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Post by lynneth on Jan 5, 2016 15:36:15 GMT 1
True to my word I am leaping in to plant a guide down for those who might be considering following in my footsteps! (With guild leader/officer permission, of course!) so, here is my guide to RPing unusual races in the World of Warcraft on Horde side.
Remember to talk to the GL and officers before creating a character of unusual race to apply to the guild on.
Chapter 1: Sayaad.
Sayaad is the name given to the race from which Succubi originate. Next to nothing is known about their homeworld and culture prior to the Legion recruiting and enslaving them, so it's understandably a daunting prospect to try and RP one who isn't a Legion-pet. Thankfully, there is one tidy little hole that simplifies this.
Given most known Demon forms were existent in the War of the Ancients, we know that any naturally born(AKA Pureblood) Sayaad will be approximately eleven thousand years old, or more, perhaps even going back to just after, or even before Argus. So its very easily to have highly sketchy details, maybe remembering bits of events but not specific, visual details aside from expressions. For example you could describe the expression of a family member or friend, but not mention skin colour, eye colour etc.
Now the next most important thing to remember, is that to be RPing one in he Blackgarde you're not going to be able to be some Legion Loyalist, which limits your background options, the most lore-friendly of which is to be Ex-illidari. As discovered in the Green-fire quests for Warlocks, illidan Stormrage purified the Demons under his command of their Fel addiction, granting them free will. They in turn swore service to him. Survivors of the illidari war are known to exist and as a result, this is the best opening
Odds are, your Sayaad will be one of the unlucky purebloods enslaved to the Legion, twisted into a Demon and bound with fel. As such, a good twist to add in is a natural aversion to Fel energies as well as deep resentment or outright hatred towards slavers as well as the Legion itself. Another challenge in RPing a Sayaad is the mental condition. You've been enslaved for millennia, had your mind and body twisted beyond recognition and been forced to watch as your body is used as a tool of destruction and suffering. It takes immense willpower to come through that in one piece, let alone sane, so mental issues are definitely a thing.
On the OOC front, one might wonder at how to get the right look and it's actually very simple. Pick Sin'dorei as your OOC race as they most closely resemble the body type for Sayaad. For the horns, even if you're not a Warlock, you can get the [Mag'hari Ritualist's horns] from the Garadar quest chains in Nagrand(Outland). Wings, tail and hooves are a lot harder, with only the former being possible. There are several means of getting wings, but most of them are overstated and silly. LUCKILY! Legion is bringing Demon Hunters, so we'll all have that problem solved real soon.
Class doesn't really matter unless you plan to be it ICly, in which case you should obviously avoid Paladins and Light-specced priests. The other Sin'dorei classes are all perfectly viable however.
So! there you go, chapter one complete! feel free to post your questions below and stay tuned for Chapter 2!
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Post by lynneth on Jan 5, 2016 17:30:23 GMT 1
Chapter 2: Vrykul
Ahh Vrykul, a popular race many wish were playable. Their Nordic culture tends to appeal to a surprisingly large number of people and they're the topic of this chapter. So! without further adieu..
When RPing a Vrykul, its best to pick a Hyldnir Vrykul from Bruunhildr Village, as these are the Vrykul who held their ground -against- Arthas. While not inherently friendly to alliance or horde(or to males, for that matter) they are the most likely to prove allies to the cause. The ideal route to follow when RPing a Vrykul for various reasons, is that of an Ebon Blade Knight.
Below I will address some key points in RPing a Vrykul accurately.
Firstly, you are most likely a follower of the Titans and their ways, along with the Titan Watchers of Ulduar. Thorim, Freya, Hodir, Mimiron, Tyr, Golganeth, Eonar and so on are all names you would know well. Thorim above all if you are indeed a Hyldnir as one of their traditions is the Hildsmeet, a contest of strength in which the winner earns a place as the bride of Thorim himself.
Next up is: Matriarchy! yes, despite deceiving appearances via the likes of King Yimiron, Vrykul are actually Matriarchal. In each household it is the woman who holds the keys to -everything- and often displays them on her belt as a status symbol. While the Hyldnir take this a step further with enslaving males, -all- Vrykul hold women in higher regard than men. As a result, your Vrykul while perhaps not openly rebellious against a male as their commanding officer, will definitely be more prone to questioning their decisions ability to lead. This can create some interesting instances in the RP and is open for a lot of interpretation.
Next up, is knowledge of the world. Despite being seemingly primitive, the Vrykul are one of the oldest and most well informed races on Azeroth. Dwarves as the produce of Earthen with the Curs of Flesh are known to you, Humans are your shamefully runty offspring from several millennia ago, Kaldorei were your Neighbours and Trolls are the wannabe world rulers whose empire you watched rise and fall. War against the Old Gods is nothing new to you and there's a fair old chance you've at least heard legends of the Dark Titan. This isn't to say to know everything of course, but most things that were news to the younger races, is an age old story your mother told you while bouncing you on her knee and sharpening your first Axe.
So! How do you go about getting a decent Vrykul look on Horde? Gear certainly isn't lacking! However, males are. Sin'dorei Male is the closest you'll get and even with the World Shrinker, you'll be tiny for a Vrykul. Your best bet is to roll a female Orc DK, even if you're not a DK IC this gives you the skin colour and runic magics which is the basis for 90% of Vrykul magic. In addition you'll have access to all the gear and weapons that are considered suitable for Vrykul, since this isn't a race of sneakin' folk. Make sure to pack engineering with a World Shrinker and as many Giant Growth potions as you can get you hands on and you'll be set!
As before, feel free to post any questions below. Next up i'll be priming a guide for Racial varients!
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Post by lynneth on Jan 6, 2016 15:12:11 GMT 1
Chapter 3: Racial Variants. Here i'll be listing the many different variants of several races, to the best of my ability. Taunka: A sub-species of the Tauren race, the Taunka present a very different kind of Roleplay to what you might expect. Years spent living in Northrend has made them into dour survivalists, who often seem outright cold to outsiders especially if they had only met Tauren before. Taunka actually 'bully' the elements into doing as they command, rather than asking them for aid, so as a result your interactions with other Shamen or with elementals is going to be very different. The key thing to remember when RPing a Tauren is that you come from one of the harshest regions on Azeroth, you've endured Magnataur, Vrykul, the Scourge and several other treats to boot. As a result, you'll need to bare this in mind when determining your character's attitude and personality, harsh climates breed harsh people, as they say. In terms of differences in appearance, all you need is to imagine extra thick, wooly fur on your Tauren character, along with Northrend styled gear. Forest Trolls(Revantusk Tribe): Odds are you know the basics of Forest Trolls, the ancient enemies of the High and Blood Elves. However, there does exist one tribe that while not part of the Horde, remains on friendly terms with them(Much to the Elves' dismay) and they are the Revantusk Tribe of the Hinterlands. An interesting fact about Forest Trolls, is that they have an unusual connection to the earth. So much so that they literally have basic plants like Moss and algae grow on them, giving their skin the characteristic green colour. While they are not druids, this does imply a deeper connection with the elements as a Shaman. One of their key RPing points is the rivalry with Elves, which makes interactions currently quite awkward, but not impossible. Another key point is their worship of the Loa ula-tek, however she only has RPG lore here.Jungle Trolls(Shatterspear, Darkspear): This group of Trolls already has a lot of lore readily available and well known, so i'll pinpoint a couple key facts. First off, Jungle trolls are considered the most civilised and organised Trolls around, rivaling or even surpassing the Zandalari, which explains their ability to overcome age old hatreds in certain instances. The second viable tribe of Jungle Trolls, the shatterspear, are more or less wiped out If you are playing on, you are amidst the last of your kind and your Tribe has suffered such grievous losses from serving Garrosh Hellscream, that your tribe will never again be a proper tribe, there simply aren't enough of you. This will have an inevitable impact on you character's mental state as well as their interactions with the Horde who lead them into their fatal war with the Kaldorei, whom they had previously lived in peace alongside. An interesting trait not displayed in-game, is that Jungle Trolls often have a thin coat of grey or purple fur all over their bodies. Half Elves: So, you wana go there, do ya? Alright buddy, but you were warned! Though generally frowned upon by most RPers, half-elves are regrettably existent in lore. However, lore articles are rather scarce. As a half elf one thing to make clear is that, literally everyone is going to be looking down on you. There might be a few instances where this is different, but as a rule of thumb expect hostility, snide remarks, half-blood insults and so on. The only known type of half elf is a Half High Elf/Half Human. So two of the most arrogant races in all of WoW, which doubles the above warning. As you are not a race unto yourself, you lack an individual culture and as such, you can draw from almost any culture around. which does make this a very broad choice for RP. Not all is lost though, some Half-breeds can attain positions of great prestige, as seen in the instance of Alodi the First Guardian and Arator the Redeemer, son of Turalyon and Alleria. I'll cut short here for now and possibly revisit this subject at a later date. I hope you found this useful folks! |
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Post by lynneth on Jan 7, 2016 13:39:21 GMT 1
Chapter 4: Unapproved Races.
This chapter is dedicated to unapproved races that are unusual and in most cases, present a high level of RP difficulty both in visual representation and representation of racial behaviour. I'll be splitting this chapter across several posts as some races will have exceedingly large entries.
Naga - Yes! Coming in at No.1 is the Naga, one of the most wanted playable races in WoW along with Ogres and Vrykul. Now you might be asking yourself "Why are Naga in this guide? dey are evul!" and rightly so, because most Naga are evil, however people overlook several key points and NPCs.
Firstly, most people surprisingly assume that Naga have been known about since forever, but they haven't. The Naga went under everyone's noses until the Third War ended and illidan summoned them forth, drawing the Naga's eyes to the surface once more.
Another common assumption is that all Naga are the immortal Highborne from the War of the Ancients. This is WRONG. Naga do in fact breed, later generations are brought up on tales about their wicked, treacherous cousins, the Kaldorei. This is one of the first possible entries to RP: No one is born evil. In short, through capture, memory loss or some other mishap, the Naga in question discovers the truth of things and develops a deep feeling of resentment and betrayal directed at their kin.
My next point of interest for those wishing to RP a Naga is the potential for surviving Coilskar Naga from the illidari. When most people think of this name they think of tyrannical Zangarmarsh overlords sucking away the water and enslaving the Broken, however there are a few things to bare in mind, firstly that Blizzard have provided little to no explanation as to why the illidari turned on the Broken or vice versa, or why they even warred on Shattrath and it is generally assumed/accepted that this was just a poor plot twist by blizzard to eventually line up the opening of Legion. Secondly, the Coilskar actually have done some pretty heroic stuff as part of the illidari. Allow me to explain.
In Warcraft three, under the direction of Lady Vashj and illidan Stormrage, the Coilskar Naga saved the Sin'dorei from an assured extinction at the hands of Grand Marshal Garithos and rescued none other than High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind of the Kaldorei! This latter point especially underlines how the Naga are not entirely evil. Vashj had two major reasons to want Tyrande dead, firstly because she would gain immense prestige in azshara's court for ensuring Tyrande's death and secondly...because Tyrande is a romantic rival. Thats right, the Vashj/Tyrande hate-fest is a one-sided catfight over a guy, namely illidan. Back in the time just before the War of the Ancients, Vashj, still quite young at the time, was a handmaiden to the Queen and fell in love with illidan stormrage, but illidan did not see or simply ignored her as she was forced to play second fiddle both to Queen Azshara and her interest in illidan, as well as to Tyrande, illidan's primary romantic interest. All of this begs the question....if Vashj and her Naga were pure evil, why did she let her Naga save Tyrande? i'll let you dwell on that awhile.
Now before i move onto roleplay tips and appearance options, i'll list an honourable mention: Meridith the Mermaiden. Although there is only a little lore on this character, Meridith is an extremely friendly Naga NPC with a surprisingly big heart. When a Gnome of all people crashed on her shoreline, she nursed him back to health and actually fell in love with him. Sadly the Gnome caught on and didn't react too well, politely accepting and thanking her for the aid, then getting the hell out so i kinda feel sorry for the character, given she's probably all alone as an exile, since no Azshara following Naga would allow themselves to be taken in by what most highborne would view as a lesser race.
So! tips on RPing a Naga. First off, you have a natural affinity for magic as a female, or for physical combat as a male, due to the sexual dimorphism in Naga. You're going to have a fairly warped view of the world at first, since you've come from an underwater empire where almost everyone wants to kill you, to a landmass where almost everyone wants to kill you. Basically, you're starting at the bottom whichever way you look and your RP is most likely to begin with you getting captured and locked up for a while. Additionally, Naga culture is exclusively Matriarchal, just like Kaldorei, Males can gain positions of power in special circumstances, but it is rare and usually just as warlords rather than holding any political power.
In terms of religion, your options are few. Firstly, there's basic Azsharan worship, however that's unlikely to come into play if you'r joining us as a Naga. The second, is worship of Neptulon which even involves a level of shamanism, yes you read that right, Shamanism for Naga. Now an interesting point here is that, as most of you who leveled Cata will know, Neptulon ends up at war with the Old God forces, the same forces he himself used to be a part of. The reason for this is unknown, however an alliance quest in Darkshore hints at the reason for this. As you free bound water elementals with Elunite artifact, the elementals say such things as "The tides do as Elune wills" which implies that Elune has done something the Titans themselves failed to do and broken the Old God's control of an elemental force, which could have cause Neptulon's apparent rebellion, however this is pure speculation and how your character interprets these things is entirely up to you.
Now, in terms of visual representation, you're more or less limited to playing Sin'dorei as a mage or a rogue, with the Glyphs for appearance stealing. I personally recommend playing a female mage as this opens up options for illusion magic in areas that lack Naga for you to steal the appearance from and because playing a frost mage is ideal for representing shamanistic powers of water from Neptulon worship. However, if you're determined to play a male, the shamanistic route is open and you could forgo the option of appearance theft to play a warrior, but overall you'll have a much harder time of it and need appropriate IC reasoning for the illusion of being a Belf on land since Male naga lack the same magical affinity as females.
Also, remember to stock up on Underwater Breathing potions and Swim Speed potions.
So! thats it for the Naga article, stay tuned for the next entry to this chapter. Remember, if you have any questions or if there's a race you'd desperately love to see included in the guide, let me know in the comments below!
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Post by lynneth on Jan 8, 2016 14:07:48 GMT 1
Chapter 4-B: Ethereals.
Ahh the Ethereals, sadly overlooked by many, but surprisingly easy to Roleplay!
If you've ever RPed a Goblin, you've got some foundations because Ethereals and Goblins share a love of profit however the Ethereals are shown to actually care about people a bit more, as demonstrated by the Ethereal faction known as "The Protectorate" which works to defend/aid neutral factions and races against beings of the void. Given M'uru's transformation into a Void God called Entropius, it comes as no surprise that the Protectorate and Consortium allied with the Sha'tari in Outland.
When working out why your Ethereal might come to the Blackgarde, the above provides perfect reasoning. Long ago(Blizzard don't specify as usual) the Ethereal homeworld of K'aresh was destroyed by the Void Lord Demensius the All-Devouring and as a result, the Ethereals hold deep hatred for all beings of the Void. Now, lets consider how many evil factions end up in league with the void and how many of those the Blackgarde are going to fight.....got that in mind? good, there is your entry! Allying with a neutral force that can help defeat the creatures of the void is exactly the kind of thing an agent of the Protectorate would do, or even the consortium. Be you a trader or a fighter or a support worker, you'll have solid grounds from the get-go.
Now, you'll gain access to a unique little nugget of joy as an Ethereal. Technomancy! Thats right, the Ethereals have their very own brand of techno-sorcery which is officially recognise as a school of arcane magic. I'm sure many Goblin lovers have dreamed of this and now its reality. From pocket dimension storage, to altering the arcane fabric of items, technomancy is a varied and powerful form of supportive magic.
For names, you'll want to look at pre-islamic Arabic names, as that is what a lot of Ethereal names are based upon, however it's alright if you just make one up on the spot as long as it sounds appropriate.
Now, you're probably wondering how to get the accurate look, right? Ethereals after all are stripped down to their arcane infused souls and have to use enchanted wrappings to hold any stable form. Well, it is actually pretty easy. Blood Elf Males(Yes, they're useful for something!) actually have close similarities in their basic stance and animation to the Ethereal models at times. There are plenty of bandages available in WoW and with a kilt, a hood of some form, some flashy shoulders, boots and gloves...you've got an Ethereal. Add in a growth potion for the proper size and job done! Its just that simple. For weapons, look for anything arcane-ish, or of course the see-through phase blade models.
Some other notable traits is that it is currently speculated that Ethereals eat gems and consume specially made drinks, these drinks can have odd effects on 'fleshy' beings however. So yes, you can and will eat and drink. Sleep however? So far, no, not really. There has been no indication that Ethereals sleep, one NPC states that he does not sleep anymore and as such until blizzard say otherwise, it is widely accepted that sleep is a thing of the past for them, as they lack physical form.
A note on shadow priests however. If you are using Shadowform IC, then you are considered to be a Void Stalker! The product of the Radical Etherium faction, Void Stalkers are Ethereals infused with Void Energies who take on the same appearance as Shadow Form priests, beware using this as any Consortium or Protectorate Ethereals as well as most good-aligned characters will attack you on sight!
As before, feel free to comment below and I hope you found this useful!
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