Nikola Tesla - Wizard

Nikola Tesla - Wizard

Thomas Edison - Sorceror

A big part of history is context, and this is even more true when it comes to the great figures of history. Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were huge competitors, to the point where neither really makes sense without the other.

I chose the character classes for these two men based primarily on their approach to the scientific method. Tesla was educated, methodical, and based most of his work on established scientific principles; conversely, Edison's work tended to be based just on whatever he thought would work, with his huge number of failures being attributed, by Tesla, to Edison's lack of theoretical background. So even though Tesla was the more wildly emotional man -- he was obsessed with cleanliness, for example, and was neurotic about the number 3 -- it's actually Edison that fits the Sorceror title better.

When designing these two, I tried to reflect their personality more than their class in their costume. Wizards are generally seen as the more ostentatious group, but Tesla's personality would brook no clutter, so Tesla's outfit is streamlined and practical. Conversely, Edison's outfit is full of gimmicks and clutter, basically anything he thought would be helpful at the time. It's also designed to make him look bigger, which I thought was appropriate given Edison's penchant for self-promotion.

In RPGs, the Wizard and the Sorceror are both magically-based character classes that focus on elemental attacks. The functional differences between them are usually fairly minor, but the Wizard is generally seen as being the more methodical of the two. It's usually the Wizard that ends up cloistered in their tower, researching new spells, and having to be enticed out for adventure. Conversely, the Sorceror's power generally comes from instinct and emotion, leaning on magical talent rather than education.

15, 16 and 17 - The Marx Brothers - Mime Something big and fancy for the midpoint of the challenge, ladies and gentlemen! The Marx Brothers are, without reservation, my favorite comedians of all time. They use a brilliant mixture of slapstick, wordplay, and atrocious, paint-curling puns to create some of the most hilarious movies known to man. Their influence on comedy can hardly be overstated; I find it hard to believe that there is a comedian on the face of the planet who has not been influenced in some way by the Marx Brothers. Though mostly seen as slightly creepy, silent clowns in real life, Mimes in role-playing games tend to be massively powerful, very sought-after classes. The root of their strength lies in their ability to copy the moves of other characters, often without paying the costs associated with those moves. In fact, a popular tactic with the Mime is to have all of the characters in a party become Mimes, then have one of them cast a huge, costly, powerful spell, and then have the whole party mimic the attack turn after turn, dealing huge amounts of damage. This is the main reason I felt the Mime class was so appropriate for these three: given their huge influence, there are a vast number of comedians that could be said to be Miming the Mime. Incidentally, I based their designs on the three games which use Mimes most prominently. Groucho is based on the FFV Mime (probably the most boring Mime - they just stuck shoulderpads and a cape on the Freelancer and called it a day!), Harpo is a FFT Mime, and Chico is a FFVI Mime (aka, Gogo).

12 - George Washington - Onion Knight One thing that always bugs me about history is the way people talk about it as immutable. With one tiny change in a person’s life, the whole of history could be altered, but people always talk about historical figures as though the things that happened to them were Destiny with a capital D. George Washington is a great example of this. His father died when he was 11 years old, and he inherited his father’s property. If the elder Washington had lived even one or two years longer, little George would have been sent back to England for education. Imagine how different history would have unfolded with a George Washington who was fully loyal to the English crown -- heck, imagine what history would’ve been like if George had been raised by his father rather than his uncle. Similarly, the Onion Knight is all about potential. Sometimes called a Squire or Freelancer, the Onion Knight is usually the first class you receive, and as such, it’s usually pretty crappy. However, if you put a lot of effort into it, the Onion Knight can eventually come out as one of the most powerful classes in the game. So if we’re being totally honest, everybody starts out as a Lv. 1 Onion Knight, able to use only the most basic of equips. It’s with a lot of effort, experience, and luck that we become useful. ^^b

Quite likely the first computer programmer as well as an icon of ladies in science, Ada Lovelace was one of the few people who thought early computers could be more than just counting engines. She was stylish, smart, and had family trouble out the wazoo, so her story has something for everybody. She also died very, very young — only 36 — which is just freaking criminal. In RPGs, Calculators are characters that use — shock shock — math in some way when they attack. This class is most popular in the Final Fantasy series, where they use magic attacks that hit enemies whose level or position are multiples of specific numbers. At first glance the decision to make Ada a Calculator might seem a bit obvious, but it really made sense to me that Ada would look at magic as just another problem that math could solve. Especially when you consider that her biggest insight was seeing how a mathematical engine could be used to solve non-mathematical problems.

So the next character on my list is actually three characters, which means a lot of extra design work. It also means it's not due until Thursday, which is kind of a big gap. So in the meantime, have some cute to tide you over. ^^b

19 - Josephine Baker - Dancer Though best known as a depression-era dancer, Josephine Baker was also a civil rights advocate, member of the French Resistance, and adoptive mother to no less than twelve children. She had one heck of a life; she was born into poverty and ended up on the streets at age 12. At age 15, she joined a vaudeville act in St. Louis before moving to New York and performing in various Broadway revues during the Harlem Renaissance. By the time Ms. Baker was 19, she was the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville, and that was far from being the most amazing thing that happened during her life. Ms. Baker moved to France and hung out with Ernest Hemmingway and Pablo Picasso. Ms. Baker owned a cheetah with a diamond collar. Ms. Baker invented the banana dance. Ms. Baker was unaccountably badass. In RPGs, the Dancer is sort of an upside-down and backwards Bard. Where Bards can heal and support, Dancers can damage enemies and reduce their stats, or even cause status effects from a distance. Usually an exclusively female class, Dancers tend to be a little rare, and useful Dancers are even more uncommon, but its always nice to see them as an option just to have something to balance out the Bard. And why did I pick Dancer for Josephine Baker? Well, besides the obvious, her danse banane hit me with some serious debuffs.