User Name and Avatars: Origin Stories

[Vael]

Today I realized I hadn't bothered to set an Avatar.

Username: One of my favourite PCs, a Changeling Sorcerer from a 3.5 Eberron Campaign. They masqueraded as a Wizard, with a "spellbook" which was just a encoded diary. In fact, they start the campaign having just left Morgrave University because they got a job ... attending classes as a noble scion so she could skip classes and party. But then her bf ended up cheating on her with Vael, and Vael skipped town.

New Avatar, who dis?: Ambassador Kosh Naranek from Babylon 5, one of my most favourite sci-fi series ever.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

New Avatar, who dis?: Ambassador Kosh Naranek from Babylon 5, one of my most favourite sci-fi series ever.

The avalanche has begun; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

 

[Cadence]

I had a pair of PC/NPC names I really liked and never got around to using back in the day. Cadence was the last name of one of them*, and sounds kind of like it could be anything (as in not even a persons name) so as not to leave anyone with preconceived notions.

I couldn't decide on an avatar at first, and that at some point I found a Lego Robin Hood/Archer which seemed fine. And then I saw there was an actual freaking Disney one - so I ordered that and switched. It isn't an all time great movie, it isn't my highest rated Disney movie - but it holds a special place in my heart.

This is the only place I use this name or avatar for no particular reason.

* Googling now, there is someone with the female version of the first name that would have gone with Cadence, and a few people with the other name reversed (and in one case the female version of one of them).

 

[Vael]

The avalanche has begun; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Ah ... you seek meaning. Then listen to the music, not the song.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

My username is a dual Doctor Who/Sherlock Holmes reference (name as title like a Time Lord, using the titles of Detective Holmes and Professor Moriarty).

The picture is a AIM Icon of Future Luke Triton from Professor Layton & the Unwound Future (actually, LAYTON may be the "Professor" in my handle) that I desaturated. Shame I never kept the original, this icon is rather low-resolution and could do with an update.

 

[Leatherhead]

I just like being myself wherever I go. I just don't feel a need for anonymity online, so I don't even think about it.

As someone who has had the same username for 17 years, it's not about being anonymous. Heck, I had a myspace page with my real name attached to it back when that was a thing (nowadays I don't even have a twitter or facebook because the places are so horrible). Nowadays, if I did switch over to my real name I would be effectively anonymous due to the (admittedly limited) recognizability I have with this name.

When I was first terminally online in the early aughts (due to be stationed overseas, it was the best way to communicate with people with similar interests and back home). The popular philosophy at the time was that your IRL and Online lives were supposed to be totally separate things. Having a custom username wasn't just a way to help you compartmentalize, it was easier to be remembered than having your name set to "JohnSmith82" or the like. And perhaps more importantly, it was one of the few routes of personal expression afforded to you while being online back in the day.

That said, there are in fact lots of people with life-threateningly legitimate reasons to be anonymous, I just happen to be one of the lucky people who don't have such a reason.

 

[Parmandur]

In College I took a class on Tolkien's Quenya (yes, for credit) and one of the assignments was to cone up with our own Quenya names. So I created Parmandur "Book-friend", combining Parma "book" and the suffix "-ndur" indicating familiar closeness to and affinity with the base noun.

The avatar is the new Evoker Wizard from the upcoming PHB, and I liked it. Felt it went with the wizard-ish Elf username.

 

[pukunui]

In Māori, "puku" is the word for stomach and "nui" means large. Pukunui is the name of a children's book character, and it's one I adopted as my username all over the internet not long after I first visited NZ in 2001. Why all lower case? I just think it looks better that way.

As for my avatar: I used to have a picture of Pukunui (among other things). Currently, I've got a picture of Sam Vimes from Discworld - the inspiration for my most recent PC, Hannibal, the crossbow-wielding, cigar-smoking veteran of the Last War I've been playing in a long-running Eberron campaign. We'll be starting a new campaign soon, and I'll swap out my avatar for an illustration of my new PC once that's been determined.

 

[Ryujin]

Oh, right. The avatar. It's a leather flight helmet and a mask that I made as a homage to bad guys, called the Astrum Argentum, in the Decopunk novel series written by a friend (Airship Daedalus).

 

[Zaukrie]

Zaukrie was a character of mine way back in teh day. Took the name by combining Zauber and Krieg from german.....