Finding your story

Sybilla

Hello everyone, I'm very new so sorry if this isn't the right place to put this!

Back when I was a teenager, I used to participate on a few roleplay forums, and the story-lines tended to introduce characters who were already "grown" and fleshed out - alluding to their backgrounds or right out explaining them. They already had flaws, collected battle scars or treasures, might already have been leaders or famous rogues, or perhaps they were weak elders who nevertheless had wisdom or stories to share; this was understood and accepted by other participants and their characters, and the stories would move on with this information in mind.

Achaea is very different in this regard, and I'm really liking it this way. It's certainly a new challenge to start with a tabula rasa, learn about the world around you, and shape your story accordingly - by following your character and their decisions as they happen. The people I've met in the Occultists so far have been wonderful, and much more familiar in that they have already lived through varied events over the course of their lifetimes, from history-altering ones to more mundane everyday experiences. Many have families, (ex)spouses, estranged children or siblings, and it's really helping me feel like being part of a huge, intricate world, with so much to experience.

Which brings me to my point. So far, I've been mostly keeping to myself and reading a lot of Help scrolls to learn how things work in order to understand and interact with the world around me a bit better. Throw in this huge multi-god-killing event, (when I've only just become aware of a pantheon), and I'm finding myself feeling amazed, in awe, and terrified of the relevance and possibilities. My "roleplay" is mostly reactive, I mean, it would have to be! I'm a newbie after all. However, I-the-player am starting to feel frustration with Sybilla-the-character as I'm feeling little connection to her so far.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really, really enjoying everything I learn, and special thank you to my mentor @Amunet for being patient enough to not only tell me about history but answer all my questions in a way that helps place things in more of a sequence in my mind. I know that I'm not expected to have a story so far (I heard the explanation that the Trial of Rebirth can make your memory cloudy for your pre-18 life, which fitted well), though I do wish I knew a bit more about everything to be better able to place my character and understand her motivations, and actions, rather than just reactions and curious probing for information.

[TL;DR] So my question would be: at what point did you begin finding your stories? Are there particular events that you felt really set the ball rolling for fleshing out your characters? Do (or did) you feel this same need to place a background for a character, as basic as that might be? 

I feel that my lack of experience is contributing to weaker interaction with others. After all, conversation is much easier if there's a point you can relate to - for instance "yes, that must be tedious I imagine" will often close the topic, whereas "I know, just last month I found myself staring down a cliff when a travelling band kidnapped me and forced me to attend a lecture on angling" would probably open a few more talking points. 

Daslin

Found my story by accidentally calling a person, Barock, pops. Started the family part of his story. Then my character's full story kinda blossomed from there. Disappointment with certain things in a certain House. (I won't say, because it's more polite this way.)

Amunet

I started Amunet's background shortly after my character was bloodlined. Beldaran's a nice enough person, but it didn't take very long for me to realise what a huge mistake I had made letting that happen, haha. It was never the number of siblings that was off-putting, but the quality of those siblings' - and Amu's parents' - roleplay that led to the family being written off by my character. I came to understand that I couldn't keep ties to that family and be taken seriously in Achaea. So, I came up with a backstory that allowed me to distance my character in a believable fashion that didn't require me to explain, IC, that I'd screwed up and gotten bloodlined by the first person to ask me.  

So, first tip. A lot of your character's backstory is fabricated once you've decided whether or not you will be bloodlined by other players, and if so, who those players are, and how you interact with them. Be cautious, if you opt to be bloodlined! Don't make my mistake! Talk to potential parents about their expectations for their children, ensure that their RP and their goals meld with where you want to take your character, and get to know them personally - know and understand at least the basics of their religion. Observe their habits. Visit their home. Take note of how they interact with their other children, if they have any. Pay attention to how they behave in public, and how they treat other people. Anyone who wants your character as their child is, in conversation, going to make themselves out to be the best text-parent there has ever been. You may realise that in practise, however, they are less than you had hoped they would be.

Secondly, a lot of your character's reactive roleplay will end up forming part of your story. Once these incidents have passed, you will be able to flesh out the details, perhaps add a bit of drama, so that re-tellings are not so dull. Dying to a black rat because you ran out of health elixir could morph into an epic tale about having been bitten, by chance, on a major artery, then realising that your elixir had run dry, so you set off in a dead sprint all the way from Ashtan, running to Seasone's hut as a fountain of blood spewed from your wrist, only to drop dead mere seconds before making it into the door. As a result, you now have a passionate vendetta against rodentkind. You can dress up the most mundane situation and turn it into a pivotal experience in your character's history. It just takes a bit of practise.

Don't be afraid to ask questions about other character's lives. Often, asking something like, "Were you born in Ashtan?" will elicit an unexpected response. You're always going to get people who will give you a one-word answer and end the conversation, but most people are more than willing to discuss their backstory. Listening to them will give you more ideas for your own.

Your race is something you should also take into consideration. The Tsol'aa are the most ancient of the mortal races and they are renowned for their intelligence. Has your character always been a Tsol'aa? Did she grow up in their ancestral home in the Aalen forest? Or was she born to Tsol'aa parents who dwelled in a major city? Perhaps she wasn't a Tsol'aa at birth, or her race was an anomaly. Many people opt to claim parents of races different from their own, and explain away their own race as either a result of their Rebirth, or atavism. If you choose to be bloodlined, decisions regarding your race may be something on which you want to hold off until after you have found  your character's parents. It is still something you should begin thinking about, though!

Your city and your House can also play a role in your background, if you allow it. The Occultists and Ashtan both have long, incredible histories. Their cultures are distinct. You aren't going to find anything like them anywhere else in the game. Think about whether or not you wanted your character to grow up in those environments. Was she born and raised in Ashtan? Did she grow up in an Occultist family, and decide to join the Occultists to follow in the footsteps of her parents or siblings? Or did she undergo her Rebirth to escape the stifling boredom of rural life? Perhaps she hails from an enemy city - Shallam or Mhaldor - and decided to leave in an act of rebellion. There are plenty of ways to incorporate where you are now into the story of where you came from.

I hope this helps to get you started a little bit. If you're still having trouble fleshing out your story, or don't know where you want to take your character, don't be afraid to ask me for some help. Feel free to shoot me an OOC message, if you need.

Lodi

Basically, just go with the flow. There's nothing wrong with taking a back seat to begin with so you can watch and learn, in fact that's probably preferable. If you stick with it, there will be years of fun ahead of you. Often new players want to rush their way to greatness, but it rarely works out that way.

Gaining respect is more important than your level, your combat skill or your org rank. Focus on helping out your House and City, you'll learn loads, will slowly earn a good name for yourself and along the way your character's identity and story will solidify. Don't rush into anything. Take your time and all will work out in the end. Patience really is a virtue here.

Jiraishin

At this point I'm pretty sure the story Jiraishin has been giving since his Nameless interview is a lie.

Depending on the kind of character you play, you could RP making something up. But yeah, I'd wait until you've at least explored areas and seen if anything strikes you as appropriate to your character.

Synbios

After going dormant for a few years, I - and by extension, Synbios - have forgotten my backstory, except for his childish fascination with Lucaine Pyramides's legend. Thusly, my character is the type to live in the present, with little care for the past.

Wysteria

A lot of the story for Wyst just developed by chance. She started out as a loner orphan rogue who was always independent and relied on herself, hung around both Mhaldor and Eleusis for a year or so, then met her mentor-to-be while exploring Eirenwaar which then led to her being obsessed with exploring, questing, being a hard arse and eventually joining the Sylvanic Fellowship as a scholar. Really a lot of her RP developed because of her mentor and his ideals matching hers back in the beginning, the fact he's dormant now makes it more important in the way she behaves around people and her outlook on life.

This was also around the time Mhaldor and Ashtan would raid Eleusis 5 times daily, so I took that as further opportunity to make her short tempered for a time and accustomed to raids at an early age. As the years went by she's gained friends she treats as family (never bloodlined) and has friends in other factions that people just don't get along with, but that's how she rolls and she doesn't care. Still going strong in this House 60 ic years later.

As @Lodi mentioned, the best way is to just go with the flow. Improvise, see what happens, and from there you might just be surprised at how your story develops. Let your character accept the consequences, the punishments, learn the lessons and gain/lose the friendships as that's how life is. Your character will be all the better for it. More depth.

Your House and City can also allow for your story to develop further. They can help shape and change your path, be it positive or negative.

Take your time. You've plenty Welcome to Achaea!

Cinya

Here's my advice: 

1) Take advantage of the fact that the Trial of Rebirth makes you forget things, and take your time in coming up with your backstory. It's better to take a little longer and manufacture a few awkward responses early on, to ensure that your long-term history is something you really want to run with. 

2) Feel free to tell stories of parents for awhile if you feel the need to, even if you might want to get bloodlined later on. You can always say "oh, those weren't my blood parents, they just adopted/raised me", or even if it's early enough, that you remembered wrong. 

3) Mostly importantly, don't feel the need to come up with a crazy intricate backstory - I always tell people that it's more interesting what your character thinks about her backstory and how it shaped her than what it actually consists of. For example, I made Cinya's story purposefully bland (orphan, raised in the Church), but she has a lot of random little anecdotes from that time period about terrorizing the other children. 

Tahquil

Pretty much echoing what everyone here is saying about taking advantage of amnesia.

Don't get hooked up on the small details. It is much easier to forge who you are and throw together a backstory later. Pick a few quirks to your character and RP them out. It'll make people sit up and pay attention and want to be in the story you are creating. You might do something and someone might ask why you dis it and you can make it up as you go, sorta like using the populace as a bouncing board for ideas. (Which in my opinion is so much better that sitting down and trying to set things in stone.) 

Full detailed, novel length backstory tellings rarely happen in my experience. I have a backstory but I don't think anyone knows it. Not even @Mathonwy both IC or OOC knows it. However her quirks tend to make her hmmm.... not very socially adept so not many people will RP with her which is a major downer.

Morro

It might be kind of neat to RP a character who doesn't remember her history and makes up wild stories to cover up the fact. I wish I'd thought of that when I made Morro.

I had something written out for her, but scrapped it before telling anyone and I think it even became a little fiction piece for the House. Her story never really got started until some months after her creation when @Amunet bloodlined her and started making up stories on the spot about her childhood. So I took those and used them as a sort of framework, integrating characteristics that I wanted, and shaped the whole thing into who Morro is now. It was a whole lot more fun than what I'd originally planned, and I'm glad it turn out that way.

Don't be afraid of coming off as weak at first, this is completely acceptable for a new character. Sit back and absorb as much as you can and make use of it. And, most importantly, have fun. The whole process of RPing out a character is useless if you're not enjoying it.

Jurixe

I personally think it's a good thing to have some sort of idea of the character you want to portray/become. I know you're new to Achaea and will probably be feeling quite confused/unsure of the history and stuff of most things, so my suggestion (which you're already doing, so keep it up!) is to try and learn as much as you can about things around you, and decide where you fit in in this sort of setting.

Stories are written over time, and you're only beginning yours. We don't always have the entire background of a character explained to us in the first chapter - that comes as adventures happen, they react, it forms experiences that give them a history and shapes their future actions. You're still only on chapter one! 

It might be useful for you to focus on one central thing in the background of your character - for instance, I had Jurixe have a single memory from her pre-Trial days - that of standing absolutely still in the corner while her father conducted a round-table meeting with a lot of important-looking people, because she was afraid of being tortured etc if she dared to move.

From there I was able to build a lot of things into the character - complete obedience to authority, familiarity with pain and suffering, formality, and such. It was vague enough that I could change it as needed to suit the environment and the following RP that eventually led to her getting bloodlined, but it also provided a beginning point from which I could start defining some characteristics to make the character seem alive.

My final piece of advice is - if you're trying to feel a connection with your character, try to make her seem more real. Use emotes, try to incorporate things that you the person wouldn't normally do so that you actively have to think like your character to react to situations. You're living the story that you're also trying to write. I often find myself pausing and thinking, 'how would Jurixe react to this?' and that makes her seem more distinct as a character I am playing, to me, than if it was a fantasy version of myself.

Tvistor

I uh...

I mainly execute my citymates. That's about it.

I feel so empty.

Sybilla

Amunet said:

Your race is something you should also take into consideration. The Tsol'aa are the most ancient of the mortal races and they are renowned for their intelligence. Has your character always been a Tsol'aa? Did she grow up in their ancestral home in the Aalen forest? Or was she born to Tsol'aa parents who dwelled in a major city? Perhaps she wasn't a Tsol'aa at birth, or her race was an anomaly. 

Thank you very much for such a thorough reply, it's put a lot into perspective, and there's some good points I could bounce ideas off of. The race aspect of it would probably have been the more obvious one! With everything else to learn and absorb I'd completely forgotten about that, and now I have a new avenue to start exploring.

Lodi said:

Often new players want to rush their way to greatness, but it rarely works out that way. 

Gaining respect is more important than your level, your combat skill or your org rank.

I can see how that can be the case, I'm quite content to wait and build up a steady reputation over time, rather than assume that I can gain esteem at age 20. It's not that I want to be great right away, more that I feel (Sybilla is) a bit transitory as is, and would love to be able to form some kind of persona in my head so I can more easily roleplay her consistently. It's easier to justify her actions if I am aware of why she might act that way, if that makes sense?

Thank you for your reply, it's reassuring to know that it's not a problem to go slower!

@Wysteria That sounds very accessible, a lot of people mention bloodlining, so it's interesting that you've been able to carve out your place in the world without having your background placemarked by a family. I'm really looking forward to being more involved with the House, I think sometimes the "entity" of an organisation can be as (if not more) influential on a person's development than individual people. 

@Cinya Reassuring to know it's ok to have a few false starts! I think the post-rebirth-amnesia will prove quite useful in testing a few venues and then either recuperating from them if I decide they don't quite fit, or go the full circle and end up as one of the mad Tsol'aan occultists... Thanks!

@Tahquil No, exactly. It's more a record that I-the-player wish to have, so when presented with new information/situations, I can accurately understand and enact what Sybilla would do, rather than what I-the-player think it'd be cool to do at that point for ooc motivations.

Morro said:

It might be kind of neat to RP a character who doesn't remember her history and makes up wild stories to cover up the fact. I wish I'd thought of that when I made Morro.  

I suppose you always have dementia as an option! :P

That's an idea, actually! I could try a few avenues with different people she meets, and none of them know which one she's telling the truth to (if any), whether she's demented and doesn't know herself, or whether she's purposefully being deceitful for some unknown purpose. I'd rather not be ousted as a turncoat not a few IC years after joining, but it could open conflict RP avenues a bit earlier. Hmm, I shall have to think about it.

Jurixe said:

My final piece of advice is - if you're trying to feel a connection with your character, try to make her seem more real. Use emotes, try to incorporate things that you the person wouldn't normally do so that you actively have to think like your character to react to situations. You're living the story that you're also trying to write. I often find myself pausing and thinking, 'how would Jurixe react to this?' and that makes her seem more distinct as a character I am playing, to me, than if it was a fantasy version of myself. 

Excellent advice, thank you. That's exactly what I'm trying to achieve in the day-to-day roleplay, some way to feel realistic and consistent within Achaea. I really loved the one singular memory from before the Trial, it has a lot of potential, thank you for sharing that with me.

On the other side of the coin, are there any tropes and overdone RP lines that you're absolutely sick of? Back in the forum-RP days, we tended to frown upon the orphan gone rogue finds out he's sole heir to kingdom he didn't even know about and dedicates life to avenging his father whom he'd never met, and other such grandiose arcs.

I'm thinking of collecting a few turns of phrases and developing a certain cadence of language so that I can more easily dip into "ok, I'm playing as Sybilla now". I really dislike doing accents, so I hope I don't need to resort to that, I just feel that because this is a "live" RPG it'll be too easy to treat it like a glorified chatroom, and I feel that language is probably one of the first ways you present yourself to others. 

Any suggestions of what to avoid would be greatly appreciated!

Arlanda

Tvistor said:

I uh...

I mainly execute my citymates. That's about it.

I feel so empty.

Erm... You can go execute mates from other cities then.

Mishgul

Carmain dumped two of his kids in a cave, and two more into nuskuwe. It all worked out pretty well.

Beya

I think players get too bogged down in events that didn't happen (backstories) and stop focusing on the ones that can.

For example, your house does not allow you to befriend people from other cities. Talk to people from other cities. Roleplay and emote with them, even if it's hostile. Just remember to be hostile to the character and not the player.

You don't need to know what Lady Caitrin's hair colour was to have a good time. All the advice you're getting here is very sound, and you have a great attitude to respecting canon. Just don't forget to play the game. You're allowed to make mistakes and be corrected.

In addition, talk about current events and common canon. If someone hasn't asked directly for your backstory, they won't want to know how you were an orphan in Shallam twenty five years ago.

Get a grip on three adjectives for your character and go forward from there.

Find someone your character can aspire to. Leaders in your house are a great way to start.

Beya

On the other side of the coin, are there any tropes and overdone RP lines that you're absolutely sick of?

Yes, but they can all be solved by having a simple backstory, following the description for your race as set out in HELP <RACENAME>, not including the word 'boobs', 'breasts' or 'cleavage' in your description and sticking to themes you have first hand and experience of.

For example, if your class cannot summon daemons, and you have no idea what a daemon looks like or the history involved, you should not roleplay summoning daemons or having a profane knowledge of them. 

(For the curious, demons are different to daemons. The difference is Chaos/Inferno respectively).

TL;DR play it cool, @Sybilla. Make mistakes and learn things. It doesn't take a knowledge of the entire history to emote a smile.

Alyssea

Sybilla said:

On the other side of the coin, are there any tropes and overdone RP lines that you're absolutely sick of? 

Along with what @Beya said, don't RP a stutterer, someone who can't speak and writes on a tablet instead, or someone with some weird kind of permanent injury that makes no sense, like having a permanent mangled arm, when restoration/mending could easily fix that.

Delphinus

Backgrounds are nice, but as you observed, they aren't hugely important. (Honestly, mine's a fairly generic "orphaned by bandits" thing.) Far more important are the events that happen in real time. This can be something as huge as a factional war or the death of a god, or it can be a smaller, more personal tableau: the defecting of a friend or mentor, reaching or failing a personal goal, et cetera. Growth and development will happen organically.

Learning the lore of the world is absolutely critical to avoiding faux pas, though a simple background (the best kind) can usually scrape by on the bare essentials. Amunet's pretty well-versed in these things, but feel free to ask me as well. I can nerd out at the drop of a dime.

As for myself? Rho's reformation of the Church, the Crimson War, the Eternal Night, becoming a city councillor, and the War of the Underworld have all had an impact on my character's views and motives.

Lodi

Sybilla said:

Any suggestions of what to avoid would be greatly appreciated!

Don't be a ten foot tall dwarf.

Jiraishin

On a related note, don't put exact heights (like, 'She is 5 foot 3 inches) in your description if you don't know how tall the races are. Especially please don't put 'She is of average height, standing at 5 foot 3 inches' or things like that --average, on the short side, unusually tall,you get the idea-- if you aren't absolutely sure that those heights really are average, tall, or short by general standards. Pet peeve of mine.

Amunet

In regard to tropes, @Sybilla, I wrote something a couple of years back on that very subject. I'll re-post it in a revised form, in a separate thread, in response to your question. So far, you've been doing exceptionally well as an Occultist, and you have avoided any roleplay that we've considered particularly obnoxious. Hopefully, the thread will help you continue that way!

Sybilla

@Beya Thanks for that, I really like the three adjectives advice, I think that could really help give me a framework for Sybilla. Mainly I'm trying to learn about my faction and what it is (and isn't) before I go spouting off on unfounded arguments. I'm not so much interested (right now) in what's happened to me before the Trial, as I mentioned it's more of a case of I-the-player wanting to know how to portray my character in a way that fits her. The story will find and mould itself around her once I get that basic skeleton in mind.

@Alyssea Understood. She's a young and fit Tsol'aa, it wouldn't make sense for her to have an impediment like that, especially since she was fit enough to go through the Trial without mumbling the spoken commands. The one language discrepancy I'd like to play out is a haughty dislike of other races' penmanship, she'd view Tsol'aa (hand)writing as more elegant, but I've not yet done anything in this regard and we'll see how it plays out. Would you suggest against that?

Delphinus said:

Learning the lore of the world is absolutely critical to avoiding faux pas, though a simple background (the best kind) can usually scrape by on the bare essentials. Amunet's pretty well-versed in these things, but feel free to ask me as well. I can nerd out at the drop of a dime.

Thank you, that's exactly why I've preferred to keep quiet and read and listen, rather than barge in and start spouting off with no real purpose. I'm finding everything fascinating so far, it's a really intricate place, I'm hoping that I can learn the basics fast enough so I can start exploring further afield. I might have to take you up on your offer maybe.

@Lodi and @Jiraishin - I'll confess, though I've learned to speak English 11 years ago, I still for the life of me have no clue how to use Imperial measures, and I find them very jarring somehow. I prefer using arbitrary points of references, which I suppose won't always work but it makes things a bit more colourful.

If it helps any, this is her description:

She is a graceful tsol'aa with skin the colour of aged parchment and eyes of striking malachite. Her stature is ordinary for one of her race: a couple of hands-breadths above the average human, but no higher than the tallest among them. Unlike many of her brethren, she is not graced by dainty or rounded features, but is a medley of angular traits. Her high cheekbones draw attention to her heavy-lidded eyes, thick-lashed and set under well-groomed but full eyebrows. Coupled with a strong jawline and proud nose, she appears of hawkish countenance. Her physique is sinewy and firm, with long, supple limbs; her waist gently tapers inwards from her hips and shoulders. Twin braids depart from her temples, circling her cranium, and meet at the back of her head in an elegant plait. She wears the rest of her rusty tresses unbound, they flow to her lower back in waves. Her gait is confident and her posture sober, and she gesticulates prominently as she speaks. She is wearing a canvas backpack, a feminine pair of white high heeled shoes, a deck of tarot cards, and a scallop-arrayed grey silk tulle gown.

I've used the HELP TSOL'AA and the character creation picture to come up with something that I'm comfortable with. Do let me know if I'm messing up, I've not encountered many (non-plague-infested) Tsol'aa.

Chryenth

Whilst I'm not a prolific roleplayer, descriptions are something I can deal with.

Yours is excellent, especially for someone who I assume speaks English as a 2nd+ language. (Feel free to correct me if that assumption id wrong.) There are one or two little things, but they're not worth pointing out, really. As an Occultist, and more generally, you might want to expand on your description as time passes, both temporarily and permanently.

By which I mean, using Chryenth as an example - as he came back from a long period of dormancy, I changed his hair from being jet black to being flecked with grey, to make it seem like he was an older character. (Perpetual youth be damned.)

Temporarily, I had a ritual go awry and blow Chryenth's eyebrows off. Then they half grew back, then they were fine and vanished from his description. All over the course of four RL days, I think.

Alyssea

Sybilla said:

The one language discrepancy I'd like to play out is a haughty dislike of other races' penmanship, she'd view Tsol'aa (hand)writing as more elegant, but I've not yet done anything in this regard and we'll see how it plays out. Would you suggest against that?

Nope, that sounds absolutely fine. 

Jhaeli

Something that I didn't notice if it's already been specifically mentioned - don't be afraid of adding small quirks that no one may ever notice to your character.

For example, as I've said in previous theatre threads, it's been years since I gave Jhaeli a severe dislike for chocolate - but she still gets plenty as gifts from friendly Cyrenians all the time. So she usually slips them onto the pedestal at Centre Crossing or will give them away to someone else, without ever saying anything about it because she feels it's more chivalrous to accept them all with a smile and quietly pass them on to another to enjoy. And I don't think anyone knows ICly that Jhaeli is deathly afraid of leeches and will do everything in her power to avoid ever entering the sewers, while mentally making excuses, etc.

Little things like this will make YOU more connected to your character, even if they never actually come up in conversation. Many of these get developed over the years as incidents happen, but feel free to ask yourself questions like "What is Sybilla's greatest fear, the one no one must ever know?" "What is Sybilla's favourite colour and/or fabric?" "If you could pick ONE adjective to describe Sybilla, what would it be?" and so forth. Then when certain incidents do come up, you'll at least have an idea of how Sybilla might react to it, even if it's something as simple as being given a piece of chocolate.

Wysteria

@Sybilla: Yeah I have some minor issues with the somewhat convoluted system that is bloodlining. Just seems weird for me really. It's actually quite the conversation starter when people realise Wyst is totally devoid of a family tree and didn't even get married til 60+ years old. She still gets chased by various people who want to adopt her in, but I've made a point for her that she's not clingy or needy of people and is quite independent—since her history was that she was alone most of her time before Trial.

She had the typical why-join-Nature bg of a fire raging through her village and the guardian going missing, so that lead to her character type as being strong of will and resourceful. This also explains her perma-sooty wings and huge scars taking her entire right arm. (if you ever the chance to run into her and take a gander).

Every little aspect of your character's current personality can link to what they were like as a fledgling. You'll work it out. Also, your description is brilliantly well written.

Sybilla

@Chryenth Thanks, that sounds awesome, and definitely something I'd be up for doing. I'm thinking of having her turn up to her last novice test with bags under her eyes, dishevelled hair that tries to look presentable, and a general aura of stayed-up-all-night-drinking-coffee-and-studying type look. I think with forum-RP you get much more into the nuances and changes of a character as the story progresses, so that's definitely something I can transfer into Achaea when it's small and controllable like someone's appearance.

And yep, English is my second (or maybe third?) language, so please do point out any mistakes I end up making!

@Jhaeli That's really great advice, and exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! Character likes and dislikes, fears and loves are probably the easiest way to begin making them realistic, thank you so much for pointing it out.

@Wysteria I think I'd agree with you. Time seems to be moving really fast in Achaea, I've only just managed to remember what command does what, and Sybilla's already 21! I feel that I want to really work on her personality in a way that I'm happy with before I'd consider shoeing her into a family. I'm sure that the bloodline RP makes things much more detailed, but for now it's a bit overwhelming. Good to know it's not necessary to have a good characted!

Chryenth

Honestly, your English is pretty flawless from what I've read so far. I for one am in no position to correct you.

Small alterations to descriptions are something I really enjoy in Achaea. 

Talonia

One of the best ways you can learn is asking older Occultists questions, and watching the way they build or reveal stories about themselves.  Especially watch the way they interact with each other in seemingly meaningless and mundane situations - it's breathtakingly IC, and while routine, often includes significant character development.  

Trey

@Jurixe brought up a great point. You have to RP somewhat different from yourself in order to be a -good- roleplayer. For instance, -I-, Joshua, the player, enjoy fantastic lagers and ales, have more than a passing interest in blacksmithing, flirt shamelessly with most women, and I ....

Shit I'm doing it wrong... 

:-S