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

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inklongdry: (005)

arthur inkwell | original (ffxiv)

[personal profile] inklongdry 2018-01-02 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉

Character: Arthur Inkwell
Age: 27
OC Type: MMO (Final Fantasy XIV)
Point Taken: Post-Stormblood MSQ

World Building: Some light reading for you.

Backstory: Arthur Inkwell was born and raised within the city of Ul’dah. His mother, a native of the neighboring forest nation of the Black Shroud, had come to the city about five years prior, in the wake of the death of her first husband, bringing her then-5-year-old son, Morgan, in tow. In her first year in the city, she met and befriended Hector Inkwell, the caretaker of the city’s libraries, and more private archives. The two eventually fell in love and married, bringing Arthur into the world.

Arthur’s home life was largely one of love and support. He even found a best friend in his elder half-brother, though the two of them were as different as night and day. Morgan was always a fighter, and learned to wield a sword as soon as he was able to lift one. He was fascinated by military history and the life of the soldier, and took up with the Immortal Flames once he was old enough. Arthur, on the other hand, was content to spend his days in his father’s libraries and archives, nose constantly buried in a book. Where Morgan was a natural charmer, Arthur struggled to be noticed and taken seriously. Yet, they always had each other’s backs.

At some point, Morgan made it his mission to teach his oft-bullied younger brother to stand up for himself. He began dragging poor Arthur out of bed at ungodly early to put him through combat lessons. Arthur was not a fan of these lessons at all, though some of Morgan’s teachings stuck with him regardless. Even so, Morgan eventually gave it up for lost, allowing Arthur to once again enjoy a few extra hours of sleep. Instead, he prompted Arthur to use his brains instead of his brawn to stand up for himself, and this was something of a turning point for Arthur. He began to hone his wit, wielding it in place of a blade. Surprisingly enough, the bullying began to stop.

It was also Morgan who introduced Arthur to his biggest passion, the history and magic of Nym. Hundreds of years ago, Nym was a thriving city, but it had been destroyed by an ancient war between rival nations of mages, known as the War of the Magi. Nym relied heavily on their scholars to guide their military. Nymian scholars were more than just learned men and women, they were strategists and healers, who commanded faerie companions to aid them in battle.

From a young age, Arthur had exhibited some talent with magic, and was more or less a self-taught Arcanist of decent skill by the time he was a teenager. When his brother mentioned there had once been a nation of magically-inclined military strategists and healers, the idea instantly captured Arthur’s imagination. He threw himself into the pursuit of the magic of the Nymian scholars, digging up everything he could find, even going so far as to poke around the more restricted sections of his family’s archives. By the time he entered his twenties, Arthur had a basic grasp of the craft, though he had no faerie to call his own, never managing to summon anything more complex than a carbuncle.

At the oh-so-tender age of twenty-six, Arthur had barely set foot out of the city walls, and would have happily spent the rest of his days pouring over books if not for the fact that his family intervened. His parents and brother wanted much more for him than a life surrounded by dusty tomes. No amount of prompting seemed to sway Arthur, however, so they handed him a simple task: He was to deliver a set of rare books to a researcher and old family friend of the Inkwells, currently taking up residence in the neighboring nation of La Noscea. Without being given much of a chance to argue, he was sent on his way.

However, his trip quickly took a turn for the worst. After taking directions from a “friendly merchant” who turned out to be anything but, Arthur found him lost a series of caves, and he stumbled right into a pirate’s lair. Terrified, Arthur tried to flee, but one wrong turn landed him in a dead end, cornered by his pursuers. Salvation came in the form of Tessa Willow, a miqo’te adventurer who had been investigating the caves herself. Together they fled the pirates, but in the midst of the chaos, Arthur lost the books he had been charged with delivering.

From that point, the two of them entered into a deal. Arthur was indebted to Tessa for saving his life, and she in turn indebted to him for the loss of the books. They decided to travel together until their respective debts were paid, but in truth, it was the start of a partnership that would become so much more than that.

A couple months into their arrangement, Arthur was able to convince Tessa to join him on an expedition to some old ruins. Now that he was out in the world, he was realizing there was so much more he could learn by seeing things himself than just simply reading about them. For the most part, their little expedition was much less dangerous than their usual adventures, until Arthur unwittingly trigged a trap door in the floor. The two of them plummeted into the room below, falling unconscious, and Arthur woke to a glimpse of soft light and fluttering wings— a glimpse that quickly vanished. Surprisingly, neither of them were seriously injured from the fall.

As they were trying to find their way out, Arthur discovered an old scholar soul stone among the rubble. A soul stone (or soul crystal. The terms seem to be interchangeable) is a crystal that contains the memories of all those who had used it before, usually pertaining to their craft of choice, whether that be magic or other combat skills. In the case of the Nymian scholars, soul stones were usually family heirlooms, and not only contained their knowledge, but their faerie companion as well. Though Arthur had managed to learn a fair bit of the Nymians’ magic without a soul stone of his own, he wasn’t stupid enough to leave it behind, however he was unaware of the presence of the faerie inside the stone, as she refused to show herself at the start. Arthur and Tessa’s presence had woken her up, and she had saved them after their fall, but after that she kept to the stone.

The faerie observed Arthur from her place in the stone for a long time. She had spent a long time sleeping in those ruins, and wanted to be certain that her new partner was worth the effort. Eventually, something about Arthur seemed to strike a chord with her, because his kindness was apparent even in the face of his sharp tongue and dry sense of humor. She finally revealed herself to him, sharing that her name was Clover. With Clover’s help, and the help of the memories kept in the soul stone, Arthur quickly came to hone his skills as a scholar.

Even with his healing abilities and the few offensive spells he knew, Arthur still felt as if he didn’t quite pull his weight when compared to Tessa, who held a measure of skill with just about every weapon under the sun. The miqo’te eventually suggested to him that they travel to Ishgard, since she’d heard tales of the machinists there. It seemed right up Arthur’s alley, considering his fondness for machines and learning how things worked. The folks at the Skysteel Manufactory were more than happy to put a gun in his hands, but learning how to use it was another matter entirely.

Thankfully, Tessa was always dragging him off to fight some monster or other.

It is worth noting that Arthur is not a Warrior of Light. He is sort of periphery to the events of the game’s main storyline, and just trails along in the wake of the Warriors of Light without ever getting all that close. For instance, he and Tessa go to Ishgard after the WoLs help them reopen their borders and rejoin the Eorzean Alliance. He knows of the Warriors of Light and their deeds, because who doesn’t, though he wouldn’t know one by face or name if he met them. The closest he gets is his brother, as a Flame Lieutenant, heads over the border into Ala Mhigo with the main force for the duration of the Stormblood story, and maybe might have once fought alongside the WoLs in some battle or other.
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