Create a SERAPH Character

Welcome to SERAPH! This page is to give you some information and answer the most frequent questions regarding having your characters be a member of the Society for Ethical Reform through Aid, Protection, and Humanitarianism.

SERAPH strives to be an inclusive faction. If you have an idea that seems to run counter to established SERAPH lore, we'll always be happy to talk it over and see if we can't make it fit regardless.

TL;DR

SERAPH is a progressive charitable society with numerous (and fairly independent) charitable, corporate, and governmental entities as participants and stakeholders. We like tea, coffee, and uplifting the downtrodden and disenfranchised. The society also has both overt and covert ties, in various degrees of separation and/or plausible deniability, to the Repentant faith movement, including various refugee smuggling efforts.

The lore portfolio of SERAPH the faction includes the following:

1. The official secular/non-denominational charitable organization SERAPH, a sectorwide effort run from Cabina
2. The continued evolution of the Repentant faith in the sector (both the above and underground)
3. The ways all these do (or do not) interact.

Characters you create can exist as part of, or at the intersection of, any of these.

Character Creation

Pick a Name and Background

Individuals from many backgrounds are associated with SERAPH, with decent concentrations of religiously inspired individuals, bureaucrats, researchers and professors, caffeine-lovers, activists, and a fair share of revolutionaries and criminals and charlatans as well.

SERAPH members come from all walks of life, and SERAPH (and the Repentant faith associated with it in various degrees of separation) operates across the whole sector. Your character can be a serf, a noble, a non-citizen, etc.

If your character is or used to be a member of another faction (for example a corporation or noble house) you may wish to consult their guidelines for details such as your characters upbringing and name. You can decide how fully or partially your character left their old life behind upon becoming associated with SERAPH and/or the Repentant faith.

The closest thing to a 'pure' SERAPH character background would be as a native of Cabina, the SERAPH (and former CHR) homeworld. However, as Cabina was settled relatively recently in imperial history, by people from all across the empire, there are no specific guidelines for names or backgrounds to Cabina characters either.

Pick a Focus

Do you like Coffee? Tea? Secret societies? Governmental administration? Charity? Education? Serf rights? Aliens? Religion? Repentance? Synths? You might like SERAPH. (NOTE: if your preference is using/supporting democracy as a means to achieve good ends, the Democratic Mandate is probably a better fit. SERAPH leans more into providing immediate aid to folks who need it, and into achieving systemic change via nonprofits, rights/protections activism, and caffeine).

Examples of projects that your character might be interested in and associated with may include:

• Tea and coffee non-profit corporations; creation of new non-profit corporations.

• Existing SERAPH charities (GPCF, MMFEH, AIDSERFS, Phoenix); creation of new charities
• New Repentant sects; development of existing sects

• Development of our synth/alien/refugee smuggling and sanctuary network

• Serf rights, alien rights
• SERAPH administration

• Expansion of Cah-Binn lore; creation of lore about new aliens

• More stuff about power struggles, families and syndicates, planetary restoration, etc. on Cabina
• Secret societies

• The highly anti-Imperial/anti-High Church elements of the Repentant underground

This list is decently complete but not exhaustive. If you have an idea that seems to run counter to established SERAPH lore, we'll always be happy to talk it over and see if we can't make it fit regardless.

F.A.Q.

Q. Do I have to be a noble/serf/freeman etc. to be a part of SERAPH?

A. No. SERAPH and its entities are composed of a mix of individuals from all strata of society; write who and what you'd like. SERAPH is highly Repentant in its ethos, with an egalitarian bent, and the power structure of its various entities range from "technically noble-led" to "give non-nobles the lead" to "who cares, just be committed and do good work." Some of our players like being nobles, a lot like being non-nobles, and we make room for both to have power and influence IC.

If you are writing a noble character, we suggest that you talk with the noble house you desire your character to have come from, for details about their name, heritage, background, and how much they've separated (or not) from that background in choosing to work with one of the entities of SERAPH and/or join the Repentant faith.

Q. Can non-Repentant characters be part of your faction?

See also: Create a Repentant Character

A. Yes. SERAPH is technically a secular/non-denominational entity, which allows for a wider swath of character goals and aims than our previous existence as the CHR did. Thus adherence to the Repentant faith is not a requirement.

However, while we might have destroyed the church, our origins will still color the faction and our characters going forward. The Repentant faith and its future in the sector is still part of our core portfolio. You can still expect a fair bit of Repentant religious activity happening above and underground, around and as supporters for the charity's various initiatives. Particularly on Cabina, where most inhabitants are members of Repentant sects, where cooperative coexistence with Cah-Binn aliens is part and parcel of everyday life, and where there are of course no synths, only citizens of the Empire.

Q. How are conflicting goals/lore ideas handled?

A. We give our folks a ton of leeway to write whatever stuff they want to write. Realize, however, that more controversial ideas may be portrayed IC as disowned or marginalized by any of:

• large swaths of the Repentant movement across the sector

• the mainstream SERAPH board as it tries to survive and operate as an Imperially acceptable charity
• their noble house if your character has a noble background

Another way we talk about this is "degrees of separation."

• At the topmost level, on its official letterhead, SERAPH has to be extremely careful about saying things that would contradict or challenge the High Church and Empire.
• The corporations and charities and planetary government offices that officially comprise SERAPH have to keep up a good official front, but many are neck deep in some exceedingly questionable things on the downlow (such as refugee and synth smuggling), and they have a bit more leeway to publish and experiment with ideas that are more controversial and push boundaries. Part of being incrementalists is that you do try to incrementalize, after all.
• Planetary lore, underground lore, and sponsor sect lore: go wild. These places and entities can say and do things that are as unorthodox, illegal, and revolutionary as you'd like. Maybe one day we'll be able to say some of these things more officially and openly again.

Regardless of what they might believe in their hearts, we’d just ask that your character at least be considered to be working (whether for sincere or ulterior motives) toward some of the official goals of SERAPH.