A/N: Been a while.
A large part of this was the desire to step back for a while and see what I can do with this chapter when I get back.
Hopefully, this does not disappoint.
…
[Ancient Forest]
Vetra stood with her fellow volunteers near the gates, waiting for their guide into the jungle to show up. She'd changed into a form-fitting jumpsuit to allow for better movement, her armor and Cyclone left in her room on the Discovery, as this was intended to be something of a training exercise, instead opting for a heavy-caliber Pilum to deal with the smaller creatures. As she waited around, she could see the mix of volunteers that joined in; Krogans, Turians, Asari, Salarians, even the odd Drell and Quarian could be seen.
She could only wonder as to what everyone thought of the situation at hand.
Any other thoughts she had on mind were cut short when she saw a human walking up to address the gathering of beings. He had pale skin wrapped tightly on well-toned muscles, and much of the hair on his head was cut short except for the poof of black hair over his forehead. The armor he wore incorporated a mix of metal and organic components, but the most notable thing that was on his person were the set of throwing knives secured to his biceps and the gigantic bone sword on his back.
He was joined by Liara T'soni, no doubt as his translator.
As he spoke, Liara translated. "How are you all doing today? I am Levi, Field Team Leader here in Astera, and I'll be your instructor for now. We'll show you how to use our weapons eventually, but our first priority would be to put you all on a little field trip in the Ancient Forest hunting ground so that we can teach you how to survive your time in our world. Stay close."
Vetra followed the rest of the group through the gates as the male human guided the gathering of aliens along a cliff face overlooking the ocean. Eventually, they would come to a wide open space with gigantic animals grazing at the grass and drinking fresh water at the ponds; some were even sunbathing at the large rocks in the area. It was the kind of scene that would have touched the heart of many a nature-lover.
"The animals you see before you are called 'Aptonoth,'" Liara translated for Levi, "In every hunting ground you go to, there's always going to be something at the bottom of the food chain; Aptonoth are about as low as you can get in these parts. They're normally very timid, but they can be very dangerous in a stampede, so watch your step in that case."
The group passed through the Aptonoth herd, and walked up an incline, following Levi into a left turn. They were quick to find an open area with what looked like a coal-powered stove, and stones cut in such a manner to work as improvised stools and tables. "Throughout every hunting ground, you'll find at least one campsite," Liara said, "These would normally be used by Hunters as a rest stop; it's a safe place where monsters aren't able to access, which gives you time to rest, recuperate, restock your ammo, and sharpen your blades. And as you can see, this is a good place to go get a meal on-site so that you don't go hunting while hungry."
Vetra heard a few chuckles. There was no way anybody would have the patience for cooking fresh food when they already had ration kits on hand…though to be fair, nothing beat the feeling of a home-cooked meal. "Now that we've seen this, it's time to let you all explore for yourself; pick a partner to explore with, then we'll meet back at camp in an hour. We've picked this moment to do the field trip because we have found no signs of the more dangerous monsters, but you should still exercise caution; monsters will usually leave you alone if you do the same, but some are so aggressive that they'll attack without warning. Either way, avoid contact with them if at all possible."
As the group split into partners, Vetra explored the so-called "Ancient Forest" with her erstwhile partner by her side, a Quarian in a simple green hood by the name of Cara'Vaal vas Qwib-Qwib.
She wasn't much for nature, it was a good opportunity for her to admire the scenery as they looked about the roots of the titanic tree…by no means was Vetra a nature buff, but even she knew that this tree had to be old for it to get as big as it did. And to think that it had its own miniaturized ecosystem within its hollow: large insects carrying sacs of a yellowish-green fluid it extracted from certain plants; pink-skinned creatures covered in moss while foraging for what appeared to be mushrooms; even what looked like the feral cousins of the Felynes she'd seen in Astera.
The strangest thing they'd seen so far however, was a large, tan creature that strode on a pair of spindly legs. It had beige stripes on its back and along its long neck and tail, and yellow feathers tipped with a very vibrant shade of red on its head and arms, and in its long, web-tipped fingers were feeling the ground for something as its green eyes searched for threats. Its black-tipped beak looked strong enough to crack a large Vespucio nut in one bite. Overall, it was a very goofy-looking creature that was simply minding its own business…not threatening, though Vetra had no intention of provoking its ire.
Another weird creature they'd spotted was a green monster with a pair of large, round, slitted eyes, searching the treetops. Like the tan creature, it walked on two legs, and had a long neck and tail, but that was where any likenesses ended: in place of arms with long fingers, it had a pair of large, webbed wings, and its round, banded tail terminated in a pointed bulb. Its face was flatter, rounder, with a frill that framed its large eyes like a mask that went in line with a mane of bluish feathers behind its head. Vetra could tell that it was a vegetarian when she used its long, thick, prehensile tongue to grab a cluster of nuts from overhead, before pulling it back into its mouth…and in spite of its goofy appearance, she'd seen enough nature documentaries to know not to underestimate herbivores.
As she kept her eyes open for threats, her trigger finger at the ready on her Pilum, Cara was busy taking samples of plants, her attention currently on a reddish-pink and yellow fruit slightly bigger than her fist. She pulled out a folding knife with a hooked blade from a hidden pocket in her suit, liberating it from its stem with a single stroke. After completely splitting it down the middle, she twisted the fruit in half, revealing bright orange-yellow meat, with a deep red center and a large, wrinkly brown stone.
"This drupe actually looks very appetizing," Cara said, examining the fruit, "Problem is that the fruit is a little firm, but it's still worth analyzing its chirality when we get back…we need to stretch our supply of rations, after all."
"Never thought I'd see a Quarian that was into plants like you," Vetra noted, "You some kind of scientist?"
"I was a botanist back on the Qwib-Qwib," she answered, pulling out a small trowel from her suit to dig a hole in the ground. "For as long as I can remember, I was more interested in plants than I should be with machinery. As you can imagine, the Migrant Fleet is not exactly a good place for a botanist to flourish and experiment…most of the time, my knowledge was used to help make food and medicines, which is good because now I can save lives. Still, it's not very satisfying for someone that wants to explore, so when the Twins came to the Migrant Fleet for volunteers on this expedition, I jumped at the opportunity."
"So what brings you out here?" asked Vetra, "I thought you'd be back at Astera, chatting it up with the little old lady near the huge tree."
"Trust me, I'd like nothing more than to compare notes with her, it's just that I'd like to speak with her when I have something worth discussing" Cara admitted, burying the fruit before harvesting more and putting it in her rucksack, "Besides, I've always liked to handle investigations on my own."
Vetra nodded, looking around until she'd spotted something walking into the tree hollow, quietly bumping Cara in her shoulder for her attention then quickly putting an arm in front of her. The creature they were looking at was a large quadruped covered in silvery scales and white fur, its long tail covered in particularly large scales and silvery blue quills. Its head was almost triangular, looking through the world with a pair of red slit eyes as it searched the higher tier for food.
Hissing in frustration, the creature had a running start and spread its limbs to reveal webbing between the fore and hindlegs that allowed it to glide across the chasm towards another opening in the tree trunk.
"We should probably head back," Vetra suggested, "The field team leader says that the creatures here are not as dangerous, but I'm not willing to take a chance."
Cara nodded in agreement. "We're getting close to the time limit anyway."
The two of them turned and went back the way they came. Vetra hoped that Cara's research would pan out; better that they settle their food and medicine problems sooner rather than later.
…
[Former Book of Discovery Mess Hall]
There wasn't much for a Matriarch to do beyond advising the younger generation, and some just didn't have the patience to listen. Then again, she was in effect, a glorified bartender. She was glad in a sense that they were able to salvage some good drinks from the wreck. Batarian ale; Turian horosk; Volus bina; even Serrice Ice Brandy…they didn't have too many bottles, but they had enough choices for any number of celebrations.
Aethya stood by her bar, cleaning glasses as people went to work establishing the Sixth Fleet's home base. Their first priority was to process the Discovery's wreck; cabins and compartments were cannibalized, cut out from the ship and sorted out into different locations by entire teams of Praetorian gunships temporarily. The big problem was that when Discovery was destroyed, her corpse had scattered quite a bit of debris as both halves fell planetside, which meant a more thorough cleanup operation would be established as soon as the ground teams were more familiar with the environment. Either way, nothing was going to waste; whatever was still intact was going to be used, either as spare parts for Bravery or as building materials to help establish the base…anything too small to be used as a building material was saved anyway. Fittingly enough, their little village would tentatively be known as "The Wreck" due to the amount of improvised materials they had to make do with.
Even her impromptu bar and bistro was originally part of the Discovery's mess hall…the half that survived anyway. It was also to her fortune that her Asari cook Hestia Valentius survived, along with much of the Discovery's food supplies, though Aethyta suspected that she'd had a lot of practice serving a lot of Huntresses for the duration of her time in the military. Unfortunately, she could not confirm that, as Hestia was out tasting dishes made by the furry chef in Astera so she could come back with inspiration for her own menu.
She was broken out of her thoughts when she saw her first customer. Surprisingly enough, it was one of the races Aethyta had seen walking around in the base; one of the more Asari-looking ones...a 'human' female from what she'd heard. The armor she wore showed off a lot of pale-white skin, and consisted of fur-lined scales, and what appeared to be a false crop of fur secured in place with a sort of band with a horn on top. Her weapon seemed very complicated, with an ax head that had three blue crystals on one side, and a large blue-purple horn blade on the other end…not something she imagined someone of her likely customer's build seemed capable of wielding.
"Can I help you?" Aethyta asked in her visitor's language.
The Asari-alien looked at her with surprise. "You can really speak my language?"
"I can, and so can a few of my people," the matriarch replied, "If you want to talk to the rest of the people around here without an interpreter, then you're gonna have to wait; we've got a team working on getting our machines to understand you."
"Sounds like a lot of work."
"I don't blame you," Aethyta said blithely, "Even I don't wanna know the details of how they're gonna do it, but it doesn't seem like it'll take too long; apparently your language is very similar to the Asari's ancient language. Don't ask me how that's possible, it is what it is."
The human nodded in agreement. "Fair enough. The name's Selene, Huntress of the Fifth Fleet."
"Aethyta. So what brings a human here?"
"The line to the cantina at Astera's way too long," Selene explained, "Figured I may as well come here and try out some alien food before I go out on a hunt."
"Well, my cook is trying out ingredients and drinks for inspiration, but in the meantime, why don't we have a bit of a drink tasting?" Aethyta offered, "I don't have too many bottles, but I do have a good selection of different drinks we've brought along for celebration purposes. The only problem is that I don't know how they'll react with your body."
"I'm game," Selene said with enthusiasm.
Aethyta smirked with amusement as she reached under the improvised counter to bring out a bottle of water, three bottles of liquor from light to strong, and a small tower of paper cups. "Bear with me on this; we didn't bring any glasses, and we still don't have a menu yet, so it's gonna be just the drinks."
"And what's the water for?" Selene asked.
"For cleaning out your tongue of the last thing you drank," Aethyta explained, filling out one cup with water, "You can't really call this a drink-tasting if the flavors mix; so before you drink the next shot, you take a sip of the water. Since we didn't bring a lot of bottles, we're going to start with three samples; I'll tell you a little about each one."
"Hit me."
Aethyta poured out a golden liquid from a green bottle. "We'll start with a wine made by the Drell called 'sona;' this one was made for ceremonial purposes, so it's not very concentrated…just 12% of it is alcohol, but it still pairs well with a vegan plate."
Selene downed the shot, her expression contemplative. "Pretty sweet, actually; a little on the sour side, but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets served with dessert."
"Now we're getting stronger," said Aethyta, pouring out a reddish-bronze drink as Selene cleaned out her palate, "This is a product of my people; at 40%, I bring you Serrice Fire-Brandy. They take the famous Serrice Ice-Brandy, then fortify it with a special spice mix; this is so spicy that it is normally served in cold weather."
Selene downed the next shot, quivering shortly after. "I can see why. This stuff dances down my throat, and I'm feeling a lot hotter now."
As Selene took a sip of water, Aethyta found another cup. "And now we have the last little tour of the community we're from: Batarian ale, uncut. I tell ya, this ain't the cheap swill a lot of people take on happy hour…this is getting close to 55% alcohol. Not for the casual drinker."
After downing the next shot, Aethyta watched Selene twist into a grimace. "Now that hit me hard. 55% you say? Don't you have anything harder?"
"I do, but I don't think you can handle it," Aethyta cautioned, "Not with a few drinks in your system at least."
"Try me."
Reaching under the counter, Aethyta found an odd-shaped bottle with a wider bottom. "This is Krogan Ryncol, quite possibly the most powerful drink where we're from. I tried a sip myself on a particularly hard day at the bar, and I can tell ya that goes down non-Krogan systems like broken glass; this stuff is so potent, that you can use it as a firebomb. Now you're sure you wanna give it a try?"
"How bad can it be?" asked Selene, taking another sip of water.
Aethyta shrugged. "Your funeral."
The Matriarch poured out the drink, serving up the cup in front of Selene. The woman gulped down the shot quickly, quivering in her seat as the ryncol hit her hard. It would take another five minutes before she keeled over unconscious.
"Warned ya."
…
[Former Book of Discovery Armory]
All was silent in the Discovery's armory as Garrus and Mordin looked at the collection of weapons before them, analyzing every item.
From the Republics, he was only able to gather the Disciple and Acolyte, along with the exceedingly rare Farseer sniper rifle. All of them were at their best when the wielder was a biotic, but of little use when biotics did little beyond agitate the larger animals.
As he looked at the Union's arsenal, he found that he already liked the Venom shotgun and Scorpion pistol, both of which were helpful as support weapons. Garrus found it ironic that the stealth-minded Salarians would even think of fielding weapons that made so much noise. The problem was that they were specialist weapons, which needed a trained hand and steady nerves to bring out the best in them without accidentally causing a friendly fire incident.
Of the Hierarchy's weaponry, only the Krysae was of any use to this world; the Phaeston and Pilum rifles simply had too little punch to make a difference, if Tali's encounter were to be believed. Speaking of which, the Migrant Fleet's Reegar Carbine and Arc Pistol were useful against the Geth, but he'd heard stories about creatures that were highly resistant to electricity. On the other hand, they did also have samples of the infamous Widow on hand…the problem was that only the Geth and perhaps the Quarians could handle its recoil without requiring significant augmentations.
As it stood, only Krogan and Blood Pack weapons had the stopping power to be even remotely practical on this planet. The only problem was that with great power came great recoil, and only a Krogan would be able to handle such weapons on a regular basis.
"Rather good selection, don't you think?" asked a low, booming voice. Its owner was a Krogan with an orange head plate and yellow-green eyes, wearing yellow armor with black stripes on the pauldrons.
"They're gonna give us a good foundation to work with," Garrus agreed.
With Gaius's death, it fell to Garrus, Mordin, and Urdnot Steg to try and build a set of armaments for the Books. In all honesty, the former C-SEC officer had to give the natives credit; it wasn't easy to take on such large monsters with ridiculously large weapons, and yet they were able to do exactly that. Barring the Krogan and maybe the Quarians, nobody had the strength or reflexes necessary to swing around melee weapons with their level of skill. Meanwhile, the guests of this world had discovered that their advanced anti-personnel Mass Effect technology did very little to harm the larger monsters their hosts lived with.
"I still stand by the idea that we should at least start looking into making some serious melee weapons," Steg defended, "We're not always gonna have access to ammo, and they will be helpful in that clinch moment when you need to survive."
"In that case, we'll just have to ask our hosts to help us out," Garrus replied, "Our priority here is to design weapons that all of us can handle. We need it to be sturdy, light, reliable, and for it to fire armor-piercing rounds; I doubt even that's enough to kill those creatures, but we'll have a fighting chance if it can penetrate those hides. At best, I'm hoping they'll discourage them from attacking us if we shoot them enough."
"Sounds to me like we're starting off with the Blood Pack Punisher," suggested the Krogan quartermaster, reaching for a small double-barreled weapon and handing it to Mordin, "I've tried it myself once, not bad for a peashooter. Evidently it was designed specifically with Vorcha in mind, and I can see why: those dumb little pyjacks forget to optimize their ammo count, so after every eight-round burst, they'll fire an armor-piercing slug."
Mordin nodded with approval as he inspected the weapon. "Good start, armor-piercing slug useful, will scale up mechanism for use in longarms."
"We also need it to be simple and reliable," Garrus reminded, "If the gun misfires after slogging in mud, then we're in deep trouble."
"Must draw inspiration from Krogan guns for that," Mordin agreed, "Only thing short of Widow Sniper Rifle that can hurt megafauna anyway. But for the sake of keeping it simple, use Pilum or Phaeston as the baseline model; always have a chance to modify the design after field tests."
Garrus nodded in assent. He'd seen firsthand how feckless the weapons they'd used against the monsters were; Thane's Krysae was the only thing that did any appreciable damage to that flying hand grenade. If it weren't for the natives coming to their rescue, they would have been massacred.
"Another thing," Garrus said, after a second's realization, "I have a feeling that there are people that can't handle the weight of a full-sized rifle…we're gonna need handguns at least, if only as an emergency weapon."
Steg grinned. "I think I have just the weapon in question."
He reached over the workbench, and picked up yet another weapon painted in the red and white colors of the Blood Pack; unlike the Punisher, which consisted of two barrels, this was one large barrel covered in a large, blocky shroud; at the back was what looked like a hammer. "This, to me, is the greatest handgun ever made: Blood Pack Executioner. One shot, more than enough to kill anything that moves."
"Need to up the ammo count and take into consideration that not everyone on expedition is Krogan," Mordin noted, nodding in approval, "Preferably without sacrificing too much power. Still, very good basis for a flare gun to call for help."
"Never thought I'd get input from a Salarian," Steg said, "But out here, none of that matters anymore. I'll build a few prototypes from these specifications, and then you two can try it."
"Just do your best," Garrus said, "Lives are at stake here."
Steg nodded, and went to work. He had a lot of work to do…work he was going to thoroughly enjoy.
…
[Former Book of Discovery Captain's Quarters]
"Where is it?"
Saria searched the highly-advanced bookcase that was installed in her quarters with Matriarch I'Taka and a Quarian programmer sitting nearby, the latter of whom was setting his omnitool to record.
With Liara T'Soni gone to help translate for the Field Team Leader, progress on the translation work had slowed to a halt, which was where Saria had come into play. Luckily, there was nothing pressing for her to divert her attention, and none of her favorite books were lost when Discovery was sunk by the animal attack…though it did cut into her teatime. Still, it was good to bring out her books from time to time, as even though it was more convenient to read it on her omnitool, there was always the chance that the data could be corrupted or lost.
"What book are you looking for, Captain?" asked I'Taka.
"I have a book in this collection that…ah! There it is!" she said, grinning beatifically as she pulled out a paperback book out of the shelf.
Matriarch I'Taka looked at the title, half-smiling in amusement. "'Flowers of Life?' I wasn't aware that a physical copy exists. And judging by how thick and well-used it is, I'd say this one has all the songs and poems."
"Flowers of Life" was the title of the very first poem in an ancient collection of works that were written long before the Asari set foot in the stars. For eons, the words were taken at face-value as simple and beautiful poems and songs for serenading lovers, but a closer inspection revealed that there were hidden meanings in the seemingly innocuous texts that have subliminally guided the Asari way of life. Much of the collection spoke of how one should live an upstanding life, but one segment was infamous for having a number of songs and poems dedicated to love-making. Some of the pieces in that part of the collection contained hidden messages so explicit, so erotic that the more modern Ardat-Yakshi monasteries banned the entire book from their libraries for fear of losing their nuns to temptation. A safe-for-work version missing the more lewd pieces was printed both for the Ardat-Yakshi monasteries and younger students of Old Thessian, and was widely available on the extranet.
"I never liked the safe-for-work version, you lose a lot of words and expressions used by the ancients," explained Saria, flipping through the pages with a look of nostalgia on her features, "I prefer having the whole collection at hand in case I need any of them, and the physical copy is always there in the event something happens to the one on my omnitool. Besides, this one's better for us in the long run."
"And how so?" asked I'Taka.
"Besides having all the songs and poems, this edition was tailored to diehard fans before the Ardat-Yakshi monasteries started banning it," explained the captain, "Every verse is written in the original Old Thessian text, but it also has a pronunciation guide and a translation for modern readers."
"Care to give us a sample?" asked the Quarian programmer, pressing a button on his omni-tool.
Saria smirked, and flipped the pages to a particular segment near the end of the book. Coughing into her hand before looking at the Quarian, before reciting the selection.
"Watashi no ai no tō,
yama no yō ni tsuyoi,
Hi-darake
Chōjō ni noboru,
tabi wa tanoshīdesu,
Attakaidesu
Soko ni noboru,
matsu no wa muzukashī,
koreha aidesu"
"Very good pronunciation, Captain," I'Taka noted, "Given your profession, I would've thought you preferred the epics instead."
"Care to translate that?" asked the programmer.
Saria looked at the programmer, craning in closer to him, her voice taking on a husky quality as she recited the translated words, which caused the poor man to shiver.
"My tower of love,
strong as a mountain,
full of fire.
I climb to the top,
The journey is pleasurable,
It is warm.
I climb to the bottom,
the wait is hard,
This is love."
"When taken at face value, this is just a love poem," explained Saria, drinking in the befuddled expression of the Quarian programmer, "When you look deeper at the hidden meaning, you find that it's actually a guide for a sex position and foreplay…one of many you'll find in the 'love chapter' of the collection."
The programmer was silent, unable to say a word as Saria mercifully decided to let the flustered Quarian have enough space to decompress.
"Now then, what shall I read next?"
…
[Book of Bravery, Bridge]
Scotia sat in her seat with a cup of tea in one hand and the reports from the field on the other in her omnitool.
From Discovery's armory, Urdnot Steg had been working on designing a set of weapons that the expedition could use to defend themselves against the monsters that lived on the planet. So far, the best candidates for that came from samples taken from both Krogan and Turian weapons, which was ironic enough…especially given that input was taken from a Salarian and a Turian. Though it was interesting that they managed to procure samples of Blood Pack weaponry at all; still, it was fortunate that they did, at least they had a baseline to work from. Last she'd heard from the gunsmith, he was muttering something about adding a chainsaw bayonet to the new monster gun he was making.
As far as survival tools went, there really wasn't much beyond what was carried in the survival kit; any blades members brought were often their own. Luckily, the Second Fleetmaster Mobus had plenty of tools such as knives and hatchets in stock, with more being churned out of the forge by the hour…they had produced more than enough tools to equip half the expedition. Scotia was actually impressed by the craftsmanship of the blades produced by the Second Fleet during her time groundside, as she inspected the knife she had traded a crate of Thessian tea for. It was a single-edged, spear point blade with a false-edge going a third of the way down the spine and a hidden tang construction; the bone grip was curved and secured with a brass bolster and pommel. Overall, a good companion for her kopis should the need arise for her to duel another opponent.
On the more academic side of things, Saria worked closely in her spare time with Matriarch I'taka, and a Quarian programmer in updating the codex to translate Old Thessian, which would automatically sync with everyone's translator implants upon uploading it. Progress was slowed just a little bit because their resident Old Thessian expert was out in the field, translating for the Field Team Leader during their field trip, but it was fortunate that Saria had her paperback copy of Old Thessian love poems on hand to keep it going.
Looking at Matriarch Aethyta's reports, it seemed that the natives were able to take to the 'imported' spirits quite well…though she noted that while their alcohol tolerance was much better than other species, they seemed to top off at ryncol. This was good, as it told her that the natives' food was very similar to most everyone else…which meant that they didn't need to worry that much about their rations. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the Turians and Quarians that came with them, though Cara'Vaal vas Qwib-Qwib was already working on figuring out what was safe for their Dextro members to eat and medicate on. So far, they were able to procure plenty of samples on the field for her to study.
Regarding the volunteers, she was interested in seeing what the world had in store for them. The so-called "Ancient Forest" was already interesting as it was, the skyline being dominated by the presence of a titanic tree that dwarfed even the largest creatures ever seen so far…and that was only one place on the island that the natives lived on. There were other places that warranted further exploration, each of which was a locale where the lifeboats landed, but that was for another time. Right now, the expedition needed to get familiar with the way life went on on this planet.
All in all, things were going well, but even she knew that situations were fluid.
"Captain!" called out the comms officer, "We've just detected a signal approaching on our vector! IFF's have identified it as a Batarian vessel!"
…
A/N: …and now we end with a cliffhanger.
Makes me wonder what's gonna happen now that the Batarians have shown up.
That line of poetry was done with the aid of Google Translate to try and make a series of three haiku…you can imagine the difficulty in trying to find the right words to fit the haiku form of 5-7-5.
Anyway, as usual, give ravenking64 a round of applause, and give his content a read when you have a chance.
…
As usual, if you have a Hunter you would like to show up, either add it in a review or PM me and I'll consider it.
…
Name:
Race: Human or Wyverian (They're the only races we see doing any active hunting)
Gender: No transgenders, please! I highly doubt MonHun-planet has the technology or techniques to do so.
Age:
Height: In centimeters (please make it believable)
Weight: In kilograms
Body Type: Slim, Muscular?
Skin Color:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Notable Features: Tattoos, scars, amputations, etc.
Personality:
History: Just a little of what they've done before coming to the New World. And like in the body measurements, please make it believable.
Guild Status: Are they still active? If not, then what do they do now? Are they Guild Knights?
Handler: Do they answer to a Handler, a receptionist, or the Quest Board? If they answer to a Handler, give a brief description of them; name, gender, personality.
Hunter Rank: Are they Low- or High-ranked? (this is still Vanilla World, no Iceborne yet)
Equipment: Just what weapon they normally use, and the armor they wear
Knife: Describe the knife they carry (this is optional)
Palico Name: Name your Hunter's Palico
Palico Description: Describe the physical appearance; tail length, fur thickness, eye color, etc.
Palico Equipment: Describe the Palico's weapon, gear, and armor
Palico Personality: Describe the Palico's demeanor
Voiceover: Optional, but you can choose whichever Japanese or English voice-actor you'd like for their voice.