Site
My world of ruin;
Sterling is just meant to be a small tribute to one of my favorite video game characters. I don't pretend it's very large or complex, but hopefully it's enjoyable to read and fun to browse. Chris Lightfellow and Suikoden itself are obviously the property of Konami. I am just a fan.
The Name
Sterling isn't my proudest naming effort, shamelessly stolen through a trusty online thesaurus. I was thinking about being lame and calling this site "Silver Maiden," but Chris hates that title, and so I went looking for something else.
sterling adjective
1 a : of, relating to, or calculated in terms of British sterling b : payable in sterling
2 a of silver : having a fixed standard of purity usually defined legally as represented by an alloy of 925 parts of silver with 75 parts of copper
3 : conforming to the highest standard sterling character, a sterling record of achievement
Obviously I was going for the third definition here, as I do think despite her flaws her character is beyond reproach. However, the connection to silver was certainly intentional.
The Layout
This is the second version of Sterling. The first was horrible and I'm not going to say anymore about it. I find Suikoden really difficult to work with, unless it's images of Flik and Viktor. Who knows why. Anyway, this features images from Vol 2 of the manga that I scanned. I think a muted green, beige, and blue colorscheme suits Chris. (It is pretty much what she wears when not in her uniform.) The manga was drawn with emphasis on Chris's kind side, and I guess this layout sort of reflects that.
Like all my layouts, this was done in Adobe Photoshop CS, with some assistance from Image Ready on the animation. The layout was coded in something resembling XHTML on my own personal text-editor program. I in for the Safari browser on Mac. How's that for a minority browser?
Justified
Suikoden III is one of my favorite games, and Chris Lightfellow is probably my favorite RPG main. (Unless Nash counts, but this feels like cheating.) I like her and the game a lot, so I was distressed that when her fanlisting was closed no one immediately snatched it up. Being approved for the fanlisting gave me an oppurtunity to share something of what I like about her with the world. Chris is fantastic, believable, compelling. She takes the knight archetype and turns it on its head, and I love her for it.
A secondary goal of mine is to promote awareness of my favorite PS2 RPG. I'm plenty aware that probably half the visitors to this site won't have played Suikoden III. I've tried to make this site accessible to them too, so that they might be motivated to purchase this awesome game. If it feels too much like mindless summary because of this, I'm sorry.
Make Contact
I'm open for any discussion of Suikoden III and the rest of the series. If you have any questions about this site, the layout, affiliation, and all of that, just email me at alex@valiantknife.org. Donations of fanart, fanfiction, and other media are also welcome.
Joined
Plays well with others?
