Talnera Vesk
Name Talnera Vesk
Position Bartender
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Cardassian | |
| Age | 33 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5'8" | |
| Hair Color | Brunette | |
| Eye Color | Dark Brown | |
| Physical Description | Talnera Vesk is a striking example of feminine Cardassian elegance shaped by cultural discipline and military restraint. Her features bear the unmistakable trademarks of her species: a high, ridged forehead marked by a specific dermal patterning that flows down the bridge of her nose and frames her eyes like carved stone. Her skin is a cool, pale phantasmic gray with subtle tonal variation lending her an almost marble stillness. Her dark hair is often worn in an elaborate, structured style, swept back into symmetrical coils that emphasize both tradition and authority. The choice is deliberately formal, dignified, and faintly intimidating to some. Her dark eyes are piercing and observant, rarely still, conveying constant surveillance even when her expression otherwise remains composed. When she watches someone, it is measured and intentional. Talnera’s posture is poised and economical, every movement is precise and methodical. She favors tailored clothing in dark shades of gray and black or otherwise muted earth tones that accentuate her lean frame without frivolous ornamentation, prioritizing function and control over display. Her long arms and slender hands give her a graceful presence, though there is nothing delicate about her bearing. She appears calm, poised, and quietly formidable… someone who does not need to assert dominance loudly to be unmistakably in command of herself and her surroundings. |
Family
| Spouse | N/A | |
| Children | Vesk does not have any children, biological or adopted. | |
| Father | Poren Vesk | |
| Mother | Skora Murat |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Talnera Vesk is calm and collected when she needs to be, often permitting silence to do the real ‘threatening’ of anyone who crosses her. She has no need to lie to anyone outright because implication is power, planting seeds of suspicion, and raising doubts do far more damage. She is highly observant with what some humans would say ‘the memory of an elephant’ as she is not one to forget, especially not anyone indebted to her. Talnera Vesk is a premiere example of ‘controlled warmth’ and ‘quiet vigilance’. Raised in the shadow of great lineage of Cardassian military power, she was shaped by the instability of post-war reconstruction, a period where the Cardassian Union’s enemy turned ‘ally’ helped repair what they had ultimately destroyed. She learned early that institutions fail but people endure. Talnera Vesk presents herself as a composed, gracious, and emotionally attentive individual, yet beneath that calm exterior is a mind which is constantly scanning for risk, betrayal, and seeking opportunities when they can be exploited. In social spaces, Talnera excels at subtle influence rather than dominance. She strategically utilizes tone, timing, and implication as tools, offering encouragement or unease with equal precision. She often listens more than she speaks, allowing others to reveal their fears, then files those truths away for later use. In her line of work, she creates environments where people feel safe enough to be honest, even when they do not realize how much they have given away. She lies in wait like a spider with prey trapped in her web, paralyzed not by her poison, but by her ‘kindness.’ Despite her calculated nature, Talnera is deeply nurturing. To some, it is sincerity. She can become protective of others, especially allies, to the point of near-maternal intensity, offering guidance, structure, and when necessary, even contingency plans that they may never know existed. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths: Situational Awareness - Getting caught off guard or taken by surprise is not something she would ever allow. She is disciplined and trained to observe, prepare, and respond. Survival instincts - Not simply because she was a child and teenager during the difficulties of the reconstruction period, but due to thorough military training. Logistics expertise - Need something? She likely can provide you with information of where to find it or who has it. What crumbs? - Talnera is impressively good at not just finding information, but making it disappear. If she cannot make it vanish completely, she can certainly make it very difficult to find. Weaknesses: Morally ambiguous - Crossing lines for the ‘greater good’ is something she has done in the past. She would have you believe that nothing keeps her up at night. Secretive and Untrusting - She expects loyalty from others yet often ‘forgets’ to inform them about certain details. Talnera has her secrets, most of which will likely die with her some day. Authority figures - Talnera grew up in a military family. She served her people and is the granddaughter of a Legate. Once upon a time she did not mind following orders. Those days are gone. She has left the military behind and with that has come a bitterness towards authority figures. |
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| Ambitions | Her ambitions are relatively simple compared to other individuals. She wants to continue her business avenues deeper into the frontier, on the verges of unknown and unexplored space, away from Cardassia and her past. She has uprooted herself many times over the years, reinventing herself when she had to. On Mojave, Talnera hopes to finally settle (for a while at least). | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Late-night music practice Privately, Vesk plays traditional Cardassian string instruments after closing hours, using music as emotional release and reflection. Curating rare spirits and non-alcoholic infusions: Vesk studies cultural drinking rituals across species, perfecting beverages that subtly influence mood and conversation, and has a deep wealth of knowledge of spirits and cocktails. Behavioral observation: The classic art of people watching is beneficial, especially observing crowd dynamics from balconies or quiet corners, refining her ability to read power shifts and emotional tells. Cultural anthropology: She dabbled in it through reading and collecting firsthand accounts, artifacts, and oral histories from individuals. Strategic games: Vesk enjoys complex logic and negotiation games (Cardassian and Federation) that simulate resource scarcity and alliance-building. Silent walks: She takes solitary walks through station corridors or observation decks to think, regulate stress, and assess security patterns. |
| Personal History | History: Talnera Vesk was born in the year 2369 to one of Cardassia’s oldest military families, a lineage that once defined the authority of the Union, but had waned in recent generations. Her grandfather though was still a respected Legate, and her father, an actively serving Gul, who expected his world, the Union to endure all the galactic instability. Instead, Talnera’s earliest memories were shaped by everything collapsing over the years. She was a child during the Dominion War and its aftermath yet old enough to remember fire in the streets, ration lines, and the quiet humiliation of once-powerful families learning to survive without Cardassian privilege. Reconstruction hardened her early worldview: stability and fragility were intertwined. Loyalty without adaptability was damn near fatal. As a child, Talnera showed extraordinary musical talent, particularly with traditional Cardassian string instruments. Music slowly became her private refuge, a language for emotions that were never discussed aloud in her household. By adolescence, however, that talent was forcefully pushed aside in favor of familial and societal expectation. At seventeen, she entered the Cardassian Military Academy, carrying both her family name and the unspoken burden of restoring its relevance. Though the military had been greatly neutered by the United Federation of Planets and sculpted more into a planetary defense force as Cardassia sought to rebuild and embrace democracy. Talnera proved an exceptionally aspiring officer, though never a zealot like that of her family. She gravitated toward logistics, mastering supply chains, transport coordination, and interstellar negotiation during the Union’s fragile post-war years. Rising quickly to the rank of Glinn, she served as a logistics officer overseeing reconstruction-era resource distribution and intergalactic trade agreements. The position exposed her to corruption, political expedience, and the casual disregard of civilian suffering. She learned how power truly moved and it was not through declarations, but through quiet control of access and information as well as restrictions of that information. By her early thirties, her disillusionment outweighed any further ambition. Talnera resigned her commission without ceremony, a decision that fractured what remained of her standing within Cardassian elite circles. What followed was a transient period of her life where she operated shipping fronts, worked in bars along the old, demilitarized zone, and facilitated discreet transport contracts, and cultivated information networks across the Ferengi Alliance, Orion Syndicate, and a few independent worlds. Her work skirted the lines of legality but avoided atrocity, guided by a private code of ethics. In 2402, Talnera arrived on the Federation Starbase Mojave. There, she sought to establish her next business adventure: Vesk Exchange, a refined, sophisticated lounge that unofficially dabbled in consultancy that quietly consolidated her broad range of skills. On the surface, Talnera Vesk is a respectable entrepreneur. To those who knew better though, they understand that she’s something far more dangerous: a survivor who understands that influence, once earned, is quite profitable and information is a cherished currency. |
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| Service Record |  2386-2390: Cardassian Military Academy | Officer in training  2390-2393: Held the rank of Gil | 5th Order  2393-2395: Held the rank of Glinn (2nd) | 5th Order  2395-2398: Held the rank of Glinn (1st) | 5th Order  2398: Resigned Commission |