Submit a Backstory
You may submit a background story detailing things like your characters history, personality, skills weaknesses and any other information you feel may be useful.The staff will then let you know as to whether this has been approved and it may be possible that your attributes or skills are adjusted further based on the information provided.
Be aware that if your character differs significantly from the 'norm' it is compulsory for a background story to be submitted and approved prior to the character entering roleplay. For example, the following things would need a background submitted and approved prior to playing (some of these may also have an additional roleplay point cost or requirement):
- a noble character
- a non-human race
- a character with multiple personalities
- a well-known hero/heroine
- a character with prior experience or knowledge of the darkness/demons
- an atheist
Things that will automatically get turned down:
- characters from other worlds
- characters who do not fit into our mythos (ie, dwarf)
- "super" characters (characters who are good at everything)
You can submit the background via the form on the website or direct by email to: mina@shadowsiege.com or cernunnos@shadowsiege.com
Following is an example backstory which can be used as a guidelines to see what we expect:
Character: Thense
Account: Boondogle
Email: Boondogle@bob.net
Age: 25
Thense Porric was born into the quiet world of a wine-maker's family who dwelled in a great, stone house within sight of the walls of Yarsin. The vineyards did well enough, and Thense's young life could be considered comfortable: money enough for a descent -- but not extravagant -- education; two older siblings to play and fight with; trips on the wine-wagon up the great, wide road up the side of the mountain, into the riotous Yarsin market.
Thense himself had little interest in math and the sciences, or in the long, boring excursions his teachers would take him into the worlds of literature and poetry. Unless, of course, the subject was one of battles, or soldiers, or war. He loved to hear of such things, to sit and imagine himself in columns with his comrades, marching out against the exotic armies of the Tyeni Empire, or the petty kingdoms in the west, or camps of Tir bandits to the east. He would dress himself in shining mail emblazoned with the banner of Yarsin-on-the-Mountain, and return, victorious, to cheering crowds, like those in the market.
Though the romantics of his dreams faded with age, the desire to be a professional soldier did not. At sixteen, he enrolled in the Yarsin Regular Guard, took his oaths, and left the vineyards for training barracks. His parents were, of course, proud. Their worries about Yarsin's decaying relationship with the mighty Kingdom of Viroth to the north, they kept to themselves.
Thense seemed built for soldiering. For his age, he was tall and fair, agile and strong -- if perhaps a little dense. Orders were taken easily, confident that his highers knew better than he. After all, they had seen battles, had known the weight of hundreds of lives (maybe thousands) in their hands. Surely, generals knew best, and chose only the finest captains. So he did what he was told, and even enjoyed much of the harshness of his training with the sword and shield. Long marches and short nights strengthened his constitution, and he learned to cook for himself simple meals, to make simple repairs to his own uniform and equipment.
Soon enough, Under-Sergeant Porric was twenty, and patrolling the trade routes that ran between the major cities in the old but pacified Tyeni Empire, Viroth, Yarsin, and those places far to the west -- places he would hear of from traders, but never see. The first man he had ever killed, two years ago, was a bandit, a raider. Thense was surprised to find rather mixed emotions just afterwards, when the heat of combat wore off. He wasn't good at putting things like that into words, so he never really tried. He was glad to do his duty, glad to protect, and decided that that was all. A few such men had died by his sword since, and he himself had been bitten by steel a few times, though never critically.
With the Cataclysm, everything changed as one would expect; Thense heard news of Yarsin's sudden obliteration, and was rife with woe. Though worry for his family, his loved ones was suffocating, he suppressed the instinct to run home directly, instead submitting himself to the organization of the army. The order to return to Yarsin, of course, did not take long to come. What was not destroyed was in chaos, burned and looted. Eventually, the Yarsin Regulars were disbanded, all hope of recovery lost, and each man was ordered to return to his family, to lead them through the plains north, towards Viroth, and away from the terrible Darkness. Thus, the Porric family (all of whom gracefully survived) fled their home for northern lands.
Surely, Thense thought, Viroth would need soldiers, too. They would be merciful, and forget the recent troubles with Yarsin. They would need the help.
