SYDNEY DIEM - INDEX
Quick reference for all Syd character documents.
WHO IS SYD?
Sydney Diem is the 13th Prophet of the Wandering Word — a fake prophet of a (mostly) fake god who uses the con to give voice to the voiceless, especially children. He’s a stout, a street orphan turned traveling performer, carrying a 200-year-old journal called The Phila-Veri that he treats as holy scripture. It’s actually a philavery — a collection of beautiful words, mangled proverbs, and invented vocabulary curated by 12 con artists before him. He doesn’t know the difference between the real words and the fake ones. He doesn’t care. The words have saved lives, so they might be real scripture after all.
THE FILES
Backstory — Syd’s full origin: orphan, the 12th Prophet, the gallows, the truth, the choice.
The Phila-Veri — The journal as holy text. What’s in it, why it matters, the central question of the character.
Sayings — The master list of mangled proverbs, organized by category, with a reference glossary of original sayings.
New Sayings Workshopped — Additions organized by zone. Restructured sayings, species-paired animal sayings, Zone 3 combat/social disruption entries.
Titles and Introductions — Syd’s ever-shifting self-titles and improvised party member introductions, with escalation examples.
Veri Wordplay — The Veri/Very double meaning and conversational wordplay.
Voice Modes — Quick-reference for how to play Syd at the table. Seven modes from calm advisory to panicking mangle.
Inspiration - Shawn Spencer — Primary inspiration. Fake psychic framework, elaborate introductions, humor mechanics, emotional core.
Inspiration - Moira Rose — Delivery system. Register shifting, conviction, the O’Hara/Foyle’s Philavery pipeline.
Inspiration - Wildfire and Bombast — Physicality and escalation. 19th century frontier bombast, invented words, the confidence/competence gap.
THE CONCEPTUAL STACK
The inspirations layer like this:
- Shawn Spencer = character engine (the con, the observation, the loyalty, the introductions)
- Moira Rose = delivery system (register shifting, conviction, grandeur)
- The Phila-Veri = the in-world holy text itself
- Nimrod Wildfire = physicality and escalation (bombast, coined words, the confident fool)
The Moira and Foyle inspirations are the same pipeline — O’Hara sourced Moira’s vocabulary from Foyle’s Philavery. The journal Syd carries is a philavery. When he drops obscure vocabulary, he’s quoting scripture from a book that’s really a curated collection of lovely words.
THE ZONES (for sayings)
- Zone 1: Usable wisdom — sounds like a real proverb, has a meaning you can point at a situation
- Zone 2: Dissolves on inspection — sounds wise in the moment, falls apart if you think about it
- Zone 3: Brain-breaking — self-contradicting or incoherent, for vicious mockery / dissonant whispers / social disruption
See Sayings for the master list, New Sayings Workshopped for zone-tagged additions.