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[Samira Kernher]

Just an aside on the Amarrian characters sharing surnames with the Heirs.

The surnames of the Heirs are also names of Regions, therefore the name does not equate any kind of blood relationship. Sharing a surname with a Region might be something comparable to the surname of 'Snow' in the Game of Thrones. A common surname for bastards.

Which would be bloody hilarious if it were true. 

Those regions are the heirs' Holdings. Either the Holder family has been named after the Holding, or the Holding has been named after the Holder family. That means that anyone who possesses that surname is going to be related by blood to the heir, though it may be to an extremely limited degree (like some minor Holder off in Tash-Murkon who happens to be related by his aunt's cousin-twice-removed's nephew's etc etc etc). The Empire is a feudal society, which means Family names and lineages are extremely important.


To the main topic: Personally, I don't mind people sharing surnames of major characters as long as it's only to an extremely minor degree. That being said, it is frequently used to 'piggyback' fame and importance off of. Essentially, anyone who takes a surname of a famous character and then immediately draws reference to that name every chance they get, then it doesn't matter how far removed they are as it's clear OOC exploitation.

It's much, much safer to just make up your own, or to use names from very minor families (like some random agent off in nowhere's land). While it's theoretically perfectly feasible to have someone have the surname of Heth, or Sarum, or Ardishapur, or whoever, who is only very distantly related to the NPC, from an OOC level it's rather poor form since it's used badly so very often. It will instantly give people a sour opinion of you, which will be very difficult to recover from even if you do play it well.

[Jev North]

I don't care one bit whether someone is someone's great-old-uncle's nephew nine times removed. I happen to share a name and distant familial connection with a (relatively) famous writer. Beyond the occasional blink as people recognize the name, and some added anonymity as hits on me tend to be buried deep in search results about this person, the consequences on my own and other people's lives are zero. YMMV. vOv

[Alizabeth]

On another note, I tend to consider any background related to PF famous names (houses, or individuals) the same way a GM would consider it as "buying an advantage" for a character sheet. I usually expect the people using it to compensate for it and be subtle and clever about it.

tl;dr : as long as it's reasonably used with subtletly... I can accept almost everything.

Any advantage that was gained from that name, was thrown away in the same breath by declaring for the Guristas.  Sin's mail in response was literally: "I'll be watching your progress with a curious eye."  Which is how it should be.  No free passes for Seraphia based on her name.  For her, the last name of Tovil-Toba and five kredits will get her a cup of coffee at StarISKies.

The 'point' of RPing, for many people including me, is collaborative world-building, which requires a certain amount of awareness of the places where what you are building crosses over into other people's imaginative space.
Crossing into that space generally works much better if done with sensitivity and tact.

There's really not a way to communicate with the community as a whole.  Backstage does not represent all RPers, just a not insignificant number of them. 
What's the difference between someone that happens to have a famous last name and someone that says, "I served in the CalNav for 27 years and now that I'm in the capsule, I'm going to torch this place?"   The latter, I think, has a lot more implications. 

You know why this happened?  Because I'm sicker than a dog and could not think up a good last name.  I remembered my 5 greats uncle was Someone Important (vice president of the Confederacy.  Although, if we'd won, he'd be Someone More Important, heh) and thought, huh, that could be cool. 
I'm a Marine Corps fangirl.  Hell, I'm such a crazy fan that I joined them. (Which, I am sure you all will admit is some hard corps fandom, seeing how the country was at war when I enlisted.)  I once had the opportunity to meet General Vandegrift's--you know the former Commandant that saved the Marine Corps--granddaughter.  It took me all of two seconds to realize that there was nothing important about her, she was 17 and about as far from a Marine as one can get.  I was all polite, and moved on. 
I saw the name as a flaw.  She has a huge complex about her, having grown up being told about how great the family was and never being able to live up to the standard.  She's left the State not so much for any of the reasons listed on the thread--propaganda being propaganda--but to be somewhere that her name doesn't mean anything.  She was a huge screw up at SWA; her callsign "Chaos" comes from her disregard for orders.  She would just do what she wanted.  She also graduated near the bottom of her class. 

[Lyn Farel]

I saw the name as a flaw.  She has a huge complex about her, having grown up being told about how great the family was and never being able to live up to the standard.  She's left the State not so much for any of the reasons listed on the thread--propaganda being propaganda--but to be somewhere that her name doesn't mean anything.  She was a huge screw up at SWA; her callsign "Chaos" comes from her disregard for orders.  She would just do what she wanted.  She also graduated near the bottom of her class. 

Well actually I find that more interesting. The main issue imo is that that specific thing was not emphasized and the focus was on something completely different, like the political views she holds, so people immediatly thought of a strawman alt or whatever.

I may have missed something of course, but that was definitly not the impression I got from the character when reading the IGS thread.

[Alizabeth]

I saw the name as a flaw.  She has a huge complex about her, having grown up being told about how great the family was and never being able to live up to the standard.  She's left the State not so much for any of the reasons listed on the thread--propaganda being propaganda--but to be somewhere that her name doesn't mean anything.  She was a huge screw up at SWA; her callsign "Chaos" comes from her disregard for orders.  She would just do what she wanted.  She also graduated near the bottom of her class. 

Well actually I find that more interesting. The main issue imo is that that specific thing was not emphasized and the focus was on something completely different, like the political views she holds, so people immediatly thought of a strawman alt or whatever.

I may have missed something of course, but that was definitly not the impression I got from the character when reading the IGS thread.

I didn't want to give everything away in the first post. . . .
Alizabeth deceives, misdirects, lets people falsely assume and sometimes outright lies in her RP.  You may assume that Seraphia will do likewise. 
Seraphia, though, is also lying to herself.  She's convincing herself that going Guri is for the betterment of the Caldari people.  As time goes on and she kills more and more State ships, her ability to doublethink is going to be checked.  What happens then, I don't know.

[Lyn Farel]

I am not saying that she necessarily should do the contrary.

I am just saying that's what brought the problem up.

And did you have to take Tovil-Toba ? Why not an imaginary lesser admiral caldari hero ? Should have worked better imo.

[Ava Starfire]

Just adding my 2 cents

Some people get aseninely "youre doing it wrong" over the most simple, pedestrian things. I have had people go on great windy tirades at me, IC and OOC, because Ava has an Amarrian grandparent. "Even if that were true, you cannot produce the records to prove it!!!" .

So, I was taken to task over something in Ava's backstory for something that, uh... what was the problem with that, I still wonder?

Unless people appear and claim "I am teh son of teh empess!" I really think backstory is an area where people should have a pretty free hand. That is as fundamental to your character as it gets. Make sure youre not decrying something simply because it isnt what you would do.

[Alizabeth]

Ava! \o/ 

If I could plusrep your post, I would.  I would then make hundreds of alt accounts and plusrep it some more. 

[ArtOfLight]

Just a personal input, I suppose.

My response to these kinds of things is usually to focus on the substance of the character's character (heh) and have my characters respond accordingly. For example, in the case of young "Chaos" Malcolm hasn't mentioned one word about her heritage. Why? Because her heritage is irrelevant.

Even to a Caldari, whom tradition and heritage mean a great deal, the girl is advocating joining the Guristas which pretty much means she's forsaken any heritage she had and Malcolm basically just adopts the mindset "your Ancestors have forsaken you, time to earn your own merit" and he plays it accordingly. Accordingly, all of his discussion with her thus far has been arguing against her "for the good of the State, join the Guristas" mindset.

Likewise and Amarrian (whom heritage is also important to) would likely treat the character with a level of formality based on their name. For example, if you're a minor Holder in the Sarum family, my Holder (coming from a no-name family) would likely treat you with the respect you deserve - the respect of a minor Holder. He'd then pay attention to your political stances and see how similar they are to the rest of House Sarum and judge you individually from there.

TL;DR - Names be damned, stand on your own two feet. At least, as far as me and my characters are concerned.

On that note, the points made by Ciarente regarding forcing other players and characters to accept certain things based on your assertions and presumptions are really good points.

[Desiderya]

To me it looked like the name got dropped to add further validation to the point.
"Tovil-Toba would disprove of the current State and I should know."
Add into that that this alt's sole purpose seems to be posting on the IGS.


While I agree that names themselves are rather unimportant I'd like to add that once you start using them to further an agenda that is related to them they tend to matter a great deal.

[ArtOfLight]

While I agree that names themselves are rather unimportant I'd like to add that once you start using them to further an agenda that is related to them they tend to matter a great deal.

True.

[Alizabeth]

The character is not an IGS poster.  I made another account so I could train her up to do things.  Aliza and Sang are very restricted in their RP, as nothing that affects their place in GSF is tolerated.  This alt will not be joining goons, but will be doing missions in venal, pvp in blackrise and placid and high sec ganking (piracy at it's best!)
Which is kinda why I made this thread, so that some misconceptions can be cleared up. 

[Natalcya Katla]

I have to agree with Isis - Seraphia's last name isn't going to buy her any favors at all (especially since she's gone Gurista), and the relation is distant enough that I don't see the big issue.

There's a good handful of lesser Kuvakeis running around out there, last I checked, including an old Aurora character. To the best of my knowledge, not a single one of them has made the slightest bit of impact, unwelcome or otherwise, on Sansha RP.

[Anslol]

Just adding my 2 cents

Some people get aseninely "youre doing it wrong" over the most simple, pedestrian things. I have had people go on great windy tirades at me, IC and OOC, because Ava has an Amarrian grandparent. "Even if that were true, you cannot produce the records to prove it!!!" .

So, I was taken to task over something in Ava's backstory for something that, uh... what was the problem with that, I still wonder?

Unless people appear and claim "I am teh son of teh empess!" I really think backstory is an area where people should have a pretty free hand. That is as fundamental to your character as it gets. Make sure youre not decrying something simply because it isnt what you would do.

All of my this. As long as it's feasible, backgrounds shouldn't be PROVE IT PROVE IT. If it were, every single thing ever done in RP would be questioned and dismissed. Nothing would be done, NOTHING. EVERYTHING would be contributed to capsuleer dementia until everyone has been branded crazy.

[Esna Pitoojee]

To me it looked like the name got dropped to add further validation to the point.
"Tovil-Toba would disprove of the current State and I should know."
Add into that that this alt's sole purpose seems to be posting on the IGS.


While I agree that names themselves are rather unimportant I'd like to add that once you start using them to further an agenda that is related to them they tend to matter a great deal.

This is definitely what it felt like to me - "I am not yet important, so here is a name to make me so."

This doesn't preclude the character becoming a standalone character in the future, of course, but it's a rocky start.