[Ansteorra] Persona stories

Harris Mark.S-rsve60 Mark.s.Harris at motorola.com
Mon Apr 15 12:24:46 PDT 2002


Elysia replied to me with:
> >I think it is less important to know all about the politics
> of the Courts of Europe and who the King is sleeping with
> than what your liege lord may expect from you and what you
> had for dinner yesterday, do you walk most places or do you
> have access to a horse, when did you get your last set of
> clothes and when can you expect to get another? etc.
>
> HL Stefan,
>
> When I spoke of a persona story, I intended it to be the
> personal history of
> the persona - where she was born, who her parents were, where
> they chose to
> live and why, siblings, what her plans for the future are,
> etc. Not to focus
> on the political or socio-economic history of the time, but to give my
> persona a solid foundation.
>
> My apologies for not being more clear in my intention.

Yes, perhaps I wandered off a bit from what you were saying. It is
often useful to have an outline of your persona history. But I think
the main purpose of this outline is to provide something to hang
the other details on and to help decide what these details weill be.

What I was arguing against were the persona stories that are fantastical
stories of journeying from say England to China and back again, while
being kidnapped into slavery, seducing the owner, escaping because
of those half-dozen trades you picked up along the way, impressing
a nobleman so much he adopted you as his daughter etc. Somewhat
possible, see Marco Polo. But rather unlikely. And in many cases
made up to justify the wearing of a chinese brooch or some such.

I think it is the details that bring out the persona. The details
of your own persona's life. Not knowing the details of the King's
life, as unless you were a part of the court or maybe from rumor, you
would not know. And you might not really care. In a feudal land, you
would probably be much more interested in what was going on with
your liege lord. He would have a lot more influeance, good or bad,
on your life than that far-away king.

As I said, take a look at the file I mentioned. It gives a number
of persona background stories, both good and bad. You may learn
from all of them, and they are interesting anyway.

Stefan



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