Congrats to everyone!



The submissions that made it to the G2G vote are from: Phlox, Eiensakura, Tssha, Durandal4532, Gordon, and Wafflashizzles.



We'll know the G2G result next week.

Congrats to Eiensakura and Wafflashizzles.

Faction: Sophon



Hero Name: Il'ya Sarthilis



Hero Biography: Il'ya is an anomaly amongst her fellow Sophon cousins, whilst her scientifically inclined brethren strive for scientific and technological betterment, Il'ya was far more interested in studying the ways of war, from the ancient Terran text of Sun Tzu, to the Doctrines of Hissho. Her natural Sophon thirst for knowledge led her far and wide in her adventures, whilst learning the martial ways of other races.



Hero Image: A Sophon in martial robes reading a book of war.



Hero Classes:



Commander



Adventurer





Hero Stats (each measured 0-9; max of 18 total):

Labor - 0

Wit - 4

Melee - 2

Offense - 6

Defense - 6

Name: Hamilcar Ubaidha Asturias



Biography:

Great strategist, he disects foes combat tactics and technologies in order to theorize the best ways to deal with them. His slow but massive exposure to Dust from enemy wreckages he analyzed has drastically improved his cognitive abilities but also truculence. During his spare time, he likes to play and win thirty simultaneous games of Jadres, a sort of chess. Although respected, his capabilities are sometimes envied by his peers.



Image:

Sit in a command chair with a focus expression, with holographic screens all around him, lighting his bulbous head and face with a blue glow.



Class - Commander/Administrator

Labor - 0

Wit - 3

Melee - 0

Off. - 7

Def. - 5

Biography : Lil'Fil Vifciel



Always the eyes staring at the sky, always the toes staring at the roots. The whole life of Lil'Fil can be summed up by that kind of event : always hope for the best, because he doesn't have any clue how to handle bad vibes. It's not that he's clever or skilled. It's just that he seems to have found a way to enhance luck. It's a joy to work, as long as you're less than fourty meters from him. Luck seems to be contagious these days.



Image : A Sophon looking at the sky, and him escaping different bad events. Like Lil'Fil find a 1000 Dust banknote, and while he's bowing to the floor, some heavily thrown rock miss him.



Class : Administrator/Adventurer

3 Labor

3 Wit

3 Melee

3 Off.

3 Def.

Name: Shaheen Saad el Sund*



Biography: Innately curios like most of his kind, Shaheen's affection for experimental weapons proved to be unexpectedly destructive. The last ship he installed new untested warheads on was blown inside-out by an explosion. Shaheen just escaped thanks to his excellent control over Dust, the rest of the crew were not that lucky... With a ratio of destroyed enemy to friendly ships of 6:1, serving alongside him is considered a challenge…



Image: will do one if I have time, if not I imagine him messing around yet again with the plasma weapons



Class – Pilot/Adventurer

Labor - 1

Wit - 3

Melee - 1

Off. - 4

Def. – 4



*Shaheen - name of Persian origin meaning “king, royal”

Saad el Sund - from an Arabic expression meaning “luck of lucks”

Name: Evrhohala Su Sangula

Biography:

While the brightest Sophon scorn administration for more lofty pursuits, Evrhohala choses to manage other Sophon. Unusual incidents may be improbably common under her watch, but she obtains remakable levels of efficiency. To her colleagues, her success is inexplicable. None would guess she's founded Sophon psychology. And every day on the job gives her thousands of Sophon guinea pigs to exparament on.



Class - Administrator/Corporate

Labor - 8

Wit - 0

Melee - 6

Off. - 0

Def. - 0

Name: Alima Ghaada Hadiyyah

Biography:War is Alima's art form and every stroke of her brush brings her enemy to ruin, using agressive tactics and cunning manouvers she wins the battle befour it has begun. "my enemy are defeated they just dont know it yet" is her motto.

Alima has created works of art from destruction and her masterpiece is just begining.



Class - Commander/Adventurer

Labour - 0

Wit - 6

Melee - 6

Off. - 3

Def. - 3

Name: Ash'abah ('The Ghost')

Biography: With albinism highly rare among the Sophon, the incessant curiosity of his peers drove him to remote labs to discover a 'cure'.

Illicit Dust experimentation overcame his innate physical weakness and temerity and boosted his capacities well beyond the norm, with only minimal side effects... but no 'cure'.

Driven by inner demons across the galaxy, his Dust enhanced abilities have drawn a following waiting to see, 'what'll he do next!?'



Class - Adventurer/Commander

Labour - 0

Wit - 9

Melee - 3

Off. - 3

Def. - 3

Name: Narith Sar'en



Biography: Narith Saren is a gifted scientist who is obsessed with unlocking the secrets of Dust. Forsaking all pretense of morality, Narith has sacrificed thousands in order to further his understanding of the substance. While Sophens prize curiosity and innovation above all else, even they are outraged by Narith's barbarous experiments. An outcast among his own people, Narith is now willing to work for anyone who will provide him with funding...and test subjects.



Hero Image: A Sophen examining test tubes in a red background

Class - Administrator/Corporate

Labor - 3

Wit - 7

Melee - 0

Off. - 3

Def. - 1

Hero Name:Itri Ponce-Gwasila bin Ayesha



Hero Biography: Created to manage local defense and production in the absence of Sophon garrisons, the machine intelligence known as Itri has a capricious sense of humor it inherited from its creator, the gifted scientist Gulzar bint Saab. Realizing the good it could do was limited by inefficiency, and said inefficiency was caused by inexperience, it has offered its services to those willing to install a proper high-energy server and pay its energy bills, all in the hopes of returning to the Sophon with knowledge enough to impress even its creator.



Hero Image: Several Sophon scientists surrounding a large server 'farm'. The center terminal should incorporate themes of Sophon design; being geometrically pleasing to the eye to look at, while also using space efficiently. Branching off from the central terminal are a series of floodlight-cameras and waldo devices.



Hero Classes: Administrator/Commander Hero Stats (each measured 0-9; max of 18 total): Labor - 2 Wit - 5 Melee - 4 Offense - 0 Defense - 1



-



I saw some crafty Al-Andalusiaphilia so I put some Tamazight in there, although how capably I did so is questionable at best. Have I mentioned I love the flavor of this game? So much? Well, I do. Like the charadesigns so far; if it's administrator-heavy, I think that's suiting to Sophon sensibilities? Rock on, people!

Well, my contribution:



Hero Name: Jan'har Lashaat



Hero Biography : Not much is known of Jan'har, but since it left the Science Academy to persue unknown goals, there are rumours that the stars in the nearby clusters have become strange, with more vivid colors, could this be the sign of a Sophon Palladin (exceptionally gifted science officer) reborn?



Hero Image: A Sophon standing, arms crossed in a very dark ambient, its eyes staring right back at the player making him/her trying to guess whether it is benevolent or the exact opposite...



Hero Classes :

Corporate

Administrator



Hero Stats :

Labor - 4

Wit - 7

Melee - 1

Offense - 3

Defense - 3

Hero Name: Tash'ori Hanaya



Hero Biography: Being both a man of science and war has given Tash'ori a unique insight on how to wage war on a drawing board as well as standing on the command deck of any warship. His duty in protecting the way of the Sophons search for knowledge has indeed safeguarded their worlds and insured that their race is thriving.



Hero Image: A well lit room (ship/lab ) with a Sophon standing next to a holographic display of a star system.



Hero classes:

Commander

Adventurer



Hero Stats:

Labor - 0

Wit - 7

Melee - 3

Offense - 4

Defense - 4

Indeed, ladies and gentlemen: another hero creation competition for Endless Space is now taking place!



As in the previous competition, the goal is to create the best Endless Space Heroes, those champions of strategy and warfare that will help lead your empire to domination of the galaxy (Note: Mwa ha ha ha haaaaa).



The format is the same as in previous competitions where you create your own hero bios, and once again the winner(s) will be included in the game. This time the bios are for our most recently announced faction, the empire of scientific philosophers known as the Sophons.





Guidelines:











Once we gather enough proposals, the whole team will get together and choose the best ones. This will result in a G2G poll that will choose the winner(s). Depending on the quality and the number of proposals, we also reserve the right (with the creator’s consent) to change and tweak some of them so they fit better with the game background story. The winners will be awarded with a special forum reward/achievement at the end of the competition.



The competition starts right now and will end next Wednesday (May 9th).





The Rules:









Faction: Sophon



Hero Name:



Hero Biography (max 400 characters* See below)

Hero Image: Any ideas are welcome! You can also tell us what would be your inspirations etc.



Hero Classes (pick 2** See below):

Corporate

Commander

Pilot

Adventurer

Administrator



Hero Stats (each measured 0-9; max of 18 total):

Labor - bonus for agriculture (Food) and Industry

Wit - bonus for Science and Dust

Melee - bonus in ground warfare offense/defense

Offense - bonus in offense

Defense - bonus in defense













Need some inspiration? Here are a couple of bios from the current Sophon heroes created by the dev team:



Name: Lrhanmha Issa Amirmoez

Biography: Famous for her objective analysis of fact and data, she has been known to measure ingredients to the microgram when cooking for pleasure. Her area of specialty is complex systems and n-dimensional equations. Friendly as a general rule, but too precise to be 'warm,' Amirmoez has a temper and has studied enough martial arts to be effective when she loses it.

Class - Administrator/Corporate

Labor - 6

Wit - 6

Melee - 3

Off. - 0

Def. - 0



---



Name: Mashab Yani Djebadiah

Biography: Sophons are generally called "smart", but Djebadiah is one of the very rare for whom "…and dangerous" is added on. Defending an Endless site from a hungry Craver attack, she showed striking abilities as both strategist and tactician. Ingesting great quantities of Dust when the Craver weaponry overloaded and ruined much of the site, she has turned into the closest thing the rational Sophons have to a thrillseeker.

Class - Pilot/Adventurer

Labor - 5

Wit - 0

Melee - 1

Off. - 4

Def. - 4

Name: putavit, quid iam olim iuxta praedictum visum



Image: low angle, he is on a dias (think future space TED talk/university) speaking to an audience.



Hero class: administrator, pilot



Hero stats:

labour- 0

wit- 4

melee- 4

offence- 0

defence- 8



Biography: In his youth Putavit was orphaned when an engine malfunction killed every adult aboard an experimental colony ship, saved by falling into a shielded container of dust he was alone and stranded in deep space with no hope of rescue. two months later, the colony ship was manually piloted into low orbit above Sophon prime, he was only 8 at the time. In his illustrious career he went on to become an eminent philosopher and natural scientist but never lost his affinity for space travel or the mysteries of space.



(I don't know what the naming scheme is so i chose a long Latin phrase for his name {seemed scientific} it roughly means "thought, what has been, seen long ago, according to the prediction" long, scientific, logical, paradoxical, seemed like a Sophon name.)

Faction: Sophon

Hero Name: Kan al-Rashad

Quote: "Understanding comes from eating an enemy's heart."

Hero Biography*: Kan wasn't like other Sophon from an early age. He got into fights, caused trouble and generally acted like a complete and utter Qiwsaal. His moment of glory came when he joined the Sophonic** Military and put down a particularly bloody insurrection, by leading from the front. After that, he was authorised for Dust integration. Something went terribly wrong during the process, however, and his body and mind became even more twisted, claws sprouting from his hands and spines coming up from under his flesh. Since then, Kan has been known as a Sophon who leads from the front, usually to tear out the hearts of his enemies and devour them whilst the rest flee.

Hero Image: Something red and bloody-looking. Preferably with some claws

Hero Classes: Commander/Adventurer

Hero Stats:

Labor - 0

Wit - 0

Melee - 9

Offense - 4

Defense - 0



Notes: The idea behind this was a Sophon that was at utter odds to the rest of the species, and a Dust-warped monstrosity in his own right. It's also to give the Sophon a very good ground commander.



* This is a bit long. Cut down / change at will, I guess.

** No idea how to do the possessive form of Sophon. This can change at will.

Name: Agamudai Falal Teriayat

Image: Hopefully to come soon, just need to pencil it out first!

Biography: Agamudai was often chastised for his wanderlust among the intelligentsia who made up his peers. A bold researcher who enjoys being on the expedition to return samples to the lab. Agamudai also invented a defensive martial art for his expeditions, to take advantage of terrain and also minimize harm to potential discoveries. He wants to someday compile the universes greatest taxonomic library.

Class – Adventurer/ Administrator

Labor - 3

Wit - 8

Melee - 1

Off. - 0

Def. - 3

Name: Aggreha Trox Ysul



Image: An unusually lanky Sophon in surgical garb, laser scalpel in hand, looking down over her current specimen.



Biography: Even Sophon curiosity needs boundaries, but Ysul could never help herself. Consumed by a desire to see what makes every living thing "tick", her... methods... soon earned her a place in the deepest bowels of a Sophon prison. Under the threat of war, it was decided that all forms of genius must be employed for the sake of the Sophon race. Thus Ysul was released to the care of a shadowy megacorporation, and given but one directive: whoever she catches, she keeps.



Class: Corporate/Adventurer



Labor - 0

Wit - 7

Melee - 4

Off. - 3

Def. - 1

Faction: Sophon



Name: Basir Hakeem Khalid (bah-ser hak-eem kal-ede)



Image: A Sophon of average height and stern stature, he's often seen with an index finger curiously looming over his "cheek." Unlike other Sophons, the blue energy glowing from his clothing has a slight red tinge (image soon).



Hero Biography: A middle-aged scientist, Basir is one of few Sophons to take research outside of the laboratory. He is known for his ground operations into dangerous territory, as well as the results that follow; though familiar with the practice of leadership, a failed space operation has left Basir in preference of his flying skills being placed under others over commanding an entire fleet.



Class – Adventurer/Pilot

Labor - 0

Wit - 8

Melee - 3

Offense - 3

Defense - 3

Name: Jack

Biography: Never one to excell in one area, Jack is known throught space as having the ability to do a little bit of everything.

Class - Corporate/Pilot

Labor - 3

Wit - 3

Melee - 3

Off. - 3

Def. - 3