“I am Thorin ir-Perth tr’Ruth’ven of the Clan Ruth’ven.”

Thorin ir-Perth tr’Ruth’ven is a man of Scottish descent (¾ human / ¼ Romulan) who happens to be a starship captain in the service of Starfleet.

That’s in addition to serving as patriarch of the mixed Scottish-Romulan clan … Clan Ruth’ven.
It’s a clan traces its origins back to the Ruthven clan of ancient Scotland on Earth.

Thor, son of Sweyn the Viking chief, was the founder of the Ruthven clan, which takes its name from the lands north of Loch Rannoch in Perthshire. In Gaelic these lands are called Ruadhainn.

The Ruthven family history reads like a saga worthy of their Viking origins, with both good and bad points in its history …. stories for another day.

The Ruth’ven clan became an offshoot of Ruthven thanks to settlers from the island Ruadhainn (named after Ruadhainn back on Earth) situated within the northern waters of the planet Alba’Lochlann.

Now, Alba’Lochlann is a world of great oceans with land masses and islands scattered across its surface.
You see, decendents of both Scottish and Scandinavian peoples of Earth came together in 2243 to colonize Alba’Lochlann with the hope of returning to the old ways.

Old ways meaning living closer with / more in harmony with the natural world as well as honoring the ancient gods.

And their colony thrived.

Decades later when the Romulan evacuations began in preparation for the pending Hobus star turning supernova, the citizens of Alba’Lochlann opened their world to accepting in refugees … specifically those of similar mindsets who would fit into the lifestyles they had created on their world.

Some from the Romulan Raehu family were among those seeking sanctuary there. Some even intermarried with individuals within the Ruthven clan

It was enough to where the houses joined … or the two family clans became together one as Clan Ruth’ven.

And the motto of their clan became … “Est Sularus oth Mithas” … or … “My honor is my life.”

This is where it gets interesting for young Thorin (already an officer in Starfleet) as he happened to be serving aboard one of the Starfleet vessels assigned to assist with the evacuations in 2382.

THAT is how he met a young Romulan refugee named Aelisa ir-Sharri t’Raehu whom he fell deeply and madly in love with.

This is how her family first became introduced with his, opening the door that led not just to her family’s merging with his, but Romulan refugees finding a permanent home on Alba’Lochlann.

But what of Thorin’s own Romulan heritage?
Turns out his grandmother on his father’s side had been a tactical officer aboard the Imperial Warbird ChR Bloodwing — a ship once commanded by Ael i-Mhiessan t’Rllaillieu before Ael was promoted to khre’Riov (“Commander-General”).

Disillusioned by the politics gripping the Romulan Star Empire of the mid-23rd century and with the help of her loyal crew on Bloodwing, Ael was “liberated” from her “exile” and set about finding an ally in stopping mind-power experiments whereby the Empire sought through exploitation of the Vulcan people.

Ael sought to turn an enemy into an ally and set about finding Enterprise and James T. Kirk … proposing a plan to Kirk which would require maintaining the fiction that Enterprise was under Romulan control for the journey deep into Romulan space and Levaeri V, where they would destroy the experiments and retrieve the genetic material.

Although Kirk came to believe Ael’s tale, he was still reluctant to utilize Ael’s plan, believing it to be too risky and foolhardy. That changed when word came of the disappearance of the USS Intrepid, a starship staffed completely by Vulcans, at the hands of the Romulans from a nearby sector. Now, with the lives of the Intrepid’s crew on the line, Kirk decided to implement Ael’s plan.

Together, the crews of Bloodwing and Enterprise raided the Levaeri V installation, successfully rescued the Vulcan crew and destroyed the Romulan research, while gaining access to experimental new Sunseed technology.

Branded traitors for their actions, Ael and the surviving Bloodwing crew left for unknown space as exiles.
Of course, Thorin’s grandmother, Caithlin i-Mnaeha t’Jhaelaa had already falling in love with one Caelan Alexander Ruthven who had served as an engineer aboard the Enterprise during their ships’
shared adventures.

When Caithlin became pregnant with Caelan’s child, it was during the time of the Bloodwing crew’s exile.
Ael i-Mhiessan t’Rllaillieu granted Caithlin permission to leave the ship’s crew and marry her beloved to raise their child with his family on Alba’Lochlann where she later gained full status as a Federation citizen.
Yet even though a Federation citizen and adopted into a Scottish clan, Caithlin made sure that just as her children learned the ways of their human ancestors, they also honored and learned the way of their Romulan ancestors.

Lessons taught equally and passed down through the generations to where Thorin knew Romulan culture as well as he knew Scottish / human.

Now fast forward back to closer to present day.

Just as his father had made a career in Starfleet, so son Thorin followed in the father’s footsteps as a graduation of Starfleet Academy’s Class of 2380.

Thorin impressed his superiors enough during the couple years spent assisting with the Romulan evacuation missions to where he was selected as a candidate for the Captaincy Candidate program – a program designed to fast-track individuals believed to have what it takes to command with the hope of getting them into a command seat more quickly.

For Thorin, that first command came in the form of an Andorian designed border patrol escort, named U.S.S. Khyzon.
Although the location shifted from time to time, the Khyzon lived up to its name as a ship that patrolled various regions of space.

Starfleet Command would point, and the Khyzon and her crew would go patrol.

It was a very real command that was also one of those command gigs that could also be looked at as “doing time” and earning one’s spurs that would eventually lead to something slightly bigger and more prestigious.

Of course, some would argue that the “slightly bigger” and “more prestigious” was a bit of an overstatement when it came to the U.S.S. Avon … the Somerville Science Vessel that was Thorin’s second command.

But at least this time instead of patrolling what oftentimes could be viewed as simply empty space, they were actually doing … surveying asteroids, planets, planetoids, stars and even on occasion anomalies and other special phenomena.

And Thorin and his people were seriously quite good at their job, quickly earning a name for themselves.

A name and reputation that finally landed them what many would have called a golden ticket among ship assignments.

In 2393, Thorin tr’Ruth’ven was named captain of a newly christened Vesta-class multi-mission explorer, named U.S.S. Highlander … NCC-82307.

Under his command, she and crew gained a reputation for being able to be tossed into some of the most … interesting … situations and still get the job done.

The worse the situation, the better they seemed to perform.

An exception might be 2401 when the Borg took control of the fleet and mass assimilated most of the crew of not just the Highlander, but ALL the ships participating in the Frontier Day fleet maneuvers over Earth.

It is by only his wits and cunning that Thorin managed to keep many of the non-assimilated members of his crew alive (as well as himself) by shielding them from ship’s internal sensors.

By the end of those events, the Highlander was one of the ships that had been on the cusp of being decommissioned but whereby fleet command had deemed it intact and worthy enough for restoration and refit.

The latter of which took near a year and a half.

It was not until 2403 that Highlander again knew the freedom of warping once more among the stars.

Of course with the fleet still in the process of rebuilding, the ship was assigned a lot of routine, mundane duties like hauling freight, patrolling the spacelanes and and trouble spots … or out troubleshooting and putting out the various brushfires that seemed to want to spring up everywhere.

Natural occurrences considering enemies (and sometimes allies) sought to take advantage of Starfleet being more stretched.

But even among the mundane, they got in their fair share of first contact and exploration missions … boldly going.

The years rolled past and then finally came the Klingon-Federation War of 2409 whereby they were thrust onto the frontlines of the Federation defending against the Klingon Empire.

2409 … a year of many events that in another century might have spanned out across several decades.

But 2409 was a year where the dice always seemed to be rolling … sometimes the odds were in your favor and other times not so much.

In addition to the war with the Klingons, the Highlander was assigned to help stabilize the chaotic waters of Romulan space by supporting and strengthening the Romulan Republic while helping destabilize the Tal Shiar.

It should be noted that Thorin’s wife, Aelisa, joined finally followed in his footsteps, graduating Starfleet Academy in 2408 with their daughter Vaelaryn graduating in 2409.

Both were quick to earn commands of their own … both with ships likewise assigned to the Romulan front.

Later that year, the Highlander assisted with dealing with the Devidian crisis aboard Drozana Station in both the present and the past.

In fact, their ship was sent backwards in time by Section 31 to fend off the Devidians at the point of their incursion (which could have disrupted the timeline) during what some referred to as the age of “Those old Scientists” … or the “TOS-era.”

The mission was a success, although the Highlander suffered stress fractures along the structural spine of the ship to the point the Starfleet Corps of Engineers gave Starfleet Command no choice but to order the 16-year-old ship’s decommissioning.

At present, the crew awaits a new ship and / or re-assignment.

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