Isn’t it amazing the amount of baggage that is attached to words, particularly to names, when used in the English language?

An odd start to a long delayed entry, perhaps, but I’m kinda working my way through something here. Currently, I’ve been writing, for those of you who know, a D&D campaign based on the world of Epitheisterra, a place originally created by myself and a friend from America at the end of 2001. Originally intended as an C-RPG, shelved, dabbled with a bit (by myself at least), and finally resurrected in a somewhat-similar form to its original intention, Epitheisterra was and is a story that melds a variety of myths from various cultures from human history into an ‘epic-esque’ storyline that basically goes forth as a fantasy/fiction style writing, with emphasis on corruption, moral values, sacrifice, the idea of self, and so on.

(Oh, and Robert, if you’re reading this and shaking your head… I admit, I’ve made some changes. Just some!)

Seriously though, a lot of what has been ‘played’ in Epitheisterra so far by my D&D friends (‘the old crowd’) has had a lot of focus on drawing meaning from predisposed ideas and notions, and reinterpreting them to fit a pattern I’ve been trying to create. I do this a fair bit in my writing, it’s getting to be a bit of a habit.

As I spoke about with Colin, a ‘fantabulous lecturer’ to quote, it can be very useful to use characters that are already present in the minds of the audience. You could consider it the ‘lazy way’ of setting up your characterisation, as you are drawing on preconceived notions of how characters will act and react, which means that you don’t have to do as much work.

‘Course, I do this not to detract from what I have to do, but rather to enhance it. For instance, have a glance at this piece I wrote for class as an example. Here, the exercise was to write a 750 word piece involving two characters and their interaction. I chose to go with one, shall we say, very well known character, and another renowned character, and then I subverted them for fun and profit. What I was doing wouldn’t have worked at all without them - Bill and Fred wouldn’t have been useable in this context, for instance, without massive character set up.

Cheating? Or enhancing?

This approach is something similar to what I’m doing in Epitheisterra. Basically, to spoil the plot, I’m working with religious figures and objects at the moment - specifically the angelic/archangelic figures of Jewish tradition (yes, Jewish), and a kind of fusion between the Greek Gods and Titans.

For instance, I have the Titan Prometheus. Lovely chap, friendly as all, does his homework. Also goes by the alias Gabriel, one of the hands of God. Why Gabriel? Why Prometheus? Because as contradictory as those two characters are, they actually form a cogent whole that works very, very well, bringing elements from both backgrounds.

To conclude (though I haven’t really made a point, have I?) I’ll leave you with this piece I was hammering together whilst thinking something Epi related, but rather tangential - this might get used somewhere else entirely :)

*I am Aurora, she who opens the gates to the new dawn.

I am Mjolnir, he who shatters the sun in a cascade of sparks.

I am Sahaqiel, she who mates with the spirits of the floating wind.

I am Lucifer, he who whips his flesh with lashes of spirit.

I am Lilith, she who touches the soul of the One True God.

I am Sammael, he who rejects the soul of the One True God.

rnI am Aeternalis.*

rnAlcata’riel.

-Andiyar