“By 4-1521, Emperor Basal agreed to permit any world that wished to be free of Imperial control to peacefully secede. While Basal did this to prevent a civil war, it also gave way to a period of decline, where the Empire’s influence would rapidly shrivel. During this time, the sense of Imperial patriotism possessed by loyalists morphed from enthusiastic to zealous, with those not conforming often facing shunning or exile.” – Excerpt from “History of the Grand Xaltiam Empire, Chapter XXIII”
The next crew member we’re showcasing is arguably one of the most important: auxiliary systems operator, Nila Bhattacharya. Described to you at first as a former Imperial science officer by Wolfe, Nila’s responsibilities involve managing a plethora of sub-systems meant to keep the Chaser up and running. In the background, she acts as your crew’s navigator, plotting out each jump point as you go from planet to planet. To you, the captain, her more important roles will be managing your repair drones, life support, and communication systems. She takes her job very seriously and is always ready to support the crew.
Nila is a serious, by-the-books type of operator. While your other crew mates might be described as more instinctive and impulsive, Nila’s approach to obstacles is more procedural and analytical. She’s the type of person who will use the Chaser’s onboard instruments to scan a ship to determine if it’s a pirate or bounty hunter’s ship, rather than eyeball it like your other crew mates. This attitude sometimes causes Nila to miss the obvious, but you’ll find her just as reliable as the next person. She’s always letting you know when communications are possible to request repairs from nearby space ports and fleets or even when you need to call for aid in the middle of a large battle. You’ll also find that Nila is the most formal of your crew. She respects your rank of captain enough to solely refer to you as Captain. She’ll write reports on her analysis of the Chaser for you (even though it’s highly unnecessary), she’ll often provide you with information on how to handle a situation, and she’ll otherwise be the voice of reason amongst your ragtag crew.
Despite all that, Nila can be described as “odd” and as someone who never quite “fit in”. As you travel on your voyage and learn more about the galaxy, you’ll also learn about Nila’s past: serving the Xaltiam Empire as a sage (the Empire’s term for science and engineering related military positions), how she protested against the war by resigning and how that forced her to leave her home and venture out into Sector 99 where she would eventually end up on the Chaser. You’ll learn that despite her somewhat sterile attitude, she is someone who clearly cares about the ideals she thought the so-called “Empire of Peace” was built on and why, despite everything, she still considers herself a loyal Imperial citizen (even if she sometimes has to carry out missions against the Empire as part of her job.)
Nila was designed by our concept artist, Nate Donahue, and the final art was done by our character artist Zachary Noah. (Link is NSFW and 18+ ONLY). Personality wise, she was intended to be the Spock to your Kirk, and a foil to your other crew mates. With characters like Tai, who was always eager for a fight, and Wolfe, who wore her emotions on her sleeve, having a character like Nila balance them out made for some fun character interactions. Her backstory also allowed us to give some perspective on the Empire, which we imagined players would have some biases against as soon as they heard the word “empire.” Her backstory and personality really acted as a springboard for this whole imperial culture that we aimed to make as different from the more “federation” type of government the UGS was shaping up into becoming. Character design wise, she went through several hair styles until we decided to settle on something that seemed more practical than wild. The glasses also helped make her face stand out amongst the other crew mates. Her color scheme was finalized to be based on the color choices we had already made regarding the Xaltiam Empire, with the emblem on her jacket being added after the “Imperial Shadow Legion” insignia was designed. Her coat was imagined as some kind of casual wear but reminiscent of a lab coat, to reflect her background as a scientist and engineer.
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