#anders-was-right

2/2 Is it best avoiding that trope all together, given the rest of the story and/or that I’m white and culturally Christian? Or if I did it, are there certain things I should take care to avoid or be careful with?

A Good Jewish Witch “Kidnaps” Child, is Killed

Please don’t create a story where a Jewish witch kidnaps a non-Jewish child. I love the subverted fairy-tale idea, but this should not be a part of it, even with the background you intend to include about the child’s parents it will only serve as another example of a very old, very entrenched antisemitic canard. --Dierdra 

Reclaiming a negative trope cannot be done from the outside. Also: when someone in the group with the corresponding privilege, writes about something absolutely awful happening to a marginalized character in order to make the point that marginalization is bad or to make the villain look extra terrible, they are walking a fine line.

--Shira

As well as the stereotypes Dierdra mentioned, you need to be careful with killing off marginalised characters especially if they're the only one with that particular identity. Many storytellers value us only for our suffering and death. Also, you asked about giving her stereotypical Jewish features. It's important to be aware of the difference between coding and stereotyping. It's fine to have the character do things that make her obviously Jewish, but if something is a known stereotype then we don't want to see it ever, outside of an #OwnVoices piece.

Does your character have any irrational fears?

The Emerald Dream.

Levaden is a druid. In theory, all of her power is drawn from the Dream. It’s not actually possible to shapeshift the way she does without being connected to the Emerald Dream, that’s not how it works-- she’s a self-taught little gremlin. She’s a true feral--more politely her style has been described as “archaic,” here meaning she figured it out through observation of animals in their natural state and self-run meditation, not a Cenarion-style druid who gained her power through study, guided meditation and communion with the Dream.

The Emerald Dream is the realm of druids, their obligation and their birthright, and Levaden is terrified of it.

It’s not....natural. The peoples of Azeroth are not...an abberation, they are not separate. A mirror plane of reality that reflects the world if people had never existed is not a place of “natural beauty” to her, certainly not of serenity. It’s a twisted apocalypse, and it sickens her that so many druids speak of it as something to be longed for.

She became a druid to protect and care for people, not trees. She’s deeply devoted to the preservation of and defense of nature, but there are druids she speaks to and...put it this way.

If you gave some druids a chance to save either a hundred human lives or a hundred acres of forest, Levaden is not 100% certain which one they would choose. And if she does not know for certain what choice you would make in that scenario, she wants nothing to do with you.

And yet...you cannot be a druid without being bound to the Dream, even if you take Levaden’s route and thus never gain a conscious awareness of that connection. She can’t really do magic beyond fairly rudimentary healing, she can’t consciously tap into the Dream the way most druids do...but it’s there. 

And that means that at any time, the Dream could call her the way it does the others. And no one resists that call, not really. Not for long.

Her other irrational fear is that someday the Cenarion Circle will drag her back to Moonglade by the scruff of the neck and force her into hibernation somehow. They would never do that. I mean, most of them don’t LIKE her, because she is an asshole. But they do not want to hurt her, and they do not disagree with her morals in the slightest.

It’s obvious to every druid BUT Levaden, who does not understand the Dream, that it will never call her to its service. This world is where she belongs.

Would your character have any hobbies?

Turning into a deer, especially when she did not intend to turn into a deer and it is, in fact, explicitly the worst possible time that she COULD turn into a deer.

In all seriousness though: Freeclimbing. It only half-counts; she’s a self-taught druid, and more to the point she’s a goddamn Night Elf. OBVIOUSLY she needs to be able to climb trees. But she seeks out (and conquers!) the most challenging climbs on purpose, to test and develop her skills.

Levaden is a massive klutz--this comes of her brand of druidism, which requires “convergence” with the animal forms; it grants deeper mastery of the animal’s body and instincts, but it also means that if she suddenly slips into “congruence” with, for example, the feelings and instincts of a stag, she will transform reflexively unless she consciously foresees and controls it. So she frequently just straight-up forgets what body she’s in and does things like try to balance with a tail she doesn’t have.

But even allowing for that, she genuinely is a very good creative freeclimber and finds real pleasure in it.

What is unique about your character?

I mean, she IS a druid who hates [checks notes] the spiritual and magical source of druidic power.

Also, she “canonically” learned the animal forms in “the wrong order”. She found congruence with the stag first, then a dolphin--which is canonically a fairly rare form--then finally a panther. It was at least a full decade after that before she met Velshada and Talet, and a year after that meeting before she finally (after talking to and lowkey falling for Velshada, who’s secretly a MASSIVE flygirl and death from above on a gryphon) figured out a stormcrow form.

Ooh I should check that out lmao. I do have The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal mod which lands you in Coldharbour as part of its questline -- it’s also kinda desert-like, but hilly and rocky, and Molag Bal challenges you to traverse the place without alerting any of his followers to your presence, which is actually a bit tricky because there isn’t much shadow to hide in and they are weirdly observant, even with a high sneak skill. I’ve never played Elder Scrolls Online but I just looked at some screenshots and yeah that’s about what I would have expected Coldharbour to look like -- almost Soul Cairn-ish but spikier, lmao. 

I also have the And the Realms of the Daedra mod, which will take you to Hircine’s Hunting Grounds, Hermaeus Mora’s library, and Peryite’s realm. But you’re only in each place very briefly and there’s not much to do, just fight some daedra and collect an item, and you can’t explore very far. 

I mean I can only say that if you think that’s something your Inquisitor would do, then yes? Otherwise, no?

If you mean to ask me if I personally think it’s okay, then the answer is no. I can’t stand Cullen, but telling Cullen to return to his addiction… It’s enabling and harmful and I just personally can’t allow my character to do it any more than sacrificing the Chargers TBH.

What I wish we could do is accept his desire to step down as Commander. Just to copy and paste from my #TemplarTryst post on this:

*BLUSHES EVEN MORE* 

Ellie, tho--you are OG, hon.  Beatles in the Cavern Club levels of before-it-was-cool.  I don’t think you understand how much it mattered to me knowing that somebody other than Emma and I shipped Romana/Narvin at all at that moment in the fandom.  You were generous and supportive when I needed it the most as a Gally writer, and so many times since, and ilu *leans on*

You may or may not know that Gallifandom has awoken from its (relative) slumber recently because BF just released the first Narvin Companion Chronicle, Erasure, and it is a) everything beautiful in the universe, b) more deliciously shippy than it seems possible for an audio to be without anything actually becoming canon (Leela/Narvin, not Romana/Narvin, but This Is Gallifrey We Ship Everything), and c) WRITTEN BY GARY RUSSELL SO IT FEELS LIKE EARLY GALLY IN A WAY GALLY HASN’T FOR A LONG TIME.  Best of all for your purposes, it exists in a nebulous ‘when the fuck is this even set’ relationship to mainline Gallifrey canon that means you can 100% listen to it without being caught up, and at $3 and one hour it’s a small investment in terms of cash and time, too.  No pressure, but I think you might really dig it--and if you do, I’d love to squee with you about it!