Star Trek: Sigils and Unions--"The Thirteenth Order" Cast

Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by Nerys Ghemor, Aug 10, 2008.

  1. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    This is a work-in-progress here--the cast for a fanfic I'm working on entitled "The Thirteenth Order."

    This story is part of an overall larger series I'll be calling Star Trek: Sigils and Unions, but in some ways "The Thirteenth Order" will be the prequel. No spoilers for the moment--except to tell you that no, what you are seeing is NOT treason though I suspect they'll get into some hot water when they're first trying to explain things. This incident was hushed up at the highest levels following the Dominion War, given the enormous potential for igniting a public furor in both the Federation and the Cardassian Union if the details ever came out.

    I'll go ahead and name the members of the cast for you, since they'll be easier to see before I fix the uniforms and fill in all the details.

    In one case...I'd like to see if people can guess the character's surname. If you have read the DS9 novels prior to the relaunch, and you pay attention to the details in that gul's bio, you should hopefully have a shot at getting it.

    (NB: Though the Sigils and Unions continuity does acknowledge parts of the DS9 relaunch and a few other novels that I particularly liked, I do NOT adhere to all parts of it. For instance, I treat the rank of glinn as one below gul, given that I think the actual duties of certain glinnssuggests they can serve as XO. I have also conjectured in certain other areas...you will notice what amounts to three Cardassian "looks" and I have decided to treat them as actual ethnicities on Cardassia, not makeup changes--hence the "Macet" look not being revised to meet the more common "Dukat" look. I've often felt that ethnic variation among alien races was not very well delved-into with groups that don't look like humans the way Vulcans and Bajorans did, hence my choice.)

    Go easy on me, please...when I don't have a reference, I don't do as well as I would with one. And there are a lot of errors I know I need to fix as I keep working on this. The only things I've used references on so far are for Macet and Daro's faces, as well as for Folani and Daro's poses. The rest I've done by memory or imagination.

    [​IMG]

    Moving from front to back, left to right:

    1) Ensign Folani Jederia. As you might surmise, she's very much in conflict with her role in this little outfit and as her wardrobe choice suggests, there's only so far she's going to go--no matter HOW good that armor might be at deflecting shrapnel and glancing phaser shots. Though at the beginning she frequently wound up in altercations with the Cardassians, time seems to be granting her a little more restraint even if not necessarily respect for her unwanted comrades-in-arms. If you ask her, she'll tell you she's here because her idiot commanding officer has a death wish and wants to die for a bunch of Cardassians, and she's here to keep that from happening. Original posting: USS Petraeus. (If you don't like the name of that ship--BITE ME. I'm not changing it. :klingon:)

    2) Glinn Thouves Daro. Macet's trusted second-in-command of the Trager is a man of few words but lasting loyalty, known for thinking far more than he will ever reveal in words. Though quiet and introverted, he is not at all shy; he is in fact capable of bold overtures on an interpersonal level (like trying to talk to Chief O'Brien) even when he runs a great risk of being snubbed.

    3) Gul Surtak Speros. Akellen Macet's former commanding officer, Speros commands the Galor-class warship Ghiletz as he has for fifteen years now. Speros is unlikely to ever make legate given that his curmudgeonly personality and occasionally too-outspoken complaints have made him too many enemies in high places, but the grey-headed gul intends to keep serving until he can't anymore. He has a bone to pick with Macet's choice of protege and thinks his former student is wasting his time on the man, who back when Speros was young would have never continued his service after that incident, and constantly needles the gul of the Sherouk every time they are on the same comm channel with each other. He was talked into this current endeavor by Macet, and while he complains about it every step of the way...the truth is the "boy" has done him proud.

    4) Gul Zejil Rebek. Commander of the Romac, a ship that has seen some of the worst the Dominion War has to offer--including having the misfortune of being in orbit of Septimus III when the Klingons obliterated the Eleventh Order. With no chance to lower her shields, Rebek was forced to flee without being able to save a single one of the Eleventh.

    5) Lt. Cdr. Mike Spirodopoulos. The ranking Starfleet officer, he took an enormous risk when circumstances that would have seemed dire put him in the right place at the right time to do something that would have been impossible for almost everyone else in the alliance against the Dominion. The gravity of his decision, and his role in convincing everyone else in his group to join his efforts, weighs heavily on him and thanks to this, at times he seems to vacillate between trust and mistrust in a matter of minutes. Only time will tell if he's made the right call, though his gut tells him this is worth fighting for.

    6) Gul Akellen Macet. The commander of the Trager, a man who has the misfortune of being Skrain Dukat's cousin and continues to be mistaken for him regardless of the fact that the Macets very clearly hail from the opposite side of the planet from his mother's family. Macet is a man known for both unorthodox thinking and a cool head--an excellent combination for someone in a position to change his people's fortunes. Macet is also an individual with a notable ability to forge relationships with people who, if brought together any other way, would be very likely to kill each other on sight. Together with his protege on the Sherouk, Macet is the one who first conceived of this idea and won over his fellow guls.

    7) Gul Tayben ______. [Here's the one you get to guess.] The commander of the Sherouk has only held his rank for a little over two years, making him by far the youngest of the guls. Similar to his mentor, Akellen Macet, he is known for the ability to approach situations without passing immediate judgment, including when it involves dealing with people and species with whom the Cardassian Union has had poor relations. Doing something about perceptions on the other end, unfortunately, is not always possible and earned him a Maquis phaser in the back on Volan III when he was sent to attempt a more conciliatory round of negotiations with the colonists as a concession to the Federation. It was a glancing hit from which anyone else should have been able to recover with few if any ill effects--but for a man who took a shot to the head at point-blank range two years prior to that in circumstances that he will not discuss to this very day (except maybe with Macet, but he's not talking), the neural overload was nearly fatal and undid all of the progress he'd made after the last time. As a result, his fine motor skills have suffered. This is why he typically stands with hands clasped behind his back: to hide the subtle tremors.

    Standard procedure after a disabling incident of this nature would have been immediate discharge--but after a humiliating incident in which he was stripped of his rank during a political upheaval (which, interestingly, seems to coincide fairly closely to the first time he took a phaser blast), the newly-minted gul of the Sherouk was not about to suffer that indignity for a second time. He took an enormous risk and decided to fight Central Command for the right to stay on--even if it should cost him his life. He would likely not have won this battle except that his petition happened to cross the desk of one Legate Tekeny Ghemor, who saw something in the young officer and took up the cause on his behalf. As a result, certain accommodations were made to allow him to remain on a shipboard posting (though he is very rarely seen planetside) and he now has the distinction of being the highest-ranking individual with a physical disability to remain in active service, something for which some admire him but for which others (like Speros) scorn him.

    He also defies common Cardassian stereotype by being a man of great engineering expertise even though his injury no longer allows him to practice his art directly. In a space battle, he is sometimes seen to "disconnect" from his surroundings to the point of unnerving those new to the Sherouk's bridge. This cataleptic-seeming behavior, from which he sometimes seems to emerge only at the last possible second, is in fact the result of his running performance figures in his head, assessing his ship and the others around him, and deriving exactly where and how to hit the enemy to make it count the most, and all without ripping the Sherouk to shreds.

    8) Glinn Bresul Yejain. The XO of the Sherouk was hand-selected by Legate Ghemor to take over this position following the Volan incident. Chosen for his loyalty, disdain for gossip, and liberal social outlook (from a Cardassian perspective), Yejain not only serves as XO aboard the Sherouk but discreetly takes over tasks that his gul lacks sufficient use of his hands to carry out, as well as serving as his eyes and ears in most cases when the situation calls for a landing party.

    9) Lieutenant Haeruuh. This Caitian officer is known for a sardonic wit and the unparalleled ability to see the grey cloud behind any silver lining. In the end, though, perhaps the one thing he does trust in is Mike Spirodopoulos' ability to get them out of any bind they manage to get themselves into...though whether in one piece or not is another question.

    10) Glinn Zebreliy Va'Kust. Those who first see the XO of the Romac towering over his slight commanding officer often make the mistake of assuming Va'Kust to be nothing but your typical strong-arm enforcer rather short on brains and restraint--but the truth is Va'Kust is anything but. His calm, almost Vulcan-like demeanor, though tinged with a subtle low-key sense of humor, makes him an excellent balance for the high-strung Rebek. His presence aboard the Romac was sorely missed by all when she sent him off to oversee a top-secret project for several months--the sort that only his sort of forbearing temper could manage.

    11) Chief Alexandru Librescu. A veteran of many wars who has seen quite a lot...and though he will never forgive the ones who carried out the atrocities he saw during the Federation-Cardassian War, he's in this because the cause is right.

    12) Petty Officer (2nd Class) Indivreilis (Vreya) zh'Thessel. Also served on the Petraeus with Lt. Cdr. Spirodopoulos and on the ground when their contingent was deployed to AR-558.
     
  2. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Here is the current WIP.

    UPDATE: The first person's uniform has been corrected and detailed. Due to the similarity of a lot of the work that will be going into this, you'll only see 1 or 2 more WIPs out of this: one when I get the first example of a weapon colored and MAYBE another one with the lone Starfleet uniform in the bunch.

    Unfortunately my scanner is not helping things...I promise it looks a lot better in real life! There's a lot of subtle shading you can see on the real thing--especially on the faces-- that isn't being picked up.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    Nice work.
     
  4. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks! I've still got a lot of work ahead of me, but thanks for looking. :)
     
  5. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    This is the last WIP you'll see before the final product!

    More uniforms now complete--Glinns Daro and Yejain, and Lieutenant Haeruuh are finished. The basic lineart for Gul Speros' uniform is almost finished. I have also added evidence of serious wear and tear to Ensign Folani's uniform (which occurred prior to this whole scenario coming about). Lineart for all weapons and wrist communicators is complete.

    Difficulties I had to contend with this time around: I discovered the reference I was using for Daro's position had a hand position that didn't make sense for a Cardassian disruptor rifle--so I had to wing it completely on his left hand. Also...drawing Lieutenant Haeruuh, who represents the Caitian species--I am having BIG problems drawing digigrade feet despite looking at several references. Any advice in this area would be much appreciated...it will be a lot easier to correct now, than to do it after I eventually go back over the entire drawing with other pencils for detailing.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The final drawing is here!!! Fifteen hours of work...damn, those uniforms needed a LOT of detail work!

    (Incidentally, speaking of uniforms, Folani got a last-minute wardrobe change and was put in Starfleet combat fatigues to match the story I had in mind...)

    Please visit the link below and click image there for a full view--but here's the final drawing! No, it's not perfect, but I feel like it really captures the characters I have in mind.

    http://www.sheezyart.com/view/1864545/

    Also, for your reference...here's a link to the photo I used as a reference for Daro: http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s4/4x12/thewounded156.jpg

    [​IMG]
     
  7. MorganScorpion

    MorganScorpion Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Where do I sign up?
     
  8. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    :D

    It's a fanfic, not an RPG--but I'm glad to have caught your eye! Thanks for the comment. :)