| This character was originally created by Rob
G.
Demorae: Minbari Academic and Scholar.
His relationship to his parents is
quite close, but there has been little contact save through letters
for many years now. The same goes for his siblings.
-Early Childhood Demorae was born to Deraen and Linnata of the Moon Shields on Minbar. Their marriage was something of a rarity on Minbar as it was arranged. Linnata was originally from a lesser clan, the Crystal Gatherers. Best known for their philosophical abilities, the Crystal Gatherers had wished to increase their prestige, while the Moon Shields wished to improve their clan’s imagination. Deraen and Linnata’s relationship was close but not warm. They lived in what would be called a suburb of the central city Yedor. As soon as Demorae learned to walk, he did; everywhere and at every chance he got. His parents quickly got into the habit of having an older child clan member accompany him at all times to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. They found his curiosity both amusing and heartening. They did all they could to encourage it. Because of this, his parents named him Deren’chan, “Wandering One.” Even before he was sent to school, he started to read. His tastes were eclectic. He had a special fondness for history, although he often could not read well enough to fully understand everything he was reading. He would, struggle on, though, working at it instread of asking for help. His mother and father would often help him though. His father, particularly, found his curiosity quite refreshing, as the Moon Shields did not often show this trait. -Adolescence He was sent to the Fane of Til’athri for his training. His parents agreed that this would be for the best as this Fane was renowned for getting the best out of “unusual” children. This proved to be very good for him. The Fane itself was perfect for him and the teachers helped him immensely. Quickly realising his interest in other races, they allowed him access to much of what the Minbari knew of other worlds. There was a down side though; he missed his family and clan very much. But he overcame this by developing an out-going personality, becoming quite gregarious even. This put him at odds with many of the other children; Minbari are in some ways quite like humans and other students would sometimes bully him. One teacher noticed this, but rather than discipline the bullies, she instead taught young Deren’chan the Minbari martial art of Kalan’tha. Between this, his winning personality and some help with their homework, he soon had far more allies than tormentors and this bullying problem was soon sorted out. However, one of the bullies, Zerron, was very resentful of Deren’chan’s popularity. That he fought back was worse, and that he did so very well in his studies, resulted in the fact that Zerron still carries a grudge to this day against Demorae. -Adulthood Once Demorae graduated from the Fane of Til’athri, he was offered a position as a teacher of alien history and Minbari philosophy. As he accepted the teaching post, this also meant that he was now joined to the Religious caste. This is one of the few times when a Minbari has spanned all three of the Castes, and thus Demorae is quite unique. Although irreverent and curious he did believe in the teachings and prophecies of Valen, citing his own readings as reason to follow Valen's words mroe closely than many did. At this time he also joined the Fire Wings clan through marriage. The was very unusual as the Fire Wings were made up almost entirely of both Workers and Warriors. His wife of 10 years, Flerena, was killed during the Earth- Minbari war. 10 years prior to the war, not only saw him wed, but also saw him teaching at his Fane. In that time he also wrote a great deal. Both gained him a fair bit of notoriety. When teaching, rather than give his students the answers, he would ask them questions, getting them to think for themselves; he was guiding rather than leading. The rare times he did give an answer or make a statement, it would be with his trademark impish look. This always meant he had made a joke, although rarely would his students get it it immediately. His writing gained him the much more fame though; and more trouble. Like all religions, the Minbari religion has questions you can’t ask, but Demorae would ask them. He would also attempt to answer them, but just asking alone was enough to get him into hot water. The only person who consistantly supported him was in the personage of none other then Dukhat himself. The two of them maintained a frequent correspondence through the years. They never met personally, they became quite close through their correspondence and the occassional vid-comm. During this time, Demorae also taught classes in Kalen’tha. He became a highly respected teacher in this area because he would teach why and when to fight, as well as how. This rankled a rival Teacher, Dennbana (Pike Wielder), for Dennbana believed ‘how’ was the only important component of combat. Their debates were quite heated and even strayed to the acrimonious. Feeling the need see all the things he was teaching about, he managed to convince the clan elders that the Religious Caste required explorers just as much as any other caste. Other members of the Religious caste were almost scandalized by his choice, but when he received support from Dukhat, the objections quickly dissappeared. He was thus able to travel freely around the known galaxy during breaks from school. this worked in his favour as he never stopped his own learning; he occasionally went on sabbaticals, traveling to Centauri and various League worlds. When he would travel, it was usually alone, and as a tourist. He found that a single Minbari would be treated with less reverence thereby allowing him to have a more open and honest interaction with other races. He was teaching at the Fane when the Humans killed Dukhat. At first, he was even more angry and determined than most Minbari because of his friendship with Dukhat. He asked for and got a posting within the Intelligence service. This suited his talents well. He did his intel work in the same manner as his teaching, he would ask questions that enabled others to learn. Specifically Minbari. And what he taught was a better way to kill the humans. Gradually, though, as the war continued his anger waned. He often interviewed humans, and he found himself admiring the stubborn courage that many of them displayed. All of them insisted that the Minbari started the war. He, like all Minbari, believed that the humans had started it. He begun to research this discrepancy, and thus found out that both sides were right. The humans had fired first, but this was because they misinterpreted the Minbari’s actions of having their gun ports open. He had long thought that the Minbari were insular, and now he had proof. He passed this information on to his superiors, but this was one of those “questions that can’t be asked,” and it appeared that it was ignored. When he found out that the Minbari had surrendered at the Battle-of-the-Line, Demorae began to both suspect and hope that someone in the Grey council had listened to him; during his many interrogations, he began to suspect that the humans were the Minbari's other half, needed to be united with to face the return of the Shadows that Valen predicted almost a thousand years earlier. It also occured to him if that supposition was correct about the humans, and now they have appeared, then when would the Shadows start appearing? Demorae, however, was very pleased when the war ended. He felt sorrow and pity for the many humans who had died at Minbari hands. This made him decide to stop teaching and spend the rest of his life learning all he could about other races from the source, intending to eventually pass all he learned on to the Minbari so there would never be a mistake as terrible as the one that started the Earth/Minbari war. He travelled to Sh’Lekk’Tha and signed aboard a Centauri transport as a common crewhand. Using much of his spare time to learn Centauri computer systems, he had quickly improved the ships’s scheduling and contract software so that earnings soon rose by almost 15%. Captain Varrogus appreciated this and gave him an officer’s post. They remain friends to this day. Since Demorae wished to intreact with other races, he spent much of his time and money learning how to pilot shuttles. This meant he would be the one to take cargo to a planet or base, sell it and haggle over new cargo. He found himself quite amused by the game of commerce, and more importantly, learning a great deal about the various races with which he interacted. After two years, he left Varrogus’s employ and started work on a Markab transport. The Markab’s sphere of influence was very close to humans space. Demorae, quite fascinated by the Humans during the war, found this gave him the perfect chance to interact with Humans on the basis of equals rather than as enemies. For the last few years he has spent his time writing, researching and exploring the Galaxy. He is constantly having his articles published for general Minbari consumption, but while most Minbari know his name they do not fully understand his theories or his ideas. This however has not stopped many “back fence” debates from erupting from one end of the Minbari sphere to the other. Recently he has found himself called upon to serve as an attache to the newly opened Minbari Embassy on Bab 5. This was at the request of Religious caste. Demorae accepted the posting and arrived on B5 in mid-Nov 2256. |