Er...ah...pictures, I start with a picture of a character I like and go, "If he was in this world...what would he be like, how would he act...how give him my soul, what then?"

Heh, I remember this one well. When I was a completely clueless newbie, in the first days, I was standing somewhere around Megalith and he just came by and killed me. His name was different then, he changed it later (I've seen it in PK status). Memories...

I tried to play Elaria as the consummate nice person, dedicated to her beliefs, her Light, that may be different to the Light of Celest in some areas. She's a Guardian achetype so I thought... that would be my role, I love playing the protector and defender and that's her. Didn't quite pull all of this off because it's very difficult to be nice the entire time without annoying someone (or being perfectly nice ooc yourself ). She's had her moments for sure. I love playing her though, she's such fun

My current main character was originally created as a nice little diversion from Shoshana, and because she'd be different to anything I'd played before. The concept was a more than slightly deranged little faeling Nihilist who looked and mostly acted childlike and innocent, but if you got her onto certain topics turned out to be a quasi-pyromaniac sadist . She was just far too much fun to play though, so she kind of took over a bit... And then I had to go inactive for a while, and when I came back Glomdoring had come out, which suited her roleplay down to the ground (Seeing as the only reason she was in a city was that the Nihilists were the only ones who'd accept her). I didn't think I could cope with having her be quite as insane as I'd intended, if she was going to be my main character, so I roleplayed it that she'd grown up a bit since then (Seeing as it had been a good few years) and Nifilhema's path taught her to be far more analytical than she had been. She can still be a unstable at times though...

Experiences refine the shape as time progresses.

Initially, I the player looked around at the guilds to find something that would interest me and that I'd be comfortable playing. Most characters I base at least partly on my own personality because that's easiest to remain IC, just with some aspects more heightened and others supressed. So that was the starting, rough idea.

Then Tsuki stepped through the Portal of Fate and began the experiences that have futher shaped her. Spending time with a few then-Moondancers encouraged her snuggliness, even as I winced a bit at how bubbly Tsuki was seeming to get. Glom came out and those Dancers she'd been closest to went there, which sent her into depression and sadness for awhile (that still resurfaces occassionally), but luckily she found new purpose in teaching novices and the responsibility of that to the Moondancers as a whole. Finding family was good and expanded her horizons a little; unpleasant early encounters with certain people have made her more wary of Magnagora where she previously wasn't. By now, I think she's entered Celest on her own (not following someone) 3-4 times (not fond of cities, but pleasant encounters with various Celestians have made her less wary of those folk of the cities).

Whatever happens to Tsuki will alter, refine, or reinforce her perceptions, beliefs and actions. There's no set goal she's aiming towards or which I'll herd her to while ignoring experiences and events around her. About the only long-term things I can state is that it would take something very drastic for her to stop being a Moondancer and she's not likely to get into fighting other than being involved in defense if the need is desperate enough.

I wasn't sure when I started off playing Aurella what kind of character she was going to be, so in the beginning i made her out to be kind of shy, uncertain of where she wanted to go

Then she began to learn more of her guild, Blacktalon, and I think as aurella gained more skill, she also became more confident in herself, and although she couldn't remember her past from before the Portal of Fates, finding her family also helped shaped who she is today

Loyalty has always been important for my character, I wanted to play someone who had a sense of honor and loyalty despite what some of her enemies may think >.> As to what will happen in the future, I don't think Aurella will be changing all that drastically...we'll see i guess

somehow what i wrote didn't come out right so rewrote it

You have enemies? Aww.

Anyway, I'm more or less with Shamarah here. Except as always my character is influenced by my OOC personality, since I think it's very rare that someone can avoid that. Especially with the amount of board-age I do. But starting out as just a random Seren Furrikin, joining up in the Moondancers, learning to fight in response to the Magnagoran invasions of his home, meeting Lyren and some of the other Isuneans, joining the Order, etc., I just flowed with it. Works well. I don't think I can say I'm a nobody, even if I'm not the best at anything, so no reason to try and influence myself any further, so to speak.

I don't know I'd like to think that Aurella doesn't, but you never know...

Hmm... Well, I kind of started Nika off being intelligent above her age. She was helpful without being bubbly and all that friendly, and she's even now cold with people she doesn't know, (and most of those she does). She's also at the moment kind of.. disorientated. She's been hanging out in Celestia for quite a while, and still goes there at least once a year to pray. I'm not really sure where to go with her at the moment, so I might have to go back to an arrpee that I had a while ago. It was an one that I've intended on playing around with from the start.

Well, then, the major things would be these. Feline race, my first time playing one, so I thought of what that means and refreshed my memory about some feline attributes. What I was going for there is this: that for a feline, "regal" and "simple/elegant" and "practical/pragmatic" and "savage/primal" are not different things you keep in balance, they're one thing; not in conflict at all -- be more of one and it makes you more of the others, if you're doing it right. Best example of that is how a lion laying on an empty savannah, yawning in the noonday heat, is as noble and regal a being as any poncy king dressed in foppish frillery could ever hope of being if he wore a thousand pounds of gold jewelry.

I wanted to play that up so I gave my character a slightly "noble" background, but of course I wanted him to have a reason to leave it behind and find a new home, so I gave him a tragedy -- both to push him out of that background, and to put the other side on his prevailing trait of confidence and strength. (A lot of that in turn came out of wanting to be very unlike my Aetolia character, who started out meek and humble.)

I knew I wanted a character who was very very loyal, because I have found that I just don't enjoy playing characters who are more mercenary if I'm going to play them over a long period of time. So his "noble birth" was tooled to give him that kind of loyalty to tribe, and his tragedy tooled to allow him to transfer that level of loyalty to his commune, guild, and (as it turned out later) Goddess.

He has travelled through more of his originally intended "arc" than I expected by this point. This is mostly because, unlike in Aetolia, here I found people noticed and appreciated things even when you didn't draw attention to them, where in Aetolia only those who flaunted their deeds got noticed for them most of the time (so my last character took ages to get any recognition, which was fine with me, it fit into her humility).

I suppose aslaran culture (both biology and tradition) has been the single biggest creative driving force. Sometimes it gets me in trouble; I recently undid years of work trying to strengthen bonds with the Moondancers in a few moments because I was playing out a subtle feline personality thing hardly anyone would pick up on even when I throw out huge festering hints about it.

I have a few traits of me that are in Gwylifar, but really quite few. Those are important traits, admittedly. But there are a few important traits of him that are exactly opposite of me, too.

I started Vesar with one goal: Leadership. As I sat down and thought about creating a character in Lusternia (I was one of those that planned out like 5 characters before open beta started so I could dive right in) I thought about all the characters I'd played in the past, all my likes, dislikes, and all the roles I had yet to play. One of my current characters at the time in Aetolia was just starting to experience city government and I really enjoyed working in that realm. With that in mind, I created Vesar.

Though I did have a goal in mind, I still managed to make Vesar a "clean slate," letting his experiences shape him as he aged. One aspect of his character that really evolved was his tendency to sway towards combat. Alot of this was borne from the necessity of living in New Celest, and the rest of from my own experiences in the military, and an innate curiousity of whether or not the leadership styles and techniques learned in the real world apply to Lusternia (I'm still making up my mind, but for the most part it seems to work).

There you have it. Vesar is a good mix of his own experiences and my personal experience and curiousity.

Edit: Those that know Vesar surely know of his gruff nature and dry, sarcastic humor. That's all me.

okay so I put MORE thought into my character than I intoned.

I planned out before I even started creation where I wanted to start with my character, where I wanted to go with him (THANK YOU SO MUCH PLAYERS! You are making it SO easy for me to go from point A to B with Saikado to!)

For those that wish to know the path I am intending, tough, too bad! XD If you want to discover, you'll have to RP with me!!

Heh, that's like my alt. I think I will have a lot of fun playing him out and seeing what he gets up to. I am really excited about it though so it's hard to keep my mouth shut and not go spouting off my plans everywhere .

I decided I wanted someone as different from my Achaean character as possible. I think I've succeeded.

Joli was sort of.. hrm.. I have no idea. I got her name from the french word for 'pretty', if you didn't know. Her homeplace is Delport, so of course she's all snuggleh and stuff. It was mostly because Emilynn asked me on achaea to roleplay as her sis.. and now I'm around more then her. She is actually quite devious. You people just don't know it.

Mostly her relationships with other people have formed who she is. They've warped her a lot.. Things that people have gotten her to do and her position in the guild. She's rather afraid to take a high leader position, but she loves to be busy with work. -hum-

Suhnaye is... Well, he was a very quiet, calm, and generally mild tempered person who avoided conflict for the most part. The name I just made up on the spot, I've no idea where I got it first, but one of my achaean characters was Sanai, so I just sort of put a lil more emphasis on certain sounds. Where he went though was completely spur of the moment type stuff, a lot of my own personality went into him, more than I usually let out in the real world. He met an amazing woman, and his family sort of shaped him from that point on... One of the most influencial parts of his life would have been the whole controversie over his daughter Yoninah... Then when Glomdoring was rebuilt, he knew there would be a huge conflict and refused to take a side, due to the split nature of his family which he places most of his loyalty tward.

He's always been more a Druidish personality, Never fit in with the whole fanatical beliefs of the Moondancers or Lisaera, loaths most types of prejudices, and believes if a person hates someone, it oughta be fore a better reason than what they look like or where they were born... For instance, he HATED Daevos for ages because he held a grudge against him for killin him in a raid... Few people ever knew it though...

Oh yeah, and he has a horrible distrust of Elder Gods, believes they're only more powerfull versions of Mortals, and should never be taken at face value, and most are far too sure of themselves... A large part of that mindset came from Viravains fall, Raezons lil trick, and all that stuff...

First-time poster, long-time lurker. Anyway.

Anyway, my alt is really the one I'm more excited about... he (yes, he) is a Blacktalon guild member. I don't know how I came up with him... perhaps it's just a combination of my current real-world emotions and how everything's been completely mixed up for me, and the desire I've always had to play a psychotic person... and to me, playing a psychotic male (not my gender) was going to be lots easier than playing a psychotic female (which is my gender... uh... me. Psychotic female = me).

Um. Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah. I wanted him to be more introverted, less snuggly, kind of... off in his own world. Hard to reach, but deep down, honestly loyal to that which he sees is right and good... seeing as how his history revolves around trauma while within Magnagora and his escape into 'untainted' lands.

He sees Glomdoring as his refuge, his sanctuary, despite the.. uh.. things that randomly attack him there. I had trouble adjusting to that after having my Serenwilde person, but eh, it adds to the creepiness of the forest and his ultimately psychotic personality.

Oo you're a blacktalon?? Which one! Snuck in and didn't even tell me

I'm that weird Josun kid. You were one of the first people to talk to 'im! Sorry I wasn't more... uh... bouncy. Like I said, been trying to roleplay him as introverted and somesuch thing.

nah I thought Josun was actually quite nice ok, will stop hijacking of this thread now >.>