Alor is a close friend/ally to our ship’s crew. They are a (pinkish?) multi-limbed, elephantine xeno barkeep, with huge ears that not only help regulate body heat (Alor never sweats), but catch lots of juicy details that can translate into jobs.
Their gender changes with season.
A former member of the Vigilance, with whom they are on good terms. Naturally, the Turner Society don’t care for them (or anyone associated with them), which is fine because we don’t like them, either.
One way we keep in Alor’s good graces is bringing him back exotic spices or additives for the drinks he mixes.
Race:
Planet:
Bar Name:
[I’m not sure if this got captured anywhere else, but I wanted to get it down in case it didn’t.]
A few more questions that could be asked, since it sounds like Alor’s bar may play the role “home base” for us, at least between jobs.
Part of space station or planetary space port? Or is it away from all that and we’ll need to traverse through a city on our ground transport?
What other miscreants frequent the place? Sounds like the Turner Society causes trouble but, if it’s on a space station, it may be frequented by our friends the Wreckers? Is it a racer bar? Or at least connected with some of the space racing scene?
Or, even odder, could it be like one of those tiny Japanese bars that only seat like half a dozen people? Might make sense on the tight confines of a space station. Or maybe it’s because Alor likes conversing with all his patrons and prefers a more intimate setting for those conversations?
I wouldn’t imagine taking the truck out just for casual shore leave travel, unless it made sense in a given instance. Public transportation or taxis or tuk-tuks seem more likely in a busy dirt side spaceport, if you’re going beyond the immediate surroundings you could walk to.
Location: largely determines the crowd you’ll get, and what sort of action might happen around the place, if the team has to make a getaway for example. Making it part of a space station - or asteroid space colony, away from a populated world - means you’ll get more professional spacers and fewer college kids and tourists.
Size: Also influences the kinds of scenes that can play there. If we’re supposed to blend in to a crowd, bigger is better. If we want to use it as a meeting spot for clients or just to regroup, smaller is better.
Clientele: mostly a function of location, but could vary. There’s biker bars, trucker bars, Irish pubs, and all other sorts of places that explicitly or implicitly cater to certain people or certain styles. In Seattle, for example, there’s greasy spoons and bars where there’s a sign indicating that Boeing or airport personnel get served first, because they’re on a schedule and tourists aren’t.
Random gallery, in roughly good-bar to bad-bar order:
Pulling some stuff together from a couple threads.
So why a former member?
They couldn’t do the job anymore, for physical, ethical, or personal reasons
They retired because of a life-changing event, like having a kid
They were forced out, perhaps by sparing (or hurting) someone they ought not have, but were liked enough to not be punished for it
They saw an opportunity to expand what the Vigilance does, or can do, by settling down into a new job - for example, relaying intel from the underworld
The V sound like fanatics (though I suppose that description could apply to Jedi, too, though some would call them fanatics as well). If we assume a rather unbending nature, then option 1, some sort of injury or incapacity (which could include option 2) seems most likely, esp if it opens up option 3 for the order.
I feel like there’s a continuum. The Grail Knights aren’t “fanatical”, but they are unshakably dedicated to their cause because of the evident rightness of it. The Blade of Marmora (the Vigilance’s obvious inspiration) could be considered fanatics but you’re kind of on board with them anyway. Some other, hopefully non-obvious inspirations:
They’re descended from some kind of space-station or spacer culture, where ranged weapons would be absolutely off-limits. Drifter’s clan live aboard their merchant ships, explaining his familiarity with melee weapons and unarmed fighting in a universe of blasters and smart missiles.
They were (or are) guarding some significant archaeological or historical situation that could turn dangerous, similar to the Medjai from “The Mummy”.
They can be factionalized. The “Vigilance” that we know about is just the more violent or aggressive part of some larger group, like the White Lotus and Red Lotus from “Avatar”.
