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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.
Kierella "Ki" Aita | original
Player: Malachy
Contact: Main DW:
Age: 23
Current Characters: N/A - also apping Kurapika
Character: Keirella Aita
Age: 20
OC Type: Pure
Point Taken: Right before killing her adopted father.
World Building:
Keirella comes from a world similar to Earth, yet set backward in time and involving streaks of fantasy. In particular, she knows only a set of large European-continents on this world. She was born in the county of Graoni, a kingdom which stretches the entire span of an oblong, thin continent close to the equator. The lands of this world are nearly Medieval in their level of cruelty, harshness, and violence, yet most countries have a technological advancement of about the Renaissance age: someone has to continue advancing weapon technology to keep up with all of the brutality!
no subject
It is also unclear whether Graoni's iron-fisted religion, which has spread to neighboring countries and continents as well, has either increased the temptation of sin because of its outrageous rules, or whether it has done nothing. For the past several centuries, Mautism has attempted to up the ante and strike fear into the hearts of its subjects, thereby alleviating the problem of sin. Yet, something is wrong. The Creation Story is too sad and ugly, the gods too uncaring and horrifying to look upon. If a wise man were to look closely, he would see that violence and lust and hardship and drunkenness are woven into the fabric of the world, seeped into its history, philosophy, and even, yes, its religion.
Mautism had its worship spaces: monstrous, towering, catacombed castles called simply Cathedrals. It had its Priests, and below them, Priestesses. A separate branch of the religion was for the Fair Six, a group of six dogmatic priest-judges who squeezed and shamed confessions out of anyone who dared oppose them. It had many laws, originally written and disseminated in black-and-white terms, but harder to apply in the Graoni reality of muddled gray. Only a select handful of laws could be applied instantly, with no allowances for deliberation or trial: for example, every ten years a Priest or Priestess must make an arduous pilgrimage across the sea to the First Chapter, an island where it is believed the gods revealed themselves--and their story--to humankind.
The gods--or rather, the goddess and her demi-gods--however, came to be the most haunting and terrifying part of Mautism.
The Creation Story starts as such: the goddess, Maute, was a woman made of blue light, revered as both mother and child of the world. For millennia she existed, caring for her children, who took the form of five blue-white stars in the sky. After some time, however, they began to die: they had no father, and thus no masculine essence to hold them aloft for long. When the first star dropped, Maute cried until her tears formed a world of water. After the second star dropped, she raked her hands through the ocean in anger, pulling up continents and mountains and other land forms. After the third, she tore out her hair in agony, and the fallen pieces merged into the earth, creating grasses and trees and vegetables. After the fourth, she screamed, and her voice gathered animals and all manner of creatures from deep underground. After the fifth, and final, child died, she sighed, reached into her breast, pulled away a piece of flesh from her heart, and scattered the bits and pieces over the entire land. The pieces of her heart contained a tiny amount of her soul. They took root and formed into humans, all of whom became her children in the stead of her fallen stars.
no subject
Each demi-god had a personality and power of its own that the people prayed for, but lord of them all was Maute, stony-faced and sad and frightening all at once. Inside the Cathedrals, a fountain runs down from the altar and through a grate down the exact center of the nave. The water is thick, almost gelatinous, and dyed a dark blue. Scornful, grave images of Maute adorn windows, walls, and crevices. Her eyes are almost always huge and staring directly at you, no matter where you look. Under her command, her demi-gods are a menagerie of strange, macabre beasts that demand equal exchange: you may pray to Ferya for seeds to sow, but you must burn a forest to receive her gift.
The people believe the gods of this world are real entities, but they are uncaring, distant creatures that are better not to see directly anyhow. Stories exist of saints being visited by Maute or one of the demi-gods and losing their face or their hands or their lives. These people achieved a kind of spiritual ascension into the arms of the Mother as a result, but they always lost something. Equal exchange. Their saintly images adorn the pages of the holy books and the smaller windows of the Cathedrals.
Other aspects of life in Graoni are a mixture between Medieval and Renaissance features: it is ruled by a monarch with a succession of king and queens. The last knights are the protectors of the royal family, while ordinary soldiers often consist of cavalry, pikemen, and mercenaries. There is, in fact, a large demand for mercenaries and other killers-for-hire--a system that the current leaders of Mautism have tried to stop but have been unable to so far.
Men more frequently learned trades rather than become scholars--unless, of course, you were part of a noble or wealthy family. Women, too, could become apprentices in a trade, though it was typically more expensive than their male counterparts, in order to deal with "the mental hardships of teaching a girl." If a family had opportunity through wealth or status, both boys and girls could learn to read and write.
The view of women in this world is misogynistic in the sense that society and religion both feel women--while able to become intelligent and strong beings--need to understand their place by a man's side. In the Creation Story, Maute lost her children and her own happiness because she had no man to keep her star-children lifted in the sky. She had no man to advise her or console her, hence the creation of this complex and cruel world. It was such a difficult world that she felt she had to share knowledge of the gods to her human subjects, so that they could call upon her when times were at their worst. The implication is that none of the Creation Story would have happened if a masculine god had cradled her from the beginning.
Overall, Graoni is a place that can make or break its subjects. The monarchy and the religion has attempted, time and again, to bring its sinners back under the haunting gaze of the goddess Maute, but the debauchery continues to spin out of control. Such debauchery, in fact, is how Kierella's life began.
part 4
Kierella was born of an illicit affair her mother, Cordelia, fell into. Her husband, Kash, had gone away on a once-a-decade pilgrimage as part of his role as High Priest of Maute. He would be gone at least a year. Cordelia found herself whisked away by the whims of a traveling merchant, known only as “Thorn.” Jerma, Kierella's older brother, walked in on the two in-the-act, a fact he never forgot and never failed to mention to Kierella up until his death.
When he returned and the truth came out, Kash lost himself in fury. Although it is technically illegal to divorce, he invoked all of the privilege and reputation he had grown since his posting to host a very public trial. Cordelia was to be questioned and investigated as to whether she broke their sacred union, but when she reached the dial before the judges, she admitted guilt. Kash wanted the children taken away, but because Cordelia confessed to her crimes, the ring of religious-lawful judges, the Fair Six, allowed her two concessions: 1) although Jerma would be taken to live within the Cathedral under his father, Cordelia could see him, and 2) she could have custody of Kierella, the bastard child. Although it was known to happen, few in the country had ever seen or heard such a jarring and public divorce--of a High Priest, nonetheless. Only the claim that Kash was in communication with the gods could save his position and his children from scorn.
Cordelia, however, received a harsh label of adulterer. She had been branded with the metaphorical Scarlet Letter within the eyes of her people. Growing up, Kierella felt deeply confused and torn between the “sinful” reputation of her mother and the nurturing, if not frustrated woman that babied her. Jerma’s angry, temperamental attitude, which could not be fixed even by his father, also sent Kierella into fits of tears. In Kierella’s early adolescence, she even sank into bouts of hysteria. This habit was only broken when one day, when Kierella had just turned five years old, Kash brought her directly into the Cathedral. He forced her to sit at the altar and stare at the stained-glass face of Maute, the supreme goddess, for an entire hour.
Much of Kierella’s upbringing has been forgotten—-either naturally by time or because of trauma. When she was three years old, her older brother died of a skin disease that had been broken out at this time. She cannot remember her brother’s death, but she does remember that for years afterward, her mother degenerated. She left Kierella often in either the care of the Cathedral Priestesses or, increasingly, the care of her own mother, Kierella’s grandmother. During these times, Cordelia drank herself into a stupor at the local tavern and spread her legs for anyone and everyone. She became pregnant again in that time and miscarried.
These dramatic childhood events had a significant effect on Kierella's growing personality. Later on in her life she would recognize that most people within the capital of Brai struggled with torn and debased families, but Brai citizens had learned to (mostly) hide their brokenness. For Kierella's family, however, secrecy was not an option. Everyone knew the sins Cordelia had committed against her husband, and everyone knew that Kierella was the evidence. Few blamed Kierella herself--a young girl who had no bearing on the circumstances of her birth--but that did not stop them from avoiding her or looking upon her with pity. As a result, Kierella had no childhood friends to play with. She did not enter into an apprenticeship, and with her mother's degeneration, she did not learn so much of the woman's arts, such as housekeeping and sewing.
Fortunately, with her adopted father's status and wealth, Kierella had the opportunity to learn reading and writing. While a woman reading and writing was deemed acceptable given this would allow her to read and understand the goddess’s words directly, it was considered “out of fashion” for her to learn science and history. As such, Kierella knows little of her own country’s natural and philosophical states, excepting what stories made the run of local spots.
part 5
But even if her piety was forced, as Kash knew it was, it had worked for the most part. Kierella still would not condemn her mother as wholly evil, but she loathed Cordelia's spells of drinking, gambling, and whoring. If anything, Kierella did not want to become involved with other people at all, fearing she would somehow fall into the same trap her mother had fallen into, again and again.
Then Kierella turned thirteen, and everything changed. She was offered a hand in marriage by a slightly older boy who had just finished his law apprenticeship. Kierella turned him down, afraid of this part of her adulthood given her mother’s history, wanting to stay a child for a little while longer. But the in the society of Brai, a woman must marry by a certain age, least the world condemn her as unfit and unruly. Three years later when Kierella turned 16, both of her parents, in a rare act of camaraderie, arranged a marriage for her to a local, up-and-coming Priest. This second time, Kierella turned him down: she still feared repeating her mother's mistakes, but another part of her had grown obstinate—-the part that felt trapped in a woman’s body and a woman’s role, that did not want to be held hostage by a man just yet.
Under the country’s Law of Maute, a woman who refused marriage twice could be forced into serving as an anchoress. Kierella could contest this law in front of the Fair Six, but the judges dismissed a request for trial, deeming the High Priest Kash an appropriate judge on religious-societal matters over the bastard child. And because of her stubbornness, Kierella was doomed. A small group of Priestesses came to her in the night, taking her into a secret room off the main chamber of Kash's Cathedral. She would have no objects, wealth, status, or prospects. She had only a plain grey robe, several copies of the goddess’s and demi-gods’ teachings, and herself. Once they brought her inside the room, apprentices from the local contractor's guild sealed it up behind her, brick by brick, leaving no door and only a small slat for meals every day. The remainder of her life would be spent inside a single, small room with a barred window, allowing Kierella to spiritually marry herself to the demi-gods.
For two entire years, Kierella spent every waking moment inside a room barely big enough to pace in, staring at either gray stone walls, the covers and words of various religious books, or outside the one-foot by one-foot square of her window. She resisted the call, at first. For days she stood by the window for hours at a time, attempting to garner support from passersby. She promised everything: her name, her hand in marriage, her body for sex, her beautiful black hair for wigs. None of her promises worked, however: even if she could hook someone into breaking the law for her, which happened only 1 time in 100, they could not find a way to sneak her out. The walls were sealed shut. There was no door, and the window was too small to fit her through.
After months of promising strangers, Kierella's resolve wore away. Her tactics had failed. She scoured her cell for structural weaknesses, attempted to send messages to the outside, and even pleaded through the small slat in her cell to whatever Priestesses might be listening. Nothing worked. Her childlike manner, once so laced through with fits of lonesomeness and hysteria, hardened. She did not gain patience; she merely gave up on desire. To keep her sanity, she imagined herself as a creature trapped inside a cocoon. In time, she’d grow, and the cocoon would break, and she would escape to freedom, but it was not a transformation she could control.
part 6
For a year and a half she studied Mautism in earnest—-she thinks, she lost track of the days. In fact, she not only lost time, but most of her self: she no longer enjoyed food, sound, or even color the same way again. She could not find any love for the gods, but she had re-memorized the scriptures-—it was all she could do-—and her daily thoughts filled with stories of sacrifice, grief, and heavenly ascension. She thought, too, of her mother: was that why she had lost a sense of morality? Because she felt trapped like this all her life? By the end of her captivity, Kierella lost touch with her innermost emotions, but the desire to escape always lingered, buried deep underground. If she happened to think of a certain memory, or if an image outside of her window caught her attention, something greater touched that desire, stirred it, sending up a pang of longing. Sometimes she even dreamed of escape.
In one very particular dream, she lied in her bed. A naked, broad-shouldered man with fine black hair loomed over her, but when she turned her head to the side, she saw a large, reptilian skeleton in the man’s place. For some reason, this did not bother her: she tried as best as she could to see the dream-man from a head-on view.
He began to make love to her, although she sensed nothing actually physical was happening, even in the dreamscape. Still, it felt good—-more blissful and ecstatic than anything she had ever experienced. Her pleasure began to build, and his name came unbidden from her lips: “Death, oh Death.”
Death: Maute’s illicit, secret child, the one uncounted for. The holy books said all five demi-gods shared the responsibility of death among themselves, but she knew now that that was no longer correct. Only one demi-god could handle such an enormous task as taking lives everyday, and he had been avoided by god and human alike.
He stopped at her realization and smiled into her face. “I see you understand now. I am Synk, the demi-god of death. I can help you leave your confines, but first, you must sacrifice something to me--as it has always been.”
For the demi-god of death, Synk was uncontrollably handsome. Second by second she forgot his skeletal mirror-image, and second by second her yearning for his sex built within her. Keirella pressed her palms against his chest—-not to push him away but to continue touching him. The contact sent an cold shock through her.
Leave the anchoress’s hold? She would give anything to leave that place.
“Then please, allow me,” he said.
part 7
She never woke up: all at once, she simply realized she was not sleeping. She would not need to sleep ever again. The night-bathed anchoress cell that once consisted of her entire world reeled under her, and when she righted herself she rushed over to a mirror. Good God, she had been frozen alive: surely her skin had decayed. Or had it been a nightmare? Keirella collapsed against the little desk, sending one of the holy books clattering to the floor, but she caught the hand mirror before it fell and shattered to pieces. She dragged it over her, inspecting her skin for ice-burns.
There were no burns, but her hair shocked her. It had turned silvery-blue, almost white. Her once-hazel eyes were now an iridescent blue. Her hand shot up to her cheek in a gesture of horror, but she could not feel a thing.
Death—-Synk—-had taken her humanity away, leaving behind an empty soul. She had never emerged from her cocoon: her real self had died inside, and what she lived now was the dried husk that remained. But the shock was leaving her. For some reason, her emotions did not seem to want to be working the same as before, because she was accepting this new change of status quickly. She felt full of love and admiration for Death, just as a retainer does for their master, and she felt full of substantial power.
Without knowing what she was doing, Kierella phased through the wall--and nearly made a mistake that would have caused her to phase through the floor forever, deep into the core of the world. She didn't know anything of her newfound being, so she traveled to the opposite end of the continent, to less populated farmlands. Through her short travels, she learned that she had lost the need for sleep, eating, or drinking--and she couldn't even taste, smell, or feel warmth or cold. She had no interests in once-tempting human pursuits: the desire for wealth, power, and love, among others. In her transformation, her brain had somehow connected with Synk. She could not directly communicate with him, but sometimes her decisions and actions felt uncontrolled, guided by some supernatural call to show appreciation for Synk and fill his needs.
One such "uncontrolled" action was to become a mercenary. She began training with a sword, but even in the early stages of her training, she was a formidable opponent: she felt pain, but it was dulled, she could use magic to some degree, she did not tire easily, and she enter a battle with such determination as to attack without remorse. She worked through the ranks of the Mercenary's Guild quickly, shocking the guild leader. She became adept at use of the sword and moving in armor faster than many of her comrades had been able to.
part 8
She did not care for home and family much anymore, and she even felt guilty about this development. Yet, as she stepped onto the dock at the port of Brai, she felt, again, Synk's pull: he needed her to bring death. At first she didn't understand, but then she recalled how Kash, who had the means to stop Kierella from becoming an anchoress with his status, had allowed her to live in a cell instead. Had allowed her to grow insane, to contemplate suicide, to experience the pain of having her body stripped of its humanity. It was the first time she felt regret for what Synk had done to her, but at the same time, these motivations fueled her desire to kill her father--and thus appease her god.
It was evening. Kriella found him in the inner sanctum of his Cathedral, writing a letter. He looked weaker than she remembered, like a hairless cat lounging by the fire. She cleared her throat, but when he turned and saw, he did not recognize her. She must have changed more than she realized.
At that moment, Kierella almost backed out of the murder entirely. He was weak, foolish, and cruel, but he had simply been reacting to a series of horrible events around him. Even more so, he had had no reason to pay attention to his wife's bastard daughter, but he had given her his care on more than one occasion--not his love, but his care.
Synk's call to kill pulled at something inside her. A kind of cold bloodlust was sweeping over her. Her feelings struggled. She lifted her sword overhead...
Personality:
Kierella is guided by an inner compass pointing her in the direction of neither good or evil, kind or belligerent. Her relatively newfound status as an undead or ghostly being has transformed her morals into gray instead of black-and-white. In Dungeons & Dragons terms: Chaotic Neutral, if you will.
A Chaotic Neutral character often acts according to their own whims, however, and on this point Kierella differs greatly. For an undead being, she really does lack any selfishness--maybe because the things a human can be selfish about simply don't interest her anymore. She has few specific wants. This ties into her emotional state, as well: since her transformation, she simply does not feel things the same way as a human anymore. Occasionally she will recall a strong human memory that will stir up pangs of intense emotion, but most of the time she goes through life with only quiet emotional reactions. As such, her motivations ultimately don't concern herself. Instead, her mind has somehow changed to reflect obedience and appreciation for the demi-god of death, Synk. Her actions and decisions are guided by unseen forces instilled into her, ones "dictated" to appease Synk. As someone no longer human, this does not bother Kierella at all. She does not question it. Her perspective has separated from that of her human counterparts, so that in a way, her level of thinking has "ascended" beyond pure earthly concerns.
part 9
Based upon that description, it might be easy for some to label her as a cold-blooded, evil creature, but what puts a wrench in things is that Kierella treats people with respect and openness, although she may be aloof at times. In fact, the emotions that seem to be the strongest and thus the most unchanged for her are: determination, camaraderie, and protectiveness. Any expression of joy or excitement are muted at best, if they occur at all, but she acts in a generally calm, accepting manner. On the other hand, the emotions that seem to be the weakest and thus the most absent for her are grief, love, and anger.
Kierella does not care much for first impressions, but she recognizes that they can sometimes be a barrier for achieving something. As such, she may not talk much at first: she is getting a read on the other person, attempting to understand her role in the interaction and what estranged emotions the other person may be feeling. As she begins to talk and interact, it's obvious to the other person that something is "off" about her. First of all, Kierella is an absolutely open book. She is a straightforward person who speaks in truths with ridiculous ease, and as soon as the other person asks, "What's wrong?" or says, "You seem a little weird," she will at once tell the person that she is a spirit who sacrificed her humanity to the demi-god of death. Nobody believes her until they see her phasing through walls--which even in her world is completely unheard of. Kierella deals with facts and honesty. Why should she care about embarrassing herself or hiding anything? Lies hardly achieve anything for her.
Secondly, Kierella has a hard time conveying humor. She can understand a joke on its most basic level, but she can't laugh because something's funny. Her Mercenary Guild has a running competition to see if they can get her to laugh--so far, the most anybody has managed is a somewhat scary-looking smile. When Kierella herself attempts a joke, they always fall flat or even refuse to make grammatical sense, as if her brain can't creatively process. The effect is varied: sometimes people laugh because it sounds so awkward from her, sometimes people are frightened. Regardless, unless someone points out to her that her joke wasn't funny, she doesn't notice that she failed at humor--again. Well, it's not as if being funny is a top priority for her.
While she may have this scary "puppet of Death" side to her, but during real conversations, her less serious interactions come across as awkward. The easy honesty combined with weird emotions and bad humor mean that when she talks to you and it's not something serious, she just sounds weird. What makes it worse is that she doesn't notice when she being awkward. Someone has to tell her, but even then, she doesn't "get it" enough to change some tic or wording next time.
In her relationships, Kierella has a neutral opinion about them and does a lot of metaphorical shoulder-shrugging--no surprise there. She sees no need for romantic relationships and doesn't understand love anyway. In regards to friendships, she doesn't feel as though she needs them--she doesn't get lonely, really--and depending on the other person they may become bothersome, but most of the time she accepts them if the other person wants to hang around her. They're not doing her any harm, and in fact they may be deserving of her protection. She may not have a deep understanding of what it means to be human anymore, but she can still value a life--an oxymoron given how easily she can kill someone, but she doesn't see it this way.
It seems unlikely that any of Keirella's robot-like personality could change, but sometimes people that become closer to her can remind her over and over again of human feeling, just by their presence. It's not much consolation, but for some people, it's enough.
part 10
- Undead body: This is an umbrella category for basically a small list of things Kierella can or can't do because she's lost her humanity.
a. Survival: She no longer needs to sleep, eat, or drink to live. She also has a somewhat higher stamina than humans/does not tire as easily. A good example of this is when a normal mercenary is fighting, he might tire after 20-30 minutes. By this point, however, Kierella is only breathing a little bit harder than before. She can die, but it will take a lot to kill her. She knows that if she loses this undead body, she becomes a complete spirit instead--unable to do anything except wander the land uselessly.
b. Non-aging: She can no longer age beyond her current 20-year-old self.
c. Emotions: As described in detail in the personality and history sections, many of her emotions are dulled or gone.
d. Senses: She cannot taste, smell, or touch. When she touches something, she can feel her fingers wrapping around an object, for example, but she cannot sense cold, heat, textures, etc.
e. Pain & wounds: Her body is able to be wounded, but it regenerates slightly faster than other bodies. For example, if it takes 2 weeks for a cut to heal on a normal human, for Kierella, her cut would be healed in about 5 days. Furthermore, her sense of pain has significantly dulled: even deep wounds only sting a little to her senses. (This, of course, is also a disadvantage: it's harder to know when to stop/retreat when one cannot feel how much pain they're receiving.)
- Controlled phasing: Normally Kierella's body is corporeal (able to interact with solid objects), but with a little bit of undead magic, she can phase through objects at will. It's not perfect: she can't hide inside a wall, for example, because she can't keep up her incorporeal magic for more than a minute. So if she's not careful, she could get stuck inside the object.
Alignment: Aiada: Keirella's motivations, which are largely subconscious and influenced by her lack of humanity, are appreciation and obedience to her demi-god, Synk--or "Death"--for making her this way.
Other:
1. Kierella is out of her element, in a world without her god. As such, she will feel disoriented for the first couple of weeks: disoriented enough not to go around just killing people. In fact, her internal guide will tell her that Synk is somehow absent, therefore there's no one she needs to kill. After these few two weeks, this will change and she will go back to her usual undead self, but she will have learned about the appearance of the Death Reaper and this world's consequences regarding killing. She's subject to her god's desires, but she ain't stupid.
2. Kind of represented by her face claim, but Kierella has always looked and acted a bit "androgynous." She is not very feminine and often has a more masculine demeanor, gait, and even facial structure.
part 11 - and done!
Sample (July TDM):
- Prompt D: [Kierella's charm was bright, pastel green sand tucked inside a small brown pouch. It was a gift from one of her fellow Otherworlders based upon the type of her amulet, and she appreciated it--even more so because the charm was working, intensifying her appreciation into a glow. She wondered if the sand charms of other emotions would work on her, or whether they wouldn't intensify an emotion that didn't exist in her body--like wheels spinning in mud. She had a feeling it was the latter, but she didn't want to test it out regardless. She had been reborn with no emotions: better not to circumvent the body her Lord Synk had given her.
Still, the feeling of appreciation was intense: a crisp and refreshing feeling in her chest like being scrubbed clean. She had felt a smaller sense of this when thinking of her god, but never quite this way. As she sat in the park, she noticed the plants around her bench had taken on more of a green sheen and looked a little taller, as if fully embracing the rays from the sun.
It did not last long. She looked up and saw a little girl, dozing in the grass under the shade of a tree. Inexplicably, she saw her younger, human self as the little girl, dozing on the banks of the river next to her home in Brai while her mother watched her at the window, writing a letter in a rare moment of normalcy. It was a vivid memory she'd forgotten, now resurfacing again: the blades of grass tickling her ankles, the warm embrace of the sunlight, the slight worry as she drifted to sleep that her mother might at many moment may begin drinking again, ending the temporary peace.
The memory was sharp and sent a dull pain of emotion through her chest. She wanted to somehow inhabit that little girl's--the real little girl's--body, just to feel those things again. Kierella did not allow herself to panic. She couldn't. She simply felt the envy eating at her from the inside. The sand charm had definitely gotten something wrong: there was not only appreciation, but the darker shades of envy in there, too.
Something fell onto the girl. The tree's branches, the lower ones. The girl screamed but it was difficult to hear: her faces was smothered underneath the leaves. At another time Kierella would have thought it unfashionably funny. Instead, she unsheathed her sword and ran over, hacking the branches aside with a cold efficiency as the girl screamed and struggled underneath her.]
If you keep moving and screaming that way, you'll lose your breath and energy. [It wasn't intended to be mean, only matter of fact. It sounded awkward, but it got the point across: the girl went still as Kierella continued to saw at the branches.]
Questions: I assume all of her powers are a-ok for Verens/the island, but please let me know if they need adjusting.
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