!Play_Story (&20020101)

!Play_Story:

Greetings Friend,

To understand the @Leonard, you must know that I love play! Play, liberty, curiosity, and immersion are key virtues I have pursued throughout my life. Across my !Youth_Story, one episode worthy of partitioned portrayal is my pursuit of fantasy. Much of this play was enabled by my existing during a time that saw the rise of the home computing and internet sharing era. I grew up alongside the computer. My parents allowed it to reside within my room, and I matured with it. This provided the privacy for me to explore play unhinged by time or space. I felt very comfortable exploring the world through text.

In addition to video games, among these pursuits was that of literal fantasy! Early, I took to signing into &AOL #RhyDin #Red_Dragon_Inn chatrooms, and creating for myself a bardic character who could ultimately help me navigate life.¹1 I believe I started roleplaying Kannoth when I was 13.

@Kannoth “of Songs” Eldanar, was everything I wish I could be. Free, playful, curious, confident, and charismatic. Bard extraordinaire, percussionist, cartographer, poet, director, writer, dancer, lock picker, handsome, jack-of-all-trades and master of most everything. I originally took to these online chat rooms for text based fantasy rp that I would play late into the night. I would listen to immersive midi music files from the “There Be Dragons Here” Geocities dragon poetry page as I rped late into the night with my friend @Nancy from California, who played Kannoth’s girlfriend @Kit. When I then got first introduced to Dungeons & Dragons AD&D 2e, I knew exactly who I wanted to play. I had convinced my brother and our neighbors to play in our first D&D campaign just so I had another venue to virtually live out Kannoth’s life. Any game that required a protagonist, I always replicated Kannoth as closely as possible

In terms of inspiration, Kannoth draws deeply from exaggerations of my own hyperactive personality. He is also directly aesthetically and characteristically inspired by the !Dragonlance character @Tasslehoff Burrfoot. ²1 See the assortment of colored pouches in my kit below, as a direct reference, as well as the original blue leggings and the long leather boots. Tasslehoff and I share in having an attentive deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as infinite curiosity, wonder, and playfulness. Kannoth was a virtualized version of us both, and I used the character to explore narrative fantasy and help me mature into my teen and adult years.³2 I learned how to talk to girls through Kannoth far earlier than I did in real life. I text-rped with varying consistency until I moved back to Miami.

Whereas my sister wanted an expensive quince party for her 15th, I instead desired a pair of $250 leather boots from Sons of Sandalar at the Florida Renaissance Festival at Deerfield Beach. I also collected my first midnight blue leggings and a beautiful olive drab jerkin from the Sewing Wenches at the retired Renaissance Festival in Vizcaya.⁴3 I had a wonderful experience one year volunteering as one of the human chess board pieces and town NPCs. Here I got to put the pieces of my kit together and frolicked about as a flirtatious bard all day. My friend @Orhan—one of the Beans mentioned during the !Youth_Story—and I would sometimes work as tights-wearing guards at fancy South Beach and Gables parties, or play around with swords in his neighbor’s abandoned yard or #AD_Barnes_Park.   It was inspired by Tasslehoff, and also the start of my creation of a physical representative of Kannoth. With it, I got to play my favorite character at various festivals, and added to the kit each passing year.⁵4 Several of the original pieces are still being used to this day, such as the black leather boots, sometimes the jerkin, and a number of leather pouches. I have also continued to add to it, create a very elaborate and handsome bardic kit. I dreamed of being able to immersively live life out as a bard.

My dream came true with LARP. In particular, with a group of nerds across #North_Carolina who played and dreamed together in a game called !Lands_Of_Exile.⁶5 I first larped at a game called Avalon: Ebon Oasis. It was very fun and got me hooked from day 1. However, LoE holds a special place in my heart for giving me the most accurate depiction of Kannoth imaginable. LARP stands for Live Action Roleplaying. It’s basically a game owned by an organization that hosts a once-a-month in person role playing and camping event at a secluded state park. ⁷6 In our case, we played at #Singletary_Lake_State_Park in Kelly, North Carolina. It was a beautiful park that primarily consisted of a large lake, a nice wooden dock, about 2 dozen wooden buildings (including two fantastic taverns), walking paths that wrapped along the lake and woods, and the particular ecological distinctive that although we were nowhere near a beach the ground within the woodland was entirely white sand. Over the weekend you and about 100 others play out created characters in a high fantasy realm, complete with rules for combat and magic that are resolved with realistic latex weaponry and mechanics. Characters and monsters are fully costumed, and the world is complete with deep lore and a season-to-season progressively developing narrative arc. Whether sleeping in a cabin, wandering the woods, or enjoying a tankard in the tavern, actions are taken entirely in character. Surrounded by fellows equally excited about living out their own characters, it has been the single most fun thing I’ve ever done (outside of being with my wife and kids). Unlike virtual play, here fantasy is joined with senses. You can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste a world made real by a shared physical space.⁸7 I was obsessed with making the game as immersive as possible. I ate, slept, and showered in character. I also went to great lengths to maintain an environment of escapism, such as producing a 75,000+ word in-game library, written in a calligraphy I created from Kannoth’s invited handwriting. The library contained dozens of pieces I wrote in different styles and as different authorial characters. From dissertations on the origins of the world, to books on nursery rhythms, to poems of varying meters and structures, to full plays that I wrote and Joel/Ekrin and I performed, in an era before AI I used accent translators and a lot of hard work to populate the world with a library players could consume within the tavern

Over time, Kannoth contributed greatly to the game. On the exterior, he was a carefree, curious, seemingly irresponsible bard. On the inside, he ran a clandestine bards guild called the Order of the Treble Clef, and led knights of this secret order to execute missions that maintained a state of anti-war neutrality conducive to the affairs of the arts (and thus fellow bards). He sacrificed much, and truly rescued the town on many occasions. ⁹8 One of the reoccurring motifs for me was that I actually rescued the town on several occasions. Some of the stories are so ridiculous that they seem untrue, but they are. It added to the folklore of the character, and the fun of playing him. He seemed so irresponsible, but I used it to the character’s advantage. Once, Kannoth recruited a ritualist dwarf to dispel a ward placed around a cabin where a third of the town had been imprisoned and under torture by the evil dark elves (the Drow). I ran around the building whacking at windows and making such a commotion as to give the appearance of being a large rescue contingent from the town. It was enough to scare the guards away, and after the ward was dispelled, I picked the lock and entered to the grand shock of all the townsfolk witnessing themselves be rescued seemingly single-handedly by Kannoth ‘Of Songs’ Eldanar. Kannoth’s best friends were the tavern keeper @Bel (played by my best friend @Jorge), and the bard and thespian @Ekrin (played by my best friend @Joel).¹⁰9 Notice by now the pattern of Joel and Jorge showing up across the many major stories of my life. Some friendships are irreplaceable. We went on many incredible adventures.¹¹9 ((Include here the story of how Kannoth, Ekrin, Bel, and some bards infiltrated and rescued a damsel from the Sea Reaper pirates using a party.))

Out of character, many of these players also became good friends. I would invite them over to my house, hosting 40-60 nerds with my delicious homemade Cuban food. We would dress in kit, talk, fellowship, play games, and have a merry time. I would also take them to the woods and creek behind the house for immersive photo shoots.¹²10 I loved the idea of someone being able to see their own character. Ever since Nancy drew me the penciled portraits below of Kannoth, I felt there was something special to helping someone’s fantastical invention seem more real. Thus in addition to cooking for them, I would conduct photoshoots that tried to capture the essence of their characters. Some of my favorites are below. All day I would roast a pig in a caja china, or cook massive trays of tostones, ensalada, y arroz imperial in the kitchen, which we then feasted on after I prayed my gratitude to God for the food and their fellowship.

I loved on those nerds deeply, and included this acknowledgement in my dissertation:

“Finally, I am thankful for the nerds of New Haven. You have given me recreation from my labor. Your faces are the ones I picture when my Lord tells me to love my neighbors. I love you all deeply.” ¹³11 ((Insert link to dissertation.))

One of my saddest days was my last larp event. I told players beforehand that I was about to move back to #Miami and would have my last event, and desired that players gave Kannoth momentos that I could keep in a leather pouch as trophies of my adventures and friendships. I also asked to cook one final meal for them, but this time in character as Kannoth. Everything went well, until I was bringing the last tray of food out from the kitchen and into the long wooden tavern hall. I could see all these friends made over a decade, lined around a table about to enjoy my food and fellowship for one last time. Individuals who gave me a great imaginative retreat from the heavy labor of work, academics, and fatherhood. I broke character and sobbed deeply.

I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me to make a literal dream come true, and I cherished the adventures Kannoth and I have been on.

God’s blessings,