broadsword_babe

What is the single biggest pitfall for Highlander character creation?

The biggest pitfall has been the urge to use well-known historical figures. There aren’t as many older women Immortals as there are men, and I had to really keep the impulse in check as to picking and choosing historical women. As much a Quinn/Freyja would like to claim Elizabeth I, I put a stop to that toot-sweet simply because I respect the fact that she is already written by nomanselizabth.

Another pitfall is her age. She has seen so much in her lifetime and trying to figure out where she’s been (and who she’s been) has been a bit confusing. It’s actually both fun to write in retrospect as far as different times and lives, but it’s also a bit of a headache in regards to research. With Quinn, it’s great that she’s both a contemporary muse in the fact she knows her way around computers, has seen movies and things like that, and it’s also interesting to write her “back in the day.”

One of the things I have to be aware of, not necessarily from an Immortal aspect, is that I have to trust her. She is a very “present” muse, and although she has felt the need to push people away to protect them, that has come around to bite her in the ass. I’m a cautious person by nature and when Quinn wants to throw someone a world of hurt, I have to stand back and let her. I have to let her be the warrior queen she once was.

In Quinn's Watcher file, it says her given/original name is "Freyja Gundersen," but you will rarely ever see her go by that name. For the moment, Cassandra (voiceofthewoods) and Quinn's Watcher, Michael, are the only two who can get by with calling her "Freyja" or "Frey." It isn't that she hates that name. She's rather humbled by being named after the Norse goddess of motherhood and war.

The truth is, that name belongs to another woman, another time. Freyja Gundersen was a weakling who couldn't defend herself against attackers. She tried running away from the marauders who attacked her village and was brutalized even worse for her efforts. As hard as she fought, she was raped time and again by more than one man until the last one slashed open her throat. Understandably, she rarely ever talks about those times, but she still respects the old ways and traditions of her upbringing even if she refuses to go back to Norway.