Chess is a soldier, and has been since he became a man.

He is an Eëcil – and the way the Eëcil live is very oriented towards duty and family, and the intersection between those two. Having family is a good thing, and staying with your family is imperative. However, many Eëcil are unable to be highly gregarious for social and economic reasons (particularly in the colonies, where Chess lives), and single men and women or small groups either split off from a family group that is verging on too large, or are sent off, to make their way in the world and form their own groups.

Chess was one of those single men, and after a year or so on his own he came across his younger brother, who had also split off, and they joined each other. For many years after that they were soldiers together, always together.

Then when he was thirty-eight, his younger brother, who was thirty-four, turned subversive to the political faction their soldiery was serving. He was sentenced to a punishment that was practically death. The faction was experimenting with turning a human into a half-automaton – no long-term memory, limited short-term, mentally compelled to behave in certain ways and to serve the people around them, no personality, no attachments to people, limited range of emotion – it's a cobha thing, I won't bother to explain now. Anyway, that's what they did to Chess's brother – 'neutralized' him, they call it.

There was nothing Chess could have done to stop it, and he did not try.

Chess counted his brother dead. He was dead, so far as it made any difference to anything. However, out of Chess's Eëcil sense of loyalty to family (and possibly his love for his brother), he never left him. He remained at the soldiery, even as the faction he was under grew more and more openly corrupt, to the point that Chess, if he had been on his own, might have left. But he never considered it, because of his brother.

He has very few strong attachments, but shows sympathy, compassion, and loyalty to his companions.

As a person, he is very quiet. He is always aware of his emotions, although not in much detail, and he rarely expresses them. He shows his beliefs and his feelings through actions, not words. He is accepting. He is principled, internally, but does not apply this to the people and groups around him very much, which is not always a good thing.

What are his greatest fears? Aspirations?

Is there anyone in whom he confides?

Does he ever wish he was married?

He has none.... It might seem odd, but it's true. He is very focused on the present moment; planning or thinking about what might happen, or what will happen, or what he wants to happen, or what should happen, is not something he does much. There are a number of calamities that would hurt him if they happened, of course, but he doesn't actively fear any one in particular. And rather than thinking about something he wants to do, he thinks about what he is doing.

No. His beliefs and feelings were drawn out a little when his younger brother, who was far less quiet, talked to him about things. But he never actively confides in anyone now. He rarely talks to anyone at all now, really, about anything.

He would like it. But he doesn't really think of wishing he were married. He doesn't wish for many things.... Actually, I can't think of anything that he wishes for.

But he thinks (when or if it ever occurs to him to think about it) it would be nice to be married. He would enjoy the responsibility, and the focus of a particular person to care for and love. And he would be glad to be loved, too. He doesn't think about it much, but he misses someone loving him. He is lonely.

Thankyou, Kya, those were interesting to answer.

How did he feel when he had to split off from his family?

Does he believe what his brother did was right? Does he have any regrets/wish he had helped?

He felt sad, but he had no very close friends to make it extraordinarily tragic. Often siblings and such are close friends, you know, but in the Eecil groups that are large there are so many people who are related to you that you sort of choose who you're going to be closer to, and if you don't you end up not being particularly close to any of them. Chess had different ideas and beliefs than most of them, and ended up not really fitting in very well. He was closest to his mother, but she was the one who encouraged him to go.

So he felt a bit sad, mostly adventurous, and rather excited about the newness, though not overly so.

Pretty much, yes. He was on the point of joining him, when his brother was caught and sentenced. His brother didn't know that, though, and thought Chess was upset with him, and Chess knew he thought that, but was unable to tell him he was wrong, because of the circumstances, so it was all very tragic.

Has he ever tried to find a way to reverse what they did to his brother? If he found a way, would he do it? Does he fear having the same thing done to him? Would he prefer death over that kind of fate?

It is an experimental process, so no one can be absolutely sure, but so far as anyone knows it is not reversible. It was not meant to be. And even if there was a chance at reversing it, Chess is a Haeg and knows almost nothing about cobhaic things, and can do almost nothing. He has never considered trying, as it is basically impossible.

He... would find it difficult to ever come to the point where he would believe it was possible.

He's not an intimidating person, and the leadership don't even know he specifically exists. So no, he's not afraid of them doing it to him.

He doesn't think it would make much difference, dying or being neutralized, to him they're much the same. Considering what he thinks of the faction, though, he would probably prefer to be killed than to be compelled to help them do anything they wanted him to.

So say someone came to him and somehow proved beyond doubt that they could reverse neutralization. What would he do?

If it was proved beyond doubt?

He'd doubt it.

He believes his brother is dead with his emotions, not just his mind. I didn't realize this before. But really, he believes his brother is gone very deeply. Seeing his body still 'alive', without truly being him, only strengthened that.

However, if someone else believed they could do it, he would not oppose them, and if they asked for him to help them in some way, he would not refuse. He simply would not go into with his heart.