An unabashed Gatehead and Browncoat, as well as a major fan of X3: Terran Conflict and The Elder Scrolls. He's on Steam
and Raptr regularly.
StarSword does a fair amount of cleanup work around the wiki, particularly on recent launches, and is a frequent contributor to YKTTW.
Tropes created or completed by StarSword:
- Absurdly Sharp Claws (completed): When your Natural Weapon is an Absurdly Sharp Blade.
- Alcubierre Drive: Moving a starship by contracting space ahead of it and expanding it behind.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age (completed): A weapon should be obsolete by the standards of the setting but proves not to be.
- Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Spellcasting characters can't or don't wear armor. Started from a Lost And Found query.
- Bizarre Alien Psychology (completed): Alien minds are weird compared to humans'.
- Boarding Pod: A vehicle fired from one ship at another to board it.
- Burn the Undead (completed): Fire is efficient at killing undead.
- Cop Killer (completed): The murder of a law officer is deadly serious.
- Draconic Humanoid (completed): Humanoid with dragon-derived features.
- Fantasy Conflict Counterpart (completed): Fictional war draws inspiration from Real Life war.
- Fictional United Nations: A formal diplomatic apparatus that negotiates between nations.
- Fire Keeps It Dead (completed): Fire is effective at keeping things from coming back from the dead.
- Forensic Accounting: Investigation by following the money or paper trail.
- Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: An animal that mimics people swearing.
- Frontline General (completed): A flag officer who prefers to be in the thick of it.
- Holy Is Not Safe (completed): Just because something is considered good doesn't mean it's safe for Muggles.
- Historical Character Confusion (completed): Getting historical figures mixed up.
- Introduction by Hookup: Character has a one night stand, then encounters his/her partner in an unrelated context the next day.
- Mechanically Unusual Class (completed): Character Class distinguished by an unusual mechanical gimmick.
- Mobile Fishbowl: An aquatic character brings water with him to travel on land.
- Pompous Political Pundit: Aggressive talking head on political shows.
- Quote-to-Quote Combat: Countering a quote with another quote.
- Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements (completed): A piece of Applied Phlebotinum has a specific requirement for use.
- Sparse List of Rules (completed): A list of rules or similar that the audience only ever learns part of.
- Tidally Locked Planet: Natural satellite where one side always faces the body it orbits, and one side always faces away.
- Translation Punctuation: Use of nonstandard punctuation and/or formatting to indicate Translation Convention.
- Up Through the Ranks: Veteran enlisted soldier becomes an officer.
Came up with the name for:
- Everybody Knew Already. Technically he came up with Everyone Knew Already and it was mis-transcribed, but we're splitting hairs.
- Fire Keeps It Dead
- Googling the New Acquaintance
- Off Bridge, onto Vehicle
- Tropes That Go BOOM!
Suggested the image for:
Work pages created by StarSword:
- 007: From Russia with Love
- Bait and Switch (STO)
- Blue Suns
- The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
- The Clan Chronicles
- The Elminster Series
- EV Nova: United Galactic Federation: Mod creator.
- Federation
- The Flight Engineer
- GOG.com
- NYC 22, a Short Runner
- Polycon
- Pillars of Eternity (originally Project Eternity)
- Star Citizen
- Star Risk, Ltd.
- Star Trek Online - Foundry - “Bait and Switch”: Mission author.
- Star Trek Online - Foundry - “Relics”
- Star Wars Radio Dramas
- Starfleet Adventures
- The Translation in Blood
- X: Beyond the Frontier
- X: Rebirth
Works with in-depth knowledge:
- Busou Renkin
- Dragon Age: Origins
- The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind through Skyrim, though I've played Arena and Daggerfall as well
- Escape Velocity
- Firefly and Serenity
- Forgotten Realms
- The Laundry Series
- Mass Effect
- Matador Series
- Neverwinter Nights
- Rurouni Kenshin: Original manga only.
- StarCraft I: Wrote a homebrew campaign for it, though it had a few Game Breaking Bugs that he's only just getting around to fixing. Will post a download link if it's ever finished.
- Stargate-verse, particularly Stargate SG-1
- Star Wars
- X-Universe
Tropes exhibited by StarSword:
- 100% Completion: Very much a completionist.
- The Alcoholic: Defied. He's not a teetotaler by any stretch, but he carefully monitors his alcohol intake due to having a family history of alcoholism.
- Asperger Syndrome
- Awesome, but Impractical: Has this opinion of some of Steam's new features. Instead of adding silly shit like trading cards they should focus on stuff that's actually useful like the ability to schedule downloads for times when his data cap is lifted.
- Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: Four or five different projects lie uncompleted on his hard drive.
- Brainy Brunet
- Complaining About Shows You Dont Like: Has definitely been known to do this, particularly about Spongebrain Squareass, which incites either homicidal rage or the feeling that his brain is about to melt with no middle ground.
- Cross Player: Plays a female character 90% of the time if the game offers a choice, and freely admits to having no idea whatsoever why.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil:
- Told a guy on Raptr who suggested pirating the soundtrack of Borderlands to go to hell. But subverted a little in that he is less concerned about piracy when the item in question is out of print (for instance, older editions of D&D splats).
"If one could support the artist, one would, but since one cannot, one might as well save a buck."
- Also doesn't care about DRM one way or the other as long as it doesn't interfere with his ability to play a legal copy in single-player. You start messing with that, you're gonna have problems.
- Told a guy on Raptr who suggested pirating the soundtrack of Borderlands to go to hell. But subverted a little in that he is less concerned about piracy when the item in question is out of print (for instance, older editions of D&D splats).
- Fan Hater: Hates Call of Duty fanboys because they're idiotic, but has no opinion on the games.
- Fanon Discontinuity: Subverted. He agrees that the SWEU post-Dark Nest Trilogy is canon, but strongly dislikes it because he thinks Luke would've noticed his own gorram nephew going dark-side and done something about it earlier.
- Grammar Nazi/Spelling Nazi: Spelling it "rouge" instead of "rogue" is a particular Berserk Button since he loves the X-Wing Series.
- Lawful Good: Self-describes as such and plays LG characters when possible in games.
- Metaphorgotten: Used intentionally on a post on the Steam forums regarding whether or not Valve should add different "values" for achievements, similar to Gamerscore or PSN trophies.
DM36: In this topic, people that don't like milk, while others do. The milk lovers want to add chocolate to their milk! The milk haters protest.
StarSword: You forgot the milk lovers who think the milk is fine as it is and doesn't need chocolate. Or prefer to use it to make tomato soup, and this is where the metaphor begins to break down. :D - Military Brat: Both parents were US Navy officers, and met on the USS Briscoe (DD-977).
- Must Have Caffeine: Doesn't function well without a cup or two of coffee.
- Shout-Out: His Internet handle is a reference to The Andalite Chronicles, the name of an Andalite Dome Ship.
Tropes commonly used in StarSword's writing:
- Humans Are White: Averted, and has written at length about how this trope annoys him, particularly in science fiction.
Tropes applicable to StarSword's Original Characters:
open/close all folders
Kalir Patten (Neverwinter Nights 2)
Kalir Patten is a paladin of the Red Knight developed for Neverwinter Nights 2. Her backstory eventually developed into an entire knightly order called the Order of the Lanceboard, which makes use of militarism and combat tactics to fight evil and make life better for Faerûnians.
- Action Girl: Kind of a job requirement for paladins.
- Action Mom: She has three daughters. Narra was fathered by Casavir during the Shadow War, and her twins Sybille and Ressa are Gann's.
- Battle Couple: With Gannayev-of-Dreams, whom she married after ending the Spirit-Eater curse permanently in Mask of the Betrayer. Also formed one with Casavir, but his getting crushed by a Collapsing Lair put an end to that.
- The Captain/Four-Star Badass: Relinquished her rank as Knight-Captain of Crossroad Keep, only to then be made Knight-Commander of an Order of the Lanceboard garrison in Thay, headquartered around the Academy of Shapers and Binders.
- Genius Bruiser: High-ranking members of the Order of the Lanceboard are required to be masters of both battlefield and small-unit tactics and be reasonably familiar with geography, meteorology, engineering, and other science disciplines that can play into the outcome of a fight. Kalir also speaks several languages (StarSword statted her in pen-and-paper once) and very much enjoys reading and the theater.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Again, she's a paladin. More specifically, she's tender and caring with her loved ones and firmly believes that most people are naturally good at heart and that you've got to be taught to hate. She prefers to talk first and fight second, though she has no qualms about killing those who need to be killed and absolutely despises slavers in particular.
- Happily Married: To Gannayev-of-Dreams.
- Improbable Age: She's in her mid-twenties by the time of the Spellplague. Spending almost the entirety of 1374 DR in near-constant battle does wonders for your character level. She was granted her current rank in the Order of the Lanceboard on basis of skill and commitment alone, which ruffled more than a few feathers.
- Meaningful Name: Subverted. She's been told "Kalir" means something in Celestial, but as she doesn't speak it she has no idea what and has never bothered to look it up.
- Omniglot: This being D&D, she speaks six languages fluently (Common, Chondathan, Draconic, Illuskan, Infernal, and Mulhorandi).
- The Paladin
- Pregnant Badass: She didn't know it at the time, but she was carrying Narra during Mask of the Betrayer and has no real clue how she didn't miscarry due to all the insanity she got up to. Lucky for her, all that was settled in a couple of months, and her order placed her on administrative and diplomatic duties once she reestablished contact.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Always listens to her (frequently older and more experienced) subordinates' opinions, even if she may ultimately decide counter to them.
- Weapon Of Choice: The Silver Sword of Gith.
Lieutenant Commander Diana Shepard (Mass Effect)
Race: Human
Alignment: Paragon
Class: Infiltrator
Alignment: Paragon
Class: Infiltrator
Diana Shepard, StarSword's Mass Effect character, with the Earthborn and War Hero backgrounds.
- Action Girl: It's Shepard.
- Battle Couple: With Kaiden Alenko.
- BFG: Favors single-shot, high-damage sniper rifles. Used the M-98 Widow in Mass Effect 2 and the Kishock Harpoon Gun in Mass Effect 3.
- Bi The Way: Describes herself as 80% straight. She's slept with both men and women, but the only person she's ever fallen in love with is Kaidan.
- Combat Pragmatist: Only too happy to make environmental kills like blowing up explosive containers and the like.
- Dark and Troubled Past: An orphaned inner-city girl and former gang banger from Cincinnati, she joined the Alliance because it gave her something to believe in. She also found God through an Alliance chaplain.
- Friendly Sniper
- Good is Not Nice/Good Is Not Soft: Likes people for the most part, and will swallow her pride for the greater good. But she can be described as "no greater friend, no worse enemy": she has zero tolerance for reckless endangerment, particularly of civilians, and beat the crap out of Admiral Koris after he fired on a geth dreadnought with her and her team still aboard.
- Meaningful Name: "Diana," as in the Roman goddess of archery and the hunt. She's a sniper.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Garrus.
Gothren Marvani (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Race: Dunmer
Gothren Marvani is StarSword's current character in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the son of one of his Oblivion characters which made for an interesting encounter during Sheogorath's quest. A sellsword born in Skingrad, he is a veteran of the Great War during which he served the Empire as a scout and saboteur. He was crossing into Skyrim looking for greener pastures when he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Bow and Sword in Accord/Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me/Magic Knight: A fine swordsman, proficient archer, and decent battlemage.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has several scars from his career as a mercenary.
- Happily Married/Interspecies Romance: Married Ysolda, a Nord, and adopted a son and daughter.
- Heroic Bastard: The son of Morgiah Marvani, the Champion of Cyrodiil, and Martin Septim. He is thus (unknowingly, mind) the last survivor of the Septim Dynasty.
- Real Men Love Talos: Openly worships Talos and the Nine, and openly hates the Thalmor because of it (has been known to return to the Embassy just to kill more of them). He's also been known to pray to the nicer daedra on occasion, Azura in particular.
See also Characters.Bait And Switch STO.
