First, I would like to thank my new friends among the Jedi--you know who you are you’ve been most welcoming--for getting me a wonderful new position as tour guide and questions-answerer at the Coruscant Historical Museum. We are now approaching the holiday celebrated as Life Day in many parts of the galaxy. In the Empire, we had a similar holiday, not a rival event, for that presupposes Life Day was a worthy opponent to Sithmas, and well, I suppose I just spoiled it by saying the name but there we are. Sithmas. Now I realize this is not a popular theme here in the Republic, let alone among Jedi, but Sithmas was always about embracing more emotions than anger and fear. Rivalry and jealousy, for example. Lesser known emotions and not nearly as popular, but still valuable in a well-rounded Sith’s repertoire.
Anyway, since someone lost a bet, I will share with you my favorite Sithmas carol. There are many verses and it will take several days to properly recite, so be sure to check back on successive days.
Fortunately, I have timed it such that the last verse falls on Sithmas Eve, thus allowing a full day of celebration and preparing for Boxing Day afterward, wherein all inappropriate gifts are boxed up for regifting and the perpetrators boxed up for disposal.
So, without further ado, the first verse of my favorite Sithmas carol, The Twelve Days of Sithmas
Ahem
On the first day of Sithmas my rival sent to me
A rabid akk dog puppy.
That’s all for now. There are twelve verses, as I mentioned. It gets much longer. I am trying not to bore listeners with too much information all at once and instead parceling it out over several conversations.
I saw several of these yesterday and figured what the heck. I’m making a new character for a pathfinder game my friend is running, so what about a literal 5-minute background sketch!
I am incapable of writing a 5-minute background sketch in 5 actual minutes.
So, here’s the start of an Oracle of the Heavens, without unfortunately getting into the really interesting part because the timer went off. Poo. No editing save for typos. Note on system: Oracles have a curse, a physical disability, along with their powers. This character is nearly blind.
I remember the last thing I saw.
I spent my whole life looking. Seeing what was shown to me. Hearing the importance of learning, of becoming the person I was meant to be. Fulfilling my destiny written in my blood. Truth be told, I was told an awful lot of things, and most of them turned out to not be true.
I was young, and foolish, like most young people, like I still am I suppose. It was in a dream. A voice came, a presence, and bade me follow out the window. We flew across the city’s clay rooftops with the stars in the heavens shining bright above us.
“What do you see?” the voice asked.
“The city,” I answered, “The rooftops.”
“What else?”
I looked out and did not know the answer the presence wanted. So I answered as I had been taught, the answers that always sufficed for my tutors and my parents, “I see out city, the fair and good. I see people in their houses sleeping, waiting for a new day of things to enjoy in life, to share with their children and their neighbors. I see a place of wonder and of happy people.”
Rules: Answer the 3 questions, ask 3 of your own, and tag some friends! (including the person who tagged you might be nice). You can reuse questions if you can’t think of anything new or ask more than 3 too.
I mised one (sorry @clevermird!) so making that up right now.
1. If you could pick someone to play your character in a movie, who would it be?
I’m terrible choosing face claims so instead I went with actors I like who played similar roles. And I didn’t worry about age differences or inconvenient things like whether they were still alive or not.
Cleaner/Rixik: Vin Diesel. Vin Diesel as a Twi’lek. Make it happen naow.
Sha’ra’zaed: Dame Helen Mirren (Loved her character in R.E.D.)
Vashutarl: Emma Watson
Varrel: Either Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. We have CG, it could happen. Living: F. Murray Abraham.
Jurial: Michael Clarke Duncan (unfortunately also passed away), Keith David, or Frank Oz (why not?)
Kirya: Rita Moreno
Lord Infodump: Danny Trejo (or Jeremy Irons. I watched him chew up the scenery in a terrible movie once. I hope it was at the director’s insistence.)
2. How do they wear their hair? Why? Does it ever change, and why?
Cleaner: Lekku, no tattoos. He declined tattoos well after he could afford them a) to remind Keeper he’s an alien and b) he blends in better with the scum he usually runs with.
Rixik: Lekku. No hair. No tattoos either. At one point he wasn’t worth enough to bother tattooing. Now he regards it as a point of pride.
Sha’ra’zaed: Long hair usually in braids or otherwise bound up. She likes long hair even though it’s sometimes a hindrance and would cut it if absolutely necessary, but you’d have to convince her.
Vashutarl: Short hair, in three small ponytails because again: traditional. Later in her story she grows it out longer and changes styles as she wants, but to start she keeps it the same. It’s just the way she’s always styled it and never really thought about anything else.
Varrel: (what’s left of it) In a topknot because it’s traditional. Doesn’t change.
Jurial: His in-game model has a shaved head, and somehow I never imagined him with hair. It would be black if he grew it, but I really never picture him that way. Can’t say why, exactly.
Kirya: More lekku. She does have circular tattoos on them and dresses them up on occasion.
Lord Infodump: Funny thing. I invented Lord Infodump for a no-adjectives writing prompt and as a consequence I have no good idea what he looks like. Including whether he has hair and how he would wear it if he did.
3. What did your character study in college/what would they have studied if they’d have gone?
Cleaner: hard knocks and hostile negotiation. At Keeper’s knee, so to speak.
Rixik: weapons augmentation and slicing. Whaddya mean these aren’t college courses? How about finance, then? He’d be awesome at finance, making up those complicated, no one understands how they work derivative things that make him a ton of money without really doing anything. Provided he could take the classes on someone else’s dime.
Sha’ra’zaed: Medicine.
Vashutarl: History. Literatiure.
Varrel: History and swordplay, especially as regards the Yovshin school.
Jurial: Philosophy. Alternate philosophy. Religion. Comparative religion. Comaprative alternate philosophy. How to file things in the library.
Kirya: Politics, political theory, and law. And debate. Had she gone to college.
Lord Infodump: Ancient languages and the finer points of engineering massively complicated weapons. Acting (not that it would help).
Rules: Answer the 3 questions, ask 3 of your own, and tag some friends! (including the person who tagged you might be nice). You can reuse questions if you can’t think of anything new or ask more than 3 too.
Last one. My questions are here.
I hit my word target yesterday so I finished the last of the asks and queued up a reply.
@Lesabear:
1. Which character(s) do you find easiest and/or hardest to write? Why?
Cleaner, Rixik, and Varrel I find fairly easy to write. All three of them have distinct speech patterns (even if Cleaner and Rixik are largely the same) and I think that helps. Jurial is probably next, the only character I write in first person. All of these characters also have clear story arcs as well, so finding a story to tell for them is also relatively easy.
Vashutarl shares many language traits with Varrel, so that makes her one of the easiest among my female characters to write. I have more trouble with her because a large part of her story (or at least a significant part) involves a romance with Ian Kughel, and romance does not come easy to me. I have difficulty with Kirya for much the same reason, except for bits that don’t include Corso. I really like my agent Sha’ra’zaed, but at the same time she feels closest to me and, ironically, I have a harder time writing her.
Lord Infodump is just plain silly, my excuse to write an over-the-top ridiculous villain.
2. Your character (or characters) has to do some holiday/Life Day shopping. Are they successful?
Cleaner: Spends the days before Life Day laughing at all the jokers running around trying to find the perfect gift. Shops clearance sales the day afterward. Sends Keeper his annual rude novelty Life Day ornament (this year: a Life Day Patriarch figurine that poops candy)
Rixik: Sets the temperature in the atrium of the Nar Shaddaa palace uncomfortably high to torment the Life Day celebrant he rented for the season. Buys things for himself and calls them gifts.
Sha’ra’zaed: Finds the perfect gift for Vector. Discovers someone in the nest already owns one but Vector is pleased to have his own.
Vashutarl: Orders gift for Kughel for delivery to his unit. It chases his deployment schedule for three months before he finally gets it.
Varrel: Gives Jaesa a traditional Atrisian gift for a similar observance; Jaesa buys lingerie.
Jurial: Spends Life Day bringing small gifts to people in Coruscant’s undercity, still displaced from the bombardment. Makes note to do it more often.
Kirya: spends hours shopping for Corso, ends up getting him a weekend on Balmorra, tours of all the major weapon factories, and a day pass to a gun range.
Lord Infodump: Watches all the holofeeds for news that his plot to destroy Master Oldguy finally succeeded. Ends up with Life Day carols stuck in his head for a week and a delivery of ginsu vibroknives he doesn’t remember ordering. Sends them to Darth Shojomallet. She sends them back with a note that if he’s going to regift something, he should make sure not to regift it to the person he got it from.
3. What would your character(s) URL for their tumblr blog(s) be?
Cleaner: prettypeople (totally a porn blog)
Rixik:
Sha’ra’zaed: pathofshimmeringghosts (posts landscape pictures of ice and auroras)
Vashutarl: Jediwithagreensword (follows a number of blogs but never posts anything)
Varrel:
Jurial: Sanctuary (posts encouraging quotes and takes questions on philosophy and the Jedi Code and his own interpretation of it)
Kirya: SJatlightspeed (completely random blog with social justice topics mixed in with fangirling over Ace of Staves, maps of starways, and gifs of cute animals)
Lord Infodump: iwinbutton (posts selfies next to his latest Machine of Doom and intricate details of his ongoing feud with Master Oldguy. Trolls Darth Shojomallet from a side blog.)
Rules: Answer the 3 questions, ask 3 of your own, and tag some friends! (including the person who tagged you might be nice). You can reuse questions if you can’t think of anything new or ask more than 3 too.
Still not retagging since I have one set left to complete. The questions I asked are here.
@brightephemera
1.How is your character with money? To say nothing of how often they get paychecks in, how fast does it flow out again?
Cleaner: There’s a reason Keeper/Minister is the one approving his expenses.
Rixik: Terrible. Credits are for spending. He’s capable of saving for a large purchase, or at least knowing what he wants to buy and taking a job that covers it. Anything left over is for fun. His worst nightmare is dying with credits left to spend.
Sha’ra’zaed: Sha’ra’zaed is quite careful with what gets reported to Intelligence. She has a clear eye to being responsible for herself and managing her resources accordingly. Some might say she is not much fun.
Vashutarl: Having grown up knowing she’ll have to manage the Salle at some point, she has a hard time with the ‘Jedi Order covers everything (within reason)’ thing. At the same time, if she needs something specialized, even if it’s expensive, she’s not happy having to justify the expense to someone else.
Varrel: It does make one wonder how the Wrath gets paid. Direct deposit? Regardless, Varrel doesn’t brook unnecessary expenses, especially from underlings.
Jurial: Jurial is the opposite. He doesn’t think much about how much things cost but at the same time, he absorbed the Jedi philosophy of only having what you need. If he can’t afford something he does without, though he’s rarely had to test that philosophy in a true poverty situation.
Kirya: monitors every tenth of a credit. Hey, up until the Drayen haul paid off her ship she had a massive amount of debt dependant entirely on whether she could find cargo to haul.
Lord Infodump: “After my father died in a mysterious alchemy incident and mother went missing soon after, I’ve employed accountants to ensure the estate runs smoothly. It’s such a bother, paying for things. It is the accountant’s job to make certain I have what I want. That is, after all, what they are paid to do. I find it much easier to persuade beings to give me the things I want rather than counting credits and all that. I am Sith, after all. They should be happy I chose them and consider my favor recompense enough.”
2.Saturday morning, your character doesn’t have to be anywhere. What are they wearing?
Cleaner: Kaliyo.
Rixik: Whatever the ship droid hasn’t confiscated for laundering, clean or otherwise. Pants. Maybe socks. Maybe one sock. “Screw you it’s my ship, don’t like it there’s the door.”
Sha’ra’zaed: A well-worn Intelligence academy tracksuit. It’s comfy and a reminder of at time when problems were easier to solve, even if they didn't seem so at the time.
Vashutarl: While she usually wears armor her layabout clothes are more like typical Jedi robes. The fasteners are a little different and she’s not into sackcloth, but she looks far more Jedi in off-hours than on.
Varrel: Varrel doesn’t much relax. If there’s a Star Wars equivalent to a hakama and gi, that’s what he’d wear. He never considers himself truly offstage anymore.
Jurial: Jedi ‘casual robes.’ Nothing itchy and ones you don’t have to iron.
Kirya: a fleece blanket-with-arms. Barefoot. No socks, no shoes.
Lord Infodump: “I always have somewhere to be. Truly, I am an individual in high demand. I would wear clothing appropriate to my station as a Sith Lord even if I had no activities scheduled. One must always be prepared for the unexpected. That is my motto: Be Prepared. Stop laughing, that’s a good motto!”
3.Did your story try to say anything about the game? Or in general?
None of my character stories tried to make a statement about the game or anything else specifically. I can sum some of them up in quotes though:
Cleaner: “(I)t's no use; men are strongest, and if they are cruel and have no feeling, there is nothing that we can do, but just bear it.” Ginger, Black Beauty, Anna Sewell.
Rixik: “I want to live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse,” Knock on Any Door, Willard Motley.
Varrel: “If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you, it will.” Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back.
Jurial: “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.” Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms.
Rules: Answer the 3 questions, ask 3 of your own, and tag some friends! (including the person who tagged you might be nice). You can reuse questions if you can’t think of anything new or ask more than 3 too.
Still finishing these, so not tagging anyone new. My questions were posted here.
Answers for @rissalf, infodump below cut:
1. Home Sweet Home - The game offers limited locales for setting up our characters’ homes. If given any place to settle down (actually in-game or not), where would your character choose?
Cleaner: Cleaner in his own ship, free to go anywhere he wants at any time, is his favorite home. While he enjoys luxuries he’s content to enjoy them in private and anonymous. I don’t see him wanting to have any permanent place.
Rixik: Rixik has the Nar Shaddaa sky palace, done up in his own personal style: extreme tacky. It’s staffed only with humans, he keeps his Life Day decorations up year-round and uses neon signs as wall art. It’s Graceland in space. Which gives me the idea of what might have happened to it while Rixik takes his Long Nap (not KotFE).
Sha’ra’zaed: Sha’ra’zaed still thinks of Csilla as home, though she’s been away longer than she lived there. Being exiled, her homeworld has an taken on an almost mythic quality in her mind.
Vashutarl: If the game offered Tython estates, she’d live there. It reminds her of Atrisia, the Jedi Academy there of the Salle de Umrahiel. Alderaan is a close second.
Varrel: Varrel relieved Lord Grathan of his estate some time back and remodeled it to his taste.
Jurial: Jurial set up a sanctuary/seminary on Coruscant especially for Jedi who have questions about the Order. I see him having satellite places on any world where he believes he is needed.
Kirya: Like Cleaner, Kirya feels most at home in her ship, though for different reasons. Rishi, though, is someplace she could settle down.
Lord Infodump: “Well, naturally, Dromund Kaas, so as to be nearest the center of expedition grants and the center of intellectual discussions. I did spend some time on Korriban but, honestly, while there are unparalleled opportunities for research there there’s also unparalleled opportunities for interruption. All those apprentices running around, thinking they’re on some important mission for their masters or overseers. Really, the missions are just excuses to keep the apprentices out of their hair for a while. Permanently, Force willing. Have you any idea how annoying it is to have puffed-up junior acolytes constantly dropping by the excavation, asking for the quickest route to Tulak Hord’s tomb? I did discover that directing them off a cliff doesn't work well. Some of them need to survive to warn the rest or they just keep coming.”
2. Is your character in love with anyone? Why or why not?
Cleaner: No. Love requires trust and allowing oneself to be vulnerable and Cleaner can’t let his guard down. Also: pathological liar.
Rixik: Himself. He has most of the same problems truly falling in love as Cleaner has, but without the self-loathing. Rixik knows he’s awesome.
Sha’ra’zaed: Vector. Despite not being Chiss, not even really being human anymore either, Vector always knows who she is beneath all the masks she wears and loves her through--and for--them all. He also understands being exile in a way that most Imperial humans don’t, because most Imperials don’t consider him human.
Vashutarl: Ian Kughel. Vashutarl doesn’t share the Jedi belief that attachment is bad. Ian is a nice guy who understands duty and honor, who isn’t afraid of her, who can be her rock when she needs to remember why she fights.
Varrel: Vashutarl, his son (not the Vashutarl above). He married Jaesa and loves her in a pragmatic way, not a deeply romantic way. His son is his legacy and he’s quite protective of him.
Jurial: Philosophy. Jurial might find The One, and it probably won’t be anyone he expects, but he’s not looking or even feeling as though that’s a void he needs to fill.
Kirya: Corso. Corso’s jealous streak (assuming I don’t continue headcanoning it gone) will cause trouble when she encounters Nico Okarr (who looks like the model for the ‘Ace of Staves’ holoshow she loved as a kid).
Lord Infodump: “I cannot allow any distractions to enter my heart. Sabers follow. Plus then there are silly things like anniversaries and birthdays to remember. Beyond my own and that of my nemesis, naturally. Those are important. Also, a loved one will have access to my papers and research notes, and they might take those papers and notes and publish a paper using my research and claim it was theirs, and I would be unable to prove the theft since I no longer had the papers or research so I cannot prove it was mine in the first place, and then I will not get an offer of a lucrative position from the Imperial Reclamation Service and have to settle for being a guest lecturer at Dromund Kaas’s second best university. Why so specific? No reason.”
3. How does your character prefer to approach a fight? Spontaneous blaster drawing? Carefully planned confrontations?
Cleaner: A combination. He comes across as ‘shoot them all and let The Force sort them out’ but he’ll stack the deck in his favor as much as he can. Then shoot them all and let The Force sort them out.
Rixik: Planning is for wimps. Well, maybe he should have listened to Torian on Taris, but he made it out without getting covered in rakghoul poodoo so that’s still a win.
Sha’ra’zaed: Planning. Always planning.
Vashutarl: Planning. She wants to know as much about her opponent as she can beforehand. In the moment, though, she relies on going with the flow, letting her experience, intuition, and training (or the Force) take control.
Varrel: Also planning. Varrel really hates surprises. We all know what hate leads to.
Jurial: Jurial hates confrontation. He’ll do everything to talk down a potential opponent before fighting. Not a fan of the Jedi Mind trick, though. It feels too much like a lie even if it prevents a fight.
Kirya: Spontaneous. She prefers outwitting opponents, so when blasters come out it’s already at worst case scenario.
Lord Infodump: “‘Spontaneous blaster drawing?’ Who do you think I am, Darth Shojomallet? Master YOLO? I am well known as a master of exquisite, complicated plots, the failure of a single point of which brings the entire scheme grinding to a halt...actually, that might explain my near one-hundred percent failure rate.”
I know no one asked because I didn’t reblog the...
if you want to do more - #1 for Cleaner!
1. Which classes can recruit your character? Are there any other requirements for recruitment (alignment, for instance), and is it easier or harder for specific classes? (Assume a more complex recruitment system than the game currently has.)
oo, toughie.
Imperial Agent: Cleaner will be assigned if the Agent has been making questionable choices, especially as regards furthering Imperial interests and/or bending the mission parameters too much. Watch out, LS agents. Agents who want to recruit him will first have to deal with Keeper laughing hysterically and then asking “no, seriously, why?”
Sith Warrior: Available to DS warriors, I can envision a recruitment chain occurring sometime after your second visit to Quesh, perhaps involving Quinn combing through databases looking for anyone useful to commandeer, or the Hand sends you looking for him specifically.
Sith Inquisitor: Available to DS Inquisitors. A quest chain culminating in either defeating Darth Zhorrid or persuading her to part with him, or just offing her.
Bounty Hunter: Quest chain available to any alignment, but you only recruit him with the proper responses. I can see this going two ways. DS bounty hunter gets tapped several times as a transport only with a possibility to join in on mission. If you join and like blowing stuff up, you become preferred transport and he’ll join you on your missions. LS bounty hunter sees ridiculous bounty to kill him, and I can’t work that any way that doesn’t sound like Gault so bleh.
Smuggler: DS only, must be fairly independent of Republic, runs pretty much like the DS bounty hunter one.
I can’t see Jedi or troopers recruiting him without breaking or converting his conditioning, which could be part of a quest but boy you’d really have Imperial Intelligence breathing down your neck, so you’d probably have to fake his death or something too. Then he’d ditch you.
My best friend gave me an idea that Lord Infodump goes through a Jedi rehab program and is assigned as a park guide at a Republic historic/geographical site.
But he’s still a Sith at heart and does not deal well with unruly children or inattentive adults.
