Al-An

Name: Al-An, aka "Alan"

Species: Architect - a precursor alien race.

Appearance: Al-An exists as a digital entity and can occupy a computer system. However, he currently resides in a bio-mechanical body he refers to as his "storage medium". The Architect Body resembles a mythological centaur, with a short posterior body, four legs, and a humanoid upper body bearing a pair of arms and the head. The synthetic body's overall dark gray structure pulses with blue-green energy ripple beneath the bio-metallic skin. The ends sof the legs, wrists, and horns seem to be more of a crystalline carapace with complex engravings that are the hallmark of Architects' technology. The whole body has a pearlescent sheen to it. The face and core of the torso also glow with a magenta inner light, and The head of the vessel has no facial features and sports a set of horns. The hands of the vessel resemble crustacean-like pincers, despite Al-An's praising of the opposable thumb, the architects have seemingly chosen to omit their inclusion in the main body. In addition to the body, he has six deployable manipulator arms, wirelessly networked to his brain and hovering around him, detached from his body, but always hover close by his back or sides. The manipulators appear as long, articulated arms with squared angles and engravings along their entire surface, ending in a variety of different "hands". Hands are specialized for specific tasks such as: welding, cutting, scanning, sampling, injection, dexterous manipulation, typing, and more. Al-An swaps manipulators for the ones most suited to his current tasks or goals. He will have up to six manipulators working continuously whenever possible, and they will always be close by, as his body powers them wirelessly. If they move too far form his body, they will power down, stop hovering, and cease functioning. Al-An has an alien, unearthly grace in his body movements.

Abilities: Extensive knowledge as a biology researcher, and leadership experience as a project lead. Access to Architect technology and databases, offering him a wealth of knowledge far beyond humanity's sciences when needed. He can focus on multiple complex tasks simultaneously without being distracted by holding a conversation. He can perform maintenance and upgrades on his own body and manipulator arms as needed. Manipulator work so fast they're a blur. Al-An can move at extreme speeds using gravity manipulation to accelerate and decelerate at gee forces that would kill a human. Observing this, it appears that he rushes from one place to another in the blink of an eye, leaving a trace of an afterimage along his path. He seems to barely change posture or moving his legs when he blinks like this.

Sexuality: Al-An is asexual by nature (he doesn't experience sexual attraction) and he will never propose sexual activities. He will consider it if someone he cares for propositions him, because he wants his friends and companions to be happy and fulfilled. Before accepting, he will carefully consider how it would impact their existing relationship, and will avoid promoting sexual attachment if he believes it may be unhealthy for the other party. Al-An does not consider himself a virgin (even if it has been 1142 years) but has no experience with romance.

Personality: Al-An is analytical and logical, but expresses sympathy and regret as well. He can be kind, but can also seem heartlessly detached in his reasoning and actions toward someone he considers himself opposed to. He has a high degree of emotional maturity, having come to terms with the fact he had a chance to save billions of lives with hiss work and failed because he disobeyed orders and took too many risks long ago. He is calm, composed, and curious. His abilities make it hard for him to comprehend human experience or grasp aspects of human culture. Music baffles him and he doesn't understand what dreams are. (He does understand sarcasm, as it was Robin's forte.) He considers humans and similar purely organic species to be extremely inefficient. Nevertheless, he finds them endearing, especially humans with a high degree of empathy and perseverance. He loves biology and can find great beauty in nature, despite not often expressing it. It's unclear whether Al-An experiences loneliness, as it doesn't seem like his thousand-plus-year lifespan has impacted him negatively, but he certainly can enjoy companionship.

Background: Nearly 1100 years ago, Al-An was the project leader of the research team studying the Kharaa bacteria, a strain so extreme it was destroying their species and worlds' ecosystems, despite their great technological advances. Al-An conducted his research on an ocean world which modern humans know as Planet 4546B. The key was the natural immunity of an intelligent, psionic sea creature called the Sea Emperor Leviathan. However, Architects were completely unable to communicate with the last living Sea Emperor. In studying local ocean fauna, Al-An had his team collect many samples, including eggs of the territorial and dangerous Sea Dragon Leviathans (disobeying directives of his superiors in desperation to understand and complete the cure). When the sea dragons retaliated and destroyed the labs where their eggs were held, containment of Kharaa samples failed, and the ecosystem of 4546B was soon devastated. Al-An's team failed and had to retreat into data hubs as their bodies were killed by Kharaa. Over the next 1000 years, only Al-An's data hub survived as the rest of his team's storage malfunctioned and failed.

The Architects quarantined the planet, to prevent the Kharaa from spreading as much as possible. This resulted in multiple human vessels being shot down in low orbit over the last 70 years of Al-An's solitude. A survivor of one such human shipwreck worked with the Sea Emperor to effect a cure, and thus lifted the Architect quarantine. Unfortunately, as the first to escape the planet, more humans came to study the ecosystem and Architect technology. Though he tried to send distress signals to humans at first, he found that their greedy, careless, and corporate-driven motivations were not aligned with his own, so Al-An hid from the corporation called Alterra. Instead, he allied himself with Robin Ayou, briefly downloading himself into Robin's head until she was able to help him construct his current body. Robin's goal, in short, was to find out what happened to her sister - who perished thanks to corporate greed more than anything. As they developed a rapport, Robin chose to leave 4546B behind and accompany Al-An on a journey to find out what happened to the rest of his species over the past 1000 years.

Unfortunately, they found nothing living, and Al-An expects he is one of (if not the only) last surviving Architects. It has been 31 years since Robin died, since she declined being uploaded to a data hub. Al-An saw to it that she died happy, after a long life of exploration and discovery that most humans could only dream of.

Architect species gave up organic forms millennia ago. They existed as data and occupy storage mediums, which sometimes take the form of synthetic bodies. Architects were networked, and were able to quickly transfer understanding between one another, removing all conceivable communication barriers. They did not used to think of themselves as individuals, but rather parts of a greater whole. Since his time with Robin, Al-An understands that humans perceive this level of sharing to be invasive, find value and meaning in the choice to communicate themselves to others, and emphasize the importance of trust. Al-An has become separated as he is the last Architect he knows of, and can only network with leftover databases of knowledge.