There are a million cliches about women of mystery, all across the media forms, but few manage to ditch the cliche and go right for the mystery.
Victoria Alexandra Chylde is one of them.
Dressed in colors, speaking in riddles, this woman can spin words into a positively fascinating look at a Seer. That isn't her only talent, though; Viki can weave baskets, garden and she can also get kidnapped with the best of them. Likewise, she's a member of the very famed Blood House Onyx. Now, the question is, who is Viki according to her mun? Where did she come from?
"To answer the question of who, one must first answer the question of what. Viki is my oldest character and has been reinvented as I have reinvented myself in the course of growing up. Her origins are skewed. Halfing dark elf (or quarter or sixteenth?), a starfall's descendant, a seer. She was born in a world between, ruined by invaders, whisked away by another seer, saved because he knew she was special. She is a twin - her kind is marked by twinning. A pair for every generation, sometimes more. I got the idea from astronomy's binary stars - mutual orbits, brought together and bound by attraction (though this rings more of lovers than of a brother-sister pair). I had her settle on a world like Earth to grow, but in a time separate.. From the desert to the mountains of Ava'h Mist. It is here where her blood relatives still reside - her twin brother, her adopted kin, and those other ties that bind."
Naturally, this origin can only lead to some fabulously interesting characterization on Viki's part. As to how she came to Rhy'Din, that is no less interesting: "She broke in Rhy'Din about eleven years ago, her twin in tow, when that old invading force resurfaced, found them, and followed."
Viki lead quite a life in her early time in Rhy'Din. Initially, still young and mentally sound, she took up the cause against slavery. Given the nature of slavery in the realm, though, rebellion after rebellion failed and her mind took the worst damage from these failures. Now, according to her mun, "She speaks in riddle, rhyme, poetry and prophecy. She sees things that aren't there, that are there, and talks to the inanimate. She can hear bells in the sound of a sigh, and read truth in the shape of a mouth."
Mind you, Viki does not face things even now alone. She has a family to whom she owes a great deal: "She is ever resourceful, so in times of trouble, her family has been there. Saviors, all of them, every surname she's collected. Do not mistake nonsense for naivete. She can play up politics with the worst of sorts."
She also has an interesting quality which can be explored in the latest of the story "
Notes from the Underland": "Viki is also two-souled ... It was my attempt at incorporating myself into the story. It was my attempt in answering ... - 'What would happen to my character if I died?'"
When it comes to her character, her roleplaying and her experiences with freeform, Viki's mun got into the game in a way that many of her generation did, a classical story of bright-eyed imagination and the shared experiences of building a game and a world with others:
"I broke into the roleplay scene in March of 1997. I was 13 years old, an awkward eighth grader, and I had graduated from the X-Files chatroom to something called the Black Diamond Tavern. It was my first RP chatroom on AOL and sometimes I'll bring it back for nostalgia's sake. I vaguely remember my schoolmates chasing after me and coughing "Vampire Tavern" in our English class.
"My earliest experiences were alot of sparring and running amok with a group of kids my own age. My friend Graham played Viki's first lover, Gabriel (haha, oh that name), and Autumn played Kat LeFay, Viki's best friend. Big thank you to Phydoux and Okugi, who took me under the roleplayer's wing and looked the other way as I harassed the GC of RhyDin Doom Guard alls I wanted (Sorry Blaine!). There were others - Hayley, Lindsay, Lin, John, Other John, Mitru, Mike, Matt... We might as well have grown up together. I was with them every damn day, every hot, lazy, summer afternoon. Every brutal winter. My actual real-life cousin played Viki's twin brother Jon, but then he got very into clubbing and being a teenager and had no time for art-with-words."
Her favorite storylines in those early days, "...began as Viki and Kat began. Kat was originally a project, a way into the Slaver's Association, but Viki ended up falling for her - in the friends forever way. I did not begin my stint of sexually explicit SLs until about age 16, so back in '97-'98 it was all hopscotch innocence and fighting and getting kidnapped and busting loose."
She was also a big part of playing in others' storylines. And met, before too long, some of the more famous (or infamous) names in freeform roleplay.
"There was the guild, the Slaver's Bane. There were many, many guilds. We had our TSMW (The Sentimental Way) division in Eclipse way back when. I'm grateful to Aria, so I'll throw the spotlight on her memory. Her soul flies higher than mine ever will. The world is less of a thing without you.
"Along the lines I met Paul, LordBrutin's player, and Tara, and I should really thank them both for their eternal patience. I knew how to work a crowd, even then, I knew all the SL loopholes - I caught on quick. I'm sure Paul wanted to tear his hair out every now and then.
"I'm sure Tara sweetened him up for me later on."
As to what has shaped Viki over the years, as all long-term characters, she has had many things influence who she is. Some of the more formative ones, though, are:
"The loss of her marbles? I think it is safe to say I've done more with her in the past two years at Dragonsmark than I have on AOL. The induction into the Bloods was certainly something - perhaps the most pivotal political tie to date. And then, there was Domikai.
"Long ago, I vowed not to alter my character physically anymore than an SL called for, and what alteration there was would be temporary. No more pregnancies, or injuries, or aging. Since I've created a melting pot of a genetic history, I think its safe to say that I get to manipulate time, too. And who can pinpoint the life of a star?
"So then there was Domikai. And I broke all my rules and asked for the tribal tattoos (ink and blood and magic). And thus, she was bound to someone so like herself, it made me sit back and wonder who was writing what."
The future's never certain, not in real life, nor in freeform roleplay. But Viki's mun has definite ideas of how she wants it to go, and was kind enough to share those.
"I hope to get onto a more timely RP schedule so that I can satisfy my urges for live-action again. I hope to continue playing her as she is now, but there is always a chance for evolution. Thirteen to twenty-four and I'm still here, still growing, still changing ideas and collecting muses. I want to see the relationship between Viki and Everett grow into what it is to be (whatever that is!), I want to see the fallout from my insanely long and insanely widespread story line from last summer. I want my old friends back, to find them, to force them back into production (haha!). I want to make new friends, new muses, and know new ways of writing.
"I want to live forever, see the world, and write down everything.
"But for now, I am satisfied to know you all."
There are few better ways to sum it up than that.
