/tan/ - Board-tans

It was August 2014 when a relatively small scandal became the catalyst for what later would become the biggest known consumer revolt in the videogames industry: #GamerGate. Fighting against, among other things, agenda-driven virtue signalling "feminists" who never actually undertook any positive action against the problems they claimed to perceive in videogame culture, then-halfchan /v/ decided to stick it to them and teach them a lesson on how to be a proper feminist by funding a game designed by a woman and coded by an all-women studio. For their generous donations, half/v/ earned the right to design their own character which would be featured in the game. And so, /v/'s daughter Vivian James (a play on "vidya games") was born.

Vivian is a young caucasian woman, depicted in her late teens to early adulthood depending on the artist, with a large wild fiery red mane of hair held back by a black hairband (featuring either a clover pin or 8-shaped knotted green ribbon, depending on whether the artist draws "halfchan" Viv or "fullchan" Viv), a pale complexion heavily dotted with freckles reaching all the way down to her shoulders and chest, and an ever scowling face with tired green eyes featuring prominent dark bags underneath. She usually wears her trademark green-and-purple striped baggy sweater (which helps to hide the bit of chub on her belly) and simple blue jeans, but even when she (rarely) wears other clothes her dominant colours tend to be green and purple.

Above all else, Vivian is a gamer. Since childhood, it's been her primary hobby, and she's spent most of her life gitting gud at just about any genre, often pulling all-nighters out of sheer determination to beat a game. She adores videogames with a passion, and seeing the rampant corruption and attempted subversion that has wormed its way into its dedicated press and indie scene, on top of the AAA industry's casualisation, lowered standards and increased monetisation, has left her embittered over vidya's current state. To that end, she's dedicated herself to combating the further decline of the videogames hobby culture in all its aspects, acting as a media watchdog and organising protests against those who would seek to harm it further, be they reporters, developers, or academics. However, these are all just means to an end. She'd really like to just be done with it and return to playing videogames as soon as possible.

To the world, Vivian comes across as annoyed and tired, standoffish and with a dangerous temper if provoked. She never holds her words back, and will be quick to throw slurs at anyone bothering her. Despite that, she does have friends and family whose company she appreciates, if in small doses. Vivian has a high competitive streak, and will doggedly pursue her objective until victory is assured. She cares little for the world at large or how it sees her, and has poor grooming habits, resulting in her frizzled hair, lack of make-up and often reworn unwashed clothes.

Vivian has been the main board-tan for numerous #GamerGate-related boards on 8chan throughout the years, as well as the #GamerGate General threads on /v/. She even has her own fanboard /vivian/, dedicated entirely to her and her expanded cast.

One of the more succesful projects to come out of #GamerGate was Deepfreeze.it, a website dedicated to cataloguing and archiving all instances of ethical failures in the videogames press. Because of its close ties to 8chan (the site administrator frequents the #GG threads and discusses Deepfreeze's state), it was decided Deepfreeze should get a -tan of its own. A concept was proposed, but users couldn't agree over whether the hair should be blond or blue. Thus the character was split in two, who have since become distinct characters.

Freya, closest to what the original design was supposed to be, is a Russian woman of presumably Sakha origin (she was born in Yakutsk) with blue eyes and long blond hair. She always wears an ushanka (blue and adorned with a green infinity symbol, sometimes inside a red star, in older designs, white and adorned with a blue Deepfreeze diamond symbol in newer designs) with the ears tied up. Her clothing varies, but the most well-known outfit is a long blue winter overcoat under which she only wears a bikini, and blue winter boots.

Strangely, Freya's personality corresponds a lot with that of a stereotypical Slav. She's a heavy drinker with a great interest in firearms, cocky, and doesn't act very social toward people she doesn't know. Among her friends (who she also likes to tease) however, she's easily the most extrovert person. Excitable and passionate, she has a strong sense of ethics. It is said her passion burns so strong inside her she's become impervious to cold. She's not a very good strategist however, preferring to leave the planning to her sister while she works in the field and executes strategies. Freya may be attracted to women, but as most of her affections are aimed toward Erika (see below), it's not clear if she's genuine or just trolling.

Danielle, Freya's non-identical twin, has (somehow natural) blue hair that reaches down her back, and wears glasses with rectangular frames. She usually wears a green striped turtleneck sweater, a small necklace with the blue Deepfreeze diamond symbol, grey form-fitting pants, and regular brown snow boots. In contrast to her sister, Danielle has a much more "mature" figure, especially around the chest and hip areas, despite supposedly still being too young for that (the Deepfreeze twins' exact age is not known, but they're supposed to be somewhere in their twenties).

While the twins are formally equal partners in their joint venture, Danielle is definitely the brains behind the operation. She's the one who makes sure to archive everything, does all the background research ("digging") and formulates and coordinates operations when a games news outlet drops the ball on their ethical standards too egregiously. Whereas Freya prefers action, Danielle uses discipline and persistence over fervor, always looking for that smoking gun that will finally put her enemies in the ground. But although her methods are a lot more cold and calculating, in her private life she's much better with individual interaction than her sister. More composed, modest, and always nice and smiling, she's especially popular with younger kids, on whom she dotes like a mother would.

Vivian's creation and her being the face of the first time people unanimously rejected and took a stand against the social justice warrior doctrine unleashed an unspeakable amount of butthurt in the SJW. Since all their attempts to kill her through libel and insults failed, they tried the next best thing: they sought to appropriate her. One recolour and minor alterations later, the result was Lillian Woods (derived from "literally who", a phrase #GG supporters used to mock the press who kept propping up irrelevant figures to present as "victims" of #GamerGate's alleged "violence").

Being essentially a recolour, Lillian obviously looks a great deal like Vivian. Differences are her hair (blond instead of red-brownish), eyes (blue instead of green), hairpin (pink instead of green) and sweater (pink and white instead of green and purple). Lillian is also presented without bags under her eyes, smiling, and a bit slimmer than Vivian.

Lillian was supposed to be the "real gamer", who agreed ethics mattered but rejected the "misogyny" and "harassment" of which SJW falsely accused #GamerGate. Once #GG supporters however thorougly humiliated SJW by pointing out their "ideal gamer" not only adhered to every traditional notion of what a woman should be like, but also had nazi undertones, they were quick to discard and memory hole her. Nowadays she's only remembered by #GG supporters, who reworked her personality into a caricature of easily offended and outraged SJW and their hypocritical nature. She only shows up in OC anymore when someone needs a "tolerant progressive" straw(wo)man to easily get a quick laugh from.

Because of their similar looks, Vivian and Lillian are stated to be cousins, though the exact parentage is intentionally left vague.

When /v/ created a daughter figure, a whole lot of other online communities suddenly decided they wanted one too. Most were not succesful, but /pol/ managed to gain one, albeit not through the conventional path. Rather than designing a girl from scratch, /pol/ saw Lillian Woods get discarded by the SJW for her nazi undertones, and decided to run with it and bring them to the forefront. One adoption with vague re-education excuse, rename, and conservative make-over later, enter Erika Polina. (The board couldn't decide on which name to call her, so they went with both.)

As expected, Erika is essentially Lillian with a different outfit and haircut. Her blond hair is now combed flat, and braided into twin tails. In her hair she wears either a pink infinity symbol hairpin or, more commonly, one shaped like an Iron Cross. She's often also seen wearing glasses with an infinity symbol-shaped frame. She wears a collared longsleeved white shirt with two pockets in the front and a black patch (possibly another pocket) on her left upper arm sleeve, as well as a black tie, a long black skirt (with two side pockets) reaching past her knees, and simple open black shoes with white socks.

Erika has embraced /pol/'s deeply prejudiced beliefs and aims to be the perfect picture of what the nazis considered a woman should be. She's dutiful, composed, and works tirelessly to combat the onslaught of "degeneracy" plaguing our current society. Although she personally does not care for videogames, the high presence of people in the indie dev and press scene seeking to subvert the medium and turn it into a glorified soapbox for things like communism and enforced diversity under the guise of "progress" means her and Vivian's interests temporarily align. So despite the casual bigotry, Erika proves herself a valuable ally.

Although metahistorically speaking Erika was derived from Lillian, nowadays some people consider them separate characters. So try not to worry about any lore or continuity issues if they ever appear in OC together.

A relative newcomer to the cast, Amane was created to represent Operation Torrential Downpour, a fan effort to raise awareness of, and combat, bad translations and censorship of Japanese games under the excuse of "localisation".

Amane's a Japanese woman with long black hair, partially flowing in two sidebangs, partially tied up in a ponytail with a hairclip whose both ends are shaped like stylised water drops. She wears make-up around her eyes and on her lips, vaguely reminiscent of that of geisha and maiko. Amane dresses in various kimono with lavish colours and/or designs, which always leave her shoulders bare and provide plenty of cleavage, and are kept closed by an obi decorated with an obidome in the form of the 8chan infinity symbol. On her feet she wears simple geta with white tabi underneath. Despite already being an adult, Amane is very short. Luckily her ample bosom prevents her from being mistaken for a child.

A college graduate and a polyglot, Amane has a special interest in accurate translations. She'll loudly campaign against those who deface foreign works by rewriting scripts and dialogues according to their whims, inserting memes or topical jokes that are sure to date the work, or removing parts that clash with their personal sensibilities. Amane demands excellence of translations, as of everything else. She holds herself to this same standard by taking minute care of all aspects of her behaviour and appearance (this may however also stem from a complex as a result of her short height, making her feel like a child). For whatever reason, Amane seems to consider /v/-tan a suitable wedding partner, and would like Vivian's support in this by trying to convince her to call her "mother". Could be Amane's attracted to /v/-tan's dedication and stubborn refusal to lose against the SJW plaguing his hobby. Could be she's (nearing?) "Christmas Cake" status and anyone will do in her desperation.

Monkey see, monkey do. Like several other communities, Reddit saw /v/ having fun with their newly created daughter Vivian, and decided they wanted in on that. So they too donated some money to help women make games, and when prompted for an OC to cameo, set about to make Gilda Mars, a daughter of their own. However, as Reddit is more renowned for stealing content than actually creating it, results were underwhelming at best. Even the name G. Mars ("gamers", lol!) was but a pale imitation of the original. Gilda was quickly forgotten by Reddit, who decided they could just appropriate Vivian and piggyback of /v/'s efforts, and nowadays Gilda ironically only appears in the #GG threads on /v/ anymore, where a couple of diehard fans have declared it canon that /v/-tan adopted her because some random anon filled in an adoption form template once.

In her current design, Gilda looks like an underdeveloped caucasian girl somewhere in her teens, with amber eyes and long straight hair that varies between blue or purple depending on the artist. She always wears a white pom-pom hat with a bending antenna ending in an orange pom-pom (vaguely similar to an anglerfish's antenna), and both side ends also ending in respectively an orange and blue (referencing Reddit's up- and downvote system) pom-pom. Her neck is always protected by a yellow scarf. Gilda also wears a longsleeved blue sweater with yellow accents at the end of her sleeves and three big yellow buttons to keep it closed. Sometimes it fits just right and below it Gilda wears a black skirt, sometimes the sweater is so oversized there's no need for a skirt. Below that there's usually black pants or leggings, followed by simple blue rainboots with possible yellow higlights.

Gilda's defining characteristic would be her idiocy. Hopelessly naive, lost inside her own little world, and unable to tell real life life from Reddit where discussion can be won or lost with up- and downvotes (to which she ascribes value and prestige like regular people would to money), Gilda often barely ranks above an intellectually disabled person in terms of cognitive prowess (ironic, since Reddit originally intended her to be an academic counterpart to Vivian). Luckily for her, ignorance is bliss, and Gilda always has a cheerful smile on her face even as she takes the universe's punches (whether or not she's aware of it).

Despite /v/-tan's clear and blunt objections to her presence, Gilda likes to come over to 8chan and hang out with Vivian, who for the most part tolerates her. It's suggested her parents do not like her and mentally or physically abuse her, as an allegory to Reddit's #GamerGate board's rocky relationship with the site's head moderation.

Based on a Wondermark comic strip, SJW once tried to turn "sealioning" into a pejorative. However, "sealioning" refers to politely asking your opposition to back up their statements with reasonable arguments and viable sources, both of which are decidedly not the SJW's forte. Once #GG supporters figured out SJW's were essentially trying to push a narrative saying proof and logic should not be required in their rhetoric, they once again decided to have fun with it in their own way. They set up a fundraiser page on the WWF homepage and donated enough money to symbolically adopt a sealion. Ever since, a sealion has been considered Vivian's pet, although it enjoys more popularity on Reddit than it does on 8chan.

Isabeau Essex, also simply called Izzy or Ethics, is a run of the mill sealion. Whiskered snout, flippers, big blubber reserves, a fur that varies from brown to grey, big enough for Vivian to ride if she ever needs to get anywhere by sea (or land - she doesn't seem to mind the discomfort of Izzy's less than ideal movements on land). He's sometimes mistakenly depicted as a white seal, or of much smaller stature.

For an animal, he's remarkably intelligent. Not only does he perfectly understand human speech, he's capable of speech himself. But in spite of that, he's still a little dopey. To Freya, he's prime bully material. Izzy does not seem to have much interest in videogames or ethical standards himself, helping out where he can mostly because he knows it makes his owner happy. He enjoys lazing around with Vivian, keeping her company while she's gaming on her own.

The #GG cast is extensive, but many more characters were proposed who either failed or were gradually forgotten and made no comeback. Here are a few of the more well-known ones.

Archive-tan was in charge of archiving everything, a central tenet to #GG as their opponents are wont to delete or alter content that could provide them with ammo. She looked pretty much how you expect a sexy secretary or librarian to look, and had no established personality. These days Danielle has taken her job.

Baker-tan had close to nothing to do with #GG to begin with. She was only created because anons in the #GG general thread on /v/ kept asking who would "bake the next bread" (make the next thread) when a thread would hit 700 replies or page 13 in the catalogue. She looked like a regular baker with the 8chan infinity logo on her baker's hat. These days her job too has been relegated to Danielle.

Near the beginning of #GamerGate, known furry lolcow with an inflation fetish Andrew Dobson skimmed a couple of totally not biased articles on #GG and decided that made him an expert, so he made a comic criticising the consumer revolt and invented Occu-lass to make some point. She's a bubbly redheaded college grad wearing a GIR or Chuck hat and an open blue-and-orange striped sweater, with a navy blue shirt underneath. Because the comic implicitly admits she's dumb and smelly, she made a great opponent for Vivian in the early days. But as time went on, Lillian and Gilda became better suited for the role, and Occu-lass died an unnoticed death.

GGWiki-tan was/is a forced mascot for the #GamerGate wiki. Her design is still a work in progress, as it's far too cluttered to work, but she's a teen to represent that the wiki's still got a lot of growing to do. No real personality has been established besides her having high self-esteem. Unlike the other tans, her creation wasn't the result of a natural community effort, so coupled with the current disinterest in the wiki and the main artist's bad art skills, she never stood a chance to begin with.

Elly Tess James was made by Plebcomics to serve as an older sister to Vivian. She's an adult Caucasian woman with red hair (a slightly different shade from her sister) and green eyes. She wears a purple hoodie with a reverse green G as a #GamerGate logo on her left bosom, and black pants. Her defining trait is that she only plays games to win and is very (duh) elitist about it, whereas her sister (although still competitive) plays mainly for fun and is more laid back. But since /v/-tan pretty much already filled that role there was no need for Elly, and she never appeared outside of a few illustrations. In a previous life, she may or may not have been Connie Brooks, mascot of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.