"Blorbo from my shows" this, "blorbo from my videogames" that. What about "blorbo from my DnD game" that only three other people know. Do you ever think about that-
you can be peeling a boiled egg and think to yourself wow. that was so simple. and then you peel another one and it’s like being in the throes of war. shell everywhere. egg mangled. tears in your eyes. that’s how god keeps you humble
For Characters asks could you please give me answers to 1, 5, and 6 for the Dregs?
If you don’t I’ll cry.
let the record show that she cornered me on a discord call and cried until I was forced to type this post (this is entirely accurate).
Character asks!
One: What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character?
The Dregs actually developed out of a writing exercise I did where I came up with D&D characters for a different pool of OCs. My one stipulation is that they had to be different classes and races (5e because :/ I'm basic) and should be believable extensions of the OCs that were "playing" D&D.
Five: How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?
I knew I wanted names that were different in how they sounded (avoiding repeating similar ending sounds, etc.) and were consistent with the lore of the world. I actually wound up creating an alphabet for their world and the decided a few of their names based on how they looked in that script. That's actually why Malk uses Malk over Malark, even though it makes his and Beck's name a lil more similar. Likewise, it's part of why Sana uses a diminutive over her full name, Solana. Absolutely, there are distinct Doylist and Watsonian explanations:
Solana "Sana" Blightpyre - wants to distinguish herself from the jackass dad that named her. Blightpyre is a chosen surname and maternal, as her mother was disowned by their family after razing the fields of their village in flame. Yes, there are implications of this sounding like an elvish surname.
Oskar Oakshield - came mostly from loving how OSK OAK looked in the script. "Oakshield" just sounded right (the Hobbit is pervasive in my psyche??? apparently???) but I also love the notion of him having -shield as a last name suffix when his family are weaponsmakers. I also thought "Oakman" as a fake last name when the others can't remember his name or don't want to obviously identify him sounded silly.
Zaigon "Zai Gone" Masozi - may have come from a name generator? I knew that the name they used while traveling was going to be their first name split into two pieces as a transparent way of distancing her from her criminal family.
Malark Ambercrown - is a half-elf, and thus has an elvish style "two nature words" name like all translated elven names on Cytherea (I have thought about the impact of this on elvish and half-elvish player character too and done backflips to justify how the names their players chose may fit into this tradition). For Malk, I chose it over Mal or Lark as more normal nicknames because it sounded ugly <3 and thought that was indicative of the character too.
Beck Ta - Because so many names were SO fucking long I specifically wanted her name to be so fucking short. That was it, that was the whole combination. When she signs her name she runs it together like all six letters are only one name.
Weary Singlevale - Tiefling!! Virtue!! Names!! I love them, I think about it constantly and what a blessing they would be for characters in the world to be named for or choose names that are concepts. Weary's name specifically comes from "so shines a good deed in a weary world" as her parents wanted her to be the good and as they were both pact-making tieflings, had wrestled with their own relationships with the infernal that had now been passed on to a child but also didn't think through the entire levels of sadness it would bestow on a kid. Yes, there are implications of this sounding like an elvish surname (specifically, it here harkens back to the isolated tiefling community Weary grew up in too). She sometimes uses the name Nelle (: when she is tired of being Weary. (: It's about the implications.
Six: What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?
Because we're coming at this from the nuanced and play-within-a-play approach of these OCs being other OCs D&D PCs (say that five times fast) there was a layer of when the Dregs' appearance aligned or divulged with the corresponding characters' appearance. CW for D&D-typical biological essentialism below (half-joking):
Sana: the most important thing here was her having coal like hair that bursts into flame when she got angry. Her skin being a dark ashy grey followed from her being a rogue and balancing the metaphor of it helping her be undetectable when sneaking, but also her status as a rogue communicating how she is ignored and invisible to her parents and volatile with it disrupted by emotions when blush causes her cheeks to crackle like embers. She and Beck were narrative foils, so them being fire and water genasi also felt... uh trite but also like a fun red oni-blue oni trope to lean into.
Oskar: his player and Beck's player are siblings and were newer to the concept as first time players. This meant that Oskar copies his player's long dark hair and propensity towards being a lil GNC.
Zai: her initial appearance (pre-Aasimar bleaching) of dark hair and blue eyes matched with her player but I really wanted to explore the notion of "corrupting purity" and explore white and gold as color language that designated empire, loss of autonomy, and austerity as much as it could communicate 'holiness' or wealth. Zai growing out their hair was also a measure of their own control over her appearance and her slightly bent nose a byproduct of how many times it's been god damn broken and reset.
Malk: the freckles came first and everything else came later. I think I saw the twitter meme about "you're at your lowest and then you fall in love with a blonde man" and the rest was history. He's got scruff and pointed ears because half-elf. He's got good eyebrows because he spends too much time looking at himself in the mirror.
Beck: I wanted her hair to flow like water even when she was on dry land and love the idea of a rough and tumble woman who looked absolutely at home when she was dripping wet as a way to serve water genasi. She also has a longer face to contrast Sana's rounder face, because apparently I design characters like they are cartoon sidekicks. Beck's player is high femme and it was also silly to me that her PC was happiest covered in mud. Roleplay!
Weary: I think I settled on purple for her skin because... uh.. as you can tell by how I color code these posts, these characters are indeed color coded in all of my sketches and reference material about them. Her tieflingness became more cat coded over goat or other signifiers because I was trying to take it in a different direction. Much like Zai transed her gender over the course of the campaign, Weary put on weight as I kept drawing her. Not that every character trait is a metaphor but I loved that she herself seemed to be taking up more space as the details of her appearance developed. Plus, she was always "the catch" and the most beautiful of the Dregs, and it is important to me that she is textually fat and beautiful.
The Weeping Angels are really scary until you realize if any organism sees them they are fucked so they get hard countered by geckos, who don't blink and can see in the dark. If the Doctor strapped like two geckos onto him he'd be fine.
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