsely inhabited part of the capital city.  During the chaos, one of
their people would kidnap the Princess who was on one of her pilgrimages
and use her to blackmail the Queen into giving into their demands. On that
day the plan went off flawlessly. The lava destroyed one of the wards of
the city, and the traitor priest who insisted on going with Arielle on that
pilgrimage drugged and kidnapped the princess. Immediately after the
kidnapping, a letter arrived for the Queen. In it the True Faith took
responsibility for the sabotage and the kidnapping. Their demands were that
1. Mars will secede from the Silver Millennium 2. Mars will attempt to
rejoin with the rest of the Galactic civilization and 3. after that Queen
Mars will hand over all royal power to their leader (Roland).  The letter
included instructions on how to send her response back to them.

The Queen called all of her closest advisors together and they devised a
counter plan. Within an hour they sent her response. The response was that
Roland had clearly challenged her competence as a leader; such a charge
called for a trial of position (see Part C #2 Rules for Martian Dueling).
Because the entire planet was at stake, only a duel to the death would do.
This took Roland completely by surprise and he decided to respond with a
little loophole of his own -- a duel to the death required the Queen to
referee and she very could not participate in a duel and judge it. He sent
this along with a reprint of his demands and another threat to kill Arielle
if their demands where not met. In response the Queen used a little known
tradition that allowed her to temporarily give up her power to her first
daughter for as long as the conflict of interest or illness or whatever
other event kept her from ruling lasted. Caught in his own trap Roland had
no choice but accept the duel. Several of his followers pointed out that he
now had the Queen and not the princess captive but he told them that if he
did not take this duel their movement would never have credibility. So only
five hours after the kidnapping Roland and Arielle arrived at the secret
place to have the duel. Arielle refereed the duel and after it started it
only took Roland a few seconds to realize the trap he had walked in on. He
had thought that he would be able to take the Queen. After all she was 38
years old to his 25 and he had been training since he was born. He had
thought that all she had been doing was sitting on the throne, but was he
wrong. In under 20 seconds Roland was dead, the crisis over and his
followers scattered to the four winds to avoid the dishonor that would have
come from being a part of the rebels. Officially the sabotaged tube was
called "Catastrophic Failure" and to this day only the inner most circle of
Royalty know that there was a kidnapping much less a attempted coup de ta.

After the "incident" as it was referred to in the palace (so that anyone
over hearing it would think that they where only referring to the pipe
breaking), the Queen immediately pulled Arielle from all priestly training
and all but locked her in the palace. She was not being mean but just
scared for her safety.  Besides, in another year and a half it would be
time for her to go to the Moon and start her Senshi Training. Although
Arielle hated being cooped up in the palace after spending years on the
vast open plains, she eventually (and reluctantly) agreed that this was for
the best. She spent the time between the coup and the time she left for the
Moon in the palace studying and doing what she could on her own to continue
her training. Finally the day came for her to leave for the moon, where she
has been for about the last 3 weeks.  She has taken well to the physical
and mental parts of the Senshi training and has found the Magical parts of
it a little difficult, but she is keeping up with the other senshi. So far
she has found adapting to the culture of the moon challenging, but she is
for the most part enjoying her time and is actually looking forward to
becoming a fully trained senshi.

Reasons I should play

First I believe that I am a good enough Role Player to handle Princess Mars
and abide to the rules for features spelled out in news rules features 1+2.
Second I am very familiar with the Story teller system so there are no
problems there. Third I feel that I really understand both Princess Mars
(and Hino Rei after the fall of the SM) and Martian culture in general. And
finally I have a great deal of knowledge about Japan, specifically
Shintosim (wow something I did in school is actually coming in handy) so I
can lend a bit of realism to those parts of RP.

Part C: Additional Information .

Reasons I should not play
Ok, I believe in being honest.  So that we do get the best Princess Mars,
here are my flaws.

1. I have a hard time spelling sometimes, some stuff I run through a spell
check and I cut/paste them into my MUX client window but this does not
catch everything 2. I have problems with some rarely used commands,
although I am getting better and I write any down any commands as soon as I
master them.

Details on Martian culture

Author Note: Due to the heavy influence that the Priests and some other
things I have included, this section is an attempt to flesh out Mars and to
explain some things in the traits/flaws section and her background.

1. The Order Of Mars (the Religion of Mars)

Part 1: The History of the Order

The Order (TO) was founded by the people in "The Order of the Galaxy" (the
group that all the priests originally belonged to) that realized what was
coming (the Chaos/Galaxea war) and went along with Queen Selenity the
First. After the Exodus, TO tried to settle on the Moon but they needed
isolation and quiet to pursue their studies and to continues their quest
for self improvement (see part 2 beliefs of the order). TO looked at all
the habitable planets and settled on Mars to be their new home, and changed
their name from "The Order" to "The Order of Mars"(TOOM), to reflect their
new home. TOOM chose Mars because of its resemblance to their original
planet; desert like and barren, it left plenty of open space for
meditation. It was also large enough for them to place their shrines and
temples far enough away from each other for them to be able to take harsh
pilgrimages between them in order to help clear and purify their mind (a
key part of obtaining "the balance" )

Part 2: Beliefs of The Order of Mars

The Order Of Mars follows many of the beliefs of The Order of the Galaxy
with a few minor exceptions (as the Order of the Galaxy will more than
likely never come into play I won't go into the details). The Goal of every
follower of TOOM is to obtain "the balance" that is training the mind,
body, and spirit to work into perfect harmony. To achieve this end, TOOM
has four pillars that they based their beliefs on: education for the mind,
physical training and self-denial/hardship for the body, meditation for the
spirit, and martial arts as a means to tie mind, body and spirit together.
The Order of Mars also believes that all things, living or not, have
spirits that can be contacted for assistance and guidance. Contact is
achieved through deep meditation, and is the reason that meditation is
included as a pillar.

Part 3: Details of the pillars of the TOOM philosophy

TOOM believed that the mind must be full so there is no room for thoughts
that may detract one from "The Balance" and therefore have a strong
education program. In fact, TOOM high priests are considered the second
best scientific scholars in the Silver Millennium (after the Mercuarins of
course) and the best in matters of spiritual importance. "The body shall be
as Iron" is part of the teachings of TOOM, and one all formal members of
the order take very seriously. All members are expected to undertake a
strenuous physical training routine, and are expected to take long
pilgrimages across the Martian desert in order to strengthen the body, so
to continuously clear the mind and to get in touch with the spirits. With
the fact that an empty mind is considered a bad thing, most people that are
not in the order find it surprising that meditation (because of the
clearing of the mind) is included in TOOM philosophy. However TOOM believes
that no one can obtain the balance without help and that not only means the
help of other members but the spirits of both former members and spirits of
the planet (animals, trees, rocks, everything has one according to TOOM)
and they try to contact these spirits for guidance. Finally TOOM has
decided that Martial Arts, specifically quisif-nan-pa (one they created) is
the best way to tie the other 3 pillars together.


Part 4: The Order of Mars and the average Martian

TOOM philosophy is a large part of the collective Martian psyche and most
Martians follow at least some of their teachings about self improvement.
However very few people actually join the Order formally and give their
life to its teachings.

Part 5: The Order Of Mars and the Royal Family

Tradition dictates that all female royalty are required to take at least a
watered down version of priestly training until their formal training as a
Senshi starts. Also the current Queen of Mars is consider the head of the
order.  This is only a ceremonial position, however, and the real power
lies with the head priest. Also the Head Priest has an equally formal but
powerless position in the Martian royal court. However, he is considered
one of the best sources of council on the planet and has been summoned to
the moon in times of crisis (most recently he was summoned to the Moon for
his opinions on the SM/GE treaty).

2. Rules for Martian Formal duels

Friendly duels are fought often but are still somewhat rare. An average
Martian will probably fight about 3-5 duels in their life.

There are several types of duels that are "commonly" fought on Mars. These are:

A. A duel of ownership used when two people both have a valid claim on a
piece of property

B. A duel of truth used to settle disputes between people.  Despite its
name it is used chiefly for matters of honor, not for academic facts
(although Mercurians have been known to adopt the process in EXTREME cases
of disagreement).

C. A duel of rank used when a person of a lower rank believes a superior is
negligent or incompetent or is not fit for command (or to be his boss --
dueling is used in business to). Using this option CAN be a quick way to be
promoted; however if the superior is found to be fit and still beaten in
the duel the winner is immediately dishonored and often subject to a duel
of his own.

Rules of the Duel

Duels are very simple. A place and time are agreed upon by both
participants. A judge and two witnesses are also required. At the appointed
time, the judge draws a large circle in the ground. The first one to be
knocked out of the circle, surrender, or be knocked unconscious is the
loser. The loser of the duel may always appeal the loss to the ruling
family, but that is considered VERY bad sportsmanship and is only done when
the loser has VERY strong evidence that the duel may have been fixed in
some way.

Special Exceptions

Duels involving off-worlders

If a duel involves a non-Martian, one or both parties may chose a proxy to
fight for them. The judge must approve the proxies and be sure that they
are properly matched.

Duels to the Death

The rarest type of duel. All other means must be exhausted before you can
have a duel to the death and a formal request must be made to the royal
family. Duels to the death are always judged by Queen Mars and in over 30
years of rule there have only been two.

Accidental death

In the case of accidental death in a duel, it is immediately submitted to
the leader of the closest shrine for review. If cheating was involved, the
winner is charged with murder; if it was indeed an accident no penalty is
imposed on the winner.

Alternate names

Although I used Arielle for her name, I also considered Armina (Nobel),
Ariel (Ethereal) and a Japanese Name Oyakata Kaki (master of fire) .


Thanks for considering me for the part