So, with Aria entering a(nother) new phase, this seems like a good time to discuss character inspirations. Generally speaking, I've tried to make my characters as "real" as possible ... but with, maybe, a little mythic flavoring for color and texture. We are playing a game of metaphorical demigods, after all.
For the original Aria Jenneth, aka Yun Hee Ryeon, I drew inspiration from the
kumiho and Nine-Tails stories, which focus on sorcery, trickery, and inhuman menace, with an array of other symbolic sources (spectral/ghostly and bird imagery). Yun Hee thinks of herself as a monster, and fears her own humanity. The primary traits are a charisma and intelligence but also a mercurial and perverse nature, with a strong undertone of grinning malice. In spite of her somewhat Zen-flavored religious beliefs, Yun Hee has a massive grudge against the world that she can't seem to shake.
Aside from her compassionate streak where other immortals are concerned, her main saving grace is that (contrary to the Nine-Tails myth, but more like the kumiho) her ambitions are limited. Her motives are largely a blend of self-preservation and the satisfaction of the hunt and kill (literal, metaphorical, whatever). If she's showing
this side of her personality, she either recognizes you as a fellow monster or it no longer matters to her whether you see the danger or not.
The contemporary Aria Jenneth, aka Vesper, lacking Yun Hee's pain, is less predatory; her nature's intentionally ambiguous. She's less kumiho and more
tengu-- not a shapechanger and not really malevolent, but dangerously insightful in a die-hard morally relativistic sort of way, a little alien in a bright-eyed, birdlike sort of way, and preternaturally good with a sword in a not-actually-using-a-sword sort of way. (How many characters get to start life with all battleships trained to 5?) Her primary traits are curiosity, intelligence, mild but indiscriminate compassion, and a profound dedication to her personal integrity. Though this is a slowly decreasing factor in her life, she's only loosely attached to the world, and she sees her integrity as one of the only really defining traits she's sure she has.
Vesper's dark side, if that's the word for it, comes chiefly from a lack of interest in moral judgments. She's more interested in finding her place in the world than in whether that place is on the "right" or "wrong" side, and if that place involves killing people by the (literal) boatload, she'll take to that as willingly as anything else. She does believe in doing a job properly and minimizing suffering, though, so at least she'll make it quick. If she's in
this posture (probably metaphorically, unless someone teaches her iaijutsu), she's not bluffing, and you really are in danger of getting your innards split. And she's not likely to blink when she does it, either.
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Topic: [Character] Aria Jenneth (Read 17818 times)