Award May's Featured Character For 2019 Is...

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May's Featured Character For 2019 Is...

Postby Gossamer on May 3rd, 2019, 8:10 pm

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Hello Fellow Mizaharians!


Keeping with our tradition, the Founders Circle and Regional Storytellers are proud to announce that the Featured Character of the Month of May 2019 is Kamilla! Kamilla is one of our long time players, that has been on again off again the site since at least 2014. She plays in Syka at the moment, getting her tropical relaxation on and learning about how the past and future interacts there. So, please join us in welcoming her to the elite club of Featured Character! Her interview is below!


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The Interview


1. I want to start out with a fairly simple question, but one that is important to the game since this is a scenario that has happened repeatedly. How do you deal with a city closing and you loosing your ties and contacts to that city? What tools and techniques do you use to move your PC onward and carry on?


Sahova. Zeltiva. Riverfall.


This isn’t something I’ve ever consciously considered, but it definitely isn’t an easy thing to do, it’s never easy to be uprooted from your life and goals, forced to move... Honestly, I don’t think I have any tools or techniques other than a deep love of my character and determination to continue her story. I think that the draw of roleplaying in general, is that your stories never go completely the way you envision them to, it’s the external and uncontrollable element that makes things so unpredictable and therefore exciting. We’ve all been in a thread where we expect, plan and want an interaction to go a particular way and then your thread partner throws you a complete curveball leaving you both shocked and annoyed, amused, furious, etc and those moments are always memorable. I suppose I try and view the closing of a city the same way, something to accept and adapt to, as well as a chance to experience something new that I might not have otherwise.


2. You are a returning player to Mizahar who was hellishly active in times past. What dragged you away from the site and more importantly what brought you back?


I can’t say I’ve ever been dragged away from Miz, though I’ve certainly allowed real life to dig its claws in and distract me for extended periods of time. I don’t think I’ve ever disappeared by choice. As for what brings me back? What doesn’t? Mizahar was my first ever writing/roleplay site, before it I’d never been a part of anything similar, not even tabletop games, so it goes without saying that Miz has a special place within my heart. I don’t think anyone would disagree that Mizahar is an incredible place, it’s world is so refreshingly original and thoroughly fleshed out, without any of the usual fantasy cliches, that it encourages freedom and creativity in ways that other settings just don’t. Since I started here, I’ve been on many roleplay sites, some good and some bad, but the pull of Mizahar is always there.

3. Kamilla is a strong female lead character. She is the type of female character that a lot of women would look up to when reading novels… but she is beautifully flawed as well. Did you plan her like this or did she evolve into this over time? What happened in regards to this?


This question flattered me so much. Honestly, I’ve never really thought of Kamilla in that way and I actually had to go and properly read through her CS for the first time in literal years just to try and figure out how to answer. And now I see it. And suddenly I appreciate my own PC a lot more because of it, so thank you.

Kamilla was an interesting character for me. While my previous characters were fuelled by my inexperience, Kamilla was created after I’d had a few years under my belt as both a writer and a woman. My intention was to make a strong female character as well as someone who would create ‘real’ things in the world of Mizahar instead of simply ‘taking’(stealing) things belonging to others, like in Raven’s case. I did intend for her to be somewhat flawed and more ‘real’ but in all honesty, it was just a small checklist of pros and cons so that she wouldn’t seem like a Mary Sue, a label I’d learned to fear during my time as a writer. BUT, once I started writing her those superficial traits began to sink in and take root in her personality in a far more realistic way. It’s as if she took them and made them her own.

4. Many people dislike playing straight humans. Can you tell us why you chose to make Kamilla a straight human and what you see as the advantages or disadvantages to this situation?


The funny thing about this, is that I am one of those people. If given a choice I would almost never choose to play a regular old boring human and I’ve wished I’d picked a more interesting and cultured race many times. The thing is, I was scared. Kamilla was already an ambitious character for me, because I was trying to create my own instead of using another media character as a template... I thought trying an original character AND race would be overwhelming so I chickened out and went for the easy pick. I think plain humans have the advantage of having the least to adapt to in almost all cities. They simply become their personality, city and occupation, with a free pass on race since they’re generally plain and accepted everywhere. Unfortunately, this also means they give up a lot of the more subtle flavor that a more interesting race can give a character. Either way, I’ve started to appreciate Kamilla’s race as it helps to emphasise how her magic is the most special and important part of herself... at least that’s how she sees it.

5. What is Kamilla’s biggest dream? What would she do if the sky was the limit and she could make anything in her life different than it was now? Would she be happy and would you draw her story to a close if she achieved those limits?


Kamilla’s dream has changed several times along with her circumstances and city. Initially, my only goal for her was to open a dress store that sold beautiful animated dresses. Pretty unremarkable. But the more I played her and the more her ‘superficial traits’ began to really incorporate themselves into her character, most notably, her fear of being outed as a mage thanks to a childhood and gruesome mistake in Sunberth(she got her family killed by flashing some magic and inciting a mob), the more her own dreams and goals began to form. Her dream was to build and start a magic academy that trained mages in the safe use of magic and hired them out to the rest of Mizahar for assistance, in hopes of improving the overall perception of magic and its users on Mizahar. Unfortunately the buckets of gold required to get that dream off the ground were a bit too high. Currently she’s just searching for a place to belong, but I’m hoping that she’ll find a new dream in discovering all of Pavena’s secrets. As for whether she’d be happy... I have no idea, Kamilla’s always felt like the type to never be fully satisfied, but if she DID accomplish something significant that effected part or all of Mizahar, I might just end her story there.

6. Talk a bit about Kamilla’s likes and dislikes. It’s an unusual and honest list of things she likes and despises. Are those HER traits or traits you as a writer saw as something she’d be drawn too?


This answer is pretty similar to question 3. I think when I started Kamilla, they were just sort of a checklist of things to make her seem fleshed out. They were MY chosen traits. The thing is, until I play a character, I really have no idea how they’ll behave or act. Likes and dislikes on their own are, after all, just a list of isolated words to create a character box that lacks any real depth. When I started playing Kamilla, I perhaps overshot her character, she was nothing like the character I wanted and intended for her to be, I was playing a character who only resembled her CS in name. She rejected my pre-picked list of things I wanted her to enjoy or hate, they made no sense in relation to her, but as I gradually got a better feel for her, my writing mellowing out, my template and the character I was writing, began to slowly align until eventually the traits just fit.

7. I love asking about character interactions. Do you have a favorite character interaction to date? It doesn’t have to be with this PC, but I’d like to know the context and why it became a favorite.


Favorite. I’ve always hated that word as picking any ONE thing is almost impossible for me. Even asking about my favorite interaction brings two to mind. Neither of them including Kamilla.

For brevity sake, I will not choose a favourite, but simply use the first of the two that came to mind, a thread that was written way back in 2012(I think)

In this thread, Aoren Skycrown and my alt, Raven Nightfoot, made their way to the hot springs outside of Syliras to unwind after Aoren stepped in to ’rescue’ Raven from a tavern brawl(she was NOT happy about being treated like a damsel). The thread itself was pretty lax, both characters simply having a nice conversation. The thing about this interaction and the reason it became one of my favourite, is because it was the first time that one of my characters began to take on a real life of its own, Raven seemingly controlling my fingers as I typed, sharing parts of her that I’d never even thought of, things that were until that point, blanks in her personality. She expressed existential uncertainty, worry and hopes that I’d never even considered for her, even wondering if the gods had ever noticed her. It was all so, human. It’s a thread I’ll never forget, as it was the first time that I felt one of my characters had come to life and obtained a soul of their own.

8. Kamilla is a mortal that spent a lot of time among the immortal nuits and crazy pre-valterrian tech of Sahova. How has that molded and shaped her as a PC? Was that easy to survive or tremendously difficult? And how has it set her up to navigate and explore Pavena's ruins and perhaps bring some of its technology back into game play?


Ah, yes... Sahova. The Undead Isle was an amazing experience for both myself and Kamilla. It was as if all the norms of a city had been inverted, leaving Kam to have to adapt and learn to survive from scratch. Everything from food, to accommodation to social interaction became either scarce or just low in quality. To put it bluntly, it was not easy for her, but the prospect of learning more about magic kept her going.

Although she didn’t gain many useful new skills in Sahova, she did learn that there was too much she didn’t know when it came to magic and this knowledge of her lack of knowledge intensified the flames of determination within her. She saw completely new magic, magics she knew but were being used in new unimaginable ways and she wanted to understand all of it. I think the hunger for knowledge and the thrill of discovery will be her biggest assets in digging up whatever secrets Pavena might hold. And... if she finds that time is against her, who knows... perhaps she’ll take a page out of Sahova’s book and become a nuit.


9. What do you get out of writing? What are your motivators? Everyone is always curious about what other people’s favorite things to write about are. Can you elaborate on some of your favorite writing scenes? What really floats your literary boat?


I get so many things out of writing, too many to list, but the most significant would probably be the chance to create, and to spill my imagination onto something more tangible. Oftentimes I’ll see something completely normal in real life and my thoughts will begin to run with it, taking it to new and imaginative places that I then want to share and make a reality, somewhere. As for what my favourite things to write about, I’m sure most of you already know this, but... magic. Magic. Magic. Magic. When it comes to the arcane I turn into a waterfall of words. It’s always been something I’ve loved, I just find it so easy and rewarding to write about, even now, the threads that stand out to me most are the ones about magic. Mostly some of Kamilla’s animation threads. Though that’s not to say that I don’t find enjoyment in all the other themes, it’s just that magic is the one that gives me the tingles.


10. If you could change one thing about Mizahar, what would it be? This can be an addition, a subtraction, or even a system revision.


This is a pretty tough question. Right now, the only thing I’ve ever really wanted and wished for on Miz, was a faster form of travel. I’d like to see Aquiras resurrected and the watchtowers return to their full glory. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy writing about traveling, but some cities are just too far. I think sometimes, PCs on the other side of Mizahar just appeal to your own PC so much that you wish you could write with them, but not enough to spend a year traveling there. BUT, Aquiras plotline aside, I will admit that I’ve been slowly trying to find my own magical work arounds to develop in-character that, hopefully, fit within the limits of Mizahar magic and science. Maybe that will be my Miz legacy.

11. Here’s your soap box! Feel free to have fun with it. Tell us anything you want us to know about your PC, your writing, even your favorite pet. This is your time to ramble!


Before I start, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone involved in Mizahar. This site has been a creative haven for me for almost a decade now and I truly love and appreciate it, as well as all the amazing people I’ve met here. To all my thread partners, past, present and future, to all the admins who work so hard to make and maintain the pure magic that is Mizahar, to Goss who’s been the most active and present founder I’ve ever seen on any site and for all the hard work she does to keep this haven going... and even to people who I may never thread with... Thank you. It has been incredible being a part of this community and getting to freely create and see things that others have created. Some of your plotlines are so incredible that I’m just left in awe of your creativity and skill. Thank you.

All thanks aside, if you’re ever in the vicinity of Syka, please shoot me a message, I’d love to thread with all of you. As for my writing, I plan to keep improving. And my favorite pet? As someone who is actually allergic to cats, I’ve been living vicariously through Kamilla and absolutely LOVING her pet yowlwing, Yennefer. I want one.

I’ve been around for a long time and I’ve always seen and been amazed by the PCs that make it to featured characters, but for some reason I never thought that any of mine would be given the opportunity, and so this has been somewhat of a dream come true. Entirely unexpected. It is heartwarming to know that my character and creative soul are being appreciated. So... yep, it’s another thanks.

Anyways, I’m done ranting y’all, see you in thread!

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May's Featured Character For 2019 Is...

Postby Sophia Sunshore on May 3rd, 2019, 10:12 pm

Congrats!!
Great interview - I'm really looking forward to getting to know Kamilla through our thread(s)!
NOTE: During the Fall Sophia is a Dhani, specifically a golden eyelash viper. See here for more detailed info.
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May's Featured Character For 2019 Is...

Postby Finn Reefdiver on May 5th, 2019, 12:03 am

Congratulations Kamilla, I think you and your character deserve it!

I haven't known you near as long as other have, but I have enjoyed our couple of threads together so far and the help you have given me during them. It has been great getting to know Kamilla this season.
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May's Featured Character For 2019 Is...

Postby Lani Stranger on May 5th, 2019, 12:16 am


Congrats Kamilla! Good interview!

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