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 January 2019! Einar Belugnir is one of our long time players. He plays in Ravok stirring up trouble and fighting the powers that be. So, please join us in welcoming him to the elite club of Featured Character! His interview is below! |
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The Interview
1. What was your inspiration for originally creating Einar Belugnir? I know we'd love to hear the story of how you found Mizahar and what made you stay.
Ein has gone through plenty of stages and transitions over the years. He has ever been my go to, self-projecting escapism slate character. I am pretty sure that his original iteration was the first original character I ever cooked up, actually... at the age of thirteen or so, mind. Long before Miz was something on my search history.
So Ein began with being a messy jumble of all that early puberty 'emo' and 'edge' nonsense with a side of copious amounts of non sensical powers meant for combat roleplay willie measuring, until I realised just how redundant it all was and had him transition into somewhat of a prince charming, people's champion sort of fellow with an only slight, guarded side that had to do with dabbling about with all them gloomy dark arts and necromancies and whatnot... Until I finally got tired of explored territory, cranked everything up to a hundred and tried to make the character something of a... Well an omnipotent god with a heavy 'human complex' for lack of a better description.
Enter Miz with its clearly preset rules and world, followed by about half a decade of self-aware criticism toward some of the absolute nonsense I'd roleplayed over the years, ass well as some healthy inspiration from other fantasy authors. I tossed aside most of the old concepts the character accumulated in free form RP and loosely maintained group roleplays, until naught was left but the bare bones needed to start from scratch. (God forbid I change a character's name and move on, hah, no)
In all his iterations, cringy or otherwise, Ein had been a struggler. So I simply started from that, moving on to add bits and pieces in accord with reading up on the lore of Mizahar until I put together what I like to think is a reasonably human character with decent enough depth to make for an enjoyable addition to the stories of others that he would be involved in, while still providing me with my occasional dose of boyish escapism.
As for how I'd found Mizahar, well, there is only so long a person can suffer through communities consisting of shameless ripoff characters loaded out with anime powers and teeming with lazily and borderline shamefully executed concepts, all of it being the work of what was most likely fifteen year olds who each believed themselves the brightest torch in the dungeon by virtue of being able to out-bullshit eachother through relentless keyboard abuse and juvenile OOC drama.... Ahem, either way, eventually I just went to google with a request for 'Best Roleplay Sites' or something of the sort, and bam, there I was reading up on the races, the skill system and personal magic... only to be intimidated by the complexity of it all and take me a couple of horribly indecisive months before I finally put my shyke together, sat down for real, hopped into chat to ask for an occasional tip and start putting together a proper character.
Ultimately, what really made me stay, however, wasn't the world or the game system, albeit those have their charm for sure, but what really glued me to Miz was the community, which was the plain opposite of the previous ones I'd been a part of. You people are the healthiest sort of mature, creative, respectful, patient and plainly just fun to talk to and brainstorm with... And I have rambled enough with this answer already so that's all the compliments y'all's gon get :L
(I love you all and you don't have a clue just how much)
2. Belugnir started with a bleak life, a street kid in Sunberth - who got adopted by two Mercenaries. How did that work, what was your inspiration for such a bleak background?
As mentioned, I wanted to have Belu be a struggler, with that went the idea that he would be someone without real origins upon which he could look back, as in never knowing who his real parents were and never having something alike to a fixed childhood home that he would remember as such. The mercenaries who adopted him would serve as a tool for distancing from a concept that could have been summed up with 'just a mean, thieving street urchin'. They were my way of adding a background of spitefully memorised chunks of decent manners, self awareness, moral values and a wee bit of arcane knowledge to Einar, albeit most of it all would stay well tucked under the rug of frowning profanity and daring that I felt would be fitting for someone who'd managed to make it through a childhood on the streets of Sunberth alive, if not entirely well.
3. Often, Belugnir puts forth a demeanor that’s crusty, scarred, and not approachable. But in his threads, his soft kind-hearted slightly insecure nature comes forth. Is this a planned thing or do you tend to find the PC himself takes control?
Yes... and yes, a bit of both. Well, it was mostly a planned thing. I don't think that roleplaying a purely sinister or mean character would be very realistic... or fun for anyone involved, really.
I like to think that, beneath all the bravado and broken knuckles and cussing, Ein is still just a fecent human being, somewhat aware of just how lonely and vulnerable he really is, and trying his damnest not to let that vulnerability show... And failing rather splendidly in recent times, which has made for some of the more fun moments I've had roleplaying him. But while I planned the character to be this way I do think that the intensity and occasion on which he does display a softer side is an ounce out of my control, provoked more by the characters he's met than by my intent to display it, which I am rather happy for.
4. What is Ravok’s draw for Belugnir? What keeps him there? Can you describe the strengths and weaknesses of the city?
Ravok's draw for Belu would be the fact that it is well... Simply not Sunberth (Or Sahova, for that matter *shudder*). Upon having a chance to finally leave the island of undead Ein had no real desire to return to the city that had seldom brought him good ever since he could remember and so made way northward.(All of this may or may not have been influenced by the fact that Sunberth was still closed, Sahova was closing and Ravok had been likely the most talked about city in the old Ajax chat at the time of Ein's migration there).
The city of Ravok itself provides for plenty engaging and exilerating stories, where people would get in more sophisticated sorts of trouble than getting shived in the gabber during some bar fight, what with all the nobility, the religious order and fanaticism that runs the place, the disdain for outsiders, and all the dark intrigue running beneath it, along with its outposts and the wilderness around them to vary up its game and setting, Ravok simply makes for as many roleplayong opportunities as a grumpy young murder hobo could ask for.
As for the city's weaknesses... It takes four sodding bells to make it from lakeshore to city proper. :L
5. The ladies of Miz would like to know if Bel has a love interest. This question was submitted by a fan. They’d love to talk to you about your hopes and dreams for Bel’s emotional relationships in the future.
Ah yes. Murder hobo is in the process of meeting his murder cat. At this very moment Belu doesn't exactly have a love interest. But plots are in motion for that to change. So we'll probably be doing plenty of talking on his emotional relationships soon enough.
6. What is Belugnir’s favorite memory? Why?
I don't think he has any, really. Plenty of contenders for his least favorite one, though. However, to bounce back to the previous question, I am pretty sure he will begrudgingly stumble into making some fond memories rather soon.
7. What has been one of your favorite character interactions to date? Why was it your favorite? This could be something you wrote or something you read that someone else wrote.
Regrettably I don't read the threads of other Miz players half as much as I'd like... That being said, my favorite character interaction would have to be the one that goes down throughout 'A Day Outside'. It was horribly sappy, it was irredeemably cheesy, it was bittersweet and I love the hell out of it.
8. What do you look for in a thread partner? Do you usually come up with the thread ideas or do you like to collaborate with others and come up with thread ideas on your own?
I enjoy a thread partner who can be creative and spark ideas of their own... And has an abundance of patience. *Cough* Being open to changing plans for a thread on the fly is also a dandy asset. That said, I much prefer collaborating for the sake of crafting stories and moving plots forward, albeit there are times when I won't shy away from pushing for an idea when I grow attached to it.
9. What are your favorite things to write about? Why? Is there anything you want to desperately write about that you haven’t gotten a chance to yet?
Most days, I'll be all for putting together a fast paced combat scene with exilerating violence and high stakes, followed by crude, sassy banter... And the next moment I'll be in the mood for writing about the sappiest things, which is probably something Ein's common demeanor wouldn't allude to, and is something I really haven't done that much we... So, yes, there is plenty of emotional and social growth in store for Einar and it is a big shiny box that I am yet to delve into, and hope to begin unraveling rather soon.
10. What keeps bringing you back to Mizahar? You’ve been around for years. There must be something here amusing.
As mentioned before, while Miz is a rather peculiar and unique setting with elaborate, fair and compelling rules and game system, and while all of it is an insanely commendable thing to maintain, what really keeps me here is the community. A community which is the best sort of different from a bunch of tantruming self centered, nerd-raging children.
(Did I mention that I love you people?)
11. Also a fan submitted question. You’ve made it very clear you are Serbian in chat. People would love to know how and why you learned English and why you speak it (read: Type it) better than most English speakers?
In all honesty I detested having to learn foreign languages as a kid. All throughout middle school I never had any good grades in English or French or uh... Russian I think they taught us at some point. Regardless, it went from bad to worse when I got my first Desktop computer and a subsequent couple of PC games around the age of twelve something. Sure enough I'd soon gotten the first F(or an equivalent there of, anyhow), in English of all things. But my gaming addiction hardly diminished even with being grounded and scolded all the way into the ground...
Thankfully I played the good sorts of games. The sorts of which involved plenty of story rich fantasy and dialogue riddled cutscenes... And like all hyped up twelve year olds, I would keep quoting my favorite lines in shoddy voice acting attempts whenever there was nobody around to hear it. Of course, it was all in english and plainly - sounded way cooler to me than my native tongue... From there I began watching animated series and movieswith an increasing lack of subtitles, buying the occasional book written in english, and really just hitting up internet chatrooms to waste my free time away... Referring to good old google whenever I ran into a new word or term. And nine years later here I am, flexing all about on my elderly folks whenever they want something translated or need to look up a foreign movie, I got them covered for almost anything, like a champ.... Oh yeah, and writing and roleplaying left and right whenever I'm not being a lazy ass, there's that.
12. Here’s your soap box question! Is there anything you want to talk about in regards to your character and or the game itself? You have an audience so feel free to jump on the soapbox and talk a bit about anything you want!
Oh no, open ended conversation, the bane of my existence!
In all seriousness I'd just like to express my gratitude to Elias, Rook, Shiress and Zavya for being patient with my sluggish replies lately... I've begun to view our little group of misfits as a bit of a family in recent times and it's become one of my dearest roleplay experiences. I also wanna point out the baffling insanity of all the staff members who, on top of maintaining and running the site and its cities and dealing with whatever life has to hurl at them, still somehow find the time to roleplay with the rest of us. You people are amazing.
As for the game itself uh... I mean do I need to be pointing out the things we all know and love about it? (I personally even happen to love the somewhat steep and sometimes difficult learning curve that comes with joining the site.)
...Suppose my wee heart would know another ounce of joy if we could at some point introduce a sort of expansive monster manual or glossary for easy reference whenever someone wants to spice up their time of idly traversing the wildernes with some unsightly peril. I do know this would be a real piece of work to put together but I'd like to use this chance to nudge the lot of you l, who've read this far into my rblings, toward baking up a concept or two for some menacing flora and fauna whenever you catch yourself having aimless spare time. Who knows, maybe we could eventually put together a site wide project to bother the founders with. 
I think that is about it...?
Here's hoping the lot of you goofballs had a happy batch o' holidays with the start of this year.
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by Shiress on January 6th, 2019, 3:07 am 
Very well deserved, and can't wait to see more of my favorite murder hobo!
