Ever so often, most of us break character here and there- and I don't mean being blatantly out of character, but sometimes we'll quote a song lyric, make a movie reference or so on that seems somewhat appropriate even if it's not at all Elanthian.
My last post has me thinking about when and how I use out-of-character references or images as part of Ysharra's character, and I why I use them, despite them being otherworldly. Do you all have anything similar that you have, either a possession, a character history or motivation that has its roots in some other source? If so, why is it so important to you/your character that you keep it?
The reason I thought of it was the reference to Ysharra's Norse theme in my previous post. Obviously, there have never been any Germanic or Scandinavian tribes in Elanthia, but Ysharra has a raven named Munin, a dagger with a depiction of Fenris, the monstrous wolf who swallows the Allfather- and she gifted two daggers to her best friends, one Jörmungandr for her favorite Luukosian, and Hel to her beloved Sheruvian.
If you ask Ysharra to tell you about her home, she'll talk about the story of a wolf eating the sun, that she was told to explain the long, dark winters of living in the arctic tundras. She's quick to point out that it can't be true, but the tale is colorful and she enjoys sharing it. She never makes direct references to anything Norse, no Odin, Loki or anything that blatant. But the bits that I do cling to are what I've always found more poetic and illustrate the complicated nuance of Norse mythology that I've always loved.
Odin has two ravens, Hugin (the male) and Munin (the female), that he sends out each day to look across the nine worlds of the Aesir and report back to him. Hugin is Thought, and sees everything that you think about, and Munin is Memory, seeing everything that you've done. That latter part always made me think that of the two, she's clearly the biggest danger, since nothing she sees can be discounted as fancy. The Fenris dagger is because the treatment of the monstrous wolf by the Norse is one of the building blocks of their own doom- they lie to him in order to bind him and exile him where they hope he can't do any harm. So in making themselves safe, they break their word, lose their honor, and contribute to end of their existence. Both stories are evocative to me personally, and match up well with Ysharra's intense fatalism.
Your turn :)
-GK
Ysharra says, "One day, I'm going to have "What?" inscribed on your tombstone, with lots of helpful punctuation."
RAVENNA
LEAFIARA
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/07/2017 08:25 PM CST
Leafiara has written a song that has the lyric "For the first time in forever" in it, albeit not nearly as often as the real song, and is set to the same tune. She hasn't performed it yet for anyone, but I'm sure she will soon enough.
On the surface, and from what she says publicly, she wrote it because she took a trip to Ta'Illistim, missed the Landing even though she was only gone for a couple of hours, and was overjoyed when she returned home. In reality, the untold story is that she didn't write it because of coming back from the trip itself, but because of coming back from the reason she took the trip--she thought she was on bad terms with a friend. (And I mean that as something that was RPed out in the game, not any backstory thing.) As someone who's used to being beloved, she takes it harder than most even when someone who she doesn't know doesn't respond positively to her right away, so she was just devastated to think of herself in poor standing with a friend.
The end of that story is that they weren't on bad terms at all. She just thought they were!
...for a whole two days!
I thought about changing the lyric, but I like the characterization of how the always-busy, live-in-the-moment Leafi can go through an ordeal for two whole days and sing about it as "forever" in complete earnest. Even besides that, there's a pretty strong similarity of personality between her and Anna, so I wanted people to be able to identify the song. When she gets around to it, that is!
(By the way, a number of the other songs Leafi sings are also set to music from other media, including instrumental video game music, and the two of us are still writing more in that vein, but for the most part it would be difficult if not impossible to figure out what's set to what without a lot of hints. (Many of them are original too, of course.))
AIM: sweetleafiara@gmail.com
On the surface, and from what she says publicly, she wrote it because she took a trip to Ta'Illistim, missed the Landing even though she was only gone for a couple of hours, and was overjoyed when she returned home. In reality, the untold story is that she didn't write it because of coming back from the trip itself, but because of coming back from the reason she took the trip--she thought she was on bad terms with a friend. (And I mean that as something that was RPed out in the game, not any backstory thing.) As someone who's used to being beloved, she takes it harder than most even when someone who she doesn't know doesn't respond positively to her right away, so she was just devastated to think of herself in poor standing with a friend.
The end of that story is that they weren't on bad terms at all. She just thought they were!
...for a whole two days!
I thought about changing the lyric, but I like the characterization of how the always-busy, live-in-the-moment Leafi can go through an ordeal for two whole days and sing about it as "forever" in complete earnest. Even besides that, there's a pretty strong similarity of personality between her and Anna, so I wanted people to be able to identify the song. When she gets around to it, that is!
(By the way, a number of the other songs Leafi sings are also set to music from other media, including instrumental video game music, and the two of us are still writing more in that vein, but for the most part it would be difficult if not impossible to figure out what's set to what without a lot of hints. (Many of them are original too, of course.))
AIM: sweetleafiara@gmail.com
OM1E5GA
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/08/2017 08:19 AM CST
<Do you all have anything similar that you have, either a possession, a character history or motivation that has its roots in some other source? If so, why is it so important to you/your character that you keep it?>
My gnome, Starchitin is terrible with this... though mostly it's things he says rather then anything else. The quotes below all have their roots in pop culture (except the one that's stolen from LoTR), though it could be argued his name (which is an anagram I'll let the reader figure out) has OOC roots as well. It's not something I set out to do, but when looking for something that's going to get attention and/or have shock value, it does happen.
Quotes:
-Chanting "Starchie is great, Starchie is great"
-"Bite my messy little arse"
-"Time for a gnomie nap"
-"pointy-eared freak"
-"Ferget you elves, I'm goin huntin"
-His sword song: "Does your sword hang low; Does it...."
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
My gnome, Starchitin is terrible with this... though mostly it's things he says rather then anything else. The quotes below all have their roots in pop culture (except the one that's stolen from LoTR), though it could be argued his name (which is an anagram I'll let the reader figure out) has OOC roots as well. It's not something I set out to do, but when looking for something that's going to get attention and/or have shock value, it does happen.
Quotes:
-Chanting "Starchie is great, Starchie is great"
-"Bite my messy little arse"
-"Time for a gnomie nap"
-"pointy-eared freak"
-"Ferget you elves, I'm goin huntin"
-His sword song: "Does your sword hang low; Does it...."
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
DMWCINCY
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/08/2017 09:55 AM CST
I always appreciate anyone that can take a quote and seemlessly make it work within the world rp. Subtle to me works best where your quote is only picked up by one or two people out of the crowd. When its something so obvious that everyone gets it and rolls their eyes because its that well known of a quote is where i tend to find it jarring. Keep it subtle and in character and it should be fine.
JADZIABLUE
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/08/2017 10:17 AM CST
One of Raelee's favorite little sayings is paraphrased from Farscape. (There's a few Farscape references floating around her - as I was watching that show pretty heavily way back when I rolled her up.)
I think the original quote was, "Curiosity causes you to look in unexpected places and find unexpected rewards." Somehow over 12-13 years of living in Raelee's brain, that mutated into "Curiosity deserves reward."
On a less pop-culture level...
I've always felt that the four-element model in Gemstone (fire, earth, air, and water) corresponds very well with classical humorism. (The four elements typically correspond with the four humors, etc.) So, this is something I've used with Raelee subtly. I got super excited recently when someone else brought up the same concept ICly. I mostly mention it here since it has a historical basis, but isn't something 'officially' supported in the game lore.
Signed,
Raelee and her Strings
>Speaking to Zyllah, Alyias says, "See? Raelee knows all."
I think the original quote was, "Curiosity causes you to look in unexpected places and find unexpected rewards." Somehow over 12-13 years of living in Raelee's brain, that mutated into "Curiosity deserves reward."
On a less pop-culture level...
I've always felt that the four-element model in Gemstone (fire, earth, air, and water) corresponds very well with classical humorism. (The four elements typically correspond with the four humors, etc.) So, this is something I've used with Raelee subtly. I got super excited recently when someone else brought up the same concept ICly. I mostly mention it here since it has a historical basis, but isn't something 'officially' supported in the game lore.
Signed,
Raelee and her Strings
>Speaking to Zyllah, Alyias says, "See? Raelee knows all."
INIQUITY
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/08/2017 12:37 PM CST
With Xorus I've pulled on some Shadow World and Lovecraft, which I consider fair enough since the game itself did the same thing. The other side of this is that there have been a lot of "easter eggs" in the game that are OOC references or derived from real world mythology and languages. The Graveyard, Shadow Valley, and Broken Lands rise to the level of allegory. Obviously, you have to draw a line somewhere, because you can't be calling kobolds homages to Germanic folklore.
I will mostly only break the fourth wall if someone else committed the original sin. Like the storyline where the Confluence arrived was blatantly based on "Star Trek: Generations", Alusius even looked like Malcolm McDowell with Aelotoi wings, so at one point I said "time is the fire in which we burn." I think I held back on Star Gate jokes when the Ithzir were sending pyramids through the sky portal. Bit my tongue with Rodnay resting outside in the danger fields with all the angry sheep.
- Xorus' player
>Level: 46
>Strongest foe vanquished: an infernal lich
I will mostly only break the fourth wall if someone else committed the original sin. Like the storyline where the Confluence arrived was blatantly based on "Star Trek: Generations", Alusius even looked like Malcolm McDowell with Aelotoi wings, so at one point I said "time is the fire in which we burn." I think I held back on Star Gate jokes when the Ithzir were sending pyramids through the sky portal. Bit my tongue with Rodnay resting outside in the danger fields with all the angry sheep.
- Xorus' player
>Level: 46
>Strongest foe vanquished: an infernal lich
MOURNE
Re: When do you push the envelope?
02/08/2017 04:18 PM CST
>I will mostly only break the fourth wall if someone else committed the original sin. -Xorus
This is largely where my line is, too. I'll take inspiration from outside sources but generally try to maintain an Elanthian flavor to it. But if someone else makes an reference that I recognize, if appropriate and not jarring, I may acknowledge it as part of conversation. Like, the memory pun on the porch the other night when discussing Munin, and the followup comment about thought not being much in evidence in that neighborhood. (The 'Hugin' innuendo afterwards had me in stitches, btw.)
I've written songs in game that have been set to OOG tunes (most recent that pops to mind is set to the tune of Lullabye Mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), but the lyrics were entirely different and I'm not sure anyone would have recognized that particular melodic undertone. Mostly it was just for my own amusement and inspiration.
When I catch an oblique reference to pop culture/a show/a book/OOG cultural mythology in something GM-run, I usually end up mycharing an OOC comment. Because mychar snark is a longstanding habit of mine.
For the most part, though, I feel that OOC/OOG references are disruptive and jarring. I feel some handling of this is kind of in a grey area, but everyone's line is going to be different.
---
Cendadric says, "Hmm, a most impressive weapon of note. I'll give you 110 silver coins for it."
This is largely where my line is, too. I'll take inspiration from outside sources but generally try to maintain an Elanthian flavor to it. But if someone else makes an reference that I recognize, if appropriate and not jarring, I may acknowledge it as part of conversation. Like, the memory pun on the porch the other night when discussing Munin, and the followup comment about thought not being much in evidence in that neighborhood. (The 'Hugin' innuendo afterwards had me in stitches, btw.)
I've written songs in game that have been set to OOG tunes (most recent that pops to mind is set to the tune of Lullabye Mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), but the lyrics were entirely different and I'm not sure anyone would have recognized that particular melodic undertone. Mostly it was just for my own amusement and inspiration.
When I catch an oblique reference to pop culture/a show/a book/OOG cultural mythology in something GM-run, I usually end up mycharing an OOC comment. Because mychar snark is a longstanding habit of mine.
For the most part, though, I feel that OOC/OOG references are disruptive and jarring. I feel some handling of this is kind of in a grey area, but everyone's line is going to be different.
---
Cendadric says, "Hmm, a most impressive weapon of note. I'll give you 110 silver coins for it."
