Q: A take on a question I asked a few years ago about deciding who joined the Sylum Universe: How did you decide clan leaders and where the clans would be based?

A: Oh that’s a good, complicated do you have a few months question!!

The first one was Nick and that was kinda winging it.   Nick was always my favorite CSI *pets him* and had always felt there was way more to the character that show ever did with him *pointedly glares at moron CSI Writers/Producters/Showrunners*.   I made him older, Roman, though Tim will tell you I picked the worst moment in Roman history! but hey we made it work!  The rest of the Clan fell in and around Nico, Tony and Speed.

When Sylum began to grow, new Clans started to develop some of them were easy others not.

Alexander the Great had to be a Clan Leader and he would be in no other place but Greece

Ardeth leader of the Medjai in Egypt was practically handed to me.

As was Arthur Pendragon of Camelot.

There were a few I had to sit and think about and o with the movies/books that I was working with at the time.  Now remember this was ten years ago so the options were limited.

Benton for Tallikut worked nicely, and putting it in Canada made perfect sense, considering the show it was based on.

I admit Mal was not my addition.   And in truth if I had to start over with it, he would not be there.  But he was sneaky enough to ingrain himself into storyline that could not be changed.  Serenity now is a much different Clan that it started off as.

Doc well he’s always been a personal favorite – movie and historically, so I gave him Border.  Pretty sure he hates me for that.

Katsumoto slipped easily into the role for Shogun, he just need a longer history and background.  Japan seemed at the time like a logical chose considering the political situation in Asia.  Building the Clan’s history, well it’s been a learning curve.

Mad Max worked for Australia, ’cause I really couldn’t see Crocodile Dundee as a Clan Leader!  But we had to build a history for the character, then had to rethink everything when Gibson ended up on our hell fucking no list!  We ended up with an original character based off a fictional one.

Knight Clan and La Croix kinda sneaked into the Universe.  It worked well, as we needed that Clan where the not so good guys but not evil could swear to.  And La Croix fit that persona perfectly.

I’m not actually sure how Vachon got his position, just that he wanted as far away from La Criox as possible and his original character was a Conquistador, so putting him in Brazil made sense.

Now the Kin Clans, well honestly, they’ve been a pain in my ass for a while.

As how we got the Kin Clans.  In the early years of Sanguen there would be need to have small clan structures through Europe to control that area, as travel was limited and took time.  With modern world and easier transportation the structure of the Kin Clans would need to adjust, and that’s what we’re working on now.

As for the Kin Clan Leaders well…

Remus/Romulus are Italy.  Beowulf for the Norwegian area made perfect sense.  The others were tossed around and added into the mix.  I’m going through Sanguen now in the epic wikiwiki adventure so adjustments will be made.  Not that we’ll change Kin Clan Leaders but look more closely at the histories to make things work smoother.  *pokes Sanguen*

Q: My 2 favorite Clans are Oceania (because I live in Hawaii), and Shogun (because I’m Japanese-American).  I have been enjoying all the new Oceania stories (Thank you Hawaii 5-0!), and am wondering if there will ever be stories for Shogun?  I also noticed that most of the members of Shogun are Chinese, and was wondering if this was because you didn’t know many Japanese characters (Not complaining! Just thought it was interesting that the leader is Japanese and the clan is based in Japan, but more than half the members are Chinese.)?

A: Since I’m actually working on Shogun at the moment and have highlighted a few of their characters in the past few days, figured this was a good question to answer.  Shogun has gone through a few changes over the history of Sylum.  And it’s only right now that we’ve been able to make a more diverse Clan that incorporates all of Asia.

Now that the Clan is become more settled, stories will start popping up.   You’ll start to see the characters showcased in other stories, and ones centering on Shogun’s characters and histories.  I know that I have a few stories in the works, including Katsumoto’s and Nathan’s meeting and Bonding.  And there are stories centering around World War 2 and what happens to the Clan Members who are Westerners.

Q:  Blue Bloods tv show follows a family of cops, the Reagans, in New York in which Donnie Wahlberg is one of the main characters, he also plays another character who already exists in the clans connected to a triad.

A: I haven’t actually seen Blue Bloods – it’s on my netflix que!  At the moment there is no reason to connect them.  Now when I do get a chance to see the show that could change.

Q: Any plans to add characters from the Raid movies or the Infernal Affairs to Shogun clan? The Departed by Martin Scorsese was a remake of the Infernal Affairs movie.

A: There are no plans for any of the characters from these movies.

There are many elements we look at when we choose characters for Sylum.   Sometimes it can be the character is just perfect, but we steal it from the show/movie and make up our own backgrounds history.  A movie/show can be intriguing enough for us to build off of it.   And sometimes it comes down to logistics.  If a show/character doesn’t work – it doesn’t work.   We also have to look at who the actor or director of the show is – there are some actors that are on our Oh Hell Fucking No list and can’t be used.