Kesla Khass
Human Knave & Soldier (former Lady of the Court of Keddah)
Loyal to House Keddah (Christina Stiles)
A rebellious young Lady of the Keddah, she rejected the ways and politics of the court because of her hatred of the Decados and the apparent cowardice of the Lords of Keddah including her own father.
Twenty+ Questions to Kesla Khass
Species
What is your species?
Human
Are you a traditionalist to your alien heritage?
Yes, traditional human.
Sex
What is your gender?
Female
What is your sexuality?
Heterosexual
Planet
What is your planet of birth?
Grail
Did you ever live on another planet?
No. Probably should have left, but have not to this point.
Childhood
What defined your childhood?
Learning to be a noble of the House of Keddah.
Who were your parents?
My father, Odamus, is the first cousin of the current house leader. That makes me second cousin to him. Mother’s name is Fatima.
Adolescence
What defined your adolescence?
Still learning the ways of court, plus started to learn the ways of war. Secretly longed to be a great general. Unfortunately, as Kamal Keddah (aka Kesla Khass) aged, she learned she was not the tactical genius she longed to be. She could just get by.
Who were your friends?
My young cousins and people I met in military training.
Social background
What is your social background?
Noble of the House Keddah.
How wealthy was your family?
Wealthy, as the households control of the planet.
Did you grow up in urban or rural area?
Urban, with likely a rural country house for vacationing.
Were you born serf, freeman or noble?
Noble
Occult powers
Do you have occult powers?
None
When did you discover them?
Na
How did you discover them?
Na
Who taught them to you?
Na
What is your stigma/stigmata?
No
Profession
What is your profession?
Currently, she’s a smuggler/information broker/performer
Why did you become this?
Left my house after learning a devastating secret that I could not deal with. Decided to step out on my own. Met up with a smuggler, and decided to work with him/her.
Have you wanted to be anything else?
Yes, at one time, she wanted to have a glorious military career. The older she got, the more she realized she wasn’t so much smart or strong as she was manipulative.
Faith
What are your religious convictions?
She is not religious. Religion does not play a part of her life at all.
How strongly do you adhere to them?
Na
Have you ever been interested in other faiths?
No, not really.
Have you ever changed faiths? Are you superstitious or rational?
Her family likely made her attend religious ceremonies as a child, but she never bought into them. She went because she had to. When she was old enough to make her own decisions, she quit attending services.
Do demons exist?
If they do, they are just another alien race that we really don’t understand.
Ego
What is your own conviction of yourself?
I’m tired of being manipulated by my family, as I don’t agree with them, and they don’t see things my way. They are overly cautious, and I am rash.
Are you destined for greatness?
Not greatness so much, but I feel I do have a purpose, and I feel it’s related to grail. I know I am here to make some kind of difference, whether that is big or small remains to be seen.
Do things always work your way?
No, so far things have not really gone my way. I’m getting by. I’m hoping my luck will change for the better at some point. I feel like I’m going through the motions, just biding my time until I can do the thing that is my purpose in life.
Technology
What is your opinion on technology?
It’s useful, but I’m not overly concerned with it.
Is the church a good arbitrator on technology?
Likely not. They have their own agenda, and that agenda is not always good for the everyday folk.
Did the second republic fall because of hubris? She is not so sure. She hasn’t contemplated it a great deal. She does think there seems to be an up and down cycle to life, and perhaps the circle just turned.
Politics
What is your opinion of politics?
She is no longer involved with the politics of grail at the noble’s level, but she is, nonetheless fascinated by them. She keeps her ear to the ground, so she will always be up on what is happening.
Do you love the emperor?
In all honesty, no. She rarely thinks about him. To her, he is like a mythical figure who is “out there somewhere,” but who doesn’t affect her much on a daily basis. She’s more concerned with here-and-now stuff, stuff related to grail and its future. If the emperor has some great effect on grail, then she will decide where she stands with him.
Do you look up to your liege lord(s)?
No. She thinks they are overly cautious. In regard to the secret she knows, they likely did something she seriously disagrees with, and she can no longer follow them blindly.
Would you defend your homeland?
Yes. Whether or not she agrees with her house, the people of grail are her people. She would die trying to save them.
Religion
What religion/sect do you follow?
None
What is your opinion of the church?
No great opinion other than she finds them somewhat meddlesome.
What does your religion think of you?
She would not care what they thought.
How devout a practitioner are you?
Not at all.
Economy
Does money motivate you?
Only to the extent that it allows me to do the things I need/want to do. If I need money for some great cause, then, yes, it would be a motivator.
What do you think of the league?
(don’t know enough about them to say at the moment–will have to gain an opinion during play)
Objectives
What are your long term objectives?
Get the house to break away from the decados connection.
Medium and short term?
Survive. Be heard. Make a difference in some way.
Leisure
What are your leisure activities?
Singing and dancing. Keeping track of politics and who’s who within them.
What would you do with a lot of money?
Fund mercenaries to hurt house decados somehow.
Impressions
What sort of first impression do you give?
Kamal comes off as beautiful and graceful. She can talk to anyone, and they will likely tell her their life story, along with anything else she requests. Though she will “play” some social games, she can be very hot-headed and demanding. She can also be impatient with the small stuff. She lacks strong guidance in her life.
Love
What is your attitude on love?
She’s cynical about it. She doesn’t really believe it exists, but at the same time, she secretly yearns for someone to love her. In fact, she sings a lot of romantic ballads. To hear her sing them, you would think she knows all about love. But she has no clue about it at all.
What is your attitude on romance?
Cynical as well. She sees it as a game of distraction played by both sexes.
What is your attitude on marriage?
From her life experience, she’s seen that it’s all a political game. People marry for some benefit to one or both. In the end, though, the couples rarely get along. There is no love, and they cheat on one another endlessly and shamelessly. Because of this, she has little respect for it.
Who is your ideal mate?
Because she is so hot-headed, he would have to be someone who would ultimately have a calming effect on her (or, who knows, maybe he pisses her off to no end, and they fight all the time, but he brings out the passion in her). And, of course, he would have to be someone with strong convictions who took action on those convictions. And, ultimately, he would have to be someone she respected.
Pride
What are you most proud about (on a personal level) in life?
Turning away from the life of a noble to stand on my own two feet. Following my head and heart.
Shame
What are you most ashamed about (on a personal level) in life?
That I allowed myself to be led around so blindly for all those years.
Admiration
Who do you most admire?
She would most admire someone who has strong beliefs and who puts action to words.
Development
Have you turned out the way your family/faction expected them to?
Hell, no! They wanted her to be the aquiesing pawn in their political games. She left and became a smuggler (actually, they may or may not know what she does for a living now).
Goals
Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t done?
See some of what lies beyond grail. She’s so caught up in her planet, that she hasn’t seen anything else besides it. Travelling may give her more perspective.
What would happen if you did?
She would be somewhat scared, but she would have more experience to draw on when making life decisions.
Tragedies
What’s the worst thing that’s happened in your life?
Whatever the secret she unveiled was that changed her life.
What did you learn from it?
That you can’t always trust your family.
Friends
Who is your best friend?
The smuggler I work for.
How did you meet?
What do you like about this person?
Takes action. Makes his/her own way in the world. Doesn’t let others lead him around by the nose.
What do you dislike about them?
Doesn’t really have long-term goals. In the end, what good does it do that they smuggle goods? Don’t they want to do more with their lives?
Villainy
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to someone? Why?
(need to think more on this one).
Epitaph
What would you like it to say on your tombstone?
She may have been misguided, but she did what she did for the good of grail.
Fears
What are you most afraid of?
Living a life of no purpose.
Ideals
What’s the most important thing in your life? (what do you value the most?)
Having some impact on the world for good.
Self image
What do you like best about yourself? (also least)
best would be that I can find out things when I need to. Least is that I’m sometimes rash and don’t think things through, and that I’m not as intelligent as I wish I were.
Interactions
What do you like best about the other characters? (also least)
(haven’t met them yet. Will have to answer at a later time).
Development
How do you feel about life right now?
Kamal’s in a holding pattern. She’s waiting for something in her life to change again. For the better.
What, if anything, would you like to change?
Although she’s making it on her own, she’s not yet begun to have that impact on the world that she longs for. She wants to fulfill a purpose that is not really clear to her yet. She, in a way, is waiting for a sign, for an opportunity.
Are you lying to yourself about something? What is it?
That I made the right move in joining the smugglers. I should have probably moved on years ago. I have learned some good skills from them, however. So, all has not been wasted…but if I spend much longer with them, I’ll just “accept” life for the way it is and lose interest in doing more…i’ll become just another arm-chair warrior.
Humanity
What do you think of humanity? Is it doomed? Is there redemption? Who cares?
No, I don’t really believe that. I think they just need to wake up and do something.
Drama – what do you think is causing the suns to fade?
Not sure. I’m curious about the situation, however. If I could figure out how to find out something about it, I would. But, I know they have greater minds on the problem than myself.