Class Starting Ages?

[Xerihae]

I'm curious as to what people think the starting ages of characters are, based on their class and some of their lines in the beginning parts of the game. I've been trying to work it out purely for my own purposes, as with the Legacy system I thought I'd take it a bit further and trace my characters back to Malak/Revan times (BTC 303) but am having difficulty figuring out just when my characters were born. Here are some of my thoughts:

 

Jedi Knight/Consular

Relatively easy. Both characters are at the final stages of their training, and going on their relatively-youthful appearance it is reasonable to assume they are somewhere between the 20-25 range. Obi-Wan Kenobi was 25 when he was Knighted, but in the current time the Jedi are trying to replace numbers lost during the war so it's a safe bet they were Knighting people a little quicker than before, so anywhere in that range seems ok.

 

Trooper

Slightly trickier here. The character starts out at the rank of Sergeant, which implies at least some experience before the games story takes place. With little film-based evidence to go on (apart from the KOTOR games I am unfamiliar with the Expanded Universe stuff) I only have character looks to go on. In real life Sergeant is a somewhat-senior rank in the British Army but is a less-senior rank in the US Army. Given that George Lucas is American I'm more inclined to go with a younger age than you typically find in the British Army, so around the 22-26 range seems feasible enough.

 

Smuggler

I find this the most difficult one of the lot. While the appearance of the character is in line with the others, generally speaking owning a starship and the repeated remarks the refer to other characters young age leads me to feel this character would be slightly older in starting age than the others. While it would be possible for someone in the 20-25 range to refer to someone in the 16-19 range as "kid", it's pretty rare. Personally I feel an age of between 28-32 is more likely in this scenario.

 

I can't go into the Imperial side of things as I haven't played any of those characters, but I'd be very interested to hear other peoples thoughts on the issue. And yes, I'm probably over-thinking it, but I get creative when I'm bored

[Ranadiel_Marius]

I think I recall that all the characters are supposed to have been alive during the hostilities before the Treaty of Coruscant, but not old enough to really fight during that time period. So that puts all of them probably roughly in the 18-26 age range since the Treaty was around 8-10 years prior to the start of the class stories.

[AngelousWang]

I would suspect everyone is 18-26, they are all exceptional top their class types, therefore they can achieve things earlier than most.

 

The Sith Warrior is likely the youngest being that he/she became Sith before the proper age, due to Tremel.

 

The Smuggler is likely the oldest, from the way he/she talks.

Edited February 1, 2012 by AngelousWang

[Quiet]

I'm guessing early-20s.

[Phyreblade]

I honestly feel that my characters are all somewhere in their early 20's. Some of them, I think, start off a bit more mature than others. But they all "grow" as they're going, too. Only my smuggler stayed pretty much as young all the way through as she started off -- I love that girl, hehe.

 

So, for me:

 

My Smuggler is young, I'd be leery of claiming she's older than 22-23. I have RP reasons why she already has a ship to captain. She was adopted by a fellow who wanted to retire, basically. Voila, she's captaining her own ship. Her personality is fun and brazen. But doesn't mean for a moment she's an idiot. She learned early on how to use humor to mask her real goals and hopes, is all.

 

My second main is a Bounty Hunter. Definitely one of my more mature characters (and probably my favorite). But her age is still youngish, no more than 23-24. She's just had a tough life, hard as hell, and grew up amazingly fast as a result. I never play a BH without scars, for instance. She starts off seeking wealth and prestige, mainly to prevent anyone ever again having the chance to do her harm. The bigger and badder she is, the less likely someone will be to take what's hers, right? She gains new goals as the story progresses and is honestly not the same person by the end.

 

My Sith Warrior is my bad'un. Very darkside, that one. She's young, too, with all the brash confidence a young person brings to the table, but she's classic and refined, raised by a well-to-do family, I always imagine. She's just very very Sith. It's all about proving to the world around her that she really is the biggest bad*** there is, period.

 

I'll be working on my Trooper before too long. I've put it off, being a military vet myself. I picture my Trooper as being very very soldier-like. I do want to see how the Commando mirrors my Mercenary, though, so that's where I'm headed next.

[AelixVII]

I always thought of the Bounty Hunter to be ever so slightly older, pushing late 20's say.

[Kraygh]

I'd base it off the Voice Acting, so with that in mind I'd place the Consular and Inquisitor at around 35 to 40, (especially the Consular), with the Imperial Agent around 30ish.

[JacenHallis]

The thing about the trooper is that Bioware, rather than leaving separate enlisted and officer ranks, have merged military ranks into one condensed ranking system. In the US Army, Sergeant is a fairly senior rank. There are, however, many types of sergeant. The highest enlisted rank in the US Army is Command Sergeant Major (not counting Sgt. Major of the Army, which only one person can hold at a time).

 

If you look at a unit like Delta Force (which is actually what I'd consider Havoc Squad to be most like), you're typically going to have a small squad of men lead by an experienced Sergeant, possibly a Sergeant Major, who would then report to a fairly high-ranking officer directly*. The reason for this, I believe, is that the operations these guys pull off have a fairly high possibility of capture. No officer in the field means that an enemy has no chance to barter an officer for trade or learn operational information in the theater.

 

In TOR, Sergeant seems to be just above Private and Corporal, and it seems to be the last rank where you could feasibly expect not to have anyone under your direct command.

 

With that in mind, I think it's fairly feasible for the Trooper to be in his/her mid- to late-20s. I don't think any earlier is really a possibility, as the trooper would have to graduate from school, enlist, move up to Sergeant (and many promotions in RL have minimum time at rank requirements) and do well enough to catch the eye of Special Forces and Havoc Squad in particular. I think it's more feasible to think that the Trooper is probably in his/her 30s and is probably the oldest of the Republic classes.

 

 

 

* This is, of course, based on public information regarding Delta, which may or may not be totally accurate. The military loves its secrets, and, in this case, they are completely right to maintain them.

[LyriaFrost]

Judging by their intros, what you're asked to do as a "brand new" character, etc, I pegged my various characters at the following ages:

 

* Jedi Knight - 19

You've been in training for a few years, but you're not done yet. Tython is the 'finishing school' of your training, about to graduate.

* Jedi Consular - 20

Same as the knight.

* Trooper - 23

You're a recent graduate of the military academy (Gearbox comments on it during the intro, and Tavus remarks on how you were top marks in a number of things before you came into the field)

* Smuggler - 25

This one was a bit trickier, as you COULD be any age you wanted to be (make yourself look older, younger, etc). Based on what I made my smuggler look like, this is the age I picked for her.

 

* Imperial Agent - 30

You're already a covert agent, and apparently have been for a while. Hutta is just your latest assignment. You're already called a specialist in a number of methodologies.

* Bounty Hunter - 25

A relatively unknown hunter, with not a lot of background. But extremely talented. The attitude/voice comes across as someone in their mid-20's for women. My male BH that I made could easily be 30-40.

* Sith Inquisitor - 19

Much like the Jedi equivalent. Though, considering you were a former slave, you COULD have been older or younger, depending on how you want to look.

* Sith Warrior - 18

As the Jedi version. A promising apprentice, but haven't finished your training yet, and are brought in ahead of schedule, so a little younger.

 

That's my take on my various characters.

Edited February 1, 2012 by LyriaFrost