Category: Urban Shadows RPG: Inspirations

Archetype-Avatar time again! Today we look at The Dragon.

This one was….hard. The Dragon is very unique to Urban Shadows, encompassing themes of reincarnation, arcane powers and being a mother-frickin’ DRAGON!

I ultimately ended up deciding on Evelyn O’Connell from the Mummy series, specifically her in The Mummy Returns. Evelyn clearly has some arcane inklings as she’s able to raise Imhotep from the dead (by accident!) and we learn in the sequel that she’s the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess. And let’s not forget she comes back from the dead with the combat skills of her former life in tact after her former Rival kills her. Take that Bembridge Scholars!

Can you think of any better examples?

The Archetype-Avatar of the day activity was a lot of fun for me and I thought I would finish off with the base Archetypes but then I didn’t! 🙂

This week will feature the Limited Edition Archetypes for you to enjoy. We’ll head in alphabetical order and start with The Angel.

Insanely powerful, divine, and servile, the Angel is the proxy of the Almighty here on earth. For me, this choice was super clear, Castiel, patron saint of Thursdays.

I can’t imagine a better choice, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

What’s this? Two Archetype-Avatars in one day!? But that’s just wrong!

[Yea so I have a crazy busy weekend ahead of me and I didn’t want to leave this until Monday, so we’re going to double up today.]

The final avatar is The Wolf: primal, territorial and scary as all hell! I settled on Peter Rumancek from Hemlock Grove (two avatars from the same show?! For shame, Drew!).

Peter is so the perfect Wolf, he fits the delinquent punk that we love to see in our Wolves. He takes it upon himself to protect Hemlock Grove (his Territory) from whatever is killing its citizens, sacrificing a great deal in the process. Not to mention his first transformation is my favourite wolf-out scene ever!

[howls a challenge at you to do better]

It’s a gloomy Friday here in Canada but we can still brighten things up with Archetype-Avatar of the day! 

Today we look at the Wizard: powerful, clever, knowledgeable, and burdened by responsibility. I have chosen Hermoine Granger for this Avatar.

Hermoine is super smart, gifted with magicks, and more than most examples out there she really understands the importance and weight to what Magic can do to the world. She doesn’t rest on her laurels (like some other wizards who will go unnamed).

Beat that!

Archetype-Avatar of the day time again! Today we have The Veteran!

I could build this one up with hype but you all know who it is so why bother? I mean, come on! One of the Veteran’s moves is a direct quote of his.

Shadows of the city, I give you Abraham ‘smoke a cigarette while messily pumping gas’ Whistler!

Just try and beat that one.

For today’s Archetype-Avatar we move onto the most prolific being in urban fantasy: The Vampire! There are dozens of amazing choices for this Archetype and I know whatever one I choose will be wrong in someone’s eyes.

For this one, I move away from the trend of protagonists and give Lilah The Tainted some company on the antagonist side of the field. I name Russell Edgington from True Blood: the vampire king of Mississippi!

Russell is old, like really old and that makes him POWERFUL! Russell is dark, strong, polite in his old-world kinda way, and definitely someone you should not fuck with! He captures the Vamp’s themes perfectly, everyone hates him but they’re all way too scared of him to do anything about it; no one wants to get into Russel’s Web.

Tell me about your favourite vampire!

Today’s Archetype-Avatar takes us into the fiery depths of Hell (or Hel) where the Tainted reigns as servant supreme!

There are some great examples of The Tainted in urban fantasy, but one stuck out to me as particularly perfect in my research. I give you Lilah Morgan: attorney at law and rising star at The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart (aka Wolfram Hart). Lilah happily sold her soul for power and prestige and has no qualms about doing the dirty work on behalf of her dark powers.

What do you think? Have anyone better in mind?

Yesterday was a mess for me and I forgot to post the Archetype example of the day! Not to worry though, I’m here with our very next Archetype-Avatar!

Today we haunt your stream with The Spectre: lonely, angry, and tired of being ignored. For this classic urban fantasy archetype I went with none other than Annie Sawyer from Being Human (UK)! Annie is just so amazing; tragic, powerful, loving, makes SO MUCH TEA, and just all-around great!

Can you think of a better example for the Spectre?

It’s going to be hard to beat Day#3’s avatar of Dean Winchester as The Hunter (people seem to like him for some reason?), but here goes nothing!

Day#4’s Archetype-Avatar is none other than the Oracle: foreteller of terrible things, all-seeing but never-believed, psychic and medium!

For this choice I name Hemlock Grove’s Destiny Rumancek! Never mind that she actually makes her living as a psychic, her gifts are undeniably real and very potent. And like all good Oracles, no one ever listens to her warnings!

I have a hard time ‘seeing’ a better option for the Oracle avatar (see what I did there?)