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[Sheb]

Kingfisher, how about a character that's not so stereotypical? And one that respect the fact that we are in a largely stratified society, and a bandit leader of unknown origin is not going to become a general.

Urist, we  have a nearly infinite number of spot! Post you char!

[Kestrel_6]

Can I be an assassin anyways? Maybe under the Emperor?

[kingfisher1112]

*Sigh*

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Alexander Chero
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Description: A tall, intimidating man. He has piercing blue eyes, dirty brown hair, and a thin face. His body is quite muscled, yet lean.
Bio: Born into a senator's family, his father and mother wanted him to go into politics. He however, wanted to be a general. He had the ability and the drive, but his parents pushed him on a different path. After many arguments he decided to run away from home, where he lived with an innkeeper. His parents died shortly after. When he became a man, he immediately became a legionary. There, he performed well, and made friends with a high ranking officer, and was helped along his path to glory. Many years later, he was in a high rank himself and is awaiting assignment of a regiment. His personality is cheery, but he can be pushed and become ill-tempered quickly. He is not in good favour with the senate after many drunken fights, but the men respect him. He is also not in good favour with many religious types after a few incidents.

Question: Do military commanders start off with regiments or legions?
Hopefully less Mary Sue-ish.

[Sheb]

I think not. Also, you forgot skills.

[kingfisher1112]

Goddamit, I need more help than " No, not that, something else".

[Tiruin]

Finished my sheet, hopeful for success.

Goddamit, I need more help than " No, not that, something else".

First, no swearing.

Second, a politician can be a general.

Third, you cannot run away from parents who are senators and rejoin the same army of your country state without being noticed.

[kingfisher1112]

Fine, what do you suggest?

[Azthor]

Query: It is possible for me to be part of the Imperial Praetorian Guard types?

Approved. Usually I'd say you should refer to Caellath for his approval as Praefector, but he has already vouched for you.

Can I be an assassin anyways? Maybe under the Emperor?

You are in if you can get the Master of the Imperial Eye to vouch for you. I assume he will reveal himself if he is interested.

[Skyrunner]

What to be is a very important question. =_=

[Ghazkull]

Okay Kingfisher lets start at the Beginning:

Im not sure if we play here strictly historical or not, in case we do women in the senate are propably not working out. Although i might be wrong.
Starting out as the son of a Senator is ok....just cut that crap with running away, parents getting killed by somebody and swearing revenge to anybody. How many people do you know in RL who ran away from their parents, never returned and then ended up in a high military/political position or whose parents were killed by burglars/gang-wars/criminals? Take that number (which should be ranging between zero and 1),multiply it by 10 and you have the number of such happenings among a billion.

You see what i'm getting at? The child whose parents were murdered by bandits or ran away from home and fights its way to the top is not the rule but the exemption. If you really want bad relations/dead parents try a different approach something less "HAHA i'm the Caricature of the Fairy Tale Hero".

If its military why not try to have a Middle-Class Family with a drunkard father? Your Character joined the Military to escape his father, the social standing of you allows an entrance as a Decurio and thus maybe a high enough position to lead regiments before you are 50. Let the Character have a ambivalent relationship with his father: when he is drunk he is a disgusting piece of shit and when he is normal he is actually a loving father. There enoughs tuff for roleplay...

If its senate position, why not play mama's boy? You come from a Senate Family, your father was adultering and you witnessed as your mother killed him and blamed a slave in very young years. Now your mother has been grooming you for yours to take the Senate Position of your father. Gives a nice interesting character with some comedic relief or you make him some real psychotic guy.

There are a trillion different life-stories of people out there than ye olde: my parents got murdered by bandits thing. Go wikipedia skim over some biographies of people in charge: most of them have actually really interesting stories (none of which start with he ran away from home and never came back). Develop a quirky unique Character or a bland normal one, if you are not in the mood for that. Just not a Mary-Sue. Read the Bios and posts of Terenos (especially thinking of Terenos D'Avistral from YAK here) or of Yoink ( Troubaldsome) to get a feeling for badass or really awesomely crazy characters if you feel ambitious or read Dwarmins (Aeverys,Albert in HOTRS/YAK) or one of the myriad others of good characters in the forum(Caesar,Iituem,forsaken1111 etc. pp.). Try to get a feel how these people write their Characters and how they play them, if you can't really can come up with a good backstory or some ridiculously crazy character just try and make a normal one. Play yourself more or less or take somebody from your direct vicinity (friends family). Take their Character and/or their looks as basic build and from there on out you can change everything at that character. Or if thats not working out just make a blank, in other words some random people Character. The backstory at the beginning is not so important you can flesh out your character in the game itself. I usually do this as i seldomly can come up with a good character on the spot.
If we take for example Shebs character here (sorry i hope you dont mind):

Appearance: Tall and thin, with a wisp of dark curlay hair around his balding head, Lucius is still in a remarkable good shape for a man of over 45. Born from a wealthy and ancient patrician family, he was destined for public office from birth. A skilled general, he led a succesfull campaign against the Whitepeak alliance before coming back to serve in the Senate as one of the Optimates's most influencial members.

Its wonderfully vague and specific at the same time. Betraying nothing of his character sheb can form this guy into anything he is in the mood for: drunkard, coward, whoring bastard, pedophile or a loving father, a good soldier, a skilled politician, a savvy schemer, a loyal ally. The man could be dreary, he could be cheerful, he could be anything actually.

At the same time even if we don't know the character we can figure out what he looks like and that he was groomed to be a politician/general from birth. That gives sheb enormous leeway to put childhood traumas there if he wants, or make his character especially ambitious.

Well you hopefully get the idea. I hope that was somewhat helpful and i hope i didn't sound like a jerk. The basic point is: be creative or be bland. But don't take the Mary-Sue way...thats something nobody except for yourself likes.

[kingfisher1112]

That was... Quite helpful. Thank you Ghazkull. And sorry everyone I may have annoyed. Brb char sheet.
EDIT:
I decided to go for insane powermonger general. Also with a love for fighting and a mad bloodlust.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Alexander Chero
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Description: A tall man with a thin, evil face, eyes always looking as if he was plotting, and a bulky build. His brown  hair is wild and straggly.
Bio: Alexander was born into a Senator's family. However, his father liked to indulge in some 'Forbidden delights'. After his mother caught his father in the act, she killed him in front of the then young boy. She was a maniac, and killed many more people through his life. He became adapted, nay, he started to enjoy it. His mother groomed him for power, and wanted him to join the senate. He was taught how to use intimidation, lies and blackmail to get what he wanted. He grew up knowing that if he wanted something, he could take it. And he wanted to be a senator, and a general. He joined the military, and found a new latent bloodlust. His mother's insanity almost leaked into him, and even now he still is not quite right to many people. His mother, however, provided more help then just insanity. She used her high social standing to get him higher and higher into the military, and eventually the senate. He is very much ambitious, and his powerlust almost matches his bloodlust. He is a supporter of the Optimates, as more power for him is always good.
Supports: Optimates
Skills: Offensive Leader And Weapon Mastery:Sword

[Sheb]

((Actually, my character is largely inspired from the real-life roman stateman and general of the same name. Historical figure makes for great source of inspiration))

[Ghazkull]

In that case sorry Sheb i didn't know, but you are right History has enough inspirational Sources to draw from.

Kingfisher: now you don't want your general to be too one sided and too mad. A Completely Mad Character is not working together with Power-Mongering. In YAK politics is important,  you need allies and a mad bloodthirsty general is not necessarily a person many want in their schemes.

Especially in politics an openly mad person wouldn't survive long. The Facade must be there, therefore your Character needs to channel his bloodlust. How? There a wonderfully many ways to find a scary/funny/crazy/interesting way to channel it:

He could have hidden the head of his mother in his estate and speaks to her and which whispers to him madcap powerschemes.

Or you could just have him sate his bloodlust
by especially brutally mutilating his enemies in battle.
Or by making him an actually mediocre general. Sending troops into meatgrinder battles, in which he personally revels. You know "Blood For the Blood God" Kind. As long as blood is flowing everything is ok.


He could be more the American Psycho type of guy...if you don't know what i mean, watch the movie its a prerequisite to playing mad bloodthirsty killers XP. Killing homeless people or tortoruing animals all of course behind closed-doors. Nobody wants to see him doing that else his political career is destroyed


Or you could let him have a penchant of "wasting" prostitutes. Cannibalism to sate his bloodthirst. Maybe he works as a Censor and many a prisoner vanishes into his dungeons never to be seen again.

Or he could have a big consumption of slaves if you get my drift.

Try for inspiration Nero,Caligula, Phyrrus and other Ancient Personalities.

The above is if you want a bloodthirsty/mad character that is still somewhat socially acceptable due to him keeping his depravities in private. You can still play the utter and complete bloodthirsty berserker but that would pretty much negate any chance of him achieving anything politcal-wise.

[Sheb]

Ahah, no problem, I DID leave it vague so I could mold it however I wanted. There is depressingly little informations on the personnalities of many roman statesmen.

[kingfisher1112]

Matbe he is especially cruel, and often rushes soldiers into offensive situations regardless of chances. He also mutilates in battle. Also, he more whispers and plots, and more eccentric than anything else.