Height: 7'5"
Age: 28
Race: Terrafirman anthro gecko

Tommy Gecko couldn't have envisioned the path his life would take in his wildest dreams. He was born into a family of unusually tall geckos on the Earth-like planet Terrafirma. (Actually, Terrafirma is Earth, but a couple thousand years in the future. Sort of a Planet of the Apes kind of deal. Saves me from having to come up with all-new geography.) After his freshman year at college, he dropped out and got a job as a security guard at Cowtech, one of the most advanced technology research and development firms on Terrafirma. Rumors were always rampant that shady things were going on behind the scenes at Cowtech. Tommy had never seen any illegal activities there, but he understood why there was cause for suspicion. Madelyn Guernsey, founder and CEO of the company, often did very strange things. For example, when Cowtech's chief of security retired, Mad didn't promote one of her more skilled and experienced security guards to the position. Instead, she inexplicably brought in an obnoxious little 19-year-old punk named Sadie Mongoose, seemingly out of nowhere, and handed her the position. As angry as Tommy was in the face of this slight, he didn't rock the boat. He quietly continued doing his job and collecting his paycheck.

Then one day, Tommy's friend Ryan Rat, Cowtech's director of information technology, urged Tommy and a few other friends of theirs to join him in an empty conference room. Ryan looked very concerned. He laid out a few computer printouts on the table in front of them. Ryan had been poking around in a secret area of Cowtech's network, and had discovered the true purpose of the company's R & D. Madelyn Guernsey wanted to conquer the universe. She was crazy enough to try it. And Cowtech's exploratory, transportational, and military technology might be powerful enough to make it happen. The Cowtech employees resolved to blow the whistle on Guernsey. But at that moment, a message popped up on the monitor in front of Ryan. It was from Mad. She knew of the discovery. And she would make sure no one in that room ever got to tell anyone about it. Mad locked all the exits from the building and sent Sadie and the rest of her security forces after her rogue employees.

All hope seemed lost, but Matt Rottweiler, leader of one of Guernsey's R & D teams, told the group what the secret project his team was working on was: a teleportation gate! It looked like their only chance to escape. As Tommy, Ryan, Matt, and the rest of their group raced to the gate, Matt quickly explained that Cowtech's long-range scanning equipment had just located a previously undiscovered planet. Indications were that this planet could support humanoid life. And Matt, preparing for the latest test of the gate, had just set its target coordinates to those of this new planet before Ryan called him. Conceivably, they could run right into the gate and be halfway across the universe before Mad knew what had happened.

But as they entered the chamber where the gate was situated, Matt realized, to his dismay, that someone would have to stay behind and delete the coordinates from the machine's memory, or Mad would be able to follow them. And Tommy, standing hesitantly on the gate's threshold with the others, questioned how they would ever get back to Terrafirma. Matt told him not to worry about that--or about him. He vowed that he would find a way to bring the others back to Terrafirma, no matter how long it took him. Tommy, Ryan, and the others said their quick but heartfelt good-byes to Matt and stepped through the gate. Matt worked feverishly to delete the coordinates as Sadie entered the chamber with a squadron of Cowtech security guards.

The teleportation gate-crashers found themselves in an unspoiled field of green, surrounded by lush forest and gently rolling hills. It was an awe-inspiring sight, but no one could fully enjoy it, each heart heavy with the apparent loss of Matt Rottweiler. The land was seemingly uninhabited. Needing shelter, the former employees of Madelyn Guernsey commenced building a camp to house themselves. Shortly after its completion, a Kess settler from a village several miles away wandered nearby. The villager told them that this land had only recently been settled, but was not free. Not long after the initial wave of settlers, the Krado warlord Sumke had moved in with a loosely organized but ruthless militia and subjugated the land. Upon hearing of this, Tommy was outraged. He had just escaped from a madwoman and wasn't about to suffer the abuses of another aspiring tyrant.

At that moment, Tommy's latent leadership ability emerged. With a new sense of purpose, he and his party organized the settlers and helped arm them for a revolt. Several months of fighting ensued. Tommy's forces took considerable losses, including several of his closest friends, both new and old, most notably his fellow security guard Angelica Bat and the Zidnorian warrior Jelpa. But the war was finally won when the rebels reached the enemy's castle and Tommy used his wall-climbing ability to ambush Sumke, who after being surprised was quickly overpowered. Amid the several weeks of well-earned celebration that followed, the settlers naturally appointed Tommy their king. Soon after, they decided to name the planet Geckoworld.

Tommy was thrilled to be a king, but he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't know much about developing infrastructure, or managing disputes between the various alien races that lived on his planet, or a lot of the other things a leader was expected to do. Then one day, Ryan walked in and asked Tommy if he'd heard that Turja Mandensis, the former queen of Zidnor, had landed on Geckoworld. Tommy hadn't heard and didn't really care. But Ryan showed Tommy the picture in that day's newspaper.
"Wow!" said Tommy. "She is smokin'! I heard the words 'former queen' and I was expecting some 70-year-old bag o' wrinkles!"
"Well, you're the king," Ryan Rat replied. "Why don't you invite her to the palace?"

And Tommy did just that. When Turja finally arrived and introduced herself, Tommy was blown away. She didn't seem like someone who had spent her life locked away in an ivory tower--she reminded him more of the women he'd known on Terrafirma. He was shocked at how much he had in common with this woman of noble birth. In addition, she was charming, smart as a whip, and had experience with this monarchy thing. Over the next several months, Tommy invited Turja to his palace more and more frequently. With each visit, Tommy became more convinced that what he had felt that first night was no fluke. Finally, he decided he couldn't risk letting something this good slip away, so he asked Turja to marry him. And thus Tommy and Turja became the power couple they are now.

Of course, Tommy still has his share of problems. Much of Geckoworld is still unexplored and there are a lot of mysterious and/or dangerous things going on in the shadows there. Tommy frets about what happened to Matt all the time. Madelyn Guernsey is still out there somewhere, trying to track him down. And Tommy misses the family he left behind on Terrafirma every day. He especially worries about his chronically depressed sister Mandy. He's afraid of what she might do in her despair as he goes missing longer and longer.

Notes:

-I think Turja and Tommy complement each other nicely. She's a royal by birth who likes living like an ordinary person; he's an ordinary person who fought hard to earn the title of king. The fact that Tommy battled for his position makes Turja feel guilty; Turja ascended to her position by heredity the first time, and married into it the second time. This guilt is a big part of why Turja feels the need to go out and literally fight for the people of Geckoworld. She feels like she needs to prove she's worthy of being the queen of this planet.
-Why couldn't I spew words in these quantities when I was in college and I needed to write papers?