Guide to roleplaying as a Diona

[Bone White]

 

I am a frequent Diona player, and wanted to let you know my tips for effective roleplay.

 

To clarify, let's get some terminology out of the way:

 

Diona: The name of the race, singular noun.

Dionae: Plural noun.

Nymph: A single living independent Diona, comparatively lacking in mental and physical ability when compared to a human.

Gestalt: A combined mass of Nymphs, who share a collective thought process and identity. This is the race you play when you select "Diona".

 

Now there are some additional things to bear in mind here. A gestalt is made up of the sum of it's conjugate nymphs. That is to say a Gestalt may draw on the memories, experiences, knowledge, skills and personality of any or all of it's Nymphs. This makes Gestalts very wise, intelligent and knowledgeable when compared with other humanoids. Gestalt do vary in this, dependent upon the quantity and quality of the Nymphs that make them up, and you should not be tempted to use this as an excuse to mary sue.

 

When I roleplay as a Diona I have a very simple way of describing myself. I use two nouns to signify which part of the gestalt is communicating, and which are thinking. For example:

 

Chlora L'Hydrate says: "How are you feeling today, Gestalt?"

Gestalt says: "We and I are feeling fine thankyou."

 

We here signifies that the entire Gestalt is feeling well as a whole, and the individual Nymph who is speaking applies some personality to the conversation (as humanoids like to do) by saying how that nymph itself is feeling. Note that all nouns have a capitalised first letter.

 

It can also be applied when talking to other Gestalts.

 

Gestalt 1 says: "We and I would like to know how You and You are feeling."

 

In this case, Gestalt 2 can tell that they are asking for the feelings of their gestalt as a whole, and an individual Nymph. Note that Gestalts will not refer to non gestalts in this way, or to an individual and independent Nymph.

 

The beauty of this idea is that you can have self conflict.

 

Gestalt says: "I don't know how to wire the solars, but We might. They seem to think that We can wire the solars, so We and I will try."

 

The gestalt above is saying that the communicating Nymph cannot wire the solars, but the gestalt as a whole might be able to. Upon internal communication, another Nymph (referred to as they, as Nymphs are asexual) does know how to wire the solars, so the gestalt as a whole and the communicating Nymph will try.

 

I imagine Dionae are slow and labored in their responses, which allows you the extra time to roleplay like this, and it does get easier with time. There will often be language barriers that are introduced, such as differentiating between You (plural) and You (singular) as well as They (plural) and They (singular), and other derivatives. These just add to the roleplay immersion. I challenge myself to never refer to anyone by their name, but just by using pronouns.

 

We and I hope that You and You may find this beneficial, though They may not.

 

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To be continued....

 

[HereticChurch]

This sounds super fun and complicated and annoying and awesome. We and I will definitely have to try this out.

[Fj45]

Request: Make the most convoluted possible sentence with that system.

[Threeinone]

Awesome guide. I was wondering how sentence structure should work with this sort of thing. Thanks!