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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.
4/4!
Her inherent gentleness is, of course, at odds with the viciousness of all death knights, and she has developed something of a twisted moral code to reconcile this. Enemies that have willingly stepped onto the battlefield are to be defeated (though she prefers honorable combat, if possible), and certain individuals may give up their rights to a fair fight or kind death via their negative actions. For example, she views those Grimtotem that did not repent for their failed coup as fair targets, and would have no moral quandaries in killing them en masse. And, though she may not admit it, she would enjoy doing so – being a death knight means that she must regularly inflict pain on other sentient beings, lest she become “frenzied” and lose her self-control. She can also be very protective of her friends and family, sometimes to excess – those who have slighted her loved ones may very well be irredeemable in her eyes (though not always enough for her to hunt them down – sometimes just enough for her to passive-aggressively inconvenience them as much as she possibly can).
While she can be savage when enraged or facing a “fair target”, she does believe in giving others the benefit of the doubt and in second chances. Both of these are in part due to her time in the Scourge - in undeath, she saw that all races and factions were equal, and that their differences did not matter when it came to the Scourge attacks. And, as she was given a second chance herself after returning to the Horde, she feels that she cannot rightly deny others the same chance. This is not a policy she manages to uphold all the time (see 'people who have slighted her loved ones'), but she tries to keep it in mind as much as possible.
In the battlefield, she is often at the front of the group, facing the enemy head-on; but she actually prefers not to be a leader. Instead, she is content to follow orders, helping her friends and comrades as she can; this is part of what makes her such a good soldier. Such passivity, however, has a negative side as well, making her slow to act and sometimes ending up with her participating in plans that she might not completely agree with. She does have ideals, though, and will stand up for them if pushed far enough (as has recently happened with Garrosh's escalating war efforts).
She makes friends easily and enjoys being around people, but tends not to talk overmuch or be the center of attention. Instead, she is content to be a sort of self-appointed wallflower, a supporter of and fan for her more flamboyant friends (such as Duibhin). Those very close to her will get her thoughts and feelings, but it takes a while to achieve such a relationship – not because she is distrustful, but simply because she keeps everything inside.
Since childhood, she has been easygoing and calm, and it generally takes quite a lot to ruffle her. She is confident (though not a braggart, as would be unbecoming of a properly-raised tauren) in many aspects of herself; one of the few areas in which she is insecure is attraction and romance. She's happy to flirt (especially with cute older men) and is not embarrassed by revealing
bikini battle armorclothing, but she fears that no one would actually be seriously interested – not after understanding the crimes she has committed as a death knight, or knowing that her body is held together by unholy magic. She continues to wish for a relationship, and then to fret and despair at the thought of such a thing ever happening.She has a good sense of humor, and a bit of a mischievous streak to boot. It's unusual for her to actually play a prank, but good-natured teasing is common, especially when it gets a cute reaction.
Abilities: In-game, Thereth is a unholy/blood death knight. Unholy is used for dealing damage, while blood strengthens and protects. Abilities of note include:
- short-term desecration of the ground around her
- the infliction of a variety of diseases
- turning water into ice for walking on
- an unholy grab that brings an enemy closer
- a few abilities that stun/slow/silence for a brief period
- defensive abilities including a shield of bone, the ability to turn her blood into ice, and an anti-magic shell (these presumably help her, as an undead, to withstand injuries that might otherwise incapacitate her)
- a party-wide buff that increases attack power
- short-term summoning of a gargoyle and/or a bunch of undead minions
In addition, with her unholy magic she can permanently summon a ghoul to assist her. Other than attacking and defending, the ghoul is connected to Thereth via a “Death Pact”; if she chooses, the ghoul can be sacrificed to restore health back to her.
As a death knight, she is less affected by the cold, and does not need to sleep (though she likes to doze). However, holy magic burns her, including holy healing spells (like cauturizing a wound). Animals often dislike her, knowing that she is an unnatural creature, with the exception being very unusual animals (such as her pet baby beholder demon).
(More about death knight powers here.)
Aside from her abilities as a death knight, Thereth is naturally extremely strong and tough. She is also very knowledgeable about herbs and plants (and wilderness survival in general), and a talented inscriptionist and artist. Though she has no healing magic, she is an experienced field medic.
Alignment: Elios (hate/love). Thereth's love for her family and friends is incredibly fierce, and for many of them she would freely sacrifice herself. Conversely, when she decides to hate someone, she does so with a cold vengeance, and there is not much they can do to redeem themselves.
Other: In Empatheias, I would like for her death knight thirst for pain to be neutralized/placed in stasis as per the Soul Gem rule. This will make for both positive and negative emotions! I'm fine with some (all?) of her unholy powers being neutralized as well, if necessary – just let me know.
Sample: test drive link!
Accepted!
• Reply to this comment with the journal you will be joining with.
• We do require you to keep a copy of your application and/or an information post in your journal for easy player reference. In doing so, you are free to use one of our Profile Codes.
• Comment to the Taken list.
• When your journal is added by the mod journal, comment to the Player Contact list.
• Join
• Introduce yourself in our Player Intro post and start playing!
Optional:
• Review the Game Info, Emotions, Amulet, and Island information pages.
• Make sure you understand how the Network works. Remember, Empatheias uses telepathy as communication!
• Feel free to make a "Message Box" type post for any private messages that could be sent via messenger bird.
In regards to having her thirst for pain neutralized, we are fine with it. However it wouldn't so much be because it falls under the Soul Gem rule and more of a situation where having such a mechanic may hinder character play and it is a mechanic that really only fits the canon and not the game. For instance, if the game were more of a war-type game, then it's likely we would have you keep the mechanic instead as there are adequate IC venues for her. Since there is not, neutralizing is acceptable to us.
There are some other alternatives, such as instead of involving physical pain, perhaps using emotions like either general negativity or her own negativity could be used. Or it could be significantly reduced so that beating up the discontented rabble or thug (of which the game does have a decent supply of) could be enough for her. Whichever way you think would be most workable and interesting for you!
The rest of her abilities are fine with the obvious stipulation that anything that would affect another player's character must have permission. NPCs are free game so no need to worry about that (except for potential in-game consequences depending on the situation).
If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to ask! Otherwise:
Please use the Character Introduction Log for your character intro. If you have any questions at any time, feel free to contact us! Have fun :D
Re: Accepted!
For her thirst for pain, I think the most interesting option is actually neutralization, since she's had it for so long and she'll freak out over succumbing accidentally for a while (and then she'll be super happy that it's gone :D ). I can definitely choose one of the other options if you would prefer though!