Taiden Sho
Taiden Sho
Title: Honored
Race: Nagai
Sex: Male
Occupation: Blockade Runner
Profession: Smuggler
Homeworld: Nagi
Organization: Independent
Ship: Honor's Guard (YT-1210)
Taiden was born 15 years after his people were freed from Tof occupation when the marks of Tof occupation still littered Nagi as his people expanded their civilization. During the war in his grandmother's time, the Sho family had been known for its effective operations against the Tof. Unfortunately, Tai's father was less ambitious and traded on the family's reputation for personal comfort. Tai had also lost his mother at a young age, having fallen in battle against Tof pirates. By comparison to many of his family peers, Tai took their reputation seriously, training religiously in piloting and blade combat and participating in operations on behalf of his family to drive back the remaining Tof and forging distant links to the Republic via trade routes to their new colony world of Saijo. While his official education was lackluster, Tai learned by doing, becoming an accomplished pilot and blockade runner. In addition to more militant skills, he gained experience in understanding how trade routes functioned, the give and take of bartering and appraisal of goods, and ways to get needed resources to other worlds through Tof blockades. This led to a great deal of interest in the larger galaxy neighboring his own. In particular, the rise of the Republic after it had thrown off the Empire's tyranny resonated for him, so similar to the Nagai Alliance throwing off the yoke of the Tof. However, he was rarely honored for his contributions by his family, with what wealth or equipment he had won or recovered promptly taken by his father to be traded for favors to other families. His resentment grew, as did his absences from his family home where he felt any progress he made was lost to the greed of his elders and peers. Things came to a head when Taiden returned from a training trip to Nagi to discover his father had traded away his personal vessel to another family to maintain their family standing without having to enter an honor circle and fight for that standing. Nagai are iconoclasts; a Nagai's possessions tend to be unique and personal, a reflection of their spirit and preferences. Thus, ships varied wildly in appearance and ability, much like Mon Calamari vessels, and were very personalized, a mark of a Nagai's character manifested in durasteel and ion engines. Taiden's pent-up resentment and anger burst as he ranted at his father for his behavior, cursing his family for treating him as nothing but another resource to support his own lifestyle, offering nothing to grow the family and only hollowing it out in the name of comfort and presenting a prosperous face to Nagai society. His father and the other family elders, equally furious at being called out, berated Tai for putting himself before the good of the family. As punishment, they planned to give him over to another family as an unwilling mercenary.%R%tThis was the bridge too far for Tai; his pride and personal honor were at stake, something he took very seriously like many Nagai. While his father and the other elders congratulated themselves on dealing with a problematic teen while ensuring their own prosperity, Tai was finding a transport trip to Saijo in the Republic. By the time his family realized he had not in fact traveled to the other family's holdings, he was long gone. Taiden traveled deeper into the Republic, seeking to preserve his own freedom and forge a new life that would satisfy his need to make his mark on the galaxy and preserve his personal honor and morals over what he believed to be the right way of living.
