This is a collection of roleplaying notes (quirks, idiosyncracies, shtick, habits, what-have-you) from players of Okian characters.There are many bad ways to use this document. This is not meant to be a definitive statement about how one should play an Okian character. This is not a guide for playing an Okian.
Rather, these notes should provoke one's thinking: how does my character think about X? How is that reflected in how I roleplay the character? Is it a public demonstration, or a private reflection? It is totally conceivable to play an Okian who disregards, scorns, or otherwise ignores all the actions described below.
Players are welcome to submit their own thoughts. Please note the format of the notes: first is the motivation, second is the expression. To avoid the pitfalls noted above, the emphasis of these Notes should be on motivations, and not a simple bullet listing of shticks.
| Veneration of the Ancestors | Making the Dead Presentable |
| Speaking Traits | Morning Physical Warm-up |
| Tea Gathering |
Motivation
From the Shinto religion comes the concept that one's ancestors are very important: hence, one should be respectful of them. The idea here is to do something public, simple, and predictable that reflects this respect.
Expression
At sunrise (in reality, 9am, or as soon as I wake up) and sunset, I go to some open space and "bow towards Okia". In the past, I've tried putting too much into it, but I think a good balance is to bow twice: once to Okia in general, and once to Tomo's ancestors in specific.
Motivation
Legends has not made it clear what language our characters are speaking: is it Galanese? Or some sort of Common?
At any rate, it seems likely that, as Okians, our characters are not speaking their native tongue. Therefore, to add to an air of being foreign, some players use a peculiar speaking trait for their characters.
Expression
The most notable examples of different speaking traits are used by Joe Birish (Mitsu Shiromata) and Brian Perrin (Miyaguchi Seiji).
Joe's list of things he does:
When Brian speaks as Seiji, he does the following:
This yields sentences like the following: "I see five hobgoblin there fifteen minute ago."
Motivation
There's nothing quite so Japanese as the tea ceremony. I did a little bit of reading and have introduced a tea gathering. Note that most people still call it a tea ceremony; oh well.
Expression
I wrote a full writeup of the tea gathering on a separate page.
Motivation
This was originally Chad's idea, so you may want to ask him directly about his idea. :) -- dcltdw
The general idea is that one should enter Death looking presentable. From the Japanese comes a sense of neatness, that appearances are important. In most cultures, care is taken in that the dead are made to look their best. This gets weird in Legends, of course: as an eidolan, can you straighten your costume? If nothing else, it often is a good way to express comradeship by taking a few moments to say to the other player, "I make you look presentable" and vaguely pat their clothing as the other player himself straightens his costume. The degree to which people rearrange their costume as opposed to making the other person do so is a delicate issue, and beyond the scope of this document.
Expression
In general, the issue of presentability is focused on a few items. The body should be neatly arranged: hands at side or perhaps folded comfortably on the chest. Weapons should be neatly arrayed next to the body, as with hats or other accessories.
Motivation
From bad military movies to bad martial arts films comes doing warm-ups in formation. It's a good idea to stretch anyways, so why not throw in some shtick? Of course, for an Okian flavor, you could have Tai Chi movements or Ninja Ramen Samurai Ronin formations.
Expression
One idea is to rip off kendo warmups. I assume that such things vary from dojo to dojo, of course, so it's more accurate to say "martial arts" warmup. In the kendo dojo I studied at for a few months, there was a lot of emphasis on kiai, which is shtick-like. In reality, I haven't done this IG yet, mostly from a lack of clarity of purpose.
| Edited by Dave Leung (dcltdw@mit.edu) | Last updated: Thu Feb 22 15:32:19 EST 2001 |