100 Question Survey

[tonnaw]

Original Survey can be found here

Part 1: The Basics

What is your full name?

Where and when were you born?

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.

What is your occupation?

Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

To which social class do you belong?

Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?

Are you right- or left-handed?

What does your voice sound like?

What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?

What do you have in your pockets?

Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?

Part 2: Growing Up

How would you describe your childhood in general?

Did you enjoy school?

While growing up, how did you get along with the other members of your family?

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a child, what were your favorite activities?

As a child, what kinds of personality traits did you display?

As a child, were you popular? Who were your friends, and what were they like?

When and with whom was your first kiss?

Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity?

If you are a supernatural being (i.e. mage, werewolf, vampire), tell the story of how you became what you are or first learned of your own abilities. If you are just a normal human, describe any influences in your past that led you to do the things you do today.

Part 3: Past Influences

What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?

Who has had the most influence on you?

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your greatest regret?

What is the most evil thing you have ever done?

Do you have a criminal record of any kind?

When was the time you were the most frightened?

What is the most embarrassing thing ever to happen to you?

If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why?

What is your best memory?

What is your worst memory?

Part 4: Beliefs And Opinions

Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?

What is your greatest fear?

What are your religious views?

What are your political views?

What are your views on sex?

Are you able to kill? Under what circumstances do you find killing to be acceptable or unacceptable?

In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?

Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?

What do you believe makes a successful life?

How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings (i.e. do you hide your true self from others, and in what way)?

Do you have any biases or prejudices?

Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why do you refuse to do it?

Who or what, if anything, would you die for (or otherwise go to extremes for)?

Part 5: Relationships With Others

In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does your treatment of them change depending on how well you know them, and if so, how?

I believe that all people deserve the benefit of the doubt, and to be heard out. For the most part, this works well: most people I have met have good intentions, and those few who do not can often be convinced to share. I treat my people with respect and good cheer, and am always happy to bring them in for whatever they need. Most of the outsiders I have met, non-tonnaw, find this level of trust and free-will to be strange, and so I have learned to be more gentle with them, but also... more coy, or more sly. I think many of my good non-tonnaw friends have stuck with me through the years because the kind of open friendliness that we breathe every day is lacking in their homes and communities. Everybody wants to be loved.

Who is the most important person in your life, and why?

I am not sure if she should be classed as a person, because she is both that--a conscious entity capable of self-awareness--and so much more, but our lady of the land has been important in my life from childhood up until now. Before she was more of a guiding concept or principle that my elders pounded into my head when I was just a little ball of fluff. Some of the nuances get lost in translation, but because she is both the land and a living individual, it shaped my values of the gifts given to and by others... and it very much shaped my everyday life when I lived on the road. Now that I am older, and have been lifted through the veil to see her as a thinking entity with her own personality, I feel as though I was very lucky to have my upbringing revolve around respect and reverence. She seems to enjoy both in spades, and that tickles me.

Who is the person you respect the most, and why?

Ah hah, I don't want to sound like a forgetful piper, so I will leave my goddess for now, though she is one of the few people still alive of my original posse who I have had contact with in more than five or ten years. Lhojrwi se Hizma is one of my oldest posse members, older than me by a handful of years. She's a council member of the village of Pilawhil now, and if it was not for the fact that I suspect we would butt heads every day were we to share a table, I would probably have settled up there with her, or her with me in Chazkwhiln. We... ha ha, we had different ideas of how to get work done. When I was young, my first year on the road, she and the posse came through my birth village and she grilled me for three hours about my value to the work crew. When I showed her that I could heft an entire barrel of wine, she stacked a second one on top of it! Lhoja was as sharp as a thistle and as challenging, and I loved her instantly for it. She taught me to perfect my technique in everything, and she showed me the divine beauty of accomplishing a task with grace and skill. It was others who helped me to refine my way with words, but I believe that as a young man, it was Lhoja and her extreme prejudice against clumsiness and mistakes, and my own burning passion to please her, that refined my techniques in other departments! She admitted to me once that she liked to show up to celebrations I had participated in with a particularly sour face to mess with me, and it worked all too well. Several of her children are named after elements of our union in work and play, which is an honour that you might not understand if you don't know her the way my posse and I did.

Who are your friends? Do you have a best friend? Describe these people.

I have so many that setting time and space aside for each might leave your eyes dimming! Oh, I will try. Here are four men and women of my people who I held very closely. Two live still, and two have returned to the land. They lived and worked by my side every spring and summer and autumn, and we chose to share our winters, where many of my posse departed for their own favourite villages. They were Tsoki se Nopzher, Mandzure se Jerephe, Kamawhe se Xwi, and Oxwer se Dhorjwhe, but those are their formal mother-names. I know them as So So, Mandu, Kama and Ox because they were very close. Of us, So So and Kama were the younger of the posse, maybe ten years for both. Ox was older than I but younger than Lhoja, and Mandu was younger than me, but not by much; all were core members and all followed me when we camped down at eastern villages for several years to investigate incursions from non-tonnaw war-men gone awry. Ox was a bright mind, much like Lhoja, but he kept his focus on the world of the mind and he kept us thinking on long rides with puzzles and riddles that I am fairly certain he learned from his elders as a child, then refined in his spare time. He was an invaluable mentor to me, though I thought of him more as a peer. He was lost to us more than thirty years ago, when I was at my prime and my posse were bargaining a truce with the people of the mountain roots. Ox had a misunderstanding with a war-man, one whose hive had disintegrated and left it without directive. He had wanted to find a way to make peace with these creatures, and his death spurred me to search for new means to make contact and bring these people to make peace with their grief and fury. Kama was our smallest posse-member and perhaps the youngest that I felt completely at one with. She is still working, now a leading member of our old posse, which does not surprise me, because her vigour was renowned in work on the road and in the bed! She once spoke to me over the pillow about how she puts all of the energy that other women do into growing children into breathing life into her friends, supporting them when times are hard. When I told her that I was sorry for her barren belly she put a hand over my mouth and told me that she was happy to share all of the benefits of men and women, especially during the early spring when a quarter of our numbers were moaning over the pain of childbearing! She mothered us all in little ways, usually encouraging us and resolving us of our worries. Mandu was an innovator, one that drove Lhoja crazy because she often seemed lazy. Usually she thought, and she would take a few minutes to work, and then think again. Though overall I think that she did about a third of the work of the rest of us, she made up for it by dint of tools I would never have dreamed of. Mandu cut all of our work in half when we came in to the southern villages in mid-spring; planting seeds for example! I would sometimes ask her to explain her thought process to me, but much of it went over my head. She saved much of her energy for the winter, I think, because she certainly tired me out! I think I would have appreciated her over-arching views of our world now that I am responsible for so many people... she passed away perhaps twenty years ago, imbibing too much of the wine and smoke that we loved so much during our working years. Though I miss all of my departed friends bitterly, hers was perhaps one of the most pointless losses that I think back on as one I could have diverted. If I could have understood her better, seen what she needed... So So! So So was one of our hardest workers, stronger than even me, and loyal to a fault. He was incredibly gentle, despite his mass. Up until he irreparably sprained his back he was Lhoja's favourite posse member and perhaps one of my main competitors, but we challenged one another playfully, and flirted shamelessly. He took it as a personal insult when he lost his ability to balance massive bales across his shoulders, and for several years after his accident he stayed with us, trying to hide his injury. We all spoiled him rotten and played along with him when he put on his displays of strength, but ultimately I think he was happier when he settled. For many winters we would summon him to our encampment and cozen him, and I like to think that he felt discordance in that he missed us all deeply but felt ashamed that he could not keep up with the stories of our lives, but that it was worth it for the moments we could share. I still visit him and consult him for advice; having retired early he has a wealth of knowledge about the ins and outs of running a village, and at this age he is very very good at it. He was the first man that I spoke to after I discovered my new vestments... he saw me at my most fragile and I think that only now I really understand him, and he me. We shared a mark in honour of it... but you won't find it on these bare arms, there is no more space on these blackened things! These are, as you call it, my best friends. I will leave others for other days.

Do you have a spouse or significant other? If so, describe this person.

A spouse? Oh, another word that does not exactly translate. No, spouses are very rare in our culture. When two people are joined so significantly that they see only one another, we see that in more of a... well, it can be most closely summed up in a spiritual belief: this is more like you are missing a part of yourself that the other person fulfills. Usually these people are given an additional appellation, much like we choose when we join a posse, only these are a matching set. The other part of this translation, the day to day life, is only somewhat covered by the work posse. For us, that unit is malleable. Some come and some go after a few years to find a posse whose members suit them better, and some overwinter in other villages, not feeling a strong link to their work group. Usually within a healthy posse, which can reach twenty people on average, there are two or more sub-units, much as I have described above, but that is further complicated by the fact that the sexual aspect of a spouse is not always shared within these units. In any case, it is more often the case that a woman like Lhoja will account for that sub-unit like a well-oiled machine, and I try to wash my hands of the maintenance of matters of the heart because I am a terrible romantic and am easily wounded, even at this old age.

Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened.

Oh no, you swing with heavy punches! Oh, yes, yes I have been in love. I am in love with the world, but then again I am that terrible romantic and I tend to bleed on about it if you give me a chance. Let me be concise. My best friends were perhaps my best loves, though I suspect you can guess how those came to be. I will instead touch briefly upon a love of mine that is unconventional, because it is the longest-running affair I have ever had to keep under wraps. It began when my posse and I journeyed to the root of the mountain that we call Snowel Torun, loosely translating to Kiln's Lips or Kiln's Veil, and which the root people, the Provilac, call something that I can't hope to pronounce even thirty years later. Try a click, a 'lwhe' similar to our village place-names, and a hard 'k' sound, then hum and close the teeth. Yes, it is similar to 'kraken'! Why am I not surprised that those homophones relate to a similar concept? A provilac hive is not a village in the way that my Chazkwhiln is a village; for all that Chazkwhiln is a sprawling estate responsible for hectares of vinyards and coast-line, spread liberally to catch the sun where he bounces off of the hills along its northern border, Snowel Torun's hive is magnitudes larger, contained to one deep pit. Passing through its fortified mouth feels like you are being eaten. You want to be eaten, however, because beyond the teeth of the border is a wealth of knowledge and glory that I hesitate to admit no tonnaw village can achieve. Snowel Torun is the home of the largest distribution and mixing of tonnaw, provilac, seri and lucknor, which is a testament to the atmosphere of that hive, given that most are small, guarded fiercely, and unknowable. Still, at that time we were investigating the reason for the spread of war-men and so we persistently descended into the hive, speaking with first tonnaw who had chosen to make for themselves a long, hot winter here, and then with provilac who were willing to speak to outsiders. Ultimately, after much trial and error, one battle that nearly put myself and So So to the death, and several near ejections from this hive, I met a provilac whose name I hold in confidence. I have been forbidden from sharing pertinent information about them, however they had such voluptuous assets and such a sonorous voice that I think I might fail to keep everything completely under-scarf. More than that, their piercing eyes shine sharper than the constellation--alright, I will hold off in the description of this individual. Needless to say, they held my attention. They were willing to help us understand what had happened to the war-men that were pouring into our eastern villages and doing all kinds of harm. They were willing to come up out of the hive to help us stop the chaos and impose clear rules on the ruleless vagabonds. Their justice was swift for those who would not comply... and though I did not believe that this provilac needed to be so ruthless, they were willing in the end to teach us what was needed to bring peace back to our borders. We lost touch for many years when we parted ways. She--they--parted north to the disturbed hive on their own while we resolved to clean up and integrate those war-men who could not return to Snowel Torun. I received a note from this provilac some years later, where I was resolved to travel alone after them. The mountain was beyond our border, north and further into the continent, and bore no tonnaw name. The hive's fortifications were broken as though by a great force, but following into the pit I was met with an eerily empty upper arcade. It was sacked, scorched, a place of death and ragged grief if all of the shards of chitin in the streets were any indication. I found the provilac of my dreams only after I had descended to the very edge of my tolerance to heat. So far down below the hive--as I assume must all provilac hives--was untenable. I saw her there, climbing the spiral path that led down into a billowing furnace at the root of the mountain, pulling on plates of slick armor over what I can only describe as a fiery soul, and then slipping into her heavy, concealing robes when she made it to me. I don't think that I will ever entirely understand why she took me there, but it left its mark on me and every several years thence I have looked forward to another summons. The hive is always a little less barren when I return, but she is never less demanding of the part she brings me close to play in her love. And that is perhaps the strangest love story that I may ever have to share!

What do you look for in a potential lover?

There is a saying that we think is cheeky, that you may think is cheeky too, and it goes like this. "When I look for love, I look." but often it is swapped with, "when I look for love, it looks." It means that sometimes love finds you, or you find yourself much more closely linked with someone than simply a shared night. To be truthful at this point I don't often seek out new lovers because I am old and responsible in so many ways that I feel I would be letting down the younger men and women who shelter under my care. Elders are responsible for maintaining the village during the winter months, helping younger women through their births, and raising children when their mothers are ready to go back to work. Unlike some of my council, however, I am not so old that I don't look on autumn with a particular pep in my step! Above all else, when I have looked for intimacy, or action, I have looked for willingness to share and an eagerness to have fun. The rest are trappings unique to every individual, and categorizing that could take days!

How close are you to your family?

Very close, but I think that your concept for a family is maybe a little bit different from ours. With my posse, I am always vying with Lhoja for their wintering rights, and usually Kama will come to me with her new core and I will be introduced to new bright young faces every autumn, and we will sit down beside the fire with ink and barrels of wine and Kama will give me their entire life story, tattoo by tattoo while I work on their freshest. Some of these young men and women barely have more than their mother's marks, and they make me feel old, but they are my family because we share a lineage of work. My village, my other family, is newer and I fear that I had not had many years to sink into its daily routines before I was called upon to do higher work, but my peers, my council, shared an intellectual and moral pride in Chazkwhiln. Sometimes debates could get quite heated, especially over the potential of a troublesome child or during leaner years when the village is overbooked by excited work posses! I do not keep in much contact with my biological children and grandchildren; these duties often fall to mothers, but usually to elders of a child's home village. I suspect that there are a few grandchildren or perhaps great-grandchildren that share something of me even in the village I preside over, as I have wintered here many years as a working man... but that is again hard to track!

Have you started your own family? If so, describe them. If not, do you want to? Why or why not?

I believe I have answered that satisfactorily, but in case I have not, most tonnaw pursue a biological imperative when they are old enough to join a posse; most of the year we work, but winter is a time to recoup and bond and make children. Of course, joining a posse is at once entrance to that strange world as it is joining a family. I have loved every day I have had with the choices I have made. I hope that the children I helped to make are faring likewise... and I know that my posse is strong and well in the hands of Kama and some of her other peers. Now, the family that I have been called upon to make, that is another tale. I have been thrust into the celestial lodgings of the mother of the land and the three representatives of her other child-species. I aim to make a good go of it, but I admit that the rules are fresh and malleable, and I know for certain that the way forward is going to be hard... but I have my faith.

Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help?

Lhoja, I think, or So So. Both are vetted elders now, and both know me to my bare skin and beyond. I think that were I given the power to look deeper past the veil I would do my damnedest to seek out Mandu and Ox, no matter the price. I am not ashamed to admit that I fall back on others when I need to... I only wish that Mandu could have done the same, and that I could have known better to help Ox in his moment of trial. This is strictly confidential, but I do not believe that our goddess if the sort that I would literally fall back on if I was desperate. She is beautiful, wondrous, and a font of power and potential, but much like the land that we have come to label after her, I have not worked with her for years to know her well enough for that reliance. That... that I'm not proud of, but I am working on it.

Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why?

Hmm, I trust the posses that choose to work for my council, whether or not they are the one that I came from. Every year they work hard to prepare for spring planting and help to maintain summer growth. Every autumn they come in out of the wilds bearing huge animals strung to spits, and every winter they help us repair lodgings for mothers and children, and for those elders of us who really are old! I feel that I can trust my perception of the others, Seri, Provilac, and Lucknor, to ensure that none of them outstrip a beneficial balance with me. That is why we were called to share a table with our goddess, I believe. Outside of that the provilac hives keep mostly to themselves, and I know that a certain someone works to keep it that way. The seri are desperate at times, but their way is not violence. The lucknor... they may be inclined to take all they can, but their labyrinthine lairs can never reach between the roots of the mountains. I think our balance was fairly decided by the goddess. In that aspect she has protected me--us--but I wonder if that was her intention?

If you died or went missing, who would miss you?

I'm not even sure that I can die at this point, but were I to pass on I suspect that Chazkwhiln could find a replacement to take my seat! I know that my friends would miss me, but we hold no wealth and our villages are separated by at least a day's ride, so the only thing they would miss would be days and marks. As for my people, now that... that is something that I suspect I will have to discuss with our goddess, because I am not sure what her contingencies might be. I think I would rather have that squared away, just in case, but that is a monumental task...

Who is the person you despise the most, and why?

There are not many people that I actively dislike, but Lucknor is quickly growing to be a pain in my side. When So So and I competed, it was in good faith. Lucknor is not like that. He tweaks me about my silver hair like it's colourless with age and he is often busy flashing like a... a what do you call them, a peacock, no matter how relevant my conversation with our goddess might be. He does his best to set me up for failure, and I am not entirely sure why. I have never met somebody so stubbornly set on ruining another person's day as this strange man, but if he continues I will have to put him in his place, regardless of how spiny he may be.

Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?

I like to find out why others are intent to argue with me. Often that entails bringing their misgivings to the surface and then waiting through the discomfort and anger they suffer for having it broached. After that, we can seek the root of the conflict. Sometimes we must seek to disagree in our methods, like Lhoja and Mandu used to. Sometimes, as with Lhoja and myself, that friction is a way to foster growth... or like with So So, as a way to vent excess energy. I think with Lucknor it may be a matter of exactly that; he is so young and foolish, he simply needs to butt heads with someone, and he fears the potential of my wisdom and so must strip me of that in front of others when he can. ...Yes, in that case I think I know exactly the way to help him vent that spleen.

Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations?

If you were hoping to trick me into making a sly answer, I'm not planning on slipping up, though you get points for trying. We have another saying that translates roughly into, "the mouth leads us through our work, the mind leads us through our love, and our, ahem, heart leads us through adversity." Now it is cheeky for reasons that you might well grasp, but what it means is that we tend to rely on one another for help, and bonding intimately means that we know one another's strengths and weaknesses well. So yes, I do lead others through social situations because they have come to know me, and know when I am in a position to help, and it so happens that diplomacy and social smoothing over is one of those strengths. But there are other times when I know to call on others, and that is our strength as tonnaw.

Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not?

For short periods of time, I adore getting up on crates to boom across those gathered. There is nothing like presiding over the final festival before the winter sets in, where the last of the harvest is brought in and all of the work out of doors comes to a close! Mostly, though, I prefer to work in smaller units. My posse was just a smaller sub-unit, and we worked very well together like that. Felling trees, planting grains, stomping grapes, even hunting big game, all of it was done best in our small group. Similarly when I was younger and really at the height of my bucking around, I preferred smaller gatherings, usually no more than three or five, to share a night. Big festival nights were opulent and there was something electrifying about being welcomed into a the arms of a stranger, but eventually I learned that I preferred familiarity in my love life. Similarly these days, even though Chazkwhiln is a very large village, I have enjoyed working with the sub-group of councillors who have prepared the village for the cresting swell of incoming posses, to make our village glow brighter than any others and to leave an unforgettable impression. My pen-work is very good! The youth these days have shown off their Chazkwhiln marks, prompting other posses from the north to come and work and learn and stay for a season! Take that, Lohja! Regardless, those times are usually small gatherings. Even my recent days spent with the goddess and with her chosen three, that is a number I can work with. I am still working out how to contact my tonnaw people, but I suspect that in the end I will much prefer to address them in small groups as well. I can only hope this is a productive way to answer prayers!

Do you care what others think of you?

It is something on my mind at all times, as an elder, and it was something on my mind as a younger man seeking to be as precise as Lohja wanted and as strong as So So expected, as thoughtful as Ox strove for, and as inspiring as Kama often effortlessly managed. I take what others think of me seriously as a gauge of how reliable they see me, but for those who do not see eye to eye, I try not to let it get to me... I do try.

Part 6: Likes And Dislikes

What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?

What is your most treasured possession?

What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite food?

What, if anything, do you like to read?

What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, movies, art, etc.)?

Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit?

How do you spend a typical Saturday night?

What makes you laugh?

What, if anything, shocks or offends you?

What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself?

How do you deal with stress?

Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?

What are your pet peeves?

Part 7: Self Images And Etc.

Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted?

What is your greatest strength as a person?

What is your greatest weakness?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

Are you generally organized or messy?

Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.

Do you like yourself?

What are your reasons for being an adventurer (or doing the strange and heroic things that RPG characters do)? Are your real reasons for doing this different than the ones you tell people in public? (If so, detail both sets of reasons...)

What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

If you could choose, how would you want to die?

If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left.

What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death?

What three words best describe your personality?

What three words would others probably use to describe you?

If you could, what advice would you, the player, give to your character? (You might even want to speak as if he or she were sitting right here in front of you, and use proper tone so he or she might heed your advice...)