#ayelborne

average tos diplomacy subplot (og pic under the cut)

How wonderful that John Albert Chamberlain Kefford (1905-1996) chose the professional name of John Abbott — for that is what he looked like, like some kind of Medieval monk. Occasionally he was cast with that approximate idea in mind, e.g. he played Will Scarlet in The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946). (Yes, I know Will Scarlet’s not a monk, but he’s Medieval, blast you!) Abbott was also often…

August 28, 2001: That’s the date I downloaded that little picture to my computer. That "little" picture was bigger then, with screen resolutions being a fraction of what they are today, and certainly to me it was big: In the most literal sense, this picture depicts Ayelborne, the apparent head of the Organian Council of Elders from an episode of Star Trek. But in my imagination this was also the closest fit to Arderesh Valeran (in those days named Richard Valeran), Captain of the Guard of Galavar. That image had been in my mind from the time of the character's inception during ATH the RPG in 1999, though apparently it wasn't till 2001 that I got around to finding an image on the Internet.

If you poke around you can find some influences that help explain why I thought of Ayelborne when I envisioned Valeran: Arderesh Valeran is diplomatic, soft-spoken, kindly, rational, older, a bit pasty, and quite restrained in manner: a counterbalance to headstrong Galavar, just as Ayelborne was to Kirk. Arderesh is a counterbalance, a voice of reason, caution, and prudence. Also, as with Ayelborne and the Organians, Arderesh is the head of a council whose true power isn't necessarily apparent from looking at the faces of its six members. 'Tis little accretions like these that can build up over the ages to form whole characters.