ehold your Dragonmaster's Dream Wench! For an all-too brief period, she was Denise Harris-Kester, the beautiful Phoenix, Arizona-born living image of Firiona Vie, immortal Princess of
EverQuest!
Firiona, for those of you not entirely aversed in EQ lore, is EverQuest's central character. She's a High Elven Paladin who has been sent by the goddess Tunare to restore hope to, and then maintain balance in, the worlds of Norrath. How, then, you ask, did Denise even wind up as the living Firiona? Well, it all started with a phone call from her mom. Denise was working in a retail shop somewhere in Phoenix, when Mrs. H called her up to ask if her daughter had done any modeling recently. When Denise asked why, her mom explained that there was a display box that she'd seen, advertising a new computer game called EverQuest. Now, Mrs. Harris had noticed that, on the cover of the box, the fictional Firiona looked exactly like her Denise!
"I wasn't sure that I belived her," Denise explains. "Mom has always been very proud of me. I started looking for the game anyway, but could never find it because it was still not yet released." So when Denise told her mother that the game had not yet come out, Mrs. Harris pointed her daughter toward the possibility of an EverQuest website --- and, as it turned out, the instinct of Denise's mom was right on target! "As soon as I logged on, suddenly the first thing I saw was this full screen shot of this elf girl with my face! I was so shocked that I started screaming and my roommates came running into the room. They were all just as surprised as I was. The weird thing was, it wasn't just the face; the body was uncannily similar as well. The legs were my length with similar muscle tone, the waist was long just like mine, and even the chest size was the same."
Well, Denise's mom suggested that she send her modeling portfolio to the folks at Sony so she could ask them about future modeling work. Next thing you know, Denise is on a plane bound for Denver, where she hoped to have some new shots taken for her portfolio. She did, alas, have to sacrifice her job, as the company for whom she worked wouldn't grant her the day off. So the pictures were taken, her portfolio was updated, and she sent the whole kaboodle to the Sony people. Some time later, they got back to her saying that they'd keep her portfolio on file in case something really came along. And you will note that this all took place before EverQuest was ever released to the general public!
Before long, Denise Harris was back on her feet, as a graphics coordinator for Precedence Entertainment, where her assignment is to develop graphic designs, logos and such for the magazine ads and packaging for Precedence's line of collectable card games. Among Precedence's titles: card game adaptations of the syndicated sci-fi series Babylon 5, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It was Lara in particular that would play a key role in Denise's ultimately assuming the role of Firiona Vie.
"At the time, I never heard back from Sony, and was enjoying my new job," Denise recalls. "Later that year, though, when we did GenCon, I attended dressed as Lara Croft. We were about to release the Tomb Raider CCG, and I had volunteered to dress up. Besides, I love dressing up. I always wear costumes to conventions and the Arizona Renaissance Festival."
Executives from Sony Online Entertainment and Verant Software were also attending GenCon to promote the coming of EverQuest. By now, Denise wasn't expecting to become Firiona, but she still wanted to find out how that Firiona painting looked so much like her. "I was thinking that maybe one of the photographers that I'd modelled for when I was in college must have sold his or her shots of me to some artist or something." Well, Denise went to the EQ booth and found veteran TSR artist Keith Parkinson, who had painted Firiona and all the cover illustrations for the original game and expansions. "I went over to the booth where Keith was, and I asked him: 'Where did you get my face?' At the time, remember, I was dressed as Lara Croft, brown hair in a braid, gun belt, green tank, shorts and boots --- very unlike the EverQuest painting." Denise removed her shades, introduced herself to Parkinson, and again asked the artist where he'd gotten her face. "He was shocked over how I actually looked like his painting. He explained to me that he'd crafted the original painting from three different references of women that he'd had."
"So, where ya from?" Parkinson asked Denise. "Phoenix," said she, causing Keith to smile and say that he lived about an hour or so from her, in Tucson. "He asked me would I like to model with him, and he took my card. I was familiar with his work, and I had long admired his talent. Wow! He actually wanted me to model for him!" Six months later, Parkinson called Denise to say that he'd been hired to do the cover painting for the first EverQuest expansion, The Ruins of Kunark. "I drove down to Keith's home/studio, where I had my first photo shoot for EverQuest. I did all the poses not just for Firiona herself, but practically all the female characters on the painting. It was a lotta fun, and I left the place with a signed copy of the original poster, as well as my own copy of his art book."
Eight months later, Keith called Denise again. This time, the cover painting was for EQ's second expansion, The Scars of Velious. "I gladly go, and each shoot goes even better than the last one, because Keith and I are always more comfortable with each other," Denise comments. Shortly after this, Keith made one more call to Denise, this time to ask if it was all right if the folks from Sony called her up. "Sony said they wanted a live-action model for the Scars of Velious release party in Vegas. I giggled over the irony of the situaion, and told Keith that Sony was indeed free to gimme a call!"
Jeff Butler, one of the original EQ Producers, then called Denise to make the formal request on behalf of Sony that she be the Firiona Vie model for the release party thing in Vegas. "I later learned that it had been Jeff who was the one at the booth that day at GenCon who pointed me to Keith. Talk about weird! Anyway, he wanted me to be the model at the show, and I agreed --- because that's what I had wanted to do in the first place!" Jeff soon put Denise in touch with Lisa Leyba, who was in charge of the costume arrangements and itinerary for the event.
"The costume reached me about a week before the show, but there was no staff that came with it," Denise explains. "I know that fans of EverQuest immediately associate the staff with the character of Firiona Vie --- and, being the costume buff that I am, I took it upon myself to handcraft the staff. The crystal was still setting while I was still on the plane ride to Vegas."
By this time, no one was really in the know about Firiona Vie. Her official backstory and origins had not yet been fully established. "A friend of mine actually owned a copy of EQ, and so I went and I watched him playing ---but that is totally different than playing the game yourself. I read every bit of history on Firiona Vie that I could get my hands on. And by the time the Vegas party was in full swing, I was as prepared as I could have hoped to be --- or so I thought."
The costume itself takes about 2 hours to put on from start to finish. "That includes taking a shower, drying my hair and putting it in a hair-fall, putting on the ears, putting in my blue colored contacts and extensive makeup. Then I have to get the boots on, and then the skirt, and then I finally wriggle into the cape top. Last comes the jewelry, and don't forget your magic staff as you run out the door. Whew!"
Denise did try to remain in character as Firiona Vie, but since many folks didn't really know the character, our heroine spent a good amount of her time telling her own story as well as Firiona's. Of course, the fans did ask her if, as a dedicated Mac user, she herself played EverQuest. "Well, how do you actually explain the differences with certain computers to somebody who literally lives, breathes, and sleeps EverQuest? Since those folks just didn't understand, I had to tell them that I didn't even have a computer capable of playing EQ. The fans were great, though. I announced the winners of the contests, and got to sign the T-shirts with both my name and Firiona's signature, which I came up with. The really best people, though, were all the Verant employees and the GMs. They brought me water when I needed it, and helped me sit down and relax whenever possible."
Several days before the Vegas party, Denise got one more call from Keith Parkinson. He had some really great news: Firiona Vie was to be featured on the cover of TV Guide! "He had to tell me three times before I was able to stop saying, 'You're kidding!'" Denise did a preliminary shoot in her full costume before she went to the release party, so that Keith could send his sketches to TV Guide executives. Once she'd returned from Vegas, the two collaborators completed the final shoot. "I was really excited about it, because this was gonna be national. Then again, the game itself is national too, but only the gamers get to see the box cover. Lots and lots more people see TV Guide! Now, I really have something to brag about at my high school reunion!"
The day the TV Guide issue was released, Denise hit the stores to pick up a few copies. But she discovered that, of the six special covers coinciding with that issue's cover story, focusing on online entertainment, she was unable to find the one with her face. She searched all over the neighborhood, and at last, just as she was about to order some copies directly from the TV Guide people, another rescuing call came from Denise's mother. "Thank goodness she was lucky enough to find eight copies!" she says. "I still have some of them in my apartment, and I've since had one of those covers framed and placed on top of my entertainment center."
Well, Denise went on to become a regular fixture at all EverQuest FanFaire Celebrations, and for a few years made special appearances at E3, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, where, in the first year that she attended, she had to remain in costume and in character for the entire three days of E3! And, as your Dragonmaster implied at the outset, she even found time to get married, too! And even though Denise Harris-Kester no longer officially wears Firiona's costume, fans of EverQuest continue to tell tales of the several EQ FanFaire parties wherein she took part --- giving lucky EverQuest fans across the cosmos (meself especially) plenty to dream about! Such memories were in particular vogue in June 2003, when the Las Vegas Hilton Resort hosted the inaugural Sony Online Entertainment FanFaire! And needless to say, Firiona and her EverQuest friends were amongst those oddly-dressed characters who attended the ceremonies!
O Firiona! How can I say to ye in mere words how many times I have dreamed to spend at least one night in thy comforting presence! Well, though I am (for now) resigned to the fact that such a day may never come, methinks I'll just have to settle for sharing thy beauty with the Planet in general, by means of these two pictures, shown above and below, of ye and thy closest friends!
