Tuesday, April 16, 2013

From Small Beginnings: The History of Hawkens

News:



Knock back a few in style with Quizzer's WildStar themed concoctions over on the NeXus. Their first feature: The Scowling Cassian! Can't wait to try one of these out!

I have also been “kidnapped” as an Ink-Slinger for the NeXus. You can check out my first roleplaying piece “Skyfire” here. Links to this and further articles will be put below my WSRP.

Gaffney has explained on Reddit that WildStar beta invites will be going out in waves of every 5 weeks. They may not be able to hold to that as solidly as they would like, but will be doing their best. So you can give your f5 buttons a rest for now.

In even better news, Carbine studios has made another fantastic outreach to their community. With the news of the beta leak out there, they decided to take the unfortunate event and turn it into something positive. To begin with they have officially released these patch notes to all of us and then took it a step further by opening a Q & A on WSC. You can check that all out here!







Great things come from small beginnings.



One of the most fascinating aspects of roleplaying is its ability to form into something unexpected. So often I have seen a small character or idea suddenly develop a life of its own. Sometimes it is the result of time, slowly building into its own, and sometimes it is the efforts of others who take it into new and exciting directions you couldn't possibly have imagined.

Agent John Hawkens is my pride and joy of many years of accumulated writings, happenstance and the chaotic additions of some amazing roleplayers out there. But he did not begin as everyone's favorite Scowling Cassian. In fact the beginnings of himself and his family were quite different.

Being as this is a roleplay blog, I would like to link some more of my writings but without more lore to support Hawken's current iteration, I am at a tad bit of a standstill. I do have a few things I've been working on over with the awesome community on WildStar-Roleplay that I will share sometime soon. But before that I decided that I would like to share how my ornery agent came to be. (If you would like a little intro before I begin, check out Hawkens profile on WSRP here)

You are seriously not talking about me as though I am not here, right?

Oh were you still there Hawkens? I thought I could feel that scowl boring a hole through the back of my head. But I'm getting so used to it now...

Hmph

Well then, if you don't want /me/ to talk about you, why don't you break a little fourth wall with me and talk about yourself?

But I was always Cassian, I was never anything /but/ perfection. How dare you insinuate otherwise!?

Oh give it a rest, will you? Besides I bet our readers would love to hear your own opinion. Honestly do you think they actually come here to read what I have to say? Obviously they are here to hear your insightful input.

Flattery will get you nowhere...

Oh get on with it already.

..
fine


My original iteration began as a pale comparison of the grandiosity I would later achieve. Though there were certainly earlier influences, this was really the first true beginning.

I began as John Drakonrue, a blade smith set in the mountain village on my writer's planet of Rokhr (pronounced Row-cur). Though he was not nearly as important as I, he at least had my charm.

What he means to say is that John Drakonrue was my first attempt at the lovable jerk. (If you haven't read my article on that yet, check it out here) Though ornery and often times short and abrasive, he really had a soft interior if you got to know him.

Am I telling this or are you?

Right, uh, go right ahead Hawkens.

John Hawkens was also one of the first character's to ever be written with a collaboration piece with another author, a close friend of my writer. Being that they were still in rudimentary schooling, their work left something to be desired...

Oh hey now! Yes yes, I was young and foolish back then. This was some of my earliest, really serious writing. So maybe John went through four versions of himself and one of them he might have been a vampire -_- I blame it on my friend playing too much Soul Reaver with me at the time.
Ugh...and now you are laughing...

Although he went from human to vampire to shape-changer, there was one thing that always remained consistent with Ser Drakonrue: His wife Rose. Though she herself always remained human, they were always found together in a strong and loyal relationship. This would also be the last time one of my iterations would come with their own relationship. After Drakonrue's run, there would no longer be the potential for a peaceful marriage.

John's first iteration came to a tragic end with the death of my friend who had been writing with me. I actually quit writing for a year or so. There was a chance John might have completely faded into obscurity if it were not for the arrival of my best friend in college who came to save the day. Bringing her creative talent to the table resulted in the resurrection of John.

As well as my first steps into the role of an agent.


In the time away from my writing I had, had the opportunity to build my inspirations from many excellent sources. The Deus Ex series most likely had the heaviest influence, bringing me into my love of cyberpunk and agent/operative stories while finally reading Neuromancer solidified that interest. Strangely enough, inspiration from James Bond would not come for a couple of years.

This time, John had lost his name, as the character had originally meant to be a fresh start. Befitting of an agent, he took on the alias Agent Wolf and once again returned to the world of Rokhr. He accompanied two unlikely allies, a spunky woman with demonic powers and a small kender-inspired traveler written by my writer's college friends, as his job was to keep an eye on the woman until she arrived as some mystical place in the future as foreseen by the mysterious people he worked for. Though the plot itself ended up meandering all over the place as the writers came more into their styles, the character development truly began to hit home. Now the lovable jerk came with a sense of duty and obligation to a higher cause, his company becoming the first “empire” like force that would drive him onwards.

Agent Wolf and the other characters in the story, as drawn by my best friend!


Although this series of writings did not go as far as I would have liked, it set the grounds for the first true formation of John under the name that would become his legacy (that will be more amusing in a moment)

My next iteration came with the arrival of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was easy. Imperial Agent storyline was a given. With everything I had been through up to this point and all the inspiration in between, it was the most logical conclusion. Though the epic story of Cipher Nine was certainly an excellent sort of inspiration, much like Deus Ex, it was not just that, that created the glorious being that I have become.

No, not just that. It came in the between. In all the tiny masterful dialogues that Bioware put in. Not so much /what/ he did, but /why/. It was the same reason I loved watching my non-RP friends go through this game. You simply could not help but build a deep personality.

Amusingly enough, John did not begin here at first. In fact, his elder brother Brenner was my first agent here. I had so much fun playing Empire and going through the excellent storyline. Then all of the sudden I had to choose a legacy name. You have /no/ idea how hard that was to choose. I mean, I am the type to spend hours in character creator just to pick a name. Drakonrue was my first idea, having been the last name used long ago. But it just didn't feel right anymore. I turned to my experiences in WoW. Most of my characters were all named after a bird of sort: Goldhawk, Steelhawk, Crowstorm, Gavynn (Based on Gavin:Welsh for white hawk of battle) and Gryffin. So it just felt sort of right to perpetuate my style. However these names seemed a bit too tribal for the sort of English style the Empire supported. And then it hit me. The perfect name.

Hawkens

 
Meet Brenner, the eldest of the Hawkens brothers


With the name, came a bit more fleshing out. There was a family, of course. A Master Hawkens and Lady Hawkens. I decided they were a prominent noble family, dealing in innovative wartime engineering. I decided their son was still rather attached to them, even if he was forced to remain distant on the job.

I had no plans at the time for John to resurrect. Then one day, one of my friends really wanted me to play Republic side with them and join their RP guild...

And Agent John Hawkens was born that day. Younger brother of the family, he suffered a terrible tragedy with a cruel Sith Lord, resulting in his defection. The only defector he knew that still ached to return home, that still carried the abrasive attitude and classy accent. This is where my scowl became famous. They learned to fear my--

They found it endearing, Hawkens, no lying.

Hmph.

The Quintessential Scowl


There was no question when WildStar came to be. The moment I saw the “Meet the Dominion” video, I knew who I would play.

Agent John Hawkens. Cassian. Loyal servant of the ICI and of his Empire.

The Scowling Cassian
The Scowling Cassian


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Thank you once again for joining us, dear readers. Your support and encouragement have been overwhelming. I invite you to leave a comment here or on WildStar-roleplay. Have any ideas for topics you'd like to see discussed or questions for Hawkens? Feel free to drop us a line and we will do our best to accommodate!


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