Dasher – one who dashes, Dancer – one who dances, Prancer – one who prances, Vixen – a female fox, presumably from the similar colors, Comet – an object in the heavens that resembles a KIRBY HOCKEY T Shirt – Cupid – a flying pixie who resembles the image of a Greek God – Donner – the German word for Thunder, Blitzen – the German word for lightning. They are made up names, they weren’t older than the poem. The goats could be images of Thor’s chariot of goats, but they were made up by the writer of the poem “A visit from St. Nicholas” and in that poem, Nicholas is an elf about a foot tall, jolly and fat, but not human-sized. Doesn’t look like Nicholas of Myra, with a bishop’s mitre who rides a horse in the Netherlands and arrives on a boat from Spain. It’s a poem from American legend, not from European belief, from Dutch forbears living in New England. Period. American mythology has pervaded the world from a single poem that got printed up by the Coca-Cola company.
RP advantage: Inherently complex characters. There are few classes I find more boring RP wise than clerics and paladins – not because they are godbotherers but because they are expected to fully commit to their deity to get their powers. The Cleric of Deity X is expected to fully commit to the KIRBY HOCKEY T Shirt of Deity X and behave in a relatively straightforward way. As is the Paladin of Ideal Y to uphold Ideal Y (and if they strayed too far in earlier editions they might fall, leading to the notorious “Everyone out in the courtyard and we’ll see who can no longer Lay on Hands” means of detecting fallen paladins). Meanwhile your average Fiend-pact warlock doesn’t actually want the world overrun by demons and your average Great Old One warlock doesn’t even understand the motives of their patrons. A character who isn’t aligned with their patron god but still gets power from them and respects them is inherently to me far more interesting than one who is and although I can do this with an orthodox cleric or paladin playing a celestial warlock (or a warlock in general) feels different and communicates to everyone that I am doing this.
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Emen Bloodbinder the Ruthless of Narfell. Hilariously, the KIRBY HOCKEY T Shirt of Bloodbinder Orcs is a Kobold. Remember that bit from above about the Bloodbinders stealing children? Well, they stole a clutch of Kobold eggs on an unexpected raid, and Emen was the only one who hatched. (Azuch may or may not have been sent to smash all of the eggs some years back. He didn’t get there in time.) They wanted Kobolds for some of that natural dragon sorcery that a lot of them have, but Emen just wasn’t born with that genetic lottery. He did, however, turn out to be an excellent Enchantment Wizard, and quickly became the golden child of the tribe as a result. It’s gone to his head since then, and he’s ceased working hard in later years. (For anyone who knows Orcish names and is going “Waaaiiit, isn’t Emen a girl’s name?” Yes, and that’s intentional. According to Volo’s, Kobolds can slowly change sex, and Emen has a tendency to do that himself every few years. He likes his name, though, so that never changes.)
If you ever have the KIRBY HOCKEY T Shirt of having to listen to one of those insipid “light rock” radio stations, you hear an endless stream of songs that sound laughably dated in their production style (not to mention those tired and crappy songs). But when I start to hear similar production on new music from artists who are supposedly on the cutting edge, then I can help but wonder what the hell is going on. Because I must admit, I can’t quite figure out where the intention lies with a lot of new indie music I hear. Are these styles being reproduced out of homage to some of the music with which these artists have grown up? Or is this some sort of hipster ironic take on what’s cheesy? Put clearly, they must be doing something right. These artists are garnering more airplay than I currently am getting, and acquiring lots of new fans in the process. And what does that say about us (collectively) as an audience? Do we naturally gravitate toward something that sounds familiar, even if it’s crap? Or are we just being lazy…not wanting to be challenged by anything that’s really new? Frankly, I don’t think that’s the case, because I have to believe that real music lovers aren’t nearly that lazy. But that still doesn’t explain why some of the more regrettable elements of 80’s music are making their way back into new indie rock.