ORIGINS: Braax

ENS Braax- Helmsman, USS Intrepid

• Played by Greg Van Der Maas
• Created: SD 2260.141
• Last Updated: SD 2260.141

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CHARACTER INFORMATION:
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Character Name:  Braax
Current Rank:  TBA
Current Assignment:  TBA
Species:  Lycanthrope (White Blaze Clan)
Sex:  Male
Age:  15 Standard Years (approximately 35 Human Years)
Place of Birth:  Planet 2 in the Beta Sienna System

Physical Description:
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Braax is Lycanthrope, meaning that he resembles a large canine in humanoid form.  
When standing on two legs he stands at 2.05 metres or at 1.57 metres when in his 
more natural 'all fours' stance.  Braax is largely covered with a thick covering 
of black hair, with the exception of a small white blaze on his upper chest, some 
grey around his muzzle and a hairless belly.

Family History:  
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**Classified**

Hobbies:  
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Braax enjoys anything that requires using his natural Lycanthrope abilities– 
particularly hunting.  He enjoys being outdoors and enjoys the human pursuits of 
wrestling and rugby.  He is relatively skilled at games of chance and will jump at 
any opportunity to fly.

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STAR FLEET HISTORY:
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Graduated Star Fleet Academy

Academy Achievements:
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 -- Level 5 Pilot
    Type ratings:
    - Soyuz class
    - Loknar class
    - Saladin class
    - Shuttlecrafts Mark II, III and IV

 -- Level 4 Navigation
 -- Level 3 Armory Rating
 -- Level 1 Engineering Rating
 -- Level 1 Hand Weapons Rating

Qualifications:
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 -- Helm Officer
 -- Navigation Officer
 -- Shuttlecraft Pilot

Extra Curricular Achievements:
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 -- Bronze Medal in Second Year Academy Wrestling Competition
 -- Gold Medal in Fourth Year Academy Wrestling Competition
 -- Placed 17 out of 123 in the Academy Marathon
 -- Academy Rugby Team, B Side

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SPECIES INFORMATION:
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Lycanthropes are a carnivorous canine species from the Beta Sienna System.  They 
are considered a social race where beings live in a pack of up to five family 
groups.  These packs in turn belong to a larger clan.  A female Lycanthrope will 
average four litters during her lifetime, with each litter producing between 3 and 
6 pups.  Larger family groups will have around 50-60 individuals.  When packs become 
larger than this many young will drift off and form their own packs.  Clans can have 
up to 100 individual packs in them.  Loyalty to ones clan is considered the backbone 
of Lycanthrope society.

Each Lycanthrope will have several littermates (siblings) when growing up and several 
senior pack members who act in a parental capacity, though Lycanthropes do not make 
individual distinction over relationships with pack members.  

The crew of the USS PATHFINDER first encountered the Lycanthropes when they came 
across a badly damaged ship with several members of a Lycanthrope pack onboard.  The 
Lycanthropes had no means of communicating with these new travellers to their galaxy 
so the name 'Lycanthrope' was coined by the PATHFINDERS's Science Officer, who borrowed 
it from ancient earth mythology, and the name stuck.

Lycanthropes are built for stamina and posses many physical characteristics to aid this.  
They have powerful backs and narrow chests that house a larger than average lung capacity 
and heart while oversized splayed paws with short claws allow them to retain grip over 
most terrains.  The elongated muzzle not only assists the Lycanthrope with its incredible 
sense of smell, but also assists with resisting drag on the rest of the body.  Marginally 
longer hind legs allow Lycanthropes to stand bipedal style for long periods of time.  

Lycanthropes have an acute sense of smell and rely almost entirely on this sense, despite 
also having above average hearing.  Their incredible sense of smell gives the Lycanthrope 
a powerful sense of direction as scent glands in the paws release an almost undetectable 
odour that allows them to retrace their movements.

Acclimatisation into Federation culture has been slow.  Lycanthropes can appear as 
fearsome creatures generally larger than most other humanoids and when this is combined 
with their inability to naturally communicate many other cultures can be uncomfortable 
around them.

Lycanthropes have a much shorter life expectancy than other races (around 45-70 years), 
but develop much faster -both physiologically and in maturity.  As a general rule of 
thumb, Lycanthropes age at approximately the rate of 1 Lycanthrope year to 2.5 human 
years.

Popular legend is that Lycanthropes visited Earth in the mid 1800s and this may have 
triggered many of the werewolf stories from that era.  Given the average lifespan of 
a Lycanthrope and the length of time it would have taken for a non-warp capable ship 
from the Beta Sienna System ship to reach Earth's Solar system this story remains 
doubtful at best; though it remains one of the more popular legends of modern day.

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PERSONALITY INFORMATION:
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Braax himself differs little from many common Lycanthropes.  He has always harboured 
a love of stars, having often been teased by his littermates for spending long periods 
alone staring up at them.  Public Lycanthrope records indicate that most of his clan 
died during the Kalnar Wars and while Braax does not speak openly about this period of 
his life, he does acknowledge that this was the driving force upon him joining Star 
Fleet.

Braax is keen to portray his race in the best possible light and though he talks seldom 
about his early life, he is happy to share information about his species with any who 
enquire.

He works tirelessly on his public façade and in acclimatising himself with human nature.  
He has become quite adept at mimicking human facial expressions.

While Braax has the ability to make close friends, he would be incapable of ever forming 
any intimate relationship with them.  Academy counselling staff have suggested that he 
look at using a holographic programme to replace the sense of pack, but at the scent of 
a pack could never entirely be replicated this idea was discarded.

Lycanthropes have a very strict sense of hierarchy and this will govern any interaction 
Braax has in dealing with his shipmates.   Higher ranking Officers can expect to be treated 
as senior members of a pack and great deference will always be shown towards them.  The 
using of senior staff's first name or socialization- aside from formal receptions- is 
likely to be avoided.  Similarly, lower ranking members of a crew may feel patronized, 
or even bullied, if they assume an air of familiarity when dealing with Braax, though 
this has lessened during his time at the Academy and will probably continue to lessen as 
he spends more time amongst other races.  Braax is a stickler for the chain of command 
and he has a real deference to duty.

Any instruction issued by a senior officer will always be followed to the letter so if 
the Captain is ever kidnapped and replaced with a clone who's covert mission is to 
destabilize the Federation– don't count Braax in any on plans for a Mutiny!  

Braax is careful to avoid overtly Lycanthrope behaviour when in public.  He will only 
consume food in private and though he does not share humanity's aversion to nudity, he 
will always be clothed in public and will very rarely be seeing not standing on his 
hind legs.

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STRENGTHS:
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Like all Lycanthropes, Braax has an exceptional sense of smell.  In certain situations 
this natural ability can be more accurate than a tricorder and when optimum conditions 
exist, Braax has the ability to follow a trail that may be several weeks old or detect 
objects up to five miles away.  As his primary sense, Braax also uses his sense of 
smell to assist with his understanding of humanity –in his case the ability of being 
able to "smell fear" is more than just a saying.  Braax also posses great stamina and 
requires very little sleep if an occasion demands it.

Braax is a gifted pilot and has gained a reputation for being able to fly "pretty 
much anything". He is tenacious and will struggle for hours to master a skill, rather 
than switching his attention to something different –a trait that helped him to pass 
some of the more academically challenging subjects.

Like all cadets at the Academy, training in unarmed combat was compulsory and while 
Braax struggled with many of the structured martial art forms he remains a formidable 
hand-to-hand opponent.  He also has a higher pain threshold than the average human, 
but lower than a Klingon or Vulcan.

He is superbly fit and completed the Academy Marathon in his final year, finishing a 
credible seventeenth.  What makes this feat particularly noteworthy though, was that 
he completed the 150 kilometer run bipedal fashion.

Braax has no psionic capability and cannot be scanned by telepaths.

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WEAKNESSES:
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Though he graduated from the Academy Braax is no great genius.  His acceptance to the 
Academy in the first place is generally attributed to Star Fleet's desire to actively 
accommodate one of his kind; than any natural ability he may have had.

Even though his sense of smell would be considered an advantage in most circumstances, 
it does have the potential to overwhelm him when over stimulated.  Also, if ever left 
without a universal translation device, Braax would be unable to communicate with his 
shipmates as the Lycanthrope vocal chords are unable to shape and form non-guttural 
sounds.

By far though, Braax's largest disability is his inability to naturally handle many 
objects that are part of serving in Star Fleet.  Most objects are designed to be 
handled and operated by species with dexterous extremities (fingers).  Tricorders and 
other common engineering tools pose particular difficultly for him and he is considered 
a very poor shot with phasers and rifle cannons, though he has no problems working a 
console station.  

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CLASSIFIED INFORMATION:
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The Lycanthrope civilization was embroiled in a clan war just over five years ago.  
The White Blaze clan, being one of the larger clan's at the time, was working on a 
diplomatic solution to end the conflict.  A rival clan -the Three Claws- fearful that 
any diplomatic solution would work against them; launched a surprise attack on the 
White Blaze clan.  The White Blaze clan was almost entirely annihilated in the attack; 
the only survivor being Braax who was off 'star watching' at the time of the attack.

Clan honor demanded retribution and Braax spent the next seven months, hunting down 
and eliminating those responsible for the attack against his clan.

Braax's involvement in this episode has been classified by Star Fleet Command.  They 
feel that were this knowledge to become public, it may have an adverse reaction on 
Braax's future crewmembers.

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