Die-Hards
| Forever Knight Faction | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Die-Hards |
| Abbreviation: | DH |
| Date(s): | 1994 - present |
| Leaders: | Don Fasig |
| Founder: | |
| Type: | participates in Forever Knight Wars |
| Focus: | none/any (refuse to pick) |
| Wars: | 1-15 |
| Community: | |
| URL: |  Faction icon for the Die-Hards, created by Greer Watson in 2012. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Die-Hards are fans of Forever Knight who wish to participate in Forever Knight Wars, but do not or will not choose a character- or relationship-based affiliation to play with. They are generally considered to be one of the original six factions that took part in War One, though they did not actually take the name "Die-Hard" until War Two.
Forever Knight fans are well aware of the irony of having a faction for people who do not join factions.
The Die-Hards consider themselves to be neutral in war; and, although this does not preclude attack, their headquarters is provided with impregnable defences. It can be used as a refuge by members of other factions seeking a temporary retreat from war activities. The neutrality of the faction was laid out in its constitution, which, at the beginning of War Two, they distributed to all and sundry in the form of a hundred-page "leaflet".
At the height of FK fandom, when wars involved large numbers of players, people were required to join a faction in order to take part. Apart from acting as a faction in their own right, therefore, the Die-Hards also provide a nominal affiliation for people who really prefer to remain unaffiliated. In addition, they provide an umbrella for members of small factions that are unable to field a sufficient number of players for a quorum.
Faction Symbol
When Susan M. Garrett and Calliope Monsoon created affiliation pins for fans attending Dead of Winter Con in January 1995, their designs included a pin for the Die-Hards. To symbolize the non-affliation affiliation, they simply used the logo for the television series itself.
Early Faction Headquarters
In War One, the retroactively-identified Die-Hards had simply been unaffiliated players. However, by War Two, they had thoroughly organized themselves and wrote a coherent story arc. Among other things, this required them to provide their faction with a headquarters in Toronto, where the war was set. Since they had no affiliation with any of the characters in the series, they had to invent an HQ for themselves.
For this, they used the deceptively dilapidated St. George Residence as their fictional headquarters. This was located near the University of Toronto. As Die-Hard HQ, it was turned into a heavily defended sanctuary, with aerial defences against flying vampires. The HQ was designated neutral territory for anyone wishing to retreat temporarily from the War.
New HQ and Prop Museum
In War Seven, a new faction headquarters made its debut. This was the location of the (real-world) former film studios on Garamond Court that had been used to produce the Forever Knight series. As the war was held shortly after the series concluded, filming had ended in reality as well as in the Toronto of the Wars. The studio was (fictionally) purchased just after the cancellation of the show "with the intent of setting up a Forever Knight museum and memorial"[1] but was turned into the faction's headquarters when War Seven began.
The site was taken over intact, including the security gate (at that time with an armed guard named George).
With the Paragon surveillance equipment still in place, and a few modifications (like the laser defense system, always moved from one HQ to the next) added to the place, the former Paragon studio was the perfect place for the Die-Hards, a group dedicated to the show as a whole.-- War 7 post: "The Die-Hards Arrive"
All Die-Hards have identification key-cards, which unlock the various buildings and rooms. Furthermore, at least at first, all members were known by sight to the guards.
With the studios themselves repurposed as a headquarters, the Forever Knight Props Museum was set up next door. It ostensibly contains most, though not all, of the props that were used in the series. (It should be noted that, since Wars take place in the Toronto of Forever Knight, the characters are "real". This means that the "actual" objects remain in the possession of the characters. Only the props are in the museum.)
This brought them to the large hall where the Prop Museum stored its collection of costumes from the show. Not, you understand, the actual clothes owned and worn by people like Nick, LaCroix, and Natalie themselves: rather, these were the copies that had been worn by the actors when the television series was filmed.At the entrancing sight, Libratsie became far too excited for Don to keep under control. She danced out of reach, along the main aisle, darting down to look at each row of racks, fingering the clothes, and occasionally taking a hanger off and holding the garment up to look at it properly.
After his first start of annoyance, Don realized that she wasn’t trying to do any harm to the costumes. She was simply behaving as any fan would. Smiling indulgently, he followed behind her, keeping an eye out, but letting her wander as she willed.
“Oooh-er,” she said, holding up a replica of Nick’s leather jacket. She looked it over carefully, discovering the holes that had been carefully punched in to simulate bullet holes, and stuck her fingers through. She waggled them.
“Tha’ must’ve ’urt,” she observed. -- War 14 post: "In the Die-Hard Prop Museum"
In War 13, the museum was elaborated with a large library:
Shelves upon shelves of chronicles and records, available to any History Buff in search of authentic detail for a flashback: ancient Rome for Diviants; medieval France for Brabantines; the Spanish colonies for Vaqueras. A section of recipe books for FoDs (alas, so seldom borrowed nowadays). Books about forensic analysis for NatPackers; and, for the writers in the Nick and NatPack, all manner of scientific papers on medical discoveries that might—in theory, though not in practice—make some plausible sounding research for a cure.A whole section was filled with books about vampires, real and fictional.
Don turned down a dark aisle lined with books bound in black leather or faded purple silk, and cautiously took one of them off a shelf. “Of course, most of the time, the only supernatural characters in the television series were the vampires themselves,” he told Chanda; “but we both know the episodes where that wasn’t true. This section holds our collection on the paranormal.” -- War 13 post: "Socks and Locks (Part Two)"
Feliks Twist
Financing the headquarters (and the later museum) is no problem, since (according to "The Die-Hards Arrive") the faction has a most able financial advisor in Feliks Twist, a guest character who appeared in the episode "Blood Money".
[...] with the help of Feliks Twist in managing the money left form the last war, the Die-Hard war chest was comfortably full. There was more than enough money to cover setting up and running the HQ for the war, paying for plane tickets to get all the Die-Hards to and from Toronto and to cover all the sundry expenses they would incur while here.-- War 7 post: "The Die-Hards Arrive"
The Die-Hard connection with Feliks has continued up to the present.
Faction Icon
In 2012, Greer Watson created a series of icons to represent the various factions. For the Die-Hards' icon she repurposed a symbol that she had previously used on her own website, where (as a Die-Hard herself) she had put her posts in War 13.
This symbol composits the United Nations logo (a pale blue globe, with white olive branches on either side) with the logo for the Forever Knight television series. The latter—the original Die-Hard symbol—replaces the stylized map of the world in the UN logo. The design references the traditional neutrality of the Die-Hards.