10,000 Egyptians and 1 Khajiit

Kris Takahashi Other 10 Comments

2013-11-26_00003About a week ago, a Nexus commenter mentioned that I had literally no standards with regard to recruiting voice talent. Well, that just isn’t true. I did cast a goldfish to play Rongeir initially, but he died during recording. Something about being unable to breathe on dry land. So technically, I do have standards. The actors must be alive. After that, all bets are off.

Still, despite my limited standards, for some reason I seem to have trouble casting female beast roles. I’ve been trying to get a certain actor to voice a Khajiit for almost a year now, with little success. Then came this email:

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Some might call this a joke. Or perhaps a clear message that filling this role is a Sisyphean task. Nevertheless, I am choosing to take this literally, and not in the Nexus commenter’s meaning of the word. I mean literally, literally. After all, this may seem like an impossible task, but I believe the gathering of 10,000 Egyptian souls is nowhere near as difficult as casting female beasts. And I’m going to prove it.

This is a race. Which will happen first, the delivery of 10,000 souls, or the casting of this role? We shall see. Here are the first five:

Soul #1 – This is an Egyptian boy named Billy. He was ahead of his time and predicted the popularity of the name “Billy” for young American boys before the name or America was invented. Unfortunately his drunken ramblings of the future and the rise of something called the “Hokey Pokey” resulted in him being branded a servant of the evil jackal god Set, and was subsequently tortured to death.

Soul #42 – This was a farmer’s daughter named Bahiti, which is Egyptian for “fortune.” Bahiti did indeed earn a fortune by the age of sixteen, by selling her soul to the wealthiest merchant in town.

Soul #955 – This soul was a bit of a voyeur. He would constantly spy on his neighbors. When he wasn’t doing that, he’d spend all afternoon on the roof of his house, studying the passersby go to and from the market. For this reason, many contend he was the world’s first Egyptologist.

Soul #7,143 – This soul is actually one of Egypt’s first celebrities. His name was Fenuku, which I think is Egyptian for “three-nippled.” While Fenuku did not achieve celebrity status during his lifetime, mostly due to his excessive nipple problem, centuries after being mummified he was cast in two separate but unrelated IMAX movies starring The Rock.

Soul #9,999 – This soul belonged to a brother of a Pharoah. His favorite things to say were “Let my people go” and “I’ll give you my slave whip when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” He would later lead the Jews to freedom, whipping them across the Red Sea. God congratulated him briefly before killing him for having an uncircumcised penis.

5 down, 9,995 to souls to go. Or 1 Khajiit.

Character Profile – Melea Entius

Kris Takahashi Character Profiles 7 Comments

Unlike most cautionary tales, Pandora’s box doesn’t end on a downer. Yes, Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her, and yes, she released all the evils of the world, but despite the horrors she unleashed, the parable ends with mankind gaining the Spirit of Hope.

And that’s precisely how you feel at the end. Hopeful. It’s an emotional onomatopoeia. This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that opening the box was by any objective measurement a shitty thing to do. If Pandora had a do over, she would be a fool not to exercise it, even at the risk of losing hope. Which, if you think about it, is hardly a risk at all. In a utopia, hope is an unthinkable concept. If you have everything, there’s no need to worry about anything. In a just and moral universe, you don’t hope for the best, you get what you deserve.

Hope isn’t a cure for the evils of the world. It’s a symptom.

Melea Entius believes the Divines have a plan for Henrietta. It’s how she makes sense of her impending death and the loss of Indara’s daughter. It’s the only explanation that will suffice, because the alternative – that the world can be a cruel and unjust place – would mean she could never die in peace.

When it comes to Henrietta’s future, Melea doesn’t cling to hope. Not when she has faith.

Unlike hope, faith isn’t a byproduct of despair. If you believe in a divine, infallible architect, what you’re saying is that the “evils of the world” are more or less intended as opposed to an accident. It could be a test of one’s character or resolve, or something so abstruse we can’t comprehend the reasons. Regardless, the belief is that whatever the methodology, those who abide by the plan will be rewarded. Fulfilling one’s hopes is often about taking control. Maintaining one’s faith is about sacrificing it.

This is conflicting for Melea. Her anxiety has shifted from being separated from her daughter in a physical sense – which she now accepts – to losing her identity as Henrietta’s mother. As the years pass on, it’s possible the young child may not remember much of her biological parents. It may even be the will of the Divines that she forget. While Melea knows giving the child away is the right thing to do, she realizes that the more influential Indara is, the less Henrietta will remember her, and struggles with the notion that these feelings are inherently selfish.

Melea has faith that Indara will be a good mother – but in thirty years, will Henrietta feel the same about her biological one? She can only hope.