Profile of Liska

Jennifer Lawrence as Liska

I feel that a gay character has long been overdo on Star Trek. Kirk/Spock slashfics notwithstanding, fan fiction has seen to correct this, with some of the canon characters coming out and a multitude of original gay characters. Allow me to describe my own.

Genesis of the Character

Liska is a female Vorta, one of the most feared servants of the Founders and capable of ordering a Jem'Hadar soldier to kill himself without hesitation.

Like Tarska Hesar, Liska also comes from the Dominion War Sourcebook by Steven S. Long. Unlike Hesar, though, Liska had a character profile with some descriptions and a full range of statistics.

I don't know how, but when I read over her I thought "Yep, I'm making a gay character." At the time, I was just writing scenes regarding the villains of what would be a Star Trek RPG campaign. The campaign fell through, but I wanted to keep writing the Dominion characters.

Reboot for the Dominion

As awesome a civilization as the Dominion is, I felt they were a little underdeveloped. We only saw the Founders, Vorta, and Jem'Hadar during the war. I can understand; television budget calls for a small number of recurring characters. As I started actually writing fanfiction, I decided that I would need to reboot certain aspects and expand on others.

First, I decided to focus on the Vorta, as they are the most like the opposite of humans. Well, more like modern-day humans instead of Trek humans. Vorta are driven by impulse, ambition, desires, and basic needs, whereas the humans of Trek no longer have those essential drives as they are viewed negatively. Of course, this can be tied back to Gene Roddenberry who said "money doesn't exist in the future!"

Anyway, one thing about the Vorta established was that they are cloned. However, honestly, I did not like this concept too much. Wouldn't it take a long time to create a genetic template and educate them, rather than just picking the best of the best of the best to become clones? After all, the Vorta have free will, unlike the Jem'Hadar.

With the help of Charlotte, I developed a new concept for the Vorta. They are a race that reproduces sexually. However, about 0.05% of them are actually clones. The clones mostly serve in the military, but do perform other tasks such as administration, trade, research, etc.

A Gay Vorta, or a Vorta who happens to be gay

One major problem when writing gay characters, especially if you are not gay yourself, is how much of that you wish to incorporate into their character. Sometimes, this fails. According to the Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker, during the 90s, writers would have gay character announce that they were gay every where they went and to every single person they met. Another analogy is how they wrote Captain Janeway. She was written, depending on whether or not Jeri Taylor was there, as "the woman captain," whereas Captain Sisko was just "the Captain" and not "the black captain".

In my early writing of this character, I struggled to find a good blend for Liska and her lover Eris. How much of the time do they spend announcing to their fellow officers that they are lesbians? Well, after a while, that gets a little stale. Eventually, I focused more on their work trying to conquer the Federation and had their relationship be secondary. After all, fighting a war is a bit more exciting that just having people saying they love each other.

Personality

Liska is driven. She wants to see the Dominion victorious against any power which challenges it.  She is also immensely capable, determined to win no matter the cost. Despite this, she is also able to see the big picture and notice when she is unable to go further. As such, she is a bit more conservative at fighting than Hesar, which I intend to explore further. After all, the best way to create drama is to have characters who contrast each other, something Gene Roddenberry did not seem to figure out.

Profile of Arjagul Tarska Hesar

Nathan Fillion as Tarska Hesar

Hello, again.

It has been close to a year, during which I was able to find employment. However, I am back and am taking this blog in a new direction. I will now be discussing things which I am absolutely certain you wish to know about: my Trek fanfics.

Genesis of the Character

Tarska Hesar is a Cardassian general during the Dominion War. He became famous for his conquest and defense of the Kalandra Sector.

Much of my fanfiction revolves around the Dominion War, and particularly the Dominion itself. As there is very little material out there detailing certain aspects of the 24th Century, I use the Last Unicorn Trek RPG sourcebooks. Sadly, Last Unicorn went under before they could publish a book about the Dominion, and fans who have published their own sourcebooks have yet to write one. The closest I have been able to use is "The Fires of Armageddon: The Dominion War Sourcebook" by Steven S. Long for story ideas and characters.

Of the many characters listed in the DWS, Tarska Hesar and Liska are the ones who rose to prominence in my work. They serve as the opposite of the Damar-Weyoun partnership shown in DS9; these are characters who might not like each other, but are determined to both win the war.

Historical Inspiration

My favorite general of World War II is Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who became famous for his leadership of the German Afrika Korps. As someone who wants to include more militarization in Trek, I looked to history for inspiration and naturally decided upon World War II to draw it in.

For those who do not know, Rommel was rapidly promoted during the first half of the war, going from a division commander, to a corps commander, then commanding the entirety of the Africa front and then the coastal defenses in France. Historians have determined that he was a great commander up to the corp-level, beyond which he came overconfident and hampered his own campaign. Despite this, he is one of the few, if not the only, German generals remembered positively in the West. Churchill himself even offered his praise for the man who routed British forces in North Africa many times.

The history of Hesar reflects this. He starts out as a gul (colonel) commanding a division attacking an Andorian colony. Just as his staff is killed, he decides to go out in a blaze of glory only for the Andorian defenders to surrender to him. He is then promoted by Gul Dukat, the leader of Cardassia, to arjagul (general) and command of the Sixteenth Order. I intend to expand more on his career between the conquest of Kalandra and his Ramadan Offensive in later works.

Personality

Tarska Hesar is unlike the typical Cardassian officer. He is hard-driving, but he is also fair. His word is final, but he listens to his subordinates and carefully takes in their advice. In addition, unlike many other works, he has a good relationship with his Vorta counterpart. Other fanfic authors treat their Vorta as power-greedy jackals who are willing to throw their Cardassian troops into the meat grinder. My Vorta are different, which I'll expand upon later.

Finally, there is a major aspect about Hesar that I draw in from Rommel. Hesar may not believe in what the Dominion stands for, but the Dominion is the governing body of Cardassia. He believes in his country, whether it is right or wrong. It also helps that the Vorta he was paired with are a bit more fair than you would expect.

Well, that's Tarska Hesar. I'll be discussing my other characters at a future point, and I'll talk to you later. This is Lieutenant Fedora, signing off.