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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.
Syrlya/The Commander | Guild Wars 2 OC
Personality: They say that the Dream grants its Hunts based on those that are most capable, and Syrlya has within him the nobility to carry the fate of the world. He is dutiful to his world, his people, and his friends, and he's taken up the sword to protect them from further harm.
But his reasons are a little more intimate than simply playing hero, and the gravity of Syrlya's heart is his broad and encompassing ability to love. He makes friends easily and trusts the best in people until proven otherwise. He is incredibly empathetic, the feeligns and stories of others move him and just about every person he gets to know becomes someone special to him. It's because of how much he loves his friends that he finds the resolve to continue to fight even in the face of great odds, or great pain.
His people believe in a list of tenants left by the centaur Ventari. They are much like the commandments and lead them to a life of doing good by themselves and others, to co-exist peacefully. Syrlya has taken them to heart, as most of his people have, but they are not so much rules for him, religious or otherwise, as much as they are guidelines. Syrlya does what his heart feels first and foremost, and if his duties go against his heart he feels great conflict. He is loyal, though, and considers betrayal to be one of the worst offenses--though he may argue, disagree, and try to encourage a different path he will never turn his back on his allies for any reason.
Being very empathetic comes with being very emotional as a whole for Syrlya. While his race are known for their purity in expressing their emotions, Syrlya feels with such intensity he has difficulty tempering them, whether it be anger, sadness, or joy. While age and experience has taught him to swallow certain emotions in certain situations, stronger feelings often become a bomb with a limited amount of time before he must express them explosively.
His strong emotions and his genuine and enthusiastic curiosity can make Syrlya appear childish, but he is in fact very aware and very wise for his age. Syrlya has been forced to experience a number of traumas, loss, and his destiny has carried him across the world to experience a number of different cultures and lives. Syrlya is aware of how tragic the world can be, but he's also seen it's beauty. He's seen how varied and special people are, and he gives everything for the sake of others.
And it's in that knowledge that Syrlya walks a fine line between hope and despair. Death has taken much from him and he has fought and suffered against beasts and war since he has awoken and the pain weighs on his heart. His greatest weakness is to give up on himself and his resolve, because when he loses hope he loses his will to do anything. He holds tightly to his friends, to good people and good memories to remind himself what he fights for and to keep himself going in the face of such tragedy.
Syrlya struggles with his trauma. Some might find the destiny of a hero to be desirable, envious, but Syrlya was given the task of great things very early on. He was only a few months when he joined the Vigil, and not even a year when was assigned to command the Pact and was at the heart of a war against a dragon. He's lost many loved ones over the years and seen a lot of horrific tragedies and destruction. It's created a lingering sadness in his heart, a weight that keeps reflecting everything he used to have an be before he was scarred.
He also has had little time to be just Syrlya, not Commander or Boss or Valiant, and he has a shallow sense of identity. He doesn't know what he would or could be outside of fighting dragons to protect the world. Worse, he has no idea this is an issue--his duties are so tightly wound into his person he doesn't realize that, without them, he has little else that is driving him forward, and little sense of autonomy. Syrlya believes in doing what his heart wants, but the moment a big shining Destiny is slapped onto a task he pursues it because he feels it is his obligation--even when it gets in the way of something else that is more pressing to him.
He does, however, still have his desire to learn strong in his heart. Books, new people, and new places are among his favorite experiences and he's known to get carried away with question after questions when faced with the unfamiliar. Despite his lifestyle choice to be a solider, Syrlya is very studious and clever-minded. Sometimes this curiosity causes his thoughts to wander and he'll find himself distracted from the original task at hand.
And despite his noble and honest demeanor, Syrlya did take the path of illusions and trickery for a reason--his sweetness comes with a bit of spice, and he's got a dry sense of humor and enjoys teasing and flustering his friends. He's pragmatic about his ideals and recognizes that rules come with exceptions, and sometimes it takes a little lying, trickery, and deceit to get the job done.
Abilities: Syrlya is Sylvari, a race of plant people that come with a number of abilities inherent to their biology, including the ability to sense the status of plants and manipulate them, change their appearance at will, and regenerate lost body parts (although this requires a long amount of time as their natural healing rate is the same as humans). Syrlya's skills in this are only moderate at best, but he can give plants minor influences to grow in particular ways.
His biology also makes him hardier against extreme temperatures (though it still affects him, it is less likely to kill or cause permanent harm without longer exposure or even stronger temperature), and the thick plant-matter muscle and wooden bones make him hard to break, requiring more force to pierce through it.
Syrlya is also a Mesmer, which is an illusion-based mage. However these skills require using chaos magic native to Tyria, so they likely won't be usable in empatheias.
On the non-magical side of things, Syrlya is also skilled in sword-fighting, both one-handed and dual-wielding.
Alignment: Peromei. Syrlya has had to claim faith against great loss and setbacks in his crusade against the dragons--he fights for his hope, but when it breaks his despair is his greatest weakness.
Other: SORRY I JUST REALIZED THIS SECTION DIDN'T COPY OVER Syr will only be bringing his clothes, a sword and a shield. No fancy dragon eggs will make it in transit.
Sample: Test Drive
Questions:
Revision
There's a little confusion regarding the character backstory we'd like to ask about! We noticed that you refer to events not mentioned in previous portions and the write-up doesn't include any of the Lost Shores events. However, we did see the abbreviated timeline at the bottom—which is perfectly fine for a storyline like Guild Wars 2! But it's because of it that we're a little confused about the timeline.
Is it correct to say/assume that Syrlya participated in all of the Living Story releases, including everything involved with Southsun? Or are there any parts that may have been excluded from his particular story? If so, we would like you to amend the character backstory portion just to clear this up and make the backstory flow a little more coherently. We don't need super detailed descriptions of the events. Just a sentence or two saying whether Syrlya was involved will be fine!
Also as a side note, we allow all kinds of magic to translate into Empatheias, including those that have canon specific "energies" or systems to work. So you can keep his mesmer abilities if you so desire.
Please submit your revisions as its own comment in reply to this one. You have one week to submit the revisions, otherwise we will consider it a revocation of your application. If you have any questions or concerns, ask away!
Re: Revision
Syrlya has been involved in all Living Story content related to the living story! The holiday events Gates of Madness, Wintersday, and Super Adventure Box aren't directly part of said story, but are instead yearly events (or, in the case of super adventure box, April Fool's one year) that happened to occur during the run of the first season. They are part of the world but Syrlya wasn't necessarily taking part in the game events that come yearly with the holiday.
But Syrlya has been involved in the Story Mode on the dungeons (once), Lost Shores (I listed it separately but I realize it is considered part of the first Living Story) Secret of Southsun, and the rest of the first living story! The paragraph backstory I wrote because I didn't want to leave the timeline with no actual context, but the timeline is a more concise reference for what Syrlya has been involved in (everything, he gets around).
Also, I'll probably still dampen Syrlya's Chronomancy/Mesmer magic so it's not ridiculous but I'll keep functionality if able!
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.
So long as everything is reasonable, it should be fine! Be sure to include a list or link to the wiki. (Offhand I can't think of anything that needs immediate nerfing—perhaps the Moa morph as that would require player permission if kept.)
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!