Elise is a diplomat's daughter who spent her childhood on Daryn. Her first crush was on her best friends there, Treyao Lupera, but Treyao was unwilling to challenge the social mores for it to last. Elise attended university on Earth, but ended up working for the Star by Star Exploration Corporation -- which led to her meeting her husband there. Her work kept her close to Earth, giving her time to raise a family. Shortly after the birth of her second child, while testing a new small spacecraft, an accident sent Elise to Hinoiri.

On Hinoiri, Elise was a guest of the Royal family for a while, but on Lord Delwyn's ascension, found herself in a power play which lead to Delwyn confiscating the Albiero, leaving Elise little to live on. She ended up making her career as a fortune-teller, using her psi and her ability to cold-read to make up for the fact her precognition wasn't reliable.

Elise is a determined woman, used to having to go against the flow of society -- later in her life she turned this ability to living on an alien world with nothing more than the clothes on her back. She's a loving person, who takes easily to kids, and enjoys being a teacher and a mother figure.

Telepathy, telekinesis, unreliable precognition. Elise uses her telepathy and people-skills to fake her way through more reliable precognition. She also is a test pilot of some skill.

Philandre was the unexpected third child of a Selkie merchant family -- his mother was in poor health and died shortly after he was born, despite any efforts at healing her. He didn't get along with his father at all, and had only a distant impression of his two older siblings. As a result, he left home as soon as he was able (liberating as much money as he could), and made his way to Hinoiri. He was able to buy a place in the military academy with the money and his small talent for magic. It was there that he was recruited to join the Fellowship of Starlight, an illegal organization that fought against the spirits, mostly by targeting calling mages, and using all sorts of unsavory methods. It was a good part of cronyism with Fellowship members in the military that caused him to rise so fast, in addition to the need for Hinode natives in military intelligence.

Philandre is an expert at masks. He keeps a number of layers between himself and the world, as a result of working intelligence and being part of an organization that could well get him executed if anyone found out about his membership. Outwardly, he pretends to be happy-go-lucky and rather flaky, with a rather large libido and a bit of a creepy side -- competent enough to keep his job, but not so competent to seem like a threat. Most of these traits are exaggerated -- Philandre is a man of strong emotions (though he usually does only let the positive ones through his mask). Philandre would rather you see a stereotype (either 'harmless flirt' or 'creepy-but-isolated sociopath') because it is either safer for him, or won't betray any of his fellows.

Philandre is a fanatic about his beliefs (the idea that every spirit and sprite on Hinode is out to keep the mortals in a state of ignorant servitude and all calling mages are either dupes or collaborators), and honestly thinks that anything he does in the name of them is for the greater good of all mortal life on Hinode and Hinoiri. He is also quite clever, which is why he pretends to be flaky. He has all the morals of a cat when it comes to his cause -- there's very little he won't do to advance it, and usually the reason he isn't doing it is more practical ('that would blow my cover') than moral ('hurting people is wrong').

Philandre is an extreme extrovert and is rather social, so most of his hobbies involve going out and being around people. He also enjoys theater. He is an exceptionally skilled spy when he wants to be, and has a good knowledge of tactics.

Philandre is a piss-poor elemental mage, but he does do a good light spell. As a selkie, he does have an alternate form, which he can access via a sealskin he normally keeps with him in his pack.

Not even Delwyn is quite sure where Arianna comes from, though it doesn't appear to be Hinode or Hinoiri. She just showed up one day, years ago, dodged his guards and spells and, in between jokes and sarcasm, offered some damn good advice for the young ruler. Since then, her existence is officially a state secret -- given she isn't visibly aging, that's probably for the best.

Arianna is a very extroverted person, constantly saying what she thinks. Given her ability to handle complex thoughts over the long term, and understand motivations of adults, she doesn't always sound or act like a child, but she does take advantage of looking like a small child to be very touchy (both in the sense of hugging people and in the sense of not bothering to hide her emotions) and to indulge in things like reading comic books and getting away with everything. Her morality also seems to stem more from the practical than the ethical, though this could just indicate she doesn't see ethics as coming into her job. She also has a bunch of seemingly-irrational prejudices.

Kai has a pretty short history, despite being reasonably old. Sprites aren't terribly aware of how they reproduce -- new ones appear and old ones disappear, with folklore stating that old sprites become spirits. Kai grew up in the village he appeared in, learning what he could about the world and magic. He was pretty much sent with the cast to get him away from the village. Kai's own reasons for helping the crew is to become famous for documenting the first alien visitors and belief that Delwyn was a right bastard who would kill every sprite if given the chance.

Kai is a bit of a blowhard academic -- smart, egotistical and highly extroverted. He doesn't have a high opinion of most people, though he slowly warms to the cast as the traveling gives him something to do with his mind. He's also reverent towards the spirits, seeing them as pretty much like his patron gods.

The daughter of two merchants on the Darynese colony of Kemaryn, Alri grew up in space -- she set foot on her first planet at the age of 11. Despite this, she is interested in seeing more than her home system, and, to that end, trained as a pilot. She knew she would be involved in the family business, but wanted to find ways to both see the universe and help her family.

In the Phoenix Dawn comic, Alriai asked for (and received) permission to join SSEP, both to see the universe and to better understand how humans think.

Alri is a very cheerful and optimistic person overall. She's a fan of fantastical literature -- she's mostly familiar with her own culture's tales, but has a sizable collection of alien folklore books. However, under the optimism is the sharp mind of a businesswoman -- she knows what she wants out of life and isn't afraid to grab for it. She's rather practical -- it takes someone with both feet on the ground to build castles in the air, after all. She's also very group-oriented, like many Darynese -- if she sees a need in the group, she'll try to fill it. This also makes her dislike being on the outside. Alri has a small jealous streak, which she tries to keep in check.

The son of a Darynese politician, Riki has a rather privileged upbringing. In addition to being quite comfortable with aliens, he can also speak English, though his accent is a bit heavy, and his grammar is very formal. He is also the first known Darynese with active psonics, and one of only a few trained Darynese psis. Because of the lack of psis on Daryn, he was sent to Earth at age 12 to learn more about his abilities. After getting his degree in Astronautical Engineering at the young age of 20, something that very nearly burned him out, he was ready to see the universe.

In the Phoenix Dawn comic, he joined the Star by Star Exploration Program and became the engineer of the Ankaa. On its maiden mission, an accident sent it into another universe, where magic was the order of the day.

Riki is pretty easygoing, though a bit spacy. He is scrupulously polite, but this is more conditioned reflex rather than an a natural trait. He has no ability to read people whatsoever, which he only partially compensates for by psychic empathy. He dislikes being along, though he feels most comfortable in small groups, not large ones. He is quite proud of his own abilities, and tends to be open to the point of showing off about his own psionics, art skills -- he's a hobbyist artist -- and his intelligence/scientific knowledge. This, combined with his lack of empathy, can make him sound pretty condescending. He's rather organized and driven when he has a project, but without one, he kind of drifts.