DS Valkyrie is September's Featured Contributor

by **Colombina** on September 1st, 2012, 8:10 am

Contributor of the Month:

DS Valkyrie

DS Valkyrie has been a rad addition to our staff. Her enthusiasm for her domain is obvious in all her projects. She has crafted creative, useful locations within Avanthal that fit seamlessly into the setting, resumed abandoned threads with gusto, and is working on refining her city's tone in the coming seasons.
With a stellar eye for detail and a fun sense of humor (you'll see it in some of her answers), Valkyrie is bound to make Avanthal a great place to write in the coming seasons!

1. What is your rp history? (Where did you start, what brought you here, etc.)

Oh jeez, we had to start with an embarrassing question.

I started RPing around the tender age of thirteen (I'm twenty-two now) on online play by post sites and pretty much wrote every cliché that exists. I won’t even get into the ridiculous topics or themes I roleplayed. I roleplayed fairly consistently until my main stomping ground went down permanently in my late teens and I decided to be done with play by post for a while. Then, back in March, I decided I needed to find a structured and consistent creative outlook and remembered how fondly I had enjoyed RPing in my teens. So, that led me to some random website’s top 100 roleplay sites and voila, here I am.

2. What do you think is the role of a DS?

The role of a DS is to facilitate a player’s development wishes while maintaining the creative integrity of the overall site concept. It’s a careful balance that can be hard to maintain at times. It’s awesome when you can make a player’s dreams come true but it sucks to deny them when they want something that just doesn’t adhere to what the domain is all about. It is also a DS’s role to provide domain development that will offer new and interesting opportunities for players to choose to use or not.

3. If Avanthal was a person, what would he/she look and act like?

If Avanthal was a person she (I just feel like the city is more of a she) would probably be a little on the bipolar side. And the crazy half would come out when you are least expecting it. One minute she’s all polar bear hugs and smiles and takes you out for a night on the town. The next minute she slaps you in the face with an ice storm and OH MY MORWEN did you see the freaking fangs on that snow cat?! Yeah. She alternates between super ecstatic to see you and throwing dishware at your face because you didn’t call her last night so fast you can’t tell up from down. She’ll buy you ice cream and a card just so she can dump the ice cream on your head and give you a paper cut and then gives you a big hug afterwards. You can’t figure out what is up with this chick. But you just can’t seem to tell her off because she is just so fun when she is on an upswing. She’ll take you to ice rinks and art exhibits and fire shows. That’s gotta make up for all the storms and crazy animals and general isolation, right? RIGHT?!

4. What is your creative process like?

When I first start out developing something new like a location or a story idea I usually start with the question, what function does this serve? What is the point of this particular concept? After I’ve established what purpose something serves then I try to spice it up with fun historical or social details to flesh out the concept so it doesn’t feel so freestanding from what else is around. I usually find the best parts of a concept are found in the little details that make it seem more realistic and part of the city. It seems kind of dull that I mostly consider the functionality of something but I find it easier to take a function and make it awesome then to take something wicked interesting and force a function on it.

5. It's September, back to school month for many. In the spirit of learning, can you tell us a good lesson you have learned about writing or moderating since you joined Mizahar?

I guess as far as writing for my PC is concerned I would say the best lesson I’ve learned is to take chances. If someone approaches you and proposes to have your PCs meet, do it if you’ve got the time even if it doesn’t fit into whatever scheme or elaborate plotline you want your character to follow. Just take a chance and you don’t know what might happen. Especially if the person is new you don’t know what they or their character is capable of, so why not? If you don’t like what is happening you can always find a way to end the thread. If you never open yourself up to new opportunities you just fall into a rut. Plus, if you expose your character to new and unexpected situations you may discover something new about them.

6. You've made some great locations, which is your favorite and why?

Frostpoint Lighthouse is my favorite location that I’ve made. Creeper originally mentioned the idea of a lighthouse to me and I thought it was awesome so I just ran with it. It’s the location I’m proudest of because I tried really hard to tie its history to important events and made sure that its awesome magecrafted beacon had been made at certain costs. Anytime I include magic in a location I make sure it comes with repercussions. In this case, the person who made it died of overgiving. I like to remind my players of how dangerous magic can be.

7. It's your chance to make an Avanthal dream team of PC's to inhabit your city, what do these actual or imagined PC's look like?

I would love for some PCs from Coolwater or Winterflame Hold. No one seems to want to be a chef or a sailor lol. My dream team would include a PC from each of the Holds as well as a bonded Icewatch pair. The full package! I would also love to see a PC who incorporated how socially restraining Avanthal is into their concept. Most major life decisions are dictated by a citizen's family or Hold. I don’t think many people realize how few actual options the residents of Avanthal have. Whatever Hold they are in dictates what profession they can choose. But what if they don’t like what the choices are? Well, too bad. You should’ve thought of that before you decided to be born. You really like that hottie over there? That sucks because your family decided you are going to marry this person over here. Sure you can choose if you spend your evening at this place or that place, but how much freedom is that really?

8. What is your favorite thread to date?

My favorite thread would probably have to be the first moderated thread I did as AS of Avanthal, The Few, The Proud, the Bears. This was Sliver’s initiation into Icewatch but since it occurred during the time that Avanthal was melted from the Spring djed storm we decided to do something a little unique. Usually joining Icewatch requires a three day stint in the wilderness which just wasn’t possible considering the environmental circumstances. Sliver had wanted the PC to go to Morwen’s temple so we brought her there and I had the priestess give her this really long-winded speech about bravery, humility, etc. I just thought it was rather funny because here is this tough Kelvic whose race has like zero attention span and she has to sit through this boring lecture about virtues and such. I don’t know if Sliver saw the humor in it but I amused myself. My humor comes out in the strangest ways.

9. What is something you really want to accomplish with the city as Avanthal's new DS?

I really want to add some new dynamics to the city to keep PCs on their toes. My worst fear is PCs getting bored or too comfortable with the city. I like to keep the city fluid to a certain extent and constantly presenting new challenges to its residents. While I don’t want to force PCs to take part in anything they don’t want to, I do want to make sure that opportunities are always available for them to be involved in the growth of the city.

10. What do you love most about being a Storyteller?

I love watching PCs grow and getting to know them. It is amazing to watch a friendship unfurl between two PCs or see them in action enough to really get to know their personality. It truly makes me excited when I see a PC persevere through challenges and sad when bad things happen to them. The PCs are definitely my favorite part of being a Storyteller.

11. This is your chance to promote your city. Can we get a hint as to what's coming up for it in this season?

Oh my, where to start. The djed storm affected more then just the climate in Avanthal. There are some changes coming to the city that might take some people by surprise. The things I have planned for the next two season might change the way people interact with the city. All I have to say to my lovely players is prepare to step outside your comfort zone and be open to new possibilities.

by **Fallacy** on September 1st, 2012, 12:26 pm

Congratulations. Enjoy your medal and the spotlight.

by **Lixue** on September 1st, 2012, 1:49 pm

Congrats! You really earned it!

by **Naeya** on September 1st, 2012, 4:31 pm

Congrats Valkyrie! What a great interview. I especially like reading about your writing advice and your PC dream team. I had no idea how interesting the Avanthal culture was until you mentioned the intense restrictions. Love it!

by **Phoenix** on September 1st, 2012, 7:21 pm

SNOWFLAKE!!!

First a promotion, then this?! You are way too awesome. I loved your interview. I can't wait to have more time and work with you more closely

<3