Red Impulse was a recurring pilot character in Gatchaman. Battle of the Planets fans know him as Red Specter.

He was also the main character's father.

He worked for the International Science Organization, as did the Gatchaman Science Ninja team. Which explains why a character named "Red" Impulse is a member of the Azure League

Obviously, my namesake originates in the works of a certain Lewis Carroll.

I believe there are others in Skytopia who share a similar inspiration. The Dormouse and March Hare... The Mock Turtle... Dodgson (if he's still around)...

I was writing a sci-fi story a long LONG time ago, eektoj was one of the aliens but i changed it to Eeptog so it would roll off the tongue easier, hence why its so unusual sounding.

The Widow Ching

My character's name is inspired by a Jorge Luis Borges short story of the same name The Widow Ching — Pirate. The story itself is a quasi-historical account of a Cantonese female pirate active in and around the Yellow Sea in the early 19th century. Here are some links for accurate historical accounts, well worth a read:

A pirate registry (a fantastic resource for awesome names and increadible stories of adventure: http://pirateshold.buccaneersoft.com/ro ... i_soa.html

Wikipedia (never fails): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Borges' Characterization:

Ching's husband was the admiral of a fleet of privateers, the product of a consortium of shareholders invested in the various pirate ships operating in the Yellow Sea. He was a such and efficient menace to the coastal villages, that the emperor ordered the villagers to raise their coastal homes, move inland and pursue farming in an effort to deter admiral Ching. Ching and his fleet then took to waylaying trade ships once the coastline had been abandoned.

The emperor, fearing an impact on trade, decided to buy off the admiral and appoint him Master of the Royal Stables. Ching accepted the buy off, but not before the shareholders got wind of the plan. They poisoned the Captain leaving the captain's wife, The Widow of Ching, and a flotilla of privateers leaderless.

The Widow, incensed by this treachery, gathered the men together and proposed that they cast off their poisonous employer and reject the dubious clemency offered by the emperor and engage in "freelance piracy." When votes were taken for who should assume the role of admiral, she herself was elected. With that they began their work... with remarkable success.

Borges writes:

"The rules of the fleet, composed by the widow Ching herself, were unappealable and severe, and their measured, laconic style was devoid of those withered flowers of rhetoric that lend a ridiculous sort of majesty to the usual official pronouncements of the Chinese.... Here are some of the articles of the fleet's law:


Not the least thing shall be taken privately from the stolen and plundered goods.
All shall be registered, and the pirate receive for himself out of ten parts, only two;
eight parts belong to the storehouse, called the general fund;
taking anything out of this general fund without permission shall be death.

If any man goes privately on shore, or what is called transgressing the bars,
he shall be taken and his ears perforated in the presence of the whole fleet;
repeating the same, he shall suffer death.

No person shall debauch at his pleasure captive women taken in the villages and open spaces,
and brought on board a ship; he must first request the ship's purser for permission and then go aside in the ship's hold.
To use violence against any woman without permission of the purser shall be punished by death

Reports brought back by prisoners state that the mess on the pirate ships consisted mainly of hardtack, fattened rats, and cooked rice; on days of combat the crew would mix gunpowder with their liquor. Marked cards and loaded dice, drinking and fan-tan, the visions of the opium pipe and little lamp filled idle hours. Two swords, simultaneously employed, were the weapon of choice. Before a boarding, the pirates would sprinkle their cheeks and bodies with garlic water, a sure charm against injury by fire breathed from muzzles.

After many years of unchallenged piracy, the emperor amassed a fleet under Kwo-Lang to destroy the pirates. The emperor's fleet was annihilated. Kwo-Lang committed suicide upon recognizing his defeat. It was said over 1000 ships participated in the battle. The Widow took 600 junks of war and her 40,000 victorious pirates on a a raid into the mouth of the Zhu-Jiang river. It was here, a larger fleet under admiral Ting-kwei-heu, blocked off their escape forcing the widow Ching's surrender.

Borges writes:

"The widow understood. She threw her swords into the river, knelt to the bottom of the boat and ordered that she be taken to the flagship of the emperor's fleet. It was evening; the sky was filled with dragons - this time yellow ones. The widow murmured a single sentence, 'the vixen seeks the dragon's wing,' as she stepped aboard the ship.

The chroniclers report that the vixen obtained her pardon, and that she dedicated her slow old age to opium smuggling. She was no longer "The Widow"; she assumed a name that might be translated "The Luster of True Instruction."

And that, in essence is the story and inspiration for my character,

The Widow Ching
Under Arcadian Skies

Ah, the origins of Kirgs.....

actually started 10 years ago as a character I created for a Star Wars club, Kirghy Lommax. Don't know how I came up with it, but I thought it looked Star Wars-ish enough. It's been my 'Net persona in various forms since then. For Skyrates, I decided to use the nickname version as my character name, although I'm tempted to see if I can get Lommax added as the last name.


Kirgs
Member of The Smugglers' Alliance

-Out of character-

My character's name derives from my apparent childhood obsession with the name.

My parents have told me lots of stories about how I would go around saying that I wanted my name to be Jon-Michael Plont.

So, it's just a really cool sounding name to me. Rolls off the tounge, you know?

Also, the first name is according to the internets, is a common name in Georgia, the state I was born in. I'd like to think that good ol' JMP would've been born in Georgia as well if he really existed.

He's certainly not a country boy, though. He's a military brat... like me, so he's got his own acquired accent.

-In character-

His father's name was Joseph M. Plont, his grandfather's name was Jeffery M. Plont, and his great-grandfather's name was Jonathon M. Plont.

His dad wanted to continue the tradition of having the initials JMP.

Thorne was the name that Willow (you may remember the movie) took after Madmartigan, Sorsha and their little nascent Kingdom gets wiped out and Elora Danan was absconded. What? Nobody else read the follow up books?

Anyway, I always liked the name (cool side scrolling video game back in the day called "Blackthorne" where you carried a shotgun, could casually shoot behind you, and execute the prisoners that you "saved") but nearly every game I come to the name is already taken. Luckily in Skyrates, I got to be Thorne!

Before Skyrates my handle in most frequent use was "WintersBlood" and I was the leader of a gang of thugs. Now, I often go by the moniker Nigama (that'll be the name associated with the next game I play - the WoD MMO coming out *crosses fingers* hopefully in the end of September).


Thorne

Hey now, that's a total distortion! Anywho, tell us about Ryan Musgrave - the alt you used as a blue spy and noob sockpuppet. What was the origin of that character's name?

Sure. It was originally supposed to be Ryen Musgrave. It was from a skyrates short story I was writing but never finished. There were two Flight Schoolers, best of friends, and troublemakers, pranksters if you will. I forget the friend's name, tbh, it's been awhile. Anyway, the story starts off with them at the Flight School Graduation Ceremony, and they basically pull a Zaphod and steal the shiny T1 that was supposed to be awarded to the top member of their class (instead of the CR-4P everyone else gets). They adventure for awhile in their stolen plane, but eventually make enough loot to both purchase a T2 plane, tho they go their separate ways they are still good friends.

Only, one joins Blue and the other Red. Dun dun dun! Anyway, Ryen was the one who joined Blue, so it seemed appropriate that he should be my Blue alt/spy/n00b sock puppet. Guess I'll have to delete him come next reset now that he's been officially outed!


Ryen is a ferret, of course, and the last name Musgrave comes from the genus name for ferrets ( Mustela and Mustelidae were the inspirations) and out came Musgrave. For a first name I wanted a normal name spelled differently, so I went with Ryen. Of course when I was creating the actual character I spelled it Ryan. Oh well. Too lazy to delete and recreate. And now you know, and knowing is half the battle!


Thorne

Does your name come from the company in Crimson Skies named "Blake Aviation Security? That would be my best bet.

I missed this thread somewhere down the line.

Hyashi is an oooooold name. Probably one of the first names I'd register as on a forum. The origins of the name are actually a joke between a friend and I when we used to Pen and Paper RP between classes. It was a Naruto themed RP at the time (for the lulz apparently) and I needed a counter part to Kakashi, so Hyashi came up and stuck.



Artemus Delphus however, is a bit more interesting. At the time of playing Dawn of War and 40k at almost the same time, I became increasingly involved in the various stories about the hobby until I stumbled across a book known as Firewarrior. One character in the book is a Space Marine Librarian whose last name is Delphus.

Artemus was originally to be named Artimus, until I found this character in the comic Concessions: http://concessioncomic.com/cast.php#Artie . So I had to change the name to Artemus as to not feel like I'm /directly/ copying the name, despite how cool it is. The two names came together when JMP and I were discussing characters for a live-action *"RP"* that we used to work together in. In such a setting, we were to create *characters* that lived in 1830's colonial America. My story as Artemus was a british scholar who found promise in the new land. When one parent asked my full name, Delphus slipped off after Artemus, and BAM. I still use that name everywhere.

I can help. Just let me know via PM from that character.

Originally Marguerite, from "Ever After". Who was one of the evil step sisters. I didn't want my character to be french, or evil. So I did more of a phonetic spelling. Which we then get Margareet. I originally kept the name for future needs. Children, ect. But I figured it'd be a good name for a flying cat. Though I doubt i'll name my daughter Margareet now

Her last name Earnshaw, was named after a friend of mine who died in Australia at the time of creating her.

While not the origin of my handle (that honor belongs to an 8th grade Spanish class) I believe that the EV:N forums were the first place that the handle was ever used. Good times...

Also, if my shaky, addled memory serves, the Ambrosia games forum is where I got linked here from all those years ago...

one of the first video games I ever played was an old top gun game for Ps1. High scores I entered as ACE (since it was the title for an exceptional pilot) and it stuck as my high-score initials. I've used it ever since, oddly relevant for this game, not as much for my PSN and things like that (though I take that back, I play a good bit of MW2 and an "ace" in Search and Destroy is winning the match while being the last alive)