I've been wondering about Alyria's visual style for some time; it has a very clear mood, and even suggests a sort of aural atmosphere (muffled clanks and voices, all overlying the sound of running water, is what I hear in my mind), but what does it look like?

There is something about Alyria that makes me see it all in half-light in my mind's eye, and something makes me feel like what's beneath the shadows is different from that which turns its face to the light... rose vines become thorny brambles as clouds pass the moon. There is always the feel of something obscured, by a curtain or a curl of mist. There is no horizon... the ground bleeds into the sky. The landscape is as clear as it ever will be.

But I cannot see the characters. They are little more than blurry silhouettes. What blocks my vision?

The characters are nearly human.

That's a strange way to put it; but that seems the best way, in my mind, to explain why you can't see them clearly. They are too much like us, and yet somehow a shade different. Those who live in the Ark, the majority of those in the Citadel, the vast majority of those in the countryside, could probably pass for your neighbors; although given their background and experience, you would always think they were a bit odd. In their midst there are the Blessed and the Misbegotten, and they are at once inhuman and still somehow human, outcasts and simultaneously recongizably part of the people. You try to see an Alyrian who is both ordinary and extraordinary; but there is no such Alyrian--they are either one or the other, just as we are. Alyria is a mirror of our world, a distorting mirror which in distorting reveals the reality. It is a mirror that shows you that you are fat by making you look fatter, or makes you look shorter if you are short, or uglier if you are ugly. It makes you look kinder or crueler, smarter or fiercer or duller or gentler. It takes who you are and puts it into stark relief.

You need to look into Alyria and see yourself there, along with your friends and family, the people you know. Then you will be able to see the people of Alyria.

--M. J. Young

I tend to think that for Alyria, the characters are actually less important than the situation they are in. In model terms I suspect that in final form, Exploration will prioritize first situation and color and secondarily setting and character.

Characters in Alyria in my experience are there to represent a certain archetype. It is not the character himself that is important but what the actions of that character illustrate. In many ways they are like the characters in Fables. No one really cares what the ant and the grasshopper are like outside of those elements essential for illustrating the point.

Seth uses a particular example of Uriel the feral child frequently. In all of those examples I never got the sense that Uriel was a "character". Rather Uriel exists to illustrate the retaliation of people who have been unfairly betrayed and mistreated. The village and all of the characters exist solely to be a microcosm of this situation.

Hey, I've been trying to respond to this thread for a couple of days, but work and a sick child have been interfering. I'll get here, I swear!

I will mention that M.J. and Ralph have both made good responses with which I generally agree. More info is forthcoming.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

Okay, here is my response.

Valamir wrote: Seth uses a particular example of Uriel the feral child frequently. In all of those examples I never got the sense that Uriel was a "character". Rather Uriel exists to illustrate the retaliation of people who have been unfairly betrayed and mistreated. The village and all of the characters exist solely to be a microcosm of this situation.