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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.
Aleph | Shin Megami Tensei II | Reserved
Player: Mini
Contact:
Age: 22
Current Characters: Vinegar Doppio
Character: Aleph
Age: Probably around six months? Appears early twenties.
OC Type: Blank Protagonist - Shin Megami Tensei II.
Point Taken: Post-Chaos Ending.
World Building: Wiki link! Essentially: the world outside the Tokyo Millennium sucks and is full of demons, the Tokyo Millennium is a theocratic police state, demon summoning is one of the best ways to be able to protect yourself assuming you don't die really early on, life sucks all around, and also God hates everyone.
Backstory: This is way too much detail but it's the wiki I've got. It ends before the route split, so here's what happens in the Chaos route:
Aleph agrees to fight with Lucifer, and together they storm Eden and kill Satan and YHVH. Before they fight with YHVH, He curses Aleph and Hiroko and their bloodlines to constantly reincarnate into torturous lives in worlds about to be destroyed with no chance of saving them. Then they kick His ass and start rebuilding from the ruins of the Tokyo Millennium.
Personality: Aleph is the Messiah for more reasons than just being assigned the label or beating another Messiah for the right to use the term. Aleph is the Messiah because he helps people. Whenever people are in need, he barely needs to be told to go off and fix things for them. He doesn't get a lot of reward for this, and he doesn't need to. It's just the right thing to do. If you asked him why you'd probably get a confused look from him and probably a short sentence like, "It just is."
Aleph gets used to helping people largely because people are always coming to him for help. It scarcely takes a moment after he's in Valhalla before Hiroko asks him to accompany her to Madam's mansion, and after Aleph is revealed to be the Messiah, he gets all kinds of orders. Aleph never complains about this - he's in no position to. When Lucifer himself is making requests of you, you know you're in a position where your assistance is crucial.
Aleph does not talk much, in a way. In another way he does. He's constantly in bars chatting people up to hear the plot advancements, but his dialogue options are limited to 'yes' and 'no' and the subject rarely turns to him. What really happens here is that Aleph doesn't talk much about himself. He's the kind of person that other people feel comfortable talking to and open up to, but he keeps his own participation in the conversation to a minimum.
He's very hard to faze and willing to accept what's going on. When a strange old man gives him the power to control demons, the first thing he does is... start contracting with and controlling demons. If he is the Messiah, then he's going to do his duties; if he's fighting God, then he's going to fight God and not be afraid. Mysterious man turns out to be Lucifer? All right, what does Lucifer want to say to him? It is very hard to really come up with something that Aleph can't handle.
Aleph is willing to make a stand and make his decision when it's necessary. When he knows that siding with Lucifer will mean going against Satan and God, two incredibly powerful beings, he chooses this and does not hesitate later or try to run away. He's made his choice, and he's going to carry it out through to the end. Even in the very beginning: Aleph was taken in by Okamoto while being attacked by demons, and taken under his wing as a gladiator. At that point in time, he was already fighting for his life - the virtual battlers might have been fake, but the tournaments were real, and to the death. Aleph learned very quickly that he could not hesitate if he wanted to survive.
Though it's hard to find time to unwind in a post-apocalyptic canon like his, Aleph does show signs of cutting loose occasionally. He enjoys spending time in discos, even when it's not really helpful to his quest, and is a fantastic dancer to the point where it's his best method of impressing demons. No one can be all serious savior of humanity all the time, and Aleph knows when and how to destress.
From Aleph's lone speaking appearance in the Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse DLC (which didn't happen to this Aleph), it's immediately obvious that Aleph gets concerned about other people easily. Even in the weird situation that the protagonists have been put in and with his tiny amount of lines, he shows sympathy and concern for the others multiple times. He's polite, but frank and to the point when it comes to telling people that there's no time for hesitation, that they have to fight for their lives.
Specifically Chaos-route Aleph notes: Aleph prizes individual freedom over safety and security. When given a choice between letting the citizens of Arcadia continue living brainwashed in a virtual paradise or destroying the whole virtual reality system (which would kill everyone hooked up to it), he felt that that was no way to live and chose the latter. He has strong anti-authority feelings - although he recognizes that there can be people in positions of power who don't abuse that position, he's never personally seen someone like that, and he'll automatically distrust people in charge.
Abilities: With the aid of an Arm Terminal, Aleph can summon and command demons. At his level of ability, very powerful demons will respond to his negotiations. The six he's bringing/intending to bring are all capable fighters in their own right - this is the team that brought down God, minus Hiroko (his mother) and Lucifer (the devil).
The demons in his party are: Mara, Beelzebub, Shiva, Anubis, Rangda, and Lilim.
He's a capable fighter with both a sword and a gun, although he favors a gun. He's also very good at dancing, so good that he can walk into a dance contest halfway through and still handily win. Totally an ability.
Alignment: Thras. It takes tremendous amounts of bravery to fight against God Himself and similar powerful foes, and it would be a lie to say there weren't times when Aleph was terrified, but he overcame those moments to kick enormous amounts of ass.
Other: Just the thing under questions!
Sample:
Manty, huh? I probably should have realized.
["Manty" is small for a manticore, but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous - Aleph has gone up against too many tiny demons to think otherwise even for a second. He's unarmed, and he's slow to approach, trying not to spook that child's pet.]
C'mere, Manty... I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to take you back to your owner, okay?
[The moment he gets too close, Manty lunges at him, sinking its teeth into Aleph's arm. Aleph hisses in pain, but grabs the creature by the nape of its neck and pulls it off of him.]
Or we can do this the hard way, I guess.
[No matter how much the creature struggles, it can't get out of Aleph's grip. Satisfied that the target has been successfully caught, Aleph starts back for the city.
Manty's owner will be so happy to see it again. The payment's not the important part: seeing someone smile when they'd been in tears before is. Pride in a job well done fills Aleph, and flowers surround him as he walks, blooming up from the ground near his feet. He tries not to step on any as he walks.]
At least they aren't breaking through the road this time...
[It doesn't put a damper on his good mood, and the flowers continue to grow.]
(I also have a test drive thread.)
Questions: Demons are intelligent and capable of speech, but they're closer to Pokemon than appable characters, contained in an Arm Terminal and typically used only for battle. Would Aleph be able to bring his demons in with him?
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.
It's possible to bring demons, but the limit is five.
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
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