With these seven icons I'm going to finish up with "new" factions—or, at least, ones that are associated with guest characters, for there may still be the odd pairing or theme or prop as yet unbefactioned.

When I raised the matter on FORNI-L, I racked my mind (and the wiki) for a list of characters who lacked their own faction. During discussions, some of these had names suggested by people on list. Indeed, sometimes more than one name was put forward. At first, a measure of voting followed. However, the novelty seems to have worn off; so, with these later factions, I had to make the choice myself. Whoever came up with the name, all have been mentioned on FORKNI-L, whether there was much reaction or not.

So why have I bothered to make icons for them? (And why these, and not others?) Well, these are the ones for which I had an idea; and ideas can be darned insistent!

Obviously, none of these factions has actually got members...as far as I know. Mind you, the way factions seem to work, people are always free to declare the affiliation. That's how they all got started, isn't it?





Ancients:

No one had any suggestions or preferences for a faction for Qa'ra, so it's fair to say that no one is likely to claim the affiliation, whatever I call it. However, Qa'ra does appear in a moderate amount of fan fiction (and I think was in a war or so). The name, of course, references Seline's description of the man who "cured" Divia.

Since we never saw Qa'ra, I could hardly incorporate a screen capture of him, as I do with most character-based factions. Indeed, we know very little about him. Although he is usually assumed to be Egyptian, the fact that Divia killed and entombed him there is really not evidence. (That Anne Rice associated her oldest vampires with that part of the world is definitely not evidence!)

Nevertheless, the Egyptian connection is really all I had to work with. So the dominant visual element is the background, which is cut from a screen capture of the tomb in "Ashes to Ashes". For Qa'ra himself, I recalled the effective way we were shown Divia's beheading. He is, in truth, a shadowy figure.




Confessors:

Father Rochefort is another character who appears in fan fiction without, or so it seems, gathering real followers. I suggested both the Priests and the Confessors as the name of his faction, but to no comment; and finally went eeny-meeny and picked one.

Again, the icon is dominated by the background: here, a picture of St. James's Cathedral, which was the location where they shot the church scenes in "For I Have Sinned". I used a gothic-style font for the lettering, since that is often associated with older religious institutions. And I googled up crosses: this particular one comes from a website selling jewellery suitable for men, which seems appropriate.




Irish Charms:

The progenitor of all the hunters in FK fan fic, Chief Inspector Liam O'Neal simply doesn't attract a lot of fannish interest himself. At any rate, I've tossed out the name "Irish Charms" a couple of times on list, and no one has said anything.

The obvious symbols for O'Neal have to be Irish—except that there's that hunter side of him. So, large and clear, I laid a crossbow over a shamrock.

The background actually comes from Bon's Fan Fiction Wasteland, which is Bonnie R.'s personal website. (She also has some faction sites.) It's a lovely blue interlacy thing—which I turned an equally lovely green.

A Celtic font was used for the title, and I added a tiny Celtic cross. This is not actually the same as the one O'Neal gave poor Bridget, nor the one he used on Miklos. However, it is very similar.




Les Pucelles:

We had several suggestions for a faction for Joan of Arc: Roger came up with the Messengers, Andrew suggested the Arcatypes, and I added the Arcs-en-Ciels. In the end, though, no one else cared enough to state a preference. I could have gone eeny-meeny again. However, I recalled that in Shakespeare, Joan is often referred to as "la Pucelle", in other words, "the Maid". Okay, I could have called the faction the "Maids of Orleans" (and supplied them with mop and broom?) but decided instead on "Les Pucelles".

Joan's prop cross is an obvious symbol for her. Unfortunately, we never had a truly clear view of it. In the end, I had to create the upright from the crossbar, repeated at a right angle, lengthened, and further tweaked. It was a real nuisance, actually; but I simply didn't feel I could omit it: Joan's cross not only appears in her own episode but also in "I Will Repay", and would come to the mind of any Forever Knight fan.

The signature running across the icon is Joan's. The real Joan's, I mean. (Wikipedia is so useful.)

The background actually comes from the climactic scene in "For I Have Sinned" rather than the flashback. However, it does show the flames from an attempted burning at the stake.




Triple Threat:

Ellen, Monica, and Jacqueline were on my list, and Roger promptly named her (their?) faction the "Triple Threats".

Sadly, we have no really good picture of "Monica"; and clear pictures of "Jacqueline" are all close-ups—so close that the top of her head is always cropped off, along with the back of her hair! I did try to fill in the missing bits; but I simply couldn't patch over that large an area. Furthermore, at icon size, she and Monica were hard to differentiate. Even when I picked a snarly Jacqueline, the teeth weren't clear enough.

Then it occurred to me to try a symbolic approach. I got the original masks from Comedy Tragedy Masks Graphics, a very specialized little graphics site indeed.




UnSerenes:

I offered three possible names for this faction (the others being the Serenities and the Cross-Dressers). Lack of interest...obvious.

Well, I rather like Serena, prickly though she is. (I like "Baby, Baby" a lot, actually.) So I picked "the UnSerenes" as the most appropriate name, and did them an icon. The CN Tower could hardly be left out: it's the one I've been using throughout these icons, but here it's been added to the Toronto cityscape from the CN Tower scene in "Baby, Baby". On the other side of the icon, I've got some welding going on.




Wizards:

We had two names put forward for a faction for Larry Merlin: Roger suggested "the Hackers" and Andrew suggested "the Sorcerers". For each, its virtues are obvious: his surname is Merlin (no more need be said!); and he creates new identities for vampires by hacking into computer systems. Indeed, I could not decide which name was better—until it occurred to me that the term "computer whiz" is darned close to "computer wiz(ard)". (We won't bring up Willow here, except to say that she incorporates that joke!)

So "the Wizards" it is: and the iconography is split between both notions. There is a computer, of course; but the screen shows a wizard's hat, and there is a magician's wand at the bottom of the icon. Bright lights and stars by the logo finish off the magic effect.