Captain Talus Reil
Talus Reil stumbled on the position of Captain entirely by accident. With the intended captain vaporized as the Radiance’s construction platform was torn to shreds, the ship was left leaderless for months. It was after an assault by a trio of tree-sized daemons that Reil stepped up to command the Radiance to victory, using his knowledge of metallurgy to save the ship and its crew from sure destruction. He was a charismatic and understanding leader; disputes were always settled under his watch and justice was always dispensed, fairly and without bias. However, since hearing the news of humanity’s final annihilation from the Victory’s super-space transmission, Reil has locked himself away in his quarters, refusing to emerge even under the demands of the other captains of the fleet. Only Illia Laress, the first mate, has seen and spoken with him, and even then only to shuttle orders to the crew. There are those amongst the Radiance’s inhabitants who believe that he has long since shot himself, and Laress is simply using his existence as a means towards her own ends. Indeed, some of the commands supposedly emerging from the Captain’s Quarters have been exceedingly strange of late; though it has been postulated by others that this is merely proof that Reil is alive, and his will is slowly turning to the madness that has already taken many from the fleet.
First Mate Illia Laress
Since the exodus of the Radiance, Illia Laress has been regarded by the crew with utmost suspicion. Reil’s apparent disappearance has only deepened the distrust, as Laress has long been known to be manipulative and ruthless in her pursuit of personal goals. It is whispered that she was building a relationship with the captain before he vanished, and that is the sole reason for her appointment as first mate. But despite the enmity, Laress has been an invaluable asset to the survival of the Radiance. More than once she has steered the vessel from danger, and so the crew’s discontent is, for the moment, checked.
Dr. Gadran Ignoscious
Dr. Ignoscious is a name known well throughout the ship and even beyond, as word of his experiments spreads throughout the fleet. To anyone unacquainted with the doctor’s persona, he might seem to be utterly insane; some believe that he had spent too much time staring at the daemons when they attacked, and others think that he has even captured one, and is using it to fuel his demented ventures into new science. While he strives to keep his projects secret, once in a while whispers will abound of terrible things, of horrors spewing from overrun laboratories and entire compartments filled to the brim with used body parts, though no one can ever answer what the body parts were used for. Still, Laress tolerates him, and even urges him on; he is the key to the future, she says on occasion. What sort of future he may be the key to, the crew cannot imagine.
The Fathomer
From the growing ranks of cultists who dwell in the shell of the Radiance a leader has risen. He calls himself The Fathomer, and he has vowed to guide the people to illumination; they have but to follow, and gifts from their new gods will be showered upon them. Or so he claims. Enlisted crewmembers and higher-ranking officials have been keeping their eyes on The Fathomer, but he is not yet enough of a nuisance to forcefully remove. Moreover, he has gathered quite a large following; any attempt to quash this quasi-religious uprising would likely lead to a bloody civil war that would tear the Radiance apart. Not to mention that there are hardly any military personnel on board, and a manhunt through the hundreds, if not thousands of compartments with crew willing to harbor The Fathomer could only be a waste of resources.
Recent tension between The Fathomer’s cultists and those who refuse to follow has led to the drawing of lines. Much of the ship’s living sections have been divided up into territories; Fathom’s Lair is the name given to the cultists’ domain, while those who disdain The Fathomer and all he is have sought refuge in Godspath, which is practically a small kingdom run by the famed Dr. Ignoscious.
Though boundaries have been carved and raw autocracies created, both The Fathomer and Dr. Ignoscious still answer to Illia Laress, the first mate. The three of them, at least, recognize the importance of getting along for the sake of survival, even if it means working together. And so for now the Radiance continues to abide, a pariah of the Fleet of Five.
Lead Engineer Markus
Lead Engineer Markus holds exactly the position that his title implies – the lead engineer of the Radiance. Which is actually somewhat rare, as he is one of the only crewmembers to inherit a position he was originally intended for. Whereas most of the others on board were once mere construction workers, including the illustrious Captain Talus Reil, Markus came to the Radiance as an engineer, one of the best humanity had to offer. He is a cold man, who never acts on instinct and always finds a way to overanalyze every situation. When he commands the bridge, which happens more often than one might think, he is strict an unyielding; one mistake can send him into a rage, and after several such episodes the men and women of the bridge have come to fear him.
Loer the Ancient
Few who experienced the godhood of humanity’s past survived the Cataclysm, and even fewer live to this day on the vessels of the Fleet of Five. Only one calls the Radiance his home, and he is known to the crew as Loer, and sometimes the Ancient for his profound age. He reclines in his luxurious quarters, pampered by a host of so-called disciples who attend to his every need, hoping to catch a hint of enlightenment from his wizened words. The old man, whose crippling age is only slowed by implants and faltering technology of an age past, speaks rarely, though, and even less often without riddles. The Cataclysm took a piece of his mind, outsiders say, and indeed Loer appears as though he is often far away, prancing through some imagined world where troubles exist in less overwhelming quantities. However, he does on occasion lend useful insight to the crew’s younger perspectives, and this brings him respect, even veneration from those closest to him.
Adrian Euras
Adrian Euras is one of the younger members of the Radiance’s crew, and was also on the ship’s original roster. An intellectual savant at the age of fifteen, he was proclaimed as a genius by many including his mother, Tannya Euras, who was also meant to be part of the crew but was killed with thousands of others on the Radiance’s construction platform. Now, Adrian works with Dr. Ignoscious as an assistant in his mad experiments. He has also become the favored disciple of Loer the Ancient; it is said that he is able to understand the riddles and ravings of the ex-god, and has somehow put this lost information to use in creations beyond the imagination of even the psychotically brilliant Dr. Ignoscious.
Morga Ply-Mouth
The best and only place on the Radiance to stop by for medical attention is Morga Ply-Mouth’s sick bay. Though a mortician by training, she was quickly urged to adapt her skills to the living when it was discovered that there were no doctors on board. Her needles are as sharp as Astralium knives, though the disclaimer on the wall of her mangy clinic, which states that she is not responsible for missing organs, could be a cause for worry amongst the more paranoid.
