Diagnosing the Matriarch (evaluation)

[Taataani Meorrrei]

These things happen a lot in groups. Apologies in advance for swag-jacking Droo and Mac, but I am a terrible swag-jacker I guess.

I've put a lot of effort into re-designing Taataani, because I think that before she was kind of a one-trick pony with not a lot to do. Then again, that sort of thing happened a lot with my older Cizerack characters. I reset Cirrsseeto and got good results with him, so this was my next attempt. I'm gonna try to itemize my concerns here, so be patient:

I kind of feel a little schizophrenic writing this character because she's prone to moving to a lot of different extremes, and I don't know whether it comes out well in the writing or just makes me look daft. She goes from being completely in control to losing it in the span of a post or two, and its hard to tell if that behavior seems justified or if it comes off as tacky.

Part of what I want to show in Taataani is some kind of relative progressive behavior. This is juxtaposed two ways: She's something of an iconoclastic liberal weirdo to other Cizeracks, but she then retains just enough racism/sexism/classism aloofness that kind of makes interacting the the galaxy at large sort of difficult. I'm never sure if I paint this in any kind of subtlety, because it's probably easy to look at her as a hypocrite instead of a gradient of changing times, I guess.

Sort of relating to above, alot of her behavior is attributable to high living. My inspiration of sorts here is from living in the south and dealing with ladies of good society, whatever that means. The old money types that have more or less lost any financial or reputational disincentive to say or do exactly what they please.

I want this character to be smart. I honestly intend her to be smarter than anybody else I roleplay. Not in a "aha, I know the answer and you don't" sort of way, either, because if anything, she'd rather play ignorant and let people work with their assumptions. I don't know if this has properly come out in how I write, or if it hasn't, what I can do to accentuate that.

I've hinted at times that there's not a whole lot separating Taataani from somebody like Sasseeri in terms of playing to win, being very ruthless, and the like, but I've always wanted to keep velvet gloves on with Taataani, so that she can kill with kindness and do all sorts of semi-cruel things without necessarily coming off as a battleaxe. I think there's a part of her that very much delights in keeping people perpetually uncomfortable and using that discomfort to keep them off balance so she gets what she wants. At the same time, I've wanted to make clear that there's no real malevolence at play, and she's genuinely a good person at heart and believes in good people in turn. Again, that may come off as terribly contradictory to people.

I've been working on making sure Taataani has a "diversified portfolio" of galactic interests, because the way I've seen her philosophy, she's pretty much just concerned about whatever will help make sure her family lands on its feet. She's not really political per se, but more instead just mater familias on an exaggerated scale. To that end, she hob-knobs with the Empress to gain business favors in the Empire, keeps open to the changing Independent tides in the Cizerack Pride, and is also willing to play a Baron von Steuben sort of character with the Rebellion and the Wheel. I've been very careful to keep her out of politics, and to mainly make it clear that she's doing these things out of interest for her family alone. Even beyond that, her drive to 'play mother' can come out among people she holds in friendly regard, and I've wanted to make sure she's a personable and approachable, if not uncomfortable figure. Again, the contradictory nature of this can muddle things alot.

She's a libertine sexpot glutton and I guess that's just attributable to her people. I've tried to at the very least keep this as more of an afternote than I did before.
Basically, I realize I'm a bit all over the place, and I'm not sure what's come out of things when people read her posts, and what is lost in translation. Is there anything I could do to better distill these objectives? Is there something maybe I just haven't considered in all of this, and a better recommendation that I might want to consider taking?

[Droo]

I kind of feel a little schizophrenic writing this character...

Without realising it before, this side of Taataani reminds me of Mrs. Weasley, but I think that is because whenever I see her really lose her temper it's when it concerns her family, either protecting or admonishing them. This is good thing. I love Mrs. Weasley. But in all honesty, I've always felt the dynamics of her mood very natural, you show where her emotions come from without being overly verbose about it.

And as for the duality of the character, it's balanced. You can see her Cizerack heritage, which she often wears on her sleeve with her manservants, traditions, and air of superiority, and then there's the side of her which deviates from those old school values, you even see it indirectly in what she did for her son in the past. But she's flexible and knows when to work which side of her personality, always to favour herself, and that also makes her come across as a very shrewd businesswoman.



Sort of relating to above, alot of her behavior is attributable to high living.
I want this character to be smart. I honestly intend her to be smarter than anybody else I roleplay.
In one of my posts I described Taataani as exhibiting "such dominance over her environment," and in a way it relates to her maintaining a life of luxury and excess while commanding her personal corporate empire. The life she lives provides for some luxurious descriptive writing and affords her the right to be "absurd" from time to time while this is tempered by a keen wit and a sharp tongue. I think I've before commented on her intellect and the intellect with which you write her, and it's a character who never fails to stimulate and surprise.

And when it comes to her alignment, you can see she's not a bad person, just one who is unpredictable in her schemes and potentially dangerous. I get the impression she likes to play people for good sport just as much for her own gain. But then she has a mothering quality to her which makes her seem deceptively sweet, and it all works to her advantage. I'm never confused by it though, she's clearly a very complex and fully-realised character.



She's a libertine sexpot glutton...
That's the icing on the cake for me. It's a quality of hers that keeps her from straying too far into straight-faced businesswoman or overbearing matriarch territory, giving her a sultry seductive side. And this is something that is always good for lending a sprinkle of levity to situations.

If I had any advice or thoughts worth sharing it would be to consider cornering Taataani politically sometime in the future, making her efforts to play the galaxy at large more difficult, shaking the foundations of her somewhat cozy life, but I daresay what with discovering her son in the Rebellion, you might already have that bit sussed.

A recurring theme here seems to be concern over whether or not you've managed to balance all the different contrasting elements of your character and as far as I'm concerned you do. There's evidence of everything you've mentioned here in your work with Taataani, it never feels forced, and flows with a real exhuberance. You must really enjoy this character of yours, I know I certainly do, playing off Taataani is an effortless joy.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

My only complaints about Taataani was how you were constantly rewriting what we'd established about Cizerack culture with just about every post in the beginning. And inventing the term Cizeri despite no one ever not calling them Cizerack or the language Cizerack before. :shakefist

It is, of course, a good word. It all worked out in the end. ;)

I think she's great. I don't think she comes off as schizophrenic at all. But then I sort of know what you're doing with her as I have to do similar things with Sasseeri (but different. But you know what I mean.). Keep up the good work!

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Thanks for the comments y'all. Glad that the wild eccentricities aren't coming off as too slap-dash, so I'll keep that bit of the equation working.

I do agree that there's some kind of "danger element" missing, and you're right, I think at some point it's inevitable that she's going to have to interact with people who don't play nice and don't play in her kind of catch & release sort of world. I honestly don't know how I'd play her if things got serious on that nature, so it would be really unknown territory and could push some development.

I also promise (mostly) not to hijack and retcon any Cizerack stuff without a hearing before the committee, or at least a brief huddle. Half of the trouble, you see, is that I've developed alzheimer's at a young age and can barely remember what I posted yesterday, much less a year ago.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If you're at a loss, just read the Cizerack wiki page, silly. ;) No more retconning is allowed, btw, I just can't take it anymore. You can add to what's there, just don't change it! :mneh