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[ application: original characters ]
IMPORTANT! We are officially in endgame until August 31, 2020. Applications are on a rolling basis. There is a small "block" period from the 1st through the 4th of every month to allow a bulk of apps to be submitted, and then applications can be submitted at any time during the month. Notices will be sent out all at once after the first "block" period, and then between 24 hours to the end of the weekend depending on how many and our schedule. Applications are guaranteed to be processed during the weekends.
IMPORTANT: Only the following types of original characters are allowed to be applied for—
The following would not be allowed:
Before applying, please be sure to read the following:
We have compiled sample applications from our players to show what the mod team and the application moderators are looking for in terms of writing quality and depth. We hope you find these samples useful!
⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player:
Contact: Journal/Plurk/AIM — anything to help identify since someone might share your name handle.
Age: You must be at least 13 years old to apply.
Current Characters: If a new player, just put "N/A"
⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character:
Age:
OC Type: Indicate whether this OC is a Pure, MMO, or Blank Protagonist type of OC. If it is a Blank Protagonist, indicate the canon here.
Point Taken: A sense of time when the character is taken. More applicable to MMO and Blank Protagonist OCs.
World Building:This is separate from the character's personal history. This section is to provide us with information about the character's “canon” in general. We will have no idea what kind of world that the character is coming from, and this is the only place we can learn about it. We don't want an encyclopedia, but we will need to know important details about it so that we can understand the culture the character is coming from and how that will affect how they think and behave. What countries are important? What kind of geography or political climate? Are there any social conflicts that would impact the character or would influence how they view others? For MMO and Blank Protagonist OCs, linking us to wikis will suffice, but feel free to add more to it.
Backstory: While we don't need a play-by-play, what we would like to see includes how the character lived, what choices they've made and why, what events occurred that developed them, and other important facts that will help us understand the character. For MMO OCs: Most MMORPGs will have a set storyline that the player character has the opportunity to play through. Keep in mind that rather there being a singular "Great Hero," all MMO OCs are to be seen as a part of a large group of heroes if you choose to follow the main storyline. Also keep in mind that all MMO OCs will have to follow their game’s canon lore. For example: A character could not save the NPC that canonly died, nor could a mission fail if it is set to succeed. However, your character could have died and or had difficulty fulfilling the mission. It is also possible that your character had no part in the overall game's story and had their own adventures in the world instead. Finally, there can be no romantic or familial relationships with named NPCs.
Personality: We're looking for how they think, why they act the way they do, their strengths, their weaknesses, their thought processes, their opinions, their conflicts, what makes them feel the way they do, their significant traits. When writing your character, be careful! We want to avoid characters that are the super invincible almighty hero that can do no wrong. The one who can charm anyone with a smile, can easily trick and deceive, has the power to bend wills with ease. All characters have flaws—no one is perfect. But more importantly, such infallible characters are not interesting to play and interact with. In short, the character should be realistic, balanced, and well thought out. If we feel that your character does not meet this standard, then we may ask for a revision or reject if it cannot be changed.
Abilities: If there are any particular abilities the character has supernatural or otherwise, list them here. Referencing to a wiki list is acceptable if applicable. However, if there are any particular abilities that need to be weakened or removed, note them here.
Alignment: Please refer to the Alignment entry to choose which alignment your character would most likely fall under. Include a brief (a couple of sentences max) just to help explain why you think your choice is the best fit.
Other: Anything else you'd like to mention.
⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: We have two sample requirements.
General Sample: We should see examples of the character's dialogue as well as some introspection or additional narrative to further show how you intend to write the character. This is the most important part of the sample and where most of the weight will be.
Emotion Sample: This is our "game setting" requirement. Essentially we want to ensure that you have a basic grasp of the game's premise, especially with the use of emotions. It can be a small scene, even incidental to the main sample. A reminder that apathetic characters will also create effects, such as loss of color, surface distortion, holes forming. This section doesn't have to be lengthy, but the effect must be clear for us to see.
The emotion sample can be part of the general character sample. If so, please link directly or directly quote that portion so that it's easier for us to quickly find it.
The samples can be "written" in three different ways and you can choose which one will work best for you:
Format wise, you can use either [ brackets ] OR narrative prose. We do require that the writing at least be coherent, have proper sentence structure, and is mostly grammatically correct (we realize that writing styles can be loose/creative in [ bracket ] form so we're giving a bit more leeway). One last suggestion we have is try to have the character interacting with the environment and try thinking of the sample less of a narrative piece but more like a post or thread prompt you might make in the game. That will help the sample show not only how you will write the character, but also how you will play them in practice.
Questions: If you have any questions, ask them here.
Clean copy and paste form here:
IMPORTANT: Only the following types of original characters are allowed to be applied for—
- Pure OC. These are the typical kind of OC that everyone is familiar with. They are characters that are the player's own creation with their own world that is also of the player's design. There is zero relation to any pre-existing canon.
- MMO OC. MMOs, or Massively Multiplayer Online games, particularly those with a lot of roleplay and character build-up, have existing world building and lore that they have to follow. These characters are created by the player and can have their own story, but they have to follow the rules of the game lore. We consider "main hero" characters as those who are one of many in a great group that influenced the storyline, rather than the singular Great Hero character. This is to help multiple MMO OCs from the same game to have stories that mesh well together. In the sake of fairness to current FFXIV OC players and consistency with previous mod teams' decisions, we do not currently allow FFXIV Warriors of Light.
- Blank Slate Canon Protagonists. For our criteria, these types of characters are those which you control throughout the game and essentially make the player the main character. They may have a name and a couple of personality traits, but everything else is up to the player to interpret. Examples of these are most of the main characters from Dragon Age, Skyrim, Pokémon, etc. Important: Please note that this category ONLY pertains to the protagonists of canons. This does not allow side characters or other support NPCs as they have set stories and personalities. This section has nothing to do with how much headcanon is used and is only about the purpose and design of the protagonist character.
The following would not be allowed:
- Fanon/AU OCs. Characters that are based off pre-existing canons or an alternate version of the canon. We would not allow these OCs not because we are against them on principle, but it could cause unwanted confusion and complications with current existing casts. This type of OC would have needed to be allowed from the very beginning so players would know what they were getting into.
- Game Native OCs. Currently the game is not ready for such a type of character, as it would introduce other complications and worldbuilding that the interested player would have to be aware of. In addition, it would require more close connection with us the mods than we are currently ready for.
Before applying, please be sure to read the following:
- Read the Rules and the Game Information.
- RETURNING PLAYERS! You only need to submit any old application. Does not matter how long ago, as long as it was accepted and you have good standing (ie, not banned), it will be valid.
- Suggestion: Find some character sheets that have questions directly related to character building. These will help flesh out your application and give some guidelines as to how to write about your character.
- Feel free to use the most recent test drive both for practice as well as to use for samples. IMPORTANT! If you submit threads as samples, you must submit the application with that character journal. This is the only way we can ensure that the samples are from you and not someone else.
- Linked samples must have been made within the past year.
- You may apply for up to two characters per cycle.
- Do not plagiarize. If we find that the information provided was directly taken by either another player or some other source material, the application will be rejected immediately. If we find this after processing the application, we will revoke the application and have you removed from the game with potential ban.
- Reusing your own applications from other games is allowed. We only ask any original written samples to conform to our game. That is, we don't want to read samples that are set specifically for another game's premise. Note: this does not apply to threads linked from other games used as samples.
- If you are rejected, you cannot reapply for the same character for two weeks. However, you can apply for a different character in that same period.
- Those accepted must fill out all of the required entries within a week to be considered part of the game. Otherwise, we will consider it a revocation of the application.
- Fill out the form and comment to this entry! All applications must be posted directly to this entry; no linked-in applications allowed.
We have compiled sample applications from our players to show what the mod team and the application moderators are looking for in terms of writing quality and depth. We hope you find these samples useful!
- Sun Wukong (RWBY)
- Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
- Goro Akechi (Persona 5)
Player:
Contact: Journal/Plurk/AIM — anything to help identify since someone might share your name handle.
Age: You must be at least 13 years old to apply.
Current Characters: If a new player, just put "N/A"
Character:
Age:
OC Type: Indicate whether this OC is a Pure, MMO, or Blank Protagonist type of OC. If it is a Blank Protagonist, indicate the canon here.
Point Taken: A sense of time when the character is taken. More applicable to MMO and Blank Protagonist OCs.
World Building:This is separate from the character's personal history. This section is to provide us with information about the character's “canon” in general. We will have no idea what kind of world that the character is coming from, and this is the only place we can learn about it. We don't want an encyclopedia, but we will need to know important details about it so that we can understand the culture the character is coming from and how that will affect how they think and behave. What countries are important? What kind of geography or political climate? Are there any social conflicts that would impact the character or would influence how they view others? For MMO and Blank Protagonist OCs, linking us to wikis will suffice, but feel free to add more to it.
Backstory: While we don't need a play-by-play, what we would like to see includes how the character lived, what choices they've made and why, what events occurred that developed them, and other important facts that will help us understand the character. For MMO OCs: Most MMORPGs will have a set storyline that the player character has the opportunity to play through. Keep in mind that rather there being a singular "Great Hero," all MMO OCs are to be seen as a part of a large group of heroes if you choose to follow the main storyline. Also keep in mind that all MMO OCs will have to follow their game’s canon lore. For example: A character could not save the NPC that canonly died, nor could a mission fail if it is set to succeed. However, your character could have died and or had difficulty fulfilling the mission. It is also possible that your character had no part in the overall game's story and had their own adventures in the world instead. Finally, there can be no romantic or familial relationships with named NPCs.
Personality: We're looking for how they think, why they act the way they do, their strengths, their weaknesses, their thought processes, their opinions, their conflicts, what makes them feel the way they do, their significant traits. When writing your character, be careful! We want to avoid characters that are the super invincible almighty hero that can do no wrong. The one who can charm anyone with a smile, can easily trick and deceive, has the power to bend wills with ease. All characters have flaws—no one is perfect. But more importantly, such infallible characters are not interesting to play and interact with. In short, the character should be realistic, balanced, and well thought out. If we feel that your character does not meet this standard, then we may ask for a revision or reject if it cannot be changed.
Abilities: If there are any particular abilities the character has supernatural or otherwise, list them here. Referencing to a wiki list is acceptable if applicable. However, if there are any particular abilities that need to be weakened or removed, note them here.
Alignment: Please refer to the Alignment entry to choose which alignment your character would most likely fall under. Include a brief (a couple of sentences max) just to help explain why you think your choice is the best fit.
Other: Anything else you'd like to mention.
Sample: We have two sample requirements.
General Sample: We should see examples of the character's dialogue as well as some introspection or additional narrative to further show how you intend to write the character. This is the most important part of the sample and where most of the weight will be.
Emotion Sample: This is our "game setting" requirement. Essentially we want to ensure that you have a basic grasp of the game's premise, especially with the use of emotions. It can be a small scene, even incidental to the main sample. A reminder that apathetic characters will also create effects, such as loss of color, surface distortion, holes forming. This section doesn't have to be lengthy, but the effect must be clear for us to see.
The emotion sample can be part of the general character sample. If so, please link directly or directly quote that portion so that it's easier for us to quickly find it.
The samples can be "written" in three different ways and you can choose which one will work best for you:
- Test Drive. You can utilize our test drive to cover both requirements of the sample. So long as there is enough character portrayal and a scene with an emotional reaction, be it within the prompt or done during the thread, then it can be used for both.
- Link out + Written. You can link to threads/entries from other games, memes, or museboxes to show character portrayal, and then write an additional short scene for the emotion portion of the sample.
- Original Sample. You can write a complete sample that shows both character portrayal and a scene involving emotion use. This can be one sample or two separate samples. If you opt to write an original sample, you are welcome to use any prompts from any of our Test Drives, Intro Logs, Task Board, and even past events. You are also free to change things up and are not restricted to any of these prompts. They are just here to help offer ideas.
Format wise, you can use either [ brackets ] OR narrative prose. We do require that the writing at least be coherent, have proper sentence structure, and is mostly grammatically correct (we realize that writing styles can be loose/creative in [ bracket ] form so we're giving a bit more leeway). One last suggestion we have is try to have the character interacting with the environment and try thinking of the sample less of a narrative piece but more like a post or thread prompt you might make in the game. That will help the sample show not only how you will write the character, but also how you will play them in practice.
Questions: If you have any questions, ask them here.
no subject
Megumi's world is much like our own - the real world - up to a point. It followed world history for the most part of its existence, until the start of the 21st century. The divergence was catalyzed by a single event, occurring on the date that a significant part of the Western population believed to be the apocalypse - December 21st 2012.
Belief is power. And as a result, a great change happened upon that day. The scientists operating the Large Hadron Collider, managed to breach a critical energy threshold in their experimentations, detecting for the first time the fourth field of physics - the soul field. Of course, its true nature was not realized until a decade later, but that event marked the first manifestation of the soul field into reality, and thus the possibility of humanity harnessing its power.
We now divert a little to talk about the soul field. Much like the gravitational field or the electric field, it is a property possessed by matter - a form of energy, or pressure exerted by sentient beings. Consider it similar to the reiatsu - reiryuoku system from Bleach, except that soul charge is possessed by all living beings as a measure of their sentience. For example, plants would have very minimal amounts of it, and the soul charge per organism increases as one moves up the sentience ladder. This field usually exists separate from the field of reality - that is, it is undetectable and inaccessible by normal means, until the high energy collisions, combined with emotional tensions of the scientists, resulted in the field being 'shaken' so that it would come closer to the plane of reality. Imagine two sheets of cloth, now moved closer together, so that a finger poking into the top cloth would bring it into contact with the bottom one. Humanity as a whole now had enough poking ability to influence reality with their wills.
Of course, it wasn't so easy. While the news of the soul field becoming apparent did spread, true knowledge of its potential was restricted to secret research teams of various superpower countries labouring away in isolation. For the older generation, the only way they could induce any ripple in the soul field was to employ gargantuan particle accelerators that could intersect both reality and the soul field. However, as time passed, children with the innate ability to force their soul charge to interact with reality were born.
Most of them were discovered in their teens, for the formation of one's soul charge was tied very closely to one's identity. Those with the aptitude to bend their own soul charge to their wills usually had their abilities manifested along a certain theme, and their soul charge themselves took on a specific conformation and colour, termed a Sign - perceivable by those with Signs attuned to seeing others' soul fields, and later on by machines specifically engineered for this purpose. Sign users could force their soul field to intersect with the plane of reality, thus imposing changes upon the environment around them. For example, a Fire Sign user could manipulate flames, a Chlorophyll sign encourage plant growth. Essentially, this was a generation of superpowered children that were growing up - while only about one in a thousand were Sign users, they still constituted a very large part of the population, especially in crowded areas. Faced with a growing number of exceptional children whom they could not control completely, the heads of leading nations came together for a referendum. Together, each nation pledged to monitor their Sign children closely, and to share research reports about this newly-found power.
At the same time, creatures termed Negatives began to arise in cities and suburbs - dark, monstrous forms that lurked within the soul field and fed off humans' soul charges, rendering them apathetic and listless. First misdiagnosed as a 'depression outbreak', the true cause was discovered by a Sign user with an oracular ability - that parasites lurked within the soul field and were now able to prey upon innocents. Sign users were thus placed within a rather unique situation - as the only ones with control over their soul charges, they were logically pressed into dealing with the situation.
Negatives are rather similar to Sign users, in this sense. Each sentient being - let's say, a human - exists equal parts in the soul field and in reality. Imagine an object floating in a tub of water, air being the soul field and water being reality. Sign users are able to force their soul fields to manifest in reality - imagine the object being pushed down into the water, like so. Negatives are objects that usually exist in the soul field, but can reach down into reality to affect humans. In this way, Sign users are able to force themselves into the soul field dimensions where Negatives operate - pushing the object upwards into air - and thus eliminate them. These parasites often manifested in the shapes of people's greatest fears, and were concluded to be the result of the vices of residents coagulating into a sentient (albeit only slightly) entity. Battles between Negatives and Sign users thus often played out much like magical girl tropes - think Madoka Magica - where the users entered a twisted pocket dimension created by the Negative, much like a nest. By eliminating the Negative with their Sign abilities, the threat would be neutralized and the people live on in peace. As a result, government-sanctioned teams of Sign users were formed, each assigned to guard their resident area from Negative attacks.
This had a two-way effect: Sign users were legalized and thus required to register their abilities, often being conscripted into these peacekeeping teams while still in their schooling years. While they were given recognition for their efforts, sometimes even as heroes, it also meant that they were placed under strict watch - a sort of padded restraint, if anything. The governments intended to portray Sign users as useful members of society to restrict backlash from non-Sign users - as a result, each user was screened by talent and essentially forced into community service to 'prove' their worth and harmlessness to the rest of society. Sign users who did not cooperate were Gently Persuaded otherwise, and those whose Signs could be weaponized were offered places in the military. Thus, Sign users became an important, but watched part of every economy - those who by virtue of having 'more' than the common man was forced to give back more as well.
A few years down the road, as more knowledge was gained about the soul field, the fear that the general population had regarding their Special Children gradually dissipated. Even non-Sign users could tap into their soul charge after an interfacer was invented to bridge the gap and give every human a portable power source. Then, thirty years after the fateful day, the collective soul charge 'sea' of the human race's consciousness was first detected. Nations and companies rushed to capitalize on what was hailed as the true 'inexhaustible' fuel source, for the tenacity of the human spirit would never run out. (Or so it was believed.) The developed world was mostly weaned off fossil fuels, for interfacers provided convenience independent of the grid. Of course, black market trading in soul charge sapped off the dying and the poor still occurred, with promises of 'soul diamonds' providing unlimited energy - but for the most part, it was kept out of sight by those who enjoyed the technology on a daily basis.
It went without saying that the Sign users were definitely not pleased about this, but in their dispersed numbers during the early years nothing much could be done. However, during the 2040s, a series of events culminated in the meeting of several Sign users who could manipulate the very fabric of space itself. By combining their powers with that of many other Sign users, overseen by a user whose Sign granted her incredible computational power - the first stable pocket dimension was created. The thus named Eden became the keystone for a city that would grow inside it, becoming a haven for Sign users away from conscripted service by the nations they were born in. Senior Sign users offered lessons for the younger ones on how to best use their powers, and through that a steady stream of Signs began flooding into the city. Eden grew and grew, a city built by Sign users for Sign users, and accessible only by warp codes useable by Sign users - a city-state of its own.
The political fallout from this was immense. While some nations tried to restrict their Sign users from leaving at any cost, they were eventually thwarted by the founders of Eden themselves - a triumvirate of a Space user, a Warp user and a Radar user (known as The Three) meant that nothing escaped the communication reach of Eden itself. Faced with mass exodus and the development of Eden as a self-policing country, recognizing the legitimacy of it became a pressing issue. Eventually, Eden was acknowledged as its own state, and given a seat at the United Nations, and in return more information about the true nature of the soul field became available to the public. One gift from Eden to the rest of the world was a self-judgment system - the soul field of an individual did reflect their mental state, and a criminal's soul would be corrupted by the knowledge of their deeds. It was already known that twisted Sign users tended to implode under the weight of their own sins or diseased minds (so to speak) and turn into Negatives, it was only a single step further to induce similar transformations in mundane convicts. It was not a reputation that Eden welcomed, but it was necessary. Enough to hold the peace, to hold legitimacy. And life went on.
Of course, things weren't going to stay calm for long. As with every instrument that divides one man from another, conflict was sure to arise. Dissatisfaction grew on both ends, both with the disenchanted humans at their powerlessness and perceived receiving end of pity of the Sign users; and the Sign users themselves who did not wish to slave over what some perceived as an endlessly greedy and unappreciative leech on their talents. While governments could implement regulations, the sentiments of the people could not be controlled directly. Combine this with the abuse of Sign users by unscrupulous individuals in power, this created a simmering stew of negativity and hatred amongst humanity. This revealed a hitherto unknown aspect of the soul field in one of the most disastrous way possible. Fifty years after the prophesied coming of doomsday, it finally came.
The Soul Sea was, after all, a reflection of humanity's desires. When humanity wished for destruction, it would indeed birth destruction. This was why criminals tended to be 'judged' by their powers themselves - if they committed too many acts that went against the commonly held beliefs of humanity, the Sea would slowly corrupt their Sign from within, as was the wish of the people. And in the same way, as prejudices and hatred spread, the Sea too became poisoned. Combine this with decades of being drained off by energy-hungry humans, it had hit critical capacity. It turned out that the Sea was not unlimited, as previously believed. It operated on a give-and-take principle - for every bit of power siphoned out of it, it would require more sentience and though to be put in - a zero sum game.
The result was a widespread wave of apathy and hallucinations that struck all nations, as the Sea itself created its own Negative and unleashed it upon the world. Existing conflicts only intensified, as both sides of war zones pointed fingers and used it as an excuse to further their battles. While the triumvirate of Sign users governing Eden knew the truth behind the whole meltdown, they were powerless to do anything about the battles that waged outside their dimensional borders. All those that remained in the now-haven of Eden could do was turn their talents inwards and take up arms to vanquish the despair of humanity itself - named Niflhelm by those who could perceive it.
Many died during the crusade, giving their lives to pave a road to Niflhelm's lair and to take down the beast's many offshoots. This was when the true nature of Negatives became apparent - they were simply inversions of normal sentience, and the Sign users had vanquished them all along by bombarding them with enough soul energy to fill the 'hole' on their own. To neutralize all of humanity's grief thus required a disproportionate amount of sentient sacrifice - hundreds of Sign users did so, all in possibly vain hope of freeing many others from Niflhelm's hold over Earth. It was a long, long battle, requiring skilful strategic maneuvers and deployment of Sign users so that they could fill Niflhelm's void the best they can - but it was done. A journey painted with both the blood of users and the blood of war victims in the real world. With it, the Soul Sea was sealed away for good, and remaining Sign users moving out of Eden. The city was sustained by the combined Soul pressure of all its inhabitants, and with a good three-fourths of them gone, the pocket dimension simply wouldn't hold.
The year is now 2063. All that remained would be to repair the problems in the real world, for the flames of war wouldn't die so easily. Would it end for the better, or for the worse? That, too, was an unknown.