July's Featured Character: Dimitri

by **Cayenne** on July 1st, 2011, 1:57 pm

It's my pleasure to introduce to you all the featured character for the month of July: Dimitri, a squire working to become a Syliran Knight. Below is his interview - I hope you all have as much fun reading it as I did.

Cayenne: How did you get into roleplaying? How long have you been at it?

Dimitri: Well I've played roleplaying video games ever since I got my PS1 for Christmas. I enjoyed titles like Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross/Trigger, Star Ocean, etc. I eventually grew into MMOs, everything from WoW, Final Fantasy XI, Runescape (yes I went there). Mizahar is my first attempt at writing outside of English class and occassional stories in notebooks. My friend, and former coworker, was a Mizaharian for a brief period under various guises such as Tatiyana, Danyella, and Tshaka. She would show me stories and such on site and various things about it, and that it was iPhone accessible. (huge plus due to last job) Then I eventually just came aboard. Been here maybe a full season now, since I joined early to mid Spring. Mizahar is my first and only writing roleplaying experience.

Cayenne: He’s pretty young to be aiming for Knighthood. Was this a goal you made when you started the character, or did it just happen as you started playing him?

Dimitri: That's actually a very interesting story. After being lured in to Mizahar, I originally wanted to make a Jamoura in Spires. To my dismay, however, it was closed. So I went to click on something on the main page and accidentally clicked random page. And I found myself at the Syliran Knights page. I was immediately captivated and taken in by the lure of an award through actual hard work. So I popped into chat, asked about it and found out no one had achieved the knight requisites nor had received the Knighting Quest. Well that just light a fire under my ass. For the first time in any "game" I could be a first at something. So I made Dimitri to become a Knight proper. But. Wanted to earn it as a squire. So I made him what I felt was an appropriate Squire age. I didn't intend to gain exp nearly as fast as I did though. I was looking at perhaps a year. But hey, I'm unstoppable when I want something.

Cayenne: What do you like about the Knighthood? It’s admittedly a long road to play, and a lot goes into getting there – do you sometimes wish Dimitri had taken another character path?

Dimitri: I love the rigidity and the protect your own first but also others mentality. But the main thing I like is there's a system in place where you can move up by reaching clearly defined goals. Lot easier to achieve a goal when you know what it is. As for another character path, not particularly, he was a Knight from birth. Though I would like to see him get out of dodge so to speak, perhaps do something... Bigger than becoming a gate guard, but that ball is in Dusk's court.

Cayenne: Does Dimitri follow any particular gods? Is there a god you can think of that would like to negatively mark him? How do you think he would react to that?

Dimitri: In all honesty Dimitri has never shown any interest in any gods. Not to say he is atheist, but prefers living life by his merits, and leaving the gods to do whatever it is they do. If he were to encounter one, or be indebted to one, his tune may change, but Dimitri is just living his own life. A negative mark would just be treated like an injury or handicap. Dimitri would find a way to work through and work to earn its removal, or to somehow conquer it or make it null. Difficult, incredibly. Possible, honestly I don't know and neither does he. Although he likely wouldn't react well to a positive mark either. While he doesn't mind others using magic, and would personally like to learn how to combat various magicks with out magic, he will never willing learn magic, gnosis or otherwise. If given a gift gnosis, he would squander and waste it unless no other option was available.

Cayenne: What is the most random/surprising XP skill you’ve ever received from a thread? Why?

Dimitri: Hmm... That's hard. I was hard core experience training with Dimitri. I was getting really good at predicting the experience I would receive. However, I would say Childcare from my first solo ever, which Levi graded. Or babysitting from him as well. But hey, Dimitri wants children one day so maybe it will help.

Cayenne: A simple scrolling through your CS shows one of the most amazing fluid time schedules I have ever seen in I don’t know how many years. It is packed. Absolutely packed. How do you juggle Mizahar with real life? Does one tend to impede on the other a lot, or is it fairly balanced?

Dimitri: Well when I worked at my last job at Westbrook Health Services, I was working 20 hour days every day. But about ten of those hours required me to literally just sit there and make sure sleeping people don't die or escape. So I had a ton of time to write and Mizahar was my time killing hobby. Back then work consumed my life, but Mizahar was a very welcomed escape. Now I think I've achieved a more reasonable balance. Now that my work days are 8-9 hours, I can juggle a personal, work, and Mizahar life. It's quite refreshing.

Cayenne: You manage to be active and helpful in chat, and still write all of those posts. Do you have a secret to the powerposting? I think a lot of us (I know I would!) would love to hear it.

Dimitri: Hmm... Well I like to think I'm a helpful person in all aspects of my life so Mizahar would be no exception. As to powerposting, you need to set a general goal in your thread. I only do this for Dimitri, but going into a thread I take into account two things. First, what is the story of the thread? And how will achieve my goals without sacrificing the story. Every skill has a million ways of using it, it's up to the writer to implement it. I've noticed most writers here tend to think of skills either as severely restricting or do not abide by restrictions. My view is neither of these. While I beleve rigidly at using skills at your skill level, that doesn't mean you are limited at how you use it. Just how well you use it. Also while long posts are great, Dimitri's posts stay relatively around two to three paragraphs. This offers up a good solid pace and let's the twists and turns of the story come more easily. My posts are typically equal parts reacting and creating new actions. Also describe the hell out of your skills that are your goals. Visualize it and write it. Especially in combat threads. You have no idea how hard it is for me to reply to someone in combat when I don't even know what hand is holding the weapon, or which direction you are swinging your axe. Skulking requires visual details. That's really all I got.

Cayenne: You have Dimitri set up as a model Knight, but every hero needs a crunchy evil villain. What would your perfect villain be like?

Dimitri: I've been toying with the idea of a villain in all honesty, just hard to implement in the most secure and safe city. However, he'd have to be better at winning over the ladies, appear innocent and genuine, and manipulative. Dimitri is indeed young and would easily be manipulated into doing something bad if he thought it was good.

Cayenne: So, I heard Dusk was thinking about sending Dimitri for his Knighthood quest to bring back the head of Myri’s Tigress. So suppose you’re the Mizaharian MacGuyver – what five items would you bring with you and why?

Dimitri: Hmm toughie
5: His trusty sword
4: and trusty board (shield)
3: a token from Flick
2: Bow and arrows
1: Fork, for blending in with the cannibals.
Gotta stick to his strengths when dealing with those locals. I hear their mod likes to eat knights to be.

Cayenne: Pancakes or waffles?

Dimitri: Waffles definitely. No blueberries, no chocolate chips, just butter and syrup.

Cayenne: Thanks for the interview and congratulations!

by **Aspen** on July 1st, 2011, 5:50 pm

Congrats Dimitri!
A well deserved medal (:

by **Caelum** on July 1st, 2011, 6:58 pm

Congratulations, Dmitri!

by **Nil'kayn** on July 2nd, 2011, 12:16 am

Congratz Dimi,

You deserve it!

~Nilkayn~

by **Vala** on July 2nd, 2011, 7:07 am

Hey you, not sure if I told you this enough yet, but you totally deserve this!

You will always be my Dearest Dimi - Vala's (but most importantly my) fairy tale knight in shinning armor <3