GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

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Drop on by, introduce yourself, and let us know how you found us. In addition, don't be afraid to tell us what you'd like to get out of your Mizahar experience. Check out the stickies for more information.

GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Claud Manske on May 25th, 2014, 2:32 am

1. Name - or what you'd like to be called!

My name is Steve, and saying it is probably the easiest way to get my attention. I'm kind of a capricious bastard and change my account and screen names all the time, but some of the name's I've rocked on other writing forums include:

- indica apostate
- Ironfang
- Gelid Brutality
- Adjunct Birdcatcher
- Mister Mask
- [ LOL ]
- Obturador

etc. etc.

2. What sort of RP experience do you have if any?


Ah, man. Sometimes I feel like I've been writing my whole life, but I know I got my start from my mother. I was raised in what some would consider an over-the-top religious environment, and for the better part of my childhood reading and writing offered a cathartic sort of escape from that. Ministerial School stifled a lot of things for me, but my mother always made sure that reading and writing each had an unrestricted presence in my life. I started roleplaying on Blizzard's b.net when I was 12, and was subsequently raised into the global roleplaying community by its creeps and geeks.

Now I'm 25, and instead of full-time ministry I run a medical marijuana dispensary in WA. While my lifestyle has changed dramatically (and I no longer part my hair or wear button-ups), I never stopped writing- or roleplaying- and my line of work gives me inordinate amounts of spare time to do both. I've held the top slot for highest-rated and 'Most Liked' threads on Valucre.com since I found out about it, and was briefly picked up as a staff member there to help revamp their lore. I've been (apologetically) active on Gaiaonline.com in the past, as well as Roleplay Adventures, Roleplayer Kingdom, and a few chat-based mediums. Some of my fondest memories include roleplaying on notebooks and passing them back and forth with friends in high school, and I still roll between forums with those same friends today.

Outside of roleplaying I've been published twice, I've won several awards for my poetry, I've sold lyrics to and smoked out some of my favorite bands, I've done freelance work writing content for video games and tabletop roleplaying compendiums, I've contributed articles to pot magazines like DOPE and Northwest Leaf, and I've used my awesome pen powers to woo dames and shame fools. :D

For a writing sample, here's a link to a horror event I'm hosting right now-

http://www.valucre.com/index.php?/topic/21313-fete-ghede-pale-libations/

and its sister thread:

http://www.valucre.com/index.php?/topic/21504-fete-ghede-warehouse-of-horrors/

3. How did you find us?

Mizahar is the only roleplaying site online that has a better user rating than Valucre. Myself and a large group of members there have been feeling kind of disenfranchised for a while, so I figured I'd give you guys a shot. :)

4. What sort of RP style is your favorite?


Errr...

5. What do you like to write about - not write about?

When it comes to roleplaying, I'm really just looking for a setting that's fertile soil for story development. Like most active roleplayers I'm talented and quietly kind of an attention whore, so I need a large community with a higher likelihood for reciprocation.

6. Whats your favorite thing about Mizahar so far?

The scale and depth of your lore, and the talent pool of your writers. While loose-knit forums like RPK, RPA, and Val seem to be favored spots for young hentai and cat-fox-demon-vampire-SEMPAAAAIII roleplayers from Gaia to fly south to, Mizahar seems like an inhospitably adult brick wall built for rude writing awakenings. I'm pretty sure I actually read in some info thread that those kinds of stock characters are forbidden outright based on your lore, which is dope. A lot of forums are entirely open ended and permissive in order to be conciliatory to everyone, and I think you lose something in a setting by letting it be that fucking mercurial.

7. What, if anything, has frustrated you about Mizahar so far?

I don't think I know enough about Mizahar to toss criticism around quite yet, but I'm getting an initial sense that the site's primary member base or administration has developed an activity-based progression system, in order to ensure that the only members who are powerful enough to effect the story in a big way are the members who are the most active. I get it, but I already know based on my own personality flaws that I'll get frustrated quickly if less capable writers are more powerful, and express that power often. On a basic level, its the whole reason I don't play MMO's and don't fuck with table-top roleplays... I hate waiting, and if competition is involved, I check out the second its based on anything other skill.

That may be a completely moot thought though, since I haven't even figured out how face-offs work in Mizahar (or if they even happen, lol).

8. What would you like out of the mizahar experience?

I'd like to make some new friends and get involved in anything large or exciting in scale. I have -no- idea where I plan to start, so if anyone felt like BSing with me, filling me in on overarching plots and showing me around, that would be most righteous.

9. Is there anything you'd like to see expanded?


Cooommbaaaaaaaat!

10. Anything else you want to talk about?


...

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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Gad on May 25th, 2014, 5:58 am

Welcome Steve.

Pick Sunberth.

That is all.

Edit: I lied. Your account name has to be IDENTICAL to your PC name. If your PC's name is Animal Sacrifice (Mr.Sacrifice) then that's fine. I'm not judging. Just a heads up.
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Annalisa Marin on May 25th, 2014, 6:17 am

By Sunberth he means Sahova of course.

Anyway, welcome to Mizahar. Gad's statement about the username is correct and also you should avoid name dropping other RP sites here as a courtesy.

As for progression, activity leads to increased skills since one is often writing to maintain that activity which leads to skill increase. There is no favoritism in those regards of that is what you are concerned of, my PC could get pummeled by a fist fighter (and has) despite having high levels in other skills. It all depends on the situation at the end of the day and on the creativity of the writers. Also yes, Combat between PC's and NPC's can very well happen, I've had a few such threads. :)
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Gossamer on May 25th, 2014, 7:34 am

Animal Sacrifice is not an appropriate account name. Please change it.
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Claud Manske on May 25th, 2014, 9:32 am

Yeah, the site made it abundantly clear at pretty much every stage of account creation that usernames will be synonymous with character names. Its kind of impossible to miss. It also makes it pretty clear that I can change my account name later, once I've figured out who my character is and where I intend to start-

Which is kind of obviously the intent of this thread, haha.

What if I picked Bruce McManbeard for my username, but end up later wanting to write a female character after learning more about the setting I'll be jumping into? I figured on picking an arbitrary username to tide me over until I got a feel for a character. Since, you know, you gave me the option to and all. Believe it or not, I actually figured that was what I was supposed to do, and I apologize for misinterpreting that. How silly of me!

Speaking of silly, why exactly would you include a prompt asking new members to talk about our previous RP experience, if mentioning where those RP experiences took place is an issue?

Speaking of issues, why are there more issues than hellos in this thread?

:(

Chumps.

(Sahova does look incredibly bad ass, by the way)
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Vitri on May 25th, 2014, 11:38 am

Welcome to Mizahar Steve!

In regards to your name I think you could pick a little more appropriet placeholder. ^^

That aside I think you will enjoy your time in Mizahar as long as you can adapt to the new setting and how things work around here. As long as you're polite people will respond to you in the same way! =)

As for combat the writing skill plays the biggest part, but the skill points does matter. As and example : A novice swordsman would have a very hard time winning against a master swordsman since the writers have to adapt to the level of skills of their characters.

Oh and keep in mind that you don't start as a fullfledged character, the most enjoyable part of Mizahar is to watch your character develop and progress!

And as it seems people is advertising, might I interest you in The City of Bones (Taloba)? The jungle could use a few more active players. ;D

Again, welcome to Mizahar Steve! :D
"Myrian" "Common" "Thoughts"


I do apologize to my current threadpartners. I had not expected work to become so overbearing, we usually have alot to do in summer but we've never had this much to do. It's taking up most of both my days and evenings. I'll try to respond to the current threads if I find some time.
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Claud Manske on May 25th, 2014, 5:40 pm

'Animal Sacrifice' is my gamertag and username for most online games that I play, and is just my default handle. It doesn't defy any of the terms of use I agreed to when joining, and if you guys continue to press the issue then I'll either design a character around the name or happily leave the forum. It's kind of an asinine topic of discussion, and I already said I'd be changing it once I created a character.

That (hopefully) aside, Taloba looks awesome too! The shop is pretty slow so I'm reading its lore right now. Is there much interplay between cities and nations? It seems like there are some areas with much, much more activity than others so I'd like to start somewhere I wouldn't be pining after greener grass haha.

Which nation is likeliest to have its inhabitants traveling abroad, or involved in conflict? Mizahar is massive, and I'd like to explore it and get a feel for all its different settings. :)
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Nyxie Nadira Draer on May 25th, 2014, 7:04 pm

Hi Steve, welcome to Mizahar! :D

Choosing a city to start in is definitely quite the challenge; you'll have players fighting over themselves to convince a newbie to play in their favourite forum. :P (And this is where I'll plug in Kenash: the city of decadence, the home of my PC, and arguably the best place to be---if you're interested, check out our Codex )

As for 'nations'... there aren't any. Each city is very much independent, however, there have occasionally been threads where cities plotted & fought against each other. (Check out The Scars - they're actively involved in carrying out an overarching plot amongst the the PCs in their group) Most cities do allow their inhabitants to travel abroad, but each city has its own rules when it comes down to who they allow inside.

I hope that answers your questions, but feel free to post in our Q&A forum, or drop by Chat if you'd like answers in real-time. Feel free to PM me as well, or any of our moderators (the names in any other color rather than orange or grey), and we'll certainly be happy to help :)

Have fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing you RP around here! ^^
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GREETINGS, MIZAHARLINGS

Postby Aoren on May 25th, 2014, 7:30 pm

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Greetings and Salutations!

First and foremost welcome to Mizahar! I don't normally pop into Introduction threads because I feel it's more fun to meet the character as they develop in the forums. That aside, I feel compelled to pull up the welcome wagon for you and toss a few tips your way.

Mizahar is the only roleplaying site online that has a better user rating than Valucre. Myself and a large group of members there have been feeling kind of disenfranchised for a while, so I figured I'd give you guys a shot.


Fabulous! We're glad you've decided to look into what Mizahar has to offer. While things may seem a little overwhelming at first the more focused you make your character the less daunting it will seem. I know that when I first arrived here on Mizahar I didn't know which way to look. Thankfully, through the efforts of many supportive members here in the community I realized that in order to truly get a feel for the kind of stories that could be developed here on the forum I had to start small. On that note I'm going to toss a tip your way:

1.) Focus on the city where you want your character to begin. Mizahar isn't a world of grand kingdoms with overarching governments. It is centered around city-states that are relatively isolated from their fellow cities with the exception of a choice few.

2.) When you have focused on the city you wish to start in I recommend that you get a feel for the sort of society that particular culture develops. For example:

a.) Syliras is the Fortress City of Peace. The whole place is one enormous castle that has been comfortable fitted to house 50,000 occupants. Things are crowded. Things get loud but things are orderly because they are governed by the Knights of Sylir. For a place like that the risk of being exposed to the harshness of Mizahar's natural environment is relatively low. A person who grows up here will not be overly familiar with notions of famine, raids, strife or conflict. Syliras is a largely peaceful place.

That being said with so many people gathered in one place there would be issues with disease, order is heavily enforced, the divide between being a Knight and being a normal every day citizen is quite stark in contrast.

b.) Sunberth, the lawless town of anarchy. Sunberth isn't quite as lawless as it might seem. Here the strong rule over the weak. The difference between life and death may very well just be who you know and who you associate yourself with. Things here are gritty with undertones of debauchery and a gruff life that is exposed to some of the harshest and most brutal displays of "tough love" there are.

People from Sunberth are tough. They are fighters. They are firm believers in absolute freedom. They are also vehemently opposed to magic. Growing up here your character would be exposed to a "dog eat dog" type of world. If you're attracted to that sort of character this may just be the city for you.

c.) Ravok, the lake city of Chaos, Betrayal and Evil. Belonging to Rhysol the deity who claims dominion over those three attributes, Ravok is a place that is not so obviously dark. The Temple of the Black Sun and the soldiers of the Ebonstryfe dominate this city and while they might be ruthless behind the scenes the people of Ravok don't seem to pay it much attention. Stylized, almost romantic with its notions of veiled malice and concealed wickedness, the City of Chaos treads the line between hypnotically charming and horrifically sinister.

People who grow up or live in Ravok are usually fanatically loyal to Rhysol. They see their deity as Father, Provider and Protector and any deviation from that mindset is crushed swiftly. Ravok is a place where the shadows hold more secrets than should probably be brought to light.

Those are just a few places among the myriad of places you could choose to start off.

3.) Mizahar is a post-apocalyptic world. Though it might not feel like it considering how developed each city is, Mizahar is still reeling from the far reaching consequences of the cataclysm that nearly broke the very foundations of the world. While those who survived enjoy relative safety within the immediate purview of their cities, life beyond that exposes people to a nearly inhospitable environment. Savage creatures are very real. The catastrophic clash that nearly destroyed the world has rendered some places utterly hostile toward sentient life.

The broader expanse of Mizahar's wilderness is still largely unexplored. A lot of people seem to forget that the Valterrian (the cataclysm) not only literally shattered the continent it was a war of the gods as well. The far reaching consequences of that buried the old world and even though it's been over 500 years since that fateful day, this new world is still very much in its infancy.

The scale and depth of your lore, and the talent pool of your writers. While loose-knit forums like RPK, RPA, and Val seem to be favored spots for young hentai and cat-fox-demon-vampire-SEMPAAAAIII roleplayers from Gaia to fly south to, Mizahar seems like an inhospitably adult brick wall built for rude writing awakenings. I'm pretty sure I actually read in some info thread that those kinds of stock characters are forbidden outright based on your lore, which is dope. A lot of forums are entirely open ended and permissive in order to be conciliatory to everyone, and I think you lose something in a setting by letting it be that fucking mercurial.


We're glad you feel that way! The creators of Mizahar (styled The Founders) worked very hard to make things as original and in-depth as possible. The contributions that are made to the lore through the development of the staff and the player base are greatly appreciated by the community.

Don't let the size and depth of the lore dishearten you though! Start with the lore that is relevant to your city. Get to know the overall mindset of the setting you choose. Build your character from there. As you get yourself grounded first in those areas that would be immediately important to the upbringing and lifestyle of your character then you should consider broadening your horizons.

I don't think I know enough about Mizahar to toss criticism around quite yet, but I'm getting an initial sense that the site's primary member base or administration has developed an activity-based progression system, in order to ensure that the only members who are powerful enough to effect the story in a big way are the members who are the most active. I get it, but I already know based on my own personality flaws that I'll get frustrated quickly if less capable writers are more powerful, and express that power often. On a basic level, its the whole reason I don't play MMO's and don't fuck with table-top roleplays... I hate waiting, and if competition is involved, I check out the second its based on anything other skill.

That may be a completely moot thought though, since I haven't even figured out how face-offs work in Mizahar (or if they even happen, lol).


As you get yourself accustomed to the method by which characters progress their skills here on Mizahar you'll find that very little conflict happens that isn't a directly consented to by players and staff members. The likelihood of another character walking up to yours and lording their skills over your own is very slim as that type of behavior is seriously frowned upon here on Mizahar.

Those instances where combat takes place more often than not depict each character doing sparring matches for the expressed purpose of having their characters learn something new. In the instance of Quests, most moderators construct their plots with the skills of those involved very much in mind though this does not prevent them from throwing surprises your way! If you're creative, you should do just fine.

That being said, we here on Mizahar stress that players adequately portray the competency of their characters skills. That means that if you're a beginner you are expected to show your character depicting the struggles of a beginner. Trying to grasp the fundamentals of the concept they've been introduced to often leads to very interesting avenues of role-play. The same can be said for skill progression in general.

I think you'll find that things build upon one another very nicely.

Overall, you have very little to worry about in this regard as the general populace here on Mizahar keeps to a very courteous mindset when it comes to player vs. player interaction.


I hope that my rant here has helped to provide a little insight as far as how you might be able to get yourself started and where you could potentially go!

I'm also going to direct you to a few places that might help narrow down precisely how you can go about getting yourself started.

The Starting Guide is an excellent resource for beginners. It details some of the basic rules and expectations made of players here on Mizahar. There you can find helpful links to all sorts of resources!

The Starting Package details what all characters are given to start their journey with. Most basic questions that a lot of players have are answered here and wth some careful reading you'll find that it's a great resource!

The Character Sheet Forum is where every role-player on the website maintains their Character Sheet (CS). All players are required to keep an up to date CS. The reasons for this are simple: it is a track record of your story, achievements, skills and belongings here on Mizahar. You can have so much fun with these! There a lot of very artistic and well developed CS's to peruse. If you're ever lost about how to get started or what sort of character you'd like to develop it sometimes helps to read a few just to get some ideas.

Looking forward to what shenanigans you have in store! See you in the forums!

-Aoren

P.S. Some friendly advice that might help you get better immersed in the community: tone down the swearing. It will make you much more approachable. :)
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