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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.
Re: Sigyl Frey | Original Character | 2/2
Born in the countryside, a few hours outside the small town of Silverdyne, Sigyl lived with his mother, Selia, and his grandparents, Elda and Addleby, on a farm. He never met his father who was, in his mother's words, "some slimy conman asshole" who ended up swindling more than a few Silverdyne residents and then bolted as soon as mercenaries working on behalf of another town's residents showed up looking for him. Sigyl did, however, enjoy semi-frequent visits from his Uncle Brand, Auntie Hilda and cousin Annifred who lived in town. He never went to a formal school, but was taught by his grandparents, with Elda, a witch, teaching him about magic and Addleby teaching him how to read and write, though Sigyl often took his lessons less than seriously. Otherwise, he would spend his days doing chores on the farm or running around the surrounding fields, playing with other children from Silverdyne.
At the age of 6, while playing outside, Sigyl and a few other children were set upon by a relatively small wyvern that ended up snatching Sigyl up. They managed to get help and Selia gave chase on a flying broomstick and used her skills with magic to wrench her son from its grasp and drive the beast off. While he recovered fairly quickly, this event left him with a lifelong wariness towards wyverns, causing him to grow a little nervous at the mere suggestion that they may be nearby. In addition he began to take his grandmother's teachings in magic more seriously to avoid being unable to defend himself should such an event occur again.
Over the next several years, Sigyl began to grow as a magician and found that he actually really enjoyed improving his ability to cast spells. He learned mostly offensive spells and took up the job of using them to drive predators away from the farm animals and protect himself from weak monsters when he was out and about. His mother also began teaching him how to use a flying broomstick, though he found it difficult to get very high off the ground due to his previous wyvern-related flying experience, and mostly used it to ferry items back and forth between the farm and nearby villages.
When Sigyl was 10, Alwyn Albrend, the young king of the Leahdour Kingdom sent a messenger to the farm, asking that Elda assist in defeating a dragon that was supposedly terrorizing an area of the kingdom, despite the fact that the Frey family lived outside the kingdom's borders. Elda was against it as it wasn't any of their business and she was generally wary of the Leahdour royals as a result of her experience working in the castle decades ago. However, Selia insisted. If it was hurting people, she couldn't stand by and let it happen if she was being asked to help, even if she wasn't sure why her mother was being asked specifically, having always been under the impression that her mother had worked as a maid and magic tutor.
Selia would leave a few days later, along with Sigyl's Uncle Brand who decided he would help out as well, as he was gifted at creating and enchanting armor and weapons. Sigyl did extra farmwork to help out in his mother's absence and redoubled his efforts to improve his skills with magic, occasionally making extra trips to town to bring materials to his Uncle's smithy where his cousin was filling in and creating weapons in her father's stead. A few months later, Brand returned, missing an arm.
Sigyl's mother didn't return at all.
Unfortunately, it would turn out the dragon was much more powerful than King Alwyn realized. Of the five adventurers that went to slay the dragon, only Brand survived. Selia had channeled all the energy she had into attacks to hold the dragon back in an attempt to save the others and was ultimately killed. Young Sigyl, in his grief, vowed to slay the dragon...until his grandmother put some sense in his head.
"Your mama couldn't kill that thing, you think you're gonna? Besides...dragon's just doin' what it's gonna do. You'd fight back if someone was tryin' to kill you, wouldn't you?"
For the first time, Sigyl knew what feeling powerless was like. He also realized that strength wasn't absolute; even strong people could be weaker than someone or something else.
Several weeks later in the wee hours of the night, Sigyl awoke hearing a conversation between his grandmother and another unfamiliar voice. He couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but his grandmother sounded angry. Before too long he heard the other person depart, the sound of a horse's hooves fading into the distance. It would only be in the following days that Sigyl and his grandmother would learn that King Alwyn had been assassinated in the dead of night.
Sigyl would never see anyone one from the court ever come to express condolences or to offer an apology for what the king had done. He began to understand why his grandmother had expressed disdain for government and the rich. While the queen declared a day of mourning for Seline, the other adventurers were seemingly forgotten, with neither the Queen nor any other government spokesperson even bothered to refer to anyone else besides Seline by name in official statements.
"They'll make a big show for someone with a big name, but if you ain't no one, they'll step right over ya. N' sometimes, right on ya, too."
Still, in the years that followed, Sigyl would lead a relatively quiet life on his grandparents' farm; making deliveries, running errands for them and caring for the animals. However, he would develop something of a fear of dragons after his mother's death. He would occasionally experience nightmares about the incident and about dragons in general. He eventually decided he was going to seek out the dragon that killed Selia; not to kill it, but just to see exactly what kind of creature it was in an attempt to gain some kind of closure and to try and overcome this fear.
About a month into his travels, he would reunite with his childhood friend Galinda, who had left Silverdyne at 7 years earlier to study in the city of Pearlbarrow. Now using magic through music, she would decide to help him knowing how deeply it affected him. They would later be joined by a hunter of the name of Arthur Wyndelwax. After staying one night in his forest cabin, he unexpectedly insisted on assisting them.
Personality:
Sigyl is pretty easy going, for the most part. Having grown up under his grandmother's relatively strict guidance, he's hard-working and honest. He's open about the way about the way he feels and isn't shy about expressing his thoughts. Following his grandmother's example, he sees no good in keeping his opinions to himself when something important is on the line, even if his opinion is unpopular.
Sigyl is confident in his own abilities and has some measure of pride, but he's not arrogant. He understands himself to be competant and knows he can handle himself but he also understands that strength isn't absolute. No matter how strong one gets, someone or something is always stronger and he knows that compentant as he is, he may not be able to do things alone. However, it's this view that gives him the courage to push a little further against a strong opponent than some others may not following the idea that even the strongest opponent isn't unbeatable. Unless an opponent is overwhelmingly powerful, Sigyl will at least try and isn't afraid to get a little roughed up if he needs to.
He's friendly enough and gets along with the average person, but he usually doesn't immediately trust people who are wealthy or are otherwise in positions of great authority. After the death of his mother, he came to believe that those with wealth or power will step on those with less to obtain more for themselves; he's more likely to trust an authority figure if he feels they're similar to himself, i. e. someone who works hard, an everyman kind of person. This is also why he's willing to stand up for the little guy; every day people ought to stick together against those that would step on them for their own benefit.
Abilities:
Physical Strength
Having grown up on farm, Sigyl spent a good part of his life doing a lot of physical labor and is probably a little stronger than the average person; he won't be single handedly punching out monsters, but he can hold his own in a brawl.
Magic
(cw: mentions of accidental death and self-harm)
Sigyl has magical abilities. Magic in Sigyl's world consists of channeling the ever-present energies of the world through one's body and expelling it back into the world in a different form, though it puts some strain on the body. It's something that pretty much anyone can learn, but it's easier when one has magical lineage, i.e parents/grandparents/other blood ancestors that have learned and can perform magic already.
The more energy one channels into a spell, the stronger it is at the cost of longer casting time and greater strain on the body; it's not unheard of for magic users to accidentally physically harm themselves or die from trying to cast too powerful a spell to the point where they overwhelm themselves or cannot expel the energy fast enough. For example, someone that tries to cast too many fireball spells in a short period may start experiencing heat exhaustion. Pushing the example further someone who tries to pump more energy into a fire spell than they can handle may end up immolating themselves.
There are typically two ways to gain the ability to handle magic: study endlessly and learn how to properly regulate the flow of energy and/or become physically strong enough to handle it. Sigyl primarily used the latter method, though he's still working on the former. Multiple wizards can cast a powerful spell together to alleviate the strain, but they have to maintain some form of physical contact and also they all have to generally know what they're doing.
There are of course, other forms of magic but Sigyl primarily knows what is called "burst" magic wherein the energy expelled from the body takes the form of bursts of energy, ex: fireballs, blasts of cold wind, blasts of lightning, etc. He still can't cast spells that are too powerful without hurting himself, though. For example, He can blast a hole in a wall large enough to walk through, but he's not going to be knocking down a building with a single blow.
Alignment: Thras. Sigyl's journey starts with the intent of facing a fear that's sat within him for many years, but the bravery to face this fear is what pushes him to continue.
Other:
General Sample: General sample
Emotion Sample: Emotion Sample
Revision
For the personality section, we would like to see it expanded if possible with any further insight or elaboration on what makes him tick. Examples of things we're curious about are if his upbringing had any other major effects on his personality or if threre are any negative personality traits we should be aware of.
Also if you could please relink his samples, the html seems to be broken.
Please submit your revisions as its own comment in reply to this one. You have one week to submit the revisions, otherwise we will consider it a revocation of your application. If you have any questions or concerns, ask away!
Revisions!
Sigyl is confident in his own abilities and has some measure of pride, but he's not arrogant. He understands himself to be competent and knows he can generally handle himself but he also understands that strength isn't absolute. No matter how strong one gets, someone or something is always stronger and he knows that he may not be able to do things alone. However, it's this view that gives him the courage to push a little further against a strong opponent than some others may not, following the idea that even the strongest opponent isn't unbeatable, and isn't afraid to get roughed up. Unfortunately, when he really gets going, his courage can easily turn into recklessness; he charges forward and rarely thinks ahead. He's also not terribly clever; he generally prefers the most straightforward solutions to problems and isn't one to think creatively. For example, if locked in a room, he'll sooner break down or blow a hole through the door than find a different way to open it.
He's friendly enough and gets along with the average person, but he usually doesn't immediately trust people who are wealthy or are otherwise in positions of great authority. After the death of his mother, he came to believe that those with wealth or power will step on those with less to obtain more for themselves; he's more likely to trust an authority figure if he feels they're similar to himself, i. e. someone who works hard, an everyman kind of person. This is also why he's willing to stand up for the little guy; every day people ought to stick together against those that would step on them for their own benefit. His experience with "city folk" throughout his life has also informed these opinions, as many people passing through Silverdyne from big cities, especially those who considered themselves "high class", treated it as some backwater hick village and the people in it as a bunch of dumb country bumpkins. He can take someone he perceives as being from a similar social class as himself ribbing him a little bit, but he hates being looked down on by those who decide they're better than him without knowing him.
General Sample
Emotion Sample
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:
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➟ Please comment to the appropriate Taken Characters list: Canons A-M | Canons N-Z.➟ You are required to create an information post on your character journal for easy player reference. Using your application is perfectly fine! 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 and Locations information pages if needed.
➟ 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 (
➟ Join the game's Discord chat. You can join it by following the link here.
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!
Re: Accepted!