30 More Days: Favorite Name

This is part of a series in which I try to write a post every day on silly video game topics.  For the list of topics, click here.

I’ve probably already alluded to it several times during the course of this series, so let’s just jump right to it.  While I’ve had a lot of fun characters of various names, the one I always come back to is Jest.

I’ve had a variety of Jests through various games, but it never really caught on until World of Warcraft when I created my human paladin and long-time main.  “Jest Prime” (guild canon was that she was actually Jest “Lightbringer”, claimed to be Uther’s love child and was quite possibly an insane person) more or less set the imprint that would be all future “Jest” characters.  Red hair, preferably short, usually Paladin or some equally defensive/heavy armor character (whenever said archetype fits).  My wife can look over and see a character and know instantly, “Yep, that’s a Jest.”

The name came from an unfinished (un-started?) work of fantasy fiction I had dreamt up at some point.  “Jest” was the nickname of Jessaterra (sometimes Jessica) Rovanna, another name I’ve used often for characters.  The actual abilities and personality traits of Jest have migrated quite a bit in the stories I’ve imagined.  Early on, Jest was a love interest of another main character, only a slight bit more than the damsel in distress.  I grew attached the character, and I started to imagine Jest more as a gifted character and an fierce individualist.  More and more, I realized that it was her story I wanted to tell, and the early love interest roles were reversed.

Maybe I should take a peek at some of those old stories.