Sometimes I like to sketch out what my characters look like while I’m creating them for a novel or a short story. I don’t claim to be an artist, just an art hack. But those sketches are useful to me for setting the tone of the story. I’m sure other writers do this and just never show them off, but you know me, Mr. Open when it comes to these kinds of things. So with that in mind, today’s post will showcase some characters or uniforms from my next novel, Starforgers.
Starforgers is set in the First Generation of the Starstrikers Universe. It deals with how the Great War between the Alliance and the Votainion Empire started. The Votainion warship commanders of that time were wilder and often participated directly in combat. I pictured them dressed in vibrant colors and carrying swords and blasters and generally mixing it up right along side their warriors. Pictured above is Lord Kantor, the leader of the armada that first encroaches in Federation space and winds up starting the Great War.
Kantor pilots his own Eight-wing and overseas planetary invasions dirt-side. He’s a little crazy and definitely well-loved by this troops. The “V” shape of his uniform is a visual cue for the “V” in Votainion. This design also reminds me of early Klingon uniforms from the original Star Trek TV show.
The early Federation uniforms pre-Alliance era, are considerably more swash buckle than the conservative war weary uniforms from Starstrikers. Men and women both wore their hair long and in a single tail and the uniforms had capes. Gotta love capes. Totally impractical, but cool looking. Before the Great War started, uniforms were more for show and bravado than functionality. They were designed to entice recruits to join the fleet and see the universe. Whenever you saw someone in a starforce uniform, you could count on them to tell you some fantastic tales of adventure from beyond the Outer Rim of the known galaxy.
The Stellar Rangers were the cowboy lawmen of the Outer Rim worlds. Based on the Texas Rangers and just about every 1950’s Space Western. I wanted them to have a real earthy tone, wearing leather jackets and tan or brown clothes. The hero of Starforgers – Devon Ardel, comes from a backwater world where she leads a rag-tag group of Rangers. If you’ve read any of the stories in Tales From Ocherva Volume One, you will already be familiar with the Stellar Rangers.