[2020-02] Some novel character portraits

The second is correct (if a bit formal).

When I was a kid, I heard the English greeting used for the first time meeting was... "How do you do". Over the years, it's a greeting that I seem to remember only from the movie of Roman Holiday, when the princess used it on a formal occasion to a journalist. 😆
 
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I just finished the first draft of the dialogue on the documentary literature. @capi3101, I have no idea if I have understood the concept correctly, could you please check the example? Thanks so much!

april "So, before we do a discussion on this part, I would like to make sure we're clear on one thing:"
april "What is documentary literature and how is it different from journalism?"
april "Who would like to give examples?"

april "Oh, yes. Please, Sylvie!"

sylvie "Allow me to use an excerpt from a sports report as an example."
sylvie "\"Coach Axel of the football team was interviewed, indicating that the team is really under pressure at this stage of the schedule and confessed that he just had a sleepless night to think about the tactics for the next few games.\""
sylvie "I believe this is something journalism."
sylvie "And the documentary literature version could be..."
sylvie "\"It was four o'clock in the morning, Coach Axel knew he could no longer fall asleep anymore. He climbed out of bed, lit a cigarette and took puffs deeply, then snuffed it out harshly in the ashtray.\""
sylvie "\"Looking out the window, he saw on the horizon a faint morning glow. The tired coach sighed long and hard, \'What a hard schedule\'.\""

april "Very good! Thank you, Sylvie!"

april "So, could any one tell me what is the difference between these two styles of writing?"

"I believe while the second style of writing is also based on fact, it contains fictional elements."

"I think the scenario of the coach losing sleep was fictionalized by the author based on the interview."
"These events took place in the coach's bedroom in the early morning, so the author certainly wouldn't have witnessed."

april "A very good answer!"

april "We can hardly imagine a journalist seeing a coach tossing and turning in the bedroom at 4 a.m., getting up to smoke and sighing quietly. This is clearly a fiction of the author."

mike "Not necessarily. This could be made to be witnessed if the reporter was the coach's nonvrash, his lair mate."

elena "..."

sylvie "..."

harga "..."

april "Mike..."

mike "Come on, professor, I think I just made our discussion more logical and rigorous."
mike "What's more, our feline buddies can understand it much more impressively this way to explain it."
mike "Guess what? I find the word nonvrash of Kilrah very vivid and apt."
mike "The word should be made up of two elements: non and vrash, lair and mate."
mike "So..."

april "OK, we'll have a chance to discuss this topic later. Now let's get back to the subject of this lesson."

mike "Oh, all right, all right."

"(Then, Professor April told us more about documentary literature.)"
 
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I think this is close to being right. A journalistic report would contain nothing but facts - the reporter's opinion wouldn't (read: shouldn't) factor into the story at all. A documentary would contain facts as presented through the lens of whoever's producing it, so it may contain a greater degree of the reporter's opinions/bias. Historical fiction would be based on facts but could contain fictional elements / events that the author wasn't necessarily privy to; some pieces of historical fiction are presented in the format of documentary, Action Stations being arguably a relevant example. "Documentary literature" would probably cover the latter two of these three.
 
A documentary would contain facts as presented through the lens of whoever's producing it, so it may contain a greater degree of the reporter's opinions/bias.

Am I to understand that the second example, even if the event was witnessed by the reporter, should count as documentary rather than journalistic writing, since the depiction exists from the lens of the producer?

... some pieces of historical fiction are presented in the format of documentary, Action Stations being arguably a relevant example.

This is for the WC story world, right? I mean, we are talking about Action Stations by Col. Wilhelm Schwarzmont.
 
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Am I to understand that the second example, even if the event was witnessed by the reporter, should count as documentary rather than journalistic writing, since the depiction exists from the lens of the producer?

I'm going to go with "yes" in answer to the question; after writing that down yesterday I spent a fair amount of time considering and re-considering, and re-considering what I wrote down to make sure I was telling the truth, and after all that thought put in, I still think that's right.

I think the issue I had with it is that even a journalistic report can contain a reporter's bias/opinion/interpretation of events in as much as they can be open to interpretation. It really all depends on how many hands touch a story (reporters, producers, editors, etc.). Informational gatekeeping - fun topic (read this sarcastically...). Takes me back to graduate school, which was also fun (read that as extremely sarcastic...).

This is for the WC story world, right? I mean, we are talking about Action Stations by Col. Wilhelm Schwarzmont.

Yes, that's what I meant.
 
I'm going to go with "yes" in answer to the question; after writing that down yesterday I spent a fair amount of time considering and re-considering, and re-considering what I wrote down to make sure I was telling the truth, and after all that thought put in, I still think that's right.

I hope I haven't taken up too much of your time. Thanks so much!

And a funny thing. In this class plot, the feline student is first asked to ensure that there is no taboo on class discussion. But then, everyone makes efforts to avoid discussing certain Terran-related topics. For example, Melek's SPECIAL hospitality to Blair.... And I didn't even notice it until I finished the first draft. Perhaps it seems a little ironic. 😆

This part of the plot looks like it needs to continue to be tweaked a bit. Honestly, the entire second chapter could be an hour long and with only two options at the moment, it's slightly less. 😥
 
It took me half a day to add to this discussion plot:

(The first half is an addition to the previous topic. The second half... one student brings up a topic that might be a bit off-topic and could lead to debates, then...)

april "If this is really what the reporter saw with the reporter's own eyes, is this piece of writing journalistic?"


"I still don't think so."
"Although the facts described could be true, the penmanship used in recounting those facts conveys some additional information of the reporter to the reader."
"It's a matter of perspective, say, \"lens\". The same thing looks different when viewed from different lens."
"These different lens are likely to come from the subjective attitudes of the reporters."

"I think that's one of the things that sets documentaries apart from journalism."

april "A very good answer!"

april "A journalistic report SHOULD contain ONLY facts."
april "The reporter's own likes and dislikes should be excluded as much as possible."
april "That is an ideal situation to be pursued."


mike "But through the ages, some reporters have not been keen to pursue this."
mike "\"Le 26, le Corse est parti de l’Ile d’Elbe;\n On the 26th, Corsica left the Island of Elba;\""
mike "\"Le 30, Buonaparte est débarqué à Cannes avec 600 hommes;\n On the 30th, Buonaparte landed at Cannes with 600 men;\""
mike "\"Le 4 mars, le général Bonaparte s’est emparé de Grenoble;\n On March 4, General Bonaparte seized Grenoble;\""
mike "\"Le 11, Napoléon a fait son entrée à Lyon;\n On the 11th, Napoleon entered Lyon;\""
mike "\"Hier l’Empereur a été reçu à Fontainebleau au milieu des acclamations;\n Yesterday the Emperor was received at Fontainebleau amidst cheers;\""
mike "\"Et sa Majesté Impériale et Royale est attendue aux Tuileries demain 20 mars...\n And His Imperial and Royal Majesty is expected at the Tuileries tomorrow, March 20...\""
mike "This is a summary of some of the rhetoric in some of the previous publications made by the newspaper Le Nain Jaune."
mike "Napoleon, ever-changing."
mike "Alas, Terrans are always so interesting."


harga "Well, it's not unique to Terrans."


harga "In fact, an old scribe of our clan is very good at this kind of penmanship."
harga "If you would like to read, I can find some of the reports he did during the past war era."
harga "He was of a higher level than the Imperial Royal scribes because he often didn't even have to conceal the facts to render a completely different atmosphere."

li "..."

mike "Wow, I wanna read it!"

elena "Well, the paragraph I just read is a piece of documentary."


april "It is so. The information declassified over the recent years confirms the veracity of this description. But it remains the penmanship of a documentary."


harga "I understand. I think, that at that time, those words were really somewhat sensitive."
harga "Even now, there are many Kilrathi who are not happy to hear it, even though the facts over the recent years have validated the forward-looking nature of those words."

li "At that point, although the Empire had been defeated, the Kilrathi were not incapable of continuing the fight, right?"
li "Please don't be embarrassed if it's not easy to answer."
harga "Let's put it this way, at that point, for either of our races, continuing the war might not be a good choice anymore."
harga "Just as what Chancellor Melek said, \"Perhaps the only hope for either of our races is to face the future together.\""
li "It's wise to compromise when morale has hit rock bottom while still having a few resources remain on the hand."
harga "And, Lord Melek had great courage in making such an unprecedented decision."
harga "Afterall, \"It is an action unlike any we have ever taken.\""
harga "I was born after the war, so..."

harga "I probably need to ask more of my elders and others who lived through those times."

elena "Alas, I suppose the Colonel himself had given up hope when he was caught and brought before Lord Merak. And what happened after that was surprising enough."

"(Indeed.)"
"(Thanks to the Treaty of Torgo, we can now take classes here with ease.)"
"(If that hadn't happened... now... might we have been swallowed up by the darkness from the galactic core?)"
"(Never mind, my brain isn't ready to consider something so complicated.)"

"(Then, Professor April told us more about documentary literature.)"
 
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One idea, when official backstory tips appear in the original plot flow, I can always mark their provenance in the upper right corner.

Adjusted lines:

People hear the story about Melek's invitation to Blair to board (the legendary version of the corresponding plot of the WC4 novel). Then...

...

mike "That's it?"

harga "Eh..."

mike "Come on! Yes, I know this is literature."
mike "But as far as I know, even if we're talking about this version of the story, there's a plot after that."
mike "About Chancellor Melek's hospitality to Colonel Blair afterwards. About respecting proprieties."

april "Oh, that's enough of that story for now."

mike "Come on!"mike "Why are we guys so prudish? You know, Colonel Blair was single at the time!"
mike "Isn't that ironic? We made our feline buddies state that they don't care what we say that might be a little offensive in class."
mike "It's as if the two sitting here will show their talons just because one of us says a wrong phrase."
mike "But what now? It is our feline buddy who has to cover all sorts of things up for fear of offending us."
mike "..."mike "OK, forget about it. Let the topic continue."

"(...)"
"(Mike is right indeed...)"
"(it is Harga who was afraid that saying something that didn't sound to go well with the heroic pilot Blair's image in our mind would be offensive to us.)"
"(I've actually heard about that one.)"
"(I also think that the hospitality Colonel Blair received at the time was a mere formality. But even so, the topic is still awkward for us.)"
"(...)"
"(We're not as receptive as we think we are, even when talking about harmless culture shock...)"

li "I care about one thing more than other topics."
li "Terrans are considered to be \"low\", right?"

harga "Eh... As I mentioned before, this is just one of many statements, especially popular among some postwar Kilrathi apologists, but it does not represent what we think."

li "It doesn't really have to be covered up. Terrans aren't all noble."li "The hero of war, in the blink of an eye, dropped bio-weapons on innocents."
li "..."
li "What interests me is that, in Kiltathi culture, the word \"assassination\" seems difficult to say, but {color=#ffcccc}{i}Jak-tu{/i}{/color} is a classic tactic."
li "Aren't the two essentially the same thing? A SPRINGING FROM THE DARK."

harga "Eh..."
harga "How do I say it... no offense..."

master "I'll say it."
master "The Empire considered the Confederation a prey, \"those not of the blood\"."
master "Here's the difference."

li "Then I understand."
li "Say, Terran hunters during deer hunting season also use ambush and don't have a moral qualm about it."

harga "Eh..."harga "What I am saying is that even before the war started, our {color=#ffcccc}{i}hrai{/i}{/color} didn't think so."
harga "Even before the war started, Terrans were admired by our {color=#ffcccc}{i}hrai{/i}{/color}."
harga "\"A foe worthy of respect.\""

master "\"An intellect as good as our own.\""

li "So, should we be grateful for this compliment?"
li "Needless to say. On the other hand, I actually do think that the so-called \"stupidity\" of some of our people is more noteworthy than some of the other traits."
li "Even in 2669, there were some Terran Humanists who opposed the use of Behemoth super gun."
li "I know, it's not pragmatic. But perhaps it is because of such voices that humanity has made what it is now."
li "Anything like that the other way around, any Kilrathi cared Terrans?"

harga "Well..."

master "I believe so."

harga "Eh..."

master "I firmly believe so."master "Not only that, but I'm convinced that thanks to someone like that, you cubs have a chance sitting comfortably here right now."

li "..."

april "Oh, sorry to interrupt."
april "I'm glad we are able to have such constructive discussion in the first class. But I would like us to return now to the subject of this lesson."

"(...)"
"(The subject did get a bit sensitive just now.)"
"(...)"

"(And, I seem to feel they talked about something very important...)"

"(...)"
"(What is it?)"

april "Well, we know, thereafter, Chancellor Melek kindly boarded the Intrepid, and delivered their \"high-tech pay-back\"." (what_color="#ccccff")

People hear the story about the "high-tech pay-back" and have some discussion. Then...

april "That's it for today's lesson, any other questions?"

elena "Yes!"
elena "I'd like to know what mechanic Khajiit's giveaway to Sosa and Catscratch was all about!"
elena "Mr. Harga?"

harga "Oh, got it."
harga "\"{color=#ffffcc}{i}Riga'hraijhaki h'innisjhamakschur takh jaqirini'irgaiulanna!{/i}{/color}\""
harga "This one?"

elena "Yes!"

harga "It means..."
harga "\"May your heirs spread like seedlings of ulanna trees.\""

...

"(Time goes by fast.)"
"(...)"
"(Lunch time now!)"

mike "Hey, man, I hear you live in the same apartment as our feline classmates?"

"!"
"Oh, hello, Mike!"
"Eh, yes, we are neighbors."

mike "I'm admiring you. It's a good opportunity to learn cat talk."

"Eh..."
"So, you're studying Kilrah too?"
"It is indeed quite difficult. Ah, what with that seedlings... trees... just now...."

mike "\"{color=#ffffcc}{i}Riga'hraijhaki h'innisjhamakschur takh jaqirini'irgaiulanna!{/i}{/color}\""
mike "\"May your heirs spread like seedlings of ulanna trees.\""

"!"
"Mike you are awesome!"

mike "Alas, it's nothing."
mike "So guess what, at least he didn't use \"{color=#ffffcc}{i}Lekarhga'riga'vrash'h'inha lega dyahu jaqulahri{/i}{/color}\" as a blessing!"

"Eh..."
"What does this mean?"

mike "It means \"May the noise of your...\""
mike "Wait, how old are you?"

"Eh?"
"I will be 17 soon. what is up?"

mike "Come on, kid. I'll explain it on your 18th birthday party."

master "..."
master "You seem to know a lot, \"a\" word."

mike "Wow, thanks!"

master "How many THAT kind of Kilrathi holovids have you watched?"

mike "It's all genuine, I had someone purchased from Gar's Emporium."

harga "I'm sorry, we're in a hurry. Excuse us."

master "..."

mike "I'm going to eat, too."
mike "See you!"

"(...)"
"(What were they talking about?)"

These two parts give rise to a number of official backstory tips. Some of them are from Star*Soldier.

@capi3101, I've used both of the blessings you gave! I've even made an extension. I assume Gar's Emporium not only sells big-ticket items like weapons, but also some other stuff, hahahahaha... 😈
 
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New Screenshots. Both of which are from original plots. I would like to show here is that the tip text appears in the upper right corner. It's about the current official backstory point.

1. Catscratch is teaching what he just learned:



2. An example is brought up when the class topic involves those news writing with too much bias...



Note: This character is named after old master Harga nar Ki'ra.

An original character. All of the other Kilrathi characters whose portraits I've posted have at least been mentioned in the official plots.

My design is that at the beginning of the story he downplays his identity as much as possible, thus trying to live and learn on the Earth as an ordinary exchange student.

What's his full name? Please guess. 🙂
 

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After the draft of Chapter 2 is done, I'm thinking about what to do next...

The current thinking is to do a documentary team to Pasqual to do interviews so that the McAuliffe ambush episode can be talked about with retired Empire veteran Haga Kaligara. This way the group could also stop by Gar's Emporium and reminisce about Geoff, Hans, Turner and Vance's pre-McAuliffe ambush activities. I'm assuming that this place has at least had some legitimate business after the war - afterall, it could be advertised in a Confederal magazine. Of course, I also had an idea for a scenario in which some peddlers were selling pirated holovids inside.

But, in that case, there are two difficulties. The first is the plot. The McAuliffe ambush is such a big scene that how to show some parts of it in a simpler way is a subject. Second, there are too many things to draw...

By the way, what would common housing of Pasqual be like...
 
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Another option is to bypass this part for now and go ahead to make the another part of the story... but this also involves designing portraits for a character that is not easy to show well - Abram.

What should I do...
 
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You've got another difficulty - Gar's Emporium (the original one anyway) gets dumped into a black hole while our intrepid heroes are in the process of making their escape.

Abram is likely dead by the post war period; I got the impression that he wasn't all that young in Action Stations. Tack on forty years as a guest of the Cats and...well, it's statistically unlikely at best.

As for housing on Pasqual, you might take another look at the opening sequence of WC3 when the two Dralthi are heading down from Hvar'kann into the Imperial Palace's audience chamber (ampitheater? Whatever room they're in when Thrakhath start's talking). There's a bit of that where they're flying over the planet. That scene is about it when it comes to a visual of Kilrathi architectural style. You're probably looking for some of the smaller buildings. There's that project ongoing to clean up some of those visuals; I might suggest you try that one to see if that scene's been re-done yet or not simply for the availability of a higher resolution shot.
 
Yes, I've noticed. But, those owner-cats could open more store fronts. And I can imagine that after the war, with the threat of the Empire gone, they could even open some stores that were engaged in legitimate business.

The jirak party 2634 plot could appear as a Classroom Read-Aloud Drama.
 
That scene is about it when it comes to a visual of Kilrathi architectural style. You're probably looking for some of the smaller buildings.

This scene is really dark... but I've got the general feel of it. I will think about what Haga Kaligara's house is supposed to look like... Thanks so much!

A plot idea:

The documentary team followed the address to Haga Kaligara's home, only to find that there appeared to be no residence. Feeling strange they called Haga Kaligara and... a house showed up in front of their eyes... that was a simple civilian stationary building cloaking technology Khajiit was experimenting with. According to Haga Kaligara, with this, he wouldn't have to worry about his house being vandalized by certain apologists when he traveled out a few months later.
 
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A Firekkan concept draft...

The suit is TCN's work uniform.

firekkan01.png


This sketch is still very rough. If the design is acceptable, I'll get it refined and colored soon.

As for the character, I would design him like this:

Rarely does a young Firekkan, who has left home, come to TCN as a trainee cameraman. His race talent allows him to be more flexible for many filming assignments. By completing this documentary work on Pasqual with other staff members, he would be able to turn into a full member soon. But after actually coming to Pasqual, he was still scared.
 
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