FAQ
From FitzyWiki
This is necessary. And under construction.
Contents |
Introduction
Where are all of these characters from? What are you doing with them? What is going on?
Okay, the most common thing anyone asks me is where they can read about these characters, where are these characters from, and what am I doing with them. The short answer to this is the characters mostly created for the original roleplaying game Dirty Life. However, their stories are broader than the game, and I will write about their lives in various forms. There is no one source. No one big novel. No one big, chronological anything. Yet. They're bound together by the canon of Dirty Life, which you could treat as the source.
What's Dirty Life?
The original roleplaying game (essentially a creative writing game) founded in 2004 by myself and a friend. Avery Driscoll was the first character I created.
Where do I begin?
I don't know whether this will come as a relief or a burden, but there is no beginning. You could start with browsing Dirty Life, but this isn't the easiest avenue, as this is the area where stories can and do change the most. They are also set in the present. However, if you wish, you could browse the tags. Click on the names you're interested in, but note that some of the events you read may have changed.
If you must start chronologically, the earliest story in the family's history is Dans la Lune, about Isabella Fitzwilliam. This covers only a fraction of her life.
After Dans la Lune, the major works I've done are:
The Wasting Diary*
Adage
Act II
Inhabit the Garden**
* Not yet finished.
** In need of revision.
The trouble is that only two of these stories are directly linked (Adage and Act II, which overlap and focus on the same character). The other characters are mentioned and each story goes from one generation to the next, but it isn't one story with one theme. It's each generation's tale (or one tale from each generation).
You could also browse the tags at my fiction journal, Circus Candy. Again, as with DL, click on any relevant name to read more about them. The chronology of each story should be mentioned or be clear.
In a nutshell, consider my work generational. As in, I develop one generation at a time, often moving backwards.
Which characters are most significant?
There are no principle characters, but there is a tiny handful of characters whose stories are the most developed. The reason for this tight focus is because I develop characters as my interests shift. One day I may in fact have as many as a dozen equally developed characters, but for now, there is a core group I focus on and they consist of Avery Driscoll, Claire Fitzwilliam (Avery's mother), Alice Fitzwilliam (Claire's paternal aunt), Isabella Fitzwilliam (Alice's mother), and Cecily Ó Móráin (Isabella's mother).
Story FAQ
There will be spoilers here. But then, if you read anything about these characters, you'll know what happens.
Canon
Canon is the fact. The meat of the story. The standard by which they're told. Claire being a ballet dancer as a girl is canon. Alice being a natural redhead is canon. Generally speaking, what gets written into novels or projects is considered more permanent than things written in Dirty Life (because Dirty Life is set in the present, and is an active, working game). Any inconsistencies are due to later development, but the large, overarching themes and events will likely stay consistent.
Intentionally non-canon stories will always be marked as such. They're called alternate universes, or AUs.
Dans la Lune
Primary Character(s)
Isabella Fitzwilliam, then Isabella Radcliffe.
The Wasting Diary
Adage
Act II
Inhabit the Garden
Alternate Universes
For the non-canon stories.
Flatmates
Junkdust
Baby Doll
For Evermair
Étude
Nonce
Character FAQ
I'm hardly going to mention every fact about them here, but I will include the main points that are referenced time and time again. If you want more specific breakdowns, please visit their individual pages.
Fitzwilliam Family
The Fitzwilliams came out of the creation of Avery Driscoll in 2004. In a desperate search for a funny and potentially embarrassing first name, Fitzwilliam joined the list. However, I decided to take his name more seriously and chose one of my longtime favorites--Avery--instead. Fitzwilliam became his middle name, and was almost immediately attributed to his mother's side of the family. Her maiden name.
I knew Avery was quite rich, but for what reason and for how long they had been, I didn't know. In 2005 I finally developed the idea of a diamond company, basing this decision in the fact that the Fitzwilliams were in South African politics in the 19th century, and would have invested their time in the diamond mining going on in the 1880s.
From about 2005 onward, the family itself got a solid history (helped by a novel partially written in 2004--this novel was about a thrice-or-so great uncle of Avery).
In their canon, the Fitzwilliams are the wealthiest British family thanks to their lucrative business and an ancient line of aristocracy going back to the 11th century. They are one of those big name aristocratic families who is half in government and half in the diamond business. The side people outside of Britain know best is the diamond side (specifically, anyone descended from Isabella Fitzwilliam). Their combination of activities means they are usually at the focus of something or another, and odds are it may not be positive.
