Mesalia Forums

<b>In Game Name (IGN):</b> 2KliksToMars<br />
<b>How did you find us? (Forums, friend, previous member, etc…)</b> Google<br />
<b>About You: </b> Well, i'd like to think i'm a decent roleplayer. I've done a lot of tabletop and a lot of forum based roleplaying for a few years now. this will be my first outing with roleplaying in minecraft, but i was looking for something that wasn't so much of a lengthy commitment or something that had to be scheduled and would break apart if i was gone for an extended period of time. That tends to happen to me, so maybe something like this is best.<br />
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We'll find out, won't we?<align option="center" style="text-align: center;"><b><size option="large" style="font-size:large">CHARACTER INFORMATION</size></b></align><br />
<b>Name: </b> Elias Underfisher<br />
<b>Age: </b> 21<br />
<b>Gender: </b> Male<br />
<b>Appearance: </b> Elias is shorter than the average guy at around 5'6". He's fairly muscular however, though in a lean way and not so much in a stocky way. He has unkempt blond hair that's long on the top, but cut very short on the sides in military fashion. He typically wears simple clothes -- an old, short and faded tabard, belted in the middle along with a linen tunic. He walks with a slight limp, as the left leg of his breeches is bloused into a leather cusp with straps that attaches to the end of his left leg, which has been amputated just below the knee. A flat, rounded plank of dark laminate horn/wood composite extends from the cusp, curved backwards almost like a dog's leg, before rolling up at the tip like a crook.<br />
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<b>Personality:</b> Elias as other people would describe him, is optimistic and positive. He's polite and well-mannered, and can be said to be quite empathetic and receptive to other people's needs. Some of this is a learned military bearing, but a good majority of it is his demeanor as a person at heart.<br />
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There's a disconnect in that some of this Elias wouldn't describe himself as.<br />
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He has enough doubts about himself and his place in life right now that he doesn't think of himself as optimistic. His behavior comes natural, and he's almost himself as he coasts along, mostly on auto-pilot, but he fears for his future and he feels like he has no place in life. An outward observer would say that this is natural considering he's having hard times, but the mental state that he's in now, it feels more permanent than that.<br />
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<b>Backstory:</b><br />
Elias grew up in a very austere household. It was roughly middle class for the country. His father was a fairly successful smith, holding his own buisiness and employing a few apprentices for labor. His mother was a seamstress who also made nets for fisherman who sailed small independant vessels. The city he belonged to was known as Leicaster, and it was known as a sparkling, independant jewel of trade. A city nation success story.<br />
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He could have grown up and became a smith like his father, and almost did. His younger years were spent in the smithies helping him, but as he became more of a man and started getting to the point where he'd have to decide what he wanted, and seek his father's help to secure a life as an apprentice if it wasn't learning to smith himself, something happened. At fourteen years old, the dusk realm opened once again, and it was the fearful, panicked talk of the realm for a short while, especially in regions farther out from the portal, where news that the Xitians came in peace would be a long time coming.<br />
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This excitement and adventure was inspiring for a bored kid looking for an adventure. Leicaster had a standing garrison that was well-kept to patrol the streets and also to serve as an army to deter it's neighbors from opportunistic conquest, and to guard the roads and trade routes it maintained. Elias signed with this garrison, selling his life away to the Leige of Leicaster for a chance at living some kind of fantasy.<br />
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The first year was rough for him. Military life came with a lot of hazing at first, in the form of grueling punishment and tasks for no reason other than to thin out the weak hearted. The sergeant-at-arms of his line seemed particularly harsh on him because he was smaller than most of the other enlists, and expected him to break first.<br />
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He often thought of running away in that first year. But things got better, as after a few weeks of running arrows to the archers to aid their training, one took a liking to his uncrushable spirit, and wanted to teach him to learn how to use a bow. This first out-reach of kindness to him in his time serving was almost precious to him. That's why it was so crushing when he found he wasn't strong enough to pull back that longbow the first time.<br />
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It sparked motivation in him however, to pick himself up and get stronger. It gave him a goal. Every week he'd try again to draw it if his archer friend was willing, and eventually taught, hardened muscles were formed and eventually, he drew that bow. And he started learning archery in earnest, and as he became a better, happier soldier with this new motivation, he earned his leadership's respect and was eventually transferred to the archer's section.<br />
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That was the start of a long, and happy military career of 7 years. After a few, he'd proven himself smart, capable and driven enough to earn a place amongst the scouts of headquarters battalion, a small group of troops who were trained in reconnaissance, and tracking to help field intelligence for the leadership of the garrison. It was a risky role, but by then it was long since known that the Xitians were uneasily peaceful, and there were no true threats from Leicaster's neighbors...<br />
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That changed earlier this year, when one of the trade routes into Leicaster was raided. The scouts were dispatched to locate and assess the threat and size of the enemy force, expecting regular road brigands. <b>Instead they encountered a dragon. Even an entire section of cavalry scouts were no match for the beast. Elias was one of the first fallen, being torn off of his horse by the dragon's maw. The teeth had sunk deep through his calf and shattered his shin bone, but a friend quickly rushed to his aid during the fighting to drag him behind a tree and bind his leg with a tourniquet. He was lucky that this happened, because if it hadn't he easily would have bled to death.<br />
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Most of the scouts were killed in battle with the dragon. Elias passed out from shock, and in his concealed position behind the tree, he wasn't found in the fighting. It was only after the dragon had moved on, and forces moved in for battlefield assessment that he was found, still alive and breathing. His leg had to be amputated, as the leg beneath the tourniquet was unsalvagable.</b><br />
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Shortly afterwards, he was forcibly discharged from the garrison, away from the only adult life and culture he'd known. He felt like he'd lost his entire way of life. He lost his brotherhood, he lost his many of his friends, and he lost the ability to serve in any self-respecting sergeant-at-arms' section. <b>It was weeks before his stump had healed enough to wear a prothstetic. It was a month or two after that before he could reliably walk without at least a cane.</b><br />
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Even after he healed, he felt lost to the wind. Elias eventually decided that he could find himself by coming here. That maybe the forbidden lands would be just the place for someone who didn't know where they belonged anymore.<br />
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<b>Capabilities:</b><br />
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Archery -- Competent (7 years experience)<br />
Land Navigation -- Apprentice (4 years experience)<br />
Field-Craft -- Competent (5 years experience)<br />
Tracking -- Apprentice (4 years experience)<br />
Swordsmanship -- Apprentice (7 years, but probably less emphasised than archery)<br />
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<b>Items:</b><br />
x1 Iron Sword<br />
x1 Bow<br />
x20 Arrows

Hello, 2kliks. I'm Hutchy and I'll be helping you through whitelisting.

First, I need you to relate your character's backstory to the server's lore, found here. Particularly the later years, as it seems you already made a connection at the beginning.

A few things about his leg. I want to see a descfription of how he survived being dismembered like that, it's no small thing after all. Also, a few things to note: Walking with a peg leg takes some time to get used to, so for a good while after getting his feet back he'd be stumbling around, likely needing a crutch. Also, the peg leg itself, there's not really such a thing as 'springy' steel, far as the kind of setting we have is concerned, so I'd recommend that you change this to be your regular, standard peg leg. The shape's fine, just the material.

Next, archery. While he might havge the years necessary years, expert skills are generally reserved for those with 20+ years of almost daily practice and training. I recommend that you lower this to something closer to competant, looking at the 7 years of time he seems to be in the army.

That's all I have for you for now. Please post again in this thread when you've made your edits and we'll continue.

Hey man, thanks for taking the time to read my application and offering feedback. I was hoping actually that you'd be open to a small discussion on one of your points.

i'm just wondering if the setting is particularly earlier than 1100 AD in level of technology, because i think I would have to revise a few concepts I had in mind for the character if that's the case. i know though that the idea of using a spring to make a prothstetic that more naturally supports the body is pretty forward thinking for any ancient culture though, considering that the disabled were viewed largely as a waste of time, and thus there weren't many efforts to broadly improve their quality of life. If that's an issue itself, i definitely understand.

That being said like.. Metal springs were common before the 12 century is kind of why i'm asking the question. Maybe it was just the adjective 'springy' itself that gave the wrong impression, but i'm not imagining any sort of steel that has an inordinate amount of flex to it that would be unusual for medeival metallurgy. I mean like, crossbow prodds are pretty good examples of metal springs in medeival times man. By that time all of them were made of either iron or steel. I don't think it'd be a technological issue for them to make this kind of thing, but more like a societal one, on whether or not someone would waste the energy on someone who had basically just became useless for most middle class labor. you know what i mean man?



all of your other points I completely understand, and i'm sorry, i kind of missed that bit on the skill guide because.. if I'm honest man, i kind of skimmed it in my eagerness to finish the sheet. Sorry my dude. i can post again when i've edited.

hey man, went ahead and made most of the edits you suggested. Edits to the backstory have been written in bold. i changed up the skills and stuff too, as you asked after reading the skill guide.

I also after checking the application thread again, realized there was more to the application and i could apply for items and stuff, so i added those to the sheet too if that's okay.

Hello again, Kliks. (Bonus points for highlighting the changes you made.)

Guess I best answer that question. As far as period's concerned... there isn't really one; and as far as technology goes, just things that make sense. Crossbows are still a new technology in Mesalia, fresh out of quality assurance new. So as such, metal limbs in such an elastic (I think that's the term you were looking for) state would only really be used for purpose and not really used for anything besides that purpose. Plus, like you said, charity for crippled persons might generally be lacking, so getting one of those legs without being able to pay for it, and let's face it we're talking about a time when swords would cost a metaphorical bomb, so a custom made prosthetic limb made of steel would understandably cost just as much if not even more. In addition, I'm not all too sure if jsut having elastic steel would work. Modern limbs have a more intircate design that I don't think a medieval smith would be able to replicate, and would likely get you tried as a witch for your trouble.
So again, I recommend that you stick to a wooden leg in your chosen shape... or you could take your regular peg leg. Setting could always use more pirates.

Anyway... some more feedback.

Other staff have expressed concern with the number of skills your character has, so I'll pass on some recommendations. Tracking we normally take to mean stalking game and such, he has no experience of this byu the backstory, so we'd recommend removal. Horseback riding is never liekly to be a major skill that needs to be listed, nothing more than a handy some-something to have experience with, so again would recommend removal. Smithing too, you guessed it, we'd recommend removal, at 4 he'd likely have been observed to merely observing rather than doing and such know-how would quickly be lost to a child. Lastly... none of us really know what field-craft is, so an explaination would be nice. It would be even better if you can judge for yourself if it's worth keeping for yourself while making your edits.

I think I've given you enough to spool through, so I'll leave it there for now. Bump the thread again when you're done and we'll see where that takes us.