#also fun fact i was actually born in the Appalachian region despite growing up in the american south akfhskfj

[lethesbeastie]

wait so why is Appalachian folklore important to your character? are they really involved with storytelling are there appalachian monsters you want to involve or something else?

AUTISM ACTIVATION 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

Okay so basically, the entire campaign takes place within the Appalachian region, specifically a small town in West Virginia. This entire region has an incredibly complex history that is often overlooked by outsiders who set stories there. I'm a huge believer in doing research for storytelling, especially when it comes to regions/places/cultures/people that you're not familiar with. Appalachia in particular has often been the victim of what one author referred to as "cultural strip mining," where interesting aspects of the culture are isolated by outsiders who then market them without the cultural context.

When I started crafting Chorus' character, I wasn't even aware that the region they hailed from was considered part of Appalachia. It wasn't until I started doing more research for their backstory that I began to recognize the incredible cultural context they hailed from, and decided that I wanted to make that cultural heritage a more central part of their character. Storytelling and music are already central elements to Appalachian culture, so I started doing research into local folklore, folk magic, and folk music in order to give myself a better understanding of what it would've really been like to be a young queer kid growing up in such an area.

Chorus comes from a long line of Appalachian musicians and rootworkers (one of many terms for those who practice folk magic traditions of the region), and this is something that brings them both pride and shame. Pride because it offers them concrete proof of their own history. Shame because the descendants of their childhood heroes disowned their mother and want nothing to do with them. They grew up learning the oral traditions of their mother's family and the region at large, and were an apprentice to the local midwife in their hometown before they fled. Their whole life has been shaped by the culture that raised them, and it was very important for me to portray that cultural with as much accuracy and respect as I could.