The Account of Adren the Bard (Discussion)
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The Account of Adren the Bard (Discussion)
(More to come in this space)"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Welcome, friends!
This is not a traditional Mish Mash game, per se, but rather a collaboratively-told story. You, the readers, will have input at nearly every point in the tale, able to make major decisions for the protagonists and guide their fate. Two to three times a week, depending on my schedule, I will post updates to the story, as well as a link to a Google form with potential options. Please feel free to discuss with your fellow readers your options, or create your own. If you come up with a novel solution or humorous alternative, I will gladly incorporate whatever makes the best story.
Story updates will come from the Adren the Bard account, which will be reserved for that purpose. If you would like to read just the story, I invite you to view this thread with Adren's posts in isolation. Out of character nuts and bolts, like this, will come from my main account.
Before we begin, we must craft the kind of story we are telling together. The only parameters I reserve are that the protagonist is a young adult male, approximately 23 years old, who lives in a non-Earth world with pre-modern technology, some degree of magic, and a society that is conducive to adventurers. Everything else is up to you.
Let's get started!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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To answer a question: Adren is not the protagonist in question, but rather the bard telling the story. Adren will eventually be encountered by the protagonist, and may adventure with him. The protagonist’s class/profession and some details about Adren will be determined in an upcoming survey.
I anticipate four or five of these initial character creation surveys, and then we’ll jump into the story. This time is for you all to tell me what sort of story you want told, while later input will be about making more immediate- and short-term choices."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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The response level has been overwhelming so far! I was prepared to be perfectly happy with ten responses by the end of the weekend, and you all have nearly doubled that in the first day.
I'll leave the first survey open until the end of the day, then post the results and the second round. I think with this degree of engagement, I can accelerate the pace of the preliminary stages.
Thanks all!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Okay, the votes are in! I don't plan on releasing the full results of most surveys, that would be tedious and not useful. However, for this first one, it might be helpful to see the results and explain how I use this data to make decisions for the characters.
For this first one, responses were highly varied. The three joke answers were set aside, and the remaining one (the whaling port) was considered and discarded. That left a three-way tie...not a great start, friends. In this situation, I use my own discretion. I looked ahead to the other responses, and decided to combine two of the most popular - our protagonist was raised on a farm outside a village on the edge of a great forest.
This next one had a clear winner, but was hardly decisive. Using my discretion, I interpreted this to mean that the protagonist was raised by a single parent within a larger community consisting of an extended family. The second parent was around when he was little, but disappeared before he had more than vague memories. This question also had the only write-in vote I considered (raised among siblings), but I felt the majority selection was more compelling.
This one was pretty clear, even if 27.6% is a paltry plurality. The sister is noticeably older, perhaps 31 to the protagonist's 23, and moved away when he was a teen.
At last, a clear winner. A decisive percentage of you envision our protagonist as having lived a secure but hard-working life on a modest yet successful farm."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Given the volume of responses, I'm going to accelerate the pace of this stage. The next survey will be up for two days, and deals primarily with the setting in which our story takes place. I will finalize the data on Tuesday, 3/10.
Enjoy!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Raised by wolves was regarded as a serious suggestion, but it’s a bit cliche and not really a plausible scenario. If you’d said raised by a pack of werewolves, or Awakened dire wombats...we’d have had a conversation."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Okay, results!
We have several decisive choices today. You, the audience, overwhelmingly voted for unexplained disappearances in the colony of a large empire, though honorable mentions go to the large empire itself and conflict/war. It may very well be that the protagonist travels to the homeland at some point, and once the disappearances are explained, war may very well result.
The magic/technology paradigm was less clear. A clear plurality decided that magic and technology have developed independently, but there was damn near a three-way tie between magic as a rare, uncommon, or common force. The more extreme options were therefore discarded, and I've exercised my discretion to split the difference. Magic is uncommon, but not strange. Most practitioners have limited power. A good analogy would be physicians - there are enough of them in the population that when you find out someone has an MD, it's impressive but not strange. At the same time, most practitioners are of the everyday, local variety. Just as world-class diagnosticians, surgeons, or specialists are rare, so too are individuals with significant sorcerous power.
Lastly, the technological level was a tossup.
As you can see, responses were all over the map. A plurality did select High Medieval, but the two industrial options combined beat out the medieval options. Given that High Medieval is kind of the 'default' for this sort of story, I'm going to conduct a runoff. All options except High Medieval and Late Pre-industrial (circa 1700 CE) will be set aside, and "Other" will not be an option. Special mention goes to the Dark Ages suggestion, as I'm fascinated with that period of history. However, I'm planning a D&D campaign set in a dark age, so I'm not interested in telling this story in one."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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The bulk of responses are coming within the first few hours, nearly all within the first day. For the duration of this design phase, we'll step this up to aroughlydaily schedule.
Setting 2.0"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Hi friends, I am not feeling well. Signs point to the common cold rather than something else, but I'm taking the day to relax and practice self-care. I'll be around, though, and will have an update this evening."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Okay! We had a number of decisive questions this round, so let's get those out of the way.
-The setting is finalized as having late pre-industrial technology. I have a strong familiarity with this area of history, but if someone is an actual expert, let me know and I'd welcome your advice. Simple gunpowder weapons are common in the form of smoothbore cannon, muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. Rifles exist, but are mostly limited to hunters and sharpshooters. Armored cavalry (i.e. cuirassiers and lancers) remain dominant on the battlefield, but some forward-thinking commanders are experimenting with fast, lightly-armored dragoons as well. As we are going to be starting in an archipelago, it is important to note that we are approaching the height of the age of sail - ships of the line are the power in these waters, with faster frigates patrolling for pirates, whichwill be a thing. Overseas, triangular-style trade is commonplace. Plantation-style agriculture is in full swing, but I have no interest in telling a story that involves chattel bondage. The accepted method is large families and communities working their fields together. Cities are somewhat dense and squalid, but the first glimmers of real sanitation are coming into effect. Culturally, an Enlightenment analogue is taking place, but is not yet widespread and has not filtered down to the masses in any way yet. Schools and universities exist, but are likewise limited to the elite. Our protagonist's place in that hierarchy will be determined in the next survey.
-The dominant choice was for an archipelago, but I liked the second-most-popular choice so much that I'm going to incorporate it too. Our archipelago is located off the coast of a friendly foreign nation, some distance from the homeland. Think Caribbean islands off the coast of the Americas relative to Europe, or the Philippines off the coast of Southeast Asia, New Zealand off of Australia, Madagascar/Africa, Maldives/India, you get the picture. There is a sizable distance between the enclave and the nearby "host," but not so close that the "host" is all that bothered to secure it. Trade with the enclave islands is lucrative for all parties.
---Of the write-in selections, I liked several. I actually almost included a desert oasis in the original options, but that isn't the kind of story I want to tell, nor is the alternate dimension angle. The choice Ididvery seriously consider was the underground cavern choice (not shown above, cut off.)Journey to the Center of the Earthwas one of my favorite books as a kid, and I likedLand of the Lostas well. The problem is that I just couldn't justify the science of having a large, well-lit subterranean environment, and darkness is not an obstacle I want to routinely surmount. What I CAN say is that I'm still taken with the idea, and we MIGHT see an underground adventure at some point in our protagonist's journey. Maybe with dire wombats.
-Colony development was pretty clear. A small, established colony, dominated by a single city on the largest island and many outlying plantation communities on outlying islands.
-Leadership of the two territories was also fairly clear. The homeland is ruled with an iron fist by an "enlightened" despot. A few limitations exist for the nobility, similar to the Magna Carta, and an assembly of nobles and wealthy commoners legislates in the monarch's name. The monarch him/herself, however, exercises absolute authority and may alter, overrule, or disband this assembly at will. The colony is likewise ruled by an imperial viceroy, who in practice delegates much of his or her power to an elected colonial leader. Outlying communities mostly govern their own affairs, except for capital offenses.
-The tough one is the relationship between the colony and the homeland. Y'all were all over the map on this one, with a very slight plurality favoring nominal independence. I'm going to call an audible on this one and say that colonial sentiment is heavily mixed. There are plenty of loyalists, some simmering revolutionaries, but the bulk of the population doesn't care. They consider themselves citizens of the colony first, expatriates at best. It would not, however, take a whole lot of iron-fisted interference to tilt that balance, nor would it require much positive press for the empire to secure the colony's loyalty. This may end up being a major plot point, driven by your choices.
-Lastly, I was delighted with the suggestions you offered for why the colony was founded! Here they are:
Spoiler: Suggestions
Now, tossing out those which are silly or in jest (a place for ducks to sleep? Really, worst?), those which don't work given the other decisions (the host country wouldn't be friendly if it were spoils of war), and the overly-complex, I'm left with three broad motifs.
-The colony is a haven, source, or exile for magic-users, leading them to be vastly over represented in the colonial population.
-The colony developed under scientific and mercantile charter, and is dedicated towards research, exploration, and progress.
-Standard imperial colonialism (though I like the story of shipwrecked sailors who liked their new home)
I'll draw up the next survey, which will decide this last question and otherwise focus mostly on our protagonist himself."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Alrighty then, the next survey is live.
This one took a little extra time because while I'm feeling much better, I'm still a bit under the weather. I also implemented a number of format changes - some questions are now ranked order, and others are checkboxes with "Other" options. If it's a checkmark, feel free to select more than one, though bear in mind that checking everything might as well be checking nothing. I'm doing this to implement some elements of approval voting and find what works for the most number of people. Enjoy!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Ace is an option, feel free to lobby your fellow voters!In post 72, Felissan wrote:Oh no, I got here too late to campaign for making our hero ace"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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I'm going toIn post 78, xofelf wrote:
Excuse me, you're going toIn post 75, Pine wrote:I mean, the Mish Mash listmods tell me we're in strictly "fade to black" territory, though I could probably be convinced to bootleg some racier stuff.
Spicy pagetopwhat?
"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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There's a "no role at all" for the romance question, and "neither" for the preferences question.
Also, y'all are not required to put in as many choices as you're permitted - if you want to just put in a first option, that's okay."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Results time!
I'm afraid our first category was hotly contested, with a narrow margin going to the colony serving as a haven or penal colony for magic-users. I'm going to side with that plurality here. The other two would make excellent stories, but I think having magic as a relatively rare force everywhere except our colony provides a lot of juicy story elements.
This one was a bit easier, made more so when combined with the education question (not depicted). The basic reading/writing/arithmetic option and an apprenticeship in a trade were in a dead heat, so I'll take them. A write-in voter suggested silversmithing, and I like it. Our boy was apprenticed to a silversmith instead of working his uncle's ranch (ranch was a clear winner too). That brings us back to the above chart. Wealth acquisition works, but magical training and education (the highlighted bar) don't. So let's scroll down to the magic question.
Tight competition here too, but it looks like a moderate gift is dominant. So our boy was sent away from the ranch to apprentice with a silversmith in town, but when his power began to manifest itself at the age of thirteen, his apprenticeship was transferred to the academy of magical arts. Let's look at skills. This graph is a mess to screenshot, so I'll transcribe the results. The numbers on the left are first choice/second choice/third choice/fourth choice.
4/4/2/3 Interpersonal
2/0/1/3 Academic
2/1/2/3 Firearms
1/2/6/5 H2H
5/3/3/1 Duplicity
3/6/4/1 Wilderness
4/3/0/4 Engineering
0/2/2/1 Business
So, let's distill that down a bit. Let's give 4th choices one point, 3rd choice 2 points, etc.
35 Interpersonal
13 Academic
18 Firearms
27 H2H
36 Duplicity
41 Wilderness
29 Engineering
10 Business
Interesting! While Duplicity, Interpersonal, and Engineering were leading first choices, Wilderness was overall the most popular, with 2/3 of you putting it in your top three. Let's re-order those...
41 Wilderness
36 Duplicity
35 Interpersonal
29 Engineering
27 H2H
18 Firearms
13 Academic
10 Business
That gives us three broad groupings. Firearms, academic esoterica, and business sense are not strengths. He has a modest capability with gadgets and melee combat. His strengths, however, are in surviving on his own and manipulating others.
This gives me the impression of a rogueish, perhaps mocking ne'erdowell. In conjunction with his academic interest but low achievement, he's the restless type, who probably coasted through his magical education on his gift, excelling with his power but shirking the broader education they sought to impart. He got into a lot of fights, perhaps fell in with a bad crowd, and was kicked out of the academy at seventeen without graduating. Why was he kicked out? What happened next? What subsequent skills did he gain? That will be the focus of our next survey, which I'll put together in the morning, because I was on toddler duty all evening and am tired.
Before we go, one last subject to hash out. This one's an easy one:
The role of romance is straightforward. We're just going to see what happens, but it's likely to be a factor eventually. He enjoys the challenge of courtship, but likely isn't ready to settle down. His rogueish nature has led to a number of passing dalliances, but he is not quite a cad. His preferences are a bit less simple - straight and omnisexual tied for first choice, but a broader palette won out decisively in the lower ranks. I'm going to interpret this as a distinct preference for the ladies, but at the end of the day, his motto is "I'll try anything twice. Three times if rum is involved." Who knows what will happen?
See you in the morning with the next round! My aim is going to be to have that one up for 36 hours, wrapping up Sunday night (EDT)."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Okay, I definitely lied to myself, and stayed up into the wee hours writing the next oneand watchingGrey's Anatomyin the dark"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Results! Let's start with names, so I can start using them.
Spoiler: Suggestions
There's a lot of really useful stuff in there! After I issued the question, I decided that I'd draw from this pool of ideas to label a number of things in our world. I'm going to start working on a map, but we can put a name to many major locales.
There, now that we know what to call things, let's move on.
You folks were ALL over the map with this one. As there was no clear consensus by any stretch of the imagination, here's what I've got for you:
Magic was outlawed in the homeland a century ago. All magic-users were deported, fled, executed, or went into hiding. The nearby "host" nation was sympathetic, and allowed the founding of a colony off of its shore. When the homeland found out, they decided to let it be and sent colonial viceroys. Magic use remains outlawed in the homeland, but colonists can use it freely. As the ancestors of the colonists were virtually all gifted, the rate of magic use is very high. The "host" country does not ban magic use, but all sorcerers must be licensed by the state[/area]
Ugh, you guys are determined not to make this easy on me. Fortunately, I quite liked a write-in, and have incorporated it to spice things up:
Our boy's turning into a real scalawag, I hope you're happy. The remainder of the questions were about skills. These are once again visually-messy, and easier to discuss express numerically.
See? Messy. Once again, I assigned 1 point to a 4th choice, 2 points to a 3rd, etc.
In this case, I feel the numbers speak for themselves. Broadly, our boy is blessed with a silver tongue, enhanced to preternatural levels with judicious use of manipulative sorcery. He also has a penchant for more mundane feats of legerdemain and trickery, though he prefers to convince or beguile rather than the more brutish applications of the craft. He has spent considerable time in the wilds, and is self-reliant. He has traveled the Isles extensively, and is likely an adept sailor.
That's all for tonight, I'll try to work on the next survey first thing in the morning."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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The new survey is up!
I anticipate this to be the penultimate survey, concluding tomorrow night. The last survey will go up Wednesday, and I will aim to fill in some world details over the weekend with the first story page on Monday."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Haschel, this is why we can't have nice things.His house is made out of bricks of wombat poop, which is feasible because they poop cubes. Lately all the wombats on his wombat ranch have been pooping out all of the non-cube platonic solids but not cubes, so he can't repair his house. What sort of enchantment is causing these non-cubic wombat droppings?"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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In post 116, Jingle wrote:@Pine: In cases like the above linked image where some of the single answer submissions are cut off, could you include them in a plain text spoiler? I hope that I'm not the only one enjoying some of the more ridiculous answers, but in the event I am I straight up don't care about other people's opinions and want to read them anyway.
I'll do this in the morning. As of today, I'm off of work for at least a month.In post 117, xofelf wrote:
I want them too please.In post 116, Jingle wrote:@Pine: In cases like the above linked image where some of the single answer submissions are cut off, could you include them in a plain text spoiler? I hope that I'm not the only one enjoying some of the more ridiculous answers, but in the event I am I straight up don't care about other people's opinions and want to read them anyway."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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I was excited to see responses jump from 19 to 35 overnight, but it was mostly Haschel pushing his wombat poop agenda fourteen times.
Also, in a wild coincidence, I’m typically this post while Pinecone’s watches Frozen 2, and Olaf mentions that wombats poop squares. So I think that’s where he got it from..."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Spoiler: Write-Ins
Classic leads 9 to 8 over interspeciated, but the write-ins largely support an interspeciated world. This one was kind of tough, as it was effectively a tossup, but splitting the difference seems to be creating the most interesting outcomes, so let's do that.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Okay, so the consensus is for a softer, more flexible system of magic, allowing our protagonist (and you, the audience) to do pretty much whatever you like within the boundaries of his portfolio. I have to say, this troubled me a good deal, as deep down, I am a believer in Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic, but designing an intricate system with codified rules, limitations, and costs is a fairly massive undertaking for a project like this. I decided to go with a middle ground, giving you the flexibility to do what you like without completely giving away the farm.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Whew! Let's do something a little less heavy. Fine. Wombat wins. The protagonist has a familiar/animal companion, Bear the wombat. The protagonist can use magic to alter Bear's size, and often keeps him the size of a large housecat. Naturally, he is roughly the size of a large dog, but at need he can be grown to the size of an actual bear or as little as a squirrel. Happy? Bear the resizing wombat. He poops adorable little cubes. Every so often if he's feeling cheeky, he leaves behind a dodecahedron, because he's a goddamn magic wombat.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Taking into account the write-ins, temperate is the winner here, but let's not be boring.
Question Six wrote:The story needs to begin with our protagonist in some sort of dilemma. What kind of situation is he in? Be creative, feel free to make multiple suggestions.Spoiler: Write-ins
Okay, this is a bit of a mess. Picking and choosing, combining a few...
The story opens with...You know what? No. You'll find out! The details will come out in the first few chapters of our story about just how screwed the protagonist is."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
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Pine In Your Head
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Pine In Your Head
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Pine In Your Head
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As with bears, an animal that large and fierce would cause problems I don’t want caused and solve problems I don’t want (easily) solved. For example:
“Barkeep, may I have an ale?” “AHHHH A BEAR! RUN!”
or
“Give me all your money! Wait is that a bear? AHHHH A BEAR! RUN!“"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
- In Your Head
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- Posts: 16763
- Joined: February 27, 2011
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Pine In Your Head
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- Posts: 16763
- Joined: February 27, 2011
- Location: Upstate New York
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Pine In Your Head
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- Posts: 16763
- Joined: February 27, 2011
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Pine In Your Head
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Pine In Your Head
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Ah, so, it's important to note thatintentwill matter. So if you're shrinking Bear to enter a community and be civil etc, that would drop your ability to intimidate, maybe bluff etc. If you're enlarging him to fight, you'll be losing some of your control and finesse.
I'm playing it by ear"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
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I’m working on it. These days off are annoyingly busy. Now I’m expected to be productive with things I’ve been putting off. Like dishes. Or childcare.
I just spent four hours helping my dad chop firewood."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Thank you all for your patience! While this last survey is live, I'll be sketching out maps, planning the opening scenes, and making additional notes about likely areas we'll be visiting, NPCs we'll be meeting, etc. This will be live for 48 hours, and then we'll dive in with the story.
Enjoy!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
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Pine In Your Head
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Spoiler: Physical Traits for Adren
Spoiler: Behavioral Quirk for Adren
<<Adren's background secret will come out when it comes out>>
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Spoiler: Protagonist's Physical Traits
Spoiler: Protagonist's Behavioral Quirks
<<The protagonist's background secret will come out when it comes out>>"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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The main event!
Yikes! That's a lot. Granted, 41 of them came from Ircher *side eyes*.
Drumroll please!
Spoiler: Finalists
Go vote on the protagonist's name! A surname will be selected to match once the first name is chosen.
The first story update is due roughly 24 hours from now. See you then!"Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
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Pine In Your Head
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I'd rather not. Knowing the person involved, it was likely a joke in poor taste and not intended to be offensive. They also checked agender and genderfluid. I had to look up the meme myself just now to realize that it was a dog whistle and not merely silly.
You know who you are - please take this seriously in the future and think before you act."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
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It’s far more terrifying to envision Jingle as Carol/Cheryl/Carina
Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I’m getting my ducks in a row for the first story updates, doing background stuff. I’m drawing some maps tonight, Chickadee did a great portrait of Adren that I’m eager to share, I just want to be ready to go to a regular schedule once I start."Cry havoc, and let slip the wombat of war!"
Act 3, Scene 1 ofJulius Caesar, by W. Shakespeare-
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Pine In Your Head
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- Posts: 16763
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Pine In Your Head
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- Joined: February 27, 2011
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