- What would be your name?
- What part of the Half-Continent would you live in?
- What would be your social station?
- What profession might you choose?
- Would you be a sedorner (monster-lover) or invidist (monster-hater) or somewhere in between?
- What would you look like?
- Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?
- What else would be interesting about you?
I am thinking I could perhaps do a little profile of each response in the side bar, a new one for each month - and "Introducing..." kind of thing. Please, answer one, some or all of these as you feel, let the world (and me) know - I reckon this might be a tad fun.
Oh - and Happy Thanksgiving to those for whom it is relevant!
(I am also wondering where random missfitt has got to... hello, are you there, sir?)
27 comments:
Mr Cornish. Just a wee note to let you know how much I've loved MBT. I'm a 32 year old New Zealander, so probably not in your main demographic, but I declare your book "unputdownable". In fact, I almost pretended to be sick yesterday, just so I could stay home and finish it. Also ... just out of interest, you and I share oddly close taste in music.
Well, keep it up ... can't wait for book II.
The interesting thing is, Lawrence, the apparent demographic for the MBT series is more an accident of the nature of the publisher who took me up - rather than any intention on my part.
Indeed, you are very similar to me in age (as well as music taste!), so truly, I intend MBT and the Half-Continent for folks like you and I too - for anyone really from 10 to 110!
I am enormously impressed you near chucked a sickie just to keep reading. I can't wait for Book 2 either. I am so glad you are a Kiwi cousin, 'cause you get to have the ANZ edition I love and work so hard on.
BTW, my wife and I L-O-V-E NZ - if there is anywhere we would like to move to, it would be there... driving on the roads is a bit crazy though ;)
DM. Nice to get a reply, and I'm glad you like NZ. I'm a big fan of Australia (esp. Melbourne) and my wife and I go there quite a bit.
And, yes, I *love* the art in the paperback of "Foundling", so I'm pretty excited about book II. Can we expect more diagrams, illustrations and glossaries?
If you're interested in the quirkier/poppier side of indie music, I co-run a small indie label here called Lil' Chief Records. I like to think we're the best label for indie pop in New Zealand. Check us out at lilchiefrecords.com. If you're even remotely interested in any of the artists, drop me a line at lawrence"at"lilchiefrecords.com and I'd be happy to post you a few CDs in appreciation of how much I've loved your book. Based on our venn-overlap of music/films/books, I suspect you might enjoy at least some of our titles.
OK, I will stop spamming your blog.
Best
Lawrence
I don't want to hijack this thread totally, but I wanted to tell Lawrence that some of those artists at Lil Chief Records are great. I'm a big fan of folk so that indie/folk sound is right up my alley.
Anyway... back to the original post... I lack the imagination to answer any of those questions! Any answer I attempt would end up being a copy of the characters already in MBT. I am most definitely a reader, not a writer. :)
oh no, i'm here. it's just that i don't use the internet but once every weekend so i've been busy reading your past entries, so sorry if you feel it's required.
as to who i'd be in the H.C id probably be a upper class lahzar like europe, but i'm torn between the choice of fulgar or wit. i would have a cruorpunxis, but out of sight, i'd also try tto invent ways of taming monsters... so i guess i'm inbetween with the sedorner/invidist thing. don't stop telling us about your breakfast habits!
Mr. Missfitt
Hey Mr Missfitt no need for apologies, just making sure you are ok. Glad to hear from you - dig your answer: what would you do with the monsters once you tamed them?
I find it hard to know which I like best out of wits and fulgars, too.
You coward, femina! What do you mean you're a reader not a writer - what does doing a masters make you? I know it is probably asking folks to engage with the text in ways they might not otherwise - but come on folks, do as Mr Missfitt has done - t'ain't impossible (... but only if you want to...)
I am listening to the Brunettes even as I type, Lawrence - tre sweet indeed: I will most certainly take you up on your beautiful offer!
And, yes, there is many more maps (including one of Winstermill) and diagrams and a whole new Explicarium (of course). So hope you like it all.
Hmmm... not so much cowardice as the thought that I would unconsciously copy what already exists and fool myself into thinking it's original. I know I identify very much with Sallow, but would like to be like Europe. Given my tendency to rebel against obedience, I'd probably go for some sort of non-government job. I wouldn't mind running an inn, hopefully with clientele more like Fouracres than Poundinch. Ooh, or maybe a respectable guest house/B & B type arrangement. Do they have those in the HC?
It was Honours, not a Masters. And writing discourse on ancient Greek plays is another type of writing entirely! :)
OK, I'm going to dive in here.
Name: Auster Ingerslev (There'd possibly be some kind of honorific attached to the name, befitting my profession. See below.)
Where would I live? Well, I like big cities much more than rural places and smaller towns, mostly because I need record stores, book stores and cafes to survive. So I'd pick High Vesting as somewhere to base myself. Sounds like a classy place with some nice architecture.
My social station/profession? I'm not going to kid myself. I'd probably have some kind of slightly dull, bookish profession. I'm not exactly the adventuring type. I'm going to say I'd be some kind of private tutor, living with a family of rich merchants, teaching their two children in history, philosophy and theology. I'd have my own apartment in their compound, but the job would afford me enough spare time so as to be able to engage in my own interests and pursuits. My main interest would be in studying monsters within urban environments, and I would relish travelling the back streets and alleyways in forgotten parts of the cities, search of traces of monster habitation.
As an academic, and someone who has travelled widely, I'd lean towards the sedorner viewpoint, but would be careful of my opinions. I'm thinking my opinions would be similar to someone like Fouracres.
What would I look like? Do they have spectacles on the half-continent? Dark-haired, medium build, large muttonchops and small glasses. I would dress almost solely in black, and carry a small, easily hidden flintlock pistol. As befitting my sedorner attitudes, this would be purely as a last defence. (But you can never be too careful, right?)
Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis? No.
I guess I'd be some kind of Renaissance Man, with a socially progressive point of view. Someone learned, but also quite practical, who feels more at home in a grimy cafe down at the docks than at a library with other academics.
OK, well, I guess I'd better do some work this morning.
Once i tamed the monsters... maybe domesticate them or if many people hated the monster then i might kill it but i would never kill the monster for no reason.
mr. Missfitt
Great idea, Mister Cornish! I love "quiz-memes" like this!
What would be your name?
Skari Ipshaime, or something more suitable.
As an aside, I noticed you use a fair few germanic names, terms and lettering. Is there a particular reason for your leaning towards them? I certainly enjoyed going, "ooh, part of that word is part of *such and such* in German!" My grandparents are German, so I love seeing little bits and pieces to do with that culture.
What part of the Half-Continent would you live in?
I'm not sure, I suppose I am not entirely well-accquainted with the Half-Continent as yet, although I look forward to doing so in the next two books in the trilogy. A city, it would probably have to be, that much I know.
What would be your social station?
Well-off by birth, but perhaps not so well-off by associations and contacts and all of those small important things that tend to matter a bit when it comes to personal reputations.
What profession might you choose?
I love the sound of those exotics, the Saagars, as I like dancing, but I am a little clumsy and not at all brave, so I would make a bad Monster-fighter, I am afraid.
I'd be perfectly happy being a mathematician, but perhaps I would be best off being a concometrist. Measuring lengths and breadths would be easy to apply to many things, like being a clerk, I suppose. So, in a roundabout way, a Concometrist.
Would you be a sedorner (monster-lover) or invidist (monster-hater) or somewhere in between?
A-ha! So that is what the general population of the half continent is known to be thinking as- invidists? (or invidism?) Although my Earth self was just as distraught as Rossamund at the treatment of such poor monsters as the Misbegotten Shrewd, if my Half Continent-self did not travel much on account of not being adventurous, I would assume that I would have been taught to be an invidist, and to not question the idea.
What would you look like?
Oh, dark hair, fairly tall, nothing very special at all. Do the humanoids of the MBT world have curly hair in their genetics, or are they more prone to wavy or straight hair? For I would have curly hair, genetics allowing. Not nearly as glamorous as some of the more exciting women of the half-continent, but it would be me.
Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?
No, no, a little concometrist like me would have no need for them, no matter how glamorous they are!
What else would be interesting about you?
Well, while on my journeys of measurement and bettering myself so as to apply for a more secure and influential clerk's position in a well-to-do firm of some sort, I would be very happy to eavesdrop on passer-by's conversations, almost to the point of danger, because other people fascinate me. Everyone has a tale to tell, after all.
(Oh dear, far too much blabbing again, but it was very fun! Thanks!)
ok i dont have muchtime so im just going to ask my question
in hc who stuidies the weather?
Hi,
I discovered MBT via your illustration site a few weeks ago. Loved the artwork so I got the book. Fantastic read. Now I'm back at your blog again to see what else is new. This looks like fun so here's me in the HC.
Dristen Flooch at your service.
I used to be a qualified artisan/illustrator but fell on hard times and have now turned my talents to running a small tourist business providing non-permenant monster blood tattoo's for visitors to High Vesting. I also seem to have ended up generating quite a side business of permenant tattoo's in hidden places for rich folk.
Monsters are good for business so i'm going to lean to sedorner but for all the wrong reasons.
I'm relativly tall with rounded shoulders from all that time hunched over drawing boards and now peoples bodies. I have one or two cruorpunxis but not because I like them or have actually killed a monster but it's always good to show the customs that you don't mind your own work.
I have a recurring dream that somewhere out there is a monster who does people blood tattoo's.
hi
i love the book soooo much i checked out what websites there are for it.(thats how i found this site!)
i just want to say im 14 years old so if there other people simmilar i would love to hear what you most like about the book!!
also what d.m cornish what do u like best about book one??
ok to answer the questions
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR NAME?
why of course i would be known as Rackay rose fillip (i made it up but it sounds goo to me!!)oh by the way its a girls name
WHAT PART OF THE HALF CONTINET WOUL YOU LIVE?
dunno but i dont mind .but it would have to be in a large city
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR SOCIAL STATUS??
i would be a duchess in waiting just like Europe.
WOULD YOU BE A SEDORNER OR A INVIDIST?
this is the interesting part !!
i would be a sedorber who cares about how high up i am in the ladder.at night i would sneek out and free monsters in cages .some of the nice ones i would keep to help me further my work in saving monsters from a cruel fate!!
WHAT WOULD YOU LOOK LIKE???
easy i would have light brown hair thats is in curly locks.i would have freckles all over my nose and green eyes (thats what sets me appart) i would be 4 inches high and wear a cute dress like Europes!!ide also be the same age as i am now!!
WOULD YOU HAVE SPOORS OR CRUORPUNIXS??
no way .ruin my good looks not a chance!! any way somthing could happen and then i would be helplessly dependant on somone to keep me alive. thats not my way!!!
WHAT ELSE WOULD BE INTERESTING ABOUT YOU??
well by the time i was 16 i would save enough monsters to be famous and be loved (and hated)as the monster savior!!
so id have to dress in black and wear a mask .the only weapons id have would be two small daggers to attack from behind!!
also because im so rich i would be able to buy special glasses (or what eva u call them)so i would be able to see clearly in the dark.thatd help heaps in my awsome quest!!
also Europe used to be my hero until i came face to face with her and she just shoved me away to kill a monster who was terrorising the town.from that day on i promised to be rebelious and help creatures secretly!!
cool hey!!
any way love talkin to u guys!!!
oh by the way when would the next book be coming out in australia??
im talking about book 2!!
cause im really excited and anxious!!to read it !!
Dristen Flooch, your were an illustrator at one time were you? Perhaps you have met or worked with Economous Musgrove?
As to the use of German Laura (or should I say Skari), I use probably first because I like the sounds it makes and love diacritical marks above letters too. Also it is because, in seeking to present other cultures with their own language but not posessing the genius to invent my own, whilst also wanting to provide etemological rationality for the existence of what we call English (known as Brandenard in the Half-Continent) using related or source languages was a logical path for me.
Babez, Lamplighter will hit shelves in Oz and NZ (and the UK too I believe) in early May. Sorry for the wait - I have been given the go ahead to have the first chapter up online as a .pdf in time for Christmas, so stay tuned.
Hey DM,
I was reading your Explicarium for the fourth time (I just find it so interesting and colourful) when I came across the entry for the 'scourge'. The image of a person tightly bound in bandages and wearing 'quartz-lensed spectacles' caught my imagination and pretty soon I had thought up such a character. What a coincidence that you happened to post a blog on other characters living in the HC besides those in your story! :D
This character isn't really what I'd imagine myself to be, just an idea that popped into my dictionary of a brain. :P
"What would be your name?"
Lazarus, Scourge of Inchyt (Lazarus was that guy from the bible who Jesus raised after being dead for three days. I picked it mainly because of the idea that he emerged wearing a shroud, not exactly bandages, I know, but I liked the name) (Also I mean scourge as in the HC profession, but also as an adjective, as in he 'scourged' that place called Inchyt).
"What part of the HC would you live in?"
Lazarus doesn't live in any one place for very long. Having no family (I'll explain later) and very few friends he tends to travel around taking jobs as he goes along.
"What would be your social station?"
Lazarus was born the son merchants and so was able to go to the Rhombus of Worms where his abilities at potive-making quickly gained him a reputation for the lethality of his potives, particularly mordants. However since the death of his parents at the hands of a monster, Lazarus has taken to living independently and avoids the crowd and hustle of the major cities, preferring to live out in the wild and so might be considered something of a Rustic.
"What profession might you choose?"
Lazarus, being an alumni of the Rhombus of Worms has become a Scourge. As well as killing monsters for a living, Lazarus has also taken on the role of a Bombastine (see what an avid reader of your blog I am? :D) on occasion (when he can be found by wealthy rules, who pay a high sum for his expertise and potives) fighting as a mercenary for one state or another.
"Would you be a sedorner or invidist or somewhere in between?"
Since his parents' death, Lazarus has become a very inbittered invidist to such an extent that this extends to sedorners too (much like Licirius in the novel).
"What would you look like?"
Due to the virility of Lazarus' potives, he bandages himself in layers of protective wrappings and shrouds his face with an intricate array of googles, so much so that few, if anyone, knows his true apparance. All that can be gathered is that he is of medium height with a slender, willowy build.
"Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?"
Again, being so heavily bandaged, only Lazarus knows the answer to that question, and he's not telling.
"What else would be interesting about you?"
Having no family due to them being murdered by monsters whilst undergoing his education at Worms, Lazarus has turned his back on civilisation and ecks a living among the wilds of the HC. Due to his lonesome nature and the bitterness and hatred he has become burdened with, Lazarus is more than a little psychopathic and has a very short temper. This trait wins him few contacts with the social world and even fewer friends. When talking about Lazarus, strangers and associates alike speak his name with fear and a little revulsion as Lazarus has become the very thing he makes a living out of.
Well that's it. Feel from to use it or change it as you will. Just an idea I had that I thought I might share. :) Goodluck with book 2 and with writing book three.
Sincerely, LankySam.
Brilliant, Lanky Sam, brilliant - I wonder how the Scourge of Inchyt and the Branden Rose might get on?
Mmm, the Scourge of Inchyt doesn't get along with anyone, let alone a mood-swinging fulgar. A fiery confrontation might arise if they spent too much time in each other's company, methinks. :D
I forgot to thank you for your comment about my character too. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside about my idea being called 'brilliant'. Thanks once again.
Economous Musgrove? ahh..yes. I'd rather not talk about Economous. we've never really seen eye to eye after he accused me of breaking replication legislation.
I mean, there's no such thing as an 'original' idea is there? It was a complete over reaction...I was just using one or two items as reference...I'm sure there was no need for the artisans guild to revoke my membership.
Who wants to be part of a stuffy old guild anyway. Must get back to work, some tourists are coming in.
D.Flooch
(Hehehe - superb!) So you say Master Flooch, Economous has his own side of it. Just be greatful an expulsion was all you suffered.
Hi - I'm 36 from NZ. Just finished reading MBT Book I. Loved it! Sent chills up my spine and I can't wait to get my hands on Lamplighter. Will now let my wife and oldest daughter pry the hardcover edition of Book 1 from my ferocious grasp... :-)
Absolutely brilliant art on the ANZ hardcover edition by the way. The cover is what first drew me to the book... Very eerie...
Would I live in the half-continent? Hmmm. A scary but intriguing place.
I'd be Albard, a smuggler living along the Considine Coast and making my living supplying Sugar of Nnun and other not-quite-socially acceptable materials (but not corpses or monsters - I'd be a smuggler with certain standards). I'd be a sedorner at heart, but a ruthless slayer in self-defence. I'd be middling height, have wavy dirty black hair, have a grim jaw, a large nose, and brooding eyes... I'd have no truck with internal organ modifications or the egotistical markings of cruorpunxis - instead trusting to my God-given thews, natural wits, excellent proofing, and the assurance that comes from living a dangerous life... Possibly also a short one.
What else? Well, I'd look surprisingly like Oliver Tobias's character from the old 1980's TV show "Smuggler". :-)
Hello Ian L. It is hard to express just how encouraging it is to learn I have given you such an enjoyable ride with MBT. I most certainly hope you get into the second one just the same and the good times keep rolling on. (Perhaps a paperback might suffice as a lending copy, you know, for your wife and daughter... :)
And well-a-day too, Master Albard, what dark brooding fellow you are indeed. I commend you for your scrupples regarding Sugar of Nnun and ashmongering.
Hi DM,
I know you've answered this before, but I can't for the life of me remember what the answer was. How does one go about posting an illo with their character bio?
this post is a bit of a graveyard, but it looked like fun
[What would be your name?]
Yr. servant, Portia Maandag-Verslinden
[What part of the H-c would you live in?]
I grew up in Bradenbrass, but since often that which you know all your life is that which you want to get as far away from as possible when you grow up, I hardly ever visit. My parents, and my grandparents, and their parents, were gaulders; I have no inclination to follow in their footsteps.
I meander along the roads for the most part, due to the nature of my job, but my home is a small ugly house in the middle of absolute nowhere, a place so uninteresting that even monsters and tax collectors stay away. Every once in a while I go there and dust.
[What would be your social station?]
What's the Half-Continent name for road apple?
[What profession might you choose?]
Well, by choice I would be a leer [laggard], but that costs money and I, alas, have little. I am a ballad-writer--someone has to think up the cheesy badly-rhyming lyrics for those rousing songs, right? I actually have some talent, though I do not often have the leisure to do more than spew out the stuff that is appreciated [and, more importantly, bought] by the general public; I always dreamed of being a great musician, as well, but this is hard when one is partly tone-deaf and can do little more than strangle out a few tunes on a lap-harp. My hero is Hero of Clunes, and I am somewhat oblivious to the fact that I cannot sing.
[Would you be a sedorner or invidist or somewhere in between?]
Perhaps I have spent too much time around my own honor-and-rightness-whatever-the-cost work, but I am a sedorner. Everymen and Untermen are both created creatures, enemies or not, and I have not the consitution for fierce hatred. Since I am a musician, and musicians are generally looked upon as lunatics, this is Ok. One of these days I'm going to get in trouble, but that day has not yet come.
[What would you look like?]
Ah. Yes. Too tall, too curvy, too pale, and too round-faced to be called a beauty, but built hardy and travelable. Grey eyes; dishwater hair; a tendency to smile on only one side of my face; a penchant towards ugly jewelry. I generally wear black, in case I have to leave town in a hurry in the middle of the night.
[Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?]
I don't know--do normal professions get spoors, too?
[What else would be interesting about you?]
I am engaged to a fellow back in Bradenbrass who insists that I sing like a nightingale.
Oblivious and clumsy I may be, but not helpless. Once on the road I ran into Epitome Bile and offered to verbosely proclaim her greatness for a small fee. We had words. Now I have these unattractive white scars on my left arm and she may still have trouble turning her head to the right.
I love my life, and I love what I do. There is a satisfaction in bringing out the beauty in everyday things by writing them down.
I do not long for adventure; I prefer to witness other people's. Eventually, when I hit the [h-c word for jackpot] and can put myself up somewhere nice, I will settle down in whatever way I can, but for now: move forward!
o. and I don't like cats.
(If this posted twice I'm terribly sorry, My computer has been on the fritz for the past week)
On the subject of characters...
What would be your name?)
Mad Maude, at ye service
(What part of the Half-Continent would you live in?)
Ehr, well I started out in the southern end, but as life went along...I ended up sort of everywhere! My brother Jack and I have always been wanderers
(What would be your social station?)
ah, another tetchy question...on the low end, no where close to them lofty peers. Not much money to be had in my trade.
(What profession might you choose?)
Well, I guess you could call me an entertainer of sorts, though mayhap the phrase "jack of all trades" suits me best. I wander the country with my brother and we work as musicians, teratologists, crowd control, bodyguards, finders-and-retrivers and the like. My training as a Scourge is certaintly a boon to us in any of these occupations. I play the double-flute, while Jack plays the fiddle, but as I said before, the pay ain't too good. You wouldn't happen to be in the market for any of the aformentioned trades, would ye?
(Would you be a sedorner (monster-lover) or invidist (monster-hater) or somewhere in between?)
I stand firm in the middle on this subject, some monsters may be good, but there are far too many evil baskets about for my liking.
(What would you look like?)
My mother used to tell me I was pretty, but since the loss of one of my green eyes(the right one), I get far fewer looks from the availible lads. My hair is lovely though, and I'm quite proud of it. it comes right down 'round my shoulders, very wavy and a lovely shade of dark brown. Rather difficult to keep your hair long when you do everything I do! Anyways, my height is nothin' to be proud of , but I am slim and trim from all the runnin' and fightin' I do. My skin is rather dark from spending so much time outdoors. Other wise I'm no more than your ordinary lass.
(Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?)
Aye,I have them, the marks of a skold, two white lines runnin' down my face, though technically I'm a scourge.
(What else would be interesting about you?)
Well, many things! For example,I can fix most anything,though it might take a while, I'm quite handy with just about any weapon, and I used to have a sweetheart in Boschenburg, but I lost the poor fellow in a theroscade not five years back...I still miss him...anyways! I have no luck with animals, 'specially those of the cart-pulling varity, oxen, donkeys, horses and the like. Though I have a special fondness for cats. Uhm, other facts...I never wear matching hose!
To help advertise our occupation, Jack and I have taken to wearing rather outlandish and brightly coloured hose, different each day, if we can help it. My instrument, the double flute, is a nifty little thing that can play two diffrent notes at once, it's shaped like a 'Y' y'see, and each arm has it's own row of holes, and when I start a tune I can play a diffrent bit out of each end of the flute! My brother and I can scratch out quite a pretty tune betwixt us.
Are you SURE you don't need anything done? Any large groups entertained? Nickers dispatched?
Times are rough ye see...
(ps, please be expecting a sketch to be e-mailed! :D)
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