James wrote:Jason wrote:The big question is: How do we make such a product attention grabbing? What unique elements can we put in it that will get people excited about it? One thing I'd like to do is solve an unsolved mystery or two--notably, I'd like Nadja Daviar to return in this book (with hints of her possible return appearing in Spy Games). So where's she been? How can we tie her re-emergence into existing plotlines? What other elements can we include that will grab the attention of anyone who has ever been the least bit interested in Shadowrun?
Brandie mentioned Daviar sightings in her SG proposal, and I mentioned on Basecamp that I've had this loose network of fixers in mind for a couple of years called the Nadjas—a group of twelve or thirteen former super-high end bunraku puppets who, ah, escaped (at least, that's the going theory)—that is similar to the muñecas in the Caracas chapter of Runner Havens (Oh, I recall that the French version was supposed to have a chapter on Marseilles. Did that ever happen, and if so is there anything we should know from that book?). Anyway, the Nadjas work as a global network of fixers who generally get by on the fact that Daviar was one of the most popular biosculpt inspirations (They're just really good, in part because they've been gene-modified with her DNA) before she disappeared and, if history is indication, remained one for a while after. So... It's not that unlikely to run across a woman (or man) who looks like her. They're glamorous enough to use it to their advantage, but anonymous and underestimated by most people who think they're just wannabe poseurs clinging to a fading fad.
Anyway, the Nadjas' origin is its own mystery, but part of their MO involves them being interchangeable (although each of them has their own private agenda) on occasion whenever more than one works together. What even they don't realize is that the real Daviar has been among them, popping up here and there to do some task and to live life because, well, let us continue.
The way she was written in the Dragonheart Trilogy was in certain ways rather tragic. She was thrown into the deep end when Dunk died and was in over her head, even for being basically a top tier badass player in the Sixth World. That may have been true, but she was still basically Dunk's pet since the moment he decided to make his presence in her life known. Before that she was scrappy and on her own, and actually making something of herself as basically a face in Europe. So when he died, he gave her the seven-year plan. Finish the checklist, and in late 2064... She was free to do whatever she wanted. And so she did.
Of course she was involved with the New Revolution. One aspect of that (and this affects a project I know someone else is interested in about Tir Tairngire) involves the idea that she and Jonathon Reed knew each other decades back since she probably passed through his native Estonia while escaping Finland after her parents were killed, and that he would be instrumental in the eventual downfall of the Council of Princes as the director of the Information Secretariat. The NR involvement was Dunk's scaly paw continuing to reach out. In a way, it was like Lofwyr's attempts at the NEEC only far more ruthless than most people could imagine. The idea is that the failure of the November 3 insurrection served not only to destabilize the countries in North America, but to purge many of the more radical political actors. Otherwise, one would think that the whole thing would harden the resolve of even the moderate actors in the NAN and west, but reality has shown it to have produced the opposite effect. I have always read Portfolio of a Dragon to be Dunk's love letter to America and the American Dream. And one of the difficulties of not being around while his brother is concerns the fact that Ghostwalker seems to have his own agenda, but as shown in Denver material and given his depiction in Earthdawn, the white wyrm has no regard for metahumanity and would dominate them as opposed to Dunk's endgame of letting them engage in self-determination.
As far as I can tell, Daviar is an otherwise normal elf. She isn't a drake like Ryan, and never was born or made an IE. And God and everyone else knows that I don't have much regard for the idea of expanding that particular clique (But I'm not about to start shooting them in the face because it's so... cheap). There are better people, more powerful people, and frankly, more ruthless people who could do her work with enough understanding of Dunk's plans. People like Ehran, cautious optimist; and Aina, the soul in search of redemption; and even scumbags like Damien Knight, who is proven to be far more ruthless and clever that she. She was the good soldier, but I can imagine that after her famous “A new era for the UCAS, a new Ares for the UCAS” line a little part of her soul died because it made her sound like a whore.
So in the end, Daviar played the good soldier, the good servant, and carried out Dunk's seven-year plan. She reshaped the world with the understanding that it was for the best; that like Machiavelli's ultimate argument in The Prince is to restore the republic through despotic means, that Daviar was Dunk's agent in actually carrying that out. A classmate of mine who worked for President Clinton once reminded me that because of the scope of his power and responsibilities, almost every decision made as President meant death for someone—if it wasn't the actual execution, then every compromise becomes a sin of omission. That burden takes its toll, as is physically evident on every president. But in the end, it was time to walk off the stage.
So she sits on the beach in Perth admiring the beauty of sunset, glad to be rid of her dominion, and hidden away by her own machinations while everyone else kills themselves (and others) fighting over the remains (People who've gamed with me know this is not a new idea I've had). I mean, really, between the UCAS and the DF/DIMR there is no way she could just disappear on or above Earth because magic will find her eventually. Physically, it goes back to the Nadjas. It's easy to hide in plain sight when there are people who will literally have themselves cut open to look like you. Pretending to be a really good simulacrum who dabbles in shadow business is a convenient way to make occasional contact with whoever she needs to with the DF or whoever/whatever else. But it also allows her to just walk the Earth, find herself, seek peace of mind, whatever. I'd rather she just have come to peace with what she's done.
Which brings us to the question: Why would she come back?
This is really the only thing I can't completely answer. I have no problem with her returning, but I'm not sure in what capacity. She made peace with her actions, but now she has her own agenda. I have my own storyline ideas that could use her that I'll bring up when the time is right, but this becomes a real challenge: She has her own agenda, and has the resources to move the world, and gets to face a lot of uncomfortable questions like “Where have you been?” But more importantly, the question is, What is her agenda?
One possible idea is, after seeing firsthand the machinations and petty bullshit of these immensely powerful figures, is to say “Nuts!” to that and try to advance metahumanity for its own ends, and not someone else's agenda. Like I said, this is part of a storyline that I've been working on where there is a group of people pursuing such a movement. Of course, it wouldn't be SR if someone wasn't trying to pull the strings and co-opt it for their own ends. Specifically, it centers around a media figure who works for NeoNET while pushing this idea while being assisted by a, uh, elf (not H) because it assists his own agenda.
Daviar can come back and do almost anything because of what she controls, which is... immense. I understand what was intended, that the DF controls his estate. That's how it's been run for 14 years. However, that's not what is actually written in the will and would be law. It states quite clearly that the DF exists to carry out Dunk's wishes in the enumerated will while everything else goes directly to Daviar. If she comes back from the dead and the assets, which probably got maneuvered into legally belonging to the DF, revert to her then that could be a real blow to the DF. It could change a lot. Let the DF worry about drake, GW, whatever, and be a nice face. But if she's committed to Dunk's apparent ideal then now we've got an elf with his brother's empire waging a war with GW if not any and everyone else.
I can't really think of old plots to stick her in, and I've been typing this now for over three hours straight. To be perfectly honest, I'm more interested in creating new storylines than continuing old ones, and think the only real way to end most is with death. Even the NR, which I have spent more time thinking about and playing out than any other storyline by far is never going to go away. To that end, it's time to move on. Let it continue to simmer in the background, but it need not be some major event. I'd be more capable and eager at this time to see her grilled by a couple of counterintelligence agents I've created for SG than try and shoehorn her into the mystery of the Consensus or affecting the outcome of a war (not necessarily Aztlan/Amazonia).
I've been bugging Rusty about this idea that begins with a powerful spirit in the Dreamtime seeking revenge for the Corp Court killing his “son” on Mt. Kilimanjaro and ends with spirits more easily being able to earn karma (because I love the idea of Free Spirit PCs in theory) after a global conflict between spirits, their allies and opportunists versus the power elite of the Sixth World itself. I'm not doing it any justice, but there is some method to my madness. That seems like the kind of thing she might come back for, playing Big Goddamn Hero to save the world. After all the IEs and GDs and spirits try and fail and kill each other, an elf—a normal, 60ish elf—saves the world.
I can build on where she's been (not that it's necessarily that exciting. But it can be), but as much as I've liked her as a character for a long time (clearly, by the length of this post) but I'm not sure there's a storyline running that is big enough to be worth bringing her back over creating one that affects every ongoing storyline in the same way Dunk's death changed everything in SR.
Hell, make her the owner of Trans-Latvian Enterprises. She should still have ties to the Baltic region anyway, and it can't be the first time this idea has been floated.
That said, I have a way to reference her in SG while being vague about what she's doing and if it's even really her. So I'll start planting hints.
EDIT: I typed all of the above out last night and came back to it now. I have one idea, though I’m not thrilled with it. It ties directly into Spy Games and the storyline in that book, too, so maybe you’ll like this. What if she conspired to let Ghostwalker pursue Dunk’s political legacy after she took her leave? But in classic GW/Icewing style, he decided to go his own way because ‘who does this elf think she is to tell me what my brother’s legacy is supposed to be?’ So, seeing that he is trying to manipulate, dominate and affect the outcome of the new Treaty of Denver to make himself more powerful over the Denver area and the rest of North America, she decides “Enough.” This is not what Dunk wanted, and not what he left her to do after he was gone. So how best to oppose him?
