Character Profile - Iain Wallace MacTaryn

Iain Wallace MacTaryn
Male

Place of Origin: Glasgow, Scotland

Physical Description

Height – 5’9″
Weight – 173lbs
Hair Color – Brown
Eye Color – Blue

Physical Description

Both stocky and gangly at the same time. He’s not a physical specimen of the male physique, but he is certainly not a weak individual.

Speaks with a strong Scottish burr, but slower than most of his brethren, reducing the thickness of his accent to something more intelligible to his ‘colonial’ counterparts as well as his English/Irish brethren.

Communicates more with his eyes than with his hands, or with his words. Those who have worked with him for years know that he need only look at you to convey his orders, his preference or his distaste. The Marines under his command know that it isn’t want MacTaryn says about your work – it’s what he doesn’t say.

Personality Profile

General Overview

MacTaryn isn’t the best because he’s smarter than everyone else, or because he’s the most able tactician, he’s the best because he’s been thrown into the fire so many times and has managed to walk out alive every time. What he’s learned he’s learned at the expense of the lives of the Marines under his command, and at the cost of a family life he knows his wife would have preferred he have. He wears that weight in his command every day and refuses to allow it to be sullied, or watered out by the pressures beyond his rank and position.

Iain is a cold man, reserving what little warmth he truly possess for his family. His Marines know him as hard, fast, dedicated and the one Marine they can count on to be better at their job than they are. As cold and distant as he is, MacTaryn would never assign a training exercise or commit his Marines to any task that he wouldn’t stand right beside them and do. It serves as both a positive and a negative as MacTaryn often finds himself lost in the training, and the Marine to Marine fighting as opposed to the grander scheme leadership required of his ever increasing position in the Corps.

The Marines who’ve trained under MacTaryn despise him, but the Marines who’ve served under him admire him beyond words. They know the value of what he brings, what he knows and what he’s willing to do for them and with them when the chips are down.

Obsessive about his Scottish heritage.

Strengths & Weaknesses
+ Orbital Deployment Warfare
+ Closed Quarter Warfare
+ Silent Action Warfare (Quiet in/Quiet Out)
+ Operational Leadership
+ Crisis Management

– Diplomacy. Iain is a Marine – he doesn’t glad hand and he never sugar coats the truth.
– Emotional connections. Ask his wife, she’ll tell you all you need to know.
– Fleet Interactions. If there’s one thing Iain hates, it’s a Fleeter, followed closely by an Englishman.

Ambitions
To keep the Corps the best fighting force in the Federation and beyond. Now that his kid’s are all grown, he’s thrown himself 200% into that. Retirement is not a word in his vocabulary.

Hobbies & Interests
– Genealogy. Iain is currently tracing his familial lineage somewhere in the 13th century.
– Marksmanship Training. Personal goal is expert marks with every SFMC rated weapon.
– Survival Training. His truest passion. He enjoys the challenge.
– Fluent in Gaelic: Something he’s passed on to his children.

Early years Biography

The eldest of four boys, Iain and his family were very active in the Scottish cultural community. From an early age he was taken by the stories of his numerous ancestors that had served in the Royal Marines, the MACO’s and the SFMC over the generations, including his own Father. For Iain, that was the only life he wanted to lead from that early age.

From that first declaration until he was old enough to enlist himself, Iain spent every moment he could learning, training and experiencing everything he could to prepare himself for the life he wanted to lead. But when the time came to enlist, he made a choice that surprised both his father and his younger brother, who himself was only two years his junior and already committing to the same path. For his part, Iain chose to delay his enlistment and instead enrolled at Starfleet Academy – a mistake he would loathe for the rest of his natural life.

Iain thought the path he had chosen was right, but instead found himself among scientists and hopeless pacifists. Even the proud and tall men and women of the Tactical and Security departments were terribly ignorant pacifists to his mind. He stayed the course and completed his education and graduated in the Security branch but resigned his commission immediately after receiving it. When he presented it to the Corps, they honored the rank with the equivalent Marine rank and accepted him into the Corps with open arms.

From day one in the Corps, Iain was thrust right into the heart of conflict even when conflict was a rare occurrence in the Federation. He was frequently utilized for his detailed understanding of Starfleet protocols and procedures as an Academy graduate and with his natural tactical tendencies has been able to advise the Corps on Starfleet’s next move. Starfleet, to him, is nothing if not absolutely predictable.

Iain has served in nearly every major SFMC conflict, from the Klingon Civil War to the Dominion Wars as well as countless other minor conflicts both known and unknown to the general population. He has led both militaristic and humanitarian missions across Federation space bringing his family along with him whenever possible. Most people consider Iain one of the most stubbornly loyal Marines in the Corps, but they obviously haven’t met his wife who, despite the odds against her, has remained through countless conflicts and sleepless nights. She’s raised four sons and a daughter, despite never knowing if her husband was coming home alive, and has been the most loyal of all the Marines under his umbrella. Something Iain has not let fall on deaf ears. He may be cold, hard and unrelenting, but that same tact rare applies to his wife and until coming of age, rarely applied to his only daughter. She is the only other woman in the galaxy that can soften his tone, and incidentally the only one that has cut him to his core.

MacTaryn is proud of his, and his wife’s, Scottish heritage and has instilled that love in his children just as he has instilled the love of the Corps and his distaste for Starfleet. Three of his four sons joined the Corps in their own way, the fourth being unable to due to medical restrictions, though he tried to circumvent the system and join regardless until Iain caught him and forced him to return home. He is proud of his son for wanting to follow his brothers, but knows that he cannot be the Marine he needs to be with his condition. Iain’s only daughter had no medical afflictions and was taught just as well as her brothers the lack of trust Iain has in Starfleet and his desire that they chose the Corps if they were to chose such a life for themselves. He taught his daughter to stand tall on her own, to be a force of character and of will, he just had no idea that she would turn that against him and chose to join Starfleet instead of his beloved Corps. It cut him to his core and has driven a spike between them that has yet to be removed.

Iain has continued to rise in the SFMC rankings, moving from more mobile commands to stationary ones at forward outposts and command headquarters, much to his wife’s delight. She knows the man will never retire, but she can at least hope for a somewhat quiet life on a base far, far away. Iain has done what he can to at least give her that. She’s more than earned it.