Matsushida is a grave disappointment to his family. As the eldest son, he should be diligently gaining knowledge and experience so that he can run the family lands when his father, Count Sumiteru, dies or retires. Although his native intelligence has made the most of what little instruction he has attended to, he spends the majority of his time on loose women, fast cars, games of chance, and similar low amusements. He did serve in the Emperor Wars, with some small distinction during a Decados boarding of his ship, but otherwise has little to show for his 25 years.
Matsushida is tall, elegantly slender, and strikingly handsome. Like all the best Li Halan, he is predominantly Asian in appearance, with dark eyes to die for, and long black hair which he usually wears braided up. He dresses in plain Li Halan black, with the white of high rank and the green of bethrothment, but his clothes are always exquisitely tailored.
Matsushida has two brothers, Saburo (22, a priest) and Hideo (17, still in school), and a sister, Miya (20, in the military).
Gwendolyn is the epitome of a Hawkwood: self-assured, fearless, and skilled in the arts of war. Although her family doesn't have much in the way of wealth or position, they have enough Hawkwood attitude to get their daughter engaged to the son of a count.
Gwen is tall and shapely, usually dressed in a skin-tight duellist's outfit, and has long dark hair, which she wears braided back and plaited with monowire.
Gwen's family is back on Ravenna, and has not become important during play, though they are closely connected to the Emperor. She does have at least one sister to whom she writes letters full of juicy but carefully encrypted gossip.
Halley has light brown hair, hazel eyes, and is really not very noticeable at all. Medium height, medium build, pretty darn average overall. Generally, she doesn't pay a lot of attention to people, and people don't pay a lot of attention to her. She's quite bright, though, with an affinity for machines and gadgets. She grew up on a quite nasty planet (Stigmata) under the distant protection of the local head of the Scravers; when she was old enough, she joined the Scravers in the sort of absent-minded way she does most things involving other people. They've helped her out, and they've supplied her with passage contracts and the odd machine bit here and there for the occasional service here and there. She has a suspicion that her friend higher up in the Scravers might be her father, but it's never been worth pursuing. One of her friends growing up was a woman a bit older than her named Jaana Reese; they eventually formed a partnership of sorts that led them to the employ of one Dame Gwendolyn Hawkwood.
She's working on many devices. Her favorite project is the creation of a small flux blade; she likes to tinker with shields; she's intensely curious about gate keys. She just aquired a pair of night-vision goggles she might modify some. Other projects will no doubt occur.
She avoids Engineers and the Inquistion.
Jaana is a wiry woman with dark hair and icy blue eyes. Her facial features are hollow-looking, and her complexion is pale. She wears combat fatigues and synthesilk underneath her Eskatonic mantle, and carries a flamegun when on duty.
Jaana grew up on Stigmata, the daughter of native farmers. She spent her childhood and early teens working in salvage teams to recover technology lost in battle against Symbiot forces. By her late teens, she was one of the better trackers on the planet, a talent that led her to work with Manifest Light, the Eskatonic and psychic-supported resistance on Stigmata. A few years later, she met Halley, forming a partnership to take advantage of some of the more esoteric salvage Jaana had access to.
During a reconaissance raid, Jaana's Manifest Light unit ran headlong into a pack of Symbiot ground forces. Jaana was the only survivor, but her grave injuries forced the Manifest Light officers to pull her off-planet for healing. The experience scarred her both mentally and physically; the aid of a kindly Eskatonic priest brought her back from the brink of death. Later, she would take vows and join the Eskatonic Order. While recovering, she met Dame Gwendolyn Hawkwood. Jaana's knowledge of the Symbiot forces and tactics impressed Dame Gwendolyn enough that Jaana was later asked to become her bodyguard and confessor.
Elektra is tall and red-headed and gorgeous, and dresses in tight pants and numerous weapons like the pirate captain she is.
Elektra's background is murky. Apparently she was once a Charioteer, but broke with the Guild over philsophical differences and took up a life of piracy on the open spacelanes. She has spent time raiding in Decados space (endearing her to every other faction in known space) and has fought against the Vuldrok incursions into Hawkwood territory (for the bounty, of course).
Elektra has a small destroyer, the Black Jack's Lady, and a loyal pirate crew to man it.
This file was last modified at 1635 on 22Jun99 by trip@idiom.com.