Nyren on July 1, 2010 at 7:57 am said:
I love that she has Scene Stealing as one of her two best skills :D
Also, I find it interesting that she *doesn’t* have writing or acting as a skill (unless they fall under Theatre, and if they do, they’re still at 0). I think this is a very true and defining fact about Jane. She’s not *writing* when she creates Legends, she’s enthusing her Bonds onto the stage. And why would she need to act? She’s *Jane*! Being Jane is hard enough without having to try and be someone different all the time too!
Her mapping to a mimic is interesting. I suppose, she had the spark of Divinity in her, and she was taken by the Monster and made into something that she was not. Martin found her, broken, and made something anew from the pieces that were left. Assuming Mimics haven’t changed significantly, this is what a Mimic is: that which is created by an Excrution from the remnants of a god.
I always thought of Excrutions thus – Warmains as warriors. Deceivers as LARPers. Strategists as human. Mimics as zombies. Therefore, by my mental reckoning, Jane could be nothing BUT a Mimic ’cause she’s a zombie!
Jenna on July 1, 2010 at 2:36 pm said:
Your sense of the Excrucians in 2e is interesting. For the Strategists at least, you’ve seen something I didn’t know until recently that I’d put there.
Another thing I realized is that I didn’t actually ever dislike the Deceivers when they appeared in play or in longer writings. So I’ve edited down their evil a bit. They’re still antagonists, just antagonists taken as they are rather than described in various overblown terms of horror.
I almost made Jane a Deceiver on that basis—one of the very first entries, when I was first experimenting with the blog and before I started the story proper, used to allege she was an Excrucian, with stars falling in her eyes. Mimics don’t usually have the stars. I finally decided that they *can* have the stars falling, they just usually don’t because in Nobilis proper they’re living undercover amongst the enemy. The Nobilis version of Jane probably hides them most of the time too.
I lean towards her actually being disassembled, in this alternate continuity, by Martin; we already know that she consented to his remaking her, so I’m not upset by the notion that he had to vivisect her previous pattern to do so. That said, you’re absolutely right that it could have been the monster that ended her; or, for that matter, that fall-over-dead-and-come-back-an-anentropic-zombie thing she did way back when.
Some of this is the fact that “the Vasty Deeps” includes the Underworld, so playing around with death in various ways without properly dying is very easy for this version of Jane. Not as easy as I’d like— I made Imperators and Mimics weaker on the Noble miracle time scale, overall, in this edition, so her point budget was shockingly tight. (As opposed to Martin, whom I could have given quite a few more points.)
It’s annoying for this port that I used Angel as two different words in the two relevant contexts. ^_^ She’s mimicking a Nobilis Angel, in any case. It’s hard to do this mapping without imagining an alt history for her—making someone anything but a mortal or Noble is fraught, metaphysically—so I can also imagine the monster caused her to fall, while in making her a Mimic Martin also undid that.
Or conversely, since, well, no obvious wings, I’m overthinking this and it’s all just an approximation. ^_^
Nyren on July 1, 2010 at 3:15 pm said:
I can’t wait to see the new edition book :)
It’s weird, I think, to think of Jane as an Angel, as she does not wear a jacket. It is an accurate mapping though, jacket or no! She serves Beauty in many senses, and Justice is very, very important in her worldview.
I would put forth, however, a tentative alternate case for Jane as a Wildlord, just for if she is told she cannot be an Angel without a jacket and there is currently a jacket shortage (it could happen, these tragedies!) From my viewpoint, she is the one in the story who gives appropriate gifts (cookies and severance pay and all) and she is my mental paragon of the extended explanation of the phrase, “Sanity and mundanity are prisons.” I see Jane as often not allowing reality or details or modern civilization or the tyranny of the mundane to get in the way of her life or writing, both of which are rather surreal and that’s okay.
Though, I would like to think that Jane answers emptiness with hope. I would like to think that very much.
Jenna on July 1, 2010 at 3:23 pm said:
… heh.
You’re right, of course. I’ll update the entry. ^_^
Rand Brittain on July 6, 2010 at 12:57 pm said:
Hm, I kind of like “magistrix” better than “magistra,” although the latter is probably more correct. More words should end in X!
Jenna on July 6, 2010 at 2:04 pm said:
I haven’t formally specified the feminine of Magister; I went with Magistra this week because of Gaudy Night. ^_^
Best wishes,
Jenna
Rand Brittain on July 6, 2010 at 8:47 pm said:
Hm, well, that kind of influences me in the opposite direction- I really love classic mysteries and Gaudy Night is no exception, although I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending where the culprit rants for several pages without anyone interrupting her. Perhaps I’m too infected by Whedonesque tendencies to believe that people could have that kind of conversation without snarking a bit. (It’s a bit like the scene in Cloverfield where Horrible Disaster is going on and everyone instinctively whips out their cell phones to record it- I suspect this is going to happen with sarcasm as time goes on.)
Still, while Harriet is a good character and pairs well with Lord Peter (eventually), my detective love will always belong first and foremost to the great Nero Wolfe. I long to stat him up as a Power with Archie as his Anchor.
Affliction: I never leave my Chancel on business!
Affliction: A schedule not adhered to becomes a mere velleity.
Affliction: All women are either extremely dangerous or extremely dumb.
Affliction: I cannot fit my bulk into a normal chair.
Affliction: Watching other go hungry is just as bad as me going hungry.
Bond: If I didn’t have Archie to goad me, I couldn’t get anything done.
I think I could make up Afflictions for him for hours- he has so many! I once made a high-Aspect wheelchair-bound character to see how well the “I constantly suck up MPs from my many troubles” build worked. Pity I never really got to use her!