A guide to applications for factions & characters

## Introduction

The application system on the wiki works as the following:

You write your application, post it on the proper one of the two boards for applications, whether it would be the Factions application board or the Characters application board. Then an admin looks at the application and deems it for the quality of the lore, structure and also if it is a major role how experienced the player is on the server. The answer is usually given within 24 hours, and the admin might say that yes, the application is accepted, or no, the application has not yet reached the level of complexity that the server demands.

Therefore, to minimize the amount of denied applications due to people being uninformed, this page exists. If there a re any questions still unanswered after reading this thread, then please leave a comment and describe what the issue or question is. This system is also used in a likewise way when judging custom faction applications.

## Lore & writing

For the lore of your character, the problem is usually that people are not so passionate or interested in the server to take the time to write some extensive lore. This is going to be the downfall of your application, I can assure you. The more lore the better, and descriptions of your character are always good. Also, a tip would be to write chronologically, and don't spread to much all over the place, it is better to write a short note stating for example what weapons, armor or skills the character has. All of these can be included in the text, but just to make it easier, please do that. At the top you can have a description of the characters physical attributes, relations, skills and if you are really wanting to stun the readers, link a google drawing where you have made a family tree. Then you can change the text into a story, told as if you were reading a book, and this will take time. A story will never be good if you do it in 15-30 minutes, and if this is the way you have done it it will show. Use as many linguistic tricks as you can, and hard words and synonyms is always a way to give the story and character more depth.

Now, that was about the lore of your character, but a big part of a successful application is not interfering with the lore that Tolkien wrote. Changing up small things is fully acceptable, and making stuff out off places that are never touched upon or fully fleshed out is ok, but directly interfering with fleshed out lore, that is a bad idea to say the least. For an example, you can't apply for the son of Gil-galad when he is said to never have had one. And, if there is anything concerning lore you are unsure about, feel free to message me on my message wall, as I am probably going to be able to answer anything that has with lore to do.

There is a smaller chance for your character to be accepted if he or she does inflict with the lore, so it is probably smarter just to stick with custom lore and minimize the inflictions with actual lore. It's also worth a note that overpowering your character will not end up well, as you will probably be asked to nerf certain parts if staff finds it non-fitting. This goes for meeting and befriending LoTR characters, as there is little chance you would meet all politically important people. The one word to describe all of this would be *balance*, if you make your character powerful in one aspect, then tone down another.

This also goes for custom factions, or parts of it do, and especially that it goes along with lore correctly. When claiming land for your faction, then take places that are uninhabited or that are not mentioned to have anything special there. Don't say that your faction resides in Lothlórien or in Erebor or Lindon, stay correct and stay reasonable.

When writing the lore for a faction, things work almost the same. When writing an application for a faction, it is a good thing to have approximate dates for when the faction came there, who has ruled when and what the hierarchy looks like. It is also not a bad idea to make a family tree, and it might be more important for a faction with a ruling house than for a single character. One very good tip is to be inspired by the medieval cultures of our world, for example if you are making a faction somewhere in the north of Middle Earth, then take inspiration from the Vikings or the Anglo-Saxons. You will see that progressing in writing the story will be much easier if you have a basic layout, and therefore taking things from real life and making mind maps and such is a good idea. After that, what natural resources are the reason the faction moved there, even if it is the beaty of the land, it is still a good idea as it gives purpose. Maybe your faction was driven out of their old lands, or maybe climate change forced them to flee.

The most important part of it all though is still that you enjoy your faction or character, if you don't then don't bother applying.

## Weapons and names

If someone in their application has written that their character has a certain skill with a weapon or that they have good helmet or something like that, then the staff might choose to gift them that weapon in game with the text *soul bound* under it. This means that the item is a lore item and if the person dies out of character then the weapon will stay with them. These items may also have extra good enchantments on them if the staff deems it necessary. Do note that soul bound items are to be heavily reduced since before the most recent reset, and it is in no way a garanti to be gifted a soul bound item if your application is accepted. Names for the weapons are also good, and if you are applying for an elven character then do feel free to ask someone for a translation (again, I can gladly help with it) as it gives more depth to the weapon than "and by the lord she was gifted a very strong bow" as that almost seems like you don't care about the weapon itself, you just want to get a soul bound item. A backstory is also to suggest, but short one that is interwoven with the main story. An example of that would be " and the bow was gifted to him by his father after the Nirnaeth, for he had foreseen that his son would have more use for it then himself. The bow was called Tulcaquinga, the strong bow, and was carved by his father whilst in Tirion." This is not perfect example, but an ok one that with some more expanding upon would maybe make a good story for the weapon. A thing to prefer is to give the name a reason behind it and not just say "It was called the bow of the Golden Woods." but to instead sy maybe "It was called the bow of the Golden Woods, for it was made and firstly owned by the Lord of Lorien.", giving a more reasonable cause for the name.

Now, moving on to the names part that we briefly touched upon, this is mainly going to be concerning elves as they are the only people of Arda (the entirety of Middle Earth and Valinor) to have been given specific naming traditions. An elf is given their father name right after they are born, and it is usually very similar to the name of their father, or might even be the name of their father converted in to a female name if needed. Then, when the child is less than 3 years of age, it is given a mother name, and as many elven mothers have the gift of foresight, it usually reflects the personality of the child. Then the child might be given a suffix, or a nickname, but as the other two are obligatory, this name is not. A good example is Galadriel, who's father name was Artanis, her mother name was Nerwen, but the name she chose when arriving in Beleriand, which would be her nickname, was Galadriel. These types of naming sequences could be useful when writing the childhood of the elf in question, and adds more depth too it.

## Motivation

In all applications, whether it be for a job or for a minecraft server, you need to motivate why you should have the role.