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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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priceofmagic: (omfg my bad)

pt.4

[personal profile] priceofmagic 2019-01-05 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
Abilities:
Satou comes from a world where magic is a genetic ability. Furthermore, her world's ability to use magic is actually split between two genes: "Magical Capacity" and "Empathy." Magical Capacity determines how much magic a magician can store in their body at once-- which further determines their potential for strong spells,-- while Empathy is the ability to fill that magic container. Furthermore, Empathy is a recessive trait and gradually being lost. This has led to the illusion that magic is rare, but it is a commonly accepted theory that 80% of the world's population does have Magical Capacity.

Another genetic consideration in her world's magic is a "curse" that most all magic users carry on their magical genes. It is something that, hundreds of years ago, all of the surviving magicians of the time accepted onto themselves. In essence, the curse causes the magic users to pay a price for overusing their magic. The price is "something very important," and because the curse is activated by the magician's subconscious, it is varied from person to person.

Satou has both genetic traits (empathy and magic capacity,) as well as the genetic curse. She was also born with increasing both traits as significantly as possible. Her magic style therefore tends to rely on high power magic attacks and speed, but she lacks defenses and stamina.

::: Empathy: The first genetic trait that a magician like Satou needs is "empathy." It is the title for a sixth sense which allows a magic user to sense emotions. The feeling is akin to feeling pulses or waves in the air, with the speed and strength changing depending on the strength of the emotion. Empathy is also a raised trait and something that can be trained: It is linked to a sympathetic personality. People with emotional empathy can identify emotions more accurately and use them more effectively for magic. Becoming kinder can strengthen empathy, while losing touch can weaken it. Emotions are the source of magical energy and the basis for all spells.

In Satou's case, she was raised to have exceptional empathy. Her empathy is strong enough that she has even been known to mistake the feelings of others for her own. Though Satou can pinpoint where specific emotions are coming from, she is more likely to notice "crowd emotions" when she isn't focused. For example, she is more likely to notice collective fear than pinpoint a specific scared person. Lastly, she can "turn off" her empathy by not actively focusing on it.

Empathy can, however, be used to sense people. She can tell if living beings are within a certain radius of herself. This is because the energy sensed by empathy is a "Life Energy." Witches with strong empathy can read the emotions assigned to it, but the energy is a physical manifestation of a heart's willpower. Satou can therefore sense people even without pinpointing what their emotions are, and she can do so quite accurately. Her magic can also be sensed as "Life Energy."

At her current canon point, Satou struggles to create magic from herself. She almost exclusively makes magic from the emotions of others. Because she fears her negative emotions, she will only be able to accept and draw from positive feelings. Such as courage and the stereotypical "power of love."

--- In Empatheias, based on my understanding of the setting, Satou's empathy is likely to drive her crazy. She will probably turn it off when she first arrives and try not to use it very much, because the emotional setting will be overwhelming for her. This may result in Satou initially seeming cold and uncaring, as part of "turning off" empathy means to force yourself not to care. It will also mean weakening her magic, since she will be more cautious about empathy and therefore more cautious about creating magic.

::: Magical Capacity: The second genetic trait that Satou has and needs. This is probably her most important trait too, since it was the one manipulated at her birth. Magical Capacity refers to how much magic a mage can process in any given moment. It isn't something that you can train, either. Depending on how large or small a magician's capacity is, their strongest spell may be a simple spark or a nuclear explosion: Satou leans towards the explosive side.

However, reaching maximum capacity means processing a lot of magic at one time. This is physically stressful. While normal magicians with normal capacities don't need to worry about overloading their bodies, Satou can process more magic than her young body should be capable of. She gets very tired from using her maximum capacity, and can even die if she pushes herself too far. In a roleplay setting, Satou can create large scale blasts of magic that could level a street, but anything more would leave her sick for days.

Satou's magic capacity allows her to perform a wide range of spells. The general rule of thumb for her very flexible magic is "If you can truly imagine it, you can make it happen." This gives magic users like Satou a lot of freedom with their magic, but also one huge limitation: They cannot half-heartedly perform magic. Magicians like Satou need to believe in themselves and the spell they are casting, or it simply won't happen.

There are three categories that her magical capabilities, and limitations, fall into:

::: Magical Creations: This is the category most unique to Satou's brand of magic. Satou is able to create things with her magic, so long as she understands the process of their creation. In one sense, this means she has to understand the difference between "creating" and "stealing." If Satou wants to make it snow, she can either create snow or funnel it from a place she knows has snow. When creating something, Satou needs to understand the mechanics behind her creation process. If she doesn't know the science behind snow, she cannot create it from scratch.

This comes into play especially when Satou is creating complex objects. For example, Satou cannot make a television. Why? Because she does not understand how a television works. She may be able to make something that looks like a TV, but because she does not understand how it functions she cannot magic a functioning television.

There is a dangerous silverlining to this: If Satou thinks she understands something, she can make "her version" of it. This is why children in Satou's world normally don't begin using their magic until they have a firm grasp of reality. It is also why a strong and confident imagination is such a valuable tool to a magician.

Satou also cannot magic materials from no where. She needs to have raw materials to create lasting objects. Things made without a physical material basis are just magic illusions, which will disappear if she loses focus. Satou has an understanding of how to sew and how to handle metals, so finds it easy to make clothing and metal objects.

::: Magical Attacks: This is the category of your generic magical girl spam, and relies on Satou's imagination. "Raw Magic" is a glowy, hot energy that can be molded into magical attacks. Satou's magic tends to be pink or black, depending on how she's feeling. Her magical attacking style is typically ranged, relying on a combination of beamspam and magic bullets.

In close combat, Satou can use her magic to coat her fists or feet when making powered-up punches or kicks. She can also use magic on her feet to speed herself up, or slap magic on others to slow them down. Her limiting factor is her human brain: Using multiple spells at once requires a lot of multi-tasking. Satou has learned to overcome this by juggling her spells very rapidly, but this is still mentally taxing. After a big magic fight, Satou will often have a headache and be very tired.

::: Magical Modifications: This category is most important for examining Satou's healing abilities. Magic can be used to repair or reinforce breaking objects, simply because Satou can fix things on a molecular level. It also means she can speed growth, such as making flowers bloom, or even heal wounds. She simply needs to understand the process in order to speed it up. This requires some energy from Satou and will leave her feeling pretty wiped.

At her current canon point, Satou doesn't heal humans because she doesn't fully understand them. She was constantly healing herself when she was younger, and that has resulted in permanent damage to her left leg and scarring all over her body. This was a side effect of Satou not fully understanding the science.

::: Firearms: Satou has learned how to take care of a handgun. Because she knows how to take it apart and clean it, she also knows what pieces make-up a gun and how to recreate them. Unfortunately, she can only make the pieces. She has to reassemble it herself.

Her guns do hold magic bullets, which are pre-made spells that she loads into magazines. These bullets exist for scenarios where her magic has been disabled, so she has two hand guns with separate uses: The first is to cause damage and the second is to facilitate an escape. She cannot reorganize the order of the spells, so keeps them in a predictable pattern that she can keep track of.

The attack pattern is three magic shots and then a forth that drags a beam between the three bullets, like a homing mechanism. This pattern repeats three times, so a total of 16 bullets in the magazine.

The escape pattern is two bright flash bullets (blinding,) with the second including a distracting whooshing sound. The third bullet gives Satou a strength buff for her escape. This pattern of three bullets repeats five times, for a total of 15 bullets in the magazine.

She has to replace them after each fight, which takes her a few hours. Satou can also pre-load just about any spell into her guns, but it must be done ahead of time. She cannot create widescale explosive magic for the bullets, because she cannot control the blast without magic: In a scenario where her magic is nullified, they would be far too dangerous.

::: Aikido: Satou's preferred martial arts style.

::: Magic Wand: Satou can channel her magic through a magic staff. She purposefully creates an illusion of being dependent on it, in order to lure her opponents into trying to disable her by attacking the wand. Most children and teens in her world require a wand to safely channel their magic, but Satou was bred to be an excellent witch: She's never truly needed it. However, there is a major advantage to it: Magic Wands are made to eliminate the need for a witch to rely on their empathy. The witch fills the wand with magic, then the wand holds magic in its own artifact Magic Capacity Chamber. This means that, in the event that Satou's magic-making abilities are nullified, her wand still holds some brief magical energy. It can continue to cast spells against Witch Hunters who nullify her magic until the capacity runs out. This is because wands are a machine and magic is an energy similar to electricity: It doesn't depend on a witch once its been created.

Unfortunately, Satou cannot refill her wand with magic after a witch hunter has nullified her magic generating. That doesn't make the wand useless to her, as she can order it to cast spells that are programmed into it. Wands are programmed to create shields and controlled explosions. A further downside, in Satou's case, is that her wand doesn't have the same capacity as her. It's only got an average capacity, which is significantly less than her natural capacity.

She can modify her wand to be a physical weapon, often favoring a "Scythe Form." The forms of her wand are limited only by her imagination and ability to use them effectively. Satou has rough technique with her scythe (the heavy size gives it momentum, even if she doesn't have magic to propel it,) and some skill with a sword form.

When casting huge spells, Satou uses her wand to balance her magic and avoid unnecessary strain on her body. While she is not dependent on it, she does use the "training wheels" to limit her health risk.



Alignment: Elios- Satou has been raised to be a very loving person. She not only literally draws power from love in her magic, but it's what guides her through a fate that would otherwise crush her will.

Other:


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

Remember that we ask for samples that show 1) core character portrayal and 2) some use of emotions, such as environmental effect. You can also use the same sample source for both, just make sure to directly link or quote the emotion portion. We highly encourage using the Test Drive, and you can use prompts from the Test Drives, Intro Logs, and the Task board if you need them. Refer to the main application page for links and more suggestions.

General Sample: TDM Sample

Emotion Sample:
[It had taken a while for the change of scenery to truly sink in. At least, parts of it. Satou knew that there were some things she would never get used to: The greenery, the floating, the technology. But there was one thing she was finally able to accept: She was safe.

The acceptance of this fact bloomed in front of her, quite literally. Satou had only meant to buy herself a coffee and relax with a book. But when the cashier counted out her change, handed back the money, and smiled at her, something in the lonely girl snapped. She hadn't been acknowledged in so long. Seeing a smile her way and realizing she could exist here broke a line of defense.

Flowers bloomed from the coins that Satou was handed. As if they were the seeds that helped her realize it, and let her relief and happiness at this change of scenery spring forth. She yelped in surprise at the sight, clasping both hands around the flowers in embarrassment. Ashamed of the emotions and scared the flowers were troubling people, Satou turned and fled from the coffee shop.

Good bye, vanilla latte.]
Questions: I'd like to know how the mods would like me to handle Satou's emotion based magic and empathy. Right now, I'm treating them as handicaps.
simpathis: (Default)

Accepted!

[personal profile] simpathis 2019-01-06 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations! We are happy to announce that your application has been accepted.

Please follow these next few steps to officially be considered part of the game. Remember that you have one week to do all this, otherwise we will consider it a revocation of the application.

➟ Reply to this comment with the journal you will be joining with, then join the following communities:
➟ Please comment to the appropriate Taken Characters list: Canons A-M | Canons N-Z.
➟ You are required to keep some kind of information post in your character journal for easy player reference, as well as your application. You are also free to use one of our Info Post Templates.
➟ When your journal is added by the mod journal, comment to the Player Contact list.
➟ Introduce yourself in our Player Intro post and start playing!
➟ Use the Character Introduction Log for your character intro!
➟ Please note that while we will create a character tag for you, you will need to type it in the first time you use it in each community for it to show up on the list.


Some optional things:
➟ Review the Game Info, Emotions, Amulet, and Island information pages.
➟ Check the monthly mod post for some announcements and an idea of what's in store for the month.
➟ Make sure you understand how the Network works. Remember, Empatheias uses telepathy as communication!
➟ Feel free to make an Inbox post for any private messages that could be sent via messenger bird.
➟ Check this month's plotting post.
➟ Follow the mod plurk ([plurk.com profile] simpathis) for game announcements.
➟ Join the game's Discord chat. You can join it by following the link here.

Satou's empathy and emotion-magic are free to work as they do in her world. She may also be able to sense the emotional energy that makes up the world of Empatheias and use it for her spells, if you would like her to, as well as learn the in-game emotion magic of "dunamis" with enough training.

If you have any questions at any time, feel free to contact us! Once again, we welcome you to Empatheias, and we hope you enjoy the game!
priceofmagic: (when in doubt-- hey look a weapon!)

[personal profile] priceofmagic 2019-01-07 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

This will be Satou's journal.
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