Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Best Character Writer of the Week: DukeOfNorfolk

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Show only dev responses
Well...I certainly cannot complain about this, though Richard might find a way. ;)

Seriously, very many thanks to you @Bullfilter for the nomination and all others that have and/or will offer congrats! I have said it before and will again...this AAR of the Wars of the Roses is a passion project of mine going back many, many years. I have at least 3 (including this one) of some form or another in my Inkwell. Lesse...one in EUIII which is where this started, then another early on with EUIV and now this one. Is that right?

I've really wanted to tell this story in narrative form for a long time and while I know that I am not alone in this idea (and many others have done so as well if not better) I especially wanted to tell Richard's story! I cannot tell you how many things I have read about the man over these long years and to finally be able to put his character to page, with that knowledge, has been a fascinating and wonderful thing. His sons (and especially his namesake) tend to get "all the press" as it were. That comes with being King (however briefly or not), I suppose. Yet even Sharon Kay Penman, who I do like, basically starts at the end as far as Duke Richard of York is concerned. The man was a total contradiction in a lot of ways, but also very loyal. Hard to see by his actions (and especially by what his children did) yet if you drill down and look at his motivations...as someone trained as an actor...this guy is perfect to try and portray!

I am pleased to see so many say that I am doing so with value and possibly accurately. No doubt, I am including a lot of supposition. What else can one do about a figure that lived so long ago and we know, really, so little about? A life is not black and white. The victor tends to tell the story and that is what more often than not goes down into history. That or myth (which I think we all know is easier to tell and be received than the messy reality.) I am especially pleased to see so many enjoy the scenes between Richard and Henry, for in many ways, that (to me at this stage) is the heart of the story.

I was told not to tell this story in the manner I wanted to tell it. By good friends (or at least good friends then) that I believe held my best interests at heart. I wanted to adhere to the history we are well aware of (or some/most/few...who knows?) but then change it up. But only slightly at first. As the game goes (and I assure...this AAR is based on a game!) I too will go. But that does not mean that I cannot play with these historical figures as I want to get at what I want to get at. And that goes directly to Richard, 3rd Duke of York. With a better claim than Henry VI himself! Yes. That is my story.

So to see him get a shout out and nod? Well...be careful. He may take that and run with it. ;)

Sincerly, thank you all very much! This one is truly a labor of love and I love that you are enjoying it. :)
 
  • 3Like
  • 3Love
Reactions:
Congratulations @coz1 ! You're the first to reach double digits when it comes to wins for this weekly and it is certainly well deserved. You've created several more memorable characters these last few years.
 
Congratulations on an historic achievement @coz1 ! Always well deserved. :D
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Thank you once again to all for the congrats but my week is up and it is time to pass this along. I'll readily admit I do not read around as much as I should, but a new work has caught my eye and for good reason. It's a new work but an old (forum time, not age) writAAR and his typical (read::great) writing is already apparent. Thus I would like to pass this on to @Jestor for his narrator Winchester in The Unexpected Noble Descendant (though I could have easily suggested Big Bird. ;) )

I'm just happy to see another work and this is on par! Welcome back @Jestor and thank you for another story. :cool:
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Well done!
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Congratulations @Jestor! Great to see you back writing again. :D
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
The Eternal War Against The Night​


jak7139 said:
My nominee last won this award (according to the first post) back in 2020 for their excellent CK3 AAR The Right Hand of the Karlings. Now they're the doing the Stellaris leg of a Megacampaign.
The character to go alongside this nomination is the second ruler of Humanity during that Stellaris game: Emperor Liuva III. Though his father first sent humanity into the stars, Liuva cemented their place in the galaxy (a feeling of superiority that extends to his successors). I won't spoil too much, but I don't think Humanity would've turned out quite how they are now without Liuva's guidance.
The writer of this character and AAR? alscon. Congratulations!
Click to expand...

And once the music stops,
In silence there it burns,
Yet the fear should not exist,
Never alone night of sky is.
As they come to help,
In the harmony they float,
In the eyes they glimmer,
In the hopes they cheer.

Words in the distant dreams,
In the name of @alscon they shine there,
All congratulating the best character writAAR of the week.


Macavity116 said:
Today, I need to nominate Peter Ebbesen again, but this time, for a very specific character: Sverker (the Genius King of Denmark) has very much come into his own ever since the AAR returned from its hiatus last month. In the recent chapters, Sverker has served the audience with some moments that are equal parts hilarious and satisfying. I can't ask for more, and this is my way of thanking Peter Ebbesen for gracing the CKIII AAR forums with such a great protagonist.
(...) I will remind everyone that the phrase "A World Gone Mad" appears on the very first page of Born to Breed. You've got to be prepared to embrace a little insanity when you step into the world created by Peter Ebbesen, your new Best Character Writer of the Week!
Click to expand...

Rain in the forever can they at a glance,
In the story created are they for a dance.
Dreams of the deep are they hitting the wall,
In the cold are they fighting the rhymes to fall.
Once over is it, now free are your eyes,
Meeting are they imaginations beyond the skies,
But harder does it seem, should you mind the surface of the real.

Then in the joy do the cheers rush, for the words do they shriek,
The laughter does the one bring with the delight.
Yes, the tales does the one decorate in boundless span,
To congratulate all do you need, the best character writAAR of the week,
The one, @Peter Ebbesen.


Bullfilter said:
I nominate coz1 for Duke Richard of York in his The Wars of the Roses
Click to expand...

Collapsed into the void, it seems the victory belongs to the darkness,
Inescapable it is, however armed with the glimmers,
Sudden despair surrounds the mind.

But the light over the horizon awakens.
There it is, of the first seconds,
The hope has been seen afar.
Recovering from the pain, never to succumb in shame,
Riding the waves unseen.

Bright is its steed,
Screaming gallops are heard,
Among thunders arriving the dawn.
To see the worlds apart,
Between the seas of the dreams,
To reach the words before lost in the streams.

The best character writAAR of the week meets your eyes.
Only then you realise,
Rising up in the wonder,
Creating the tales,
To congratulate in the wake of the light,
Praising @coz1,
To end the kingdom of the night.


coz1 said:
Thank you once again to all for the congrats but my week is up and it is time to pass this along. I'll readily admit I do not read around as much as I should, but a new work has caught my eye and for good reason. It's a new work but an old (forum time, not age) writAAR and his typical (read::great) writing is already apparent. Thus I would like to pass this on to Jestor for his narrator Winchester in The Unexpected Noble Descendant (though I could have easily suggested Big Bird. ;) )
I'm just happy to see another work and this is on par! Welcome back Jestor and thank you for another story. :cool:
Click to expand...

In the dawn you remain, the night retreats to the past.
From where they are shaped,
The core is known as they are placed.
Arranged in the mystic order, yet only an illusion,
For the obvious is revealed,
Only through the colours of the tales,
In the mirror of this writAAR, reflected without confusion.

It is the core that you do know,
To paint the world in the dreams,
Of the images in the words.
And that is the brush this writAAR has,
Waiting in the week beyond the dawn,
@Jestor, the best character writAAR.
Only the congratulations you can bring,
To the presence of this writAAR.

Looking beyond the dawn, now the day is in the shine,
Fearless steps you take, yet aware,
Of the night, again it will return there.​
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Thank you, coz and all! :) I've been busy lately, but have the screenshots for the next update ready when I have time for it
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
An excellent choice, interesting characters as always from our well deserved winner. Congratulations @Jestor
 
  • 3Like
Reactions:
My week is up and it's time to pass along the torch. I've decided (perhaps apropos of me :D) to be a bit unorthodox in my selection. Sometimes character is not so much an individual persona, but a total entity that, combined together, gives rise to the text as a character in and of itself (this is getting rather deep into the weeds of literary criticism, but bear with me and just roll with it). As I was reading through various AARs, originally intending on an individual character, I instead found myself struck by the power and sensibility of the sort of character I've described above. While many (if not all) of the voices are based on actual, real-life historians, mimicry in matching style and syntax is often harder to get right than it first appears - particularly if it clashes with one's own native writing voice. It would be akin to me trying to write, say, like Thomas Pynchon or James Joyce in his more... post-modern let's call it... works.

So for the total effect they create, the skill in embodying their voice, and just the overall quality of the AAR, I'm nominating @DensleyBlair for the character of the Authorial Collective in his AAR, ECHOES OF A NEW TOMORROW Life after Revolution in the Commonwealth of Britain (1901- Series)
 
  • 3Like
  • 2Love
Reactions:
  • 1Like
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Warm congrats @DensleyBlair and well nominated @Jestor: you had me nodding sagely with chin braced by thumb and forefinger! :D
 
  • 2Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back