Post by Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy on Aug 21, 2011 17:51:20 GMT -5
Password: Sarlacc
Character permission: Jenno
Name: Uranibask Bahradr
Race: Sluissi
Age: 33
Height: 5’ 6” (while slithering 2' 6")
Weight: 132 lbs
Birth place: Slistatcha, Sluis Van
Appearance:
As a Sluissi, Uranibask’s lower body is serpentine, and his upper torso is humanoid. He has two arms, each ending in four fingers with one of them a thumb. His arms have ‘flaps’ that extend to aid in his movement when he slithers along the ground, then retract when he rises vertically. Thanks to his physiology and the way he moves, he is extremely muscled in his torso, though his arms are quite weak, acting more as guides for his motion than real active parts of it. His ‘skin’ is very fine, small, dark green scales all across his body, lightening on his underside. A ‘hood’ flares out from the back of his head, and rises and falls with his mood. As befits his reptilian species, he has a forked tongue that can sense heat. He also has large black eyes that function quite well. His tail ends in a rattle, which he rarely uses though it is capable of producing noise.
Thanks to his forked tongue, speaking Basic is more complicated for him than for most species. As a result, many of his words are slurred and lisped, interspersed with hisses.
The Senator’s attire is always a part of his appearance, and he rarely appears without his medium grey and ornamental tunic It is geometrically patterned and has a stiff standing collar of flat yellow. It ends above where his tail touches the ground when he ‘stands.’ It is also made of highly wrinkle-resistant and soft material to avoid being a nuisance when he slithers on the ground. Understandably it is short-sleeved so his arm flaps can freely extend while slithering.
A leather pouch is also a part of his frequent attire. It fastens with buckles around his ‘waist’ and is used to hold important things such as comm links, datapads, and ID cards.
Personality: Uranibask is, in one word, bureaucratic. His mind works in an extremely orderly and methodical manner, which certainly hinders ‘creativity’ as its commonly known. That isn’t to say he has no creativity, but reflects the fact that he is creative in different ways. To be specific, he loves to scrutinize precisely worded documents and find alternative meanings that can be read into them.
Haste is not something he understands or tolerates, and even under the most vital and dire circumstances, he still won’t bypass established rules and regulations. He is strictly by the book, which often causes him to butt heads with those in the Senate who prefer swift action to proper action. Asking Uranibask to break the rules is as futile as trying to change the past. Its simply impossible.
That isn’t to say he has a bad heart in any way. He has a good degree of compassion, and tends to be quite understanding. But he simply doesn’t tolerate deviation from the rules. The closest he will come to breaking them is the ruthless exploitation of loopholes when he feels there is a need for something to be done. Finding them is one of his hobbies, one that he keeps up very carefully and finds useful in his duties as Senator.
He is, as is normal for his species, unable to feel anger. He can still be offended, but the emotional response is extremely different from what would be expected of most species. There’s no ill-will or resentment, merely a calm awareness of the facts as they are. It causes consternation among many of his political foes, and confusion among those not familiar with his species.
Also typical for his species, he is extremely relaxed and calm. He seems to approach things in a leisurely way, and problems don’t seem to bother him at all. He also approaches everything with a patient stoicism, no matter what the circumstance.
Uranibask is a pacifist. He personally finds the idea of taking life to be strange and thoroughly incomprehensible. Naturally given his views he’d prefer the Republic allocate its resources to economic development, disaster relief, and technology over fighting a war. But he is also quite loyal to the Republic and defers to the majority view despite his opinions.
Senator Bahradr is far from a great orator, and he isn’t the best of leaders. He tends to be the supporter of ideas and the glue that holds plans together. He is the one called on to see the problems with an idea and to make sure the end result is acceptable from a rules and procedures standpoint.
Occupation: Politician
Rank: Senator (Sluis Van, Senior), Ways and Means Committee
Skills:
Mechanical and Technological Knowledge- As a dutiful, typical Sluissi, Uranibask understands far more about technology and about repairs than other senators and than laymen. He’s fluent in the terminology and knows ‘techno-babble’ like a second language.
Equipment:
Droid: Criterion Personal Assistant- Named 'Luna,' this droid is programmed with a courteous and rather shy personality, with a special emphasis towards interaction with non-Sluissi. She serves as a secretary for the Senator, and a general assistant doing whatever needs to be done. She is fully upgraded with a top-tier protocol programming, also functioning as a translator.
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 6
Leadership: 5
Unarmed: 1
Melee Weapons: 1
Ranged Weapons: 1
Alignment:+4
Bio: Born into a family of minor bureaucrats in the city of Slistatcha on Sluis Van, Uranibask Bahradr was a precocious child. He learned to slither very quickly, and as soon as his arms were developed well enough, he started to tinker with his toys. He disassembled them and reassembled them for fun, learning their insides and outsides and memorizing their parts. It was quite typical for a Sluissi child, as the species was extremely known for a thorough enjoyment of tinkering.
He really wasn’t an exceptional child. He was quite normal in every way: dutiful, obedient, performed adequately at his tasks, and showed patience. But he was a great example of the quintessential Sluissi life, giving him a ‘common man’ appeal.
He was reasonably close with his parents, though it couldn't be any more than that given their work schedules. It kept him in first a day care, then a school, until the afternoon when he found himself again with his parents. So they spent evenings together as a family, listening to music and then working on schoolwork together.
Schooling was easy for him once he started it at age 5. Following rules and established procedures was every bit as easy for him as it was for the other students. They learned to read and write both Sluissese and Basic, and then had a general curriculum. He performed better with languages, writing, and reading than he did with mathematics. He was more than a little surprised by that. He'd always been under the assumption he'd be gifted technically like most Sluissi, and that one day he'd work in the famed shipyards as a technician.
Of course he wasn't immune to normal childhood dreams, for example he'd thought of being a firefighter quite fondly. He'd often thought of sliding through the flames to pull out helpless citizens and drag them to safety. Being a hero made for a great thing to daydream about, but it wasn't too likely. His physical education classes were his least favorite, and his upper-body strength left much to be desired.
Every day after school, he spent two hours studying with his best friend Fristiya. She was from a similar background to him, only her parents were blessed with a better schedule than his own. As such, he was a regular guest at their house for study sessions. Fristy and Urani made a great duo, and remained so all throughout their school years.
Once he completed his elementary education at age 11 he was given a battery of aptitude tests to determine what he was best suited for, a common practice among the highly bureaucratic Sluissi. The result came back, he was destined to work in the large Sluissi bureaucracy. The question was which task he’d wind up performing. Either he’d wind up in the Sluis Van shipyards or industry, or he’d wind up in the political field. That was something to be determined by his performance on the second array of testing after his secondary schooling.
In that higher level of schooling, having bureaucratic parents aided in the process greatly. He was able to learn from their experiences and even accompany them to their desks on some days to see firsthand how bureaucracy worked. It gave him a very complete understanding of his course material, an understanding that paid off with excellent test scores. His parents were quite proud of him, and more than willing to help show Uranibask how their jobs worked. They gave him special insight, and it was as gratifying for them as it was helpful for him.
It was also enjoyable that his good friend Fristiya had been tracked into the same curriculum. Her own parents were providing much the same boost, and as they had before, they reinforced each other. Through dedicated work and great study opportunities they worked their way up their class rankings side by side. It was among the best times of his life.
For his third, and final, installment of schooling he was tracked into the field of politics. Regrettably, Fristiya was tracked into Administration. They had to part ways in school, though they continued to see each other socially. At 17 he set about the task of learning mostly alone.
All Uranibask's studies now hinged on political theory and practice, and involved memorizing a great deal of the Republic and Sluissi legal codes and their governing documents. He spent six years scrutinizing them and studying them with a keen eye. It was unquestionably the most challenging schoolwork he'd ever done in all his years, but he pushed through it. He worked to make his parents proud, and to build a solid future for himself.
And he did it. Of course the cost was very little in the way of free time and even less in terms of friends, but the results were still impressive. He was in the top of his class, and his teachers loved him. Some instructors even referred to him as 'exceptional' and 'in a performance class in excess of his peers.' High praise among the Sluissi.
And then after graduating with honors at the age of 23, he set out for something to do. Luckily his academics were capable of opening doors. He was sent a brochure and an invitation to apply to become an aide in the Sluissi Senator’s home offices. With his parents' encouragement, he applied, and after a month of tense waiting he was accepted.
Being an aide in the Senate offices on Sluis Van was an exciting experience for the young Sluissi. Every day he got to help manage important documents, keep vital records, and generally immerse himself in orderly well-oiled bureaucracy. It was like a dream come to true. After a single year of service, the quality of his work was remarkable enough to earn him a transfer to Coruscant to work in the Sluissi offices there. It was something he was quite pleased with, and he was happy to have the chance to serve in the center of the galaxy’s bureaucracy. And of course the Senator himself was always pleased to have skilled aides, which Uranibask most definitely was.
Through a combination of service, luck, and insight he became the Senator’s personal aide of choice. Quite the honor for a 26 year old. And it all started one day, when the Senator was looking over an appropriations bill in the early hours of the morning. He was tired, and not thinking clearly, and he initialed pages of a bill for approval that contained errors. When he handed the bill to Uranibask, his keen eyes caught not only the errors, but a provision that would have created a loophole in the tax code. He rushed back to the Senator immediately, and he politely pointed the problems out. The Senator was profoundly impressed, and quite thankful. At his advanced age, he needed an extra hand.
In the subsequent days and months he found more errors that others hadn't noticed, and he also proved to be quite the sympathetic ear. The Senator started to discuss his opinions, and provided his own analysis of current situations in the Senate. Uranibask was more than willing to provide his own analyses, but he rightly pointed out he needed to be a firsthand observer for that to happen.
After that, Uranibask attended the meetings of the Senate with his superior, taking clear notes of the proceedings and supplementing them with his own insights and predictions. They were more than merely welcome. Uranibask proceeded to become a major adviser to his employer, in fact the go-to adviser. The Senator trusted him over his other aides, valued his insight more than the others, and felt he even had a greater role waiting for him in the system.
He remained dutifully at the Sluissi Senator’s side for another four years, four years of service and of learning. Uranibask was exceptionally loyal to the Senator, and was always ready to help in any way he could. As his understanding of the system and the players of the game improved, so did the validity of his suggestions. His keen mind flourished in this 'on-the-job' training. Where others boredom, he saw excitement. The whole system was quite thrilling, and what was still more captivating was the fact that he understood it. It was almost like a foreign language, something only a select few could understand. It made him feel very fortunate.
Then one day, something not entirely unexpected happened. The Senator stepped down from his office, knowing his lifespan was almost up and not wanting to die in the office and leave things unorganized. Naturally his favorite adviser was his choice to succeed him. He made that support public, and pushed for Uranibask to campaign. The Senator's aide did run a campaign for the Senate seat,
The campaign was centered around three main points. The first, and most vital, was the endorsement from the retiring Senator. That showed a direct lineage between the two, building a sense of continuity. The second point was the idea of firsthand experience. Bahradr had been right there in the Senate observing first hand how everything worked. There was no denying he knew the field, and how the system worked. The third, and final, point was that of order. Uranibask made solemn promises to stay true to the bureaucratic rules of both Sluis Van and the Republic, and not to violate a single one of the procedural rules. It was an affirmation of the rule of law and order, something the base loved.
Uranibask's campaign was well-received, and he became Senator Bahradr in a land-slide at the age of 30. Five months later the former-Senator was dead at the age of 77, one year beyond the average life expectancy for a Sluissi. It was almost as if he'd tried going out close to that benchmark for the sake of orderliness.
In his first year in office, Uranibask was placed onto the Ways and Means committee thanks to a machine-like knowledge of the tax code and firm grasp of bureaucracy. He’d sat in on the committee’s activities enough times before during his time as an aide that he learned much of the intricacies. He ‘hit the ground running,’ and made plenty of progress. He earned his place on the Ways and Means committee quite quickly through excellent and insightful service.
During his subsequent years in office, Senator Bahradr became known for his quintessential Sluissi behaviors as applied to politics. He didn’t rush, he was impossible to anger, and he was exceedingly thorough when it came to changes to the tax code. But despite his slow actions, he became known as an advocate for reforming the tax code. It was broken, and everyone knew it. But Bahradr was determined to fix it in small increments over the course of many year. Generally once every year he worked very thoroughly to rally enough support to make one carefully selected reform, never much by most standards, which ensured he usually received the votes he needed.
Apart from the tax code, Uranibask also found interest in general economic policy, especially on the topic of trade. His stance was that the economy wasn’t well-regulated enough. He preferred a strong centrally-planned system over one determined purely by the free market. As such, his general stance was much more in favor of government interventions than many of his contemporaries. He found a certain peace and enjoyment in seeing orderly things, and he had a love affair with well-oiled bureaucracy. It was only natural he wanted to extend that Sluissi trait onto the Republic as a whole.
That was one major division between himself and his colleagues, and it resulted in numerous entangling alliances. In order to push his own agenda, he regularly made temporary alliances with other interests on issues he didn’t care strongly about. That earned him accusations of ‘flip-flopping’ from detractors who disliked the fact that his voting record varied on their key issues.
However those criticisms were lost, and he himself had no qualms about it. His belief was always that he'd been elected as a delegate rather than a trustee, and that he was the one Slussi in the best position to make decisions as to politics. Among his base, his efficiency and compliance with the proper bureaucratic rules easily kept his approval numbers high enough that he didn’t have to worry about losing his seat in a recall for 'flip-flops.' That freed him up for his more day to day concerns.
The third priority he had, after reforming the tax code and retaining tight economic control, was standardizing and protecting the rights of all sentient species. That was the broadest interest on his agenda, and one that carefully impacted his voting record on numerous issues he considered related. Even his detractors had to admit at the end of the day Senator Bahradr’s heart was in the right place.
RP Sample:
“No,” Senator Bahradr shook his head from side to side as he responded to the proposal being made. “That clearly violatesss the wording of Article 5, and it goesss againssst precedent.” The Sluissi politician hissed politely. It annoyed the others how bureaucratic he was about the issues at stake, but he had a valid point. Article 5 was explicit, there was no question of the Republic’s right to levy taxation.
Of course that hadn’t stopped some Junior Senators from railing against taxation in general and tariffs in particular. Their ignorance was annoying to Bahradr. Even though he couldn’t get angry, he could still be bothered. It wore on his patience. The system worked the way it did for a reason. And it always bothered him that some would go to Coruscant after making their entire campaigns centered on how ‘bad’ Coruscant was. It wasn’t orderly, and it didn’t make sense.
“I know and you know, but that won’t stop them from trying to ram these restrictions down our throats.” The other Senator sighed and rubbed his temples.
“They don’t have the numbersss for it, it would be a futile gesssture. They know they can’t posssibly passs their meassuress. But then again, I think maybe thisss is more about their own poll resssultsss than the welfare of the Republic.” Uranibask thoughtfully scratched his throat with one hand as his ‘hood’ on his lengthy head lay flush against his skull. It was a sign of contemplation for him. And his words were uncharacteristically ‘harsh.’ Normally he had a very soft edge, but when it came to subverting the tax code in the name of ‘liberty?’ He didn’t tolerate that.
“I intend to vote ‘no’ on thisss. You can count on my opposssition to the bill.”
The other Senator smiled for the first time in their meeting. “Thank you for coming, and thank you for making the right decision. My aide will see you out.” He gestured to a young human woman who held open the door and a made a gesture of her own.
“Goodbye,” Uranibask said politely as he turned and slid his way through the door. Moving upright was always more taxing than slithering, but he generally avoided an abrupt switch after talking to moving. It was more polite to exist the office before lowering his belly to the ground and moving with improved speed.
But once he’d cleared the office, he laid himself out on the ground, opened the flaps on his arms and held them out to the side as guides, then slithered his way through the halls of the office complex, heading back for his own office. And from there he’d see about organizing more opposition to the new proposed bill. The response from the Senate needed to be an overwhelming rejection, anything less would lend credence to the wave of fear-mongering and false outrage. There was a war on. There was no time for pettiness.
Senator Bahradr slithered down the corridor, lost in thought but with a sense of purpose. He knew what he was going to do very carefully.
Character permission: Jenno
Name: Uranibask Bahradr
Race: Sluissi
Age: 33
Height: 5’ 6” (while slithering 2' 6")
Weight: 132 lbs
Birth place: Slistatcha, Sluis Van
Appearance:
As a Sluissi, Uranibask’s lower body is serpentine, and his upper torso is humanoid. He has two arms, each ending in four fingers with one of them a thumb. His arms have ‘flaps’ that extend to aid in his movement when he slithers along the ground, then retract when he rises vertically. Thanks to his physiology and the way he moves, he is extremely muscled in his torso, though his arms are quite weak, acting more as guides for his motion than real active parts of it. His ‘skin’ is very fine, small, dark green scales all across his body, lightening on his underside. A ‘hood’ flares out from the back of his head, and rises and falls with his mood. As befits his reptilian species, he has a forked tongue that can sense heat. He also has large black eyes that function quite well. His tail ends in a rattle, which he rarely uses though it is capable of producing noise.
Thanks to his forked tongue, speaking Basic is more complicated for him than for most species. As a result, many of his words are slurred and lisped, interspersed with hisses.
The Senator’s attire is always a part of his appearance, and he rarely appears without his medium grey and ornamental tunic It is geometrically patterned and has a stiff standing collar of flat yellow. It ends above where his tail touches the ground when he ‘stands.’ It is also made of highly wrinkle-resistant and soft material to avoid being a nuisance when he slithers on the ground. Understandably it is short-sleeved so his arm flaps can freely extend while slithering.
A leather pouch is also a part of his frequent attire. It fastens with buckles around his ‘waist’ and is used to hold important things such as comm links, datapads, and ID cards.
Personality: Uranibask is, in one word, bureaucratic. His mind works in an extremely orderly and methodical manner, which certainly hinders ‘creativity’ as its commonly known. That isn’t to say he has no creativity, but reflects the fact that he is creative in different ways. To be specific, he loves to scrutinize precisely worded documents and find alternative meanings that can be read into them.
Haste is not something he understands or tolerates, and even under the most vital and dire circumstances, he still won’t bypass established rules and regulations. He is strictly by the book, which often causes him to butt heads with those in the Senate who prefer swift action to proper action. Asking Uranibask to break the rules is as futile as trying to change the past. Its simply impossible.
That isn’t to say he has a bad heart in any way. He has a good degree of compassion, and tends to be quite understanding. But he simply doesn’t tolerate deviation from the rules. The closest he will come to breaking them is the ruthless exploitation of loopholes when he feels there is a need for something to be done. Finding them is one of his hobbies, one that he keeps up very carefully and finds useful in his duties as Senator.
He is, as is normal for his species, unable to feel anger. He can still be offended, but the emotional response is extremely different from what would be expected of most species. There’s no ill-will or resentment, merely a calm awareness of the facts as they are. It causes consternation among many of his political foes, and confusion among those not familiar with his species.
Also typical for his species, he is extremely relaxed and calm. He seems to approach things in a leisurely way, and problems don’t seem to bother him at all. He also approaches everything with a patient stoicism, no matter what the circumstance.
Uranibask is a pacifist. He personally finds the idea of taking life to be strange and thoroughly incomprehensible. Naturally given his views he’d prefer the Republic allocate its resources to economic development, disaster relief, and technology over fighting a war. But he is also quite loyal to the Republic and defers to the majority view despite his opinions.
Senator Bahradr is far from a great orator, and he isn’t the best of leaders. He tends to be the supporter of ideas and the glue that holds plans together. He is the one called on to see the problems with an idea and to make sure the end result is acceptable from a rules and procedures standpoint.
Occupation: Politician
Rank: Senator (Sluis Van, Senior), Ways and Means Committee
Skills:
Mechanical and Technological Knowledge- As a dutiful, typical Sluissi, Uranibask understands far more about technology and about repairs than other senators and than laymen. He’s fluent in the terminology and knows ‘techno-babble’ like a second language.
Equipment:
Droid: Criterion Personal Assistant- Named 'Luna,' this droid is programmed with a courteous and rather shy personality, with a special emphasis towards interaction with non-Sluissi. She serves as a secretary for the Senator, and a general assistant doing whatever needs to be done. She is fully upgraded with a top-tier protocol programming, also functioning as a translator.
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 6
Leadership: 5
Unarmed: 1
Melee Weapons: 1
Ranged Weapons: 1
Alignment:+4
Bio: Born into a family of minor bureaucrats in the city of Slistatcha on Sluis Van, Uranibask Bahradr was a precocious child. He learned to slither very quickly, and as soon as his arms were developed well enough, he started to tinker with his toys. He disassembled them and reassembled them for fun, learning their insides and outsides and memorizing their parts. It was quite typical for a Sluissi child, as the species was extremely known for a thorough enjoyment of tinkering.
He really wasn’t an exceptional child. He was quite normal in every way: dutiful, obedient, performed adequately at his tasks, and showed patience. But he was a great example of the quintessential Sluissi life, giving him a ‘common man’ appeal.
He was reasonably close with his parents, though it couldn't be any more than that given their work schedules. It kept him in first a day care, then a school, until the afternoon when he found himself again with his parents. So they spent evenings together as a family, listening to music and then working on schoolwork together.
Schooling was easy for him once he started it at age 5. Following rules and established procedures was every bit as easy for him as it was for the other students. They learned to read and write both Sluissese and Basic, and then had a general curriculum. He performed better with languages, writing, and reading than he did with mathematics. He was more than a little surprised by that. He'd always been under the assumption he'd be gifted technically like most Sluissi, and that one day he'd work in the famed shipyards as a technician.
Of course he wasn't immune to normal childhood dreams, for example he'd thought of being a firefighter quite fondly. He'd often thought of sliding through the flames to pull out helpless citizens and drag them to safety. Being a hero made for a great thing to daydream about, but it wasn't too likely. His physical education classes were his least favorite, and his upper-body strength left much to be desired.
Every day after school, he spent two hours studying with his best friend Fristiya. She was from a similar background to him, only her parents were blessed with a better schedule than his own. As such, he was a regular guest at their house for study sessions. Fristy and Urani made a great duo, and remained so all throughout their school years.
Once he completed his elementary education at age 11 he was given a battery of aptitude tests to determine what he was best suited for, a common practice among the highly bureaucratic Sluissi. The result came back, he was destined to work in the large Sluissi bureaucracy. The question was which task he’d wind up performing. Either he’d wind up in the Sluis Van shipyards or industry, or he’d wind up in the political field. That was something to be determined by his performance on the second array of testing after his secondary schooling.
In that higher level of schooling, having bureaucratic parents aided in the process greatly. He was able to learn from their experiences and even accompany them to their desks on some days to see firsthand how bureaucracy worked. It gave him a very complete understanding of his course material, an understanding that paid off with excellent test scores. His parents were quite proud of him, and more than willing to help show Uranibask how their jobs worked. They gave him special insight, and it was as gratifying for them as it was helpful for him.
It was also enjoyable that his good friend Fristiya had been tracked into the same curriculum. Her own parents were providing much the same boost, and as they had before, they reinforced each other. Through dedicated work and great study opportunities they worked their way up their class rankings side by side. It was among the best times of his life.
For his third, and final, installment of schooling he was tracked into the field of politics. Regrettably, Fristiya was tracked into Administration. They had to part ways in school, though they continued to see each other socially. At 17 he set about the task of learning mostly alone.
All Uranibask's studies now hinged on political theory and practice, and involved memorizing a great deal of the Republic and Sluissi legal codes and their governing documents. He spent six years scrutinizing them and studying them with a keen eye. It was unquestionably the most challenging schoolwork he'd ever done in all his years, but he pushed through it. He worked to make his parents proud, and to build a solid future for himself.
And he did it. Of course the cost was very little in the way of free time and even less in terms of friends, but the results were still impressive. He was in the top of his class, and his teachers loved him. Some instructors even referred to him as 'exceptional' and 'in a performance class in excess of his peers.' High praise among the Sluissi.
And then after graduating with honors at the age of 23, he set out for something to do. Luckily his academics were capable of opening doors. He was sent a brochure and an invitation to apply to become an aide in the Sluissi Senator’s home offices. With his parents' encouragement, he applied, and after a month of tense waiting he was accepted.
Being an aide in the Senate offices on Sluis Van was an exciting experience for the young Sluissi. Every day he got to help manage important documents, keep vital records, and generally immerse himself in orderly well-oiled bureaucracy. It was like a dream come to true. After a single year of service, the quality of his work was remarkable enough to earn him a transfer to Coruscant to work in the Sluissi offices there. It was something he was quite pleased with, and he was happy to have the chance to serve in the center of the galaxy’s bureaucracy. And of course the Senator himself was always pleased to have skilled aides, which Uranibask most definitely was.
Through a combination of service, luck, and insight he became the Senator’s personal aide of choice. Quite the honor for a 26 year old. And it all started one day, when the Senator was looking over an appropriations bill in the early hours of the morning. He was tired, and not thinking clearly, and he initialed pages of a bill for approval that contained errors. When he handed the bill to Uranibask, his keen eyes caught not only the errors, but a provision that would have created a loophole in the tax code. He rushed back to the Senator immediately, and he politely pointed the problems out. The Senator was profoundly impressed, and quite thankful. At his advanced age, he needed an extra hand.
In the subsequent days and months he found more errors that others hadn't noticed, and he also proved to be quite the sympathetic ear. The Senator started to discuss his opinions, and provided his own analysis of current situations in the Senate. Uranibask was more than willing to provide his own analyses, but he rightly pointed out he needed to be a firsthand observer for that to happen.
After that, Uranibask attended the meetings of the Senate with his superior, taking clear notes of the proceedings and supplementing them with his own insights and predictions. They were more than merely welcome. Uranibask proceeded to become a major adviser to his employer, in fact the go-to adviser. The Senator trusted him over his other aides, valued his insight more than the others, and felt he even had a greater role waiting for him in the system.
He remained dutifully at the Sluissi Senator’s side for another four years, four years of service and of learning. Uranibask was exceptionally loyal to the Senator, and was always ready to help in any way he could. As his understanding of the system and the players of the game improved, so did the validity of his suggestions. His keen mind flourished in this 'on-the-job' training. Where others boredom, he saw excitement. The whole system was quite thrilling, and what was still more captivating was the fact that he understood it. It was almost like a foreign language, something only a select few could understand. It made him feel very fortunate.
Then one day, something not entirely unexpected happened. The Senator stepped down from his office, knowing his lifespan was almost up and not wanting to die in the office and leave things unorganized. Naturally his favorite adviser was his choice to succeed him. He made that support public, and pushed for Uranibask to campaign. The Senator's aide did run a campaign for the Senate seat,
The campaign was centered around three main points. The first, and most vital, was the endorsement from the retiring Senator. That showed a direct lineage between the two, building a sense of continuity. The second point was the idea of firsthand experience. Bahradr had been right there in the Senate observing first hand how everything worked. There was no denying he knew the field, and how the system worked. The third, and final, point was that of order. Uranibask made solemn promises to stay true to the bureaucratic rules of both Sluis Van and the Republic, and not to violate a single one of the procedural rules. It was an affirmation of the rule of law and order, something the base loved.
Uranibask's campaign was well-received, and he became Senator Bahradr in a land-slide at the age of 30. Five months later the former-Senator was dead at the age of 77, one year beyond the average life expectancy for a Sluissi. It was almost as if he'd tried going out close to that benchmark for the sake of orderliness.
In his first year in office, Uranibask was placed onto the Ways and Means committee thanks to a machine-like knowledge of the tax code and firm grasp of bureaucracy. He’d sat in on the committee’s activities enough times before during his time as an aide that he learned much of the intricacies. He ‘hit the ground running,’ and made plenty of progress. He earned his place on the Ways and Means committee quite quickly through excellent and insightful service.
During his subsequent years in office, Senator Bahradr became known for his quintessential Sluissi behaviors as applied to politics. He didn’t rush, he was impossible to anger, and he was exceedingly thorough when it came to changes to the tax code. But despite his slow actions, he became known as an advocate for reforming the tax code. It was broken, and everyone knew it. But Bahradr was determined to fix it in small increments over the course of many year. Generally once every year he worked very thoroughly to rally enough support to make one carefully selected reform, never much by most standards, which ensured he usually received the votes he needed.
Apart from the tax code, Uranibask also found interest in general economic policy, especially on the topic of trade. His stance was that the economy wasn’t well-regulated enough. He preferred a strong centrally-planned system over one determined purely by the free market. As such, his general stance was much more in favor of government interventions than many of his contemporaries. He found a certain peace and enjoyment in seeing orderly things, and he had a love affair with well-oiled bureaucracy. It was only natural he wanted to extend that Sluissi trait onto the Republic as a whole.
That was one major division between himself and his colleagues, and it resulted in numerous entangling alliances. In order to push his own agenda, he regularly made temporary alliances with other interests on issues he didn’t care strongly about. That earned him accusations of ‘flip-flopping’ from detractors who disliked the fact that his voting record varied on their key issues.
However those criticisms were lost, and he himself had no qualms about it. His belief was always that he'd been elected as a delegate rather than a trustee, and that he was the one Slussi in the best position to make decisions as to politics. Among his base, his efficiency and compliance with the proper bureaucratic rules easily kept his approval numbers high enough that he didn’t have to worry about losing his seat in a recall for 'flip-flops.' That freed him up for his more day to day concerns.
The third priority he had, after reforming the tax code and retaining tight economic control, was standardizing and protecting the rights of all sentient species. That was the broadest interest on his agenda, and one that carefully impacted his voting record on numerous issues he considered related. Even his detractors had to admit at the end of the day Senator Bahradr’s heart was in the right place.
RP Sample:
“No,” Senator Bahradr shook his head from side to side as he responded to the proposal being made. “That clearly violatesss the wording of Article 5, and it goesss againssst precedent.” The Sluissi politician hissed politely. It annoyed the others how bureaucratic he was about the issues at stake, but he had a valid point. Article 5 was explicit, there was no question of the Republic’s right to levy taxation.
Of course that hadn’t stopped some Junior Senators from railing against taxation in general and tariffs in particular. Their ignorance was annoying to Bahradr. Even though he couldn’t get angry, he could still be bothered. It wore on his patience. The system worked the way it did for a reason. And it always bothered him that some would go to Coruscant after making their entire campaigns centered on how ‘bad’ Coruscant was. It wasn’t orderly, and it didn’t make sense.
“I know and you know, but that won’t stop them from trying to ram these restrictions down our throats.” The other Senator sighed and rubbed his temples.
“They don’t have the numbersss for it, it would be a futile gesssture. They know they can’t posssibly passs their meassuress. But then again, I think maybe thisss is more about their own poll resssultsss than the welfare of the Republic.” Uranibask thoughtfully scratched his throat with one hand as his ‘hood’ on his lengthy head lay flush against his skull. It was a sign of contemplation for him. And his words were uncharacteristically ‘harsh.’ Normally he had a very soft edge, but when it came to subverting the tax code in the name of ‘liberty?’ He didn’t tolerate that.
“I intend to vote ‘no’ on thisss. You can count on my opposssition to the bill.”
The other Senator smiled for the first time in their meeting. “Thank you for coming, and thank you for making the right decision. My aide will see you out.” He gestured to a young human woman who held open the door and a made a gesture of her own.
“Goodbye,” Uranibask said politely as he turned and slid his way through the door. Moving upright was always more taxing than slithering, but he generally avoided an abrupt switch after talking to moving. It was more polite to exist the office before lowering his belly to the ground and moving with improved speed.
But once he’d cleared the office, he laid himself out on the ground, opened the flaps on his arms and held them out to the side as guides, then slithered his way through the halls of the office complex, heading back for his own office. And from there he’d see about organizing more opposition to the new proposed bill. The response from the Senate needed to be an overwhelming rejection, anything less would lend credence to the wave of fear-mongering and false outrage. There was a war on. There was no time for pettiness.
Senator Bahradr slithered down the corridor, lost in thought but with a sense of purpose. He knew what he was going to do very carefully.
