Things to decide

... eventually anyway! Start threads on all.

Picture credit - Close up of 1508 map of Goa, in Hebrew University Jerusalem

1. Ethnicity: Priority II – English is the obvious choice for ease and utility as a job, but other ethnicities interest me for personal and ancestral reasons, e.g. Russian, Scandinavian, maybe even South Asian.

2. Period: Priority I – can have several of other factors, e.g. three ‘X’ century characters of different ethnicities. I could have two different but close periods by no more than a hundred years. My gut attraction is for the 17th and 18th centuries, as early as 16th, but probably not Renaissance – mostly because I don’t like their clothes! Experiment.

3. Location: Priority III – My great interest in all things Asian combined with my obvious skin colour and background suggest that best would be a Northern European man IN Asia. Possibilities are India/China. Englishman in Mughal court? East India Trading Company?

4. Occupation: Priority II – It needn’t be my real job. The most obvious choice is perfumer. No one else is doing that I think, and I would like to be an added attraction. But a perfumer can also be an author, teacher, businessman, etc.

5. Class: Criminal, working, mercantile, upper, aristocratic? Different characters of various? I don’t like that so many people want to be elegant characters, yet I might have one or two. Must have some hard-working blokes also – sailor comes to mind, but better it be something I am familiar with in the real world.

6. Religion: Priority I - Protestant or Catholic? As a Libra I would like to have a character of each! In India and elsewhere in Asia I could have adopted/sympathetic with Hinduism/Sihkism/Jainism/ or Buddhism. Must be able to work in an interest in Asian religions – perhaps a writer on religious customs?

7. Languages spoken: Priority I - English is the easiest. But study period English, even take some university courses.

8. Political affiliation, if any: Priority III - Read about social, political and economic background and changes of the time

9. Personal interests: Priority III - dovetail some of current real life ones, or add those I have lost interest in but have some knowledge of and experience with (occultism, mysticism, art, music, travel, etc)

10. Hair: Priority I – Cannot be in a clean-shaven culture. Facial hair and head hair style mustn’t require me to have one very different than I have growing now, i.e. must allow a full beard, and probably a moustache.