Here's something that's, well, been done before: some character bios of the cast of Keys & Kingdoms: The Choices. Gathered all the resources I needed for it, so here's the credits for those:
Character art and western zodiac symbols by Nyxthedragon225; alignment icons and pride flags by Sadie Allen; eastern zodiac symbols by Casey Gosselin. Pictures of the cast taken from their most recent and flattering social media posts that I could find, I hope they're flattering enough! Their voices were recorded a good five years ago, I really need to get on finishing that teaser so we can finish that pilot.
Since I'm hoping to share this blog post with lots of new people: Keys & Kingdoms is a fantasy world and hopeful gaming setting I'm working on, combining Dungeons & Dragons-style high fantasy with the aesthetic and tone of a classic Disney fairytale musical... if such a combination of things was rated R for its language and nudity... and probably violence, haven't really decided, it's not as important to me, but yeah, probably the violence too. And The Choices is a plan for a pseudo-animated series to introduce people to that world.
So, let's see, I'll follow these images up with the bios I wrote for a similar presentation right at the end of 2021, then some personal comments.
Airi was hatched from an egg purchased on the black market in the seedy underbelly of Eirdale, a town in the isle kingdom of Sheafell. She has lived her life in the city walls as a street urchin and a crafty thief, mastering the use of her self-contradictory appearance as both innocent child and winged demon, a nocturnal hunter with prodigious strength. She has never met her own kind and knows nothing of gargoyle culture or biology; as such, she is unaware of the gargoyle aging process and believes herself a very petite twenty-year-old woman when physically she is half that age. Airi is loquacious and pragmatic, with a roguish code of honor but the unbalanced emotional state of a growing child. After years alone, she befriended Zaya shortly before the ranger took the initiative to start her mission, and helped to co-found the band of adventurers who now undertake Zaya's quest.
So, yeah, the elephant in the room is that Airi canonically identifies as asexual, unaware that she's actually prepubescent and will probably cease flying that flag as she gets older. So... pretty much the worst asexual representation ever. It just made sense to me that she'd identify that way for now, given her unique and fantastical circumstances. Certainly not meaning to say anything about people who are actually asexual, such as our former art director Stacy, who advised me to include some real ace representation in something soon to make up for it; definitely gonna do that, probably right here in The Choices.
And then there's the other elephant -- because concerns have been expressed since the inception of this world -- about the presence of a child character, one who indeed is chronologically older than she looks, in this R-rated, very sexual story. If you're getting the bad vibe that Airi will be sexualized, rest assured that you won't find that here. To my eye, whether she knows it or not, she's ten and that's all there is to it. You know, prestigious stories like Game of Thrones have child characters, they just generally have those characters steer clear of the story's heavy sexual stuff. And I'll work hard to do that as well. People worry, I get it. From me, you got nothing to worry about.
Aramie is my sister, sharing a family stage name with our mom, like Charlie Sheen. She's a longtime champion of art contests and debate clubs -- couldn't tell ya much beyond that, as she's currently a wild teen who stays out too late and doesn't return anybody's calls. Punkass kid. Long ago, she helped me determine the general vibes of these characters and their destinies, the personal way they'd interpret their RPG archetypes.
Emily was the final addition to the main cast, as the young singer originally set to sing for Airi had to drop out at the very last minute, leading me to call upon Emily, as quite a bit of time had passed since she dropped out of the role of Natha Lee, and I thought she might be able to come back. I met Emily where I met most of the TAPAS crew, in a 2015 stage production of Spamalot. We also worked together on She Loves Me in 2017 and she would seem to be best known for her award-winning performance in Oklahoma! in 2012.
Zaya is a neo-fairy, composed out of pure magical energy which coalesced in the wild forests of Sheafell, into an adult form with a mind full of knowledge of the stars, the trees, and the ways of the world. Styling herself a guardian of nature and a hunter of monsters in the wilderness outside of Eirdale, Zaya was haunted from the day of her birth by visions of a golden talisman in the shape of the sun. Learning of the talisman's existence in a lost ruin within the forest of her origin, she set out to find it and gain its powers of light and goodness, but was betrayed by the fiery priestess Jax who took it for herself. Returning to Eirdale, Zaya resolved to put a band of heroes together to retrieve the sun talisman and put an end to the schemes of Jax's god. Zaya is fierce and noble, motivated by doing the right thing while sometimes getting caught up in making sure she is seen doing so.
Heh, I had forgotten how the beginning of this bio kind of asserted a justification for the "born sexy yesterday" trope; a lot of fey beings in this setting are born as adults, but I wanted to establish that they're not born naïve. It's just kind of a whole thing I wanted to explore, being a semi-recurring element in D&D 4th Edition. Yeah, 4E used to be my game, what can I say.
Ziya is my other sister, she's been in college for what feels like a long time, learning botany and Japanese studies. My sisters are not seasoned performers, but they were sporting enough to drop by the studio during a visit and lay down their voices, though they both declined to do their own singing part. I'm sure they could have sung if they were really into it, but they weren't.
And so Stacy landed the role of Zaya's singing voice, and recorded her singing part remotely from her closet, rather than coming into the studio like everyone else. She was formerly the art director on these projects, but fell chronically ill several years ago, sadly requiring us to eventually soldier on without her, though we keep her in our hearts and minds and hope she gets the help and care she needs.
Stacky comes from the village of Stitwood, born to a single mother who raised her as a charlatan, engaging the populace in cons and scams. Dissatisfied with this life, Stacky travelled to Eirdale to attend the local university. She engrosses herself in lessons of history, legends, and magic, and spends her spare time engaging in music, revelry, gossip, odd jobs, and rampant promiscuity. Stacky was the first to answer Zaya's call for adventurers, and is the group's most valued asset; though a mediocre hand at combat and magic, Stacky always knows what to do, where to go, and who to seek out to fulfill the party's needs and desires, always with a spring in her step, a winning smile, and a generous supply of her wit, cleverness, and charm. Nearly every step of the journey starts and ends with Stacky in bed with some helpful and exciting new acquaintance.
Every member of the main cast is based on someone in my life, who chose what species and class they'd be in a game of Keys & Kingdoms. So Stacky, naturally, was based on Stacy. This includes the various pride flags the characters fly, taken directly from their real-life inspiration, though we've been in production so long that a number of people have changed what they identify as. Stacy, for example, now knows herself to be asexual, and, uh... well, that'd be way too big a change to make to Stacky at this point. I'm bad at this. Both Stacy and Allison are somewhat bewildered by the fact that Stacky is tall -- something they don't usually associate with themselves.
When Stacky's original voice actress dropped out, I was initially in despair. Where, I asked one of my co-producers, would I ever find someone else simultaneously funny, sexy, and nerdy enough to be Stacky? He said Allison's name with no hesitation, which was certainly intriguing. So I saw her in 2021's long-delayed performance of Chicago and signed her up, where she stepped right into the role with gusto and dedication. Her fittingness was only solidified later that same year when she was cast in Beauty and the Beast as one of Gaston's groupies, who served as Stacky's animated face claim. Allison also plays in a band called The Whatevers.
Cristela was born in a lonely jungle grove, within the borders of the southern empire of Itaxan. Though a neo-fairy like Zaya, she has retained the appearance of her birth, that of a typical human woman from Itaxan, rather than creating a new form as most fairies do. Cristela found herself intrigued by fey magic, and protected her grove for much of her early life before being inspired to set off, to find companions who would help her defend the natural order. Sailing to Sheafell, a land often associated with crossing over into the otherworldly Fey Domain, she took up a job as an artisan in Eirdale and joined Zaya's fellowship purely by chance. Cristela is quiet, offering up little information when she speaks and having no personal relationships with any of her colleagues, but remains by their side, sure they are destined for greatness and can open the path to the Fey Domain she craves.
When I decided to turn my market research into main characters for a story, the friend who chose a fairy druid had come out as a trans woman mere days earlier. Since she didn't have a personal style yet, I based Cristela's appearance on her girlfriend at the time. Now, under most circumstances I would have made Cristela trans as well, but this was prevented by the one possible thing that could have prevented it: she had been designated as a fairy, and if a fairy in this setting was trans, well, they'd probably just figure that out within a few minutes of being born and immediately shapeshift into the body they truly want. An appealing fantasy, but not a compelling story. So, from that was born the notion that Cristela stuck with the body she was born with, which is very against the norm for fairies, kind of making her, like... the extreme opposite of being trans. So, yeah, I'm telling a lot of stories about how this cast's diversity could be better, but it's pretty good... especially in the sense that nearly everyone I knew at that time was a woman, I like how that turned out and the main cast it gave us. With the benefit of years having passed, a character who actually is trans, and is more definitively based on Cristela's inspiration, is upcoming.
Jessie is one of the two cast members who was on board all the way from the early 2020 auditions to the late 2021 recording sessions. A stranger to me when she first auditioned, she completely nailed the tone of a character whose voice I had never been able to imagine before. It was awesome. She was just starting to dare to put herself out there; I soon realized I had previously seen her in her stage debut in 2018's Mamma Mia! and later saw her in 2022's Mame.
Maer hails from Mochalli, a coastal town of elven nobility in the empire of Akhmis. Lost among a multitude of siblings and cousins, Maer fled the empire at a young age and went to Sheafell to seek her own fortune. Her luck soon ran out, and Maer found herself homeless in the streets of Eirdale, but over the course of thirty years, eventually grew into the queen of the grimy back alleys of the city, the most notorious gang leader Eirdale had ever seen. Maer joined Zaya's fellowship on a whim, seeking a new sort of entertainment. She battles with underhanded tactics and a vicious blade, aided by the supernatural speed and stealth of her wood elf heritage. Maer is a vocal cynic who often comes into conflcit with Zaya's ideas and methods, and refuses to admit any respect or affection for any around her, but her suspicious mind and reflexive contrariness provide a surprisingly valuable asset to the team.
Mekia is the other cast member who's been around for the entire ride. I sought her out when I saw her looking very intense in a 2020 promo for Chicago, and she dove right in, submitting auditions for four characters and giving the best Maer. After Chicago was put on hold on account of the pandemic, she entered the realm of fantasy gaming again for a webcast performance of She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms. She's continued to rise as a superstar, especially in 2023 when she gave epic performances in Rent and in the title role of Peter Pan.
Natha Lee was raised in Namarion, a cavernous city of dark elves in Alfheim, the traditionally elven territory in the frozen northern nation of Athundoft. At a young age, Natha Lee manifested sorcery, the gift of magic inherent in the blood, though possessing little control of it, had a tendency for destruction and misfortune. As an adult, Natha Lee pursued the life of an academic scholar, but simply lacked the focus and smarts to excel. With no direction in life, Natha Lee emigrated to Sheafell and took up a job in Eirdale's library, before seeking out Zaya's adventuring party at the urgings of Kinzie. Accident-prone, often too shy to speak coherently and too anxiety-riddled to take risks, Natha Lee finds themself in the unprecedented position of being the target of tender affection from most of their fellow new adventurers.
So, yeah, despite appearances, Maer is a wood elf and Nat is a dark elf. In this setting, you can't judge by skin color. Actually, that's good advice anywhere. Let me head off another important thing: ain't no character in this series named "Natha". "Natha Lee" is her first name. You can call her "Nat", but never "Natha".
Nat's inspiration was of course my wife Naty. My spouse's longtime struggles with their gender expression, years spent trying to figure out what's really going on there, inspired the turn that Natha Lee is not struggling at all; while insecure about a lot of other stuff, they're a perfectly content she/they non-binary person, and so the only member of the core cast to be under the trans umbrella.
Hannah joined the cast late, when Emily originally dropped out, and gave a good commitment to getting the accent I wanted for the character -- Naty's Swedish accent inspired the idea that many elves throughout our fantasy multiverse sport the same accent. I first worked with Hannah on the aforementioned 2017 production of She Loves Me and more recently saw her in one of the leading roles in a 2025 production of Into the Woods.
Kinzie was born, in the young adult body she still bears today, in a burst of rainbow-colored mist in a pixie grove at the foot of Mount Olympus, the celestial mountain and home of the gods in the eastern nation of Magnae. Initially content with the pixies' life of frolicking and enjoying beauty, Kinzie was obsessed with the gods and serving them. Growing bitter at the discovery that pixies are stereotyped as flighty children, Kinzie sought to become a paladin, a holy crusader for Athena, and successfully bid for the chance to take that path under the tutelage of the knight Gregorio. The pair adventured together for some time, and were temporarily settling in Eirdale among paladins of Heimdall when Kinzie joined Zaya's adventure. Kinzie, influenced by her newfound knighthood, is an insufferable and condescending snob, but has a soft spot for Natha Lee due to the sorcerer reminding her of simple pixie life.
During the first round of auditions, the actress who I had originally had in mind for Kinzie auditioned for the role -- but in a very unexpected way, giving her a snooty English accent I hadn't anticipated, which influenced the direction of her characterization going forward. It's nice how that lingered even though that actress had to drop out.
Gretchen initially signed on as our production manager, helping coordinate the cast and some of the other steps we took at the time; I asked her at the first cast gathering if she could also take over the role of Kinzie. She struggled at first to find a connection to a character for whom she saw no redeeming qualities, so I gave her some of the hidden insight on the character that we'll learn later. I believe we also met on She Loves Me, and that she's best known for a terrifying turn in Sweeney Todd earlier that same year. She was also one of the stars of the first, and still only, big TAPAS project, the audio drama Better Yet?, released in 2021. Production on Keys & Kingdoms really crashed some time ago, but it's going to resume soon and I hope we get our production manager back -- eventually if not right away.
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