Name/Nicknames: Nebula Morningsong Nhalinwen y Urrr'vth Arianrhod Peyote Smith (Given name: Jenny Smith)
Gender: f
Rank/Position: organic farmer; herbalist; masseuse/bodyworker; self-taught spiritual guide
Age: 29
Birthplace: Third International Moonbase (Luna)

Physical Description: Short, voluptuous, with birthin' hips and belly and breasts stretched from childbearing; dry, flyaway brown hair to her waist, usually full of beads and flowers and split ends; brown (disturbingly intense, slightly unfocused) eyes; easily irritated mid-toned skin that goes blotchy pink when she gets excited or exerts herself; tattoos (one black half-moon-and-star symbol on her forehead over her Third Eye, one colourful serpent wrapping around her left forearm from wrist to elbow, one white Cancri-style tribal symbol encircling her upper right arm), pierced nose. Wears flower wreaths, peasant blouses and skirts or lots of jewelry featuring mystic symbols of various cultures and races (lots of silver and crystals). Constant wide smile, slightly dreamy expression, very warm and loving to all and sundry. Commonly patchouli scented.

Personality: With the advent of the Spacefaring Age, religion may have gone the way of the dodo, but mankind's craving for spirituality was by no means eliminated. People still sought for things to believe in, powers greater than themselves to worship; interaction with the other sentient races of the universe, with their unique cultural, religious, and spiritual beliefs and practices actually opened up a whole new range of possibilities for those seeking enlightenment.

Nebula, self-named after her first spiritual quest out into space (with additional middle names piling up from each transformative experience she has), is one of those extremely earnest, somewhat disturbing individuals who soaks up every imaginable metaphysical/magical/spiritual idea, borrowing freely from other cultures (and in this case, races) to cobble together a vast and complex set of 'unique' alternative beliefs. There's no new-agey concept she won't consider, no ritual she won't give a try, no sacred object you won't find and example of kicking around her home. She dwells in a world of crystals and energy meridians and astral projection; of auras and mind-freeing substances and folk music; of miracles and multiple pantheons and Totem Power Animals and chakra cleansing. And on and on and on...

On the plus side, Nebula is an excellent mother who adores her children (and children in general). She absolutely wants more, as many as she can have. The three sisters and their husbands believe that it takes a village to raise a child - and if they can't have a village, well, all five of them at the Collective (as they call their large farm of combined stake acres) is close enough. She's firmly dedicated to raising her children to respect the environment and live in harmony with the cycles of the earth, unsullied by the negative influence that technology has brought to so many other worlds. She's a strict vegan, absolutely committed to the principle of non-violence in all aspects of her life. This presents something of a dilemma when it comes to fighting Thread.

Background: Jenny Smith was the youngest of three sisters born to an engineer and hydroponics expert on the Third International Moonbase on Earth's moon. From a very early age she was obsessed with all things spiritual, metaphysical, and New Age, some from human cultures but much from the belief systems of the other sentient races that had been discovered in the universe. At 12, when she got her first period, she danced naked around a secluded section of the hydroponics bay (lacking a grassy hilltop in the moonlight) and renamed herself Nebula. She's added a new name for each transformational experience since then. Officially she's trained in agriculture, though she's picked up a whole plethora of other, less mainstream skills since then, like herbalism, various forms of bodywork, drawing up and reading astrological charts, etc (see Hobbies and Skills).

Oddly enough, considering she lived in an entirely man-made environment on the moon, one thing Nebula believed absolutely was that pervasive, inescapable excess technology was the root of most of the problems in the modern world. The family's eldest son, Jason, was killed by the Nathi when he was only 17, and their mother the engineer followed three years later when she was drafted. After that, the rest were understandably soured on the war effort; particularly on weapons and all the rest of technology that served in warfare. Nebula's sisters finally began to listen to her crazy Luddite back-to-nature ideas, and when the Pern expedition began advertising for colonists, they agreed that the place for the Smith clan was far away on an agrarian world where the evils of techno-dependence would be banished from their lives. Nebula was 19 at the time the expedition left, and had already borne her first children, the twins Karma and Rigel.

On Pern, the three sisters plus husbands pooled their alotted stake acres to form a very large organic farm which they call the Smith Collective, on the wide plateau above what is now New Landing, and which all of them work together to operate. In general, it's a very groovy, loving, earthy sort of place with happy children playing everywhere. Though her sisters are both married and their children are generally the product of their husbands, Nebula has had a different father for each child. She calls it 'playing the genetic lottery' and takes a great deal of entertainment from seeing what each kid turns out like.

Thread was a terrible setback to the Smith Collective; they lost substantial amounts of crops to the first Falls before sled squadrons formed and developed the necessary skills for Threadfighting. Reluctantly the family has replaced their all-natural pressed-vegetable-fiber building materials with siliplastic and metal; it was lucky for them that they weren't in the path of the first Fall, or all their buildings would have been devoured. Nebula, who had never even learned to drive a skimmer let alone a sled, was behind the Dragon Project one hundred percent from day one; to her, the choice between relying on doomed technology or living, breathing creatures was an obvious one. She didn't apply for the earlier clutches, but became a Candidate for the third after hearing the intriguing tales the mystical bond between dragon and human. She has a number of half-formed theories about the firelizards and dragons, loosely concerning Fate, the Great Guiding Energy of the Universe, totem guides, psi powers, and so forth. The fact that she is four months pregnant as she embarks on this quest to impress a dragon hatchling doesn't faze her in the least.

Family/Friends:
Sister: Anne Singh-Smith, farmer, 36, Smith Collective farm, New Landing Plateau (husband Ranjeet Singh-Smith, farmer, 37; kids Mareechi,14, Beth,7, Jamal,3)
Sister: Sarah Smith-Chang, farmer, 33, Smith Collective farm, New Landing Plateau (husband Jason Chang, farmer, 38; kids Daniel,9, Ming,6, Sula,1)
Nebula's children (all living at the Smith Collective):
Karma Smith, f, 12
Rigel Smith, m, 12
Amethyst Smith, f, 8
Taurus Smith, m, 4
Aaaaand introducing 'Embryo', who is five months away from birth!

Hobbies & Skills: Organic farming techniques, child-rearing, herbalism and aromatherapy, wholesome vegan cooking, interpretive dance, several brands of astrology, Eridani Elemental Meditation, massage, reflexology, reiki, llama care, spinning and knitting, guitar, Lyran Sacred Poetic Forms, aura reading, the Hydrae art of Ered Thedai (a theory and practice of arranging living spaces, similar to feng shui)... and whatever else has caught her interest at some point in time over the last 29 years.

If your persona were a song, the title: Age of Aquarius

Pets: No pets - 'pet' is a demeaning term that implies ownership, which is impossible between two free animal-persons. Cohabits with cat-persun Chi and blue firelizard-persun Om, plus other family members' animal-person friends. Various other persons different species live on the Smith Collective farm.