Character Creation

To prevent things from getting too chaotic and to preserve the established canon, here are some guidelines for creating and playing a character. **If you have already created a character, you don’t have to change them, but consider this when playing them.**

* Consider the established canon in the creation and roleplay of your character. This extends to use of magic, species, timelines, and so on.
* If an existing character occupies a certain niche, try to avoid doing the same thing unless you can see it working well.

* Try to avoid overpowered or excessively “different” characters. It’s entirely possible to create an enjoyable and compelling character without them having a mysterious past, or unrivaled power, or similar things.

## Suggested Archetypes

There is a lot of potential in this world, but if you're struggling for ideas here are some good archetypes to work with.

### I want a character that uses Magic

* **Humans:** Are not naturally adept at magic and require tools and training. Witchery and Alchemy (potion-making, weapon enchanting) are the two most accessible forms of magic for humans. Magic has only existed for 10 years in canon, so consider this when creating your character. Young witches and wizards who are still learning are a good archetype.
* **Coronids:** Coming from a magical world, they are very experienced with all forms of magic. If you like thaumcraft, you might want to play a coronid. The primary coronid culture has a lot of magic-steampunk style technology. Consider whether your coronid character would want to cohabitate with humans, and what their background on Ferros was. Younger coronids will most likely be more receptive to change.
* **Verdicytes:** Inherently magical plant-like shapeshifters. Verdicytes, like coronids come from a magical world, however they tend to favour magic over technology. Due to their telepathic abilities, Verdicytes make good mediators, teachers, and healers. (Ask Ash for more info on playing a Verdicyte)

### I want a character that does Science

There are already two established science facilities in canon (pi-TEC and Proteus Laboratories) who have been mostly abandoned. Former employee characters are more than welcomed, and asking for more details is encouraged.

* **Humans:** Highly scientifically advanced, with robots and cybernetics being established in the world. Yes, that's right, your character can be a cyborg. (Ask Pythos for more details on this.)
* **Coronids:** With less advanced machinery compared to humans, it is possible to create coronid characters who want to learn more, or else are attempting to self-learn human engineering techniques.
* **Verdicytes:** Not great with technology in general, but curious about human medicine. (Ask Ash for more details.)

### I want to play a Villain/Antagonist

Since the world is set in an apocalypse with aliens and magic, there are plenty of oppurtunities to play antagonists and villains.

Please be mindful that playing a villain or antagonist does NOT give you free reign to be a jerk out of character - all conflict should be pre-agreed upon by the players, especially when it comes to injuring other people's characters.

* **Witch Hunters****:** an organization of humans that hate all magic. They are typically violent, driven by strong ideological beliefs or in the name of revenge.
* **Conspiracy Seekers:** Not entirely villainous, but good to play if you want to hassle the scientist characters or play detective.
* **Cultists:** In-game the Crimson Cult is a thaumcraft thing, but that doesn't mean you can't play as one! Cultists are most likely human, but there are also power hungry coronids out there that could potentially abuse their magic powers.
* **Unethical Scientists:** Ask us about the Ouroboros Initiative, and what evil science you can come up with!

### I want to play a Good Guy

This is an apocalyptic setting, so there are going to be a lot of refugees in need of help. If you want to create a "good" character, consider how they would help others in terms of survival. Remember, there is no instant-fix in this world (that would be too easy!) and it is more interesting to see characters struggle and grow.

* **Farmers:** Food and resources can be difficult to come by, unless you grow your own.
* **Scavengers:** Refugees that live in the city can find people's lost belongings or repurpose old technology.
* **Cleric types:** People (religious or not) who provide shelter, supplies, and first aid to refugees.
* **Alchemists/Thaumaturges:** People (most likely coronids or verdicytes) who are helping to control the taint, or deal with the magical mayhem.

## Restricted Character types

These are pretty no-go unless you have a very well planned out character that you have talked to the Admins about. We want to make this world as fun as possible for everyone, so over-powered or super-special characters need to be planned.

* **Ouroboros Initiative****:** Due to the classified nature of this project, no characters should be involved with it at this time. Any questions should be directed to Pythos.
* **Chimerae:** These are as yet underdeveloped, and in the world would be extremely rare.
* **Ghosts and spirits****:** Again, these usually won’t be suitable for playing a complex character, as they are mostly pretty mindless. There is also planned use of them in the future, and having ghosts characters before then would ruin that somewhat.
* **Demons****:** Purely because they are overpowered and potentially too influential to let them just exist. Demons should really be highly planned additions to the storyline.
* **Elementals****:** Overpowered, and meant not to be sapient. Elementals are a force of nature more than a living thing. The small ones are far more available to play, though still are not much in the way of an intelligent and responsive character.
* **Coronid** **Royalty:** There are future plans for these, so they need to be very well planned out.

* **Void-related characters:** The Void is something best saved for a planned character. In-universe, there is next to no understanding or research of it.
* **AJCO-verse characters:** This mainly extends to State-related characters. There is no State in this universe, and cross-universe travel isn’t something to use lightly.
* Meggings: For your megs

## M.A.C.E.L.I.P.S.

Example template

You have 45 points to distribute for each value. You may have no fewer than 1 and no more than 10 in each category. Keep in mind your character's species and their natural strengths and weaknesses.

* **MAGIC:** Your character’s natural, innate proficiency with magic and their ability to learn it. At low levels, spells will fail, results will be terrible - and harmful. At higher levels, the laws of physics bend to your character’s will. Best paired with another statistic. Magic is physically and mentally draining - but the potential power, enormous. Characters of high magic can communicate with mystical entities.
* **AGILITY:** A physical attribute governing balance, speed and grace. This affects the swiftness with which your character can act and move. It is a useful skill in combat. High agility characters will make excellent archers, acrobats, gunners and swift mages. They will respond to threats quickly and are excellent at evading attacks. They’re amazing dancers. Like characters with high perception, they are excellent at stealth. This skill also affects dexterity. Want to twirl pistols whilst backflipping? You’ll need this.
* **CHARISMA:** This is the force of your character’s personality. A character of high charisma will be able to charm and manipulate with ease. They are silver tongued persuaders, graceful debaters, and eloquent orators. They can lie, bribe, barter, diffuse situations, deceive and convince. Situations often end peacefully in their favor. They find coercing others trivial. A character of high charisma is an excellent interrogator.
* **ENDURANCE:** This represents your character’s physical, mental and emotional hardiness and resilience. It affects your overall health, and rate of healing. A character of high endurance can resist deep wounds and intense torture. They are able to withstand great stress. This should also influence your decisions in thinking about how long a character can do a certain activity - running, climbing, using magic, et cetera. High characters will not fatigue easily. A character of high endurance would make a strong ally and a stronger threat.
* **LUCK:** Things just seem to go right for characters of high luck. They can often depend on fortune to see them through. They are excellent gamblers. In games of chance, this character will win. The shot aimed at their heart will hit their zippo lighter. But everyone’s luck runs out, one day. Fortune favors the brave.
* **INTELLIGENCE:** This reflects your character’s ability to understand, analyze, research and reason. This affects your character’s academic skills. A character of high intelligence is likely to be a Doctor, scientist, or magical researcher. They can treat others successfully with medical skills and are successful engineers. They comprehend, and solve. A character of high intelligence will be able to outwit others.
* **PERCEPTION:** Perception is your character’s ability to discern the world around them. A character of high perception will be proficient at gathering clues and information. They will also be able to tell, very accurately, when they are being lied to. They can spot hidden things; detect characters in hiding. At ten, this perception borders on psychic intuition. A character of high perception can sneak up easily on others. They are highly aware. A character of high perception would make an excellent investigator.
* **STRENGTH:** Governs physical might. Should affect what your character is capable of wielding in battle and the strength of melee combat. A physically weak character will have a greater chance of being overpowered by a foe in combat. A character of 1 Strength will struggle to lift a sword. A character of ten strength can rip a gatling gun off a helicopter - and use it. It will also affect your character’s physical appearance.  A character of high strength will be able to intimidate others with ease.