Bal
Role in Story: Secondary tier character. A source of confusion and misunderstandings.
Occupation: Professor of Galactic History. Venice is her favorite student, whereas she often finds Mohinder to be puzzling.
Physical Description: Bal is an Ersommerey, a member of a furred, bipedal species that to human perceptions resemble upright bear cubs. Her fur is a lustrous honey gold in color. Like all of her kind, she tends to delight in exaggeration.
Personality: INFJ - Quiet and mystical, yet very inspiring and tireless idealists. Bal is always enthusiastic. Technically, she never lies but nearly everything she should be assumed to be hyperbole. She's most accurate (i.e., less prone to exaggeration) when she's discussing abstract things.
Habits/Mannerisms: She is extremely polite but always informal. She never uses titles or surnames, and actually prefers to generate nicknames for her students, the particulars of which may not make any sense to anyone but her (though she'll assure you theres a reason and when pressed will make up an etymology on the spot). Even more confusing, a given nicknames is apt to be replaced at any time, though there may be a connection between old and new names.
Background: Bal will tell you that she is the seventeenth daughter of the crown prince of the second largest island forest on Bristledown, and that she left home accidentally when she was mistakenly kidnapped by brigands who mistook her for her eldest sister and next in line for the throne, and who later abandoned her on a desolate moon when they realized their mistake. In reality, she "borrowed" her mother's credit chip, visited a travel agent's office, and picked a destination at random, which is how she came to be on Earth. Mom was not amused and refused to pay for her return trip. Bal initially only took a position at Wotan to earn enough money to get back home, but it's grown on her.
Internal Conflicts: She is hard worker, and often falls asleep in her office because she just won't quit whatever project has caught her attention. This kind of industry is new to her, as prior to coming to Wotan she was positively indolent. This change was a surprise to her too.
External Conflicts: Bal is a perfectionist and as such does not work well on faculty committees, never being satisfied with the state of projects. This, along with her tendency to exaggerate the facts createss conflicts for her interactions with the administration.
Notes: Bal's real name is very difficult for humans to pronounce. Bal is just the name she uses when speaking either English, Traveler, or Hrel. It means "honey" in Turkish. Bal chose shortly after vacationing on Earth and visiting Izmir, where she first tasted honey.
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