Trebuchet Posted May 30, 2012 Report Share Posted May 30, 2012 For my birthday this year I decided to do something I've dreamed of for well over a decade: Get a professional rendering of my character Zl'f by Storn Cook. This is the 20th year I've played Zl'f and also the 20th year for our MidGuard campaign; she's the only player character who has been in play that entire time. (She's also has 164 XP now). The result exceeded my wildest expectations: [ATTACH=CONFIG]43322[/ATTACH] I wanted a Graeco-Roman mythological motif to go with the name and I thought the short Greek style tunic (based on a picture of the Greek goddess Artemis) and lace-up footwear achieved the desired effect perfectly. It's something I could envision a wood nymph or sylph wearing in a sylvan forest in ancient Greece, right down to the subtle floral decorations on the hem and neckline. Thank you, Storn, and thanks to Death Tribble for helping me get in contact with Storn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted May 30, 2012 Report Share Posted May 30, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Nice! Happy Birthday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted May 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Might as well post her current hdc file too. The last hdc of her I posted here was v434 (79 XP ago); posted in September of 2007. My character records system uses Experience Points earned plus Base 350 points, not total points spent. So she currently has 9 unspent XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Looks good Treb. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Very nice Though 160 XP over 20 years makes me feel downright Monty Haul How often do you guys play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn We try to get in a Champions game about every other month; the other months are taken up with our Pulp Hero campaign or Real Life. And of course some scenarios last more than one game session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Cool. I know how stoked I was when I could get Storn to do Black Cat. When you can get a pro artists (especially one connected to the game you play) to do the art of a long term character is just too cool for words. Having read about Zl'f for years, it was cool to see her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opale Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I like her very much ! May I use her as an European contact for my player please ? Contacted Opale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I like her very much ! May I use her as an European contact for my player please ? Contacted Opale. Of course, as long as she doesn't do anything inappropriate. I have a several page writeup of her powers (in non_Hero terms) and personality if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted June 12, 2012 Report Share Posted June 12, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Awesome! Long time no see; I'm glad you're still around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opale Posted June 12, 2012 Report Share Posted June 12, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Yes i'd be interested of getting her whole concept and RP guide And I kinda tend to respect other's concepts too much to make them do things that are inappropriate, don't worry. Is that inappropriate to be like an Opale ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted June 12, 2012 Report Share Posted June 12, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn How do you pronounce "Zl'f"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted June 12, 2012 Report Share Posted June 12, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn "ze Elf" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn How do you pronounce "Zl'f"?I pronounce it Zil'f with the accent on the first syllable. The apostrophe in Russian transliteration indicates a soft letter following. That may not be correct but I've been unable to find a Russian native speaker to give me the correct pronunciation. (I am currently playing two games of go online with a woman in St. Petersburg Russia but I was unable to explain to her exactly what I wanted to know.) It may well be Zl'f with no vowel sound at all but I honestly just don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted June 15, 2012 Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I took a little Russian once upon a time. I think what you're talking about is the soft sign (looks like a small lower case , indicating a following consonant is soft. Here's a blog entry discussing hard vs soft consonants: http://blog.properrussian.com/2011/06/hard-and-soft.html And here's a video discussing the hard and soft signs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I took a little Russian once upon a time. I think what you're talking about is the soft sign (looks like a small lower case ' date=' indicating a following consonant is soft.[/quote']Correct. In Cyrillic her name is written ЗлЪф; with that very symbol you mentioned as the third letter. What I still don't know is if there is a vowel sound in the word or not. I want to know if it's pronounced Zil'f or Zl'f. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted June 15, 2012 Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn From here: http://listen2russian.com/lesson08/index.html The soft-sign adds an 'ever-so-slight' [y] sound to the preceding consonant, and is always pronounced simultaneously with the consonant, as one unit. Clear as mud, eh? More clear mud: http://www.melearnrussian.com/2009/04/how-do-you-make-l-go-soft.html And some more mud: http://listen2russian.com/lesson08/b/index.html Also, he talks about the "L" starting at 11:43 in the video. I'm having a hard time finding an example of an "L" and a soft sign crammed between two other consonants. Seems like all the examples are either occurring at the end of the word or with a vowel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I found a multi-language pronunciation site: http://www.forvo.com/ which looked like just the answer I needed. Alas, despite literally a dozen attempts to open an account (on two different devices) I could not establish an account, so I'm kinda stymied. If you're feeling adventurous, perhaps you'd care to try your luck? The word is ЗлЪф Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted June 16, 2012 Report Share Posted June 16, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I get "Oops! Forvo is having difficulties." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I get "Oops! Forvo is having difficulties."Well that's more info than I got. I'll try them again in a day or two. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I was finally able to log in to Forvo and put in a request for the correct pronunciation of ЗлЪф (Zl'f). Hopefully some kind Russian speaker there will enlighten me within a day or two. I did get a correct pronunciation for her given name, Елена (Elena). Turns out there is a soft "Y" sound at the beginning of the name so her named is correctly pronounced more like Yil-ena. That may explain why I have often seen it transcribed as Yelena. EDIT: I just now got a pronunciation of Эльф from a Russian speaker at Forvo. According to the MP3 he recorded, the "Z" in Zl'f is silent and so the word is pronounced Ᾱylf or Ᾱelf - almost the same as English and German "Elf." Hopefully I'll get a second opinion to verify that, but at the moment it looks like I've been mispronouncing my character's name for 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn Just got confirmation that Эльф is pronounced El'f from another Russian language website. There is in fact no "Z" in her name at all; Russian has two letters Э and 3 which depending on the font can look almost identical and represent E and Z respectively. I must have transposed the two letters years ago even though I was using the correct one: Э It is rather entertaining (and oddly humbling) to consider that even after 20 years one can still learn something new about one's character. Ah well; I should look on the bright side: at least nobody will need to ask me how it's pronounced anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted June 22, 2012 Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn So she was given her name by a Russian with a French accent. Happens all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom 2009 Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I'd done a pic of Zl'f (excuse me, El'f) some time ago based on the original Animated/Timm- style pic, and after seeing the new drawing of her that Storn did, I thought that I'd see if I could come close to doing a F2011 version of her. I just got her pic back today, so here she is: [ATTACH=CONFIG]43709[/ATTACH] Major Tom 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 Re: Zl'f portrait by Storn I'd done a pic of Zl'f (excuse me, El'f) some time ago based on the original Animated/Timm- style pic, and after seeing the new drawing of her that Storn did, I thought that I'd see if I could come close to doing a F2011 version of her. I just got her pic back today, so here she is... I like it! Did you you use some character-drawing software to do that? If so, what was it and where can I get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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