1.) We're going to start with an easy one: You as a player. Give us as an audience a feel for how you got into Role Playing. How long have you been RPing? Was it always PbP (Play by Post) or have you attempted other styles? Do you have any fun (or better yet, embarrassing) stories from your learning experiences as a writer?
How I got into roleplaying in the first place is a bit of a tricky one, really, since the specifics are rather lost to the dim mists of antiquity in my head. It was at least four, and more probably five years ago, when I got terribly bored of games and books - most especially of seemingly-arbitrary restrictions and weak endings - and had a hankering to write my own adventures. I found myself cheering for the mage, the nerd or the thief rather than the muscle-bound hunk we were supposed to consider the hero, for example, I wanted to know more about how the Evil Overlord became so Evil (just telling me he's Evil and depicting him in dark clothes is NOT enough) and how he acted when he wasn't berating minions or indulging in a spot of evil laughter at the expense of the heroes. Why did bashing things with swords and charging about the place in plate armour that miraculously never made you stink, didn't need polishing or repairing and took all of five seconds to get into or out of, nearly always produce better results than using tact, say, or intelligence, diplomacy, guile and outright bribery?
I got fed up of hero-boy gets airhead-girl, too - why didn't hero-boy fall for sidekick-boy, or airhead-girl for tomboy-girl? And happily ever after? If everyone lived happily ever after, then either someone had come along and given them a lobotomy in secret to remove the higher brain functions or there was something illegal in the water.
The internet being the repository of all knowledge and, more importantly, an endless source of distraction for a high-school student looking to duck out of revision whenever possible, I quickly found a string of roleplaying sites that would let me write - and experience - the non-standard story I craved. I used them as a means to improve my writing as much as to have fun; I think that if you read sufficiently widely you eventually see what some of the more egregious errors people make, time and again, are, and can then at least try to avoid them yourself.
I still use some of those sites, and a couple of private forums, for Nation Roleplays, which are only really possible through play-by-post, but the vast majority of my roleplaying time has been turned over to addictive, addictive Mizahar.
Play-by-post has always been my preferred style; I think this type of roleplay offers such broad scope for expansion and embellishment on setting and character both. I love the incidental detail and throwaway hooks you can pack a post with to really bring a world or a location to life, and the incremental process of character development that evolves slowly through the posts and threads. I've peeked in on Chat-based roleplays before, for example, but they don't particularly appeal – I'm not really a fan of the one-liner and the instant response. I like to think on what I'm writing and have written in the past, to let ideas bubble up over time and incorporate themselves into the narrative – some splendid new direction to take a thread or even Alses herself in often comes to me at the oddest of times; in the shower, tucked up in bed, halfway up a mountain and so on, and I'd not be able to use most of them in the fast-paced world of a Chat-based roleplay.
Then, too, play-by-post means I, as a Briton, can roleplay with someone in America or Japan or Fiji and the timezones simply don't matter. For me, at least, that's an important advantage of the style; with Chat-based roleplay, for instance, I'd have to limit myself to people who were able to be online at more or less the same time as me, and with tabletop RP or LARPing I'm still further limited as to my playerbase, whereas with play-by-post, I have the entire world's roleplaying talent to pick from – and there are some very fine roleplayers in America and Japan and Fiji that I'd otherwise never have had the pleasure and privilege of playing with.
Flexibility, that's the key; I can post when I want and fit it much more easily around real-life commitments than with most other styles. I also believe that people think a lot more about what they're writing with play-by-post, because of the slower pace, than they do in, say, chat-based roleplays, which to me often makes for a richer and more satisfying story in the long run.
In terms of stories from the past, I think we'll go with 'embarrassing', because I can't think of anything funny and attempting to improve my writing led to one of the most embarrassing moments of my life so far
. When I first began to write in earnest - mostly for myself - I liked to experiment with genres, see what came naturally and what was a total grind. Romance and erotica were both hugely difficult. My attempts were stilted, contrived, so badly-written that the thought makes me cringe even now, and so I thought: I must get better at this! Even books that aren't romance novels and their ilk often have at least a subplot of romance, so I should really try and practice...
In any event, I went away and read a few romance novels, consulted a few writing sites, and then sort of set about trying to improve by practice, writing scenes, vignettes and short stories. I wrote a lot about exploring sexuality and gender, too, mirroring concerns and developments in my own life (along with rather going off the deep end in terms of relationships, but that's another story entirely). Everything was going swimmingly, until I happened to leave a document open on the computer in my study...enter, stage left, my innocently inquisitive mother, whilst I'd just popped out of the room for something or other.
The seventeen days (or so it felt, anyway) of answering questions, when I returned, about a torridly deviant short story - very nearly porn without plot and with a fairly obvious author-insert, just to make it worse - ranks right up there in my personal gallery of 'Most Embarrassing Moments'. I vividly recall my mother's earnest, concerned and well-intentioned questions, even though I was spending most of the time blushing such a furious shade of red as to be almost purple and fervently wishing the floor would just open up and swallow me whole.
Even now, although I don't write such overt, explicit things any more, I'm very paranoid about other people reading over my shoulder or prying into my writing folders; they're not clearly labelled, there are passwords layered on passwords and I've become a past master of the quick switch to something innocuous – like the history of Renaissance painting or the life cycle of the malaria bug.
So, yes. That's my pick; a hugely embarrassing incident that brought to an abrupt end to my experimentation in one literary area, and still occasionally haunts me today – usually at around 3am after a heavy meal. On the other hand, as a sort of consolation prize, I did manage to avoid the Japanese period that sometimes afflicts writers on the internet
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2.) So. Alses is in Lhavit, which is an interesting city that operates on a time schedule all of its own. Those within the city aren't necessarily awake during the day, nor asleep during the night. How much emphasis do you put on the time blocking in your role play? Is it hard to comprehend such a life when ours in the "real world" is so different?Currently, I don't put a great deal of emphasis on the unusual time structure when roleplaying – but this is because Alses is a Synaborn Ethaefal who clings stubbornly to the more standard day-and-night cycle, since it means she spends the maximum amount of time in her celestial form and the absolute minimum period awake and conscious in her mortal seeming. Because she's an Ethaefal, one of forty-eight in Lhavit - a city where they are revered - she's indulged, to an extent. I have a long-term plan trundling slowly along in the wings to get her a little more accepting of the night and her mortal seeming (which she currently avoids, wherever possible) and therefore to become slowly more accustomed to the time blocking schedule of most of the rest of the city.
I do bring the system in every so often, however, as flavour for threads that sometimes works in her favour and other times doesn't. No-one else (apart from her) finds it at all odd if she's gardening at the fourth bell of the morning in Summer, for example, whereas everywhere else the neighbours would be throwing open the windows at the racket and screaming imprecations along the lines of: “What in the name of Syna's flaming knickers do you think you're doing at this unholy bell?”
When considering Lhavit, I actually had very little difficulty in comprehending a life with time divided up into 'rest' and 'work' blocks without any real reference to day or night, and I think that's because I've been privileged enough to travel quite widely: when thinking about Lhavit's unusual time schedule, I draw on memories of countries that take siestas or breaks throughout the day, but my main inspiration and means to interpret it actually comes from Sweden. A couple of years ago I was up doing research near a town called Abisko in the far north of that country and at the time of the midnight sun, so there was never any darkness. Myself and my fellow students totally abandoned standard time schedules very quickly – after two or three days there was absolutely nothing unusual about going for a walk at 4am or eating lunch at six in the evening. We all developed, collectively, our own unique rhythm of sleeping, researching and faffing around having fun, slipping into a system of intensive work for a few hours, then a brief rest or a sleep, and then back onto the work. We didn't have long periods of doing any one thing – unless there was something really exciting going on research-wise or somebody had scheduled a snowmobile race in the mountains – and it seemed to work quite well.
Whilst the comparison between Sweden and Lhavit isn't quite perfect, since day and night are the normal length in the starry city, my thinking is that with a culture that has been doing this for about five hundred years, the traditional role of day being for work and night for sleep is diminished considerably – fitting for a city that venerates night and day in equal measure. I think that, much as with languages and other cultures, total immersion (a PC coming to stay for a long period) results in a reasonably quick adaptation, after the initial 'these people are crackers' phase.
3.) Is Alses your first PC here on Miz? What drew you to the Ethaefal? Obviously Lhavit is the perfect choice when choosing that race, but as a new player they are one of the most confusing races to choose. Did you have any trouble when you started or did it call to you like a sirens song? ( Look, I'm trying to ask the questions all fancy.)Alses is indeed my first – and so far only – PC on Mizahar. She takes up far too much of my time (in a good way) to contemplate taking on a full-fledged alt right now, and I have so many ideas and Cunning Plans about what to do and where to take her that I can't see that changing any time soon. These are always in flux as my character develops, new ideas come to the fore and old ones become less practical or less fitting, but I always have so many of them! That's not to say I don't have concepts for alternates, but I know that if I took them up my time would be split and I'd either be unable to do them justice or I'd neglect Alses. That's unacceptable to me as a player, since it means other people might be left hanging and the quality of my writing might suffer.
As for choosing the Ethaefal, well, I'm just a total sucker for anything shiny, really! They're sparkly and made of glitter, with crowns (of shiny, indestructible horns) already built-in to the design, which is magnetically attractive to me!
In all seriousness, though, I read through all the races in the spirit of fairness and completeness but kept coming back time and again to the Ethaefal. To me, they're special, standing out amongst Mizahar's panoply of unique races, being a sort of queasy mix of the sacred and the mundane in one and with so much scope to develop that essential dichotomy and the puzzle of their very existence through roleplay that I couldn't tear myself away from them. Perhaps it also makes them confusing and difficult to play, but to me that was a wonderful challenge and something that I'd have to work to get to grips with – it was essential to develop a strong idea in my head of what Alses was like before starting threading, so I would always have something to refer back to as a sort of check and guide to what I did.
Anyway, I read their description and was hooked, instantly thinking of ways their unique situation might influence, well, everything, really, from interactions with other players to their psyche, their thoughts on the world, and there are so many ways to show that and make an Ethaefal unique.
Beyond-mortal beauty is perhaps the easiest and most obvious, every Ethaefal in their celestial form possesses it, but continually roleplaying NPCs and most particularly PCs being bowled over by the radiance is something of a drag for both sides – and besides, there will always be people to whom conventional ideals of beauty just don't hold water. I like to think I've found other little ways to signal the ostensible inhumanity of Alses; her ambiguity with the personal pronoun perhaps being the easiest to spot for an outside observer. Ethaefal retain a sort of scattershot recollection of their past lives, after all, and so I got to thinking what effect having so many memories of totally different people and across so many different times and places might have, especially since they'd all be jumbled up and without any chronology or reference point to give them order and meaning. Alses, then, feels like a patchwork person quite a lot of the time, made out of scraps of memories collected across the whole span of Mizahar's history and assembled, mentally speaking, in a rather slapdash fashion, and I try to show that in my writing without it being too overpowering.
The race as a whole has such splendid abilities, too: Tanroa's Blessing, the ability to age any object or part of an object by a day in an instant, has so many roleplaying applications that aren't perhaps immediately obvious. Ripening fruit a bit and encouraging plants is the listed example, but it can go so much further. Sore and aching muscles from heavy labour? Take the pain away with the Blessing. Writing a letter or painting glyphs? The Blessing will dry the ink without having to faff around with drying sand and getting it all over the place. Minor cut? A flash of true-blue light and it's healed. I enjoy finding new uses for that little gift, ways to make Alses' life a little easier, which is, after all, its purpose. I'm very easily entertained, aren't I?
Another big draw was the mortal seeming – the imperfect counterpoint to the celestial form that every Ethaefal assumes when their patron deity (Syna or Leth) rules the sky. Exploring how the Ethaefal themselves – or at least, my particular Ethaefal - feel about that adds a satisfying spice to certain threads, adding to the incremental process of character development over the seasons and years. Alses, as I've mentioned, hates her mortal form and generally tries to avoid spending any sort of conscious time inhabiting it. The reason is very simple; her celestial form, a gift from Syna Herself, is frankly very flamboyant and very colourful – fire-opal skin, shiny horns, perfect in every way, and to transition from that to a very pale, very washed-out Konti isn't at all pleasant. To her, beauty is colour and richness and sparkle, she's completely oblivious to the more subdued prettiness of a Konti form and instead sees it as sort of a walking corpse that's ugly and shameful and to be hidden away if at all possible. She sees herself as half-ruined, only able to assume the form she considers her true one for half the time – which I plan to use as a spur to get her into Morphing, in due course.
The relationship with the gods is perhaps the final big attraction of the Ethaefal, at least for me. I chose to play Alses as a faithful, not a Forsaken, but there's no one right answer to that choice and, whichever way one chooses, there's so much to explore in that complex, emotionally-charged area. I asked myself a lot of questions when I was considering her current viewpoint on Syna, the Fall and the whole spiritual dimension of being an Ethaefal, and I keep questioning myself: Why did she first attract the attention of Syna? If she met her patron again, properly, what would she say to them? What thoughts might charge through my poor Ethaefal's head? How would she feel about getting a gnosis from Syna - and how would she feel about getting one from another deity? What about if, as a faithful, she met a Forsaken? Ethaefal-Ethaefal interactions are charged anyway, but adding that in surely produces a toxic mix so conducive to plots and intrigue and in-thread conflict.
4.) Why Auristics? It's well known that it is one of the most commonly misinterpreted of the magics. How did you get past that when starting, or did you fall in to the "misuse of Auristics" trap?Why auristics? Well, back when Alses was first created, all shiny and new and with nary a thread to her name, magecraft was her primary skill, and auristics, since it synergises very well with that discipline, was the supporting magic. I knew, OOC, that because of the swingeingly huge start-up costs for magecraft, auristics was likely to become the branch of magic she was most skilled in very quickly, but despite that magecraft is still the discipline that's most important to her as a character. In many ways, it defines part of who she is, and she's very proud of her knowledge in that difficult and demanding field. In any formal introduction or formal documentation, she'll be 'Alses, Magesmith and Instructor at the Dusk Tower' (Lhavit's school of auristics), rather than the other way round, despite the difference in skill.
That's not to disparage or put down auristics and aurists, though – I had initially thought auristics was a discipline with many intriguing possibilities, and in the event I found I really enjoyed getting to grips with the complexities of the discipline and how best to represent it in a balanced, descriptive and true-to-lore way in my threads. I think the key to making a good start with the discipline and not falling into the trap of misusing it is to have a thorough understanding of the lore and how it might apply to the situation in hand – at first, whenever I did a thread involving auristics in any way, I had its wiki page open in another tab and after every burst of writing I'd go back and check what I'd written, comparing it to the wiki to make sure I hadn't grossly overreached myself or attempted something stupid and out of the bounds of what was possible.
If I wanted to do something that went beyond the scope of the wiki page, there was always Chat, for a quick second opinion – usually from one of the friendly green names floating around
. Chat can be an excellent resource, used wisely, and the veteran players and ST's who frequent it and will freely offer advice and help – even if it's just on the lines of: “Hmm. That's a puzzler and no mistake...Try PM'ing Tarot/Colombina/Another Storyteller, they came up with it in the first place.” - can be invaluable. As I got more confident with what I was doing, both OOC and IC, I stopped referring to the wiki page every single time, the knowledge now being in my head, but I still make a point of checking the lore every so often, to refresh my memory, and stepping back from my threads to analyse what I'm doing.
Since the vagaries of character development have resulted in Alses gaining a teaching position recently, if I want to impart knowledge in any meaningful manner IC - even to a bunch of NPC novices - I absolutely have to know what I'm talking about from an OOC perspective (which, I hope, helps me continue to use the discipline as it was intended), even if I then end up building in deliberate mistakes, omissions and general fuzziness to stay within my skill levels!
Another draw to auristics, and a delight to roleplay, is the sheer spectrum of overgiving that can result from its over-use. An integral part of playing a mage is suffering from, and dealing with, the effects of overgiving from time to time and to the best of your character's ability, especially at the lower levels of skill. Reimancy is probably the most common magic PCs have on Mizahar, and I can see the attraction to smothering an irritation in incandescent lava, but the consequences of overgiving with reimancy, aside from the standard euphoria and Sweet Whispers, all struck me as being rather physical and permanent, and I confess to being a little precious about Alses' pretty body at the moment. I think she would be too, in all honesty, so it's not me coddling her, honest!
Auristics, whilst considered a safe and scholarly discipline, is still magic, though, and magic is a wonderful and useful tool up to a point and then you die (or wish you had, at any rate). The effects of using it without stint are mainly mental in nature, easier to dismiss from an IC point of view because overgiven aurists don't bloat to shocking sizes and rampage through the city flinging firebolts and crushing people beneath their stinking carcasses, but they're very much there nonetheless and such fun to play around with.
For instance, one of your physical senses getting stuck on one particular sensation might not sound, on the face of it, too bad, or perhaps even pleasant – imagine the taste of chocolate in your mouth for several hours – but then consider the same occurrence with sewage instead, or something equally vile. You can also lose, for a time, some of those senses – I blinded Alses for a while once, a punishment for arrogance in her casting, and since sight is the most important of the senses to her as a Synaborn, that has had some lingering mental effects that I enjoy bringing in every so often, subtle reminders that keep her humble. When that fails – because let's face it, no matter how careful you are, at some point your luck's going to run out and circumstances or pride are going to force overgiving on you – I have a list of things I think would be interesting or fun (from my perspective, naturally) to inflict on her. A herky-jerky gait, akin to the very severe tremors some people can suffer as a symptom of neurological disease, is one I've currently got my eye on, an overuse of her powers disrupting some nervous activity in her brain for a while, perhaps.
5.) Who is Alses? How would you describe your personality if someone asked (like I am now!)? Is there any part of you in her or vice versa? Has anything in your real life effected how Alses turned out as a character? Is there any part of her that frustrates you and that you wish you could change?Oh, the dreaded question! Personality, personality...I always have to fight the urge to dodge the question, hide behind comedy and quote Blackadder:
“We shall be fighting this campaign on issues, not personalities.”
“Why is that?”
“Because our candidate doesn't have a personality.”
However, cognizant of the signal honour of Featured Character (yay!), I'll answer to the best of my ability!
In the final analysis, she would probably come out as something of a zealot. A prideful, scholarly, sometimes-arrogant, effortlessly superior zealot – she lives in Lhavit, after all, where the Ethaefal are rather revered, and that sort of behaviour can go to one's head. Down in the depths, though, she's a bit of a coward – although she'll vehemently insist it's pure pragmatism if ever picked up on it.
A few things will move her to take a stand – Syna, for one, and Lhavit, her adopted home – but aside from those, running away is always a seductive option, although not generally in the physical sense. Alses hates her mortal form and all the problems it brings, so she makes regular (more regular than she'll admit) use of sleeping philtres, hiding from the night and her mortal seeming. This is also why Morphing will be a terribly seductive discipline for her; it offers another way to run from her dislike of her Konti form, rather than coming to terms with it as a part of who she is. If things become difficult – especially with skills she normally finds easy to acquire – she's more likely to give up, at least for a while, than persevere, unless someone or something goads her into keeping going: the chance of losing a wager with someone she likes and respects, say, or the prospect of taking a humiliating and humbling blow to her pride as a result of her failure, especially if there are watching eyes.
That said, she does have some good points. A scholar and an academic, Alses does, I think, have some reason to be prideful, being skilled in auristics, and she does try and see the best in others, sometimes against her more cynical judgement - at least, the first time around. Continued mercy, though, that isn't a strong point. If she's given you a chance to redeem yourself and you've gone and acted with malice aforethought instead, she's not going to paper things over and pretend it's all okay. She'll watch you, and closely, by the light of the burning bridges, and you'll not get her trust easily again.
Charity isn't one of her natural virtues, either, but I think I may start to develop her cultivating it - to an extent, anyway - as her situation and status in Lhavit improves. It would probably be something done more for her own, longer-term benefit than out of any deep-seated altruism, but help is help and from the outside, one can look very much like the other. Besides, the citizens of Lhavit will surely want to believe the best of the shiny, shiny Ethaefal...
I think there's probably quite a bit of me in her, in truth. There are definitely some traits that are very much her own and nothing to do with me as a person, but it's a certainty that some of them I lifted lock, stock and barrel from myself and my own experiences and failings. Her pride, springing evergreen in her heart, that comes in equal measure from me and from the reverence Lhavit gives its Ethaefal residents. The near-inability to say 'sorry', unfortunately, that's been lifted straight from me; I don't mean apologising for little things, as in 'Sorry, I spilled your drink,' or 'Sorry, I think that's my seat,' but for real admission of wrongdoing or guilt. Alses mirrors me very closely in this – it's much, much easier for her to show remorse and regret by actions, deeds, anything at all apart from saying the dreaded word to the victim's face.
At some point, I know she's going to slip up: she's not infallible, there are going to be consequences and, even worse, the awful word will have to be said before someone is satisfied – actions won't be enough to apologise without actually saying sorry. Roleplaying that – convincingly - will be a challenge, because it's a failing close to my heart, but the challenge will, I hope, make me a better roleplayer and give more depth to Alses' character.
I think my Embarrassing Incident, coupled with the situation of the Ethaefal in general, have made her quite a sexually and romantically naive character. Taking account of the Ethaefal position was an intentional one, the impact of the Embarrassing Incident unintentional but probably undeniable. Her eventual gender, too, was influenced by my own grapplings with sex and gender identity and I'll admit, I agonized over whether to make her male or female or to perhaps try for something in between, during the character-creation process.
Moving on to what frustrates me about her...at first, I was going to say her innocence; I find it surprisingly difficult to consistently display her naivete in matters that touch on the carnal and the romantic, in truth, but I've been having such fun recently playing around with it and her reactions to more...liberated? characters that I can no longer really say it frustrates me. It's more an amusement, a peccadillo of her character to mess around with and slowly erode or build back up as the fancy takes me.
Given that, I'd have to go with her zealotry, her faith, as being the main cause of frustration. On occasion, the single-minded devotion to Syna can grate and feel a little restricting. It's an integral part of her, it informs quite a lot of what she consciously and subconsciously does and I have to keep it fairly prominently in my mind's eye when writing, but it can on occasion be something of a trial and a limitation; I'm not able to explore the intricacies of other gods, their interests and their worship systems as deeply as I'd like. Mind you, I try and take the view that adverse conditions – especially ones I've made for myself - merely make for a more fruitful challenge in the long run; to that end I'm challenging Alses to explore the philosophy and interconnections of Lhavit's religions. She's a scholar and an academic at heart, so I think that approach might have the best chance of getting through to her, a sort of slow-burning plan to widen her spiritual horizons and get her to at least consider the merits of other deities, but I expect that to take a long time to bring to any sort of reasonable, fluid climax IC.
Which is fine by me, mostly, since I like planning and playing for the long haul – jam and cake in the far distance, but with plenty of good and tasty short-range biscuits and tea to keep me happily occupied as I'm trundling along towards that final destination. Sometimes, though, I really do just want to cut to the chase, do a sharp, sudden twist and explosively open those horizons so she can gambol a little more freely amongst the deities of Mizahar.
6.) You seem to be one of those players that pick a city and stay in it. Was that intentional? Do you wish you could travel, and are hindered by Kalea's rather in traversable terrain? Do you think there are any benefits to stationary vs wanderlust PCs?
It absolutely was intentional, yes; I think that, whilst the life of a roving adventurer travelling through Mizahar offers unrivalled opportunities to see the world and get involved in an awful lot of things in many different locations, it's a lot more difficult to get truly stuck in with the culture and setting of any one particular place and to have a lasting effect on an entire city.
There are exceptions, of course, as there are to everything – some of the things that people's wanderlust-filled characters have done has affected the entirety of Mizahar, but in the main I like the sense of concrete achievement and influence that can be much more easily achieved with a more stationary, sedentary character. To me, being an itinerant wanderer, say, is more akin to watching a Lonely Planet tour through the world than anything else, and I personally just happen to prefer the immersion and influence that a more static character offers.
I do occasionally get the urge to travel, I'll admit, and it was particularly strong near the beginning of my time on Mizahar, when I was more or less the only active player in Lhavit. However, now that things have picked up there and Elysium's doing sterling work on the development side of things, I'm very happy indeed to stay in the Diamond of Kalea, building up influence and relationships with the city and PCs alike. Besides, travelling is generally short on creature comforts like hot baths and soft beds, and long on washing in ponds and sleeping on stony ground or in some draughty, dirty cave, and since Alses clings like grim death those creature comforts...
That's not to say that she won't eventually travel, though; Sahova is very much on the list as a place to visit and roleplay in for a while, because it absolutely fascinates me and will present a whole new set of challenges to Alses, both physically and mentally - always providing she survives long enough to be in a position to consider the journey, that is. In the end, it was the flip of a coin that decided whether Alses would start in Lhavit or Sahova, and whilst I don't regret the decision in the least, I'd like to see the other side and what could have been, so to speak, as well.
Lhavit will probably always be her home and bastion, though, the harbour of her strength and her sanctuary to which she'll always eventually return.
As I've already mentioned, wanderlust-filled PCs see the world and wonders that most stationary PCs can only dream of, but I think that they don't always get the depth of cultural immersion in the world and the subtler nuances of the lovingly-crafted cities available to stationary characters. Another advantage to more stationary PCs, from an OOC point of view, is the relationship you build up with your local ST. They get to know you and your character very well through all the threads they grade, whether they be solos or not, and that means that quests, to take just one example, can be more easily tailored and strung together to form long, cohesive arcs that develop your character over seasons. I have an inkling, a personal suspicion more than anything, that it also means the quests are more challenging to you as a player and to your character – because of the greater insight an ST whom you've interacted with for ages has of you – and are therefore also more satisfying if and when you do succeed at them, and even should you fail.
At the end of the day, though, I can't say that stationary characters are better or worse than roving ones. It really depends on what you as the player, the puppet-master, want out of your characters. That, in essence, dictates whether they're mobile or stationary. To eventually make someone who's been everywhere and seen everything, cut through hordes of bandits and shrieking monsters, found secret oases in the trackless deserts and hidden grottoes beneath the Unforgiving mountains, fought in every bar and bedded a girl or boy or both in every city...a wanderer is probably your best bet.
Some skills, though, some styles of roleplay, and even some cities – like Lhavit, thanks to its in-game geographical isolation - lend themselves better to the more sedentary life for a PC. As a general example, it's rather difficult to build up political clout in a city if you're forever flitting about the world, for instance, and the same applies to a myriad of other things, too. Since I prefer intrigue, politics, the art of the backroom deal and scholarly magic to outright punching things, and as I enjoy being a part of a city and watching it grow and change gently over time, sedentary was the more obvious and more attractive path to go down for me.
Your mileage may, of course, vary
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7.) Simply put, where would you like to see Alses go? This can be interpreted many ways and I'm keen to see how you answer.In terms of a physical location, the Ukalas – and not as a soul reclaimed from the cycle, either. I have a grandiose, long-term and very probably impossible (because of game balance purposes) goal for Alses, involving the rift through which the Ethaefal fall – but in many ways it's the journey, the striving, that's more important than the final, far-off culmination. All the little triumphs and tribulations along the way, the unexpected offshoots the pursuit of the main leads me down, those are what I really enjoy about setting and working towards a probably-impossible goal.
Regardless, knowledge of Dominion's existence and principles of use would be a major victory along the way, especially spiritually speaking. It is, at present, the exclusive domain of Ialari, but I am patient! There are so many other ideas and Cunning Plans running round in my head that I shall be very happily occupied until serendipity or plotting drops a means to learn that Lost Discipline into my lap.
Speaking more of where I see her going, society-wise, a position of power and influence in Lhavit would be a very rewarding thing to roleplay, both journey and arrival, so to speak. There would be upset and conflict – of course there would be – between the old, established political players in the city and her, as a relative upstart. There would be struggles on the way to that lofty pinnacle, too, Alses being used as a pawn in various schemes of the elite, since Lhavit isn't all crystals and chanting, but I think it would make sense for her as a character and be good for me as a roleplayer.
I try not to focus too much on the culmination of her dreams and aspirations at the moment, though, or else I'll get lost in planning what-ifs. I remind myself – and Alses - frequently that she need to have herfeet firmly on the ground, a solid foundation, before she can start building castles in the air.
8.) If Alses could vacation on any real life city/country/continent, where would she go? Why?Now, the temptation here is to select my own favourite country, Palau – a tiny collection of tropical limestone islands in the Western Pacific. A more perfect slice of natural heaven you will not find on this earth – the rainforest is exquisite, the diving sublime on the coral reefs and there's an inland lake where you can swim with glowing jellyfish that have no stings!
However, this is a question about Alses and not me, so I really must stop advertising Palau! In truth, I think Alses would go on holiday to the Vatican, or at least Italy, to see what wonders faith can build and how long it can endure, even in a world starved of divine appearances. Then, too, the exuberant Baroque architecture and art of the place would appeal to her aesthetic sense, and whilst my own feelings on organized religion are decidedly ambivalent, I freely admit that some of the finest pieces of art and sculpture in the world – Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and Baglione's Sacred Love and Profane Love to name but two – have been the result of Church patronage and religious inspiration, and Alses would probably lose herself amongst the treasures the Vatican has.
The Italian love of life, their joie de vivre and bon vivant attitude to it all would be all-but magnetic to her, too – if unsettling and alien and confusing. I can see her totally fitting in after a couple of bottles of red, though – there's a passionate soul somewhere underneath the shine and the Lhavitian manners, I'm sure, if only someone could manage to get enough alcohol inside her...
9.) Alses went on above stated vacation and her ship/car/plane/horse and buggy CRASHED ON A DESERTED ISLAND. Syna pops up and gives her anything she wants. What three things does she ask for (No, being transported off the island doesn't count. She's stuck.) The sky is the limit!I'm presuming that asking for some method of transportation is also out of bounds, since teleportation's banned...
“O Radiant Lady, grant unto me these three boons, that my life on this splodge of sand in the middle of the trackless ocean might be made a little more bearable:
First, the Book of Roth, plucked from whatever stygian vault it currently rests in, so that I'll have plenty to read during the interminable days and nights on this desert island. There must be some fiction inside that thing, after all, sandwiched between all the ancient lore. An improving book is all very well, but sometimes you just need a good novel to relax with and since that artifact's absorbed entire libraries, there's surely plenty there that no-one's laid eyes on for five centuries. Besides, if I ever get off the island I can keep it and the time won't have been a total write-off.
Second, three or four gnosis marks from You. I have heard the people of this strange holiday world speak of 'mobile phones' and 'laptops'; I believe they're communications devices of some kind. We would prefer, though, the security and surety of a strong link to You, a connection that would let us talk together to keep me from going totally potty without any social contact.
Third, a skyglass Tower, replete with libraries and baths and laboratories for me to pursue my passions and hobbies. It'll remind me of home, of Lhavit, it'll provide all the creature comforts – creature comforts are important - necessary for civilised living, and it'll keep me from getting bored, in conjunction with the Book. Besides, if it's tall enough, a passing ship might come and investigate the shiny thing, especially at night, and then I'm saved! Hurrah!”
10.) Here is a list of things. You reply with Alses' Favorites: Color, food, time of day, season, hair color, writing utensil and fragrance.What an odd set of questions! Naturally, our favourite colour is gold – and it must be native, true gold, not simply the colour yellow or any of the other inferior hues people sometimes try to dress up as the indefinable shade of that precious metal. Buttery and rich, shining like the sun on a summer's afternoon, gold reminds me of Syna and the Goldenlands with its lustrous shimmer and brings out the colour of my eyes.
My favourite – indeed, only – food would have to be the light that Syna bestows on the world, the endless energies that stream down from on high from dawn to dusk, a rainbowed – sometimes literally – banquet that every Synaborn delights in. Of the lights She pours onto Mizahar, the most delightful to us would have to be that of the noon bell, when Her power is at its greatest and Her light at its most potent. There's something indefinable in the quality of it just at that point, something special to its sensation on my skin that's a little addictive, almost.
If I have to be slightly more mundane, and pick only of the foods that the mortals like pushing into their faces, I'd select a philtered confection of some sort to enjoy with my power. There are always so many different melting and mingling flavours to savour, so many interactions on the tastebuds, tastes of chocolate and caramel and bitter oranges, and the textures! Creamily soft, melting and spreading a silken, velvety blanket over the tongue, the sharp crunch of caramel bits, the luscious sweetness of a ganache centre...we adore sweets, and philtered candies are the pinnacle of the confectioner's art.
The time of day we most favour should be obvious to anyone admiring us, and easily inferred from my previous answer. To reiterate: noon, the time of the sun's zenith and the point at which Syna's influence on the world has waxed to the fullest, when Her infinite energies rain down the most on Mizahar and every living thing delights in them – the Synaborn most particularly.
Really, I should say Summer is my favourite season; the flaring of the Watchtowers brilliant yellow heralding a most congenial season for every Synaborn. As we move through Summer, towards Midsummer Day, the bells of time I can spend in my celestial form increase, day on day, a state of affairs that's very pleasing to me. The sights and sounds and smells of Summer, too, they're beautiful – all the flowers in magnificent bloom, clouds of perfume lying thick across every boulevard and in every courtyard of my city, but I confess a stubborn fondness for Autumn, when the trees do their best to match my fire-opal skin and there's a slight nip in the air. Late roses keep my favourite scent in the air for most of the season, too, mingling with woodsmoke, and the aching clarity of autumn days lets me see for a million leagues straight up. Autumn, then, is my favourite time of year, but only just!
Hair colour, now, I've always admired the fiery shades of the Inarta, when they come to Lhavit on their great Wind Eagles. Lustrous, glossy black hair is quite common in Lhavit and nice enough, to be sure, but the rich vibrancy of exotic auburn and near-crimson hair has an indefinable charm.
We were taught to write with a quill, and that remains my preferred method of writing, despite Lhavit's love affair with the brush. A properly-prepared quill of good quality, I find, allows me the fine control necessary for legible penmanship - and fine penmanship makes for readable notes. Since we could never remember absolutely everything, storing knowledge in a manner I can easily read back as an aide memoir is very important. The cut of the nib of a quill, along with the angle and pressure used when writing, can more easily and quickly change the character of the lines it makes than can be achieved with a brush, and I appreciate the expressiveness that can lend to my jottings.
And finally, as for fragrance, that's an easy one: attar of roses, a perfume sweet with the memories of Summer.
11.) Wow you're lucky and get extra questions because I'm on a roll. Kalea is secluded. Chances are, many people's PC's haven't encountered Alses. If you had to pimp her out, what would your sales pitch be? What is it that you want people to come away with about Alses?Ahem.
“Do you like shiny things? Really shiny things? Do you have more hats than you know what to do with, and nowhere to put them? Then why not come down to our store and try out an Alses? This delightful ornament is sure to brighten up any dull corner and is perfect for anywhere that just needs a little sparkle to truly shine! The fire-opal surface provides endless and colourful interest, making an Alses a conversation piece in whatever room you display it, whilst the many-pronged horns adorning its top make it a top-notch hatstand sure to raise the tone of even the grandest hallways! Best of all, an Alses is low-maintenance! Just make sure to keep it in a sunlit area, and any bumps or scrapes and all those other annoying signs of wear will heal away to nothing in no time! Come on down and try out an Alses today – it's free!”
On a (very) slightly more serious note:
“Do you have a hankering to bamboozle and discombobulate someone notionally cleverer than you? Do you like pushing people out of their cosy comfort zones? Do you use just one word when ten would be so much more expressive? Are you illiterate, or one of the legions of magic-haters? Or would you perhaps like to cast aside superstition and have your eyes opened to the wonder of djed instead? Instructor and mentor, or dangerously useless and over-educated baggage, Alses is flexible and (hopefully) interesting! Thread with me, I have medals
.”
Enough silliness, I feel.
Now, obviously, the main thing I want people, the players behind the characters, to come away thinking from a thread with Alses is: 'That was fun.' Because what all the plotting and the quests and the solos and the casual PC torture – Baldy, I'm looking at you – fundamentally boils down to is just that: having fun. That's Mizahar's raison d'etre; the site provides a wonderful, unique structure and a developing world to have fun in, and everyone should appreciate it
.
I'd also like people to think, if I've been very lucky: 'We should thread again sometime.' It's a high compliment whenever someone actually says that to me, and it makes me go all warm and fuzzy inside.
What I want them to come away with about Alses the character from a thread is a different kettle of fish entirely. I suppose, in a perfect world, I'd like them – and their PCs – to come away from a thread thinking: 'So that's what an Ethaefal is. They're not just pretty, serenely happy humans with horns made of indestructitanium superglued to their heads and glitter inserted under their skin, they've got all this spiritual baggage, all this nuanced uncertainty and dread about who and what they are, hanging over everything they do like the Sword of Damocles (to be melodramatic for a moment), beings forever caught between rapture and despair.'
Naturally, because I'm not that good of a writer and this isn't a perfect world, that won't happen all or even the majority of the time – although I can, and, I hope, do try and make it occur when appropriate.
If people can come away with at least a vague impression of her character – scholarly, intelligent, a bit up herself but fundamentally fairly all right if your PC's got the vocabulary to understand her, then I'll be very pleased
. If the interactions take us down a different path, revealing the uglier side of her nature and the things about herself that Alses would really rather never came to light as well...why, then it might just be the start of something beautiful, too.
12.) Any Other Business?This is the part common to all awards ceremonies, where the lucky recipient (me!) thanks absolutely everyone who's ever been in their life, right down to their pony Fidget, and most of the other attendees – or in this case, readers - sort of switch off, but bear with me, bear with me, bear with me, please! Don't stop bearing with me; let me enjoy the limelight and the soapbox for just a little longer, hmm?
A message to all the newbies out there, or those contemplating becoming newbies and joining our wonderful community: don't, for the sake of all that is shiny and lovely, be put off by the length of some of the posts here! I see you in Chat every so often, worried you're not good enough for us after reading a particularly prolix thread - there's no requirement to pour out four pages per entry, irrespective of what's going on in-thread, and people write as much as feels natural within the bounds of their own particular style. All you need is a good grasp of the English language, a creative brain, and a willingness to get stuck in – to the lore in equal measure to your threading
.
Quality, not quantity. Half a page of sparkling writing is worth far more than three of waffle, and readers – including, most especially, the experienced Storytellers who award all the lovely lucre at the end of it – do know and appreciate the difference.
That said, before I step down from the soapbox and out of the glare of the limelight, I'll hand out brief but grateful thanks to the ST team - the volunteer background staff beavering away in the shadows who together keep Mizahar fresh, interesting and on an even keel. Special thanks and adulation go out to Elysium for her sterling work on my beloved Lhavit, and last but by no means least, to all the players of Mizahar who make this community such a vibrant and friendly place. You know who you are – all of you – and it's a pleasure to roleplay with you.
Thanks.
by Phoenix on August 1st, 2013, 5:17 pm 
