Hello Fellow Mizaharians!
Keeping with our tradition, the Founders Circle is proud to announce that the Featured Character of the Month for the month of December 2011 is Eridanus! Unique among even the wildly assorted characters of Mizahar, Eridanus has been chosen because of his wholehearted embrace of the concepts and ideals of Mizahar: He writes, and writes wildly. |
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The Interview
1. You said in your scrapbook that Mizahar invoked a sense of wonder in you. Can you be more specific about this? Why?
Firstly, I would like to say that WOW I am quite pleasantly surprised to be selected as a Featured Character especially since I am so new and all. I am really honoured to be noticed  I have always been a fan of epic immersive worlds (if yall haven’t read The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings go read it!), and I’ve always enjoyed reading about the adventures and stories of the protagonists in these worlds. From what I’ve read in Mizahar and experienced so far, I feel like I am part of this huge immersive world. Maybe I have an overly vivid imagination, but as I write and read, I could see the actions and scenery in my mind, and I tell you it is hard to forget such an experience.
2. Eridanus’ CS states hes Chaotic Neutral. How do you think alignment in a changing world like Mizahar plays out? How hard is it to stick to your alignment?
Honestly I have never really started out with an alignment in mind. It actually came about when I was on chat and we happened to be talking about traditional RPG alignments (ie the 3x3 grid). I read through the various ones and found that Chaotic Neutral fits Eri’s concept best. I’d like to clarify that the alignment here is strictly a guideline and not a rule, and it’s basically the TL;DR version of his motivations, goals, personality, etc. I believe that one’s experiences and interactions will shape oneself, and so nothing is set in stone. Who knows, a couple of seasons down the road Eri might turn out to be “Lawful Good” or “Chaotic Evil”. It really depends on what he went through and is going to go through 
3. It seems like when you are putting together a PC, for you its all about the details. For example, instead of just sticking with the vantha trait of having color changing eyes, you go on to lengthy detail about Eri’s eyes. “He possesses hypnotic eyes that often changes colors for no reason, for even though he generally keeps his feelings in check, his emotions often shifts like the wind. Thus it would be easy to tell when his feelings changes due to the change in color of his eyes. However, it must be noted that human emotions can be wide-ranging like a spectrum of brilliant colors, but also complex enough to exist as multiple shades of the same color. Thus, a tiny and subtle shift in emotions can cause a change in color, thus it is impossible to read his feelings based on this knowledge alone.” What drives you to go into this depth of detail with your PC?
I was wondering how I would describe my PC, and instead of going into long flowing detail about every inch of his looks, I decided to focus on something that would distinguish him from others, something that other PCs would remember about him (the same way we remember acquaintances as ‘that freckled guy’ or ‘the girl wearing huge glasses’), and let the human imagination do the rest.
It is important to know when to spoon-feed information, and when to allow the reader to ‘do some work’ and use their imagination (filling in the blanks). I believe that only by doing so would the reader be able to identify with the stuff I write as whatever image is formed in the reader’s mind will belong to both me and the reader. It’s not just my character, but I apply this logic to my actions and most things I do.
I’m a strong believer in imagery, and if by doing so I can help my readers get lost together with me in our shared world I’m doing it right xD
4. Each person can make a difference in Mizahar through their roleplay. What do you think Eridanus adds to Mizahar through his presence both in his city and in the culture of Eth’s as a whole?
Through the exploration of his history and pursuing his personal quest, I hope to not only leave a positive and lasting impression on others (both IC and OOC) but also to help shape the ever changing world that is Mizahar. I hope to be able to contribute towards solving the mystery of why most eths were left alone instead of being picked up immediately by Leth and Syna, and also to help heal the rift to make sure their divine souls stay in Ukalas.
5. Why did you have Eridanus utilize the plot device of memory loss? Do you have any advice to people who use these sorts commonly used plot devices to make them more original?
I’ve always liked twists and so I decided to spin my own unique twist on a commonly used cliché. To be fair I have not updated my CS (revamping will be started in December), but here’s a little teaser. Eri’s ‘amnesia’ is more of a denial (OOC example: doing something embarrassing when one was a kid and now always keeping one’s mind off the issue) that was aided by some serious hypnotism due to a certain dark past that I will explore in a series of ‘origins flashbacks’ in December. He voluntarily denies his memories at the start, but after a couple of decades he began to get confused about what memories are real and make-believe, and started to believe in whatever lies that he concocted for himself. This is one of the themes that I am exploring as part of his personal quest, one of confrontation with himself and to deal with the skeletons (or should I say Nuits? *hinthint* ) in his closet. So it’s fine to use commonly used plot devices, but my advice would be to shake it up with your own personal flavour and interpretation to keep things fresh
6. Eri is designed around ‘randomness’. Has there been anything random about him that has cropped up through the course of your roleplay that was an utter surprise to you?
Well I have not had the time to interact enough with the world (since I’m pretty new!) to give a proper example, but so far I’d say that Eri had surprised me a lot by gaining a sort of sentience that it slightly scares me.
When I first started it was so difficult trying to put myself in his shoes and trying to interact with the world as the PC rather than as IRL me. As I continued writing with others, there were times when I just ‘switched off’ and let my hands do the typing, and when I actually came back several hours later to read what I’ve written I get surprised at his actions, his responses.
I would say that the interactions I had with the first few PCs (looking at you, PCs in Sunberth) had helped to shape what he is today.
7. Making friends in Mizahar is often a challenge to new players. What advice would you give to them about how to connect to other players and make some good and long lasting friendships?
It’s there in my siggy xD It means keeping yourself grounded, staying humble, being open to criticisms and suggestions and to always have an open, unfettered mind. At the same time, don’t let that stifle your ambitions and creativity.
I think that this attitude helped me to get along well (I hope xD) with the other friendly members of Mizahar, and of course, sticking around in chat helps too. Treat others how you want others to treat you, and so with this philosophy in mind I help out when I had free time, and in return people helped me when I needed assistance.
This built a warm and ‘care-share’ environment which I feel is excellent for building great friendships. A clear sign of this is my beloved Sunberthian (Sunberthers? O_o) gang. They welcomed me quite warmly and accepted me as one of their own, and as a testament to our bond a huge group of us (7, 8?) have embarked on a lengthy journey and quest to Alvadas, supporting each other on the way.
8. If you could have anything in the world happen to Eridanus, what would that one thing be and why?
Something completely random but epic that would not only challenge his skills and creativity as a character, but also mine as a writer! I love unpredictability and I love it even more when my actions and consequences will be much larger than usual, forcing me to carefully consider and plot every single move. (I wonder if I'm suicidal by saying this... but bring it on dear STs xD)
Kammy brought Tarot’s The Game to my attention and I would love to be in a plot as awesome as that. (I’m sorry Denval! I love your plot and if I hadn’t made plans for Alvadas I would have gone there!)
9. Lets get a bit more personal. Please tell us a bit about Eridanus’ player and what drew you to Mizahar? How did you find our site and what made you stay?
I found Miz on the internet when I was searching for a good RP site. I’ve dabbled here and there, but never really stayed long. When I saw Miz I realized that I was looking at a different beast. It far out-classed any of the RP sites I’ve ever tried and the vast amount of original content and the ST and XP system that resembled the p&p/tabletop RPGs that I love was enough to draw me in for a try. In the end, the immense world, various overarching plots (and mysteries/conspiracies!) and the warm and welcoming RP’ers (I love you guys!) made me stay on. A little about me hmm... I'm currently a freshman pursuing a triple degree in computer science (specializing in games), business administration and liberal arts. I love trying new things and am extremely active (when it isn't exam periods >.<) and passionate about the things that I do. I love video games (duh xD), play music, dance, parkour, practice martial arts... well you get the idea
10. You've more than doubled your NaNo, going well over 100,000 words. What drove you to write so much and how did you manage to stick with it day in and day out?
When I first saw the announcement about NaNo in Miz (I’ve never heard of NaNo until Miz told me xD) I was like “omg i’m not going to make 50k, that’s insane”. I started off slow, never intending to hit the word count, but somehow as I wrote I found myself lost in the world. It’s similar to picking up this ridiculously huge and thick novel thinking that you can’t possibly read till the end, but while reading you got hooked and without knowing you actually finished the entire book. Also, I had threads with plenty of exciting people, and it was the thought of interactions, of writing new stories and new experiences together that motivated me to keep going. I was also pretty stressed about exams, and during this study period all extra-curricular groups became inactive. The only thing I could do whenever I felt stressed was to write my frustrations away  If I scored ‘A’s, Miz should be happy to know that it partly contributed to it because of how it helped to bring my stress levels down
11. Anything else you’d like to add to this interview? Now’s your chance to make a statement that almost everyone in the game will indeed read.
Geez I don’t know what to say xD To do a little self-advertisement, I love threading and hatching up some serious plottage, so anyone (and I really mean anyone) who wants to collaborate with me (whether it be your own personal quest/character development or a random social/training thread) do drop me a PM! I promise I won’t bite ^_^ Finally, I would like to thank the founders (esp. Goss) and the STs (esp. Turtle and Fallacy) for being so patient and understanding with my unending barrage of questions and my nonsense  , and to all the players out there (esp. my Sunberthian Gang) for making me feel so accepted . Thank you all and I hope that together we can collaboratively build an even more epic and exciting story in the future xD
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by Ronan on December 1st, 2011, 5:14 pm 
