Damona, psychologically

Luiz asked me about the origins of my more notable and "iconic" characters.  He specifically asked about Damona, then Dawna.

Damona became iconic through Damien's excellent game, through long, epic stories.  She developed as a character because of her surroundings.

She was conceived of, like any basic D&D char.  "I'll be running a game, what kind of character do you feel like playing?".  The answer, in her case, was "um...how about a rogue?"  Her concept was simple enough. I had a girl crush on Jordana Brewster, at the time, and wanted to play a standard "hooker with a heart of gold" trope, that looked like Jordana Brewster in leather.  I never play "just" a rogue, or "just" anything, so in the short days between the conception and actually playing, I came up with a gimmick that she was a tinker.  Some thieves steal for greed, but she did it out of boredom and because of her mile wide rebellious streak.  She was a bored kid in a small town, from a good solid family, and she hated it.   She amused herself by taking apart locks, and breaking into houses, stealing for amusement rather than necessity.  The first day we played, she broke into the town chapel, and unloaded the collection box into her pockets.

I played her brash, snotty, and as a total slut, at first. With time, and the gravity of her mission, she developed grace and diplomacy.  That time in my life, my early 20s, was filled with tension.  Alden was a toddler, we were broke. I was going back to school.  The house burned down.  In real life, I walked a tightrope, with no time or energy to work on my "self" or my own personality.  With Damona, I hearkened back to my late teens, my brash, snotty, and slutty days.  It was like slipping into a comfortable old jacket, one that didn't quite fit in the real world anymore, but was fine as anything for our Monday night adventures.  Looking back, playing Damona was just like playing a caricature of myself from 5-7 years before, but seasoned with my personal maturity and a buncha cool extras.

What she turned into later, immortal, gold skinned magical conduit, sister to the Messiah, all that...that came after. The seed of Damona is what I'm talking about here.

She became iconic, not only because of  her eventual character development, but because in most computer games, after, whenever I played a rogue, or rogue type, I was playing early "Damona".  Black hair, green eyes, dual wielding, ass kicking, lock picking, and all that.  Most notably, Arachne, my first main in World Of Warcraft was a rendition of her.  Wild, untamed, amoral.  It's what I needed, in escape, as a counterpoint to the high stress, bolted down life I was leading, in reality.