Featured Character - Derdriu Urchurdan Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself... A: Okay, how did this happen? Who’s responsible? When I find them I’ll... *lol*... seriously, thanks for the nod, it’s certainly a surprise, can’t think what would merit such, but here goes. Something about myself...hmmm. Obviously a trick question. *drums fingers on desk waiting for divine inspiration* Fifth generation California native (see? not my fault, it’s genetic) with Scottish roots, Clan Ross. BA in History from UCLA, emphasis medieval England, but only cause they wouldn’t let me into film school. Huge mistake on their part, still can’t believe they weren’t interested in making "The Life of King John and Why He Really Wasn’t Such a Bad King, as Kings Go." But, there ya have it. Q: Why did you join Pan Historia? Have there been other writing venues for you before your involvement here? A: The clan was looking for a new home and PH was gracious enough to offer us space here. Prior to that we were rping at Ancient Sites. Prior to that I only wrote when threatened with bodily harm and only boring research papers. This is much more fun. :-) Q: Tell us something about Scotia, and the inspirations behind this particular novel. How do you go about researching the history for a time period only beginning to come into the light? Also, if you have the chance, could you provide pointers on how to organize storylines in multiple threads so that they proceed reasonably smoothly with respect to each other? Scotia seems to accomplish this well. A: Scotia? *points to Conachar Urchurdan* All his idea. Most folk don’t know this, but in real life he’s just a sweet Amish farm boy... who likes to play with knives. Explains so much. *shakes head* Using 6th century Scotland as the historical backdrop, each clan or grouping has their own geographical area to play in, interaction between the groups based on desire. We were very fortunate to have the MacRoth clan join us from Ancient Sites, though you didn’t hear me say that. *lol* Seriously, it’s been great fun. Native Picts, Scottish clans, Irish mercenaries, even the Norse have dropped by a time or two. But we paid them to go away. Scotia for me is about the people, a great collection of folk who enjoy rping Dark Age Celtic life and it really shows in their writing. While there are certainly challenges to spinning tales in pre-medieval, pre-feudal times as far as hard historical data goes, it also lends a reasonable amount of freedom to the stories. We’re not tightly bound to historical events, there’s room to creatively explore a variety of ‘what ifs’, though we strive to keep it historically plausible. There’s simply quite a lot that isn’t known, but for folk interested in delving we can take what is known and extrapolate, build on it and see where it takes us. Some of the players have a tremendous working knowledge of the era, rest of us muddle along, all of us learning as we go and hopefully having tons of fun along the way, cause that’s really what it’s all about. As far as organizing storylines on multiple threads, that’s up to the players. We jaw a lot behind the scenes, kick story ideas around. Some characters enjoy traveling around, others prefer to stay on one thread. We have a few stories that bounce from thread to thread and lots of self contained stories. Not sure how smoothly they run but as long as no one asks what day it is in Dalriada in relation to Pictland we usually do okay. *looks heavenward* Patience, flexibility, and a willingness to work with others even when you’d rather strangle them seems to help. Right, Dafydd? *ducks out of bard’s grasp and grins* I can tease him cause we’s clan... hehe. Q: What are your other involvements on Pan Historia, in novel or in reference books? A: Sadly, my participation outside Scotia can only be termed lackluster -- a few posts here and there, Britannia, Tombstone, etc. Drop in from time to time at various Celtic reference books to read, but that’s about it. So many great novels, so little time. :-( Q: What are your greatest accomplishments, either in real life or Pan Historia? A: Graduating from college in four years was a tremendous surprise to my family and friends, okay and to some of my profs as well. Since then I’ve devoted my life to doing as little as possible and thoroughly enjoying it, not unlike RP Dee. Q: In some random hypothetical roleplay, what sort of character would be your greatest "stretch", but that you might consider tackling sometime? A: Anything in the sci-fi genre. I adore reading it, but have never attempted scribing any. With a great deal of help from some well meaning yet sadistic friends, rumor has it I’ll be appearing at Electronic Dreams as an Artificial Intelligence at some point. Pray for me. Very cool novel, encourage anyone into sci-fi to check it out. :-) |
Derdriu
Urchurdan is one of the Board Members of the novel, Scotia,
set in Dark Ages Scotland. She's an excellent writer,
who gets herself into character very well, role-playing
flaws as well as strengths to create a character of depth
for whom the reader cares to learn about. She is also
an excellent organizer who helps the roleplay of Scotia
move along smoothly, encouraging other good writers to
share their skills here as well. She draws upon an abundance
of research to add believability to this historical adventure
book. 
