Dunedain Cultural Responses and ‘Talk’
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:55 pm
Manveruon’s trinkets thread (and my subsequent response) got me thinking that it’d be good to start a similar thread to discuss cultural jargon and verbiage that would help solidify our character’s origins when conversing with others, be they in kit or civilians. Bear in mind, this only applies to first person interpretation.
Other things to note: Very proper speech. As a basic rule, I’m trying to avoid contractions altogether, as word separation automatically lends a higher air to a sentence. Also, avoiding accents entirely. Faire-goers and reenactors alike often add an accent to give their persona credibility, but I believe such sounds (and slurs such as ‘aye’) do the character disservice. I’m also noticing phrases in the text such as ‘brought to ruin’ completely replacing the modern ‘messed up’.
Other ideas? Phrases that jump out at you?
To this effect, simple character-appropriate ways to respond to “Who/what are you?†questions might be as simple as “I’m just passing through†or “Can you direct me to the inn?â€, but I find it important to bear in mind that a Ranger is, by definition, secretive though not suspicious. I think it important that one be conversational without being proud. The tendency is to tell who and what you are right out of the gate, but that is counter-intuitive to the goal of putting a King back on the throne.In character, I shouldn't be saying "I'm a Ranger"...it's not a compliment. But saying "I am a descendant of Numenor tasked with patrolling the fallen north kingdom" isn't right either. In short, I'm working on ways to be seen for what I am even by folks who don't have a clue what a Numenorean carpet looks like, as well as character-appropriate ways to field questions.
Other things to note: Very proper speech. As a basic rule, I’m trying to avoid contractions altogether, as word separation automatically lends a higher air to a sentence. Also, avoiding accents entirely. Faire-goers and reenactors alike often add an accent to give their persona credibility, but I believe such sounds (and slurs such as ‘aye’) do the character disservice. I’m also noticing phrases in the text such as ‘brought to ruin’ completely replacing the modern ‘messed up’.
Other ideas? Phrases that jump out at you?