Huh, I've been doing a lot of thinking regarding the duality of playing Oscar and Anna lately. One is a kind and caring healer of Rak'keli while the other is an ambitious wizard and a Chaon of Rhysol. They are on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum of morality but I have to wonder if the terms good and evil can apply here when referring to them. Certainly Oscar possesses many goodly qualities about him and Anna possesses many qualities one would consider evil but I find it difficult to call them one way or the other.
At the end of the day they actually both possess negative and positive qualities about them. Oscar might seem to be a saint but looking closer to him I noticed that not all was as it seemed. So I'll be putting up an analyses of what I see from either character personally and what I feel they are truly like below the surface.
Anna
I have something of a long story to tell about Anna.
Anna is something of an oddity to me, I wasn't going to make her initially as I wanted to focus on Oscar and his struggle with the situation in Kalinor. I was also afraid that I would follow in my brothers path on this site and create too many PCs, just to retire them when I grew bored. I wanted to put meaning into my PCs and flesh them out as they went forward on their paths.
I will not lie, initially I just wanted to make a wizard. I looked around at a number of people playing them and noted they all seemed to be rather unchanged by their magic. Magic Mizahar always has fascinated me as the system was extremely well fleshed out, far more than my own attempts had been. So I set out to create a wizard, one who had been warped and shaped by the magic she used. One who went from common nobody to (hopefully) the dazzling heights of a master wizard.
As for her personality I wanted her to be an example of one changed permanently by her magic, to show just how much magic could change a person. Some might call her evil but I don't see her as purely evil.
She is definitely arrogant and very mean, I mean she worships Rhysol so obviously she far from being a moral individual. However something I have noticed when writing her is that she seems to encourage others to better themselves. She believes that one must make their way in the world through the strength they themselves earn. In her eyes, even the weakest most pathetic beggar can become great, the only thing holding them back is themselves.
While she might be possessed of a dark personality and definitely has a number of negative personality traits, Anna is also proactive and always ready to seek new solutions and new mysteries.
Oscar
Oscar, while he is technically not my first character (I'll into more detail about that in a future Scrap) is definitely my first serious one. Before I even made my first character on Miz I did much extensive research on the site. My brother, now bored of it, mentioned it to me and I looked up. I was completely blown away by it all and would spend hours looking over the lore, immersing myself in this world. By the time I actually started playing I felt as though I had been on here for months. If only my writing had shown that, I suppose I was what you would call an arrogant newb. I was so confident that just reading the lore made me an instant expert, boy was I in for a shock.
Anyway, skip ahead past a couple of extremely embarrassing misadventures and you have Oscar.
As a person I see him as the kind friend who always has a nice word to say and a comforting smile ready. As an archetype he is very much the compassionate healer, but unfortunately you also have something of a martyrdom complex there as well.
This is where things get even more strange, Oscar by his very nature is also a conformist. He might have issues with how a society is run but at the end of the day he won't be starting any uprisings to change the social order of his own volition. He also does not particularly feel strongly about people bettering themselves, he would rather them live nice and quiet lives. He also believes in the idea of community cohesion and will most certainly be the first one to keep people from fighting.
So, a kind and caring healer? Yes.
A Martyr who puts the safety and well being of others miles before his own? Also yes.
A Conformist who would rather a person stay on their social lot and believes that ANY conflict is terrible? So it would appear.
Those are just my thoughts on the matter anyway. Who knows? Over the course of play they might change thousands of times. Because at the end of the day I want them both to just be human in how they act and interact.