If the mod had a stomach, it would undoubtedly be Gorr. Zora would be its heart, and Qa’Dojo would be its mind. If the mod had a soul, however, it wouldn’t be any of its signature characters. It would be a quiet, stuttering girl roaming the empty halls of the Winking Skeever, begging for a chance to be heard. Asteria may be its lungs and Gnives its toes, but Fironet will always be its soul.
Fironet is life imitating art, and art imitating life. She was inspired by some of the early auditions I received for other characters – every stuttering, uncomfortable person wanting a chance – partially annoyed with the sound of their own voice. Fironet is performed by an actor, alienslikechocolate, who had never voiced a character before. Fironet’s song is the one bard tune that is unoriginal, which Jay33721 tirelessly constructed without having the musical background of Giramor or Arisen1. Fironet embodies everything about the mod’s infant stages, and perhaps modding projects in general. Made by amateurs, but made with passion.
That’s what we all are, until someone with money says otherwise. Amateurs. Dream chasers. They say this generation more than any other is obsessed with celebrity. And why not? I imagine being a celebrity is awesome. Yet I suspect it has nothing to do with a generational shift or a rewiring of the universal consciousness. More people chase fame for one simple reason. Fame is no longer whizzing away in a high powered Italian automobile. Fame is overweight, has cheetos on his breath and is riding a segway. In the past, the amount of talent, opportunity, and dumb luck required to make it was astronomical. Today, becoming a celebrity, even a temporary one, doesn’t seem so unrealistic. Fame is accessible. Fame can be caught.
Like Fironet, many of us aren’t sprinting after it. We aren’t buying new sneakers and training every day to shorten the gap. It’s just there, in front of us, so we might as well reach for it. And when our fingers sort of scrape at its back, some of us may get enough courage to jog.
Perhaps some of Fironet’s aspirations were my own, as well as every actor, writer, or sound guy who auditioned for this mod. Still, even with the mod’s limited success, it didn’t take me long to figure out that I couldn’t go to a restaurant and demand their finest table, no matter how many times I showed the maître d’ a printout of my Nexus page. Listen Pierre, I am someone important. What do you mean you’ve never heard of Interesting NPCs? Do you even Google?
That is to say, if I didn’t believe this was something of substance, I would have quit the day the police dragged me out of that restaurant. While celebrity and substance are not mutually exclusive, few ever achieve both. Most learn to stomach having one without the other.
If she had to choose one, Fironet would choose substance. For someone as demure as she is, achieving fame without recognition would be an interminable nightmare. Her biggest fear is that she’s just good enough to get attention, and just bad enough to embarrass herself. Yet with every endorsement, her voice gets a little crisper, a little louder, to the point it begs to be heard, even if she isn’t a fan of her own voice.