Birash

Name:	Birash
Occupation:	Unknown
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Age:	Unknown (assumed to be 25-27)
Home:	Enugu, Nigeria
Spiritual Gift:	Mercy
Height:	7'5"
Abduction Date:	Unknown. Assumed to be 1-2 weeks before Simon.
Alliances:	Simon's Team

Birash (pronounced "bur-rosh") is a young, but also very large, muscular and tall man from Nigeria who is forcefully injected into The Race of Offworld who initially strikes out on his own, but is soon captured by the bandits of Orbus. After being rescued, he then joins with Simon's team while they're still in the 1st Hextant. His spiritual gift is mercy and, despite his size, he is a very gentle man, even though he is a more than capable fighter if he needs to be. He's also very skilled at hunting and tracking, and also a very good fighter if need be. But, if he can avoid a fight he does. And, if not, he always tries to win them. He's also the muscle of the group.

He comes from a very poor family of seventeen, all of whom are orphans, including himself. He is the oldest of the group at between 25 and 27 years old, with the youngest being but two years old. They live and work together as one gigantic family to help support and care for each other. He's a very strong Christian and follower of Christ, whom he sometimes refers to as "Olumide", which is Yaruban for "God With Us". While Birash doesn't say much, or even say a lot about himself, he is very protective of his friends and will go out of his way to ensure their safety.

Later on in the course, when his team receives a gift of horses, he takes the largest one for himself, which he joking calls "Tiny" because, despite her size, she's still two sizes too small for him to properly ride on. So the name begins as a joke, and ends up sticking. Later on he inherits a large draft horse by the name of Bellimeir from Esther, who is much larger than Tiny, and a perfect fit for Birash. While Birash's primary hunting and fighting skills lie with the bow and knife, he also proves to be very adept at using firearms, although they are not his preferred weapon.

He speaks with a Nigerian accent, and is functionally illiterate, being unable to reach when he first arrives on the planet, having never received any formal schooling during his formative years. However, due to his brilliance, and Trevor's skill with teaching, he eventually learns to read and write English, and later on he learns how to read, write and speak Bonisi as well. While he's on Offworld he deeply misses his large family and longs to get back to them as soon as possible, which gives him an even greater motivation to keep going all the way to the end.

Post Offworld

After returning to Earth, after the events of Offworld, he immediately returns to his previous duty of the care and provision for his family of orphans. Along the way God sends him two missionaries who join in with helping him, both with funding the orphanage, and caring for the numerous children. He also, shortly after returning, finds himself a wonderful young woman who he marries and has, at the very least, two kids that are known of.

And, despite having kids of his own, he still takes care of everyone in the orphanage the same as before, treating everyone, including new members, as family. It's revealed in Homecoming that, despite all their hard work, Birash and his family of orphans are very poor and destitute. However, because of his love and faithfulness, God, through both Yurg and Maul Ratinar, send him a huge box of Nigerian which they then use to improve the life of everyone in the orphanage. This also makes it easier for him to bring in additional orphans, and find them forever homes, if possible, as well as feed and clothe everyone, expand the orphanage, and more.

Character Models

When writing about a character, location, etc, I like using visual examples and character models to help me better visualize what I'm writing about, at least until I'm able to solidify the final design in my mind. Sometimes I use one image, and sometimes I use several. For example, here's one of the character model images I used to construct and write about the character of Birash. This is an example of how tall he is, as he stands a staggering 7'5" Again, these examples aren't exactly how I visualize what he actually looks like, but are merely used as a visual guide so I can better picture the character, and thus describe and write better about them.