Hello, welcome to my first guide ever on Eternia, I haven't a clue how the application progress goes down and my apps are not perfect, so you should take these as a mere pointers rather than how to post an application - use the tips to improve your writing as well as your arc, and I'll be occasionally dropping prompts to help you 'push past' a stuck character arc.
So let's get started.
It's an unwritten rule of any roleplaying game or service you may be familiar with, but, to build a character you must start with a concept and build into that concept through in character interactions more so than your OOC ideas - remember, you're the protagonist of your own story and not everyone else's! Turn interactions into valuable scenes, take note of how your character would react to something bad or something good, make them feel real - after all, you're assuming a role aren't you?
An example of being the protagonist of your own story: Hated McHatedson is roleplaying a strong willed Magi - how does he go about that? Through interactions with other characters, he can establish that through his own wordings - such as not taking 'no' for an answer icly when it comes to his goals and those are just basic traits of the character, you can add more depth as you wish - a person that comes above your character's own goals, developing such a relationship is usually well rewarded - I think the best person to observe regarding archetypes and character goals at the moment? It's Doohl, that dude is an incredible writer and inspires a lot, just read his apps within archives to have an idea of how creative he really is.
Now, let's say you did that - you read into the paragraph above and the example didn't help! That is easy, here's a little cheat chart that helps me read more into my character, it's nothing special but it does really help when it comes down to it.
![[Image: 12-Common-Character-Archetypes-Writers-Write.jpg]](https://writerswrite.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/12-Common-Character-Archetypes-Writers-Write.jpg)
Pick an archetype or two and build a character's 'bare bones' based on those and expand on what you like your character to be, use this to add more depth - which should help you to create a story where your character feels 'real' to you, the player as well as other roleplayers - this is a key factor in any ability development arc.
Now, the ability itself is an interesting thing to develop - most players - including myself are at a stalemate whenever they want to develop a hidden ability, just because they know about it ooc - does not mean they know about it IC, right? Well, I'm going to give some tips that helped me turn normal interactions into development scenes and pushing your character arc further.
The first tip is - any ability is existent because a magi once used it, if you see the ability used in character and is part of your own character's magic, use that particular scene to your advantage - when I developed Wild Boar for my character, I roleplayed seeing someone utilizing it in combat and sought out people asking about the 'basic' movements of such combat styles, so I managed to gather a few logs of my character getting advice from people and putting them into action, learing through trial and error and it had an impact on my character's IC due to the flow of the story itself - I did not only collect danger logs, that is poor storytelling - I added scenes where my character NEEDED to learn and progress further.
Second tip is to roleplay trial and error, as I like to call it - losing fights - sometimes losing fights can be demoralizing in Eternia, though, it doesn't matter as long as you get good development from it - I find it a better prompt for my character to go through strife and pain in order to achieve his goals - as any good story should, the more you hurt the protagonist, the more the readers relate to them - beat your character up, have them go through different banes, watch them fail and grow from their failure - that's the best way you can develop an ability.
Third tip? Well, just follow your IC, turn tense situations to your development - do not settle for only a fight out of the encounter, look for something to drive your goal in, when I developed shadow magic the first time I roleplayed utilizing the aspects of illusion to my character's own twisted reality - a simple argument turned into a horror show for him and the person involved - it made him struggle to control himself which is a good strife point, which I'll cover next.
As I could not stress enough, always include struggle in your character arcs as it's a means to build a character that works best, after you set your goals - you must place obstacles before you reach it - a lot of stories follow this, the greatest example I could think of at the top of my head is Izuku from My Hero Academia, because his goal to be the greatest hero was hindered by his own inability to control his power - the more he hurt himself, the more he struggled - the better he'd gotten through trial and error. You should seek inspiration through other works of art to build your character better, it helps me - and I'm certain it will help you too!
reserved for prompts
So let's get started.
1 - Your Character
It's an unwritten rule of any roleplaying game or service you may be familiar with, but, to build a character you must start with a concept and build into that concept through in character interactions more so than your OOC ideas - remember, you're the protagonist of your own story and not everyone else's! Turn interactions into valuable scenes, take note of how your character would react to something bad or something good, make them feel real - after all, you're assuming a role aren't you?
An example of being the protagonist of your own story: Hated McHatedson is roleplaying a strong willed Magi - how does he go about that? Through interactions with other characters, he can establish that through his own wordings - such as not taking 'no' for an answer icly when it comes to his goals and those are just basic traits of the character, you can add more depth as you wish - a person that comes above your character's own goals, developing such a relationship is usually well rewarded - I think the best person to observe regarding archetypes and character goals at the moment? It's Doohl, that dude is an incredible writer and inspires a lot, just read his apps within archives to have an idea of how creative he really is.
Now, let's say you did that - you read into the paragraph above and the example didn't help! That is easy, here's a little cheat chart that helps me read more into my character, it's nothing special but it does really help when it comes down to it.
Pick an archetype or two and build a character's 'bare bones' based on those and expand on what you like your character to be, use this to add more depth - which should help you to create a story where your character feels 'real' to you, the player as well as other roleplayers - this is a key factor in any ability development arc.
2 - The Ability
Now, the ability itself is an interesting thing to develop - most players - including myself are at a stalemate whenever they want to develop a hidden ability, just because they know about it ooc - does not mean they know about it IC, right? Well, I'm going to give some tips that helped me turn normal interactions into development scenes and pushing your character arc further.
The first tip is - any ability is existent because a magi once used it, if you see the ability used in character and is part of your own character's magic, use that particular scene to your advantage - when I developed Wild Boar for my character, I roleplayed seeing someone utilizing it in combat and sought out people asking about the 'basic' movements of such combat styles, so I managed to gather a few logs of my character getting advice from people and putting them into action, learing through trial and error and it had an impact on my character's IC due to the flow of the story itself - I did not only collect danger logs, that is poor storytelling - I added scenes where my character NEEDED to learn and progress further.
Second tip is to roleplay trial and error, as I like to call it - losing fights - sometimes losing fights can be demoralizing in Eternia, though, it doesn't matter as long as you get good development from it - I find it a better prompt for my character to go through strife and pain in order to achieve his goals - as any good story should, the more you hurt the protagonist, the more the readers relate to them - beat your character up, have them go through different banes, watch them fail and grow from their failure - that's the best way you can develop an ability.
Third tip? Well, just follow your IC, turn tense situations to your development - do not settle for only a fight out of the encounter, look for something to drive your goal in, when I developed shadow magic the first time I roleplayed utilizing the aspects of illusion to my character's own twisted reality - a simple argument turned into a horror show for him and the person involved - it made him struggle to control himself which is a good strife point, which I'll cover next.
3 - Strife
As I could not stress enough, always include struggle in your character arcs as it's a means to build a character that works best, after you set your goals - you must place obstacles before you reach it - a lot of stories follow this, the greatest example I could think of at the top of my head is Izuku from My Hero Academia, because his goal to be the greatest hero was hindered by his own inability to control his power - the more he hurt himself, the more he struggled - the better he'd gotten through trial and error. You should seek inspiration through other works of art to build your character better, it helps me - and I'm certain it will help you too!
More to come soon.
reserved for prompts
