Annotated 14-6
The early art of this page was, IIRC, even more obvious about the adventurers at Kepfer’s Keep paralleling the five adventurers we’d spent the most time with– except Pyre, who very loosely approximates E-Merl, saving us from having to consider what a “more gnomish and somehow accepted Bandit Keynes” would look like. Again IIRC, that was John’s idea. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Gnome Best.
The whole idea of gnomish Peacemakers struck me as odd, though, because our heroes are basically a band of misfits. Each is somehow unable to function in the life they led prior to joining the team, either because they’re exiled (Gravedust, Bandit) or self-exiled (Frigg, Scipio, Syr’Nj) or because that life no longer exists for them to go back to (Byron, Rachel, Frigg again) or can’t support them (E-Merl). And gnomish society is, as Bandit describes it here and as we saw it then, a society almost without misfits, one that rejects what misfits it finds.
But one of the thematic conflicts that drives Guilded Age is whether adventurers are, in general, outside society or a part of its ecosystem. Hewie and Pyre, at least, seem to be more like police than nomadic do-gooders for hire. Which makes the gnomes’ feelings about the Peacemakers being “not our law” a little more understandable.
It occurs to me that, as far as I can remember, we’ve never been told *anything* about Scipio’s background. Where did he come from, and what exactly is he self-exiled *from*?
He was a gladiator/pit fighter, who wanted to put the glorification of violence behind him, if I remember correctly. We learned that when he decided to stay with the elves, or when he fell in love with Syr’nj’s sister — can’t remember.
It was in Chapter 20. I know because I got TWO “Official Phil Kahn Gold Stars” within a week, one of which was for Scipio’s flashback.
My own little binary system:
http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-20-page-8/
http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-20-page-11/
Both, really…he tells the story twice, first to Fr’nj, fairly early in their courship, the second time to Syr’nj, when he’s explaining why he’s going with Fr’nj back to the elven lands, instead of staying with the Peacemakers.
The latter is where the ‘trying to get away from violence’ comes in – it’s a new thing for him. The story he tells Fr’nj reads to me more like he feels violence is all he can offer, and the position he earned through his gladiatorial successes gave him responsibilities he felt unqualified for (‘you can dress a scorpion as a king, but he’ll still be a scorpion’).
It’s interesting that the story only comes up in contexts where Scip’s player (whose name I’m blanking on) can’t be sharing it with other sepia-worlders – first he shares it only with Fr, who’s stated to be an NPC (ie, someone with only an Arkherran self), then with Syr (whose sepia-self is gone)…after…well…after everything. I wonder if his player even had a backstory in mind for him, or if the Arkherran version just filled in the blanks she’d left.
Kronk is an absolute jewel.
Here’s an interesting thought/question…. How long has Kingdoms of Arkerra been running at this point? Bandit, a PC-based player, has a BACKSTORY that’s integrated into the world. Or is that somehow an aspect of the character “creation” in this game?
There’s an interesting thought…. that players don’t actually CREATE characters so much as pick from existing world inhabitants? I imagine people might be upset about the lack of customization, though…
My guess is an aspect of character creation. If a very in depth one. But World of Warcraft has been going since 2004, that is more than enough time to craft, and play through a backstory, so if KoA has been going for even half as long it’s possible these could have been played.
The answer is that it was always more than a game, so it’s irrelevant how the game portrays it to players, the game is just an interface, reinterpreting a reality to people who think the interpretation is all there is.
Shadows on the wall of the cave, as it were.
Being more than a game doesn’t really answer how it works as a game while being an complete world where everyone has backstories and stuff, and they are interesting questions. Not much point wondering about them though since we know it won’t be answered but how being a game while being more than a game works is the question not the answer.
They do talk at one point about the game picking up Byron’s player’s ideas about him being a berserker and integrating that into itself, creating an entire new mechanic that annoyed Daedelus….
It seems like Bandit’s backstory could work the same way.