Given the recent subject of the 20 questions game, I got to thinking about all the small and sundry characters that fill our worlds so our protagonists aren't bumbling around in empty places looking for things to do.

So what better way to show appreciation than to show our appreciation?!

This thread is dedicated to any minor character you or another wrote that you just enjoyed reading or writing about. So give a little love and support for our loving supporting cast!

I suppose it depends on how "minor" we're talking about here, but one character of mine I've always liked was Royce Ingot from "Whisperweft." For one thing, it's just a fun name. For another, he's just this poor, unfortunate character who gets caught up with Orida's plans (as well as her family drama). Also, he's got a unique tool/weapon, his hammer-with-a-chain-attached, which is pretty sweet.

Mostly, I like his last few moments "on screen" and then his sudden re-appearance. It was an interesting (to me at least) way to utilize Orida's unique power, and a way to have some character development for someone who is fairly stoic throughout the tale.

I'm actually pretty happy with all of the "minor" characters in "Whisperweft." I'm pleased with how that story came out.

Thinking about it, the story of mine where I probably put the most into the minor characters would probably be "The Cruel Finale." That story was written primarily to establish the characters of Penelophine, Tharandias, Morgezka Shanak, and Baracon (who passes on the Kahvan Saber to Nithka centuries later). But, I was also establishing the sort of circles the Dual-Walkers moved in, and so it was important to me to have numerous oldwalkers around to witness the atrocities in the games. I designed the periphery 'walkers to be expandable if anyone wanted to dig into their back stories or continue them forward, although to date only the Ruk Gang have gotten any expansion, and that's if we consider "The Pinch" to be about the Ruk Gang, which has never been officially established.

I'll give a quick retrospective of the characters here, and since I brought them up specifically, I'll start with the Ruk Gang.











Most of the other characters, like Penelophine and Tharandias, were basically minor characters at the time (although Penelophine sort of becomes the POV character by the end) but both move beyond "minor character" status in The War of the Wheel.

Fairly interesting stuff Raven. Thanks for sharing!

Honestly, I've been spoiled for choices when it comes to my own indulgences, so I've not worked out where to start. So, I'll let the audience decide!
Name any story I've worked on or character I've done and I'll ramble a little about who they are and how they came to be.

For my own money (no shock, because I'm honestly a bit self centered) but I've always liked Raven's Bill Hours. The pun is already cheeky, but the idea of a shyster getting hoisted quite so fatally by his own petard, particularly as he didn't likely deserve anything THAT gruesome just scratches a schadenfreude itch which probably explains why so many of my bigger characters are villainous.

Yeah, Bill Hours was fun. I think what I like best about poor old Bill is that he really was a talented craftsman. If he had just been patient, and not tried to scam anybody, he probably could have retired peacefully in a few years anyway. It also doesn't help that he chose as his first, and only, scam target the very worst person on the entire plane to try to scam. That's some major league bad luck there.

The funny thing about the name is that, unlike most of my punny names, it wasn't even intended as a pun. The name "Bill Hours" just sort of popped into my head, and I liked it. The title sort of became a pun in response to the name, rather than the other way around.

And I still love the line: "Parts of Bill Hours did, too."

Now that's gruesome.




Alright, well, since it was first thought in the 20 questions thread, how about you talk a little about Dion, the Satyr from "Gifts?"

sometimes you eat the bear, but...

And what I love about that particular line is it has this strong Exploitation style to it that really nails a gritty kind of wild west full of scoundrels.


Dion, as could probably be surmised, got his name nabbed from Dionysus and exists as a sort of external manifestation of Alessa's addiction, in both the postive and negative fashion. Alessa is effectively blind to what is around her, as obsessed as she is with staying rooted in the present, it means she's basically blind to the actual details. (Being, as she is, imprisoned by the memory of her past and awash in her prescience)

I chose Dion as a satyr specifically because he's a non-human*, and it's played towards that difference that draws Alessa to him. Unlike Kona and Aerik or Saigo and his Centauress love, with an emotional connection that drives them to bond with their similarities, Alessa will sleep with basically anyone because she simply doesn't see the physical and/or social differences and, to be crude, she's not that concerned with the possibility of more bestial encounters. In that regard, we see her as being widely nonjudgemental towards other races. It is precisely because Dion has, to be polite, Bestial appendages that I chose him to be a non-human, to demonstrate how little Alessa cares about such things, for better or worse. He ended up a Satyr, specifically, so I could make the pun about her being Pansexual.

As to Dion himself, he shows a good deal of affection for Alessa because despite what she wants, he DOES feel a connection with her, but it isn't one born of hedonism, rather, kinship. He's the guy at the party loudly saying 'I'm having a blast!' because he's trying to convince himself as much as anyone else. He feels as an outsider and recognizes that quality in Alessa, though he doesn't fathom the true depths why. Dion was raised in the Polis and gravitated towards a trajectory AWAY from Nylea and the wilder side of his kind's habits, but he still feels the compulsion to join the bachanalia precisely because he doesn't really want to as much as he feels he should. He's acting the part of the Satyr so he can feel accepted.

So, when he volunteers to find her, he immediately asks what's wrong. He cares about her as more than a fling and would really rather stay and try to listen and help instead of going back in. He only does so, in the end, because he believes it is what Alessa wants. Which... is what Alessa believes she wants too.

Well, if you insist.

I'll start with Thamesworth. So my first name for him was going to be Red Airing. I toyed with the concept a bit, but ultimately thought it wasn't fleshed out enough to be so blatant. I also wrestled with just what kind of creature he should be, butdecided there wasn't a lot of benefit to going too far out of the norm, not least because Nuwar is so sketchy with such details

At this stage, I was really struggling to resist making overt Clue references, but still wanted to homage Tim Curry's brilliant performance as Wardsworth. Smooshing the names together gave me Timsworth, and for a while it was his working name, but it still felt plain enough that I decided to slip in the homophone lifted from the River Thames.

Thamesworth's character, acting in the capacity of suspect that the Butler did it, necessitated a very fastidious and particular professional pride that even in the face of being a murderer, he weighted a breach in etiquette to be more egregious to his duty than his employer's demise.

Erisbeth came from needing a softer character, someone to act in the interest of the victim. It's pretty clear that her name derives from Elizabeth, but again, it lacked that fantasy oomph. Erisbeth ended up letting me play with some of my favorite turns of phrases in the piece but she doesn't exist very far outside being a plot device, mostly because she is a very mundane individual. She enjoyed her job and her place in the world. Everything made sense to her and she didn't have big dreams. That's what made the events so much more impactful to her and I hope that came through in her brief appearance.

It's funny, because I didn't connect Thamesworth with Tim Curry/Wadsworth all that much, but I did think about Clue when Donagut asked what a butler does ("I butle."). I really love that movie, so I definitely appreciate the nod.

Honestly, the character I did think about when Thamesworth was "on screen" was Hokin, the majordomo of the Mirrored Palace on Lefkos, from The War of the Wheel. They both have that sort of "duty above all" mentality. Of course, Thamesworth proves to be all the more dedicated to his duty than Hokin, due to some extraordinary circumstances, but I did find the connection interesting.


Yeah, I would say that came through. She was a good character to lay the groundwork of the scene and re-contextualize, if only slightly, what Nallry had already told Donagut. I liked her tic of constantly adjusting her uniform, as well.