ONEDER
'oneder' - 'donkey'.  Slaves are often given insulting names, but the culture peculiar to the lower classes has dressed them up a bit with new connotations.  'Oneder' suggests loyalty and trustworthiness, although how these traits relate to donkeys is unclear.  Slaves also do not have last names of their own; they use the family names of their masters.  Oneder uses Iroth's maiden name, Rousel, as his own for legal purposes, but does not consider himself to have a surname.

APPEARANCE:
 AGE: 38
 HEIGHT: 6'11"
 HAIR: corn-blond, in big, fluffy curls... or would be if he didn't shave it off.
 EYES: light yellow

People on Oneder's planet tend to be tall, but he is a giant even by those standards, and is built like a gorilla.  He cannot ride a horse, but he can lift one... with one hand, depending on the size of the horse.  He is very conscious of his body language, moving so as to emphasize his imposing presence - looking big and nasty earns him his meals, after all.  His back and arms bear a set of scars in a complicated, almost celtic-looking design; these were inflicted when he was only a few days old, and represent his place in the social heirarchy.  On his home planet, he would be required to wear a beard, but he allows himself the luxury of shaving both his chin and his head, as a small statement of rebellion against the oppressive society he escaped from.


HOME PLANET: Turech

Turech is not an Alliance member, being 'socially backward' by the standards of Alliance planets, but does have commercial relationships with nearby systems.  Visually, the culture of Turech might remind a person of the Arabian Knights stories.  Socially, it's more like India, with the people divided into a set of strict social classes - as very young children, people are marked with scars or tattoos that distinguish their class.  Disguising oneself as a member of a higher class is punishable by death.  People who do this successfully are never treated as heroes but as disturbers of order. Laws govern the type of jobs each class may have, their homes and possessions, and their clothing.  The Turechi are tall and broadly built, both sexes muscular the females quite full-figured.  Upper classes are often obese.  They posess the pecular combination, unique in the galaxy, of dark skin and African features with fair hair and pale eyes.  The males are capable of growing beards, but doing so is considered vulgar and so the upper classes do not do so, while slaves and laborers are required by law to let their facial hair grow.

BIOGRAPHY:

Oneder's family were slaves, the very lowest of Turech's social classes.  They worked as  blacksmiths, owned by a shopkeeper in a small settlement on the planet's inhabited moon.  Even as a child Oneder was noticeably large, and he was eighteen when his size brought him to the attention of a nobleman who purchased him for use as a bodyguard.  He worked for this man about six years before being sold in disgrace after having a love affair with one of his master's paid servants; she came from a higher class than he, and such relationships are forbidden.

His third owner also used him as a bodyguard for the next eleven years, during which time Oneder married and fathered three daughters and a son - this family, however, was split up when its owner declared bankrupcy and had to sell off his assets, including his slaves, to get out of debt.  Oneder has not seen his wife or children since that day, and has no idea what became of any of them.  He was sold to a merchant who traded Turech's famous velvet (and equally famous opium) offworld, and who, like his predecessors, put Oneder to work standing around and looking threatening.

Less than a year after this purchase, Oneder was doing his job at a party his master threw for some of his 'business contacts', which included Torquel and Iroth Hane.  Iroth had been unaware that there was slavery on Turech, a planet she knew little about, and was horrified enough to buy Oneder's freedom on the spot.  Left with the problem of deciding what to do with him then, she gave him a job as her own bodyguard.  At first, Oneder wasn't sure what difference it made - he was still doing the same work, the only difference was that an extra step had been added in his being given money to buy himself food, clothes, and lodging rather than having those provided by his owner.  He has, however, come to appreciate the extra freedoms he now enjoys - being allowed to own his possessions, talk to whom he choose, and earn money.  He has in fact taken up some amount of smithing again, creating and selling metal sculptures.


PERSONALITY:

Despite his intimidating appearance, Oneder is not at all an unpleasant or menacing person.  He describes himself as a fairly simple man with fairly simple tastes: he likes good food, strong beer, big dogs, and having time to work on his art.  He isn't terribly fond of his bodyguard job, since it makes him seem so unapproachable, but though Iroth has told him he can quit anytime he likes, he does not do so - partly because he doesn't make enough money at his art to live on and really does not consider himself to have any other useful skills, but mostly because he considers himself in her debt for freeing him.  People who are brave enough to actually talk to him find him quite friendly and personable, full of odd trivia and slightly offbeat jokes.