
by
Novice » Wed Feb 05, 2003 7:16 pm
Greetings lovely people! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>I have but two RP characters that have gone forth into the world of the Pony, and one other that is still in seminal form.<BR><BR>My first character, Morilassë, appeared in The Lucky Fortune Inn for a brief couple of weeks and then went into mothballs, where she remains.<BR><BR>Lassë was the daughter of Umarth (the son of the Valaraukar Gothmog, Chief of Balrogs, and lesser umaia spirit, the great cat) and a woman of Gondor.<BR><BR>....Now, already, you can see immediately that her antecedents could get me into a heapa trouble with Tolkien purists. However, I choose to think that I've explored that grey area between the lines of Tolkien's writing, for there is nothing to say that the umaia could not procreate (in fact, Tolkien speculates that they could do so when incarnate)...and if their progeny decided to take on human form--as in the case of Umarth--that progeny could then procreate with a mortal.<BR><BR>So, I feel I've covered my tush. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>..although certain acrobatic leaps of logic must take place.<BR><BR>Morilassë (dark or black leaf) appears as a<BR>42 year old woman, she's slight, of light build, lithe, quick, fine featured, stronger than she seems. She has a brilliant smile, which completely changes, lightens and sparks her features,<BR>longish dark hair, wavy with rich red highlights in the sun, sprinkled with silver white signs of age, often braided, sometimes loose tied back with a kerchief. <BR><BR>She has a son, aged 5 has four older sisters, (including half sister Nienjah, who I'll speak of later) and assumed widowed, as her husband has been missing since their son was 6 months old.<BR><BR>She can be stubborn, intuitive, wary. Loves a laugh but is retiring. Loves children and her own company.<BR><BR>She plays ‘pipes’ -- flute, pan pipes, recorder, but only mimics bird song and sounds of nature, she does not compose music or songs—not a bard. She has moderate skill in healing, as any country woman would have.<BR><BR>Lassë comes from the valley of the Morthond, behind the white mountains (Ered Nimrais), a small village settlement whose<BR>economy is dependent on bees (their honey is renown), goats (milk and cheese), the rare healing herbs that grow in that valley, which temper heat and ease darkness of heart and mind.<BR><BR>She has left that village to wander, seeking her husband who she feels intuitively is neither dead nor a deserter of his family. She is not a warrior of any kind; to all intents and purposes she is a village woman of Gondor, with no defensive skills other than her wits, good nature, her charm and reflexes.<BR><BR>But Lassë has one supernatural trait inherited from her father (and her balrog grandfather): when wreathed in dark smoke, she becomes insubstantial, almost transparent and intangible and can transport herself great distances in a brief time before the effect wears off. She cannot explain it and cannot really control it, thus she avoids fire wherever possible. The effect is most potent when she builds the fire herself out of natural materials. She is reluctant to use this skill because it frightens her and presents her with a foreboding of evil. <BR><BR>In all other things...traits of character and predilections...she is a woman of Gondor...except for the minor point that she is immortal, though yet very young in the scale of immortality, being but 500 years old.<BR><BR>--------------------<BR><BR>Now, as you can see, the above character is rather sketchy and unsatisfying...not rounded, not believable. Perhaps she would have developed further but I found I could not persist with her. There was little response to her in the Lucky Fortune, and so, disheartened by lack of success, she left the Inn and entered mothballs.<BR><BR>And that makes me reflect: it is difficult to persist with a character if it is not a 'good fit'. If you can't step into those shoes, see with those eyes, don't know what your character would do or say in any given situation, then the character needs work...maybe even an overhaul.<BR><BR>A further reflection: choose your RP carefully; does your character have a natural place, or will you be scrambling for your character to make sense in the context? <BR><BR>-------------------<BR><BR>I went onto create Nienjah...and she virtually erupted, fully formed at the Formal Ball in Imladris thread after the White Council Awards last year.<BR><BR>I created her with some specific thoughts in mind: Lassë was virtually ignored in the Lucky Fortune. I decided that I'd create a character who COULD NOT be ignored. She'd be in your face at all times....in retrospect, not necessarily a good or innocent motivation. But she did create a bit of a ruckus in that thread and certainly Nienjah cannot be ignored.<BR><BR>Nienjah Laurëlach (Leaping Flame of Gold) is the daughter of Úmarth (son of Valaraukar Gothmog, and lesser úmaia spirit, the great cat) and Celebrian (daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn), born in the Third Age, 1210.<BR><BR>Nienjah was born in the orc dens of the Misty Mountains, between the northern eaves of Fangorn and the southern most outlay of Mirkwood, north-east of the great river, fathered forcefully by Umarth upon Celebrian during her period of torment when she was abducted by Orcs on the road from Lorien. <BR><BR>Rescued by her sons Elladan and Elrohir two months after the birth of her unwanted daughter, the horror of the conception and birth lay such a dark and heavy shadow upon Celebrian that as soon as the poisoned wound delivered by the Orcs was healed by Elrond, she left home and family for the West. She could not bring herself to tell anyone of her ordeal, and so Nienjah's birth remained a secret known only the Umarth and his four other daughters.<BR><BR>PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:<BR>She is a woman of gold. Tawny golden hair, thick and wild as a lion's mane, golden caramel skin and eyes that are topaz at rest and liquid gold when stirred. Habitually she clothes herself in colours of gold and rich tones, choosing always sensuous texture in fabric: clinging silks, sueded skins, soft furs.<BR><BR>She is tall, lean, with long curves of catlike strength; she moves with a sinuous, feline languor which belies lightning reflexes and ferocity; she has an ambivalent androgeny allowing her to pass as a boy when it pleases her, though that is rare for she literally oozes a female, carnal quality.<BR><BR>Always, and throughout the ages, she is single; committing herself to no man or woman, taking where she pleases. <BR><BR>CHARACTER TRAITS AND ABILITIES<BR>From her maternal grandmother (Galadriel) she has in part the seer's gift (and blonde colouring); and it is from her maternal side that her intrinsic appreciation of beauty in the arts and immediate surroundings comes. Disorder, ugliness, squalor offend her aesthetic sensibilities. She does not willingly destroy anything beautiful --excepting love in others when it affords entertainment. In all things else she has so successfully repressed the attributes of her Noldor heritage that she knows not that she possesses them.<BR><BR>From her paternal grandfather (the balrog Gothmog) comes her affinity with fire, her carnal heat and sadistic tendencies. Near flame and in the sun she flickers with internal fire and her sensuality is greatly heightened. More significantly, at great need she will step into the flames and smoke to create a temporal shift in her physical being (like her half sister Morilassë) and she can travel long distances by this route. But fire and smoke are a perilous pathway; it draws her inevitably to the fire of Morder unless she exercises uttermost self-control, so it is a route she uses unwillingly and only in extreme need.<BR><BR>From her paternal grandmother (the maia predatory cat) Nienjah has both the predator's instinct and the agility of a cat, with the strength, ferocity, reflexes and cunning of a panther (and again, her colouring, night vision, eyes). Nienjah has little use for other weaponry and violence is anathema to her, for subtlety is her key characteristic. Still, at need she will use whatever tool of death comes to hand--the subtlety of poison especially she has used.<BR><BR>She is not a fighter. A supreme sadistic sensualist, she relishes all sensual pleasure--of taste, hearing, tactile and visual sensation, as well as the pleasures of the flesh, lingering particularly on the exquisite border between pleasure and pain. She has measured the depths of physical desire and it is her delight to awaken it in others--for its own sake but also for her own amusement which is always her ultimate goal. <BR><BR>These inherited attributes--aesthetic sensibility, carnal heat and a predator's instinct--have blended in Nienjah to create the supreme courtesan and sensualist, playing with desire and intrigue for amusement.<BR><BR>Her paramours are usually male, but not always so. She seeks the exotic, relishes new sensations. Her capacity for empathy --for she can taste and feel the emotions of another and feasts upon them--and second sight, inherited from her elven grandmother, heightens her enjoyment of the desires of another, and she will endeavour to fulfil those desires--but only so long as she finds the pursuit pleasurable and entertaining. She gets bored easily and will drop any amusement when it becomes tedious, or if her unerring instinct for self-preservation is pricked.<BR><BR>Nienjah has no conscience, no compassion, no mercy, no better or higher nature; she is psychopathic in her dealings. She will commit casual murder when it suits her. She has no politic, no strategic interests, no loyalty, except to her own calling to conjure desire for sensual pleasure and amusement, to surround herself with beauty. Therefore, she serves no master.<BR><BR>These are also the keys to her fatal flaw: mercurial and overly confident of her own power, she is as much enslaved to her sensuality as any of her victims.<BR><BR>------------------<BR><BR>I won't give her back story, as that would take ages...but you can see that in terms of creating multi-dimensionality, Nienjah is a step up from Morilassë, whom even I had trouble seeing clearly sometimes. Nienjah is in full technicolour. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>But that brings another thought to mind: I was well into an RP story when one of the other writers complained that Nienjah seemed unbeatable; all knowing, all powerful. It took me awhile to admit that I had created her without giving thought to her flaws...and a flawless character is no fun to play with.<BR><BR>And yet her flaws are blatant, once I opened my eyes to them; and indeed, she's much more interesting and complex to write now that I indulge and explore her flaws and weaknesses.<BR><BR>So...that's something I've learned from experience and would urge you to think about when creating a new character; it is the character flaws as much as the physical and personality characteristics and strengths that make a character rounded, believable, interesting.<BR><BR>....eh-hehe! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif"border=0> I do ramble, don't I. But to end; I've got an embryonic character that has yet to enter the Pony; a little girl, this time, Primrose Gardner. I'd like to workshop her here with you all and see how she develops. I'll run down what I've got of her in my next post...this one being far too long already!