"That which does not kill me has made a grievous tactical error." -- Logan "One-Eye" Ragnar

[mordrul]

Subtitle: More Bandwagoneering

Apparently I haven't had an original thought in my head for much of the week, but I don't mind. Found this in Hallan's LJ the other day: Ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

The above quote for One-Eye was given to me by Hallan, and originally

Comments

[mordrul]

In a word: Florence Ambrose (yes, I know that's really two words. Say it really fast).

In a more useful response:
A couple years back I was introduced to a really cool furry comic known as Poisoned Minds by a trio of friends on IRC. I found it immediately compelling, and spent that entire Thanksgiving holiday going through the archives (on a 28.8 modem that never actually reached such lofty speeds, no less -- this was while I was visiting my folks). One of the comics had a reference to Florence Ambrose, of whom I had no clue, so I did a Goggle search, and found Freefall. Over the course of two days I ended up reading the entire archives of both, which ended up sending my mind swimming with ideas. I've always entertained thoughts of what it would be like to be a superhero, as many do I'm sure, and of course I also entertained many thoughts about what it would be like to know Florence in person. This soon led to thoughts about what it would be like to be one of the Bowman's Wolves (Florence's species). As the Bowman's Wolves are a genetically-engineered creation, I soon thought about what might happen if a military corporation got involved, and soon led to story-line thoughts about what might result from such an endeavor (I'm almost thinking up entire stories, if only in my own head). For a while I even thought about the possibility of doing a comic along these lines -- this was back when I entertained the delusion that I could eventually learn to draw, of course. This, of course, went nowhere.

Well a few months later my aforementioned friends and I decided to check out Furry MUCK. We'd heard of it, but had never seen it (or any other MUCK, for that matter). And of course the only option for my character, as far as I was concerned, was a wolf. And soon I thought of my old idea of the Bowman's Wolf. I decided against that particular route, though, although I decided to base the personality on that same persona. And thus was Mordrul born. Those of you who've run into Mordrul know he's a very stiff sort of personality. "Straight man" isn't even in it. He's rigid enough to make Owen Burnett look like PeeWee Herman on an LSD binge (bonus points for picking up the reference). That does offer some avenues for good humor, but unfortunately he really requires someone else as instigator to play off of. After exploring the MUCK for a while, I came to find that the GC was really the only place worth visiting. And, unfortunately his personality really doesn't work very well in that place. So after a while, I got rather tired of playing him, and decided to explore a pseudo-character reference I'd made up as part of his backstory.

I wanted a character that was more or less everything Mordrul was not. Someone more worldly and experienced, and above all sociable. Someone who could walk into a room and start a conversation, or join one. And, being that I really only hang out at the GC, someone who could hold a conversation with a giant and not think twice about it. When I was thinking of the character originally, I dipped into my childhood and my favorite book of all time, Jack London's White Fang, and recalled the wolf who was the father of White Fang, named One Eye. A grizzled old wolf who had suffered the scars and wounds of countless battles, and walked away from every one as the victor (or presumably at least as a survivor). It seemed quite perfect for the character I was envisioning, both in name and physical appearance.