Nilam Ophiutus

**Nilam Ophiutus** is an emergency medical technician, aspiring writer and member of the Council Recovery Corps.

## Biography

Nilam Ophiutus was born on Oma Ker in 2133, into an esteemed family that consisted of him, his parents and his much older sister. When Nilam was born, each of his immediate family had already performed feats that earned them a lot of respect amongst the local community and within the Hierarchy, to an extent. Both his father and sister served in the military, with his father assisting in the control of a sizable portion of the turian navy and having accomplished a great deal during his years on the front lines, while his mother was a negotiator, helping the Hierarchy make dealings with the volus.

Seeing the success of his family members set Nilam’s standards high from an early age. When he was young and inexperienced, these accomplishments merely seemed normal and what was expected of him. As such, he began to push himself as soon as he started school at the age of four, striving to be as successful as the rest of his family. In lessons, only the highest grade would be acceptable in his eyes, even if his parents never seemed to care either way. Consequently, Nilam would often isolate himself and study excessively, thus leaving him without many friends.

Without many friends, and his parents and sister busy with their careers, Nilam had to find other ways to entertain himself. From a very young age, he found solace in reading, a hobby which helped alleviate his loneliness and allowed the intelligent young turian to absorb even more knowledge. Soon enough, Nilam began reading every free moment he had. It wasn’t long before he had exhausted every fictional text his parents owned and - lacking any interest in the hefty volumes of war theory or diplomacy books that made up the majority of their library - he turned to the extranet to seek out more literature.

As a young turian without any credits to purchase novels for himself, Nilam was limited to novels which were published on the extranet for free. Many of these books were old classic novels, not only originating from his own species but also from others. Suddenly, a new world of alien literature opened up to him, and Nilam quickly found himself entranced by these ‘exotic’ stories. In particular, he enjoyed the stylistic flair found in asari writing and vivid imagery used in drell storytellings. While Nilam excelled in all subjects at school, it was clear he had a particular aptitude for languages and literature, which only further his interest in the subject.

This interest in alien literature briefly led him to wonder about the languages other species spoke behind the advanced translators that were widespread throughout the galaxy. Nilam turned to his mother to ask about this, hoping her dealings with the volus might have given her some insight into their language and their stories. However, his mother immediately shut his interest down with a laugh, telling him translators were sufficient and it was pointless to learn obscure alien languages in this day and age. This instilled a sense of doubt in Nilam. While he still read as a hobby, he began to divert his focus away from studying languages and literature, believing knowing about these things would be useless in the real world.

At the age of 15, Nilam began his military training, like most turians of that age. Much to his horror, his performance was fairly average against the rest of his peers, no matter how hard he tried to best them. Physical activity had never been a strong point for him, always an afterthought compared to his academic studies, which he put a much greater emphasis on. As such, when it came to the physical aspect of his training, he was unprepared and unable to keep up. It was a great cause of shame to him and only led to Nilam closing himself off from people further. While in training, Nilam made very few acquaintances and even fewer friends, choosing to spend free moments alone with his books. Eventually, Nilam finished his one year of boot camp, receiving average results and developing a disdain for military activity. Despite this, he decided to remain active within the turian military rather than taking an administrative role, feeling like he needed to prove, both to himself and his family, that he was capable in combat. Nilam was assigned to a squad, choosing to forfeit a higher education for the sake of bringing honour to his family.

Over the next few years, Nilam remained within this squad. Because of his academic ability, Nilam opted to receive medical training to become a combat medic. Medicine suited his bright mind, but it was not his passion, and he found being in the military a dull existence, one that was filled with monotony day after day. That was until he turned 19 when a young, fresh-faced turian named Alhagas was assigned to his squad, almost straight out of boot camp. Nilam took an instant disliking to him, finding him loud, annoying and far too persistent. No matter how many times he told Alhagas to leave him alone, the younger turian never seemed to understand the message, frequently getting far too close for comfort. This behaviour wasn’t only inflicted on Nilam, but also on the rest of the squad, making Alhagas rather disliked amongst his peers. Unfortunately, Nilam frequently ended up stuck with him due to his own unpopularity caused by his standoffish attitude.

Much to his dismay, this only made Alhagas encroach on him further. He’d spend his time asking question after question, only to answer them himself when he received no response, no matter how little he cared. For the next three years, Alhagas continued to annoy Nilam, until Nilam finally completed his medical training and was transferred to a medical branch of the military on Palaven that also served the general populace. However, the younger turian’s personality had somehow grown on Nilam, and he found himself actually starting to miss him and his ever-constant presence. So when Alhagas sent him a message only a few months after his departure, Nilam instantly replied. Eventually, they were talking at every free opportunity, having insightful conversations with one another. This blossomed into something more when Nilam finally reciprocated Alhagas’ flirtatious comments, and in 2155 they officially began dating.

For the most part, the relationship was long-distance, with the couple meeting up whenever their leaves coincided. The pair were separated during the Relay 314 incident, with Alhagas being shipped off to the front lines while Nilam remained on Palaven. During this time, Nilam worried greatly about his partner, throwing himself into his job as a distraction and isolating himself from the rest of the world. Fortunately, the war was over as quickly as it began. After spending the war fighting on the front lines, Alhagas took some much-deserved shore leave and the two were reunited. In a touching reunion, Nilam confided in Alhagas, telling him how worried he was and that he never wanted to lose him. The couple spent a few months in each other’s company before returning to their separate jobs. Marriage was mentioned on several occasions during this time, however, both turians would brush it off as a mere joke.

Only two years later Alhagas proposed to Nilam. In 2160, the couple got married. Both of their families attended the wedding, with Nilam’s parents giving the couple their blessing and expressing pride in their son’s military career. It was a pleasant occasion, and Nilam returned to his duties feeling a lot happier and laid-back. Incentivised by their marriage, Alhagas requested and was granted reassignment to Palaven’s ground forces, allowing the couple to move in together on Palaven. They remained there for a few more years until Nilam turned 30 and completed his military service.

Due to his growing fatigue with military life, Nilam opted to immediately go into the reserves and pursue higher education. For several months he pondered what to specialise in, taking up side jobs until he settled on which path to take. It was Alhagas who brought up his love of literature and encouraged him to follow that, reassuring Nilam’s concerns that obtaining an education in this subject would be selfish and have no value to the Hierarchy. Convinced by his husband’s impassioned speech, Nilam decided to follow his passion, applying to study languages, literature and xenolinguistics from the University of Tayseri on the Citadel. Shortly after, the couple moved to the Citadel together.

While living on Tayseri ward, Alhagas found employment in C-Sec while Nilam focused on his studies. He found that he was the only turian in most of his classes, and he seldom saw any other turians around the department. This made him feel somewhat of an outcast during his studies, which wasn’t helped by the stand-off-ish attitude he maintained. As a result, he made very few friends during his time at university, choosing to keep to himself and focus on his studies. After four uneventful years, Nilam graduated university with a Masters in Literature, Language and Xenolinguistics, achieving incredibly high grades. However, this accomplishment didn’t come at a cost. While he was in university, the already high expectations he had for himself were raised even higher, leading to him becoming highly stressed. Much of his time was spent alone, with Nilam closing himself off from the outside world to study in solitude. This extended in part to his husband, who would often get snapped at for intruding, causing their relationship to become tense over this time. Despite this, they still remained together, hoping Nilam’s anxieties would be alleviated now that he had concluded his studies.

As soon as Nilam had attained his master’s degree, he began seeking work, wanting to immediately return to his duties as a member of society after spending four years dedicated to his university course. He quickly found a role as an editor for a news reporting organisation, allowing him to put his skills to good use. Nilam found this job enjoyable and easy enough that his stress levels didn’t peak, but after a while, it started to become too easy and he found himself wanting more. This inspired him to seek out more challenging employment - something he could truly throw himself into. Eventually, he stumbled across a job in the Presidium that worked with the translation software used throughout the galaxy, ensuring it worked smoothly between all languages and updating it to include slang. Although Nilam didn’t have any experience working specifically with translation, he applied regardless, tentatively hoping his degree would be enough to land him the job. To his surprise, it did.

Nilam began working in the Presidium in 2170, initially finding the work fulfilling and sufficiently challenging. However, it didn’t take long for the stress to creep back upon him, sparking many arguments between him and Alhagas. By then, Alhagas had grown tired of Nilam’s high-strung attitude and had little patience for Nilam’s stress, often picking fights with him as an outlet. This greatly affected their relationship, to the extent where they were eventually arguing every single day. Finally, Alhagas had enough. In 2173, he suggested that the couple should separate and get a divorce. This crushed Nilam - even though he hadn’t been happy in the relationship for a while, Alhagas was one of his only companions and the person he trusted more than anyone else, so the prospect of losing him was almost unimaginable. But, unable to formulate any decent argument opposing their parting, he agreed to the divorce and the two parted.

The divorce was incredibly hard on Nilam. He slipped into a deep depression, blaming himself entirely for the downfall of the relationship. The stresses of his job, the divorce and the expectations he put on himself accumulated until he broke down, finding himself overwhelmed by the stress until he could no longer function. This culminated in him losing his job, which only worsened his depression. Unable to deal with the shame any longer and having no one to confide in, Nilam gathered up all the credits he had and moved far away from the Citadel and turian space, attempting to get away from the scene of his failure.

Using a good chunk of his credits, Nilam ended up on Illium and rented a small apartment for himself. He then sought out a job to get himself by, taking up work as an assistant in a small medical clinic. In typical fashion, Nilam kept to himself, avoiding others to focus on his work and battling his lingering depression. Rather than spending free moments talking to his colleagues, he spent it reading his beloved books, which by now had become the only constant in his life. It was this passion of his that led to him talking to an asari named Daphea V’Sara, who had happened to have already read the classic asari novel he was reading. After discovering their mutual love for books, Daphea made an effort to talk to Nilam, and before long he felt he could open up to her. The two became close friends, and Nilam realised that Daphea was the first real friend he’d had in years.

Eventually, after a heated discussion about a book over dinner, Nilam confided in her that he’d considered writing a book but felt it was a selfish dream to pursue. After getting past her initial amusement at the idea of a turian writer, Daphea read over some of his draft manuscripts and was impressed. Believing this dream was attainable for him, Daphea persuaded him to start writing, reassuring him that it was not selfish and encouraging him not to grow old with regrets. The kind asari even offered him a place to stay while he wrote, ensuring he wouldn’t have to worry about money or shady Illium dealers attempting to take advantage of him. Touched by her kindness, Nilam heeded her words, quitting his job and moving in with her to focus entirely on writing.

For several years, Nilam dedicated himself to writing, completing two full novels and multiple short stories. During this time, he also looked for a publishing agency to bring more attention to his books, but the only publishers that ever showed any interest were unscrupulous Illium corporations trying to take advantage of aspiring writers. The lack of interest in anything he wrote was frustrating, and in the end, he began to feel restless, wanting to return to public service again. Nilam vented these grievances to Daphea, mentioning his thoughts of moving out and returning to the workforce, only to receive an odd, stilted response that almost begged him to stay. It was at this point he realised the Daphea might like him more than just a friend. Unfortunately, Nilam didn’t feel comfortable with their relationship escalating beyond friendship - while even he found asari attractive, he still wasn’t ready to enter a relationship with someone after spending the majority of his adult life with Alhagas.

Wanting to know a definitive answer, Nilam asked Daphea outright if she was interested in him. The asari immediately answered yes, before asking if it was mutual. Nilam very awkwardly and bluntly told her it wasn’t, explaining he was still hurt from his divorce and he couldn’t see himself being in a relationship with her for some time, if ever. This seemed to spark a flurry of emotions in the asari, which surfaced as a heated outburst. She asked Nilam why, told him it had already been so long since his divorce by the standards of a turian lifespan, that he shouldn’t focus on the loss but remember the times he enjoyed together with his husband. Deeply offended by her words, Nilam refused to speak to her until she apologised. This happened not even a day later, when Daphea calmed down and apologised for what she said, telling Nilam she would help him heal and wait for him to be ready. However, by then their relationship was ruined - Nilam knew he would never see the asari the same way again.

Shortly after his quarrel with Daphea, Nilam returned to the Citadel in 2180, moving to Kithoi Ward. The two occasionally communicated on the extranet for a short time after his departure, but their communications eventually petered out. Nilam sought out employment on the Citadel one again, finding a job in another news organisation as an editor. For many years, Nilam focused on his work, making the occasional friend but not allowing himself to get particularly close to anyone. The days blended into each other, passing by him quickly, but he had little motivation to do anything about the monotony of his life or even care.

This continued until 2185 when the Coffee Shop Massacre occurred. The shockwaves of this effect rippled across the Citadel, and Nilam, working for a news company, was exposed to all the horrifying details while reporting on it. Nilam found the massacre shocking, but was unsure what he could do about it. The formation of G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N. piqued his interest, however, he felt too old and out of practice to join such a new, ambitious organisation, doubting his skills of much use. Curing the genophage was an honourable goal, one that he certainly thought was overdue, but Nilam believed he lacked the necessary skills in combat, science or diplomacy to contribute. A similar mindset persisted during the Terminus War. If called up from the reserves, he was content to have fought for the Hierarchy, however, this never came to be. Nilam watched the war be fought around him, continuing to report on it from the Citadel and ready to help if he was needed.

As it turned out, when the Reaper War broke out not even a year later, he was needed. The aged turian was called back to duty and assigned to a turian dreadnought as a medic. While it had been many years since he’d seen active duty or even acted as an emergency medic, Nilam gave all his effort to the role, proud to be serving the Hierarchy and helping the galaxy during this crucial war. When the war reached its conclusion, Nilam felt a feeling of fulfilment that he hadn’t experienced in years, and even he found himself celebrating with his shipmates at the end, albeit very briefly.

Once the Hierarchy no longer needed him, Nilam returned to his job on the Citadel. However, after witnessing the hardships of war, this job no longer felt like enough. This feeling was particularly accentuated with the emergence of the batarian Civil War, which he felt he could only helplessly write reports on. For a short while, he bounced between jobs, attempting to seek out that waning sense of fulfilment. He managed to crawl his way back up to his old job on the Presidium, but not even this brought the feeling back. When the Council Recovery Corps were formed, this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Believing this was his chance to help, Nilam sent off his application, requesting to be assigned to the CSV Resurgence for service.

## Personality

Nilam is an incredibly serious person in any given situation, treating every single waking moment as crucial. It is very rare to see him relax and unwind, maintaining a severe, no-nonsense attitude, even in the comfort of close friends or family. Because of this, Nilam has an impeccable concentration, allowing him to focus on anything he sets his mind to. However, there are plenty of downsides to his attitude. Nilam lacks a sense of humour, never quite understanding jokes and often completely missing the point of them. Oftentimes, he acts overly serious, giving off an unfriendly and aloof demeanour. When it comes to dealing with other people, Nilam becomes irritated incredibly swiftly, especially with younger, immature people. This results in a difficult time for him in social circumstances, often struggling to casually interact with others. The only time Nilam will soften slightly is when talking about his beloved books, finding himself more drawn to those he can discuss these with.

Nilam holds an incredibly cynical outlook, a mindset that was shaped by his past, and one he is very firmly set on. In any situation, Nilam will always prepare for a negative outcome, expecting everything to go wrong at any moment. This extends to personal relationships, making him rather distrusting of people in fear of betrayal or being hurt. Due to his habit of regarding others with intense suspicion, Nilam tends to dislike many other people, and will often try to distance himself from any potential budding relationships.

Throughout his life, Nilam has always pushed himself incredibly hard, setting nearly unattainably high standards for himself. In particular, he puts a great emphasis on his academic accomplishments, striving to achieve especially great things in those fields. In his attempt to reach his goals, Nilam is an incredibly hard and efficient worker. However, this also leads to a great deal of stress, a feeling which often gets the better of him. Hints of his stress show through externally, usually by subtle, nonverbal cues such as a rigid posture and a slight twitch of his mandibles. It also causes a lower tolerance for the behaviour of others, leading to an even quicker sense of irritation.

In addition to the high expectations he has for himself, Nilam also doesn’t let himself make mistakes. Any of his personal failures are emphasised in his mind, to the point where he starts to blame any shortcoming on them. No matter what he is attempting to do, it must be done correctly the first time, and he tries his hardest to achieve that. Whenever he fails to do this, for whatever reason, he feels a great sense of shame and guilt. At times, he inflicts self-punishment for his mistakes, most commonly by prohibiting himself from the things he enjoys. Nilam truly believes he deserves such punishments, and he will continue to feel intense remorse for his failures until he believes he has ‘redeemed himself’.

### Exceptional Skills

* *Medical expertise* - Trained as a combat medic during his service, Nilam has the medical expertise to treat various wounds, injuries and afflictions. His specialisation was as an emergency medical technician in the military, but he has also had some experience working in a small civilian medical clinic.

* *Avid Reader* - Nilam loves reading books and has read many books throughout his lifetime. He doesn’t limit himself by genre, but mostly reads classics, and especially enjoys reading alien literature. Over his lifetime he has read hundreds of books, with no signs of stopping. Nilam prides himself over having read at least one classic novel from each species affiliated with the Council.

* *Writer* - Nilam has written several books and short stories which he self-published on the internet. Unfortunately, he never got much recognition, and the majority of his writing work is through editing and writing news reports.

* *Polyglot* - Nilam can speak multiple languages without translation assistance. He is entirely fluent in two turian languages and knows the basics of multiple council species’ languages. He can speak these in adapted forms due to the difference in the turian mouth shape to that of other species’, but generally the words he says can be understood.

## Physical Description

Nilam is fairly average for a turian when it comes to height and build. Standing at a modest 6’6” and weighing 203 lbs, his body type is common of a well-kept turian of his age, being fairly slim with no considerable muscle mass. While he doesn’t stand out as being notably skinny, he doesn’t look particularly imposing either, lacking the necessary strength and intimidating features. However, this is not to say he carries himself without confidence. Nilam always moves with his back straight and his chin up, priding himself on keeping an air of dignity around others. The only time he relaxes is when he is truly engrossed in his work, finding himself too preoccupied to focus on his posture and allowing it to slip into a careless slouch while working.

Nilam’s skin is a deep, brown tan. In contrast to this, his plates are a soft, pale grey with a cool undertone. Due to his middle age, his plates have become slightly withered, in particular on his mandibles and around his eyes. In these areas, the colouration is slightly uneven, with darker grey patches adding to the irregular-looking texture. Despite the features of his skin that expose his age, Nilam’s eyes remain alert and aware. Their deep blue colour stands out amidst his face, their brightness standing to attention. His eyes compliment his facial markings, coloured a similar shade of blue and resembling those worn by other turians from Oma Ker.

Even when Nilam isn’t working, he prefers to dress formally. His usual attire consists of clean-cut suits and other work suitable clothes, priding himself on maintaining a professional appearance at all times, even in the most casual of situations. Oftentimes, Nilam will still don this type of clothing in the field or when he’s just relaxing, despite how impractical it may seem. Although he does own a suit of armour, Nilam only wears it in situations that he deems truly necessary. Most of the time, he prefers to avoid armour, finding it to be far too inconvenient and a diversion to his usual academic appearance.

### Armament

* Phaeston Assault Rifle
* M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol

### Abilities

* Concussive Shot
* Tactical Scan
* Overload