The idea:
Tell us your tale, he history of your character, how he/she came into existence.
Obviously you have invested a lot of time into advancing your alter ego, and you might have had some (vague) idea as to why you chreated him/her as you did.
I see this as a chance to add some depth to our role-playing experiences and to get to know more about our "online-family".
If you want to share your story, please do. There is no required length or anything, just go ahead. No need to be as narrative as my example below

This is the story of Claws, born of a small tribe of Sslik, in the swamps
north of Sslanis.
He is somewhat "special" - only rarely is one of bluish skin born to the Sslik. Growing up it became clear, that he was also a rather short specimen as Sslik go. Naturally that made him the target of a lot of speculation and jokes. (despite lots of jokes pointing this way,there is no known fiendish blood in his nest - his lack of magic skills seem to confirm that)

Trying to compensate for his lack of height he chose the way of the spear early on. The spear is not a traditional sslik weapon, but after seeing a couple of "thin-skinned" humans armed with spears fight a dragon and survive (well most of them) he followed them to their settlement. In this new settlement, halfway between Sslanis and the cats, he learned about humans and other races. He heard tales of far away land and adventures to be had. But most important of all, he heard of one Wei. A master of the spear, who was supposedly willing to train anyone, who showed sufficent promise with this piercing weapon. However this man was living in a great human city across the sea. (Sslik are not really known for their seafaring skills) From this day on, more than anything he wanted to be trained as a spearman.

So he went back to the swamp where his tribe made their home, to raise enough money for the voyage and to hone his fighting skills of course. He worked hard, to leave the swamp behind him. Despite his growing fighting skills, for which he was finally accepted and respected among his peers, he had gotten used to being alone. And so he was only rarely seen in their settlement. Bringing his many throphies at dawn or dusk, his favourite time of day, shrouded in the fog of the marshland. This helped to camouflage his skin colour and earned him his surname "Sumpfschatten", which vaguely translates into "shadow of the swamp". Even today he keeps it as a reminder of his heritage.
When the day to leave finally came, he took his makeshift armor and spear, enough money to make the voyage and dropped everything else where it could easily be found by his tribe. Thus burning the bridges behind him and vanishing into the shadow.

It was easily the most joyful day of his young life, when Wei accepted him as a pupil. All the hardships of his youth and the long trip where forgotten. Wei took him in, teached him and got him small jobs, so he could pay for his equipment and every day needs. After the training session Wei would teach Claws about the customs of the other races, about foreign lands and friendship.
But the day came when his skills surpassed even those of his trainer and mentor. So Wei told him to travel the world, meet people and seek his own adventures.

For a short while he became a merchant, dealing in the throphies he had hunted. He was prospering for a time, but soon learned, that he couldn't keep up with the demand, so he "sold his stocks" and went back to full time adventureing.

Present day:
To date Claws has never met a better spear-wielder in all Istaria(Wind). He met a lot of other warrior-types though and learned to respect their ways. He found that most of them hit harder, even a lot harder than he can, but he makes up for that with speed and agility. He also seems to be very resistant to magical attacks, which maybe a boon of his peculiar colour.
During his exploits he has joined a group of frontiermen, calling themselves Order of Reclamation. Having grown accustomed to the the ways of non-swamp-dwelling people, he even bought a piece of land for himself in a frontier town. (with easy access to practicing-targets)
Whenever he gets the chance, he returns to his old friend Wei, to trade tales. And usually Wei has a job waiting for him.
He has returned to the swamp on occasion, but only if one of his jobs required it.


On a less romantic note,
I chose Sslik purely for the regenerating ability, while reading the booklet. Iam very happy with this choice, and wouldn't choose different, if I had a second chance. Spearman class appealed to me as being somewhat differnt from the regular warrior and not too mainstream. As it turned out spearmen are rather few, so I am really happy with this choice as well. As you can see my main motivation is adventure. I plan to resume building/crafting once I reach level 99 as a spearman and 69 as a cleric, but a possible level cap raise or new(really new) mobs will get me back to hunting rather fast. At the beginning I tried to level blacksmith and warrior simultaneously, but got bored with the grind fast. So I leveled by eating crystals and buying ready-made bars from people with my adventure savings. Building skills are another matter, I enjoyed those a bit more, having my own plot. I have been entertaining thoughts about leveling spiritist as well, because these are by far the meanest opponents out there and they get one-hand-pierce.

Claws was born December 6th, 2003 and has been in this world for a length of time that equals 37 days.

This is the Story of Arcat, Cleric of Irdorath


Long before Arcat walked around in the World of Istaria, she was well known as the 'unnamed Hero' roaming the realms of Khorinis.

Her soul was bound to a Paladin Warrior with versatile skills in blacksmithing. After the Paladin banished the Sleeper, guarded the remnants of Quarhodron and defeated the undead dragon of Irdorath it was time to move on - Many months passed while searching a new host but finally Arcat met a promising, soulless body - a gifted human girl who wandered around "New Trismus", earning a living by selling Bounty Markers to Pawnbrokers.


Arcat spent many weeks at New Trismus, learning the basics of lumbering and smelting - and also defeating inoffensive but still challenging maggots. She soon discovered the blighted areas - grennish, foggy valleys harboring uncountable undead tribes; The Withered Aegis, as she learned later on the occupying force called themselves, spreaded themselves all over the country, guarding strategically important locations to enforce the destruction of all living beings.

She decided to act - and help to reclaim what was lost. This was the moment Arcat left the Island of New Trismus and started to explore another and much bigger Island called "Lesser Aradoth". Right after the arrival in Sslanis she saw there is much work to do: Lots of unfinished Machines at some Mountaintops and tons of nasty Beasts which turn important resources into blighted ones. To master the Mace didn't seem to be the fastest and only way to re-establish Istaria - besides Battles there was actually work to do.

Arcat realized it will be hard to fight the Withered Aegis all by herself - the undead has done big harm to the world already, it was about time to team up and improve her skills! She joined the 'Order of Reclamation' - a bunch of Fellows with impressive skills in crafting and adventuring - A combination, as she still thinks today, which is best to approach to the WA!

As of now Arcat is Expert Fletcher and Carpenter and still aiming to provide more building parts as Enchanter and Fitter. Her Goddess helped her to receive lots of experience in the Cleric school, to gain some serious heal and crush skills. She will not rest until Istaria is fully liberated.




Best,
Arcat

ps: will care about typos a bit later ;-)

*bump*

Just wanted to bring this "RP" section to the attention of our new members.

(the player written content contest reminded me of our own lore section)


hmmm I wonder if Claws' story can be turned into a quest???
i.e. follow the path of the hero, learn his legend and find some of his belongings....
...have to think about this...

reworking my original "claws story" for contest entry
don't have ms word, so I do it here hoping that Arcat can convert this text into .doc format for me later
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Claws, the early days (pre-merge)

This is the story of Claws, born of a small tribe of Sslik, in the swamps
north of Sslanis.
He is somewhat "special" - only rarely is one of bluish skin born to the Sslik. Growing up it became clear, that he was also a rather short specimen as Sslik go. Naturally that made him the target of a lot of speculation and jokes. (despite lots of jokes pointing this way,there is no known fiendish blood in his nest - his lack of magic skills seem to confirm that)

Trying to compensate for his lack of height he chose the way of the spear early on. The spear is not a traditional sslik weapon, but after seeing a couple of "thin-skinned" humans armed with spears fight a dragon and survive (well most of them) he followed them to their settlement. In this new settlement, halfway between Sslanis and the cats, he learned about humans and other races. He heard tales of far away land and adventures to be had. But most important of all, he heard of one Wei. A master of the spear, who was supposedly willing to train anyone, who showed sufficent promise with this piercing weapon. However this man was living in a great human city across the sea. (Sslik are not really known for their seafaring skills) From this day on, more than anything he wanted to be trained as a spearman.

So he went back to the swamp where his tribe made their home, to raise enough money for the voyage and to hone his fighting skills of course. He worked hard, to leave the swamp behind him. Despite his growing fighting skills, for which he was finally accepted and respected among his peers, he had gotten used to being alone. And so he was only rarely seen in their settlement. Bringing his many throphies at dawn or dusk, his favourite time of day, shrouded in the fog of the marshland. This helped to camouflage his skin colour and earned him his surname "Sumpfschatten", which vaguely translates into "shadow of the swamp". Even today he keeps it as a reminder of his heritage.
When the day to leave finally came, he took his makeshift armor and spear, enough money to make the voyage and dropped everything else where it could easily be found by his tribe. Thus burning the bridges behind him and vanishing into the shadow.

It was easily the most joyful day of his young life, when Wei accepted him as a pupil. All the hardships of his youth and the long trip where forgotten. Wei took him in, teached him and got him small jobs, so he could pay for his equipment and every day needs. After the training session Wei would teach Claws about the customs of the other races, about foreign lands and friendship.
But the day came when his skills surpassed even those of his trainer and mentor. So Wei told him to travel the world, meet people and seek his own adventures.

For a short while he became a merchant, dealing in the throphies he had hunted. He was prospering for a time, but soon learned, that he couldn't keep up with the demand, so he "sold his stocks" and went back to full time adventureing.

Claws never met a better spear-wielder in all Istaria(Wind). He met a lot of other warrior-types though and learned to respect their ways. He found that most of them hit harder, even a lot harder than he can, but he makes up for that with speed and agility. He also seems to be very resistant to magical attacks, which maybe a boon of his peculiar colour.
During his journeys he befriended a group of likeminded people, frontiermen, calling themselves "Order of Reclamation" and joined up with them soon after. Having grown accustomed to the the ways of non-swamp-dwelling people and slowly learning to trust people again, he even bought a piece of land for himself in a frontier town. (with easy access to practicing-targets)
Whenever he got the chance, he returned to his old friend Wei, to trade tales. And usually Wei had a job waiting for him.
He has returned to the swamp on occasion, but only if one of his jobs required it.
Having been part of the raiding parties that took out the satyr-enslaving machines and therefore played a large part in freeing their entire race has been his proudest adventureing moment so far.

Present day: (post-merge)
As the world changed, so did the needs of his new-found family. They have relocated to an island and founded their own town "tavu". And so Claws too dismantled his humble home and moved in with them.
In the meantime he had the chance to further study his art in Feladan. After the great elven city was freed from the malicious influence of the Withered Aegis, an elven master of the spear took up residence there and agreed to work with him.
But soon the fey master had little left to teach and Claws got bored of city life again....

As more and more frontierlands and islands were discovered, more and more riches where to be had, but those gains came at a terrible price. Ever stronger were the monsters that the pioneers encountered on their forays.
A new vicious breed of Withered Aegis mob made itself known: the Kwellen, strong, brutish, hulking biped bulls with batwings. In their wake followed vexators, aegregors, abominations, and a new stronger breed of undead too.
As the stakes rose, so did the bounties paid for the enemy's trophies.
So naturally he went back to trophy hunting for a living, soon after he managed to aquire the needed funds to commission a customized, state of the art chainmail armor, colored like the moonlit night for himself.

So now he stands on the last frontier at the gates of the recently errected outpost at the gates to the Deadlands, the domain of the Withered Aegis.
Equipped in the finest armor and weapon, reinforced by the strongest spells and potions that are known to the gifted. Shoulder to shoulder (or shoulder to foreleg in some cases) with the best the gifted have to offer.
He still feels somewhat unprepared for the onslaught the Withered Aegis is preparing even now. The first small skirmishes around the outpost where costly enough to somber the moods of even the cockiest berserkers.
Dark days lie ahead ....

When off-duty he tries to get his mind of the impending doom by watching his draconic brethern endlessly circlying in the skies above, marveling at their grace and speed. Ever since they rediscovered their heritage and the great dragonflights that followed has he put all his hopes for the survival of the gifted on their strong wings. Having recently heard rumors that they are about to uncover long lost secrets to even greater might, he can't help but dream of one day being able to fly into battle on the back of one of them.


On a less romantic note,
I chose Sslik purely for the regenerating ability, while reading the booklet. Iam very happy with this choice, and wouldn't choose different, if I had a second chance. Spearman class appealed to me as being somewhat differnt from the regular warrior and not too mainstream. As it turned out spearmen are rather few, so I am really happy with this choice as well. As you can see my main motivation is adventure.

Claws was born December 6th, 2003 and has been in this world for a length of time that equals ?? days.

Claws this is incredible stuff... especially the part with you standing at the outpost

thumbs up!