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ROOK FAQ What kind of name is "Kvasir", anyway? It's from Norse mythology. The "real" Kvasir (and the Rook's namesake) was an artificial man created by the gods at the close of the Aesir-Vanir war (and made from spittle, to boot). He was purportedly the wisest of men (ironic considering the guy that bears his name now), but ended up getting murdered. Gotta love those sagas, eh? I'm presuming that now you know it's Norse it's easier to pronounce, but just in case: say it kVAH-sr, just two syllables (swallow the 'k' and ignore the 'i'). The surname, Hrafnkell, is something like (aspirated)raffen-kell. Now you know why everyone just calls him "Rook". What's all this smelling magic stuff about? That's his gimmick - while a lot of characters can "see" or "sense" magic in some way, Kvasir smells it. Thus far, it's known that he can recognize (and distinguish between) the scents of sorcery, vampirism, faeries, angelics, and demonics. Different sources will register as different scents to him - for example, faeries and other fey usually smell like wildflowers, while vampires exude the sickly-sweet scent of rotting meat, and a grim reaper like Dementia might remind him of lilies. If Kvasir knows someone well enough, he can distinguish their magic-scent from those of similar magic-users. And the pipe? When Kvasir started coming to the Inn of the Weary Traveler, he found himself bombarded by all kinds of scents from the various magical patrons. To ease this situation, he got into the habit of continually smoking a rather noxious pipe tobacco when in the bar, to deaden his own sense of smell and mask all the scents around him. What gives with the rapier? I thought Rook was from the fourteenth century? You're absolutely right, it's an anachronism. Consider Rook to have been a little ahead of his time back home; and now that he's been out and around the multiverse for five years, he's had plenty of time to see lots of combat styles, anyway. The rapier fits so much better with Kvasir's swashbuckling scoundrel style. How accurate is the history stuff in Rook's background? What about the mythology? I have no qualms about disregarding actual history where inconvenient. Most of the stuff existed - Saint Anskar, Vladimir of Kiev, etc. Far more "accurate" is the mythology storyline, dealing with both medieval Christianity and medieval Norse paganism. One of my BAs might say "Anthropology", but it ought to read "Ritual & Symbolism", so if anything you see in Rook's storyline is based in real history, it's the religion bits. Promise. |
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