There is a vague reference in one of the Brian Daley Han Solo novels, I think 'Han Solo and the Lost Legacy', where Han remarks that nobody ever matched Gallandro's kill tally when he was "flying a fighter for Marso's Demons."
And he was the only person to ever force the Assassins' Guild to default on a contract. When I first read that book, I was a little too young to realize what that meant. Later, I was impressed. Gallandro was quite a character. (And Han Solo was foolish enough to insult him.)
Silvercrest is the surname of a whole family line of adventurers in my Dungeons & Dragons canon.
- The first character, who was just called Lithe, found a magical artifact in 1984 that permanently turned his hair white. The character renamed himself "Lithe Silvercrest". Sounded classier than "Lithe White-top", which is all it really means.
- In 1987 I decided this effect was hereditary, except that Lithe's son Tron Silvercrest had brown hair with a natural white streak ... my intent was more like Rogue from the X-Men, but the unfortunate way I depicted the character made him look like a skunk. It didn't help that he had a mullet. To be fair, a lot of the time Rogue was depicted that way too.
- Lithe's other son Lithe II (1992), Tron's son Jericho Silvercrest (2000), and Lithe II's son Mark Silvercrest (2009) were all depicted similarly, but I emphasized harder that this was a thin streak or single white lock, not some sort of stripe. Unfortunately by then I'm afraid the whole "skunk" thing had taken root among the other gamers. It just became a running gag, regardless of what I said.
- In 2016, I introduced Jericho's daughter Kalen Silvercrest and handled it a little differently — she had brown hair with tips that were permanently frosted white. I specified that any time she cut her hair, regardless of the length, the last inch or two would spontaneously turn white shortly afterward. This fascinated some of the gamers.
- Finally, in 2017, I introduced Keith Silvercrest, who lived about 100 years after the others. Here, I went back to basics. Keith's hair was pure white again.
Seeing as how this was kind of an obsession with me, it stands to reason that I'd take
Silvercrest as a username here. Also when I (rarely) need a username on other sites. If it's taken, I go with
Silvercrest1.
I must admit that my own hair has also gone that way over the years ... except I'm more "Grey-crest". (I'm also told that "Silvercrest Feria <something>" may have been an actual hair dye. Maybe I should try it.)
The more prosaic reason for the username, though, was that in 2003 I wanted to be identifiable if I could ever get any of my gamers to join up here. Something I didn't succeed in doing ... with one exception. I'll let
Mrs. Silvercrest take it from here. (She did me the courtesy of waiting to post my explanation first.)
