Sen

Sen is a character in The Battle Majestic.

Race
Tenders are generally mild-mannered, if unintelligent beasts which live to protect and maintain the World Tree, a monstrous mutated plant which has conquered their planet. They are native to the planet Babylon, where they are the only observed fauna (although by definition, they are technically a mobile fruit). They have a symbiotic relationship with the sprawling, endless jungle which covers the entire globe, maintaining it in exchange for the life-giving nectar which they are exclusively reliant on for sustenance (though this nectar has far too much radiation for safe consumption.) Their 'language' consists of chirps, chatters, growls, and clicks; however their intelligence (and vocabulary) would probably be on par with that of a dolphin.

Tenders resemble a cross between an alien forest spirit and a giant axolotl, standing at about 2.5 metres tall with translucent, pale green, faintly glowing skin. Their faces are especially axolotl-esque; with snub faces; rows upon rows of needle-like teeth in their mouths; large, bright, black, blank eyes; and three possibly vestigial gill-like appendages on either side of their face. They have a build like the front end of a horse, with only forelimbs and a body which ends like a pointed teardrop's tip. Their second-most unusual feature would be their abnormally long forelimbs, which are easily a metre and a half from shoulder to wrist, and able to bear the Tender's weight despite their slenderness.

Their hands, however, trump this. Each has four super-slim fingers, nearly a full metre long each, with multiple joints and sharp, pointed ends. Compounded with a highly dextrous thumb with a soft end, these hands are capable of both near-surgical precision and great strength. Despite their large size, they are lightweight; only about 40 kilos. They can bear their weight on one hand's fingertips without much trouble.

Sen carries the seed pods of seven World Trees on his person; one on each shoulder, one in each forearm, and one each embedded in his heart and stomach region, and one encased in a thin membranous layer at the tip of his tail. These pods remain inert until he expels them onto soil, where they swiftly grow if tended to by Sen.

Weapon
Sen's fingers are capable of piercing through armour, and his teeth would inflict a nasty bite. However, he doesn't fight unless defending a World Tree. The pods are almost indestructible and provide good spot armour while they remain on Sen.

Abilities
Being a Tender, he has a natural affinity with plants. Unfortunately, most of them are in direct competition with his symbiotic World Tree, so he instinctively decimates them. Despite this, they can be surprisingly co-operative with him.

Description
Sen is an Envoy Tender, designed to carry World Tree seeds to other planets for colonisation. In the interests of survival and propogation, Sen has been gifted with above-average intelligence for his race - though this isn't saying much. It's enough for him to use a bit of problem-solving in unexpected situations that might arise while looking after the World Tree, but it ain't much.

The World Trees, on the other hand, are sentient in a botanical kind of way, and are fixated on their personal survival. Sen is pretty much a tool to them, but doesn't mind. Chemical secretions can trigger high states of emotion in Sen, if that's what's needed to ensure successful propogation. Of course, they don't realise that the soil they fall on in a Grand Battle is merely a pocket dimension... But Sen plants 'em anyway because he needs the nectar to survive :P

Biography
The World Tree is a failed bio-terrorism weapon on a global scale; an agglomeration of multiple species mutated into cohesion with a healthy dose of radiation. After being discarded on what is now known as Babylon, the plant spread quickly, its nigh-indestructable root system quickly encompassing and strangling the planet while also working into its core. From there, the World Tree utilised geothermal energy to shroud the whole planet in steamy jungle. For reasons unknown, the plant replaced the now-eliminated local fauna with its own beasts, the Tenders. With the advent of light-speed travel in Sen's universe, intelligent life soon discovered the planet, and the strange two species which occupied it. Unable to permanently scare the colonisers off, the World Tree instead decided to beat them at their own game - and send its own agents to other planets which the plant could conquer.

Enter Sen, the result of a century's dedicated selective breeding to create a Tender with the best intelligence - well - a century's dedicated selective breeding could produce. Being the offspring of a plant, Sen was never going to win any Nobel Prizes, but being the World Tree's best hopes for intergalactic domination it loaded him up with hopefully enough seed pods and sent him into the nearest researcher's trap to be carted off to another, hopefully conquerable, planet.