Characters

Each participant will receive a pre-written character, with a unique back-story, goals, personality and a couple of established relationships. The character will also include descriptions of their Clan, Social Standing, and position in the Household. There will be a lot of attention paid to creating additional relationships and bonds in the workshops, so you do not need to do this before the larp starts.

All of the Norse Characters will belong to a clan. The Clans will have a homestead and local cultures: they will originate from what is now northern Denmark, the coastal regions in  Sweden, and the coastal regions in Norway. The character will also belong to one of the five social standings:

How to read your character

You will soon receive your character for The Last Song. These have been created for you by our writing team, based on what you wrote on your casting form, the archetype you were given during casting, and our writer’s guide and world design document.   

When you get the character, please read  it carefully a couple of times in order to get a feel for their persona and how they fit into Norse society. None of the characters are perfect people - although some might think they are perfect - each of them has flaws, frustrations, or even enemies who will be present at the Thing. After this general text, you will find a copy of what the character sheet looks like, with explanations for the different sections therein.

On Secrets

Some characters have secrets. Our advice to you is that any secret in a larp that does not come out during play is a secret wasted. So once the larp has started, do tell your friends about it, break down or let something slip. The plot team has gone through all the characters and tried to weave in their stories in the overarching plot(s), so we are counting on them coming into play. If you have any questions, please ask us. The Last Song is not a fully transparent larp though, so we ask that you do not share these secrets before the larp starts!

On Relations

Please feel free to reach out to your clan members before the larp. It is not required at all, but if you do want to develop the relations, build a shared backstory, decide on how your group will work, coordinate costume, or make other plans, please do it within these clan groups. However, you will also have two hours of clan workshops on site to discuss these things, so don’t stress out if you can’t engage a lot before the game!

You are also welcome to discuss character relationships with your Guide and Demise, but this is not essential. For some players there is not time or emotional energy available before the larp to engage with others. 

Note that there will not be a dedicated Looking for Relations group, and we would like you to refrain from those posts in general, since they easily turn into a popularity contest and exclude players with less time to prepare.

On Social Standings

It is okay to start talking to members of your social standing, since these are the characters outside of your clan you will spend the most time with at the larp. We will set up Facebook groups for each of these and will invite you to them. Again, we ask that you remember that not everyone will have time to dedicate to pre-planning and that you make space to connect with other players nearer to the larp and try to make room in your run-time play for all players, not just those who have the time to engage. There will be a full hour of workshop time dedicated to this before the larp.

On Mistakes

Lots of people have been through your character checking for errors, inconsistencies and typos, but we acknowledge that mistakes will still have slipped through.  If you spot an error or if something that is not clear please let us know.  

Before you contact us about the relations, please note that a relation that seems positive may still bring out the worst in your character or push them away from their goals, and the other way around. You can be so in love with someone that you forget all about politics, an enemy may push you to perform at your best, and your loving brother may always make you look bad in comparison.

On Changing the Character

On first reading  you might not like your character. This is okay, it is not unusual.  We’d like you to think for a while about why you don’t like them. Remember that the character is a starting point and they can change before or during the early parts of the larp: the morally ambiguous gossip might discover that when their friends are in danger, they become furiously protective after all, and the naive young warrior desperate to prove themselves might break at the first sight of violence . Think about what you would need to make the character your own, and where you would need to take them. If you have questions about which tweaks are okay and what is too much, we are happy to answer them.   

If you still don’t like the character - and this will happen for some of you - then please get in touch with us and we’ll see what we can do to finetune the character a little. We have quite a tight deadline on this, and we need to hear from you by April 1st if there are any issues.

A Note from the Plot Team

Some characters might change slightly or have things added to them. This is because the plot team is in the middle of seeding personal as well as general plot hooks into the characters, because players may drop out, and because one character changing may influence another.. If your character is altered by us in any way, we will let you know. Don’t worry if your character doesn’t undergo any changes - that just means we’d already put the plot hooks in there before you received it!

What is in the character description?

Here is your character’s name: Viking “The Viking” Vikingsson/Vikingsdottir

“This is a quote for inspiration”

Core Traits:

These are the four personality traits which make up the core of your character.

Faith: this says which deity you favour

This is a descriptive text about that deity and the people who worship them. If your character belongs to the Asatru (old faith) they still worship all the other gods, this is just their personal favourite.

Clan: this is the clan you belong to

This is a description of your clan and its recent history. The second paragraph explains what your clan means to you specifically.

Role: this is your social standing

This is a description of what it means to belong to that specific standing, and where you belong in the Norse social hierarchy

This text also explains what your archetype is, and how that archetype and the social standing influences your life  in the clan.

Saga: 

This is your character’s story up until now. At the end you will find your character’s goals.

Your Guide: Not-Viking Not-Vikingsson/Not-Vikingsdottir

This is a relationship outside of the clan, that has a positive influence on your character and/or brings their best side to the forefront.

Your Demise: Not-Not-Viking Not-Not-Vikingsson/Not-Not-Vikingsdottir

This is a relationship outside of the clan, that has a negative influence on your character and/or brings their worst side to the forefront.