Meet the Iconics: Navasi

I, for one, support our gay space communist

:( I was going to nab first post but I had to log in and... and... I lost it snif snif

Welp. I now have a new favorite iconic.

;_;

Found her song.

I like!

I'm in love <3

Wow I absolutely love her backstory.

Glorious.

Not really sure how I feel. Spoiled rich kid rebels, gets in over head, see how good she really had it. Not really new there. Best friends tragic death leads her to become a better person. Not really all that new either. I kind feel like I've seen this character already. I guess thats why we play our own characters. Not a bad origin just doesnt feel like anything new either.

I, for one, support our gay space communist

Can we please see a Kingmaker sequel with rules for Anarcho-Communist settlements? Given how many times they show up in Space Operas, I envision that Starfinder will have at least one.

I love her.

Not really sure how I feel. Spoiled rich kid rebels, gets in over head, see how good she really had it. Not really new there. Best friends tragic death leads her to become a better person. Not really all that new either. I kind feel like I've seen this character already. I guess thats why we play our own characters. Not a bad origin just doesnt feel like anything new either.

Luke warm myself mainly for the same reasons you mentioned.

"I aim to misbehave." - Navasi

Yay... a new god, Weydan, god of equality and discovery... sure to be a popular one! I can't wait to learn more about her and the names, portfolios, and other information of the other new gods.

Yay... a new god, Weydan, god of equality and discovery... sure to be a popular one! I can't wait to learn more about her and the names, portfolios, and other information of the other new gods.

Desna?

Whenever I'm introducing the Starfinder iconics at a table, I'm introducing her as "Lesbian Space Robin Hood."

Wow, this really is fantastic. Up until now, our impressions of the Starfinder universe were pretty abstract, with general hints and samplings leaving a lot of gaps for the imagination to fill. I think this was the first, great plunge into the bread and butter of Starfinder storytelling, and it's nearly moved me to unsightly tears! Navasi's a relatable, familiar character that really opens up Starfinder's strange, cosmic world and gives even its most alien qualities a grounded feel. I get the sense that's what Amanda and the rest of the team was going for. I really liked the bit about Weydan and proto-Navasi's religious tattoos. I'm a sucker for tragic romance, especially when it's in space. Can't wait to be introduced to the rest of the iconics!

Also, the Free Captains of the Diaspora! My dreams of space piracy finally come true! I'll see all you seadogs in Lady Pharasma's Locker!

Yay... a new god, Weydan, god of equality and discovery... sure to be a popular one! I can't wait to learn more about her and the names, portfolios, and other information of the other new gods.

Same! I love learning about new gods and goddesses!

..and we are off to a good start! Looking forward to all the other ones to follow. :)

I'm going to take off my Developer hat for a moment, and put on my Fanboy hat, and speak briefly about why I love this story Amanda wrote (which, in this case, I didn't get to read until today and had nothing to do with, so this is my fresh take)
First, it helps flesh out the world. Sky-villas in a space station? The poor poor living in little more than metal boxes? A rich scion having to spend time with the children of the household employees to find friends she valued? Holy symbol tattoos and the hint of divine intervention?
That al helps flesh out a world.
Second, a name change and new identity for a character hunted by two radically different factions? The "Sixth Finger" group that is a "contracting firm"? Story seeds in 20 words or less. heck, just the term "contracting firm" for what turns out to be a thieves guild is awesome. It sets a stage, introduced some terminology, and explains why thrives might have a public name and email address, through a legitimate, if mistrusted, front.
The flavor is also great. Gold-fibered holo-gown? The ideas that conjure up are awesome, but leave plenty of room for me to adjust to fit a GM's or other player's needs. A midship bound for refugees on Absalom Station? That's the potential plot of an entire adventure. Even the end result of a freelance captain, putting together crews for adventures ranging from planetary scouting and private security to "procurement" goes farther than a lot of "roguish space captain" ideas. Navasi doesn't just run a rag-tag band, she's a fixer and organizer who collects the experts she needs for each mission. That's a lot less common, and a lot more interesting, than just being an ex-space-military-smuggler-with-iffy-friends.
I consider the bar set quite high... which actually makes me kinda nervous. ;)

"I aim to misbehave." - Navasi

I was also reminded of Firefly; robbing the medship sounded similar to the Train Job.

Also there are hovercycles? I want one!

Ashanderai wrote:

Yay... a new god, Weydan, god of equality and discovery... sure to be a popular one! I can't wait to learn more about her and the names, portfolios, and other information of the other new gods.

Desna?

I get the sense that Weydan represents more of the socially conscious, cultural aspects of discovery, in contrast with Desna's more natural world oriented domains. Seems an important niche to fill, as any self-respecting Commander Shepard or Captain Kirk know. I expect Weydan to be the first god people pay respects to when taking up affairs of diplomacy, or making first contact with alien species. Weydan will likely be at the forefront of exciting revolutionary movements in politics, seeking libertarian or social utopias. Also, Weydan especially loves those pioneers brave enough to sample the squirmy gross worm cuisine that friendly alien handed you as a peace offering. Social, intercultural, interspecies fun is where Weydan's at. Given that the Lashunta seem the most inclined for charismatic diplomats of all the races so far, I wonder if Weydan is a native Lashunta god(dess)?

I'm so glad you folks like the story. I had SUCH fun writing up our resident fast-talking, sticky-fingered, kind-hearted space-farer. :D

I'm going to take off my Developer hat for a moment, and put on my Fanboy hat, and speak briefly about why I love this story Amanda wrote (which, in this case, I didn't get to read until today and had nothing to do with, so this is my fresh take)

Daww, thank you so much for the kind words, Owen!

(Psst. Folks! THE Owen K.C. Stephens likes it! Squee!)

I agree with Owen (and like Owen, I only saw this when it went up today, so just wearing a fan hat): the classic stories and story elements are classic for a reason. A great iconic backstory should have a sense of the familiar to help draw you into the iconic and the new world quickly and easily (especially when summarized for a new player as a pregen) as well as a taste of the exotic and unknown to get you more excited to learn more. I personally find Amanda's backstory for Navasi to be pretty darn awesome because it hits sweet spots in both of those respects.

Glorious.

Why, thank you for noticing! My cloak does billow quite gloriously, doesn't it?

My dreams of space piracy finally come true! I'll see all you seadogs in Lady Pharasma's Locker!

Speaking of the Lady of Graves and space lockers, I just might have a job for you. Bit of a warning, though: it involves lasers. And security robots. And vesk. Oh, sweet Weydan, so many vesk...

I, for one, support our gay space communist

*smirks and salutes cheekily*

Okay I know I'm going to catch hell for this too but.... Does every group of characters need to have a gay character? Do we really need to know? It's starting to seem forced. And before everyone jumps on me, I don't care what your orientation is its your business, not mine. Do what makes you happy.

Okay I know I'm going to catch he'll for this too but.... Does every group of characters need to have a gay characters? Do we really need to know? It's starting to seem forced. And before everyone jumps on me, I don't care what your orientation is its your business, not mine. Do what makes you happy.

Yes, why should anyone other than straight white dudes be allowed to exist?

People, remember: you're okay as long as you don't exist in any sort of media or in the public space. If you get assaulted or murdered, well, it was your fault in the first place for existing!

I'm kind of done with this whole line of thought, in case it was hard to tell.

Okay I know I'm going to catch hell for this too but.... Does every group of characters need to have a gay character? Do we really need to know? It's starting to seem forced. And before everyone jumps on me, I don't care what your orientation is its your business, not mine. Do what makes you happy.

Yes, because they're all gay. We're claiming all your favorite characters and we're making them gay. Welcome to the future. It's gay here.

Not what I said but a random sampling of people,does not bear out the number of alternate lifestyle presented in paizo iconics. Is orientation important to play? As others have suggested in the above post making the characters sort of generic is good than why nail down sexual orientations? I had read the above as the two women being friends without having to read in gay. Let people choose.

SquirmWyrm wrote:

Glorious.

Why, thank you for noticing! My cloak does billow quite gloriously, doesn't it?

Opsylum wrote:

My dreams of space piracy finally come true! I'll see all you seadogs in Lady Pharasma's Locker!

Speaking of the Lady of Graves and space lockers, I just might have a job for you. Bit of a warning, though: it involves lasers. And security robots. And vesk. Oh, sweet Weydan, so many vesk...

Hrothdane wrote:

I, for one, support our gay space communist

*smirks and salutes cheekily*

Navasi, as long as there's an icy cold space-rum waiting in a neon-lit bar at the end of the day, I'll fly with you into the depths of the nine hells! Hell, I'd probably fly with you there anyway! Incidentally, in my experience, space-rum is a handy remedy in a pinch for Vesk problems.

Hold up - speaking up the Lady of Graves? We aren't actually going to that big boneyard in the sky, are we? Because, if so, I'm soooo in. I don't even want to know what sweet drift drives you newfangled iconics are packing these days to make cross-planar jumps like that!

Mine all mine...don't touch wrote:

Okay I know I'm going to catch he'll for this too but.... Does every group of characters need to have a gay characters? Do we really need to know? It's starting to seem forced. And before everyone jumps on me, I don't care what your orientation is its your business, not mine. Do what makes you happy.

Yes, why should anyone other than straight white dudes be allowed to exist?

People, remember: you're okay as long as you don't exist in any sort of media or in the public space. If you get assaulted or murdered, well, it was your fault in the first place for existing!

I'm kind of done with this whole line of thought, in case it was hard to tell.

Furthermore, representation is important. It helps marginalized people know that they belong, especially in something like the fantasy RPG community, which has catered predominantly to a straight white male audience exclusively for a long time.

I'd love to see this same line of dialogue on Estra's backstory. "Does every group of iconics have to have a straight white woman? It's starting to seem forced."

Adequate levels of gay.

Adequate levels of gay.

Or pan. Adequate levels of pan. Or bi.

Is orientation important to play?

Yup. Had I not played a PFS scenario with a pair of gay ex-lovers in it early in my PFS career, I might not have felt more comfortable playing with gender roles through Pathfinder - and PFS was a huge step for me in coming to terms with myself. That's not a thing that I could've done if Paizo didn't embrace LGBTQ people in their writing, and I'm super thankful for it.

Not what I said but a random sampling of people,does not bear out the number of alternate lifestyle presented in paizo iconics. Is orientation important to play? As others have suggested in the above post making the characters sort of generic is good than why nail down sexual orientations? I had read the above as the two women being friends without having to read in gay. Let people choose.

Because representation matters. It says, "You are welcome here. We accept you at our table. And we want you to be a part of our universe. Thank you for buying our book." I didn't have that when I was young. It's so wonderful to see that now.

Edit: Also relationships are a big part of most peoples life story. Leaving out large swaths of the characters lives makes for kind of a boring story. If we mention that some guy has a wife, we don't get up and arms about heterosexual representation and leaving peoples orientation out of it. We just accept that it's part of his backstory and we go on. Same LGBT characters.

Not what I said but a random sampling of people,does not bear out the number of alternate lifestyle presented in paizo iconics. Is orientation important to play? As others have suggested in the above post making the characters sort of generic is good than why nail down sexual orientations? I had read the above as the two women being friends without having to read in gay. Let people choose.

Representation is important, and it's hard to understate what it means to see oneself represented as a welcome part of the community through characters and stories. What's most important to someone in how they identify is going to vary—could be by ethnicity, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, fandom, religion, hobby, something else entirely, or some combination of these in any order of priority.

It might not seem important to you that a character is (for example) gay, has dark skin, or survived a terrible experience earlier in life yet persevered to be a hero. To those that do identify with whichever parts of that background, though, it can be deeply important.

It would be nice if this thread about the blog post didn't devolve, like threads about characters who aren't straight white men are wont to do, into an argument about whether representation is necessary.

I think it's fairly clear that the creative staff believes it is necessary, and that's not going to change. Allowing the thread to become solely about whether it's okay that Navasi's in a romantic relationship with a woman is, whether intentionally or not, ensuring that same-sex relationships continue to be treated as abnormal, and characters in them aren't allowed to be about anything but their sexuality.

So I suggest moving on and ignoring further attempts at such derailment.

Okay I know I'm going to catch hell for this too but.... Does every group of characters need to have a gay character? Do we really need to know? It's starting to seem forced. And before everyone jumps on me, I don't care what your orientation is its your business, not mine. Do what makes you happy.

Navasi's sexuality is a core part of her being, as falling in love with -- and losing -- her best friend has shaped her into the person she is today. Sexuality is present in every fiber of storytelling, from references to husbands, wives, girlfriends, and boyfriends to more relationship-oriented details. Saying that a character's queerness is "forced" is like saying that a reference to a husband and wife is a "forced" example of heterosexuality. It's an ugly double standard.

Like Pathfinder, Starfinder is a place where people of all backgrounds and perspectives exist and thrive, and I strive as a writer to create stories in which all readers can see parts of themselves reflected in our heroes' backgrounds. I understand how deeply meaningful representation can be to folks who are used to never having any, and so I do what I can to move the needle.