[Kelvic] Mizahar's Wild Children

[Jynx]

This is my first attempt at a Kelvic and I have only just started it, so I am obviously not an expert. I have long thought this would be an especially difficult race to play, although I suspect many people new to Mizahar think it will be easy (which would explain why so many new players start with a Kelvic). "Hey, I've got a warrior who flies!" sounds cool, until you remember that that's not really what you have. What you really have is a bird who can wield a sword. The order in which you say it matters.

But what I really want to comment on is the question raised a few posts back about what constitutes "a successful Kelvic." It's a pretty easy question to answer from an IC point of view. A successful Kelvic is one who is accomplishing his own goals, which will mostly revolve around serving and protecting a master or mistress. This sounds easy but I'm finding the logistics of it a bit tricky. Does it mean that I and my mistress always appear together in threads? Can she go off and do her own thing? Can I? Hmm ... inquiring minds want to know. If I'm really going to play my Kelvic IC, then I am not going to make him a self-sufficient character who is perfectly happy to go about his business without a master or mistress. In other words, he is unlikely to have much of an agenda apart from whatever agenda his master/mistress has.

The other side of the "successful Kelvic" question is the OOC side. And here is where I think it gets interesting. Let's face it, a character who does nothing but follow his mistress/master around all day might have a pretty limited range of play. Nobody wants to play a boring character and nobody wants to do collaborative story-telling with a boring character. So the player also has some goals (s)he wants to accomplish. Maybe I like physical conflict stories. Or maybe I like psychologial conflict stories. Or maybe I don't like stories with conflict in them (if there's no conflict, is it still a story?). The trick is to figure out how to align these OOC goals with the IC goals. If they don't align, I won't have a consistent character. Nobody expects a Rat Kelvic to wax eloquent on deep theological issues. That would introduce a glaring incongruity into the story which will break the suspension of disbelief and as we all know, you don't want to put things into a story that break the suspension of disbelief.

So, what is "a successful Kelvic"? It's one that is completely believable from an IC point of view and is satisfying to play from an OOC point of view. Of course that true for every race. I Just think it's especially difficult to do with a Kelvic.

[Nya Winters]

So along with finding a bondmate (what you guys are calling a good Master or Mistress) serve a higher power. It is a whole lot more fun, from a Kelvic perspective, to follow God or Goddess than just what you guys are describing as Masters and Mistresses. That, I think, is the critical problem with the way you Kelvic players are thinking about it. My PC has a bondmate. He is not her Master. He is her partner and he spends just as much time seeing to my needs as I see to his. Together we serve a higher power... both different ones, but they often work together.

You guys are seeing yourselves (well I'm sure Sira doesn't) as slaves. You don't bond and them mindlessly serve. You look for partners and then you rp together. In a way its no different than any other race and their rp buddies. The kelvic bond is special because it makes you loyal, but bonding is a choice so you always enter into the bond willingly.

[Jynx]

Hey Nya, way cool cave! Do you still live there?

[Rhy]

Nya, the way you are describing the bond sounds more like a marriage then anything else. If the Kelvic were designed to serve and be loyal, wouldn't that reflect in the next generations? Rhy, for example, would be inclined to a heavy level of obedience towards her bonded. There is that affection and partnership, and the choice would not be made lightly, but that person would be the dominant role. Mind you, pack animals such as dogs and horses are much more inclined towards domesticity then birds and large felines, but the psychology is the same.

A Kelvic can do its own thing and be independent, but when they bond that would add a whole other factor to deal with. Jynx, I bet you could still do your own thing and have separate threads in which you act out your own goals, but there would be some small part of him thats "linked" and knows (or is wondering) where his bonded is.

On the OOC side of things it seems that it would be very, very hard to play a boring Kelvic. They just don't think like a human, which could really liven up a thread if you know how to play it. Sure, some people slip up in order to work around another character or just to keep the story moving, but whoever wrote the lore makes it very clear that these are animals that look human. Thats why I chose an easy "unimaginative" animal to start with. I know dogs, and I know them well. And that really helps to keep Rhy's personality in line.

[Kyra]

When it comes to being a successful Kelvic, I would say that Kyra is. I say that from her stand point, and not from the stand point of how a human would view being successful. For her being successful is living plan and simple. Her life so far has been chaotic at the least, and surviving from day to day is a challenge that she has to over come again and again. Being successful to her is having a roof over her head and a meal in her belly and she has those things.

As for my thoughts on it and my plans for her, at the moment I'm just letting the writing happen so to speak. It's about the journey for me and writing her story and seeing where it takes her and where she ends up. Getting her a bondmate would be interesting, and I would like to see who this PC is and how they work off each other.

It would be fun to see to what extent this PC's personality and style of life rub off on her. At the moment some may say she's evil, and others simply weird, but this could all change depending on her bondmate. That is, if the PC is someone very different than those she already knows. If she doesn't find a bondmate I won't be crushed though, PCs here are flighty, and disappear just as soon as they arrive.

As far as being a slave, she's not. She was forced to be for a short time, and never wants to return to that way of living. She would play a submissive role in the relationship, but she would do whatever it took to make her mate happy. I would prefer that her role be more than a bed warmer, she has many other useful skills.

[Sliver]

It seems that the main point of contention in this discussion always comes back to what level of control The Kelvic has vs. their bonded partner. It seems these relationships can vary on a scale from slavery (lets be honest Kelvic do make for excellent slaves ) to mutual love and affection with an infinite number of points in between that join Kelvic to Bondmate. While the relationship between bondmates can be very loving and respectful, I think it is prudent to remember that Kelvics were engineered to serve, not to be equals.

That being said the role of a Kelvic seems to be extremely fluid, they can fill nearly any job and mold their personalities to that of their bondmates, making them able to expand upon themselves and gain certain aspects of their partner/master/mistress/lover, whatever term you wish to pick out of the lot. So with that in mind it makes sense that their role does not always fall into a mechanical one of pure servitude, someone who simply does not see their Kelvic bondmate as beneath them, won't have that kind of relationship.

I think the topic of religion is an interesting one because it makes sense that animals would think nothing of any religious deity on their own generally, yet Gods and Goddesses are the perfect model for a Kelvic to serve. For most Kelvic, learning about a deity would take too much time and patience, or require the ability to read which most don't have. I do not now how Nya found her faith, but Sliver learned about her deity when joining the Icewatch, and now takes solace in serving her Goddess while ever on the search for a bondmate she has never had, almost like a placeholder, but one she will most certainly keep even if and when she does find a suitable bond.

I think in the end Kelvic have such great opportunities as characters in the game, it isn't always fully realized and there does seem to be a lot of that initial confusion from newer players on the animal side, but the options are endless, probably another reason they are so appealing. Rhy's point about domestic animals vs. exotics is a valid one as well, one that raises a lot of questions about Marcus Kelvic's intentions. Why make animals that are supposed to be faithful loyal companions out of vicious deadly creatures that mostly have nothing to do with people? There are just so many nuances and complexities that so many people have found on the site to work out that you can't easily get bored with them. So I guess what I'm really saying is....

Go awesome furry feathery critters that can morph into humans!

[Nya Winters]

Kelvics make terrible slaves.

They were designed by an alvina who was a hell of a mage and inventer who had the intelligence of the goddess of theives and the stoicness if the goddess of winter flowing through his veins. He wasnt exactly human so you cant assign human motivations to him. He was a man who lost his twin sister and was driven to find her. He didnt make the kelvic as servants. He made them to go where he could not and keep up his search.

Rumors are different than actual history.

I still have the cave. I do not live there currently.

My bondmate would laugh at anyone calling kelvics stupid or submissive though I'm sure their are individuals that are.

He married me because hes a traditionalist. If he were female id still love him and be as loyal. I bonded with him because I respected him and we fit. I am not loyal because of the bond. The bond is there because i am loyal. i hope you understand the difference. It was the same with Marcus kelvic and his bonded.

[Aidara]

Ginger here, to bust up your Kelvic party!

This thread was pointed out to me just a little while ago and I feel the need to throw my two cents into the pot. While Aidara isn't a Kelvic... she is bonded to one. But not only is she bonded to a Kelvic, she's doubly bonded to that Kelvic as an Endal and Wind Eagle.

First and very foremost: Kelvics. Are. Not. Slaves.

They were not created to be slaves, they were never "programmed" with the intentions of keeping them under constant and oppressive servitude. Sure, the not-so-nice PC's on Miz have taken advantage of the whole "Kelvic bonding" misconception, and somehow convinced the rest of the players that Kelvics must bond no matter what to whomever takes them/enslaves them/decides they want them. I mean, are you all aware that Kelvics can never, ever be FORCED to bond? Ever? They can NEVER be forced. And this is directly from the mouth of the creator of the race.

So sure, if you're a slaver and you happen to get a Kelvic to bond with you.. Awesome! You have a Kelvic Slave, because chances are your slaver PC is going to treat their bondmate like a slave and not like a normal partner/equal/bondmate. However, other than that it's completely the Kelvic's choice who they do or don't bond to, and I think that is something that is wildly misconstrued and misunderstood.



Now, to take it to a more personal level: Sira and Addy.

I think someone above likened Nya's description of a bonding to marriage, though it seemed as if this was being said as a bad thing. Why? Kelvics are designed to serve and be loyal but why does that automatically dictate that they aren't equal? Again, we touch upon the idea that Kelvics have no control over who they pick and that the relationship is automatically going to be unfair. If your Kelvic doesn't want to be a slave, then have them choose someone who WONT TREAT THEM LIKE A SLAVE. If you want them to be a slave, then obviously you know which route to take.

In Wind Reach, the highest Caste of Inarta are called Endal, which means they have bonded to a Wind Eagle, that the Wind Eagle has chosen them for whatever reason to help defend, provide for and serve Wind Reach on the highest level possible. Endal are the shit, the law, basically. That being said, Sira is a Wind Eagle Kelvic. And she chose Aidara as both her bondmate (Kelvic) and as her Endal Rider (Wind Eagle). That makes their bond two fold.

Someone asked me: "Do you see Sira as a slave?" And the thought literally made me burst out into laughter. Sira? A slave? She bosses AIDARA around. Does that mean that she's an unsuccessful Kelvic? Not at all. Does that mean they're not really bonded? Also not true. I would also describe their relationship as closer to marriage than anything near slave/master.

Sira is a headstrong individual. She does what she wants, says what she wants and is badass doing it. But when it comes down to it, she would do ANYTHING for Aidara. If Addy ordered her to go chop off her hand, she would do it. Sira would hate it, but she would do it. Aidara, on the other hand (haha, see what I did?) would never tell Sira to go do that in the first place. And that, my friends, is one of the reasons why the bonding happened in the first place.

I think the problem stems from the idea that an NPC/PC who would even bond with a Kelvic in the first place is automatically more dominant than the Kelvic PC/NPC. Aidara is the one with all the control. ALL of it. She has control over Sira's Kelvic nature as well as her Wind Eagle nature. It's all very complex... and yet, reading her threads, I don't think you'd ever have guessed at all that she was the "bondmate" to a Kelvic. Not the kind of bondmate you all all have started associating with Kelvics, anyway.

In fact, when I was first pointed towards this thread it took me a good five minutes to realized why I was even pointed here. I simply don't even think of them as "Bondmate" and "Kelvic". They are "Addy" and "Sira".

Long story short, I think for a Kelvic to be successful, you need to play the CHARACTER by its personality, thoughts, goals and whatever else it tells you it wants (I'm one of those who believes that the character speaks to you and tells you what he/she wants once you get to know them well enough), and not play it by the races description.

Your PC's identity shouldn't be its Race. Across the board, that makes for an unsuccessful character.

[Sphinx]

I like that the Kelvics are having this deep discussion. You guys rock!

[Aidara]

Actually, to take this a step further... I also have a Kelvic PC. And his choice was to enter into bonds with different women as "Cliental". They both benefitted from the relationship, and it was not the equal bonding that Sira and Addy had. But still, he was never a slave. He was a guardian of sorts.

Sometimes there was love, yes, but most of his bondmates were old women who needed protection or help. He never felt forced. He was never MADE by these women to become bonded to them. His concept revolved around the fact that he didn't want to be close to people, while at the same time his Kelvic nature drove him to some extent to bond with someone, that when he was completely alone he felt incomplete.

I just sat here thinking about my post for a bit and wanted to add in that little addendum.