Armin Palland

Vasiht'h's mentor in the psychology graduate program at Seersana U.

Appearance and Personality

A Seersa with a ruddy pelt and champagne ears, and graying around the mouth and eyes. Shorter and younger than Jahir expected from the impressions Vasiht'h gave him (though Vasiht'h being quite a bit shorter than Jahir partly explains this). Smells of strong tea and cedar.

His singing voice is "adequate."

Biography

He's called 'Doctor' in Mindtouch, and 'Professor', but he's a "psychologist, not a therapist." In Dreamhearth, Vasiht'h thinks he's been a professor for 15-20 years. Loves teaching and advising. A native of Seersana.

In school, he memorized poems (as a boy) about the Exodus, and these poems stirred his heart. He had extra credit for a history class (with an enthusiastic Seersa instructor with a weird patch of gray fur over an eye) that led him to read about ancient forms of writing (how he recognized the Eldritch orthography.)

Shortly after the war, Vasiht'h asked him to consider relocating himself and his family to Escutcheon: "If you need time to get everything settled, that’s fine too. Come when you’re ready. These people live a long time. They can wait." He did, in fact, take Vasiht'h up on this invitation and brought his wife and mother-in-law to the Eldritch planet, during which time he helped spearhead the development of the Eldritch Navy's customs and requirements. Subsequent to that adventure, he decided to stay, acknowledging that his prior life, though satisfying, no longer felt comfortable--that there was a demarcation between the Armin before the Chatcaava attacked the Alliance, and the Armin after the war.

He currently resides on Escutcheon, on Seni Lands in a cottage near Ingleside, and is serving the new Eldritch Navy, initially to set up its curriculum, and then as an intelligence analyst (working with the Fleet loaners Mina Brown and Montie Dawson. He is technically an Alliance contractor, having not sworn loyalty to the Eldritch government as one of its subjects. He is the sworn brother of Haladir Delen Galare and Petaq.

Family

Armin has been married to Caramia Palland for thirty-odd years. He has a son, Dana Palland, who is married and himself has one son (so far), Gaius.

Quotes

• "I love what I do. I might move, maybe... I’m not married to Seersana, and the wife’s been making noises about seeing other worlds at some point. But I’m good at this, and I love it. And even if I never left Seersana, it would still be a good life. I’m planning to keel over in the traces."

• "...the nice thing about our profession, arii, is that you never stop learning. Which is how it should be: none of us should, or we die before we’re in the ground."

• "It’s important for us to know who we are by ourselves, because otherwise we don’t value what we have to give to others."

• "I hate to tell you this, Vasiht’h-arii, but a person’s perception of whether they’re old enough for any given activity is largely unrelated to reality."

• “I think we’re all obligated to protect a sapient civilization’s right to its own development. Providing it isn’t infringing on other civilizations’ rights.”

• "“I’m taking care of it. No, really, I am. Speaker-Singer knows why I’m doing it, but I think it’s your fault, Petaq, since you’re the one who dragged me into the games instead of letting me bow myself out. It was supposed to be ‘another Eldritch and Glaseah seeking meaning in their lives help one another and form a bond of a lifetime,’ not ‘three middle-aged men spend all their time kvetching about their circumstances.’"

• "I’m going wherever they’re going, no matter what it costs. Though what use you’re going to get out of a sedentary professor with no background in any of this, I have no idea."

• "They're going to shake up the worlds"

• "But a man with a background in psychology, and interest in galactic politics, a grasp of multiple languages, experience in a multicultural society, and with compatriots in the military wouidl be very, very useful as an analyst in an intellectual capacity."

Quotes and Observations by Others

• "Then we’re all in the same boat. Middle-aged men with grown families, and nowhere to be."

--Petaq of himself, Haladir, and Armin

Trivia

Body Language

• not excitable, usually
• points at people
• taps (or scratches) cheek and or lip with finger
• taps tables with fingers a lot
• rubbing finger under nose
• covers face with palm
• very mobile brows (and he knows how to use them)
• crooked smiles
• snorts
• has done the leaning with elbows on knees sitting pose
• has also done the leaning back with fingers laced on chest pose
• and the folded arms behind his head pose
• holds up hand to pause people

Office at Seersana U

"The lived-in office of an overworked but contented professor." Very messy, with precarious stacks of books and papers, and more books in bookshelves, and a desk that had seen better days and floors scuffed by the feet of thousands of students. The least cluttered part of it is where he keeps the teapot and various mugs and cups by the window. The mugs don't match.

He has a mug collection, including:

• A diving team mug
• A chipped white mug with the Seersana U logo

Other Trivia

• can't sleep when he's thinking through problems (unlike his wife, who goes to sleep in order to wake up with solutions)
• swears by the Speaker-Singer's silent hells, just 'hells', and occasionally refers to the Speaker-Singer by himself; is not, however, devout.
• mostly drinks tea (of every kind), but also coffee
• infamously bad correspondent, as he dislikes electronic communication
• knows three languages (Universal, Seersan, and Meridan), and bits and pieces of a few others (until he learned Eldren after meeting Haladir; now it's four languages).