Which Race Do You Play?

by **Nina** on June 1st, 2010, 2:43 pm

(I really need to get off the discussions thread - even I'm getting annoyed with my strong opinions!)

I have a Drykas character, first of all, called Tyuru. She was the first character I made and as such the one I put the least thought into. I was caught up in the excitement of finding such an awesome site so I just kind of blindly created, choosing haphazard skills that ended up not creating a character at all. Her past only came to me a good week after I started roleplaying her, and it took me two months to come up with a good excuse for her really random skills and mismatched personality. I chose Drykas because I like the general idea behind them - a rather Medieval theme, which had always caught my interest before. I didn't really have a process. In fact, I didn't even read all the race pages. I read about three and chose the one that looked coolest from those. Very shallow of me, in hindsight. ._.

I also have a Kelvic (Naledi, soon to be called Janene). I really wanted to take a badly abused, overdone character concept and bring something new to it. I chose the bound-to-be-overused animal, a cat (and it is badly overused, excuse me for saying so) and tried to make it as stereotypical as possible, even bordering on Mary-Sue, while adding in fun elements of my own. I think her 'bondmate' Skylar helped in that a lot because it's such an unlikely pairing that it makes me want to cringe and jump for joy at the same time (which is very difficult to do simultaneously, by the way).

Oh, and my Chaktawe character (who is coming soon, based on how quickly my Help Desk question is answered) was created to be a little sister to Nascha, whose player is my sister in reality. I didn't really have a choice of race in this case. The point was to create somebody much nicer and far more annoying than me who would contrast sharply with Nascha's personality and even the personality of Chaktawe in general.

Ehhh, that was my two... or maybe five cents worth. ^.^

Wow, even I was bored reading that! Sorry. -.-'

-Max

by **Ash'eny** on June 9th, 2010, 1:16 pm

I'm still new to Mizahar, so I've got lots to learn. But...

At the moment, I am playing three characters. This one, Ash'eny, is my primary character for now. He's human, competency in Larceny and Begging (the first in Mizahar?) and is a pretty fun character to play in my opinion. He hasn't done too much but I plan to do some robberies and such as some point. Originally I was going to play this guy as an Akalak warrior, but I figured that was a pretty uncommon combination, and that this was more fun.

My next character is Sers Yisa, a Charoda, mainly because I have yet to see a single one running around. I haven't started with him, though I plan on going through a quest/journey, maybe considerably long of one, with Diem. No combat abilities, no use in combat, but will probably dip heavily into Herbalism, Medicine, and Poison.

Lastly is my Jamoura, Sharn. Again I made this character mostly due to the lack of the race Played, at least that I've seen. Also, I plan on buffing his Writing, drawing, and maybe massage. Three things I originally never thought of an Ape-man to be good at. I was even thinking some philtering or gadgeteering later on. He hasn't done too much yet, but I'm confident he'll be a fun one to play.

by **Eris** on June 12th, 2010, 2:55 am

When I first joined Mizahar, I started off with a human – partly because I already had a character concept in mind and partly because it seemed like the easiest race to play while I got comfortable with the way things work around here. Fortunately, Eris strayed from that character concept enitrely and I ended up with the complete opposite of the character I had in mind. Don’t you just love when characters develop a mind of their own?

Now that I’m happily settled, I couldn’t resist creating an Inarta character. There’s just something about the structure of the society and emphasis on boundaries and castes that appeals to me. It’s certainly different from the blank slate one faces upon creating a human character. So, now I’m throwing myself into developing Cyrill and seeing where that takes me.

by **Nastarai** on June 13th, 2010, 10:04 pm

I came to Mizahar by chance and the first thing I did after reading the home page was look at the races. I hate playing humans in role playing, so that was already knocked out for me. I've always seen them as being way too easy, no offense to any humans playing. I love the challenge of learning how to play a new race. I'm a human every day, why stay human when I can be something else?

Anyway, as I was looking through the races, I started eliminating based on very randomized points. I didn't want to try the Akalak because I'm a girl in real life and don't quite follow male thought processes. I already have a character similar to the Kelvic that can shift into any animal it wants, so Kelvic was out. When I flipped through the Konti, I decided that was my starting race.

I chose the Konti for several reasons. First, I am an atheist. I wanted to see what it's like being religious and Konti came across to me as being very religious. Second, they reminded me of the Greek prophets. Third, their entire basis reminded me of me, which I've never seen in a race before. The appeal of playing something completely new in so many aspects that is designed to be gentle and quiet drew me right in. Finally, the birth gnosis of divination is something I'm eager to try out.

I'm still doing the finishing touches of my character and when I started her Pre-Creation, I realized she was writing herself and I actually had to go back several times to change things that didn't fit with the history she told me.

This is starting to get long :/ I guess I'll end here before I start rambling too much.

by **Ash'eny** on June 13th, 2010, 10:36 pm

I think I could argue with you forever about how Humans are far from boring in Mizahar. I mean, just due to the fact that there are four or five subraces of Humans, each with their drastically differing lifestyles, beliefs, and cultures, I'd say it's hard to lump them all together and even call that 'boring'.

I guess it is only my opinion though.

by **Zareah** on June 28th, 2010, 1:19 am

I play a human everyday, I'd rather be something else in a game.

I was drawn to the Kelvic picture first, honestly, I didn't even read the description, I saw the picture and clicked the name (well actually I clicked the picture first which got a bit confusing, but I got straightened out lol).

As I read the description I became fascinated by the idea of playing an animal that can take a human form instead of the other way around (which is how I’ve always seen shape shifters portrayed). As I looked through it, my first impulse was TIGER! Then, thankfully, I laughed at myself as I realized that a lot of people would probably chose a cat of some sort, and so began the hunt for an unusual animal I could play, and I came across something called a Miners Cat, or Ringtail cat, that is actually a type of raccoon and I fell in love. I meant to bring out the cleverness and curiosity of the raccoon in her to be her identifying traits, but for some reason she ended up being very afraid, and her CS hogged my attention for about four or five days, though when I wasn’t near it I didn’t think about it, and from that came her desire for attention, but only when she is near people, she doesn’t think about it when she’s not.
Wow that got long quick.

Anyways there are two characters I’m still in the process of making, one of them is a Zith, which I was attracted to because of the strange contradiction of love of violence and strong family ties. I’m making a mother with a young halfblood son.
The other is a Dryka, because a friend of mine says his character needs a mate. She will be finished when I get a yes or no for her having a healing gnosis.

by **Mao** on June 28th, 2010, 1:53 am

Let's see, I chose Kelvic as my first character and race because I'm naturally drawn to anything related to nature or animalistic in that sense. I was very extremely and irrevocably close to and adored my cat, who was my partner and my best friend and my animal guide all packed into one. I thought, out of all the races in there, I could portray an animal the best.

I picked a jaguar because I grew up around and love the jungle. Jungle cats are amazingly strong, sneaky and beautiful. Also I chose a feline because even though I originally wanted to make Mao into a lemur or a red panda, or hell a deer, I had already decided she was going to be the part of my personality that I held deep deep down in my mind. She would be my darker, angry, confused and alone half. She IS me. And to portray this I needed a predatory animal. So I'm sorry if that's cliche, but that's just the way it is.

Other than that, I chose an Inarta because I absolutely loved everything about the race: the fiery hair, etc. And my third character, a Drykas, because again, involving animals and what not with the horses, I just found it all that much easier to get into it.

Sorry about my whole worship of animals and what not that's just the way I am.

by **Magnolia Corvidae** on June 29th, 2010, 7:29 am

Curious, I thought I had posted here.

Well, I play three characters: A Human, Ethaefael, and a Ghost.

Alistair deGrey: Human Extraordinaire

Alistair was my first character, and my most ordinary. I came to Mizahar, reviewed the lore and everything, and immediately said "Inventor". Recently, I had played a rather hollow feeling engineer character in a post apocalyptic roleplay. True to the engineer's supposed nature, I wanted to salvage. Instead of abandoning that character, I attempted to refashion his shell into something that would fit Mizahar and breathe some life into it. So I did not really look through too thoroughly at many races at first. I quickly reviewed them all, particularly the Jamoura and Nuit, and came to my conclusion on Human. The Jamoura were too philosophical and slow for this person, and the Nuit too magical. So I chose Human.

I still like Humans, despite what some people say about them being "boring". I agree with Ash'eny that I could argue about their capacity for interesting characters forever. I am not putting down other races by all means, I am simply bringing up a different play style (I did this in Jen's scrapbook too, so I'll remain brief

). Humans are a blank slate, forcing the player to a new creative height to make them interesting. In other words, they can easily be boring, but I think there is a lot to be said for creating something interesting and well built from scratch. The other races give you some material to work with, force you to be creative in a different way. Instead of giving you nothing to work with, it gives you certain parameters. "The Drykas like horses." But I want them to like dragonssss!!! "Well tough shit kid." It is just a matter of different methods. I tend to like the scratch one a bit better

Nimvahlis: Psychadelic Pseudo-Immortal/Half Seal Half Human Emo Wing-a-ling thing
It is interesting, how when I first saw the Akvatari I thought "Lol no". The exact same goes for the Ethaefael. However, when I began looking at a second character, I wanted something with deep emotional currents. Well on the second go around, I saw the Akvatari, who are about as emo as they get. However, the Ethaefael are also the subject of divine rejection (accidental or not). I ended up falling with both Liminal and Colombina's race so much that I chose Colombina's race, which also let me play Liminal's. I wanted Nim to be a bit emotionally messed up- I mean, the Akvatari are already melancholic, what would happen if one had finally reached Nirvana and was suddenly THROWN FROM THE HEAVENS? So I tried that out.

Since then, Nim's emotional scarring over getting his ass booted from Nirvana has led him down the dangerous road of addiction

. It is really interesting how Nimvahlis has become a sort of a mad science lab for my fascination with mental instability and perception. Where Alistair was the Jekyl of Morse (logical, ordered, curious, upright), Nimvahlis is Hyde. I'd like to think I have a little of both inside of me, which actually means I'm more like Nimvahlis with the whole DPD thing.

I do really LOVE the fact that the Ethaefael are essentially two races, and consider Nim to be just as much Akvatari as Ethaefael.

Magnolia Corvidae: "Set on fire, tossed off a tower, and just a little bit vexed" Girl

I reeeaally love ghosts. I've been debating with myself on whether or not to make a ghost for a long time. At first I had decided to settle with having a favorite ghost NPC, but she ended up being a little too calculating/logical/curious/generally Alistair like. It was just how she ended up being to suit the adventure, which was sad. So I collapsed and made a ghost.

The thing I love about ghosts, is that however much tragedy the other races might experience, it often does not compare to that of a ghost's. Not only has each experienced death, but something made them stay behind. In Magnolia's case, it is buried, petrifying fear of letting go.

Another thing is the way a ghost has to be played. Rarely do you focus on skills, because there are only three one can constantly practice. Instead, a ghost is about relationships, development, interaction (which incidentally often boosts their skills, because those three are basically interaction skills), and basically enveloping them in rich fabric. Although, despite that, there is the interesting and possibly complex problem of raising skills that aren't those three. For example, I gave Magnolia webbing so she would have a reason to possess somebody and develop an intense symbiotic relationship with whoever she decided to possess. There are many ways you can solve the problem of skills, and usually the answer can be interesting.

Augh, so much more to say, but I'll kill off my super ramble tonight.