Wednesday, May 21, 2008

erissa the younger

Which one am I?








In three days, I will sit down at a table with four friends and play my first ever Dungeons and Dragons game. Something tells me this is just a teeny, tiny bit stupid. But another part of me says, "Why the hell not? It could be really fun!" I've done many things in the past year that I have never done before, like play the flute (more on that later). I've done many things I used to do, but haven't done in a long time, like read poetry in front of an audience (more on that later as well). It's been a marvelous year of newness and resurrection. My friend Noel coined the perfect term for me: "Mid-Life Isis".

On with our story. Erissa the Younger is a cleric of Eris, goddess of chaos. Here's part of her story:

I am a nomad, a love child born of a young, impetuous love affair. My parents never lived together. Because my mother was so young and the world was in such chaos, my father and his people, the elves, took me in to raise me. But they never understood my tempestuous, impulsive nature, and I couldn’t stand their serenity. So I went to live with my mother for a while. There, too, among humans, I was not welcome, but ridiculed. I couldn’t play their games or sing their songs. I hated them all. My mother could not protect me; indeed, she had no desire to.

And so I left. I wandered. I fought in battles, on all sides, with anyone who would accept me.…. not because I believed in any cause, but because it was something to do. And kinda fun. I saw people die. I died myself, but came back to join the living. I watched the stupidity of humans time and time again as they fought to destroy or defend things that were not worth destroying or defending. I perceived the futility in all actions. I knew that death was no end.

How I became a cleric of Eris shall remain a secret. Clerics of Eris have no monasteries, no organization, no dogma. I ordained myself. I answer only to my goddess and to myself.

I live to cause chaos, in the name of Eris, not necessarily to cause pain or suffering (although that can, of course, be the outcome of a prank), but to reveal some deeper truth or absurdity, and especially to bring enlightenment to the one being pranked. Mostly, though, I do it for my own entertainment!

My only motive is to make sure that others don’t take themselves too seriously. I work to reverse the Curse of Greyface.

If I had a car, it would have a bumper sticker that says, “Bumper Sticker”.

I despise most other beings, but I love the adventurous, the foolhardy, the insane, and the outcast.

I will kiss a man simply to make another man jealous. I will tell you to go left when I really think you should go right. I will contradict myself. I will never tell you where I have been. I will fight when I should run. I will lie if it will make you miserable. Or happy.

The only thing I have to watch out for is the reaction of Eris when I (as sometimes happens) take myself too seriously.

I am a culture jamming merry prankster who adheres to most of the tenets of Discordianism.

Uh, yeah, so there………

If you want to know more about gaming as social discourse, or to see the incredibly cool homemade map of where we'll be wandering, or to read about my traveling companions, go here.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I belive I am lacking the gene that would make any of this intelligible to me.

Anonymous said...

Actually, you are Erissa the Taller. Oops, did I give it away?

Don't say that it's stupid...don't!

Citizen-you may be surprised that you actually have a latent gene that would make all of this intelligible if and when you try it. It's like creating a story that you star in, and it's an exercise in social and personal psychology...very academic, um, yes, ahem, indeed.

suesun said...

Erissa the Younger but Taller. I like it! And it's just absurd enough to be perfect.

suesun said...
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jana said...

Good back story. It's interesting how we choose characters that seem to be our opposites. Sue seems to be such a community oriented "bring 'em all together, sort." But this character is totally anti-social and perhaps opportunistic? We'll see. Maybe it's all a front and beneath hides a empathetic Erissa...

You are all going to have a blast on Saturday.

And I'm very serious about you needing a life size version of that coat.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Citizen. I just don't grok this stuff.

Shawn S. said...

just stay away from world of warcraft. i have lost many friends to it. i hear it is similar to dungeons and dragons. :)

Anonymous said...

to rhyllia - Point taken. I probably could get it if I put my mind to it. I should have said, "I belive I am lacking the gene that would make any of this interesting to me." But those sorts of differences are what make the world go around.

reliv4life said...

WELL??? How did it go?

suesun said...

Here's how it went.

suesun said...
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