simpathis: (Default)
Empatheias Mods ([personal profile] simpathis) wrote2014-05-25 12:34 am

[ application: original characters ]

— APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN AND WILL BE PROCESSED ON WEEKENDS —

Canon Applications are here


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—

  • 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!


⌈ 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.



Clean copy and paste form here:

foreverhalone: (Default)

Vyryx Desrosiers | Final Fantasy XIV (MMO OC)

[personal profile] foreverhalone 2017-03-05 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉

Player: Zorn
Contact: [plurk.com profile] ZornSable
Age: 27
Current Characters: N/A


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉

Character: Vyryx Desrosiers
Age: 25
OC Type: MMO OC
Point Taken: 3.1, As Goes Light, So Goes Darkness
foreverhalone: (pic#11020607)

[personal profile] foreverhalone 2017-03-05 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
World Building: Here you go!

Backstory:
Originally V'erhiks, the section of the tribe he belonged to took up a nomadic way of life. They were skilled in animal taming, and found good coin in the training and selling of chocobos. While they couldn't compete with those of Ishgardian training, there were those who would ill afford the prestigious birds of the Holy City, and so the tribe took their business to them. This meant the tribe, small though it was, would travel through Coerthas often to slink into the Dravanian forelands where they could obtain them.

During one such journey, the young V'erhiks(age 4) got separated when a stray dragon attacked the tribe. At the time, he had a chocobo chick with him at least, and so his frantic journey into the woods away from danger was not entirely alone. However, there's little a chocobo chick can do, and so they were more or less left defenseless to the Coerthan wilds. The pair hid in whatever they could find: smalls caves, under large rocks, even in hollowed out trees that had fallen down many years ago. Anything to escape the dangers around them.

As fate would have it, his time in the woods didn't last for more than a night or two, because an Elezen noble came across the battered and scared miqo'te child and his fragile bird. Being unlike his fellows, he did not abandon the kid to his fate, and instead took him in. Choosing to raise him as his own--with his wife being barren, they couldn't have a child anyway, and they took this as a blessing from Halone herself.

Growing up this way was not easy for him, Ishgardians are naturally xenophobic, and while the family he was adopted into loved him and even gave him his own Ishgardian surname (Desrosiers), it did little to blunt the judgment of others. This followed him through childhood and adulthood, and kept him from properly joining in the Ishgardian military. However, it did nothing to quell his determination to learn the way of the spear, and so his adoptive parents did pay for his tutoring.

Years later, after mastering what his tutor could teach him, he did his utmost to follow the new dragoon trainees to see if he could absorbed anything, even if indirectly. For the most part, he picked up bits and pieces, and filled in the blanks as he could, but it wasn't until he found a soul stone that the blanks were properly filled.

He would often take on daring challenges to himself, first taking down the wild life of coerthas, before eventually attempting some of the dravanian subordinates like drakes and outflyers. Until he happened upon a behemoth pup that happened to stray from its den. Had this been a full grown behemoth, he certainly would not have had a chance, but given it's diminutive size (compared to a full grown one), the challenge was at least even. Slaying the beast, he took its horns as a trophy, but not without his own wounds to show for his efforts. It was hardly a new born, but a fledgling behemoth was still a beast to be reckoned with! With the horns, he then commissioned a spear to commemorate his victory.

One day, after feeling much more confident with his abilities, he had overheard a rumor of dravanian activity, and that a small number of dragoons had been sent out to dispatch the fiends. Wanting to see dragoons in action and therefore hoping he might pick up on their moves, he made haste to follow. Problem was, he only knew an approximate location, and so by the time he got there, it was nothing more than the remnants of a massacre--to the dravanian's favor.

The young new recruites were little match for the beasts--the scorched land and charred bodies were telling proof of that. Without a dravanian in sight, he scavenged the battle field. He could have brought one of the bodies back, could have tried to find which family they may have belonged--but the disfigured remains were not helpful in recognition. So, he did the next best thing: he took the soul stone, and a discarded dragoon's helmet and spoke not a word of what he found to anyone. A considerate fellow is he!

It was here that he began to act on his own, seeking to free lance (ha) his skills in an aid to Ishgard. He would act without the direction of the Holy See, slaying would-be threats and foreseen enemies of the church. However, acting alone does little and less for those with such high aspirations. He also did not wish to turn to his parents for help when it came to funding his hiring of mercenaries to aid him in his self appointed duty. Particularly when Ishgard looks down on that sort of thing anyway.

Naturally, he turned to a trade craft to make money, weaving to be specific. He had no natural talent for it, but it paid well, and through his determination he obtained some modicum of skill. With his own means to fund his endeavors, he turned to a Free Company of mercenaries to aid him in his skirmishes against Dravanians when such threats reared their heads. Or he imagined they did, not all of these skirmishes ended in battle, or at least a fight against dravanians.

He did this up until the end of the war, ceasing as the Elezen sought peace with the scalekin, and while he held his prejudices against them, he was not one to step out of line. Of course, once everything was done and over with with Nidhogg's shade, and the peace set, he then continued his dragon fighting against what remnants of Nidhogg's horde still skulked about, kill those dravanians that dared to defy the peace between man and dragon.

Personality:
To put it plainly, Vyryx is a right asshole. Being raised around Elezen--Ishgardian Elezen to be precise--he picked up a lot of their prejudices. Boy do they have a lot. Naturally speaking, Ishgardians are highly xenophobic and racist towards anyone who isn't Ishgardian, let alone Elezen, and while they live with hyurs, it's no surprise that all of their high positions of authority belong only to Elezen.

With this in mind, Vyryx was raised around a bunch of snobby, stuck up, racist Elezen who look down their long necks noses at everyone else, so naturally he does the same. Even to himself. There's a lot of self loathing with Vyryx, he hates that he's not the "superior race" that Ishgardians are, he despises that he's a miqo'te at all, honestly. Because of this, his hatred for fellow miqo'te rivals next to his hatred of the dravanians, though he's not likely to attack one on sight like he would a scalekin, but still!

Being raised by two caring Elezen parents, he isn't without some positive merits, he can be kind and compassionate at times, and sometimes he cares a bit too much for his own good--but ultimately he hides that behind his general snobbery. When around fellow Ishgardians he acts proper and respectable, carrying himself in a manner that would likely befit nobility. He's had a lot of practice and exposure to that sort of song and dance--his parents being lesser nobles that serve one of the four high houses, he's had a good example to follow.

However, around non-Ishgardians, he has a poor attitude, and while he still holds himself high and mighty, with the typical air of an Ishgardian, he's got the habit of being far more crass. Since he despises most who aren't Elezen, he doesn't often listen or give them much of a chance, but it's not impossible for them to get through to him. You merely have to be more stubborn than he is. Needless to say, he's not a man of many friends, and with most Ishgardians not caring much for his kind, and him not caring much for others... well, the chocobo chick he had since a child served as his only friend and for the most part still does. Which is pretty sad, but he has no one to blame but himself.

Ultimately, he's a man of high tastes and expectations, trying to act the part of Ishgardian nobility even if he's nothing of the sort--an act he puts on mainly around non-Ishgardians who might not know better. So too does he do this with being a dragoon, something he'd never claim to be inside the walls of Ishgard or around any proper dragoons, he keeps his pilfered helmet and soul stone a secret from them. To those who wouldn't know any better, however, well, he's more than happy to claim what he isn't if it gives him an edge of superiority. A man can dream, isn't he?

Because of his self hatred for what he is, he views other miqo'te as savages that have yet to be domesticated, that he's above them, their superior, because he's been enlightened by Ishgardians. In other words, he's a huge jackass that really, really doesn't know how to turn off his asshole switch. You could say he's an acquired taste, but not many can stomach acquiring the taste of shit, just saying.

If there is one trait that could define Vyryx as a whole, it'd be determination. Whatever he does, whatever he decides to do, he powers through to make it happen with sheer determination. He was not accepted to be part of Ishgard's military being what he is, and so he took it upon himself to train (with his tutor) to become good enough to help out. When he needed funds to hire mercenaries to aid him in his personal objectives, through sheer will power and practice he became a rather skilled weaver to fund it all. Vyryx is far from the best, far from being hugely talented really, but when he sets his mind to something, he pushes everything till he gets some sort of favorable result.

In the end, he's honestly trying to make his parents proud, trying to be the Elezen son they couldn't ever have, and trying to do right by Ishgard. His hatred of dravanians is as deep as those born into the conflict, despite having no real ancestral roots to the war at all, but his loyalty is and forever will be with Ishgard. As such, he hates all things dragon, and you'd have better luck getting through to a wall than him when it comes to them. His hatred is irrational and pretty much unfounded as far as personal experience goes, but he's so stubborn and unwilling to budge it's almost like they did him a personal slight.

While a crass, self-centered asshole, Vyryx isn't completely without a heart, and while he might feel inclined to snub others, he does have some sentimentality. He might be very indignant about showing any part of that to others, and will ultimately do anything in his power to make the other person feel as if he's being forced to care, and like it's the biggest burden in the whoooole world. But it doesn't change that those feelings are actually genuine.

Abilities:
As a dragoon he has primarily jumping and spear based abilities, not being the Azure Dragoon and thus being unable to command the power of dragons like the WoL or Estinien, he is limited to the more physical aspects of the class. As well as this, he also possesses lancer abilities, because while they do not follow necessarily the Gridanian path of being a lancer, there are lancers in the Ishgardian army who use the exact same skills, and thus he would have been trained similarly.

Lancer abilities

With training as a lancer, he has been taught how to use his aether in a way that would benefit his fighting, not just how to handle a polearm. Whether it to be to enhance his own strength temporarily (heavy thrust), cause lasting effects over time (phlembotomize/chaos thrust), slamming his spear down and swinging about like some sort of lethal pole dancer as aether damages those around him (ring of thorns)--or even allow himself to be more susceptible to damage to boost his own means of attack (blood for blood). He more or less has all of what you'd expect from a 50 lancer.

Dragoon Abilities

Jump:
The standard dragoon jump. It allows the dragoon to leap into the air as if in defiance of gravity itself, then arcing at the jump's apex to land with precision and their dead weight on their opponent with their spear. By the tool tip, it's maxed out at 20 yalms (20 yards/60 feet), but in cutscenes we have seen dragoons jump arguably higher, so perhaps that's only length ways. Either way, he can jump real good, basically.

Spineshatter Dive:
Much like jump, but an ability aimed more for stunning an opponent than dealing damage. It follows a similar rule, but from what we can surmise from the effects, a dragoon likely uses their aether to cause the status affliction with the collision of their spear (if one is to go off of the lightning-like effects.) Granted, on normal people this will likely be a more lethal than not, so the stunning is a little irrelevant, but you know!

Besides that, he more or less is very capable with a spear, as well as extremely acrobatic. You could say he has... cat-like reflexes. Due to the excessive training, the help with the soul stone, and Eorzean's being far stronger than normal people anyways, he's an exceptional fighter, and quite stronger than his small size might lead one to believe.


Alignment: Elios, because Vyryx's strong hatred of others fuels most of his interactions. He's full of hate, whether for himself or others, and operates mainly on it. However, on the other end, his love for his country and countrymen work to inspire him as well, and it's through this devotion and strong bond that he's capable of doing most of what he does. Out of any emotion, love and hate absolutely fit him the best.

Other: He will be bringing his red Draught Chocobo named Arluin.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉



General Sample:
Link out

Emotion Sample:

[It was strange to say it plainly, being angry was one thing, but to see how his anger effected things around was quite another. He had tossed his glass away from him, but before it could shatter against the far wall it had already crumbled into dust. The wall cracking where the glass might have hit it. In a way, it made him feel powerful, like the Fury herself was at his beck and call, and she projected his emotions through physical force.

He knew this wasn't the case, but it didn't change much with how the floor cracked beneath his stomps, or how a glare in a certain direction could bust out some windows. The initial alarm of it was almost enough to calm him from his rage, but he was quick to remind himself just what had upset him—just what was said to send him into such a horrific rage.

How dare that bitch call him a "kitten". Oh the damn humiliation to be so demeaned. So disrespected, she didn't have a single CLUE who he was—or at least, who he liked people to believe he was, anyways. Fortunately the temper tantrum didn't last long, and the building he was in didn't suffer more abuse than what was entirely necessary (none of it was), what with Vyryx choosing to head out to save himself any more disrespect—of course not without the door literally bursting into splinters as he slammed it behind him.

Small sacrifices!]



Questions: None!
Edited (tmw you see small grammar mistakes gomen) 2017-03-05 16:49 (UTC)